“Now I feel even worse than I did before,” I mutter, feeling my stomach twist.
“Don’t feel bad. We heard what she said to you. In fact, a whole lot of people heard it, and I know that quite a few of them are disgusted by the way she acted and have pulled the houses they had listed with her father.”
“I don’t think that makes me feel any better,” I say as my anxiety begins to increase. I hate what happened last night, but I don’t think there is any other way for this to go. I just don’t think Mellissa’s dad should be punished, just because Mellissa is evil.
“If you’re talking about Mellissa, we’re not talking about her today,” Jax says, coming up and wrapping his arm around my waist. “We’re taking Hope to the park and out for pizza. We’re not going to discuss Mellissa, or even think about her,” he states firmly, giving my waist a squeeze while looking pointedly at his mom.
“When did you turn into your dad?” she asks him softly, shaking her head.
“Mom, don’t get all mushy on me right now, okay?”
“I’m not getting mushy,” she mutters, swiping under her eyes, but I can tell she was totally going into mushy mommy mode.
“Jesus,” he grumbles, releasing me and taking his mom into his arms, giving her a hug, and a kiss on the top of her head.
“Here’s your cockporn ball, Mama,” Hope says happily, coming over to me, carrying a large, unwrapped, oddly shaped popcorn ball and handing it to me, causing the candy coating to stick to my hand. “I love cockporn balls,” she tells me, licking the palm of her hand that is covered in candy.
“Angel baby,” I say softly, getting down to her level and taking her candy-covered hand into mine so she will focus on me.
“It’s popcorn,” I tell her slowly. I have no idea where she got the whole cockporn thing, but that is definitely not something I want her saying in public, or ever, for that matter. I can just see us going to a movie and her yelling, ‘I want COCKPORN!’ at the top of her lungs in the middle of a packed theater.
“I know, cockporn.” She nods, licking her palm again.
“No, Angel. POP-corn,” I tell her, pronouncing each syllable.
“COCK-porn,” she says slowly back, like I’m deaf, and then places her hands on her hips.
“Oh, geez,” I mutter, giving up, looking at Lilly, who is fighting laughter, and ask her, “Do you have a bag for this?” while holding my hand upside down, showing the ball is stuck to my palm and now looks like a penis and balls.
“I do.” She giggles then looks at Jax, who is looking at Hope like she’s the cutest thing in the whole wide world. It’s as if he missed everything that just happened and the fact she’s saying cockporn.
“Do you want to go to the park, sweetheart?” he asks her, picking her up.
“Yes! Can you push me on the swing?”
“Sure, and after the park, we can go have pizza for dinner.”
“Can we have fwozen yogut?” she asks, looking at him and batting her lashes. His eyes come to me, and all I can do is roll mine. She has him wrapped around her tiny little finger, and she knows it too.
“If you eat all your dinner, then yes,” he tells her as I head to the kitchen, where I find Lilly wrapping up popcorn balls with saran wrap.
“Thank you for keeping Hope,” I tell her, walking over to the sink and washing the sticky mess off of my hands.
“We love her, and you, though you should know she has been talking nonstop about getting a sister.”
Shaking my head, I pull a paper towel off the roll then take a seat next to her and start helping her wrap the remaining popcorn balls.
“Ever since I told her Jax and I were dating, she has been asking me that everyday.”
“We wouldn’t be upset about that. I mean, you guys have lots of time to date and get to know each other, but when you do have more babies, you can always depend on us to babysit.”
“Thanks,” I tell her, feeling awkward. Jax and I are still so new. Even if I feel like I have known him forever, the truth is we still have so much to learn about each other, and I want to wait for more kids.
“Did you hear me?”
Focusing on Lilly, I shake my head then murmur, “Sorry, no.”
Smiling, she looks toward the living room, and I turn my head to look over my shoulder at Jax, who is talking to his dad, with Hope still in his arms and her head resting on his chest. “Normally, on Jax’s birthday, we have dinner as a family, but I didn’t want to make plans if there was something you had planned.”
“When is his birthday?” I ask her, feeling horrified I had no idea his birthday was even coming up.
“Oh, Wednesday,” she says, wrapping another ball.
“I have to work.”
“Don’t worry about it. We can make reservations for dinner on Saturday if you want.”
“What about a surprise party on Monday or Tuesday?” I ask her, and her face lights up.
“He hates surprises,” she grins then mutters, “Let’s do it,” as Cash steps into the kitchen.
“What are you guys whispering about?” he asks, going to the fridge, grabbing a beer, and leaning back against the counter.
“Nothing, just wrapping up all of these cockporn balls,” Lilly whispers loud enough for him to hear, causing him to chuckle and me to laugh.
“You ready to head out, baby?” Jax asks, settling his hand on my shoulder when he walks into the kitchen.
“Yeah,” I say, getting up and hugging Cash and Lilly both, telling them thanks again for looking after Hope and watching them hug her before we leave the house.
When we pull up to the park, I look through the front window of the truck. The park we normally go to is just a couple blocks from the house, and there are only a few kids who go there to play. This park is the opposite. The whole place is overrun with kids, with most of the parents sitting around the tables outside of the large sand area, talking and not really paying much attention to what their children are doing. Waiting for Jax to open my door, I hop down then grab Hope’s jacket from the front seat.
“I want you to stay in the play area, where I can see you. Do you understand?” I ask, getting down on my haunches, zipping up her jacket and putting on her hat.
“Yes, Mama,” she says excitedly, bouncing up and down as she watches the kids who are running around laughing. She’s never been to a park this large before, and I’m a little worried with so many kids around that I’ll lose sight of her.
“What did your Mom just say, Hope?” Jax asks, sounding so much like a dad that I’m a little caught off guard.
“She said to make sure she can see me,” she tells him, and his hand comes out to cup her cheek.
“Good, sweetheart,” he says, and she smiles up at him then raises her glove-covered hand to his as I stand up. Taking his opposite hand, we walk along the concrete path then stop when we reach the play area, which has been dug out with smooth logs built up around the edge, keeping the sand separate from the grass surrounding it.
“Can I go on the swide?” Hope asks, pointing to a slide that has two other kids on it, one boy and one girl, both around the same age as Hope.