Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
SAVANNAH
“You know you didn’t have to come today, right?”
I shoot Blake an annoyed look. “It’s the final game for the kids. Of course I had to come.”
Sliding out of the truck, I feel a jab of pain in my lower back that leaves me breathless. I press my palm against my side, rubbing at the sore spot.
It wasn’t necessarily a kick. I’ve become familiar with Munchkin’s movements over the last few weeks. This felt different. More like a tightening?
A frown appears between Blake’s brows as he watches me carefully. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I say quickly.
Too quickly.
Blake’s lips press in a tight line, his eyes narrowing.
“It’s just some back pain, that’s all.” Sliding my hand to the back of his neck, I pull him down and press my mouth at the corner of his lips. “I’m fine.”
Blake grumbles, his hand slipping around my waist. “You should be home, resting .”
“I will. Once this game’s done.”
“Dad!” Levi yells from the entrance to the field, Daniel behind him. “C’mon, we’ll be late.”
His excitement is palpable, and I can’t help but chuckle. “Yes, Coach. You don’t want to be late, now do you?”
A deep rumble comes from Blake’s chest, his irises darkening with need as his lips claim mine in a hard kiss. “Can’t leave without my good luck charm, can I?”
I shake my head. “Once a jock, always a jock.”
“Exactly, you don’t mess with what’s working.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, trying to hold back my laughter because, hey, who was I to complain?
“You head to the field. I need to use the bathroom.”
Blake chuckles. “Again?”
I pinch him slightly. “Don’t you tease me. Yes, again.”
Blake lifts his arms in surrender. “Fine. I’ll see you later.”
With another quick kiss, he follows after Levi while I make my way to the bathroom as two ladies are exiting. We say hello as I slip inside and go into a stall where I do my business. I’m just finishing dressing when the door to the bathroom opens.
“Did you see who just showed up?” Lucy Donovan chuckles, clearly amused.
My hand pauses at the doorknob, not sure if I should go out or stay.
“I didn’t think she’d come after what happened the other day,” another voice joins in. Probably one of Lucy’s friends.
What were they talking about? Who showed up?
“Rose was always good at pretending everything was perfect,” Lucy snorts, which has a few other women giggling. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”
“I heard John came to her parent’s house and was yelling in front of it, demanding she come back. It’s what everybody’s been talking about,” another mom chirps in, her voice slightly muffled by the running water. “Can you believe it? His agent just dropped him, and she does what? Leave the poor man?”
Rose left her husband?
I still remember that interaction I witnessed a few weeks ago between the two of them. That day, she asked him to come. Not for herself but for their son, and he turned his back on her. How many times did he do that? I don’t remember seeing him once at any of the games or school activities. Hell, even when they were out in town, it was always Rose with Kyle.
Lucy smirks. “That just confirms she’s been after one thing, and now that her husband doesn’t have any chances of making it into the NFL, she’s cutting her losses.”
“At least I left him. You can’t say the same thing, now can you? What was it? Husband number two? Or was it three?”
The silence that follows Rose’s words is almost deafening.
“The next time you gossip about somebody, you should probably check that you’re actually alone,” Rose continues, her voice even.
There is some mumbling from the women as they scurry out of the bathroom, the door shutting firmly behind them.
Rose lets out a shaky breath, cursing softly.
Slowly, I unlock the door and peek out. She looks up immediately, her gaze meeting mine in the mirror. Her face is pale, and there are dark circles under her blue eyes.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Rose runs her fingers through her hair. “We need to stop meeting like this.”
I let out a nervous chuckle. “Tell me about it.”
The corner of Rose’s mouth lifts for a moment in a half-hearted smile before her face turns serious. “I shouldn’t have said that, but my mouth was faster than my brain.”
“Well, I think you were really kind, all things considered,” I offer gently as I move to the sink and turn on the water.
“Yeah, well…” Sighing, she glances at the door, a distant expression on her face. “I should go to the field. The game’s about to start.”
She rubs at her arm but doesn’t attempt to move.
Shutting the water off, I grab some towels to wipe my hands. “Wanna sit with me?”
Rose looks at me. “What? No, I couldn’t?—”
“It’s fine, really. Trust me, you’re helping me.” I slip my hand through hers and start toward the door, but Rose’s soft wince has me stopping and glancing at her. “Are you oka?—”
The sleeve of her shirt is raised slightly, enough for me to spot a smidge of purple on her skin before she hides it.
Was that a bruise?
“Yeah. I just…” Her throat bobs as she swallows, those wide blue eyes avoiding my gaze. “You don’t want to deal with my drama.”
I press my lips together, trying to hold back the question that’s on the tip of my tongue.
“It’s fine. I know it doesn’t help much today, but soon enough there will be something else they’ll focus on.”
Rose’s shoulders relax, if only slightly. “Let’s hope so.”
Together we make our way to the field. Yes, there are glances, but Rose just lifts her chin higher as we walk to the bleachers and sit down to cheer our boys until the final whistle blows, signaling our victory.
People rush to the field to celebrate with the kids. I push to my feet, another jab of pain going through my middle. The pain had been present the whole day, but there wasn’t a pattern to when it would happen, so I didn’t know what to make of it. It couldn’t be labor pains, could it? We still had a few weeks to go before Munchkin was here.
“You going?” Rose asks, realizing I’m not following her.
“Yeah, I?—”
A flash of silvery-gold hair catches my attention and makes me stop in my tracks.
“Miss Parker?”
Mom smiles at me from a distance, and I can feel the hair at my nape prickle.
“No.” I shake my head. “I’ll join you in a bit.”
Rose’s brows shoot up, her gaze going toward my mother before it returns to me. “Okay.”
Pushing through the people, I make my way to the side where she’s standing, away from everybody else.
“What are you doing here?” I eye her carefully, unsure of what she’s up to now. With Clara Parker, you could never be sure. But she seemed almost… normal.
“I’m leaving, so I came to say goodbye.”
I blink, unsure if I heard her correctly. “You’re…” She’s leaving? “What?”
“Leaving.” She quirks a brow. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I’m just surprised. You didn’t bother saying goodbye the last time,” I point out. I wasn’t sure what game she was playing, but there was no way that she was leaving just like that. “What’s with the sudden change?”
She glances around and snorts, the disgust evident on her face. “I’ve realized that coming here was a waste of my time.”
Her words shouldn’t hurt, but they did. Even after all this time, there was a part of me that hoped that one day my mother would care about me.
But she wouldn’t.
Clara Parker only cared about one person—herself.
It was better this way.
“Okay.” I rest my hand against my stomach. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
Those blue eyes that are so much like my own, narrow. “Such a goody-two-shoes. Just like your grandmother.”
Tsking, she turns around and starts to walk away.
I watch her retreating back, sadness and relief mixing inside my chest. Sadness for the little girl who’d never get the mother she deserved, and relief because I can break the pattern. I can be different. For me. For my kids. They’ll never know this pain.
I’m about to turn around when she suddenly stops.
“Oh, one more thing.” Slowly, she turns around, an uneasy feeling crawling down my spine, as she smirks at me. “I heard congratulations are in order.”
The nonchalant way she says it, has my stomach railing up.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your baby daddy.” Her smile grows bigger. “Didn’t he share the happy news with you?”
I press my lips into a tight line. I should have known she wouldn’t leave just like that. This was another one of her games, a way for her to taunt me. “I’m not doing this with you.”
Her lips part mockingly. “This isn’t a game, Savvy.”
My fingers curl into a fist. “Don’t call me that.”
“He didn’t tell you, did he?” She shakes her head. “Of course he didn’t. I told you; I tried to warn you, but you wouldn’t listen. All men are the same. They all leave.”
“Blake isn’t leaving.”
“Isn’t he?” She tilts her head to the side. “His team called him. Did he tell you why?”
The rejected call from Blake’s coach flashes in my mind.
How did she know about that?
It couldn’t be.
Could it?
“Savannah!”
The sound of pounding feet moves closer, matching the erratic beat of my heart echoing in my eardrums.
Mom closes the distance between us, her hand brushing a strand of hair behind my ear as she leans in. “All these years, and history is repeating itself. I told you, baby. You and me? We’re the same.”
Her words still ring in my head when a hand wraps around my arm, and I’m tugged back. “Don’t touch her,” Blake hisses.
Mom lets her hand drop, her gaze on me. “Ask him.”
With that, she turns around and walks away toward a waiting car.
Leaving.
Once again, without a backward glance.
“What did she want? I saw Rose, and she said you went to talk to a blonde woman. Are you?—”
Blake tries to reach for my face, but I pull back and meet his gaze. “Is it true?”
Blake just stares at me for a moment, surprised by my reaction.
“You’re leaving?”
Then I see it.
The recognition.
The guilt.
“Blondie…”
“Is. It. True?”