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Daryl slid out of the passenger seat, turned back around to me, held onto the door, and said, “Ain’t none of your God-dang business!”
Then he slammed the door shut, and my mind exploded with the sound.
Flashing on a conversation Mickey and I had well over a year ago after his last attempt at bronc riding. If what he’d told me was true, I knew exactly why Mickey threw that first punch. His defenses were up, and he didn’t want to hear anything that contradicted his own beliefs.
“Holy fucking shit!” I said, stunned over what might be a reality. “Is that Mickey’s baby?”
CindyLou 2
The only thing I knew for sure about Mickey Finn’s feelings for me were written on the back of a bar napkin I’d kept as evidence that we hooked up: I’m in love! Meet me in the parking lot after your shift.
We had a chance meeting at a bar in Cheyanne, WY during Frontier Days, where I worked. Unfortunately, the bar, Big Daddy’s Saloon, closed down due to Big Daddy’s untimely death about two months ago. We all received a severance package which consisted of a case of Big Daddy’s own brew, and a twenty-five-dollar gift card to Big Mamma’s Foods, a local grocery store run by… Big Daddy’s mother. The beer went down far too quickly, and the gift card kept my Darci in diapers for about a week.
Despite the generous severance package, at least according to Big Mamma, I’d been struggling to keep a roof over my head and food on the table ever since.
I had a degree in business, but no one seemed to want to give me a chance, and whenever they did, the pay wasn’t enough for rent, much less feed both Darci and me.
I could play guitar and sing harmony, but everybody knew that making money as a musician was about as common as a living unicorn.
Still, I was determined to pay my own way and take good care of my sweet daughter. I just needed someone to take a chance on me, which I felt certain would come my way if I kept trying. You only drown when you stop swimming, my mama would say.
Slinging drinks paid well if I could get a job, which I hadn’t been able to do until just yesterday when I finally landed a part-time bartending gig at Dirty Coyote, thanks to Uncle Daryl’s friendship with Tammy and Jimmy Jennings, the owners.
I’d done everything to try to find a bartending position back in Cheyanne, but interviewing while you’re trying to appease a fussy baby who was on a mission to learn how to walk didn’t exactly make for a successful job search no matter how understanding the potential employer might have been.
I’d learned that lesson in spades.
I was left with very few options, including having to move in with the only family members who had been consistently stable and had the means to offer me temporary shelter and babysitting duty. My aunt absolutely loved my little Darci. She’d never had children of her own, so all that love had to go somewhere. When I was growing up, it went to me, and now it was aimed directly at my sweet daughter.
My father disappeared while I was still in diapers. My fragile mother should never have raised a child on her own. She did what needed to be done but resented every minute of it. She now lived in a tiny apartment with her latest boyfriend. We chatted a few times a year, but she had no interest in meeting Darci and gave me a hard time during my pregnancy. And my best friend, who I thought of like a sister, abandoned me right in the beginning of this path when I told her I’d changed my mind about having an abortion.
Despite all of that, I knew what I wanted to do and stuck with it… and I continued to stick with it, which had paid off. I was now living in the town I’d always loved, and I had a job in a country dance hall that sponsored new country music artists. At this point, anything could be possible with the right song at the right time. No matter all the nay-sayers, I still held onto my dreams. I wouldn’t have come this far without them.
I knew damn well not to trouble Mickey with any of this. He could barely take care of himself, let alone a woman and a baby… his baby. Mickey was about as stable as a green leaf in autumn. Much like my own dad, which made my decision to move to Sweet Whiskey a difficult one… but in the scheme of viable options, I didn’t have much choice.
I purposely didn’t want to tell him about his child because I didn’t want anything from him, especially not a false sense of security. I already knew how that game was played. In my entire life, I met up with my dad maybe four times. I didn’t want that kind of non-relationship for Darci.
Unfortunately, my aunt and uncle happened to live right outside Mickey’s hometown, which was how I knew Mickey in the first place. My mom and Uncle Daryl were siblings and as different as puppies and kittens. I’d spend every summer in this town and loved every minute of it.
I’d asked, or rather begged, Uncle Daryl and Auntie Donna not to tell Mickey, or any of his friends, about Darci, but when I saw the look on Colt’s face from the light inside the cab of his truck, I had a feeling he suspected the truth of the situation.
At first, after Uncle Daryl exited Colt’s red pickup, he backed the rig up like he had leaving on his mind. But then stopped and slowly drove up to the house once again.
“Everything okay?” I asked my uncle as he made his way up the steps to the porch. Darci didn’t want to sleep, so I thought I’d play her a couple of songs. I didn’t want to wake my aunt. The songs usually worked, just not tonight. Nothing seemed to be working tonight.
“No, nothin’s okay,” he said, gazing down at my sweet baby girl. “You were the same way as Darci. Never liked to sleep at sleepin’ time. Did you try rubbin’ her back? Your aunt used to rub your back when you couldn’t sleep. That usually did the trick.”
“I’ll try it,” I told him, leaning my guitar up against the wall, next to the creaky whicker sofa. “But first, come sit with me. Tell me why Colt brought you home, and why he’s sitting out in his truck, pondering what to do next.”
He let out a long sigh, and I knew he carried a load of trouble in his heart. “I can’t account for Colt. He’s got a mind of his own, and it ain’t always right thinking. Still, he’s a fine young man. Nothin’ like Mickey Finn, but I ain’t gonna talk about him right now. Maybe tomorrow. I’m dog tired. Been a long day and an even longer night. You and that little one should be thinking of gettin’ back under the covers. Donna’s making her bumbleberry pancakes in the morning, and you don’t want to miss that. Little Darci’s gonna love ‘em.”
He bent over then, picked up Darci, and gave her a tight hug. She wore her monkey PJs that always made her giggle when I first put them on her. She loved monkeys and had a bed full of them in all sizes and levels of smooshyness, as I liked to describe them.
Darci gave him a big, warm smile and wrapped her little arms around Daryl’s neck like she’d been waiting all day for him to come home. She’d taken to Daryl as soon as she first laid eyes on him. A match made in heaven, no doubt.
“You should be sleepin’, baby girl,” he cooed, rubbing her back, and sure enough, she slumped on his shoulder with the very first swipe of his big, strong hand.
I immediately noticed his knuckles were red and looked as if they’d been bleeding.
