Chapter 6
SPENCER
Leaning against my closed garage door with my hands in my pockets, I take a deep breath of the autumn morning air. I'm staring at the situation in front of me, the one that I should have had a few more days to prepare for.
My mother gets out of her car. Dana Crews is a force to be reckoned with. She may be pushing sixty, but make no mistake, she is in shape and is probably changing our schedule because she has a hair appointment to color the blonde hair that she's had for years.
“This isn’t what we agreed.” My voice is stern.
“Spence, this shouldn’t even be up for discussion. The baseball season is over, and you know the deal,” she chides as she circles around her car.
“The deal was until next week,” I remind her. A deal is such an odd way to state our situation; there was never a negotiation, therefore it’s more of a request.
She gives me a sympathetic look. “You are already missing so much; you should be relishing these moments.”
She has a point, and it’s what I want to feel, but this is a complicated situation.
“Besides, your father and I booked a last-minute weekend away and there is no school today for Teacher Institute Day.” That’s good, they deserve it.
My mom opens the back door of the car and immediately puts on a silly face for the passenger in the car. “Guess where we are?”
I walk a few steps so that I'm in view, and I do have a curiosity, even excitement somewhere within, however mostly I feel fear.
Maybe I soften an ounce when I see my six-year-old daughter give me a little half-smile. Her blondish-brown hair is up in a bun, and she is in a black leotard with pink tights and a tutu.
“Hey, Hadley.” I give her a tiny wave.
Hadley’s mom is no longer—or rather never was—in the picture, and my mom pretty much raises Hadley when it’s baseball season.
My parents have a house here in Lake Spark that I bought for them a few years ago so that there is no disruption to Hadley’s school schedule.
I’ve always been in Hadley’s life in some way, but it feels like we are strangers to one another sometimes due to my schedule.
It’s a confusing time for her, I’m sure.
My mom helps my daughter out of the booster seat, and Hadley walks to me before she pokes my leg with her finger. “I’m staying with you now.”
Awkwardly, I scratch the back of my head and lean down to her eye level. Her brown eyes are filled with curiosity. “Yeah, kiddo, you are. Remember what we talked about?”
“Yes. Sometimes I stay with Grammie and other times with you.”
“Very good. You’re going to stay with me for a while now, until spring.”
“Right. Baseball.” She seems deflated. I wish she was more excited about my career. Isn’t it the dream? Saying your dad is a professional athlete?
I touch her shoulder. “But that’s exciting, right? I mean, I have the pool, your playroom is all set up.”
She nods her head and begins to walk in the direction of the door, dragging her feet.
I quickly go grab her bag from the trunk and grab my mom’s attention in the process. “She doesn’t want to be here.”
“It’s difficult for her too, but give it a day or two and she won’t want to leave,” my mom assures me.
Closing the trunk, I sigh. “I’m not here alone.” I just get it out.
My mother’s eyes grow wide and she looks elated. “You have a new girlfriend?”
“No. Just a…” I pause for a second, as I have to swallow around this lie. “Friend. Hudson’s niece, actually.”
Her brow raises. “Just? Hmm.”
No, Mother, we made a sex tape, and the world may soon know.
“Really. She would rather see me on a BBQ skewer, but for a, uh, project it was easier if she stays here.” I plaster on a fake smile. “I thought that I had a little more time before Hadley would be here.”
We begin to walk side by side back to my house.
“She doesn’t know about Hadley, I assume?”
“Not many people do, Mom, you know that. Besides, it’s better that way because I enjoy my privacy. Anyways, April wasn’t awake when I woke for my workout, and by the time you called to let me know you were two minutes away, unplanned, then I haven’t had a chance to prepare her.”
Holding the door open for my mother and balancing a bag in one arm, I lead us inside.
A pitched squeal fills the house, which fills my blood with a compelling need to run straight in the direction of Hadley’s sound. Dropping the bag by the stairs, I run to the kitchen and into a scene that instantly makes my lips curl into a smile when I stand in my tracks.
April is wearing pineapple-print pajama pants and a tight tank top, and she's standing in the middle of the kitchen with a spatula in the air, a dusting of flour on her cheek, with her eyes glued on the little pink tutu in the air because Hadley is leaning over to pet Pickles, who is in the exact same spot as when I woke up and tried to convince him to go for a walk with me.
“You got me a puppy!” Hadley’s excitement hits a new level that I didn’t know was achievable.
And now I’m about to pop her dream. “Pickles belongs to April. He's staying here for a little bit.”
“Oh.” Hadley is disappointed but now sits on the floor and hugs the dog.
My eyes draw a line from my daughter to April who still hasn’t moved, including the spatula in mid-air. “I have no idea what is happening,” April admits one-toned in a daze.
I look at my mom, and my face must show that I’m struggling to come up with words. She affectionately touches my shoulder. “Maybe I should give you two a minute before I head out?”
Blowing out a long breath, I turn my focus to April.
“Who's April?” Hadley asks as she somehow managed to get Pickles to lie on his back with his paws in the air.
“A friend,” I say.
“What’s going on? In no world am I your friend,” April mumbles, as she can’t seem to tear her eyes away from Hadley.
My mother chuckles softly. “I like her.”
“I’m Hadley. My daddy lives here,” Hadley announces, and I’m not sure if it’s from pride or because even for her age she isn’t afraid to be bold.
April nearly chokes before her jaw drops, and her head makes a sharp turn in my direction.
“Can I see you for a minute?” I request nervously.
April quickly turns the stove off where she was making something that resembles pancakes and follows me down the hall to the laundry room.
The moment we step through the open doorway, her eyes bug out at me. “What the hell? Daughter? You don’t have a daughter. There is nothing in this house to suggest that you, Spencer Crews, are a father, let alone to a little girl in a pink tutu.”
I grab her arm. “Well, April. I am a father.”
“This doesn’t make sense. She just like, poof, magically appeared.” April’s hands make gestures to accompany her words. “Not one single clue in this house screams that you are rocking the dad bod,” she reminds me again.
My eyes squinch together, and I nearly groan because I’m already tired of this conversation. Pulling her by the arm, I walk us across the hall to the other door.
“Why are you taking me to a closet?” April protests.
“It isn’t a closet.”
“Yes, it is—” I open the door for her, holding it open with purpose while she peeks her head in. “Oh.” Her voice drops.
April takes in her surroundings, a room filled with toys. A playhouse in one corner, a wall with different levels of shelves filled with books and puzzles, a pink rug in the middle, and a dreamcatcher stenciled on the wall.
“Yeah, oh. Not my fault if you don’t take in your surroundings.”
April shoots me a glare. “Snooping around was going to happen today. I’ve not even been here 24 hours, and I got sidetracked yesterday for many reasons… as you know.” Her tone is sharp, and her hip is tipped out. “Besides, it looks like a closet door.”
“Doesn’t matter. Hadley is here now and will be staying. I thought she was going to arrive next week.”
“When were you going to tell me this important information?”
I rest my hands behind my head as I stretch. “When the moment was right.”
April seems at a loss of words. “H-how come you never talk about her?”
“I’m protective.”
“Still, at some point in the last few years of knowing you, then surely she would have come up in conversation.” April seems to be in disbelief, and I get it. Hadley is my best-kept secret.
“Can I get into the details another time? Preferably when alcohol is involved?” Because the story isn’t easy, nor what she probably assumes.
April nods her head in agreement. “Fine.” She points her finger at me. “Any more surprises you have in store for me? Or are we done on that front?” She doesn’t seem impressed, which is understandable since I keep throwing grenades at her lately.
“I’m not making any promises, because I don’t know what I may need to do to keep you in line.”
She scoffs a sound. “Cute.”
She moves to walk away, but I instantly grab her arm to stop her. “Where are you going?”
“I'm going to meet up with Piper for coffee. I think it’s better that I get out of the house for a little bit. You know what, maybe it’s not such a great idea that I’m here. The whole sex tape thing will blow over, right? I mean, surely we're overreacting.”
I give her a peculiar look as she rambles nervously.
“Even more reason for you to stay. If it does leak, which it won’t, but if it does, then the last thing I need is any more reason for it to turn negative.
I have an image I need to maintain for my contract, and also for Hadley, who may look back one day at articles. ”
I swear a flare of empathy warms April’s brown eyes before she swallows. “Okay.”
She doesn’t move, nor do I, and our eyes are locked in a moment that feels like we are even on the vulnerability front. I know the reason her fiancé left her, and she knows about Hadley.
And for some reason, even though I don’t need to, I even the playing field even more. “That night,” I begin.
April glances away then back to me.
I continue, “I needed an escape for one night.”
A hint of a smirk tilts the corner of her mouth. “Must be something in the Lake Spark water then, because you chose to spend it with me,” she attempts to make a joke.
We both acknowledge the realization of why that night happened. Our own personal reasons led to finding refuge in one another’s arms, of someone we love to hate.
April makes a sound with her tongue, debating how to leave. “Uhm, I'll be back later. I think a breather for a second or two and coffee is a good idea.”
“Sure.” I step back with my hands in the air to give her space before leaning against the wall with my arms folded over my chest.
She slowly walks away and then stops to look over her shoulder. “I kind of have a lot of questions about the whole you’re-a-dad thing, like, a lot.”
“Understandable.”
She returns on her journey to the stairs but pauses again and turns to me with her finger in the air. “The apple sauce. It’s for Hadley, isn’t it?”
I nod in agreement.
“That’s a relief. I’ve never known a grown man to eat from an apple sauce jar with a cartoon on it.”
I scratch my cheek, trying to suppress my laugh.
“Super confused,” she whispers, and I can tell she is still taking in the situation, but she continues to make her way upstairs.
I give myself a moment to consider the predicament that I find myself in.
I have two girls living in my house. One a woman who speaks her mind, often at my expense, yet she just gave me a temporary truce for the last ten minutes.
The other is a little girl who I wish would tell me the thoughts in her head.
Now I have to balance them both in one house.