Jordyn's Army, page 4
“How did you know?”
“We were right behind you,” she says. “Is he here?”
I nod. “The little guy was eager to meet his big sister,” I say looking down at Evelyn.
“Do you want me to tell everyone?”
“Who’s here?”
Nola smiles, “Everyone.”
I follow her down the hall to the waiting room and find the people who have become my family. Katelyn pulls me into her arms immediately, followed by Josie and Jenna. The guys pat me on the back and Liam opens a cigar box and tells everyone to take one. I’m overcome with emotion and taken back by their presence.
“Does he have a name?” Katelyn asks.
“Not yet. Whiskey wants Evelyn to be in the room when we name him… I just can’t believe you’re all here.”
“No other place we’d be,” Harrison says. “We’re going to take Evelyn home with us until Jamie’s parents get here. Quinn called to let us know and Katelyn called her mom; we arranged for their flight out.”
I open my mouth to say something, but there are no words. All I can do is nod and take Evelyn to see her mom.
Inside the room, Whiskey looks almost like herself again. She’s sitting up and holding our son. Evelyn clings to my leg until I pick her up and set her next to her mom, while telling Whiskey about everyone being in the waiting room.
“Hi, baby.”
“Hi, sissy,” Whiskey says, speaking for our son.
“He’s so cute but squishy.”
“He won’t be in a few days. Do you want to hold him?”
Evelyn nods and I help her adjust so she can cradle her brother. I try not to be jealous that Evelyn is holding him before me, but Whiskey sees something in my eyes. She reaches for me and I go around to the other side of the bed to kiss her. We talked about this, making sure Evelyn was included because it had just been the two of them for so long. Still, I want my moment.
Whiskey takes him from Evelyn and hands him to me. He feels light and that’s when I realize how fragile he is.
“Hi, Son,” I say as a flood of tears pour from my eyes. “I’m your dad.”
“Babe, we need to give him a name.”
I nod. We’ve had lists but nothing has stuck for one reason or another. I sit on the edge of the bed and put our son in the middle. The three of us stare at him, throwing out names that we like. It isn’t until Evelyn makes a suggestion that we pause, and everything feels right.
“It’s perfect. You should take him out and introduce him to everyone.”
“Are you sure? They can come in here one at a time. Also, your parents, Dhara and Fletcher aren’t here. Don’t you want to wait?”
Whiskey shakes her head and smiles. “They were there for all of us, I think they’ll understand. Besides, I need a few moments with Evelyn.”
I do as she suggests, taking our bundle of joy out to the waiting room. All eyes must’ve been waiting for me to appear because everyone is standing when I come into view. There are gasps from the women as they come toward me. I’m told he’s beautiful, sweet and perfect.
“What’s his name?” Katelyn asks.
I look down at my son and then back at my family. “His name is James Fletcher Ballard,” I say, fighting through the ache I feel in my throat. “He’s named after the most important men in our lives.” I chance a look at Harrison and Quinn, both smiling.
“Oh my,” Katelyn says, covering her mouth. “You know I’d be thrilled if Evelyn and James want to call me grandma, right?”
I nod, knowing how much Evelyn would love it as well. We spend a few more minutes with everyone until I’ve decided I’ve been away from Whiskey for too long. At Whiskey’s door, I push it open and walk in just as James opens his eyes. I hold him up and say, “Look Mama, my eyes are open.”
Whiskey extends her arms, eager for her son. Evelyn sits on one side, and me on the other, completely mesmerized by my family. All I can think about is how lucky I am, knowing full well how different my life could’ve been.
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About Heidi McLaughlin
Heidi McLaughlin is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of The Beaumont Series, The Boys of Summer, and The Archers.
In 2012, Heidi turned her passion for reading into a full-fledged literary career, writing over twenty novels, including the acclaimed Forever My Girl, which has been adapted into a motion picture with LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions, starring Alex Roe and Jessica Rothe, and opened in theaters on January 19, 2018.
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Pure Rose
Kathy Coopmans
1
Rose
Life has come down to this shitty excuse of a home for me. It’s a one-bedroom rat hole on the bottom floor of an old broken down apartment building on the wrong side of the tracks in Austin, Texas.
Once upon a time, I was convinced that at the ripe age of forty, I’d have the pristine white picket fence and a loyal cock filling my life, daily.
I’ve never had the picket fence and, well, there's been no cock to speak of in like, twenty-four years to be exact. Even then, it wasn’t what I’d hope for. It was a wham and a bam and not even a thank you, ma’am. Nope, all this woman has had is her middle finger and dozens of cheap vibrators that those bunny batteries outlast.
Reality is a bitch and she’s slapped me upside the head over and over, but never knocking me down. It may have buckled my knees a time or two, but I refuse to allow my lousy hand of jokers gone wild to make me go all in and bust.
My sweet daughter, Kennedy, is who keeps me going. Okay, let’s be honest-she’s feisty, determined, and Goddamn stubborn at best, but she’s all mine. She’s the one person who has never let me down and has always kept me on my toes. Even if the shoes they're in hurt my feet and tire my legs, this incredible young woman gives back to me the spades I need to give me a winning hand.
I’ve never believed in blowing sunshine up people's asses. Our life has not been rainbows and sunshine. It’s been a living hell. For me, anyway. I’d repeat the process all over again to watch my daughter become the woman she is today.
We missed our fifteen minutes of fame. We totally would’ve rocked Sixteen and Pregnant. My life has never been the same since Sebastian Sacco. The deadbeat asshole who I thought I could change. Boy, was that young man fine, like melt your panties and made you fucking stupid kind of fine.
I was a smart girl back in the day with dreams to attend an Ivy League University. My parents were hard-working middle-class people who would have sent me anywhere I wanted to go, but I wanted them to live their life after I was gone, so I studied my ass off in hopes of getting a full academic ride. I wasn’t about to have them worry about paying for an education they couldn’t afford. So, I studied to become the best. I was a shoo-in for class Valedictorian since grade seven, and Sebastian made me dumb as a box of rocks with one smile shot in my direction.
My parents, God rest their souls, had me later in life, which led me to take care of them and an infant until it became too much. I was forced to put them in a nursing home after my father had a stroke, and my mother began to lose her mind. Dad passed away six months later, my mom a year after that. I was a twenty-year-old single mother all alone with not much of the life insurance left after giving my parents a celebratory goodbye.
Before my dad took a turn, he hated Sebastian. If he would have been capable, I believe he would have chopped his dick off like he threatened to do once he found out that asshole wasn’t going to help me out. Sebastian was the bad boy who moved to Austin our eighth-grade year, and by high school, he’d been through the squad of cheerleaders and even rumors of a few teachers. He was a God in our parts. Hung like a horse and could fuck like the king of them all. A stallion. I’m pretty sure that night after the football game, he swallowed all my brain cells.
They all say hindsight is twenty-twenty, so let me lay it out like this. Sebastian was a fucking miniature pony at a thoroughbred show. I know this from all the magazines I’ve seen dick pics in, plus my Saturday night date called porn.
Sex ed class was the easiest ‘A’ out of all my courses. I knew how babies were made, and did that matter? Hell no, not when Sebastian Sacco was dry humping me at a bonfire party. I was a bitch in heat for the man and have I mentioned dumb?
“Oh, baby, we don’t need a condom.”
Me, nodding and drooling at him like a dog does a treat. Of course, the stupid girl in me agreed. It was Sebastian Sacco after all, and he wanted me. Then he power humped me like a goddamn jackrabbit not taking any time or care. All I remember is the pain and mess of our aftermath.
Once Sleazy Sebastian Sacco conquered the class scholar he moved on to bigger and better things. I hope the bastard is rotting in some back alley right about now. Or worse, some father finally did catch up with him and sliced his dick off with a very dull machete.
He signed over all rights to the baby before he even knew the gender. I dropped out of school with a protruding baby bump. Eventually, I earned my GED, but my new job and love was a sweet little blonde bundle of joy, Kennedy Lane Grant.
I thank God every day she’s a shining image of me. I guess if I had to choose getting knocked up at sixteen, Sebastian’s genes were perfect with his dark hair and olive skin. But mine won and conquered his. I’ve never talked of the sleazy, slimy man and Kennedy has always been content, not knowing. All of my partying years were sacrificed for her. I wouldn’t change a thing as far as she goes. I only wish I could have given her a better life.
I smile over at my now twenty-four-year-old girl who’s sitting with her legs crossed on the floor unpacking the final box.
“Mom,” she squeals as she used too as a little girl.
I nod while swallowing down the last few drops of Pinot Noir wine. Sounds fancy, but it’s the cheap shit.
“Remember this?” She holds up a picture frame.
It’s an adorable picture of my awkward, toothy girl when she was in third grade. It was her birthday party that day. She’d been dying for a sleepover with friends from school and a spa party.
“Ugh, it was a total flop on my end. I ruined your party.” I sag into the worn cushions of my couch and drop my turkey chin to my neck.
“It was not. Clara’s face swelled so much that I thought it was going to burst,” Kennedy says, laughing. It’s funny now but, holy hell, it was a scary sight back then.
I’d thrown together a party, but the face mask mixture I made was an epic fail. It dropped off the one to ten scale and crashed. I’d been so excited being able to put it together that it was an oversight when I had added the hair remover cream to the mixture.
I was never a favorite of the moms after that incident. Whatever, they were fake and phony and prided themselves with showing off the money they probably didn’t raise a well-manicured finger to earn.
“It was the best party ever,” Kennedy sighs while gazing at the picture.
And that right there is why my world always continues to spin. She’s been grateful for everything even if it was subpar. Dozens of missed field trips because I couldn’t afford to miss a day of work. Hell, I never was able to sign up as a room mother, and always-cheap store-bought cupcakes for her classroom parties were our reality. My butthole would pucker when I’d drop her off on party days and see all the extravagant cupcake tours and other shit that I would never have the means to provide.
Kennedy never complained and to see her shine like the star she is, the brain, the talent, and the beauty she has on the inside makes me the wealthiest mother in the world. I’d do it all again if I had too.
“Mom.” Kennedy crawls across the worn-down carpet. “Are you going to be okay?”
My head swims, and I try to blame it on the wine coursing through me, but it’s not. Just when I had a halfway decent house, I was in the process of renting to own; it was swept out from under my feet. Some asshole, bigwig corporation mongrel flew in and bought the land to build a strip mall, leaving me homeless.
Okay, homeless is a bit of an exaggeration. The corporation paid off the current owner of the house, and I got the boot.
Kennedy took it as her opportunity to move out into her a place of her own. Hence, the reason why I’m now living in a one-bedroom shitty apartment. She’s always wearing a shield of guilt with me wanting to help her. I’m the one who should hold that emotion, never her.
“I’ll be fine.” I finally reply with deflated shoulders. I will be fine too. I always am. It won’t be easy without her being here with me, but it’s time to let her fly on her own.
“We can have sleepovers and spa dates, but no hair remover cream.” She states, jokingly.
“Smartass.” I nudge her with my toe.
“This is a good move, Mommy; it’s finally your time.”
“Don’t call me that you little shit.” Even though she is right about it being my time, I only wish I could spend it with the man of my dreams.
The tall and thick gray-haired Owen. Now that man is quality fine.
“Oh, come on, Mommy. It’s fun to get a rise out of you.” Kennedy pops to her feet. She looks adorable in her cute little sleeveless top. “I have some good news for you.” She states, wagging her brows.
“As long as you don’t tell me Oliver knocked you up then tell me.” God, the idea of it makes me hit a mid-life crisis. I have a child old enough to have a baby of her own. I could become a grandma. Oh, hell to the no. I’m not even close to being ready. “Wait, does this mean you finally gave up your virginity?” My daughter, unlike me who gave it up to an asshole, has been holding out until she found the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. It’s one of the many things I admire about Kennedy.
“I like Oliver. He’s a good guy. The young man has a tight ass, and a smile that doesn’t just melt your panties off it burst those babies in flames and leaves a big trail of smoldering ashes behind you, but if you are pregnant, he better stand by you or I’ll flatten his tight ass.”
Oliver has good genes, just like his father. Oh, God, his father. Owen, the man who turns me upside down and inside out. I’ve dreamt about that man more times than I can count. The way his big hands would mold to my breasts. The way he would kiss and of course, use the big package I’ve seen a time or two tenting his swim trunks when Kennedy and I went to his mansion for a barbeque.
I dreamed that hard-on was for me and not the nim-wit he’d have as his date. You know the kind, the act all flighty and giggly ones who act the part of a ditz down to a tee when in truth, they are smart as they dig for the pot of gold. Cling on little tramps wouldn’t know what love is if it slapped them in the face.
“No, we broke up. It was a mutual thing; I don’t know how to describe Oliver and me. Every time we would kiss, I felt like I was kissing my brother. He felt like he was kissing his sister. Don’t you see, now you can stop pretending you don’t have a thing for his dad.” She rolls her eyes as if she didn’t just drop a bomb in my lap.
“What? How do you know I have a thing for Owen, and honey, are you sure you’re okay?”
Owen is sin on a stick, but he’s way out of my league. He’s flirted with me the many times we’ve met, and I’ve tried flirting back. I’m out of practice with men. Besides that, I would never go there and chance messing things up for Kennedy. “If the two of you broke up because you think-” Kennedy slaps her hand over my mouth, stopping me from asking her if they broke up because of me.
“Uh, it’s obvious by the way you look at him. He likes you too, you know. Mom, we did not break up because of the two of you. I promise. End of subject. Here, Owen asked me to give you this.” She digs into her bag next to her and hands me what looks like a blank white card and a gift box all wrapped in my favorite color — a soft rosy pink. I flip over the card to see the name of an expensive restaurant in town. Date and time are printed in masculine handwriting underneath.
My heart jumps out of my chest and does a happy dance on the stained carpet.
“Kennedy, I can’t go out with a millionaire. I mean, look at me.” I set the card in between us and open the box, being careful not to ruin the paper.
“I am looking at you, Mom. You are stunning and caring. You and Owen have been stepping all over each other. Trust me; the man is hot for momma. Wow, that’s their new perfume, it’s called Pure Rose. Oliver showed me the box. They have a wonderful designer. Her name is Jordyn. Let’s smell it.”
I’m shocked and stunned. No man has done anything like this for me.
Carefully, I peel the cellophane off, lift the lid, and slowly pull out the rose-shaped bottle. And in Kennedy fashion, because her mother is taking too long, she yanks it out of my hand, twists off the cap and spritzes some in the air.
“It smells like a rose,” I say, smiling the biggest one I’ve done since Kennedy graduated with honors from college.
Owen told me one night while the four of us went to dinner that his company had been working on a new line. I dreamed it was named after me. Of course, it isn’t.
“Mom, you two belong together. You have the biggest heart, and so does Owen. You’ve sacrificed your life for me. You are going. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. You deserve to go on a date. Live a little and get you some. I promise both Oliver and I are okay with it; I wouldn’t push this if we weren’t. Please don’t stand Owen up,” she winks before tossing her bag over her shoulder and heading toward the door with the detonator button in her hand. Does she think she’s going to leave me like this? I guess she does as she swings open the door and turns to face me.
