I stood, taking Mia with me, but she jerked from my hold. “What did I do to make you hate me so much?” Mia cried out. “I’m sorry for what I did. I told you I was sorry. Every day I’ve been trying so hard, but I can’t go back and change anything!”
“You want to know what you did?” Diane shouted.
Bruce stood and grabbed her arm. “No, Diane. That’s enough.”
“I lost my baby because of you. You killed my baby! The hell you brought into this home, the worrying, the anxiety, the panic attacks. You killed the only thing I ever wanted, and that is something you will never be able to change.”
Mia froze at my side. Bruce hung his head. Diane fisted her hands, tears pouring. I turned my back to everyone else to face Mia, and I didn’t know what to say. I tried to take her hand and pull her away, but she stood there, ready to face it.
“I’m sorry,” Mia whispered, shaking her head. She looked to her dad and dug her teeth into her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, I … Didn’t mean … I didn’t know.”
“It was a girl. I was supposed to have a daughter, and I ask God every day why you’re here, and my daughter’s not,” Diane cried out. “I’ve tried to look past it, I’ve tried everything. It’s not fair. You don’t deserve to be here. You deserve to rot in hell.”
“Mia,” I turned back to face her, but she jerked from my grasp, took off out of the dining room, and ran up the stairs.
I was stuck, unsure if I should chase after her or put these two in their place. My mind raced and my fingers pushed through my hair. “I’m sorry you lost your baby, but that wasn’t Mia’s fault, and you know it! She didn’t ask for this!” I raised my arms as my eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. Neither one of them said anything.
Diane cried. Bruce rubbed his temples, rubbing his wife’s back, and my mind raced, heat flaring over my skin and burning my eyes.
I paced the dining room, trying to calm but their silence only fueled my frustration. I slapped my hands over the table and looked up at them. “And you didn’t just lose one daughter. You lost two. Mia’s your daughter too, and she’s been living in this house for over ten years, and you did nothing but push her away. She needed you! She needed both of you! Mia’s been there this entire time, right in front of you, screaming for someone to bloody hear her.”
I gathered a breath and wiped my face into my sleeve. My hands shook, and I allowed a few seconds pass to calm myself before addressing them again. Otherwise, I’d taken a chair to the glass cabinet behind me. “Thank you, Bruce, for inviting me to dinner. I know the kind of husband I want to be for her—one with fucking balls. And Diane,” my eyes slid to her, “with all due respect, your baby is gone, but Mia’s still here. Don’t take that for granted.”
They both looked at me, stunned, and I took after Mia, climbing the stairs and barging into her room. My heart plummeted when my gaze landed on her opened window, but then I saw her brown hair blowing in the wind.
I climbed through the small window and took a seat behind her, stretching my legs out across the shingles. She sank between my legs and my arms wrapped around her chest.
There had been many times I’d sat under this same sky, dreaming of this very moment. In love, high off solid ground, and my girl in my arms. Any other time, I’d shout to the moon, say we’d made it.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her head falling back against my chest.
I looked down to see her face soaked, but eyes dry. “No, I’m sorry.”
She tilted her head when her eyes met mine. “What are you sorry for?”
That things weren’t easier. That I didn’t find you sooner. That I couldn’t take you away yet because of the bloody court date. But I settled on, “I think I just called your dad a pussy.”
Mia laughed lightly through a sniffle. “Well, someone had to say it.”
“Turn around, love.” And she twisted in my arms, pushing her legs over mine. Mia shivered inside an oversized black sweater, leather looking leggings, and Christmas socks. I dipped my hands under her sweater to grip her sides as she rolled her hips closer. She blinked up at me, golden brown and bewitching. “Now, close your eyes.” A smile fought its way over her lips. I lifted my brows, and Mia shook the hair from her face, lifted her chin, and closed her eyes.
“Where are you taking me?”
“We’re not going anywhere, I just wanted to do this.” I lightly kissed her, and afterward, she dropped her head into my neck and laughed.
We stayed like that for a while, under the starry sky. I stroked Mia’s back until she fell asleep in my arms, thinking of all the baggage I’d left in the UK. My first and only priority was Mia, but if I didn’t handle my end of the deal, it would follow us for the rest of our lives.
An hour passed, and I woke her up and helped her back through the window. She was half asleep, mumbling about ‘a guy she dreamed about,’ and how he saved her, and I only told her that if he was real, give him my thanks. She passed out in bed, and I kissed her forehead before leaving. Mia was out cold in two seconds.
I walked down the stairs and noticed Bruce sitting outside on the back patio, looking out into the forest. At the last second, I figured I’d talk to him and pushed open the back door. Bruce was sitting in a rocking chair in front of a controlled fire pit, a cooler of beer resting at his feet. He turned to look at me before dropping his head back. “Take a seat.”
Diane must have turned in early. Hesitantly, I sat in the other rocking chair and pushed my legs out in front of me. The lights from the fire lit up his crestfallen features, and he bent over to grab another Bud Light from the ice and handed it over to me.
I’d never been a beer drinker, but cracked it open with my forearm, not leaving the chap out here to drink by himself. “I want to apologize for what happened tonight, but the truth is, I can’t,” I admitted.
“You were right.”
“Wish I wasn’t.”
“You know what’s so fascinating to me,” he leaned in and planted his elbows over his knees and cocked his head, “my twenty-year-old daughter has a more mature relationship than I do. What does that say about me?”
“That your daughter has brilliant taste in men.”
Bruce chuckled, leaned over, and clanked his bottle against mine. “You’re a good man, Oliver.”
“I’m sorry about your wife,” I stated, looking out into the fire.
“Diane means well.”
“I’m not talking about Diane. I’m talking about Mia’s mum, Jackie. I’m sorry about what happened to her. I can’t imagine ever losing Mia, let alone trying to get by each day.” The toll it must have taken on him over the years. It made me sick just thinking about it.
“Jackie was a good woman, the love of my life. I think Diane sees that too. If it weren’t the baby, it would be the fact I’d never fallen out of love with my late wife,” he chugged from his bottle, then let out a sigh, “nothing will ever fill that emptiness. Not Diane. Not fucking Bud Light. Trust me when I say, don’t wait ‘til someone dies to remind you what’s in front of you. Know now. When I look back at it all, want to know when I was the happiest?” His eyes moved from the label peeling from the bottle to me. “We were so broke,” he laughed, “Mia was only two years old at the time, sleeping in her crib, and our electric got cut off. Jackie and me, we moved Mia into the living room with us and lit a fire in the fireplace. Jackie hijacked the neighbor’s Wi-Fi, and we curled up on the couch and watched Rush Hour from her laptop.” Another laugh escaped him and pushed his fingers across the bottom of his nose. “The damn movie froze every five seconds. I think it was the longest movie we’d ever watched together, but I never wanted it to end. But Jackie fell asleep in my arms and the laptop died eventually, and it was so quiet. Right then and there, I knew I would never be happier. Shit, was I right.”