That gets his attention. His head pops up from its hiding place between his knees.
“Like I told Douglass, Amelia pulled the same crap with me when I broke things off with her. Begged me to take her back and used a fake pregnancy to try and make that happen.”
“What are you talking about?”
Not the most delicate way for him to find out that right after he and Amelia ran off into the sunset to live their happy-ever-after, she was trying to manipulate herself back into my life and into my bed. However, I’m not feeling very sympathetic toward either of them this morning. You reap what you sow.
“IfAmelia really is pregnant, demand a prenatal paternity test. Andifthe kid is yours, then prepare to fight like hell for full custody.”
“Jesus Christ,” he breathes, then scours me with a questioning look. “You’re not telling me everything. What do you know?”
I know things now I wish I didn’t. But I don’t feel comfortable airing out Douglass’s past trauma at the hands of Amelia to him. If she decides to confide in him about that awful shit, that’s one thing, but I’m not going to be another person in her life who betrays her trust and talks about her behind her back.
“I’m offering you some words of wisdom that you should think about very seriously. Let’s just say I wouldn’t trust Amelia around my child without some form of supervision. I think you’re smart enough to infer what that means.”
It’s his choice whether to listen to what I said or not. I don’t give a damn either way. I just don’t want Douglass to get sucked into his and Amelia’s drama. Because she will, especially if Amelia really is pregnant. Douglass will want to have a relationship with her niece or nephew.
I leave things with Chase on that cryptically serious note. Once I’m back in the Jeep, I take one more long look at the lake before I drive off, leaving a contemplative Chase still sitting in the grass.
By the time I get back to Natalie’s, it’s already late afternoon, and the sun is beginning its descent behind the horizon, filling the sky with a collage of watercolors from bright orange to dusky yellow to fiery red. With my hands shoved deep inside my pockets, I make my way up to the front porch where Douglass mutely watches me from her perch on the bench swing. Not even the concern on her face can detract how ridiculously cute she is wearing pink overalls with her thick mass of auburn hair pulled back by a pink and black bandana.
She raises the canary yellow coffee mug she’s holding to her lips with both hands while her cautious gaze tracks me as I come nearer. I stop at the bottom of the porch steps when I notice they’re new. The tangy scent of piney sawdust and freshly cut wood lingers and reminds me of what the living room used to smell like when Grandpa Jack would put up the Christmas tree every December first.
“I see Mike came by. Looks good.” I test the give of the boards with the toe of my shoe and find they are solid and sturdy.
Douglass lowers her mug. “He did a great job. Harper also dropped by earlier. She helped me weed the plant beds. They were both pooped and left about an hour ago.”
I check the time on my watch and see it’s a quarter ‘til six. “I thought she was coming at five.”
Douglass shrugs and the right strap of her overalls slides off her shoulder. “She decided to come over early after Mike called her looking for you.”
Her passive reproach is heard loud and clear. I’d be upset too if she disappeared all day and ghosted me.
Sounding contrite, I reply, “Sorry about that. Believe it or not, my phone died.”
I show her my phone, and she laughs when she sees the blacked-out screen that won’t even turn on when I push and hold down the power button.
“Seems to be going around, like a phone flu,” she says, referring to hers dying a couple of weeks ago.
“It’s still a lame excuse. I’m sorry if I worried you.”
It’s been a long time since I was in a serious relationship with anyone, Amelia being the last. I need to remember it’s not just me I have to think about now. I can’t just up and walk out and vanish for most of a day.
Douglass looks out across the front lawn, lost in thought for a second. “You were gone for a while.”
I grasp the porch railings and lean in. “I had something I needed to do, and then took a long drive.”
I expect her to grill me with questions about where I went and what I did. Amelia would have.Douglass isn’t Amelia.
“Everything okay?” she asks.
Hearing her uncertainty, I climb the steps to join her on the swing, not liking the distance between us. When I get within inches of her, I reach out and twirl a lock of her hair around my finger, letting it unfurl and fall back to gently lie on her shoulder.
“Everything’s good, baby.”
She scoots over on the bench swing to make room for me and offers me her steaming mug piled high with white fluff. “Hot chocolate with extra marshmallows makes everything better.”
I try and fail to school my astonishment as I take a sip.
