15
Unsurprisingly, Hayden and I ushered in the first day of August by snapping at each other while I fixed breakfast for Chrissy. Basically, this was the only way we communicated with each other anymore. That, and by yelling, anyway.
The current issue was that Hayden couldn’t stay to help feed Chrissy with me.
“Absolutely shocking,” I practically spat at him.
With Chrissy in his arms, he snorted. “Really? You’re going to start a fight right now, when she’s right here?”
Looking from Hayden to me and then back again, Chrissy began whining, and Hayden glanced up at me.
“Good job. Now you’ve upset her.”
“Oh, I did? I’m not the one who started all this, by saying that I have to leave.”
“Keep your voice down, Sydney.”
Chrissy began whining even louder, flailing around in Hayden’s arms, and I moved to take her from him.
However, angering me further, he blocked me, turning her away from my grasp. “No. Not until you’re calm. I’m not going to have you shouting in her ears.”
Folding my arms across my chest, I snorted. “Right, because you’re speaking so quietly right now.”
He wasn’t outright shouting, but he was definitely close.
Chrissy now began outright wailing, punctuating her sobs with cries for “Ah-Zhen.” As if she’d intuited her summoning, Jen appeared in the kitchen right at that moment, and dashed over to Chrissy upon hearing her name. With a little reluctance, Hayden handed off Chrissy to her, and Jen immediately began dancing her around the kitchen, quietly talking to her.
“Aren’t you parents feeding you enough for breakfast? That used to make me cry, too. My parents used to cut me off at ten pancakes, but now that I’m a grownup, I can eat however many I want. You’ll be able to someday, too.”
With her face nestled into Jen’s shoulder, Chrissy began quieting, and Jen continued dancing her around the kitchen, listing off all the good things she’d be able to eat in unlimited quantities when she was an adult.
Feeling guilty that I’d probably played some part in Chrissy’s crying, and also feeling a little hurt that Hayden hadn’t given her to me, and also feeling maybe just slightly wounded that Chrissy had cried for “Ah-Zhen” instead of “Mama,” I turned to Hayden with my arms still tightly folded across my chest and practically hissed at him. “No wonder she only says ‘Aunt Jen.’ Jen’s the only one around here who isn’t pissed off all the time. And you want to know why? Because Jen’s the only one around here who’s still actually living her life, Warrens be damned.”
With that, I stormed out of the kitchen, actually hoping that Hayden wouldn’t return to the house that day.
Maybe twenty minutes later, Jen found me face-down in bed, crying my eyes out. Holding a happily-gurgling Chrissy, she sat down on the bed beside me, asking if I was okay.
Shaking my head, I didn’t even lift my face from my pillow. “No. I’m not okay. I’m starting to think that maybe Hayden and I should split up.”
Jen had begun rubbing my back, and she now moved her mouth to my ear and whispered. “That’s poppycock, sweetheart.”
Almost against my will, I burst out laughing, then lifted my face to look at Jen. “Where did you hear that word?”
She chuckled. “Bucky. One time I told him how sometimes I feel a little bad that him and Phyllis got a granddaughter that can barely read, instead of a granddaughter who’s super smart with books, like Mel; and Bucky gave me a hug, and he said, ‘That’s poppycock, sweetheart.’ And it made me feel so much better for some reason, so that’s why I just said it to you.”
Sniffling, I smiled. “Well, thanks. I guess it got me laughing, anyway.”
“Yup. It sure did.”
Just then, playing with a lock of Jen’s flame-red hair that was so similar to her own, Chrissy giggled, and I rolled onto my side and reached out my arms to take her. “Give me this giggly baby. Mama wants to cuddle her.”
Giggling again, Chrissy reached out her arms to me. “Mama.”
Gasping, I whipped myself up to sit. “Did you just hear her, Jen?”
Wide-eyed, Jen nodded. “She said Mama!”
After covering my mouth with my hands for a moment, stunned, I pulled Chrissy into my arms. “Say it again, Chrissy. Say ‘Mama.’”
Leaning back in my arms, waving up at the ceiling with both hands, Chrissy giggled. “Ah-Zhen!”
Wincing, Jen said sorry. “It’s turned out that I’m just too good of a teacher at teaching my name to babies.”
“Ah-Zhen!”
“If I could reverse in time, and un-teach my name to her, believe me, Syd, I would.”
Gently rocking Chrissy while she giggled into my shoulder, I smiled at Jen. “It’s okay. I’m just so happy that she said Mama even once. Hopefully soon, she’ll say it again.”
As if understanding exactly what I was saying, Chrissy lifted her face from my shoulder right then. “Mama!”
I grinned, heart soaring. “That’s right, baby girl. I’m Mama!”
“Mama!”
“That’s right! Smart girl!”
“Ah-Zhen!”
“That’s right! That’s Aunt Jen!”
Over the next few minutes, Chrissy said Mama numerous times, and Jen suggested that we call Hayden so that he could hear it over the phone.
Now thoroughly pulled back down to earth from my happiness high, I didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know. He’s probably busy. I guess he can probably just hear her say it later.”
“Yeah, but don’t you want him to be a part of this whole moment, right now? Don’t you want him to feel all this excitement right over the phone?”
I did, of course, but at the same time, I didn’t. I’d almost conditioned myself to plain not wanting to speak to him anymore, anticipating a fight every time. However, regardless of how things were going with the two of us, I realized that he was still Chrissy’s daddy, and as such, he should probably hear her new word sooner rather than later. Not to mention that if Chrissy could talk in full sentences, I knew she’d probably be telling me to call her daddy so that she could “show off” her new word to him.
With a faint groan, I grabbed my phone from my nightstand. “All right. I’m going to call Hayden…but I’m going to keep the conversation to Chrissy only. After all, why should we even bother to talk about anything that isn’t related to Chrissy anymore? I’m really starting to feel like we’re doomed, and that we’re going to split up anyway. It’s almost starting to feel inevitable.”
Jen shook her head, wagging a finger at me. “That, young lady, is pure poppycock.”
I cracked a smile. “That’s really such a funny word, isn’t it?”
Jen giggled. “Yup. But it’s a word that’s true, too, when it comes to you and Hayden splitting up. See, the Warrens are gonna bust up into this farm soon; all our vampires are gonna fight ‘em off; and then everything is going to go back to normal, with you and Hayden being as goofy in love with each other as the two of you were on your wedding day.
And then, you’re gonna turn to me and just be like, ‘Jen, you were right. When I was talking about me and Hayden splitting up, it turns out I was just full of poppycock.’”
I couldn’t help but laugh, covering my face with a hand. While I was doing so, Jen grabbed my phone, dialed up Hayden, and then handed my phone back to me.
“Here. Right when he answers, put the phone by Chrissy’s mouth and tell her to say Mama.”
I never got the chance. Because right when he picked up, Hayden didn’t even say hello. Instead, he said he had “no time.”
“Whatever you want to fight about right now, it’s going to have to wait. Okay? I’ve got problems, here.”
I managed to say fine before ending the call and throwing my phone into a stack of pillows. “Asshole. Hope you have time to show up for divorce court.”