Chapter 8 #3
“Unless she saw you, but you didn’t see her. And let’s face it, man, we had some pretty wild nights those seven years the club Honeys were around. Not to mention the hang arounds,” Demo added offhandedly.
Pumpkin paused. Had Dosia come back and seen him with another woman? “I don’t care if I was in the middle of an orgy. She still should have told me.”
Demo shrugged. “Can’t say one way or another on that one, only that obviously, she didn’t feel the same way.”
“I don’t care! I grew up without a father! I won’t leave that fate to my daughter!” Pumpkin’s legs twitched. Fuck, the urge to pace was strong, but at this rate, he was more likely to fall than to pace. “I have a right to be pissed!”
Demo nodded. “You do. But that doesn’t give you the right to be an ass about it.
” Pumpkin started to defend himself, but Demo kept talking.
“How you grew up sucked, man. But you’re letting your fear about becoming your father override your common sense right now.
So you’re going to sit there, shut up, and listen to me . ”
Pumpkin clamped his mouth shut, more surprised than anything. Demo was only assertive when he had to be. The man had faced down bombs for a living. He was wicked smart and had never lacked a pair of balls, but he never felt the need to flaunt his authority. So when he did, it meant something.
“For two years, Paige lived with the daily fear that Richard would return and take away her boys. She was a single mom struggling to put food on her table, to keep the heat on in that fucking monstrosity of a house. That fear that you’re going to lose your kids to an unfair system is something a lot of single parents struggle with.
Especially when there is a social class difference between them.
You don’t have that with SJ. You will never have to worry that one day Cheryl will decide to return and try to take him away from you.
“So I am begging you , Pumpkin. Take a step back and think about this from her perspective for just a moment. That little girl’s future depends on it.
Don’t get lawyers involved. Not unless all other options have been tried and failed.
Talk to Dosia . Get her side of the story.
Ask to meet your daughter rather than bulldozing your way into her life.
“You’re a stranger to her, Pumpkin. And the last thing you want is to make her fear you, to become her childhood monster who took her away from her mother.”
Pumpkin stiffened. “I’d never!” From what little he’d seen of JJ, she was a happy, content little girl. She clearly loved her mother and her family. Hell, she’d told Pumpkin more about her life than Dosia had. She’d just stood there, frozen in fear as JJ talked?—
Well, fuck. His shoulders slumped. Demo’s words explained Dosia’s fear. Pumpkin grabbed the back of his neck, lacing his fingers under his hairline. “Jesus. I am an ass.”
Demo clapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah.”
Pumpkin snorted. His friend hadn’t even tried to defend him.
Hell, the man hadn’t even met Dosia and he’d championed her better than Pumpkin had.
Christ, he’d fucked up. He’d fucked up so bad.
“What do I do?” He hadn’t felt so helpless in his life, not even when he had all four limbs in casts and had to shit in a bedpan. “How do I fix this?”
“Well, first thing’s first, you need to figure out a way to apologize.
Ask to meet her in a neutral location. Let her know that it is not your intention to take your daughter away from her.
The two of you need to talk, to hear each other’s side.
And above all, come to an understanding that benefits your daughter , not you.
It might be hard and you’ll need to exercise patience, because you’re a stranger, Pumpkin.
She doesn’t know you from Adam and she might not accept you in her life right away. ”
Pumpkin rubbed his chest as his heart panged at the idea that his daughter might not want him in her life. Fuck, that hurt.
Whether he was in her life or not, both their lives , they would still have his protection. Turning to Demo, his friend must have seen something on his face, because he gave him an encouraging smile before squeezing his shoulder again and finally dropping his hand.
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything,” Demo promised.
“I need you to make me two property cuts. One for a woman about Paige’s size and the other for a little girl a bit smaller than Lila.”
Demo’s eyebrows raised. “Frankie and I are the only ones who know about your jacket, Pumpkin. You could take it back and no one would be the wiser.”
Pumpkin shook his head. “I’m not taking anything back. She’s mine. They both are. I’ll try to be as patient as I can, but I won’t deny them.”
Dinner that night was beyond tense. JJ was the only one immune to it as she regaled her family with tales of her kindergarten adventures. Dosia fought to keep her composure, to give her daughter’s stories the appropriate responses, but fuck, it was hard.
After dinner, Calliope left the house almost immediately.
She had a bee farm in the backyard that she’d kept since she was a little girl.
She supplied local honey and comb to soap makers, candlemakers, and farmers market vendors.
The honey Mabel used in her bakery was also from Calliope’s bees.
Calliope was annually hired to bring her bees to different farms all over the state, including the Amish ones nearby, to help them pollinate their fields.
She and her bees were so comfortable with each other that Calliope rarely wore a protective suit. When someone nearby had a bee problem, likely a swarm, they called Calliope to come remove the bees.
Dosia had never before wished her aunt to get stung, but her dark thoughts went there as soon as Calliope went out the back door.
Grandma Solstice’s eyes kept glancing between her daughter and granddaughter all evening, but she kept her mouth shut, rightfully guessing that the conversation was not for JJ’s ears .
All too soon, and yet not soon enough, Dosia gave JJ a bath, helped her brush her teeth, tucked JJ into bed, and read her a goodnight story.
The book JJ chose was about forgiveness, and it made Dosia wonder just how much of her side of the family JJ had inherited.
Since Calliope hadn’t been alone with JJ since driving her home from school, Dosia knew Calliope hadn’t put her up to the book choice.
Or maybe she had.
Goddess help her, because she was getting more and more paranoid by the second.
Finally, Dosia was closing JJ’s door and heading back downstairs. The living room was deathly quiet as she walked in, Grandpa Marmot and Calliope on the couch with Grandma Solstice standing in front of them. Everyone turned to look at Dosia.
“Could you leave us alone?” she asked her grandparents.
“I already told them,” Calliope said, her voice small and regretful.
Dosia’s cheeks flamed. Calliope was the only person in the world who knew that JJ’s father was not a fellow college student who wanted nothing to do with the baby.
Dosia hadn’t meant to lie about that, but someone else had made that assumption and Dosia had never corrected it.
She’d also never spoken those words out loud and it was only word of mouth that had spread that rumor. Still, it was a lie by omission.
“Everything?” she demanded.
Calliope’s eyes lifted to meet hers, and Dosia refused to let her aunt’s tears sway her anger. “Just about today. And…last night.”
Dosia wasn’t sure how that had worked, but she was grateful for at least some discretion. Still, they couldn’t have this conversation without her entire history brought to the surface. “Tell them the rest.”
Calliope’s eyes widened, and then Dosia listened to a very dulled-down version of her twenty-first birthday party.
Neither Grandpa Marmot nor Grandma Solstice looked horrified by her actions.
Clearly, they knew Dosia wasn’t a virgin.
They didn’t stress about marriage and staying pure as much as other religions did.
They’d taught all their children, and then grandchildren, about safe sex at an early age and didn’t treat sex as taboo or wrong.
Growing up, Dosia, Calliope, and Dosia’s brother, Ambrose, had suspicions that the monthly get-together Marmot and Solstice went to at various friends’ houses were actually swingers’ parties.
Not that any of them wanted to confirm that suspicion, but it had been the running theory.
After she’d finished speaking, Dosia just stared at Calliope for a long moment.
“Do you have any idea what it feels like to be played a fool? And by my best friend! My life is my own, Calliope. We agreed years ago that you wouldn’t interfere unless you saw something that endangered my life.
But you’ve been playing some chess match with my life for years! ”
Tears streamed down Calliope’s face and she ducked her head.
“Did you know I would get pregnant that night? Did you encourage me to go without you knowing what would happen?”
Calliope shook her head. “They weren’t that clear back then.
It was an inkling. As much as I wanted to celebrate with you and be with you on your birthday, something was telling me to let you leave.
I knew a life-altering something would happen, but the feeling wasn’t dark.
I never would have let you walk out that door if it was! ”
As pissed as she was, Dosia did believe that. Calliope wasn’t cruel.
“You were with me every step of my pregnancy. You knew that I’d come back here to find Vod—” Dosia stopped mid-name. “Pumpkin,” she corrected herself, frustrated. “Did you find him? Did you know about his road name? Is that why you started calling JJ ‘pumpkin’ too?”