Chapter 27
Willa Rose scooted the cradle from the living room into the guest bedroom with Nicky sleeping soundly in it.
Then she went back, got the bag with burgers and fries and the melting milkshake, took it into the room with her, and closed the door.
When she was upset or angry—and she was both that evening—she tried to ease all the emotions with food.
So, she ate both burgers, all the fries, and finished it all off with what had turned into nothing more than chocolate milk.
She had just finished the last bite when she heard the front door open. When Tripp’s familiar footsteps were about halfway down the hallway, her phone rang. She jerked it out of the pocket of her flowing skirt and said, “Hello, I’m still mad, so I’m not talking right now.”
“I guess this means you and Tripp haven’t made up yet?” Hank asked.
“Daddy?” Her tone softened.
“Yes, my daughter?”
“Who told you that we were upset with each other? Did he come whining to you?”
“No, Tripp did not,” Hank declared. “Ivy called me. She didn’t know what y’all disagreed about, but she wondered if I might need to come over there. She said you were too angry to talk to her, but that you might need to visit with someone.”
“I’m fine!” she barked. “Tripp was raised different from me, so this relationship isn’t going to work. I’m ready to take all my things and go back to Poetry. Nicky can be raised in the same house I was brought up in.”
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Hank said.
“Nothing to tell,” she replied.
“Then I’m coming over there and talking to Tripp face-to-face,” Hank said. “I bet he’ll tell me what you are so angry about.”
“Okay, okay,” she said with a long sigh, then told him the details.
“Your mother and I argued over the same thing—more than once when you girls were little. Don’t get me wrong. I loved you and Erica, but I really wanted to have had some time with Vada—just the two of us with no kids around to take up all our attention.”
“Why didn’t you?” Willa Rose asked.
“When Erica was born, your mother had to work to support the family since her husband’s temper kept him from holding down a job.
He refused to keep Erica, so Vada had to leave her with a sitter.
When we married and you came along, she vowed she would never leave you, and she stood her ground.
She always blamed herself for Erica’s behavior—said that if she could have been with her all the time, she wouldn’t have turned out the way she did. ”
“Are you taking Tripp’s side?”
“No, I’m saying that I know how he feels,” Hank said.
“Don’t make the same mistakes your mama and I did.
When you went away to college and we finally had date nights, she regretted her choices.
There were times in the past—years and years—that we couldn’t recover, so we tried to make the best of what we had left, and we seldom missed our date nights when I was home. ”
Was that the biggest underlying reason that Erica had always resented her? She’d had to stay with a sitter, and Willa Rose was treated like a princess that the queen would never let out of her sight.
“Are you still there?” Hank asked.
“Yes, Daddy, I am,” she answered. “Why do relationships have to be so hard?”
“Anything worth having is worth fighting for,” he answered. “Please don’t take my grandson away from me and raise him in Poetry.”
“I was just mad. I’m not leaving,” she assured him.
“Well, if you get that crazy notion again, you should remember that your savings and what little your mother left you in that trust fund will play out in a few months. You will have to go back to teaching, and the last time I checked, they don’t let teachers bring their babies into the classroom.
You can take him to work at the antique store, and you have a wonderful support system here from people who love you.
But if you go anywhere else, you will have to put Nicky in daycare. ”
“I’m staying right here,” she said with a heavy sigh.
“Are you upset with your sister for not loving the baby enough to keep him?” Hank asked.
“We were raised by the same mother, so being left at a sitter shouldn’t give her the right to act the way she did and does.
I’m glad she didn’t terminate the pregnancy, and I love this baby more than I ever thought I could.
But what gives Erica the right to disrupt my life?
Why wouldn’t she at least give me some forewarning so I could prepare for Nicky to come into my life? ”
“Maybe it’s payback time for all the blame she heaped on you for thinking that you ruined her life as an only child. Just when she had Vada all to herself, except when I was home for weekends, you came along and ended what she had with her mother,” Hank answered.
“It’s going to take a long time for me to forgive her for the way she went about things. Good God, Daddy! She all but left him on my doorstep in a basket with a note attached to it.”
“I’ve got one bit of advice and then I’m going to hang up and we can talk more after you’ve slept. Everything looks better in the light of day.”
“And that is?” Willa Rose asked.
“Don’t take your anger or your worry about Nicky out on Tripp. Good night,” Hank said and the screen went dark.
Nicky whimpered and began to chew on his fist. Everything she needed to fix a bottle for him was in the kitchen, but she didn’t want to leave the room and take a chance on running into Tripp.
The lyrics from an old song from years ago ran through her head—she would love him tomorrow, but tonight she wanted to be mad for a little while longer, or something like that.
Nicky really began to fuss, so she picked him up and whispered, “I’m here, sweetheart, and I will never leave you—at least not for very long. It’s just me and you against the world.”
She told herself that didn’t have to worry about Tripp being in the kitchen.
She had heard him go into his bedroom, so he was probably in there pouting.
Men didn’t talk out their problems like women did.
If he was anything like her ex, by morning he would expect her to act like nothing happened and everything was normal.
Her mother had read a book when she was just a little girl about men being from Mars and women being from Venus.
She remembered playing at Vada’s feet and seeing her nod as she read and wondering if somehow her mother heard music as well as saw words.
If he is pouting, then it’s nothing more than what you were doing. Vada’s voice was as loud and clear as it had been before she passed away.
“I am not,” she protested as she picked up the baby, opened the door, and peeked out into the hall. No one was there, so she crossed the living area and went to the kitchen.
Remember the last words I said to you? Vada was back.
“You said that you loved me and to listen to my dad,” Willa Rose muttered. “I’m trying, Mama.”
When she reached the open-space living area, the lights were on and Tripp was sitting at the bar with a bowl of cereal in front of him.
He looked up but didn’t say a word. He had changed from jeans and boots to a pair of buffalo-plaid pajama pants, a muscle shirt that hugged his body, and a pair of socks.
Why did he have to look so damn sexy? And why couldn’t he at least acknowledge her presence with a nod, if nothing more? Sure, she wasn’t through holding on to anger, but he was a man. They didn’t think or feel things as deeply as a woman did.
“You are insufferable just like all men,” she said but got no response from him. “If I had a place to go, I would leave right now.”
Still nothing.
She raised her voice. “Are you listening to me?”
He put another bite into his mouth and ignored her.
“I’m talking to you,” she yelled so loud that it startled Nicky.
“What?” Tripp pulled wireless earphones from his ears and laid them on the table. “Did you say something? I was listening to music.”
Willa Rose rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. Listening to music, instead of apologizing to her? Or, if he didn’t care how she was feeling, why didn’t he ask about the baby?
“Do you want to fix Nicky a bottle or hold him while I take care of it? Or maybe you would rather I find another place to stay until the plumber comes and fixes my house?”
“I can eat and hold the baby at the same time. According to my mother, Oprah calls it ‘multitasking.’ And you will do whatever you want no matter what I say anyway, so why should I answer your questions?”
“You are more exasperating than my ex,” she snapped.
“That was a low blow,” Tripp said.
“Forget helping me with the baby. I can hold him and fix a bottle at the same time too. I was just trying to give you a chance to be a father, but maybe you don’t want that either?”
“Another low blow.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “Are we going to talk like adults about what happened tonight, or are you going to keep throwing mud balls at me?”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t like to be wrong, and apparently, I was about a lot of things. Can we start over?”
He fixed a bottle and handed it to her. “I’m willing if you are.”
“Are we roommates, friends, or what?”
“You tell me.” Tripp sat down in his chair across from her. “ I thought we were a couple in a relationship.”
“I’m sorry I ruined our date,” she said.
“I was and still am mad at Erica. She doesn’t even know that I can’t get pregnant, and she sent me Nicky because a baby doesn’t fit into her lifestyle.
I want to be like my own mama, but I’ve been basically told that being obsessively overprotective isn’t a good thing.
That I will regret not spending time alone with you if we are really a couple. ”
“I hope we are still a couple, but that’s up to you. After all, you are staying in another room, and my body aches for you to be beside me,” he said.
“We have been too tired for sex ever since Nicky arrived,” she reminded him.
“At least you were there beside me in the bed. Sex is great, but when we are sleep-deprived and worn out, having you beside me reminds me what love really is. Did Ivy fuss at you?”
“No, my dad, and I’m willing to put this behind us if you are,” she answered. Did he say love ? “I miss you being beside me, too, but there’s no room on either side of your big bed for the cradle.”
“We have a monitor with a camera so we can see him any time and hear him if he whimpers,” he reminded her. “I’m not pressuring you, darlin’. You decide if you need to sleep so close to the baby that you can reach down and touch him, or not.”
“I guess I can’t expect him to sleep beside me until he goes off to college,” she whispered.
“I hope not. He’ll never survive in the real world if you protect him to that extent.” Tripp chuckled. “Good night. I’m going to bed now. I’m glad that we talked. I didn’t want us to go to bed angry with each other. If you need me, just holler. I’ll leave my door open.”
He was almost across the living area when Willa Rose called out, “I ate both burgers and all the fries. What happened to the second milkshake?”
“I dropped it, and it splattered all over my jeans and boots,” he answered. “I figured you tossed the food since it had to be cold.”
“I ate all of what was in the bag. Some folks can’t eat when they are nervous or angry or sad. That is not me. I’m like a ravenous wolf at any of those times, and when I’m all three, it’s even worse.”
“I’ll remember not to upset you just before we go out to eat next time.”
“Is there going be a next time?” she asked.
“I hope so. Go ahead and eat the rest of the cereal if you need it to get over whatever you’re still fighting with yourself about. We can make a grocery run tomorrow,” he teased.
“Too soon,” she growled.
“I’m just stating facts. Good night to you again,” he said.