Chapter 8 #2
“Right,” she confirmed, with a sad tone. “You were pretty smitten with one of my girlfriends at that time in your life.”
“I was,” he admitted, “and I took a hit over that too.”
“Yep, you sure did, but that’s who she was, and you weren’t all that open to listening to anybody’s warnings about it.”
He winced. “I don’t suppose you tried to get me to see what was right in front of me, huh?”
She snorted. “Trust me. Nobody could get through that thick skull of yours. But, yeah, I tried.”
“No, you’re right,” Anderson conceded. “I was pretty obstinate.”
“But more than that,” she added, “you were in love.”
“Yes, I was in love, and I wanted to marry her.”
“You were, and you did want marriage, but she didn’t. I’m glad to see that you finally figured that out.”
“I did, and then I left,” he noted. “I’ve been very—I don’t want to say, judgmental, but maybe judgmental is the word I want to use when it comes to how that whole thing appears to me now.”
“Of course,” she said, “but not all women are the same.”
“No, they are not.” He may have said it, but even he heard the lack of conviction in his tone.
She sighed. “She really did a number on you, but you’re not that person anymore.”
“No, I’m not,” he stated. “I’m older and wiser and a little more seasoned in relationships. I don’t even know whatever became of her.”
“I can fill you in later,” she said, with a laugh. “Let’s just say that her treatment of others didn’t sit that well with them either, and so things didn’t go that great for her.”
“I’m not surprised about that,” he muttered, yet his stomach was in knots, which surprised him after all this time. “I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to her though.”
And this time, there was no doubting the smile in her voice as Pamela replied, “Good to know because she’s certainly not the same person who you knew. She’s also grown a lot.”
“Maybe,” he muttered, but it was a little hard to put his thoughts into specific words.
“Anyway, let’s leave that conversation for another time. I’ll be over in a little bit. Maybe I’ll pick up some groceries and diapers for the babies.” And, with that, she ended the call.
Anderson stared over at Burton, whose grin was a mile wide. “You’re just happy because you might get out of some baby duties.”
Burton rolled his eyes. “I would be ecstatic to get out of some of these baby duties,” he confirmed, as he stared down at one of the triplets trying to climb his leg. “On the other hand, these guys are quite the little adorable devils.”
“That they are.”
“And lovable too,” Burton added, with a hearty smile.
“Very lovable,” Anderson said softly, as he reached down to scoop one up in his arms. “You’ll miss them, you know?”
“I probably will,” Burton admitted, “and who would have thought? This isn’t exactly what I envisioned I was coming for.”
“Nope, yet,” he teased his friend, “it’s obvious that whatever has been happening has been good for you.”
Burton shrugged. “About Pamela? Sounds to me as if she saw an awful lot more about what was going on with you back then than you may have realized.”
“Maybe. I was young and stupid. And you know how that first love forms the basis of how you look at relationships ever after,” he explained, with half a smile. “Can’t say I ever trusted very deeply or easily afterward.”
“Of course not,” Burton said, as he rolled his eyes. “At the same time, sounds as if maybe some things were a little easier than others.”
“Probably. I’m not sure,” he muttered, with a shrug. “It just seems to be such a very long time ago.”
“It sounds to me that Pamela might be interested herself.”
“Her? No, of course not.” Then he frowned and shared, “We weren’t a thing back then. We were friends, in the same crowd, but I didn’t take it terribly well when she warned me about my girlfriend.”
“She was trying to save you, and that cost her.”
That conversation played over in his head several more times before she got there a bit later. So, he couldn’t help studying her and thinking about it.
She arrived and scooped up one of the babies in a great big hug and a cuddle. “They are so adorable.”
“They absolutely are,” he agreed. “At first they were just a job, you know, one more task,” he admitted. “Now even Burton over here is kind of devastated at the thought of leaving them.”
“What do you mean, kind of?” Burton asked, with a groan. “These girls are absolutely deadly on the heartstrings.”
Pamela laughed and laughed. “That they are, and, once you fall in love with them, they’ve got you forever.”
She placed the baby she had on the floor and sat down there with them all.
“I brought some diapers and some formula. I think it’s different from the one you’ve been giving them.
Oh, and I brought a bit more food for them too.
I checked their file and bought some of what the emergency foster provider had tried. ” Then she read off a list of foods.
“I don’t know if they can eat any of that,” Anderson declared in astonishment.
Pamela chuckled. “They can. So, we’ll start adding some more foods to their diet, one new one at a time, and see how well that goes.”
Burton shook his head. “But then you’re staying overnight so that, when they wake up and scream and cry, keeping us up all night long, it’s not just us dealing with the tsunami of shit side effects.”
She smiled. “Let’s hope that we can tweak these dietary changes to absolutely avoid giving them colic, as any stomach distress will stop them from sleeping. So, I will definitely work on that.”
“No offense, but it’s not as if we haven’t been trying that too,” Burton noted in exasperation.