I woke up the next morning with an epiphany.
Why didn’t I think of this earlier?
I opened my government computer, and twenty minutes later, I was on the road to Georgia.
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Jessica
My parents didn’t disown me. In fact, my mom helped me clean my apartment, and my dad helped me move Ruthie’s crib and a dresser and my bed. While he was in my tiny bedroom, he noticed the closet door was off the track and rehung it for me.
Then he went around and made sure all the hinges on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets were secure.
“The Braves are playing tomorrow night,” he said as he stood at the open front door. “Why don’t you come over for dinner, and we’ll watch it.”
“I told you they’d make the playoffs,” I said with a grin. “And I’ll be there. I start my new job tomorrow, so Mama is watching Ruthie for me.”
He frowned, so I quickly added. “It’s only until I can line up daycare. I met with a social worker today and she said I qualified for twenty-four hours a week of daycare assistance. Mama said she’d watch her the other two days. But once the divorce is final, I should be able to increase that.”
“You’re still going to do that, huh?”
It appeared so. Alan had all but disappeared from our lives.
I didn’t tell my dad that, of course. I just smiled and said, “I’m a strong, independent woman, Papa. It’s time I acted like it.”
“Strong, independent women don’t need daycare assistance,” he grumbled.
“It’s only until I can finish my degree.”
“Ruthie’ll be in school by then.”
“You’re probably right, but then she’ll need to go to after-school care.”
“She should be able to come home after school to her mom.”
“In an ideal world, Pops.”
“Hmph,” he grumbled. Then threw out, “See you tomorrow,” before clomping down the stairs.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
I opened it with, “What’d you forg—” then stopped short.
It wasn’t my dad on my doormat.
****
Alan
I couldn’t help but smile when she opened the door.
It was good to see her face. I’d missed her so much.
“What’d you forg—”
Her smile fell when she realized I wasn’t her dad, who I’d just watch leave in his truck.
Five days ago, a license plate reader came back with a hit on her minivan in Savannah, I’d hopped in my rental and driven the four hours until I hit the city limits.
