by Leigh Lennon
Though I already saw him earlier, at our spot, the swing, when I turn the corner, he still takes my breath away. Brody’s in a pair of simple grey slacks, a pinstripe shirt and a red tie. I stand there, taking him in, while he holds our beautiful daughter. I turn to the table and grab my bouquet, and when Lorel hears movement behind her, she turns to me and runs full force. “Ma-ma.” Those are the sweetest words anyone has ever said to me.
Brody turns, and I see those blue ocean eyes of his take me in, like he’s about to eat me. Knowing I turn him on like this makes me feel like the sexiest person in the world. He reaches out his hand and says, “You ready, Toots, to make you and me official? I can’t wait to begin the rest of my life with you.” I only nod because with him, I can do anything.
Bonus Epilogue
The night of Lorel’s birth
Tyler
“Thanks, Nick, for letting me know. But the baby, she's all right?” I ask. “Yes, I will be by the hospital tomorrow to see her…No, I will leave Aspen with my mom… Yes, I know there needs to be some changes. How about we get together in the morning? I hope to know more about Emma by then. Please tell Rose if you see her before I do, congratulations and it seems just like Rose, to face this head on… I will. Bye, Nick.”
I check the baby monitor to make sure it's on. It's funny to me that a baby not even six months old could be snoring so deeply, I can hear her through the monitor.
My heart is heavy for Rose and Brody tonight. I have a perfectly healthy baby but a mother who wants nothing to do with her. Rose is going to be that mother that we all thought Emma would be. Something like Down syndrome won’t stop Rose from being her baby’s number one advocate, though. I’m instantly jealous of Rose and Brody.
It started the second Aspen was born. Emma never bonded with her. I, of course, was a goner the second I held Aspen. “You’re my life, my everything,” I said to her the first time she was in my arms. Of course, her birth was scary when we thought we would lose Emma right there on the operating table. Her blood pressure crashed and they lost her pulse for a couple of seconds, having to revive her with the paddles.
Nothing could prepare me for what we were about to face, though. A mother who wanted nothing more than kids for over five years, did years of IVF and every other treatment she could do, only to reject her child when she was born.
Two rounds of intensive in-patient treatment didn’t help. It was starting to affect everyone around us. Annette comes up monthly to see her, but she’s quite unresponsive to her mom anytime she brings up Aspen.
Emma retreats to the guest room the second Aspen wakes up for the day. She only comes out when Aspen is in bed and never asks any questions about her. It's midnight, it's about time for Emma’s one appearance of the night. We haven't slept in the same room or bed for months. Emma doesn’t want help and it's hard to have sympathy for her when she doesn’t get the assistance she desperately needs.
I hear her door open. “Who was that on the phone?” she asks.
“It was your dad, Rose had her baby, a little girl. Lorelei Justine. Lorel for short.”
“Oh,” Emma says, looking away from me.
“Aren't you curious, Emma, if they are all right?”
“I figured you would tell me, one way or the other,” she says coldly.
“Emma, her baby has Down syndrome.”
“Oh,” she says again, with no sympathy.
“Don’t you feel anything, Emma? Your sister has a baby with special needs. Rose has every reason to feel sorry for herself, but no, she’s embracing what she has been given as a gift. Don’t you feel guilty? We have a perfectly fine baby, one you want nothing to do with.”
“What do you want me to say? I feel guilty? Is that what you want from me?”
“Emma, are you ever going to get the help you need? I miss my wife, I miss the mother I envisioned for our child. I miss you, but you have to want it, honey. I can’t want it for you.” Only if it was that simple, I think.
“I don’t know if the woman you fell in love with will ever come back, Tyler, and quite honestly, I'm tired of trying to be a person I know I can no longer be.”
“That's bullshit, Emma. Just excuses in order to avoid what happened to you in the hospital.”
“I almost died at the hospital giving birth to her. I can't say I have fond memories of that place or the reason I was there.”
“You need to want help. It's that simple,” I’m almost begging.
“No, it really isn’t that simple!” Emma yells at me when she slams the door hard and the whole house shakes. Within five seconds, the baby wakes up screaming.
“Really good, you’re a selfish jerk, who just woke up our baby for the night. Way to go. Thanks for that,” I say, making my way to my daughter, the innocent victim in our nightmare.
Follow Tyler and Emma’s story in Unwanted, coming January of 2018.
Unfiltered
Justine and Nick’s Story
Justine
If I close my eyes, my children’s empty rooms taunt me. In a split second, motherhood has been stripped from my soul. Before I have a chance to explode at my ex-husband, he opens his mouth, and my desire to seize the fire poker and rip out his eye sockets is real.
“Justine, you’re controlling! If I don’t get our kids away from you, you’ll crush them. Your approach is pushing them away. Rose came home today crying because you called her a floozy. And did I understand you right? You called Kai a pothead?”
“Funny how they’re suddenly our fucking kids, when for the last eight years, they’ve been my sole responsibility.” By the time I finish my sentence, I’m screaming.
The vase near my hand beckons me to throw it at my ex-husband’s head; my hands clench against the urge to smash it against his arrogant face. My breath quickens to short gasps. Beads of sweat race down my face, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end.
In the midst of our showdown, his smug smile leaves me with a desire to slap him.
“You can fight me on this, but you won’t win, not now. They’re sixteen and seventeen, and their preferences will sway a judge’s decision!” he yells.
Fear grips me that he may be right. “And when did you graduate from law school?” I ask sardonically as the blood rushes through my head. Fury swells in my gut and anger clutches my chest. I feel as empty as my bank account was the day I left Rafe. How dare he threaten me like this? “And yes, I called Rose a floozy. She’s sleeping with Jones to get attention. Maybe she needs your fucking attention since all your effort has been focused on your new family, instead of the one we started almost eighteen years ago.”
“Oh, this again.” Rafe unloads arrogance in the way only the president could pardon Richard Nixon. “I know, I know, Justine. You use my family as a reason for hating me more and more every time you dump on me.”
I hate Rafe Hernandez, but I also love him in a way I can never articulate. It might have something to do with the two children who want to disown me in this moment.
They own me, though the emptiness they’ve left in my heart mocks me.
“Abuse is not just physical harm, you know,” he retorts.
His vicious accusations prompt me to grab the vase and pitch it just left of his head. My aim is good, and if I’d wanted, I would have hit the son of a bitch.
“You were an ass when we were married, but now, there’s nothing I can say.” I spin around as a single tear falls from my eye. I don’t need him thinking I’ve turned soft through the years. My voice is now raspy from all the screaming.
“Again, this is really mature, Justine!” His arrogance is gone. In a split second, in my anger, I walk toward him. Like the wimp he is, he scurries away from me. He seems almost scared.
Yes, be very scared of me, Rafe Hernandez. You just poked a mother bear, and now I’m fucking enraged.
Before I retreat into my lonely house, I find eyes peeled on me. In all the excitement of Rafe, I’d forgotten a new neighbor was moving in today
. Part of me should be embarrassed, as if I am being judged, but I am nothing if not transparent.
“Well, that was the welcoming party. Sorry, I guess he doesn’t want to celebrate with us.” It’s rude, but the climate of our relationship should be established right now. If my snippy words fail, maybe slamming the door will work. Sooner rather than later, my neighbor needs to know what a bitch I am. I certainly don’t want him borrowing sugar from me at all hours or trying to be neighborly.
Nick
“Do you want to tell me what’s on your mind now or can I get dressed first?” I ask my strong-minded daughter as I lean against the back of the couch. I am glad Justine has become acquainted with the number one lady in my life. I have loved her without fault since the day they placed this bundle of sweetness in my arms, but she is a bit challenging to say the least.
“Dad, you just moved here. How can you know her well enough to let her come in here and help herself as she pleases?”
“Emma, I am the dad here. You forget sometimes.” My tone is playfully stern. “But if you have to know, there is something about this woman. It may sound cliché but I would like to see where this can go.” I don’t owe her an explanation, but she may act better with one. At least, I can hope.
“I walked in and she’s having a shot of your expensive whisky and it’s not even noon.”
“Well, good, I’m glad. She had a bad dream, so awful I had to wake her up. She apparently needs to calm her nerves.”
“She slept here?” Her eyes bug out, as though they are about to pop from her sockets.
“Look outside, my dear. Do you think she can sleep over there? Tyler, am I going to get any help from you, son?”
“Well, babe, she’s an attractive lady. Your dad has needs.”
Clearing my throat, I laugh. “Son, that is not really what I was talking about.” I can’t fault Ty. He obviously has great taste in women, he married my daughter after all, but Tyler adds humor to all situations. Looking at Emma, her hands are now firmly placed on her hips, trying to show authority in this relationship. “Listen, Ems, you have always been a grade-A bitch to every woman I have dated. I ask you to cut this woman some slack. I can tell she’s different, and if I'm being honest, I think she might give you a run for your money in the bitch department.” Most may fault me for referring to my daughter as a bitch but it is more a fact than a put down.
“Is that possible?” Tyler asks.
Emma looks from side to side as if she’s at a tennis match. Finally throwing in the towel to this argument, she looks at us. “You both are assholes, but I’m stuck with you,” she grumbles, turning to Tyler. “Let’s go.” Being the strong-minded girl I am so proud of, she stomps away without another word to me.
As they walk out, Tyler looks back at me, gives me two thumbs up, and shouts enthusiastically, “Way to go, Nick!”
Want to get caught up on Justine and Nick?
Unfiltered is available now on Amazon.
Unfiltered
Things I Have Learned
It is amazing at the ripe old age of way too old (did you think I would tell you my age?) that I am still learning things that shock me. First, there are two items I want to bring to light in this section, this time. One is funny like the Whiskey vs. Whisky last time in Unfiltered and one is of a more serious nature. (And I will tell you the second one brings with it a spoiler so proceed with caution.)
I have lived in the south so long that when I speak of the spigot in the part of the book where Rose burns her hand, I wrote spicket and of course, like last time, my editor found this error and as I researched it, I was surprised to find that I have been wrong this whole time. Spicket is not a proper word in the English language and (gasp) I have been saying it wrong all these years!
Though this is a spoiler and I have warned you, I will be as obscure as possible. With the end of the book, I want to say thank you to those that thanked me for an ending I wasn’t sure would be appreciated! Rose and Brody are such strong characters; I knew they would take it in stride!
Books by Leigh Lennon
The Unbreakable Stand Alone Series
Unfiltered
Unacquainted
Unwanted
Unforgettable - Coming Soon
The Jake Davis Novella Series
The Holiday Package
The Sweetest Package
The Breathless Series
The Last Breath
Continue Breathing - Coming Soon
The Power of Three Love Series
Foundations
Fahrenheit - Coming April 2019
Fans of Football Series
Color Blind
Rules of Submission
425 Madison Avenue Series
Must Love Coffee
Stand Alone Books
Stockholm
About the Author
Leigh Lennon is a mother, veteran and a wife of a cancer survivor. Originally with a degree in education, she started writing as an outlet that has led to a deep passion. She lugs her computer with her as she crafts her next story. She can be found drinking coffee or wine, depending on the time of the day.
Please stalk Leigh Lennon on social media:
www.authorleighlennon.com
Leigh Lennon Writes
Join my Facebook Page
Succulent and Sassy Reads Newsletter