“I need you to hear me out. I know we’ve already been over this, but I was so proud back then. I liked dancing and I knew it would’ve been hard for any boyfriend to accept. That’s why I didn’t chase you. If I did I would’ve had to quit my job.” His mouth opened again to interrupt but I raised my hand to stop him. “You might not have asked me to but it would’ve always been a hurdle.”
I hadn’t realized that we’d stopped walking. We resumed at a casual pace before I started talking again. “But I want you to know that I never stopped loving you. There was another reason why I didn’t track you down as well,”
We stopped to the side of the path, at the playground fence. Butterflies swarmed my stomach and my hands grew clammy. My pulse quickened and I couldn’t recall a time I’d been so nervous. This was it.
After six and a half years, this was the moment that might possibly have given me a heart attack.
I looked out over the dozen or so children playing on the playground, until I found Ava and Hallie. My mom sat on a bench on the opposite side of the park. No matter what happened here, I wasn’t alone.
“I-“ I took a deep breath to steady myself, “about a month after we broke up, I wasn’t feeling too well and I went to the doctors.”
I turned around to face him. This was a nightmare come to life but still, I steeled myself enough to look him in the eye.
“Melody? You’re starting to scare me…”
“I know. I’m sorry, I don’t mean for it to come across that way.” This has got to be the hardest thing I’d ever done, worse than giving birth to twins. That was definitely a fact.
“I was pregnant.”
I watched Callum’s face closely. The second my words registered with him, his face changed. Suddenly he was a closed book, no longer carefree and loose. The way he looked at me shifted and I wasn’t sure what that meant. I would give him a few minutes to swallow that pill as I tried to wait patiently. There was still the matter of twins to mention but I would wait for him to catch his breath first.
What was I waiting for? I mean, he hadn’t ran away yet, so that could’ve been seen as a positive.
“Mommy!” And there it was, the crack in his exterior. His eyes widened as we turned to the voices that were growing closer as Ava and Hallie ran to us. I could feel myself on the verge of bursting out in tears. This was the first time Callum was meeting his daughters.
I sniffed and blinked the tears back, “My babies.” I called out as they came to a stop on the other side of the fence. I leaned over to pick Ava up, I squeezed her tight and kissed her cheek before repeating my actions with Hallie.
Bending down to their level, I smoothed down their hair asking if they’d had fun with Grandma. “She walks slow,” was all Ava said while Hallie just nodded with a smile.
“Girls, there’s someone I want you to meet. This is Callum, he’s a friend of Mommy’s.” I sucked in a sharp breath before standing and turning to Callum. Ava stood in front of me and she looked Callum up and down. Hallie stood to my right, holding onto my hand.
There was a sharp gasp from Callum before I continued the introductions. “Callum. Meet Ava and Hallie O’Connor.”
I watched as Callum slowly dropped to his knees in front of us, his eyes were wildly scanning over the girls.
“Hey,” Ava said. “You’re friends with my mom?”
Callum nodded with his mouth parted. He was clearly in shock.
“You don’t look like any of Mommy’s other friends…”
Um yeah because they were all female, but despite that Callum’s eyes cut sharply up to me. As if asking who the fuck she was talking about. I could’ve laughed at that but decided that it probably wasn’t the best time to have that conversation.
“Can you talk?” Ava asked. Okay, that was enough of that. My eyes scanned the playground for my mom but she was gone. I started looking around the rest of the park, she wouldn’t have been far. And as if reading my mind, I spotted Mom standing near the gate to the playground.
“Grandma’s waiting for you two, she’s going to take you home.” I gave Hallie and Ava a nudge in her direction.
“Are you coming, Mom?” Ava asked, pausing for a second as she looked at me with a hopeful little grin. Her dimples, Callum’s dimples, flashed at me.
“I’ll meet you back at home.” I kissed her forehead before she ran off.
Callum and I both watched them go and suddenly the butterflies were back. I waited for his reaction. I expected anger and yelling, maybe even a blatant storming off. But there was none of that. He took a few steps to a park bench and seemingly collapsed onto it.
I followed on over and sat on the edge of the seat so I could fully see him.
“It’s a lot to take in.” And those were the first words he’d spoken in about ten minutes.
“I know.” I nodded sympathetically. I totally agreed with him, it was a lot, and that was why I’d not done it before now. I’d always thought it would’ve been too much for someone to take in, the more time that passed the worse it was.
