2. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Roxie
You’d think having a physical therapy doctorate would get me far in life, but when your narcissistic aunt and uncle keep tracking you down and threatening your livelihood, moving around a lot is second nature and doesn’t exactly come with a lot of stability.
Driving from Missouri to Texas wasn’t what I had on the agenda this week, but here we are, eating our weight in fast food and acting like this road trip isn’t us running once again.
“Mommy, my stickers fell again,” Ivy huffs from the back seat, acting far older than her five years.
“Gotta wait, Ives. I can’t grab anything while I’m driving,” I say for what feels like the hundredth time in the last hour.
I can be patient. I will take deep breaths when the repeat questions start driving me up a damn wall.
“Then can you just stop and pick it up for me?” Her innocent question would be adorable if I didn’t know she was trying to bypass me saying no.
“I can stop when we get more food,” I counter. Who knew you needed to become a master negotiator when you had a daughter?
I practice taking that deep breath I was thinking about when I hear Ivy exasperatedly sigh from her car seat. I know she’s crossing her arms over her chest, full of attitude. The only good thing is that we’re closing in on Bluebell Falls, Texas. Only three more hours until we get to our new home.
God, I hope we can stay here longer than four months this time.
I’m a little nervous about this particular job, but I couldn’t turn down the added benefit of housing. The gentleman, Ledger, assured me during the interview that having a daughter would be fine, welcome even, but he’s not the one I was hired to help, so we’ll see.
I know very little about the man I’m supposed to be working with. He was part of some kind of incident a few months back, and he recently had a pretty extensive quad tendon tear, which will be very painful for him to work through for the next couple of months. Ledger told me my client, Lennox, is not only physically working through his injuries, but he has a lot going on mentally as well. I’m not really sure what I’m walking into, and that makes the idea of living in a client’s house with Ivy nerve-racking.
But I don’t have another choice right now. I need the paycheck, and we need a place to live. I may have been bad at setting boundaries with my aunt and uncle, but with clients, I have no problems doing so, and this will be no different. I’m known for my tough demeanor on the job, my need to push clients to the limit without pushing them too far. I get results and have nothing but high praise from every facility I’ve worked at. I only wish I could be stationary for longer than a few months at a time to really get a footing in the field. I do keep some of my clients virtually, so at least I can continue their care.
I see a sign for a larger town up ahead and look at the clock, seeing it’s as good a time as any to stop for dinner .
“How do burgers sound, Ives?” I call back, quickly taking a peek at her in the rearview mirror.
“Terrible. Can we gets chicken nuggets?” She’s borderline whining, and I’d get onto her more about it if I hadn’t just abruptly pulled her from the life she was getting used to and taken us on a ten-hour road trip.
“Chicken nuggets it is.” I sigh as I pull off the highway.
Stretching our legs feels better than good, and we make quick work of our dinner. The toy that comes with Ivy’s kid’s meal boosts her mood exponentially, and I’m thankful for the small victory.
“Alright, last stretch of the trip, Ivy Bug. You ready?”
“Are we staying for good this time?” Her voice is so small, so hopeful, it crushes me that I don’t have an answer for her. I want so desperately to say yes, but I can’t promise her anything at the moment.
“I’m going to try really hard.” And I mean it. There is nothing I want more than to create a stable life for Ivy. She’s my world and the reason I keep fighting tooth and nail so my aunt and uncle can’t sink their claws into her. I’ll never let them do to her what they did to me when they took custody of me.
“How much longer ‘til we get there?” she asks, all hints of sadness gone, and I envy the way she can bounce back so fast.
“Just about three hours. I have a new audiobook of that unicorn series you love, though, so we can listen to that. It should make it go faster.”
“The new one?” she gasps out her question with pure excitement.
“The new one, Bug. You ready?”
She nods and starts collecting her trash, throwing everything away and carefully carrying her milk to the car .
The unicorn story keeps Ivy happy and distracted, and I end up buying the whole damn series to keep the smile on her face. The rest of the three-hour drive is spent listening to a unicorn be magical at every job known to man and my sweet baby’s giggles.
The sign for Bluebell Falls is adorable, covered in the flower that is its namesake, and more welcoming than I anticipated. It takes another fifteen minutes to find the place I’m supposed to be at. Ledger said I could go straight to Lennox’s house, so we could all meet tomorrow to discuss duties more and get to know each other better.
I won’t lie, nerves are taking over, and the fear that showing up at the house of a man I haven’t even spoken to is starting to feel like a terrible decision. What if he slams the door in my face? What if he’s a predator, and I’m putting Ivy in danger?
All of these are unfounded fears as I did a complete background check on Lennox and talked to the sheriff here before making the decision. There’s no way in hell I’d put Ivy in any danger, but that knowledge doesn’t soothe my nerves in the least.
Before I’m mentally ready, I pull up to a beautiful cabin on the outskirts of town. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the large vision in front of me.
“Is this our new home?” Ivy pipes up from the back, trying to look around the front seat that’s blocking her view.
“Seems to be.” I take a deep breath, pushing my fears down and pulling my strength to the forefront. Ivy doesn’t need to see me flounder. She needs a strong mom who kicks ass and can take on any challenge.
She also needs a place where she can grow up, be a kid, and not worry about whether tomorrow we’ll be packing up everything we own and moving again.
Shaking my head of those thoughts, I climb out of the driver’s seat and walk around the car to get Ivy out of her car seat.
“It’s like a real-life Goldiwocks’ house,” Ivy says with awe in her voice, and I have to chuckle at her ability to connect everything to books in some way.
“Come on, it’s getting late. Once we get settled, I’ll read you Goldilocks before bed, okay?”
Her squeal hits a decibel only little girls seem to hit, and I shush her before walking up to the front door. Steeling myself for any and every possibility, I knock on the door and step back to wait.
A couple of minutes go by, and there’s no sign of life. I step up and knock again before I hear a grumbled, “I’m coming. Shit,” from inside.
Cringing at the annoyed voice, I wonder if this was all a mistake.
When the door finally opens, showing a younger man with overgrown curly brown hair, beard, and a brace covering his entire leg, I know with certainty this was a mistake.
If this is Lennox, I’m in trouble. He’s scruffy, sure, but the scowl on his face does nothing to hide how attractive he is. A driver’s license picture doesn’t do him justice, and I’m suddenly wondering how I’m supposed to live in the same house as him.
But then he opens his mouth. “Who the fuck are you?”