Things did seem to run more smoothly after Acasia returned home though. She seemed to intuitively know what Sammi wanted, and he loved her even more for it. He hoped that she was able to let go of her fears of not being a good mother, and just enjoy being a mother after the baby was born. He knew that he was certainly going to enjoy being a father.
The weekend passed quickly, and it was soon time to hand Sammi back over to her parents. She was so overjoyed to see them that it almost made Garett laugh. He didn’t think that he and Acasia had done a bad job of caring for their niece, but it was still plain to see that she was glad to go home with Mom and Dad.
Demi’s daughter was beautiful. And something had definitely happened between Gavin and Demi. His brother wouldn’t tell him exactly what had gone on other than driving her to the hospital while she was in labor and remaining with her until their other family members arrived, but Garett knew that something had changed. Acasia had also told him that it looked as if they had interrupted a private moment between her sister and his brother when they had arrived at the hospital.
He had a feeling that Gavin was not going to be living with them too much longer, and almost as soon as Demi got out of the hospital he discovered that he was right. Gavin finally opened up to him on the day that he moved out and told him that he had worked out a deal with Melda Gaines to purchase the house, and that he and Demi were going to be together, to raise little Nicole together. She hadn’t exactly accepted his proposal, but it had been her idea for him to move in to the house.
It made Garett feel good to see his brother happy again. He had seemed more at peace since he’d come home, but now that Demi had decided to give their love a chance, his brother seemed to be walking on air. So all in all things seemed to be going well for the Black/Brown families, and Garett was hopeful that they would continue to go well into the future.
Acasia
Two weeks later
The blinds in the front living room window had fallen down again. They seemed to be forever falling down, and it had driven Gavin crazy when he’d been staying with them. But there was so much work that needed to be done on the house that sometimes little details got left out and Acasia knew that Garett couldn’t possibly address every issue all at once, especially one that seemed to make little difference now that Gavin had moved in with Demi.
Acasia was still a little unsure of how she felt about the fact that Gavin had worked out a deal with Melda Gaines to purchase what she still often thought of as only Demi’s house. Her sister had taken to wearing the engagement ring that Gavin had bought for her too, though no wedding date had been set as of yet.
She sighed as she paused outside the front window, trying to juggle the bags of groceries in her arms. She was so tired all the time that it felt like she had little to no energy and she was unsure of how much longer she would be able to work during her pregnancy. The doctor had assured them that everything was fine with the baby, and that she seemed to be gaining weight right on target, but Acasia still sometimes worried. She worried that if she was this exhausted while she was carrying their child that there was no possible way she was going to be able to keep her head and care for an infant.
Garett told her that she was being ridiculous and teased her about taking on some of the anxiety that Demi had seemed to have recently been able to let go of, but she knew that he worried sometimes too. Their days of caring for Sammi had certainly been interesting, and there had been times when she had felt overwhelmed. Mothering seemed to come so naturally for her sisters, and she worried that it wouldn’t be the same for her.
She hoped that it was just her surging hormones, and told herself that things would be different when she actually held the baby in her arms, but sometimes she still felt as if her emotions threatened to overwhelm her. Besides the fact that she felt as if she had never worried so much in her life, she could be brought to tears by almost nothing, and her hormones were raging. She sometimes wondered how her fiancé managed to put up with her.
As she turned to head towards the door, she noticed movement in the living room. She expected Garett to be home since his truck was parked in its usual place in the driveway, but she caught a flash in her peripheral vision that caused her to turn.
And she noticed for the first time that Garett was not alone. He passed almost directly in front of the window and she stepped back, pressing herself into the side of the house, feeling like an idiot for spying on him. It wasn’t as if she didn’t trust him. He’d never given her any reason not to trust him. And the fact that he was in their house with another woman normally wouldn’t have bothered her. People stopped by sometimes to ask him about construction and remodeling projects they needed done since he was more approachable than his father.
What bothered her was who the woman was. Renee Neal was Garett’s ex-girlfriend, and had showed up in town a few weeks before. She’d been in Garett and Demi’s class in high school and Demi had never liked her, considering her to be vain and bitchy and sometimes downright mean. Acasia hadn’t thought about the girl much back then, having had little interaction with her herself.
Garett and Renee had dated for a year and a half while Acasia was in college. He had broken up with her after she had cheated on him, and he hadn’t seemed especially interested when she’d mentioned that Renee was back in town. So she wondered now why it was that her fiancé’s ex was in their house.
She moved slightly so that she could get a better look into the window. What she saw caused tears to sting her eyes. Her arms went slack as if she had instantly lost her remaining reserves of energy, and food scattered all over the ground as she dropped the plastic bags. She stepped back and felt a tomato squash under her foot. It seemed appropriate since she suddenly felt as if her heart had been stepped on.
She tried not to think about what she had seen as she walked back to her car. She tried to ignore the tears that spilled out of her eyes, clouding her vision. She drove to her mother’s house on autopilot, hiding her car in the rarely used garage, glad that her mother wasn’t at home as she used her key to unlock the back door. Her feet felt like they were made out of lead as she descended the basement stairs.
She pulled back the covers on her bed, breathing in the fresh, familiar scent of the fabric softener that her mother has used since they were children as she crawled into bed. She shut her eyes as if to shut the world out and was soon asleep.
Garett
Garett was less than thrilled when Renee Neal showed up on his doorstep, especially since Acasia hadn’t yet returned home from the grocery store. He had no interest in talking to his ex, and it felt wrong for her to be in the house that he shared with Acasia when she wasn’t home. The living room blinds fell down as he opened the door, and he was tempted to fix them immediately, just to delay having to deal with Renee, but he didn’t. His parents had taught him quite well not to be rude to a guest; whether you really wanted to visit with them or not.
He hid a sigh as Renee stepped into the house, shutting the door behind her. He wondered what in the hell it was that she wanted this time. She had been bugging him since she’d come back to Clinton, trying to convince him that there was work that needed to be done on her parents’ house when he knew in all reality that there was little to nothing wrong with the house (he had been there many times when they were dating and had long before began to notice potential construction and remodeling opportunities).
Renee’s parents had died the year before and left her the house, but she hadn’t bothered to return to check on it even once since then until now. He got the uncomfortable feeling that she had turned back up in town in an attempt to ruin his happiness with Acasia since she was known for being spiteful and had gotten quite pissed off at him when he had broken up with her, and had left town shortly after. He had been trying to ignore the issue, hoping that she would eventually get the point and go away, or at least leave him alone, and stop bugging him about issues that didn’t exist with her house.
As he avo
ided Renee’s eyes, he realized that he probably should have mentioned to Acasia that Renee had approached him, and he hoped that she didn’t happen to come home while the other woman was in their house. He knew that his fiancé trusted him, and he certainly didn’t think that he’d ever given her a reason not to, but all in all he knew that it would be more than a little awkward if she happened to come home and find him with his ex.
He forced himself to look at Renee, but made sure that his voice was cool when he said “What can I do for you Renee?”
She laughed. “Why the cold shoulder Gar? You know that we had good times together. I would have thought you’d be a little happier to have me back in town. There’s so much work that needs to be done to the house before I can sell it. You’ll be busy for months getting the place back to what it used to be. Maybe we can make some improvements too, so that I can actually make a profit off of the place. You’re so good with your hands.” She winked at him.
Garett fought an eye roll. “Look Renee, I’m still not sure exactly what it is that you think needs to be done to the house. It’s in better shape than half of the places in town already. I’m sure that if you sell it just like it is, you’ll still make a profit.”
To him it seemed as if anything she made off of the house would be profitable since her parents had paid for the house, but he didn’t want to remind her of that or the fact that it was hard to sell a house in Clinton, no matter what shape it was in. He was starting to get a headache and was reminded of another reason he would have eventually broken it off with Renee even if she hadn’t cheated on him. Her voice got shrill sometimes, making it hard to listen to her. He wanted her to go away, and wished that he had never dated her in the first place.
She ran her hand up his arm. “Oh, there’s plenty of work that needs to be done Gar. And I’m not just talking about my house.”
He brushed her hand away and gave her a dirty look. “I’m engaged Renee. And did you happen to forget the fact that Acasia is pregnant with my child?”
Renee made a clucking sound with her tongue, another habit of hers that had often annoyed him. “Always the gentleman aren’t you Garett Black? Don’t you know that in this day and age you’re no longer obligated to marry a woman just because you knock her up?”
She moved towards him again, and Garett stepped back, almost wishing that Acasia would return home now so that Renee would have to go away and give up on her efforts to seduce him. He strained his ears, hoping to hear her car, but there was nothing, and he knew that he would have to deal with Renee himself, feeling a little guilty that he had even thought of hiding behind his pregnant fiancé.
“I didn’t ask her to marry me because she got pregnant. I asked her to marry me because I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her. I don’t see anything that needs to be done on your place before it can be sold, and I’m sure that my father and brother would agree.”
Renee frowned. She frowned so often that she had already started to develop frown lines, and he wondered how he had spent a year and a half dating someone who was so sour and bitchy. Her frown turned into a pout. But her pout only made her less attractive to him because she was wearing so much makeup that her face almost appeared to crack when her expressions changed.
He turned his back on her again, hoping that his dismissal was enough to convince her that there was no room for her in his life professionally and certainly not personally, but he had a bad feeling that Renee would not be so easily put off, especially since ignoring her phone calls hadn’t worked so far.
“Gar, you’re the only one that I can trust to take care of my house. Don’t be unreasonable because your girlfriend is pregnant and jealous.”
Garett let out the sigh that had been building as he turned back to Renee. “She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my fiancé. As in the woman that I am going to marry. And she has no reason to be jealous.”
“C’mon Gar. You know that there are still sparks between us. No one will ever have to know. You work on my house, and if you happen to work on me now and again while you’re at it, what harm will it do? I still remember exactly what it felt like to fuck you.”
“Get out of my house Renee. And don’t bother trying to call my father about working on your house. It’s not going to happen. So you might as well stop calling me. Put the house on the market the way it is and go back to wherever you came from.”
“You’re gonna make me cry Gar. Why are you being so mean to me?”
She was pouting again. Garett wondered what he was going to have to say or do to make her go away.
“I’m not being mean Renee. I’m being honest.”
She took a step towards him again. He stepped back, but as soon as he did, he realized that he’d made a mistake. He was backed into a corner, and she took advantage, bringing her mouth to his before he could make a move to stop her.
He shoved her away as gently but as forcefully as possible, giving her a look that he hoped was full of enough disgust to let her know exactly how he felt about her kissing him.
“Get out of my house. Now. Before Acasia gets home and I have to explain to her what you’ve been trying to do.”
Renee gave him a sly smile. “What I tell her myself?”
“If you bother Acasia, I will make sure that your house never gets worked on by any licensed contractor in this town.”
“Ah, so you haven’t talked to her about me have you? She doesn’t know how crazy you were about me. She doesn’t know about the hours we spent in bed together.”
“Shut the hell up Renee. It’s time for you to leave.”
He looked pointedly at the door. When she still didn’t seem to get the point, he crossed to the door and threw it open, again giving her a pointed look.
She offered him one last pout as she exited, but there was a look in her eyes that made him worry that she would talk to Acasia, and misrepresent what had gone on between them. He wished again that he had talked to her about Renee before, since it seemed to make things look even worse that he hadn’t told her that his ex had left over a dozen voicemails for him since she’d been back in town. The first few had been so suggestive that he had deleted the rest of them without bothering to listen to them.
As he watched Renee walk down the street towards her car, he was on the lookout for Acasia’s car. He knew that he needed to talk to her right away, and he hoped that she returned home soon. But there was no sign of her, and he sighed as he moved into the yard, trying to get a better view of the street.
He felt a crunch underneath his foot, and looked down to see that he had stepped on an egg. He was puzzled at first when he noticed that there were groceries laying all over the yard. Then his heart sunk as the realization that she HAD returned home set in and he reached for his cell phone, pressing the button to speed dial the woman he loved, hoping with all his might that his omission had not done irreversible damage to their relationship.
Acasia
When Acasia woke up reality set in again. And reality wasn’t sitting very well with her at the moment, considering the fact that her current reality was the fact that she had seen her fiancé locked in what appeared to be a passionate kiss with Renee. She felt sick and wondered how in the hell things could have gone so wrong so close to the wedding and the birth of their child.
Tears stung her eyes again, and as she sat up in bed, realizing that she needed to urinate, she could hear her mother walking around upstairs. She knew that her mother would hear the water going through the pipes when she used the restroom, and would naturally wonder who was in the basement, likely not having noticed that her daughter’s car was sitting in the garage. She wanted to put off talking to her mother, not in the mood to explain what was going on, but she knew that she couldn’t wait much longer before using the restroom. She hadn’t had the best bladder control since she’d become pregnant.
She got out of bed with a sigh, crossing to the downstairs bathroom. Her mother’s footsteps crossed to the basement door almos
t as soon as she flushed the toilet, and she was tempted to stay in the bathroom a little longer, but she knew that it was no use hiding from her mother. It never had been.
Heather had just opened her bedroom door when Acasia walked out of the bathroom. She gave her daughter a surprised smile.
“Sweetheart what are you doing here? I wasn’t expecting you. Where’s Garett?”
At the sound of his name, the tears sprang up again. Her mother took one look at her and then wrapped her arms around Acasia.
“What’s going on baby?”
“Oh Mom.”
She couldn’t stop the tears from flowing then, and her mother took her hand and led her into her bedroom. Heather held her while she cried, murmuring nonsensical words of comfort as if her little girl were still really her little girl instead of a grown woman.
After the tears had finally stopped and Acasia had caught her breath, her mother handed her a handful of tissues from her apron. She must have been preparing dinner Acasia thought distantly, feeling as if she were someone else. Or maybe just wishing that she were someone else so that she wouldn’t have to face what she had witnessed.
They sat in silence for several minutes, until her mother cleared her throat.
“Acasia.”
“Yes Mom?”
“Will you please tell me what’s got you so upset darling? You know that I never could stand to see one of my girls cry.”
“Daddy was the one that could never stand to see us cry, especially Demi. You always thought that we cried too much.”
Heather smiled. “At times you did, but girls often do that at different times in their lives.” The smile faded and she reached out and brushed Acasia’s hair out of her face. “Please honey, just tell me what’s going on so that we can figure out how to work it out.”
Key To My Heart: Stay Page 11