CHAPTER 13
CARTER
I got the results yesterday. There’s not a doubt that Daniele is mine.
Today will be the first day that I’ll be alone with Daniele. I walk into the dinner and go look for Della. I find her in a make shift office of some sort. Her shoulders are hunched forward as she looks through some papers.
“Hi,” I say so she’ll know I’m here.
“My heart!” She swings around and sends some papers flying from the desk.
I start to pick them up when my eye catches the red words stamped in bold over one of the letters. Final notice.
I see two more like the one I’m holding before Della manages to gather them all.
“Are you in financial trouble?” I ask as she takes the letter I’m holding.
She doesn’t even look at me. “I’ll manage.”
“We need to talk about all of this,” I snap and I take a step closer to her.
“Talk about what?” Her eyes snap up to finally meet mine.
“I’m leaving in three days, Della.”
“Oh.” She sits down again and shoves all the papers to the side. “We need to schedule some sort of visiting thing. “
I shake my head. “No. When I leave here Daniele goes with me.”
Della darts to her feet and all the blood drains from her face. Her breathing starts to speed up until it looks like she’s going to faint.
“Hey, take a breath.” I put my arm around her and her hands fist in my shirt.
She leans her forehead against my chest. “You said you wouldn’t take her from me.”
I frame her face with my hands and force her to look up at me.
“I’m not taking her from you. You have a choice, Della. Come with.”
Confusion washes over her face but she doesn’t look any calmer.
“I can’t just leave Saluda. Jamie is about to start her sophomore year. What about the diner?”
“What about your parents?” I ask, not understanding what Jamie has to do with all of this.
Della takes a breath and shakes her head. “We never talked about our families.”
She massages her temples tiredly and it makes me want to hold her. After all this time, I still care about this woman.
“Jamie is my responsibility. Our dad died when we were young and our mother died my sophomore year. The only reason I could go study was because of Sue, but she passed away last year. The diner used to be hers.”
Listening to her I once again realize that I know so little about her.
“Obviously Jamie will come with. I’ll put her in a good school.”
She shakes her head and laughs bitterly. “You can’t solve everything in life by throwing money at it.”
“Fuck, Della. Can you give me a break? At least I’m trying.”
She still has the gift of pissing me off in a split-second.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. She looks down at her feet.
I glance down and notice that the strap of her one sandal is stapled down. I let my eyes go over her, really taking in the sorry state of her clothes. I’m sure I saw her wearing this exact outfit in college. There are dark circles under her eyes and she’s too thin.
“How bad are things really? I’m not going to take Daniele away from you. I just want to help.”
She covers her face with both her hands and whispers, “I can’t hold it together anymore. Nothing I do works. Everything just keeps getting worse. They’re going to close the diner in thirty days. We live upstairs. I just … I can’t.”
I pull her into my arms and hold her to my chest. She’s been suffering all along and not once has she asked me for anything but to not take Daniele from her. This is what made me fall in love with her the first time. She’s so strong.
Keeping one arm around her, I pull slightly away. I place a finger under her chin and nudge her face up. Her beautiful blue eyes are drowning in worry.
“Let me help.”
She nods and when she tries to take a step back, I tighten my hold on her. There’s confusion on her face when she looks up at me again.
“I’ll have my attorney close the diner and settle the debt, to keep you from being declared bankrupt.”
She starts to shake her head again and when she opens her mouth, I quickly cover it with my hand.
“Just listen before you lose your shit. There’s nothing for you here, Della. You have a fucking degree. Why are you still waitressing? Let’s pack it all up. The three of you come with me. You can work at Indie Ink and pay me back every fucking cent if that will make you feel better. Think of Daniele. Think of Jamie. You can’t even take care of yourself never mind two kids. It’s time to let go of all of this. It’s time for a change.”
When I move my hand away from her mouth, she asks, “Why would you do all that for us?”
“You’re the mother of my child, Della. Jamie is Daniele’s aunt. You’re my family. Why the fuck wouldn’t I take care of my own.”
Finally, she nods and it feels like I can breathe for the first time. “Only if you let me pay you back. I want it on paper.”
“I’ll have Logan draw it up.”
***
DELLA
“Oh, wow,” Jamie breathes as we walk into our new apartment. “Let’s go find your room, Danny.”
Wow is the understatement of the damn year. I glare at all the expensive stuff while I wait for Jamie and Danny to leave the huge living room.
“This was not part of the deal,” I snap at Carter.
“If you complain one more time about the moving, the apartment, the fucking clothes,” He shoves his hands through his hair. “Fuck, so help me God I’m going to kiss you until you shut up.”
Kiss me?
The thought actually makes my heart beat faster while butterflies explode in my stomach.
It looks like he’s counting to ten, then he says, “You start work tomorrow. Where the fuck would you have found the time to do all of this, or even find a place to stay? It’s done. Say fucking thank you and let’s get on with our lives.”
He follows after Daniele and I hear him say goodbye to her. “Daddy has to go to the office but I’ll be home for dinner, okay.”
“Yes, Daddy,” her sweet voice answers him.
He comes back out and pins me with a hard glare. “If you don’t want to live with me, you are welcome to move, Della. Just know that my daughter will stay here.”
I’m so angry I’m going to spit fire. He’s been working on my nerves ever since I agreed to this mess.
“You’re a control freak,” I snap at him as he stalks to the door.
He glares at me before he leaves the apartment.
I tighten my ponytail as I look around me. A penthouse. This is no place to raise a child. Danny loves to run and climb. She’s going to break something and Carter is going to have a heart attack.
I start to remove anything that can hurt Daniele and shove it as high as I can. I make sure all the doors and drawers are fitted with safety catches so Danny won’t be able to open them without an adult nearby. I need a screwdriver. When I can’t find one I take one of his expensive butter knives and start to install the safety door at the bottom of the stairs. I don’t know what’s up there and I don’t care.
Hours later, I’m done making sure there’s no way that Danny can get hurt. When I go check on her and Jamie, I find them both asleep on the double bed in Jamie’s room.
This is the first time Jamie will have a room of her own. This is the first time Danny will have a room of her own. I need to do this for them.
I go to Danny’s room and start to unpack all her clothes. Carter went crazy and practically bought our child every piece of clothing there is on the market. I look at all the stuffed animals and just shake my head. I understand that he’s trying to make up for three years, but he can’t keep doing this. I want Danny to appreciate everything in life and she won’t learn to if he keeps giving her everything her little heart wants.
When I’m done with Danny’s room I go check what the food situation looks like. I open the fridge and pinch the bridge of my nose when I see a six pack of beer, two bottles of water and a half full bottle of wine.
“Great, our first dinner will be alcohol.”
The front door opens and Carter comes in. He places a bag on the counter before looking at me.
“Have you calmed down?”
I smile sweetly at him. “Welcome home, honey. Can I get you beer?” When he scowls at me I go on, “Or wait,” I open the fridge and wave over the contents inside, “would you rather have some wine.”
He shoves the bag towards me. “I got food. Stop with the bitching.”
I look in the bag and see that it’s fish and rice. I’m going to cry. No, first I’m going to lose my mind, then I’m going to kill him, and then I’ll go to jail. Then I’ll cry because I’m in jail for killing an asshole.
I rub both my hands over my face and calm down, reminding myself that this is all new to Carter.
“Daniele is allergic to fish. We need to sit down and go over everything she likes and don’t like.” I grab my bag and stalk to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To the store so I can grab a few things that we will need.”
I close the door behind me and walk towards the elevator. The doors open and as I step in and turn around, it’s in time to see Carter walking toward me. I press the button to keep the doors from closing until he’s inside.
We only make it two floors before he presses a button that stops the elevator.
“I’m sorry,” he surprises me with an apology. “I’m new at this.”
I let out a shaky breath and nod. “I know. This is a learning process for both of us.”
“Let’s go to the store together. I need to see what kind of food you get so I can make sure it’s always in the cupboards.”
“That’s just it, Carter. You have to calm down with all the spending. You can’t buy a year’s supply of stuff for a three year old. She’s a little person. She doesn’t need a hundred dresses. She’ll pick three and she’ll wear them until they tear from all the use. You’re wasting money.”
He rubs over his jaw and it makes a rough sound from his day old beard. “Okay.”
“I know this is new for you, but it’s new for us too. I didn’t grow up around money. Jamie and I have shared a room all our lives. Jamie wore my hand-me-downs. I wore second-hand clothes donated from the church.”
When he grinds his teeth I quickly go on, “I’m not telling you this because I want to be pitied. It’s always been my life. I had good days and bad days, just like you. I’m only telling you so you know how different our lives are. I start to panic when you throw money around as if it’s nothing. I’ve learned to save, to use coupons, to be careful with money. You need to meet me in the middle.”
“I didn’t know,” he whispers.
“You never asked.”
He nods. “This goes both ways, Della. I’ve never lived with a woman. It’s only been me and my dad. I’m going to do things wrong. I don’t know any of the rules when it comes to living with a woman.”
I shrug and smile at him. “I was ten when my dad died. Jamie can hardly remember him. We’re pretty much in the same boat. We’re going to do stuff that will upset you. We’ll all just have to learn to get along.”
“Can we start over?”
“Yeah, let’s go get our daughter some food.”