AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I got pretty bruised up the first time I tried it, and Bear came down so hard he dented the hood of Mom’s car.” I take a bite of my chicken, enjoying it almost as much as Hope’s laugh and Charly’s giggle that follows.
“You used your Mom’s car?”
“We both have trucks.”
“Of course, you do.”
“Anyway, after watching a few how-to videos on YouTube, we got the hang of it. I never thought I’d actually need it though.” I realize I forgot to get us drinks and go to the fridge. “Can I get you a drink? Water? Wine? Milk?”
“Definitely not milk. I’ll take water. I’m too tired for wine not to go straight to my head.” She takes another bite of her food, then goes back to helping Charly. “Do you usually stick the landing? Or do you always end up on your butt?”
I huff a laugh. “I usually stick it, but I’ve never had to use it in an emergency. I got nervous.”
“I don’t know that I’d call the situation anemergency, but I appreciate that you got to show off your cool trick.” She takes the water from me, then pulls a plastic cup with a lid out of her bag. “Do you mind putting some milk in this for Charly?”
“It felt like an emergency.” I take the cup from her and go to the fridge. When I can hide behind the open door, I say what’s been on my mind since the incident. “I don’t know how you’re not stressed out all the time trying to keep Charly alive.”
She takes the milk from me, makes sure the lid is tight, then hands it to Charly.
“Tank you, Mama,” she says, then takes a long slurp from the straw.
“I stress about a lot of things, but stressing all the time about Charly would take the joy out of being a mom.” She takes a bite of her food, which is the fourth one she’s taken. Most of her time has been taken up helping Charly.
“How old are kids before they can feed themselves?” I ask.
“Usually by the time they’re two,” she answers, then picks up the cup Charly dropped on the floor. “But Charly was born premature, so she has developmental delays. She’s getting better with a fork, and usually I let her do more. But tonight’s going to be a late night, and I don’t want to have to bathe her when we get home. So I’m helping more than usual.”
“Is that why she needs the glasses too? Because she was premature?” My food is almost gone, and I wonder if I’m being rude eating faster than Hope.
“Yeah. She had retinopathy of prematurity as a baby. She’s grown out of it but developed nearsightedness in the process.” Hope says everything matter-of-factly, like having a kid when she was a teenager, and a kid who has problems on top of that, is no big deal.
I wait for Hope to finish her bite before I ask my next question, because it’s a big one. “What about her dad? Is he around at all?”
Hope sucks in her breath, and I try to backtrack. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer that. It’s too personal.”
“No, it’s fine. It just took me by surprise.” She sets down her fork and takes a drink of water. “I was eighteen when I got pregnant, barely out of high school. Derek was older—one of those guys who doesn’t care about rules. I had so many rules growing up, I think that’s what attracted me to him.”
Charly throws the cup on the floor again and laughs. This time I pick it up and hand it back to her, but my eyes stay on Hope, waiting for the rest of her story.
“Anyway, we hadn’t been dating that long, and when I told him he basically disappeared.” She shrugs, but I see the pain behind her eyes. “I let him know when she was born early, and he showed up. He even stuck around during the weeks she was in the hospital, but once the doctors started listing the problems they could already detect and warning us there were more to come, he offered to sign over custody and disappeared again.”
I stare at her, unbelieving. “He just left?” I don’t know how anyone could voluntarily leave a kid, let alone Hope.
She nods. “He came back around about a year ago, wanting to get back together. I thought about it for a minute, but I knew it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t trust him not to leave again.”
I’m about to say something about this guy being an idiot, but Charly throws her cup again, narrowly misses me. She laughs, but Hope doesn’t.
“Okay. All done.” She sets the cup where Charly can’t get it. “Are you ready to get down?”
Charly nods and starts scooting out of her seat. Hope helps her the rest of the way down.
“I see Unkuhrad.” Charly toddles toward the mudroom, but Hope stops her.
“Ask Sebby first, please.”
Charly turns her magnified blue eyes to me, and I nod before she even asks, already getting out of my seat to open the door for her. “You want to help me feed her?”
She nods and takes my hand. I let her help me pour Uncle Rad’s food into her bowl, then carry her to the laundry sink so she can fill the water bowl. I’m nervous the whole time and don’t really know how to talk to her, but I want Hope to have a chance to eat.
