by KD Robichaux
“Cece,” a beautiful middle-aged woman with dark hair hurries over to me, wrapping me up in her arms. I stiffen for a moment, but feeling her warmth, I sink into her embrace. She pulls back and smiles at me. “I’m Asher’s wife, November. I understand you met him at your restaurant not too long ago.”
I relax just at the mention of her husband’s name. “Yes. I’m grateful he was there. You have an amazing family,” I tell her, because what else is there to say?
“Speaking of family, your parents, did they find somewhere to rent? Between all of us, I’m sure we could figure something out if we need to,” she assures, and I swallow against the tears stinging my throat. I refuse to cry today.
“They did. They’re going over there now then to the store.”
She nods. “Okay, good. If you need anything, anything at all, you just let us know, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you,” I murmur, and she rubs her hand up and down my arm. She introduces me to the other four women in the room—Sophie, April, Nalia, and Willow—and then gestures for me to go ahead of her toward the kitchen.
When I come around the corner with the women following me, I see Talon has his arm around Mia as they look around at all the work they’ve already done. The cabinet doors are gone, the broken dishes and everything that was smashed is cleaned up, and the appliances, which had been dented, are no longer around.
“Just who we were looking for.” Sophie grabs Mia’s hand, tugging her away from her son.
“Mom.” Talon shakes his head, sighing, and I wonder what’s going on as she and the rest of the women lead us out of the kitchen toward the back door, which November opens when we get there.
“Don’t worry, honey. We’ll take good care of her,” Sophie calls over her shoulder to Talon.
“Right, like I believe that,” I hear him mutter as I’m pulled outside.
“Shouldn’t we be inside helping clean up?” I ask as Talon’s sister Willow pushes me down into a seat on the deck under a large umbrella that’s been opened up.
“No,” his cousin April states as she pulls a bottle of top-shelf tequila from her purse.
“We’d just be in the way,” Sophie mutters, taking a seat next to Mia and patting her thigh.
“Exactly,” November agrees. “And how many times do you want to be told ‘Don’t lift that,’ ‘Be careful,’ ‘Wait for me and my big, strong muscles to help you’?”
“Which is why—” His sister Nalia laughs, pulling out a stack of hot pink plastic shot glasses from her bag. “—rather than becoming annoyed with men who believe we are incapable of helping, we’re going to drink until we are incapable of helping.”
“I don’t know,” I reply, looking at Mia. I feel bad for not helping clean up my house. Even when Mike and I were together, I didn’t have a housekeeper like most of our friends did. It just felt weird thinking about someone else cleaning up my mess, when I was home to do it myself.
“Trust us.” November hands me a shot. “We’ve been dealing with these guys forever. If you go back in there, you’re just going to be standing around, because they won’t let you do anything.”
At the sincerity in her eyes, and because this is the first time I’ve ever been around a group of women who welcomed me with open arms without even knowing me, I give in. “Okay!”
“What are we drinking to?” Nalia asks, holding up her glass, and we all follow her lead, lifting ours.
“To badass women who have the ability to take care of everything but more importantly take care of each other.” April throws back her shot, and everyone else does the same.
Even though I don’t have the salt and lime, the flavor of the tequila instantly brings back the memory of sitting at the bar with Winston, taking my first shots of Patrón. My heart sinks a little thinking about him. What I wouldn’t give to share just one more night like that with him, just talking and getting to know each other. And if it happened to end in a kiss the way it had that night…
No! I’ve got to stop letting myself fantasize about him. It’s never going to happen, and it only makes me long for him more. It only makes me pine for him, becoming more and more desperate to see him, to be near him, and I can’t do that. I need to get him out of my head.
“So,” Sophie interrupts my thoughts, focusing on Mia as April starts to fill everyone’s glass again. “Where are your parents today?”
“They’ve found a temporary rental in town, so they’re going to the grocery store to pick up some stuff then take it over there and have a look around.” She thankfully leaves out what happened this morning and that they probably needed some time alone to talk about it and hopefully get over what they witnessed.
“And your daughters?” November asks me before taking her shot.
“They’re with their dad. They’re staying the night with him tonight, and then we’ll stay with my parents until it’s okay for us to come back here.” Mike had surprisingly not been an asshole about having to keep the girls an extra night. Thank God. I don’t think my nerves could’ve taken having to argue with him.
“It won’t be long. The guys are determined to get you and your babies back in your house as soon as possible. Really, I wouldn’t be surprised if they all decided to camp out here until it’s done,” November tells me, then leans toward April. “Give me another one.”
My sister shoots back her tequila and then sets the glass down on the edge of the firepit between all of us before April can refill it. “I can’t drink anymore.” She covers the top with her hand when she tries to fill it anyway.
“Aw, come on.” Willow nudges her foot. “One more drink won’t hurt.”
“Mia is a lightweight.” I grin at her when she pleads with her eyes for help. “She’d probably pass out until tomorrow night if she had another shot.”
“She’s not lying.” Mia shrugs in agreement, and everyone laughs.
“Well, I’ll pay tribute for Mia.” Nalia holds out her glass, and we watch her take another shot, and then we all follow her lead.
“All the girls should get breakfast tomorrow,” November suggests, looking around the group. “If we go around eight, everyone should be able to make it, even the babies.” She starts to pull out her phone, but I interrupt her before she can make it a solid plan that includes me.
“I wish I could, but I’m picking my girls up in the morning from their dad’s and taking them to school,” I tell her, and Mia frowns at me.
“Mike can’t take the girls to school tomorrow morning?” she asks, sitting up.
“He has work,” I tell her with a shrug.
“At like nine. He can drop them before he goes to his office, so you can go out to breakfast or sleep in for once,” she argues.
“I don’t mind taking them.” I’m so used to doing everything anyway, always have, even when we were together, that it hadn’t even occurred to me to ask him to take the girls to school.
“Of course you don’t. You never mind doing it all.” She rolls her eyes, and it my stomach sinks.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I narrow my eyes, wondering where this hostility is coming from.
“You let him off the hook for everything, Cece. He sees the girls one day a week. One.” She holds up a wobbly finger, clearly feeling the effects of the alcohol. “I get that he works, but you work too, and you’re going to school. It’s not fair that it all falls on you.”
“You’re right,” I agree, hoping to pacify her so she’ll change the subject. I don’t like talking about personal things with even the closest people in my life, much less strangers. “I just don’t want to rock the boat right now.” I’m going through too much without having to worry about him coming back and changing his mind about the offer dealing with the house and alimony.
“So when are you going to rock the boat?” she asks, her tone almost accusing, and it makes my hackles rise.
“I don’t know,” I finally snap, aggravated she’s interrogating me in front of these women I just met.
“Is that what you want me to say?”
“No!” she cries. “I want my sister to grow a damn backbone and demand the man she had kids with to step up and take care of his responsibilities more than one day a fricking week.”
My face heats with embarrassment. I just don’t know whether it’s because she’s saying all this in front of people, or if it’s because I’m mortified that she’s 100 percent right. “I’m doing the best I can.”
“No, Cece, you’re doing it fucking all and letting Mike do whatever the hell he wants, when he’s the one who should be tying himself in knots to make sure you and his girls are happy, regardless if you’re together or not.” She stands, looking around the circle of women, who instead of looking awkward are rapt at the drama unfolding before them. “Sorry,” she tells them. “I’m going in to see if the guys need help.”
When she’s inside, I slowly turn back to look at the others. “I’m sorry,” I murmur. “It’s been… a rough year.”
“I’m sorry too,” November says. “I didn’t know bringing up your girls would be such a sensitive subject.”
I shake my head. “You have nothing to apologize for. It’s just… a mess. Not just my house. My whole life is a mess.” I close my eyes and breathe out, the tequila making me a little dizzy, so I open them again.
“No, ma’am!” Sophie barks from across the firepit, and I jump, looking at her wide-eyed. “We aren’t doing that anymore. After all that’s happened to you, there is no more woe is me or feeling sorry for yourself. You have three babies you’ve gotta pull yourself together for. And you may have been doing it alone before, or had just your sister. But now, you have the fucking Maysons.” She growls out the name and then hiccups, and although I let out a little squeak of laughter from the sheer shock of being put in my place by this woman who had otherwise been nothing but quiet and sweet, her words hit home.
November nods vigorously. “Yeah, honey. I agree. I may not know the whole story, but from what Asher told me about your ex that night at the restaurant, and from what I’ve heard here, you’ve gotta start putting your foot down when it comes to those girls of yours. I totally get not wanting to rock the boat, as you said. But you also can’t just lie down and take it. There comes a point where you have to stop putting yourself last. And you also have to remember… those little girls will be young women soon, and they’re watching. They’re watching, observing, and taking everything in. And it’s your job as their mother to lead by example. What’s… what’s one of their names? Pearl?” she prompts, her hand in the air opening and closing as if she’s trying to grab the answer out of the air, her words slightly slurred but no less meaningful.
“Ruby,” I correct her.
“Ruby! What if Ruby was in this situation, and she had a douchebag baby daddy who only took care of their kid one night a week while she did every damn thing else herself? What would you want her to do?”
I instantly bristle, indignation filling my chest at the hypothetical question. “I’d want her to…” I sink back in my seat as it all makes sense why my sister is so upset with me. “I’d want her to stand up for not only herself but her child. I’d tell her their kid deserves more than to feel like their dad only wants them one day a week. And I’d want her to know it wasn’t her responsibility to take care of every little thing by herself. They had that child together, not just her. So he needs to step up and get his shit together.”
The two older women give me a knowing smile and nod, while the younger three cheers their shot glasses and shoot them back.
“And there you have it,” Sophie says.
The next… however long we’re out there is spent with the women going back and forth between scolding me for letting Mike off the hook for this long and hyping me up to take care of the problem. By the time I leave, I have a lot to think about and try to plan.
26
Cece
“Can’t sleep?” I ask my sister from the table in Talon’s kitchen later that night. She lets out a squeak and fumbles with the full glass of water she just filled, soaking the front of her tee. “Sorry.” I get up and approach her, taking the glass from her hand and refilling it from the tap as she grabs a rag to clean up the mess. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you saw me sitting here.”
“I didn’t,” she replies, taking her glass back when I hand it to her and downing it in just a few gulps. Once it’s empty, she fills it again, asking, “Why are you here?”
“We need to talk,” I say, but she doesn’t reply, so I just get right to it. “You’re right. I’ve let Mike off the hook for everything, and it’s not fair to me to let him continue on like he has. But more importantly, it’s not fair to our girls.” I sigh. “I know he should be more involved. I know I should demand more from him, but I’m afraid.”
“Of what?” she asks, her tone gentle.
“Of him stepping out of the picture completely, of him abandoning the girls like Dad abandoned us. I mean…” I shake my head, trying to keep my tears at bay. “I don’t ever want them to experience that. I don’t want them to ever feel like they are that easily forgotten.”
“Do you miss Dad?”
“What?” I heard her, but the question seems to come out of nowhere when I was so focused on Mike and the kids.
“Dad, our biological dad, do you miss him?”
“I never really think about him, to be honest,” I admit, and she closes her eyes.
“Don’t you see, Cece, that you can’t miss something you never had? Either Mike wants to be a part of his girls’ lives, or he doesn’t. Either he wants to make them a priority, or he doesn’t. Sharing DNA with a child doesn’t make you a parent. The bond built over time expressed through devotion and love does. I know you want what’s best for Ruby, Kate, and Lola, but wanting him to step up and be the father he should be isn’t going to make it happen.” She steps toward me as my shoulders slump forward in defeat. “I know you want what’s best for your babies, but letting Mike continue on like he has been isn’t giving them what they need. The girls need time with their dad, and you need to demand that he gives them that.”
I take a deep breath. I need advice on how I should go about talking to him about this. I don’t want to do anything that could cause him to come after me again. “I’m going to talk to my lawyer about how he thinks I should bring things up to Mike.”
She scoffs, and my head jerks back at her change in tone. “Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? Mike got an apartment without talking to you, introduced his girlfriend to the girls without talking to you, and now you’re going to talk to your lawyer about how you should talk to the father of your kids about something that affects you all?” She’s clearly disgusted. “Honest to God, you and Mike need to learn how to communicate with each other, because the girls are getting older, and there’s going to be things that come up with them that will require the two of you to be on the same page without using someone as a go-between.”
“You think I don’t know that?” I snap.
“I’m not saying you don’t know it, Cece. I’m asking what you’re going to do to change the way things are right now, because Mike isn’t going to be the one to address the issues, since he doesn’t have any issues to address. For him, everything is perfect. He’s living life like he always did, while everything for you has changed completely.”
I shake my head. “I wish things were as easy as you’re making them seem to be.”
“And I wish you’d understand that you’re making this harder than it needs to be. The conversation you need to have with him doesn’t have to be ugly or confrontational. It just has to be honest. Mike might not know what he’s doing is hurting the girls and making things more difficult for you, because you’ve never said anything to him. He might not think it’s a big deal that he only sees the girls one day a week, because he talks to them every night and is available if they call. You won’t know how he will react until you talk to him, and after that, if he doesn’t say he’s willing to
work on things, then you talk to your lawyer. But I have a feeling you might be surprised by his reaction. Both of you love the girls, and both of you want what’s best for them. The two of you just need to learn how to talk to each other about stuff before it boils over.”
It’s advice we could’ve used during our marriage as well. It’s always been this way between us. I would bottle everything up, dealing with shit as they happened, until finally I had enough and went off on him in private. We’d have a big argument, and then things would go back to semi-normal until my cup runneth over once more.
“I’ll talk to him,” I agree quietly. “I’ll see if he can meet me tomorrow evening when he gets off work.”
“I think that would be good,” she replies, relief evident in her voice.
“Are we okay?” I ask quietly, hating the fact that we argued today. She and I have never been confrontational with each other. Even when we were younger.
“Almost.” She lets out a breath. “I’m sorry for bringing things up in front of Talon’s family. It was rude, and I should have had better control,” she apologizes, clearly embarrassed.
“It’s fine, and they all agreed with you and wanted to go after you to make sure you were okay, but we knew you would be with Talon and he’d take care of you.”
“They had my back?”
“Oh yeah… well, I mean, Sophie and November gathered around me to make sure I was okay, even though I could tell they didn’t agree with me at all, but April, Nalia, and Willow were just as outraged as you were and nicely let me have it.” I take a deep breath. “I know it’s not my place, but I have to tell you that you better not mess up what you and Talon have, because I promise you will regret it. It’s not just that he’s such a good guy, and there aren’t very many out there anymore; it’s also that he has the family he does.”
“I’m not going to mess up what he and I have, and I know exactly how lucky I am that he decided to pursue me.” She smiles. “I’m just glad he was as determined as he was.”