Nancy laughed then headed off to speak to some of the other moms. The group of women Colleen planned on avoiding at all costs. It wouldn’t be too difficult. She doubted the group, that must be at least ten years older than her, would want to speak to her either.
Then Taylor spotted her and came running over. “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” Taylor cried and leaped into her arms, wrapping her long limbs that were all Teyler Walker’s around her.
“How was your first day of school?”
“I hate Pammy. She’s mean to me.”
Colleen looked around to where her daughter’s eyes landed, and she assumed the girl with the long blond hair was the culprit of her daughter’s sadness. She watched as the child led a pack of girls in the direction of the group of women Colleen planned on avoiding. “Is that Pammy over there?”
“Yes, and those are all her friends so they can’t be mine. There’s no girls left.”
Not wanting a scene, Colleen held Taylor in her arms and headed out of the playground but was stopped when she heard her name called.
“Colleen, right?” the woman who had Pammy in her arms asked with a swing of her long blond hair. “I’m Sally. You work at the taffy and fudge shop?” Her lips curl into a sarcastic smirk that Colleen wished she had the gumption to wipe from her face. “I’ve seen you there.”
Colleen heard a mumble that sounded like, “How can you miss her?” from under the breath of one of the other moms, but she brushed it off as insanity. These were adults in their thirties. No one behaved like mean high school girls by then, did they?
“Ah, yeah. My mom is Dorothy. She owns the shop. I’m Colleen and this is Taylor. I think she’s in class with your daughter. Is she Pammy?”
“Mommy, can we go home?” Taylor asked. “I’m tired.”
Colleen looked quizzically at her daughter. She had never uttered those words a day in her life. Not even when she was tired. Taylor was the kind of child that fought sleep until the bitter end.
“This is Pammy, isn’t she precious?”
Colleen already wanted to smack the mother and daughter duo, but instead, she planted a smile on her face and pulled at the T-shirt she felt raising and threatening to expose her stomach as Taylor shifted around on her body. She moved Taylor to a hip then said her goodbyes.
The other women didn’t respond, but Colleen clearly heard the laughter at her back this time and picked up her pace.
“What happened with Pammy?” Colleen asked as the school faded from sight. “Did she say something mean to you?”
“She made fun of my tan. She said I went to the beach too much. I told her we didn’t, and I always use sunscreen.”
Colleen wanted to go back to that playground and deck a three-year-old in the face, then kick her uptight mother’s ass, too. Not able to do that, she picked up her pace again, and sighed a sound of relief when their driveway came into view.
Miles’ car was parked there. He could always make Taylor behave or take a nap, eat her veggies, or stop crying after a vaccine. Maybe he could help her fix this too.
Colleen sighed because deep in her heart she knew it wasn’t Miles specifically that had the magic touch. It was the presence of a man, the thing that was missing from her daughter’s life because of her, that made the difference.
She allowed herself a few minutes to remember the man who should be here as her daughter took off into the house screaming her uncle’s name.
Teyler was all over sport’s media, so Colleen had watched him grow from a boy into a man and the metamorphosis had been epic. Teyler Walker had been muscular and toned when she’d met him. Now, the man looked like a slab of male perfection.
Colleen plopped down on the top step of her front porch and allowed the tear to escape her eye. She missed Teyler Walker and had to fight off the urge to contact him to this day. But, at this point, what would she say? She doubted he’d be happy to hear from her after she’d been the one to cut all ties. She’s positive he’d be pissed to hear her lame excuse of wanting to give him freedom to follow his dream, so that was why she hadn’t told him he had a child. She couldn’t do it. Not for herself, not even for her daughter. She’d made her decision a long time ago, and she’d have to live with it.
“Mommy!” Taylor yelled from the front door, her previous depressed state long since forgotten with the arrival of her uncle. “Uncle Miles brought me an Esmeralda doll. She has hair like mine! She’s a Gypsy dancer. Uncle Miles said she’s from The Hunchback of Notre Dame movie. Can we watch it? He brought that for me, too.”
Colleen sent her overindulging brother a look. He knew money was tight for Colleen and she didn’t have the means to spoil her daughter with extras right now. Miles insisted he had the right and the means to do so and he would continue whether his little sister liked it or not. “You didn’t need to do that,” Colleen said without conviction and a smile on her face.
“I know and I wouldn’t have to if you’d make a phone call and make him accept his responsibilities. Or, better yet, maybe I’ll swing by Storrs and say hello.”
“Don’t, Mi.”
Miles sighed. “He signed with the Wind, Coll. I saw it all over the news. He still has this season and they’ve already signed him. I can only imagine the kind of money he’s…”
Colleen stopped her brother with a raised hand. “It’s not about that. I’ve told you; this isn’t his doing. I made my decision without…”
“She’s his fucking doing,” Miles roared then ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
“Why are you yelling, Uncle Miles?” Taylor asked with her new doll clutched tightly in her hands. “Is Mommy in trouble?”
“No, Chip,” Miles said using the nickname, short for chocolate chip, he’d affectionately given his niece when she was born. “Mommy isn’t in trouble. Sometimes brothers and sister like to give each other a hard time because they love each other.”
Miles caught Colleen’s eyes with a soft smile pulling at his lips.
“I can’t have a brother or sister. Pammy said I don’t have a daddy so I can’t have a real family.”
Colleen tried her best to catch her breath before the sob escaped her, but it was no use. “What?” she cried.
“Yeah, ’member I told you she was mean? We did a family tree project. Well, it was really a family house,” Taylor excitedly babbled on about the difference in the activities. “I had to draw our family in the windows, only the ones who live here, so I couldn’t add you, Uncle Miles. Don’t feel bad, though. I had to leave Auntie Georgia out too.”
Miles pulled his niece into his arms and sat down with her on his lap. “That’s all right, Chip. Tell me what you drew.”
“I made Mommy and Grandma in the windows downstairs and me in one upstairs. That’s where my room is, you know?”
Miles laughed. “Yeah, I know, sweetie. That was my room, remember I told you that story?”
“Yes, and you said that I can use it forever because I’m your little chip and you don’t need it no more.”
“Anymore. So, tell me what this Pammy said.”
Taylor ignored his correction.