2. Lainey
Lainey
PRESENT DAY…
“Ouch,” I groaned, bringing my wrist up to my lips after setting Mrs. Norman’s tray of chicken tetrazzini on the cooling rack that sat over my stove top. I turned, my belly bumping into the sink as I moved the handle to tepid and stuck the fresh burn under the cool, running water.
I was never a petite woman, but with my pregnancy, every curve of my body felt like it had exploded, including the massive roundness of my belly. Probably not surprising for someone almost nine months in, but it still shocked me how many things I bumped into every day.
“Ugh. Could you maybe not wiggle so much until I have my fingers available to dig into my back?” Instead of listening to my plea, the little alien continued to roll and kick, all the muscles deep in my back spasming from the weight of the movements.
I was two hours into prepping the meals I needed to deliver to my clients today, and although I had seen business explode over the last few months—enough so I’d been able to cut back on hours from my job as a receptionist at our local dentist’s office—I was starting to feel like I was running out of steam.
I pulled out my arm from under the water, drying it lightly with the hand towel I’d tossed on the countertop sometime earlier this morning, and got back to work.
It took me well past lunch time to cook, cool, and pack up the six deliveries I needed to make. As the high afternoon sun scorched my skin, I found myself truly contemplating my desire for this business to be more successful.
Just keep going. You need the money. It’s your safety net.
My back was starting to ache as my phone rang on the counter next to where I was wrapping up the latest tray to cool down. My sister’s name flashed across the screen.
“Hi, Birdie,” I answered, trying my hardest to sound chipper.
I was working hard to repair our relationship after I’d almost lost her a few months back.
She’d practically raised me after our mother left, and seeing her in that hospital…
It forced me to face the fact that I was holding a lot back from her, and in the process, I was hurting her.
“Hey, Lainey Belle. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No. Not at all. I was just finishing up wrapping today's deliveries before I got on the road.” A squeal of delight hit my ears, and I smiled. “How’s Juniper?”
My sister was engaged to Beau Ford, her lifelong best friend. His sister Jessie and I used to be close back in high school…before I ruined our friendship. But now, Birdie was not only going to be Beau’s wife, but mama to his eight month old daughter.
“She’s good, growing like a weed. It’s been a while since we've seen you, and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
“Oh yeah. I’m just exhausted. The little alien is keeping me up at night, and then working all day with the deliveries is just getting to be too much, I think.”
Birdie hummed in agreement. “I could always help—”
“No. You’re still recovering. Beau would kill me if I asked for your help and you got set back with your physical therapy."
“He would not.” She chuckled. “Well, okay, he’d probably growl at the both of us, but I can still put him in his place. Even if my arm is a little weaker than it was before I was hurt.”
We sat silently on the line for a second before Birdie cleared her throat.
“I wasn’t going to ask, but I haven’t gotten anything in the mail about your baby shower. Is everything still on track?”
God, I’d completely forgotten that I told her Greg’s mother and aunts were handling the shower.
But my stomach pulled when I later had suspicions that Greg’s family didn’t even know about my pregnancy.
There were no excited grandparents asking how appointments went or showering us with gifts.
No family asking to watch the baby once he was born.
“I actually haven’t heard in a while. I’ll call Greg’s mom today and see. We’ve still got time.”
“Not too much time.” I could hear the worry in my sister’s voice. “Sometimes babies come earlier than we expect. I could come over one day with Juniper and help make sure the baby’s room is all set? Just with the basics. I’m sure Greg’s family is excited to go all out for their first grandchild.”
I sighed, the baby starting to kick painfully in my side.
“That sounds good. I’ll let you know when I have some time.
” I rubbed my fingers over the spot where his feet were still pushing against. “I’m sorry, Birdie.
I have to get going if I’m going to get back home at a decent time.
But I have Lach’s deliveries today. Maybe I could stop over after? ”
“Is he your last stop?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, yeah. Juniper and I would love to see you.”
“Perfect. I’ll text as I’m leaving Lach’s.”
“Love you, Lainey Belle.”
“Love you, too, Birdie.”
Sweat dripped down the small of my back, the air so stale it felt like it was going to choke me.
And it was only going to get hotter. Even if I wasn’t almost nine months pregnant, I would still have been griping about the AC being out in my car.
I set the trays down in the back seat and stood, glaring as an obnoxiously loud truck drove down the street.
I waited for it to pass. Waited for some relief from the noise. But the truck slowed down…and pulled into our driveway.
My fiancé was sitting behind the steering wheel of what looked like a brand new truck. And I saw red.
“What’s this?” I asked as he jumped down from the cab.
It was clearly lifted…and I couldn’t imagine how the hell I’d ever haul myself or the alien into it.
My brows pulled together as I looked closer.
No, obviously the baby wouldn’t be going in there.
He’d brought home a lifted truck with no back seat.
“Did something happen to your truck?” I asked, my fingers digging into my back.
It felt like the little creature’s head was pressing right against my hip, and my temper was running short because of it.
Greg smiled, tossing the keys up into the air before wrapping his hands around them again as they came back down to Earth.
“No. Why would you think that?”
“Because you left here two days ago for work, decided to spend time at your parents’ place, and now arrived home in the middle of the work day in a vehicle I don’t recognize.”
“It’s not work hours.”
That was how he chose to answer? My stomach rolled with the hatred I felt for ever trusting that he’d keep his word. That he’d prioritize me and our family. “What? What does that mean?”
“I quit. Last week.”
He was joking. This was Greg just being a dick. There was no way…No. There wasn’t a world where he was this selfish. This cruel.
“Explain that to me. You’ve been working for your dad for years. Why would you quit? Why now?”
“I’m going back to school. Heard back from UT Dallas. You know my dad’s been wanting me to pursue my MBA, that’s why he told me to step back from the business. ”
I closed my eyes for a second, face tilted toward the sun—as if its rays and the power of my rage combined might somehow erase everything he’d just told me—before I turned to my idiot fiancé.
“I’m sorry—it just sounded like you said you quit your job to go back to school.
When you know I’m about to not be able to work for at least six weeks.
We have nothing ready for this baby, Greg.
Nothing. You won’t let me buy a crib. You won’t let me buy clothes.
You won’t help me get his room ready. What am I supposed to do with this information? ”
He shrugged his shoulders, turning to walk back up to the house.
“Guess maybe you’ll have to stop doing your cooking thing and go back to your office job.
My mom went back to work two weeks after having me, you should have no problem doing that.
I mean, how hard is it to sit behind a desk and say, Hi, what time is your appointment? ”
“And what am I supposed to do after the baby comes? You know the plan has always been for me to not return to the office.”
“Right. I guess you’ll have to put him in daycare. I don’t know, can’t you figure it out, Lain? You wanted this. Not me.”
I wasn’t even going to dignify that insane statement with a response. “Where are you going?”
“Inside to grab my golf clubs. The guys are teeing off in twenty minutes, and I was going to show them my new truck before we hit the back nine.”
I’d been so pissed about him deciding to quit his job, I’d completely forgotten about the way I was about to explode over the truck in our driveway.
“No.”
“No?” He crossed his arms, challenging me.
“You’re not going golfing. And what do you mean, new truck?
Your old truck was perfectly fine. In what world do you get a new truck while I drive around in a car that’s almost as old as I am?
The air conditioning is out in it, Greg!
Or did you forget that you were meant to take it to get looked at? ”
“You can drive with the windows down.” He shrugged.
“You’re so cruel,” I seethed under my breath. “I’m hugely pregnant with your baby, and you just continue to do everything you can to make this a literal nightmare.”
He turned, his hand wrapping around my arm as he yanked me toward the house. “Get inside. I’m not about to have the neighbors gossiping about your hysterics. Even if some of them would just write it off because you’re fucking huge.”
I knew what was coming next. What always came as soon as he started attacking my weight.
He was going to list all the things he hated about our relationship.
About how I’d trapped him with a baby. Even when I know he doesn’t remember anything about the night he got me pregnant, because he was so drunk and belligerent I knew I couldn’t say no.
The door slammed behind us as I wrenched my arm free from his grasp.
“Don’t even try to make this out like I’m being crazy.”
“Lainey, I’ve had it.”
“You’ve had it? You’ve had it? Why? Your life has been nothing but being waited on and handed everything you could ever want on a silver platter!
I’m up at five every morning to cook for my clients, and on top of that, I have to make sure your breakfast and lunch are ready for you.
And after I’ve worked all day, I come home and make your dinner—just in case you decide that you’re going to come home after work!
Which I never know, because you never let me know when you’ll be staying over in Dallas.
And that’s becoming more and more often the closer we get to my due date! ”
“If you’re unhappy, then leave. You’d be doing me a fucking favor.”
“You have a responsibility to us, Greg. You don’t just get to make this mess and then cast us aside. Is it really this hard to love me? Was it really the worst moment of your life when I told you I was pregnant?”
“Yes,” he seethed.
Something in me cracked. “You better not be here when I get back!” I yelled.
I turned to head back out to my car, but Greg’s hand tightened around my wrist, pressing painfully against the burn I’d just gotten. I yelped, pulling away as hard as I could, but I couldn’t break from his hold.
“This is my house, Lainey. If you don’t want to give birth to that bastard in your belly living next to some dumpster in an alley, then I’d think about how you talk to me in my own home.”
I pulled again against his hold, even knowing I couldn’t break loose, I had to try. “You’re hurting me,” I whined.
“Apologize.”
“Screw you,” I seethed through gritted teeth.
His grip tightened at the same time my belly did. Jesus. How could I forget I needed to keep this baby safe?
“I’m sorry,” I groaned, my free hand supporting the weight of my belly. God, it was getting so tight it was hard to breathe.
“Get the fuck out of here. You better pray I don’t come home tonight. You haven’t put out since the night that thing started growing inside of you, and I’m getting real sick of waiting.”