The soundof the garage door opening is like a gunshot in the quiet house. I watch through the front window as Piper’s car backs out of the driveway and disappears down the street. As far as I can tell, she didn’t look back.
“Pi, bye-bye,” Ellie says, her small hand pressed against my chest. She’d gotten a kiss on the cheek and a promise from Piper that she’d see her later. Me? I got exactly nothing. Not even eye contact.
I deserve worse.
“We’ll see her soon,” I tell Ellie, but the words are ash in my mouth. Because I’m not sure that’s true.
Piper told Nancy she was going to her sister’s to give us time to talk about whatever we needed to work out. The implication being that she wasn’t part of that “us” anymore. That she’d stepped back across whatever line we’d been drawing and then erasing for the past month.
“Ellie dog,” Ellie says, her face crumpling as she burrows against my chest. She knows Piper went to Sadie’s, which means seeing Beast, who Ellie has decided is her personal property despite all evidence to the contrary.
“We’ll go see Beast later,” I promise, then glance at Nancy, who’s watching us from the living room with an expression I can’t quite read. “If Sadie will let me in the door,” I say for Ellie’s ears only, though from the look on Nancy’s face, she caught it anyway.
Sadie warned me not to hurt her sister. And I didn’t intend to. But here we are—another item on the growing list of ways I’ve screwed up with Piper.
“Julie loved to snuggle just like that.” Nancy dabs at the corners of her eyes with a tissue. “I’m old enough now not to regret most things in life, but I wish I’d mended the fences between my sister and me.”
I shift Ellie to my other hip, searching for the right words. “Would you mind sharing what caused the estrangement?” I don’t want to pry, but something about the question feels important.
Nancy shakes her head. “Julie’s mom and I each had our issues. We didn’t grow up in a happy home, and we both got involved with drugs and alcohol.” She rolls her eyes. “But I’m embarrassed to admit our falling out was over a man. Not Julie’s father, although he was a real piece of work, and I wasn’t sad when I heard he went to the great beyond. It was a guy we both knew in high school. My sister and I were only a year apart in age. We reconnected with him after Ellen’s divorce. She called dibs.” Her laugh is hollow. “Only, I was pissed at her—some dumb sister fight—and I slept with him. She caught us and all hell broke loose. We both said things we shouldn’t have. I think Julie was around three or four at the time. That was it. We never talked again.”
Ellie’s gone heavy in my arms, the way she does when she’s getting tired or overwhelmed. I ease back down onto the couch, letting her settle against my chest.
Nancy continues, her voice softer now. “I tried to patch things up when Ellen was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was terminal from the start, and Julie was in college at the time. Ellen had moved away after our fight. It wouldn’t surprise meif she told her daughter I was dead.” She pauses, looks at me. “But I reached out anyway.”
“And?” I prompt when she doesn’t continue.
She shrugs. “I showed up on her doorstep, much like I did today. Maybe that should’ve been a lesson I learned. Unlike your Piper, Ellen had no problem turning me away. Told me I was dead to her and I better not try to reach out to her daughter after she was gone.” Nancy’s voice cracks. “So I didn’t. When I first heard from the attorney, I thought maybe Julie had initiated the contact herself. Then I realized…” She bites down on her lower lip as if she’s working to compose herself. “I know I should have waited to hear from you, and now I’ve caused a lot of trouble for you with your woman.”
I can’t help my snort. “Piper is very much her own woman.” The fact is, she doesn’t belong to me just because I want her to or because I’m the father of her baby or because we’ve built something fragile and tentative over the past few weeks. She’s independent and stubborn and so determined to prove she can handle things that sometimes I think she’d rather break than lean on someone else.
But I want her to lean on me. To be mine in all the ways that matter. Not because of the baby, though that’s part of it now, but because of who she is. She makes me believe there’s something on the other side of my career that’s worth showing up for. And Piper is worth fighting for. Even if she doesn’t realize it yet.
I guess I don’t really have anything to prove on the field anymore, but I do have something to prove to Piper if she’ll give me another chance.
First, I have to get through this conversation with Nancy.
“I’m sorry I didn’t follow up the way I should have, but I need you to know I’m keeping Ellie.” The words come out firm and final, just the way I feel. “I get that my attorney explained it a different?—”
Nancy holds up a hand. “I saw your love for Elliethe moment you walked in the door.” She nods at the girl, whose eyes have drifted closed. There’s a little ribbon of drool slipping from her open mouth as she sleeps against my chest, and my heart clenches at the sight of her so peaceful and trusting. “If you’ll let me, I’d still like to be part of her life.”
She lifts her hand again before I can respond. “I’m not a big football fan, despite growing up in the land of the SEC, but I know who you are. I need you to know that I’m not interested in your money.”
I appreciate that more than she probably realizes. Most of the women in my life, starting with my mom and every one of my ex-girlfriends, wanted a piece of whatever I could give them. Now I’m ready to throw money at the women in my life who actually matter, and they don’t want it. Life’s got a sense of humor, I guess.
“I’m glad you’re here for the right reasons, because it’s important for Ellie to know her mother’s family.” I pull the sleeping girl closer. “But I’m also her family now, and I won’t let Troy and Julie down.”
“Ellie is lucky to have you,” Nancy says gently, then yawns and covers her mouth. “Sorry about that. I flew in late yesterday and didn’t get much sleep overnight. I’m staying at a B&B just outside of town. My flight goes back in two days.”
I draw in a deep, solid breath, grateful to have one part of my life on track. Baby steps and all that. “Then we’ll make the most of it.”
During the next few minutes of conversation, she explains that after everything with her sister, she got clean and eventually married a great man. They never had kids of their own, but he’s a retired pilot, so she has flexibility with her travel. She shows me a photo on her phone of him in a captain’s uniform, gray at the temples, smiling at the camera. He looks like good grandpa material.
After she yawns again, we both stand, and Nancy drops a soft kiss on Ellie’s sleeping head, the gesture so tender it makes mythroat tight. She gives me a small nod, squeezes my arm, and I walk her to the door, promising to call her later.
Because right now I’ve got a woman to win back.
I grab my phone from where I left it on the kitchen counter. There’s a missed text from Ian that was sent five minutes ago.
