Page 35 of My Girlfriend is Not the Father

He turned to watch Chucky barking at a branch. Several long moments passed until he folded his arms and took a quick breath. ‘Your mom hated needles.’

A shot pierced Lucy’s chest. Maybe her dad was more intuitive than she thought, and knew she needed something, even the tiniest morsel, to connect her with her mom right now. ‘Oh, yeah?’ Play it cool. Too many questions and he’ll bolt.

He grabbed a cookie from the tin but only played with it in his palm. ‘You know, when we went to the hospital to have you, she was so damn worried about needles she refused to get the spinal shot. What do you call it?’

‘Epidural?’

‘Yeah, that. She took twenty-two hours of labour, crawling on her knees, me rubbing her back, hot towels, everything. Damn near broke my hand when she was squeezing it through the contractions. But she couldn’t stomach the idea of letting someone stick that thing in her back.’ He cracked off a piece of cookie and chewed. ‘She was the strongest woman I knew.’

A small, dormant hole within Lucy seemed to fill. Her dad abruptly stood, and she knew the conversation was done. After giving him a moment, she met him at the sink and leaned her head on his shoulder.

‘Your mother may have been the strongest woman I knew,’ he said quietly. ‘But you got her beat. Proud of ya, kid.’

Warmth flooded Lucy. So few words and yet, this was exactly what she needed. She leaned up and kissed her dad’s rough cheek.

He grabbed his gloves and clippers. ‘Come on now. Your fat dog is going to eat all my strawberries if we don’t get out there.’

She swallowed down the knot in her throat and followed him outside.

***

The afternoon sun cast a golden hue through Lucy’s window and reflected against the TV. She was halfway through a murder-mystery marathon, which had taken a weird, dark turn that was making her more emotional than usual. She turned the channel to a The Price Is Right marathon to cleanse the creepy vibes. A pink-haired woman who vaguely resembled Jade jumped up and down before spinning the wheel.

Lucy grabbed her phone and eyed Chucky, who was snoring at her feet. ‘What do you think, bud? Should I go for it?’

Green eyes, purple hair, and a perfect heart-shaped mouth had captured her thoughts since yesterday and she couldn’t shake the images. The memory of those long, strong fingers gripping her naked hip had almost kept her up as much last night as the knot in her side, and even though the moment had theoretically been so deeply non-sexual, somehow she couldn’t stop replaying the image.

She was so close to being implanted. For the next year she’d likely be pregnant, and then postpartum. That was the plan, the same plan they’d had for years. And she was so freaking excited about the plan.

So yeah, it made no logical sense for her to pick up the phone. She bit her lip as she typed the message. Her stomach fluttered. She hit send.

Chapter 14

Jade

The hair cuttings tickled places where they shouldn’t have even fallen. Jade flapped her shirt to release some of the embedded strands, then ran a sticky brush over her tank and bra to catch a few more stragglers. She’d cut straw-dry hair before, but this last client had an unfortunate perm on top of an even more unfortunate bleach-job (not from Jade’s salon, of course), and the hair had shot like thumbtacks into her skin.

The back-room door swung open, carrying the buzz of hair dryers and conversation, and Amanda peeked in.

‘Hey, Mrs Dieterman called. She’s running a few minutes late.’ Amanda tapped her fingers against the door frame. ‘Also, your last client of the day just cancelled.’

Normally, that would’ve irritated Jade, but today she welcomed the news. She hadn’t slept well last night, what with the visions of needles and a soft pouty mouth swirling in her brain. The idea of leaving early, grabbing some takeout, and taking a bath sounded exactly like what the hair doctor ordered.

‘Want me to check if someone in the books next week wants to take an earlier appointment?’

Jade tore off the sticky paper from the roll and tossed it into the trash. ‘Nah. I’ll just take the rest of the night off.’

‘Suspicious. You okay?’ Amanda raised a perfectly shaped black eyebrow. ‘Ohhhh, do you have a date? Saturday night and all.’

‘Yeah. With myself, Netflix, and a bath.’ Jade left the part out about including a new vibrator in her evening plans. She and Amanda were tight, but she wasn’t about to violate that boundary. As chummy as they were, there was still an employee-employer relationship to consider. ‘I’m too old to go out on a Saturday night.’

‘You’re a hottie. You know that, right?’ Amanda pumped rose-and-herb-scented lotion in her palms and handed Jade the bottle. ‘Probably inappropriate for me to say, since you’re my boss and all, but whatever. Seize the moment, woman. You aren’t going to be in your thirties forever.’

Inappropriate or not, Jade warmed at the comment.

‘Hey, favour to ask you,’ Amanda said as she stuffed the last of the dirty towels in the washing machine.

‘Sure, what’s up?’