CHAPTER NINE - ROSE
THREE YEARS LATER

The bulk of the dinner rush at the diner had just finished and I was wiping down the disgusting countertops everyone left behind. My eyes were glued to the clock, counting down the seconds until I could finally be free of this place. I had so many things I had to do and so many things I had to take care of.

Kevin was now thirteen years old, and he had school in the morning, which meant I had to make his lunch beforehand. I was working the morning shift, which meant the breakfast rush just after I dropped him off at school.

Not only that, but I had to get my three-year-old daughter, Ana, to a doctor’s appointment tomorrow instead of working the lucrative lunch shift.

At the diner where I now worked, there were two shifts you wanted: breakfast and lunch. The dinner shift—which I’d just worked—was full of people who wanted a cheap meal after drinking at the few bars in town and they always left shitty tips. I asked my roommate to keep Kevin and Ana tonight so I could pick up the extra shift when someone called out sick, but I was ready to get back home to them.

Ana had never been away from me for this long and I was getting worried that she thought I wasn’t coming back.

It hurt to give up my lunch shift tomorrow and miss all those tips, but I was adamant about taking Ana to all of her appointments. Cassie had been wonderful watching them for me, but I didn’t want her to do the things a mother should do for her child.

Three years ago, I’d had an amazing night of passion. A few weeks later, I’d started feeling nauseous and I had to keep calling out of work. I took medication to try and stave off the nausea so I could work and take care of Kevin, but Cassie was the one who dragged me to the drugstore. She bought me the ninety-nine-cent pregnancy test that changed my entire life and she held me while I cried that night.

She was there for every single doctor’s appointment and held my hand through every single ultrasound. She stayed up late at night, abating my fears and reassuring me that I could do this. She held my hand as I gave birth to the most beautiful consequence that could’ve ever come from that night I shared with my dark prince and, now, Cassie was my trusted babysitter when I needed to pick up other shifts. She had been there from day one with the revelation of my pregnancy and she held me up when I couldn’t hold myself up on my own.

Every time I looked into the beautiful blue eyes of my sweet baby girl, I was reminded of him, but I couldn’t let the ache overshadow the beauty that man had brought into my life.

The beautiful child he had given me was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Putting my life on hold for this little girl hadn’t been easy. Any dreams of returning to culinary school got tossed out the window. But there wasn’t a second that went by that I regretted any of it. I loved my brother and my daughter with a fire I hadn’t known I was capable of, and when Cassie and I teamed up to get through these tougher days, there was nothing that could stop us.

My shift finally ended and I raced home in my rundown car, anxious to wrap my arms around my makeshift family and pull them close to my chest.

“I’m home, you guys!”

“Cassie’s upstairs with Ana,” Kevin said. “She threw up on herself.”

“She threw up? Is she feverish? Rashy? Constipated?”

“Yes, no, no, and no,” Cassie said as she came down the steps with Ana. “She ate too many hot dog.”

“Hot dogs, yummy!” Ana exclaimed.

“Ah, we overate again,” I said as I plucked a naked Ana from Cassie’s arms. “Why do you always do that, hmm? Last week, you ate too many Cheerios.”

“I want Cheerios!” Ana said.

“Of course you do,” I said with a sigh.

“Wanna know how things at the bookstore went?” Cassie asked.

“I didn’t realize there was much to tell,” I said. “What’s up?”

“They want to promote Cassie to full-time employment,” Kevin said.

“Thanks for spoiling the surprise, dork,” she said.

“Cassie, are you serious?” I asked. “That’s awesome!”

“I guess,” she said, shrugging. “I’m not sure if it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life, but it’s money.”

“That’s what happens when you don’t think about the direction you want your life to take,” I said as I put clothes on Ana. “You end up in jobs you don’t like.”

“Hey, it helps with things around here, right?” she asked.

“But I also want you to be happy,” I said.

“Cassie says happiness is a choice, not a destination,” Kevin said.

“Cassie also says ‘bottoms up’ to whole bottles of tequila on a Wednesday night,” I said.

“And it sure tastes good going down,” she said.

“But not as good coming back up in our bathroom,” I said, grinning.

“Pee pee,” Ana said.

“You need to pee pee?” I asked.

I put Ana down, and she ran for her little potty in the corner. I was in the middle of potty training her while trying to get Kevin comfortable with school. He was going through that awkward stage where he didn’t really know where he fit in and I was trying to get him to open up a bit more. We talked a lot, and he and Cassie really bonded, but I think that’s because he thought Cassie was pretty more than anything else. For a thirteen-year-old boy, sitting next to a curvy girl with long brown hair and deep blue eyes was the equivalent of propping open a Playboy magazine.

“Ana is doing well with her potty training,” Cassie said.

“She is,” I said as Ana ran back to me. “I’m proud of her.”

“Now, we just gotta get her pooping in the potty. Then she’ll be ready to get a job, too!”

Kevin laughed while I shot her a look. I could see the playful smirk playing on her face while her and Kevin started up a game of Minecraft. It was something Kevin had become addicted to after playing it at a friend’s house, so Cassie and I saved up all our money and got him a gaming system and that specific game last Christmas.

“You sure you don’t want me to take Ana to her appointment tomorrow so you can catch the lunch shift?” Cassie asked.

“I’m sure,” I said. “I really want to take her to this appointment, especially with there being shots involved. You’re welcome to come, but I’ve already got someone covering my shift.”

“If you contracted your shifts out, you could probably scoop up some of their tips as payment,” Cassie said.

“You’re the weirdest person I know, you know that?” I asked.

“Oh, I make it a point,” she said, winking.

“Wanna build a castle?” Kevin asked.

“We built a castle last time,” she said. “Can we blow up this one?”

“Only if we build it with bricks,” Kevin said. “They scatter farther when you blow ‘em up.”

“I’m gonna go lay Ana down to bed and then I’ll be back to watch the festivities,” I said.

“Better hurry up! Countdown to explosions in T-minus twenty minutes!”

I shook my head and walked up the stairs as I headed to Ana’s room. She was already falling asleep on my shoulder as I laid her down in her crib, and the moment I covered her with her blanket, she was closing her eyes. I stared at her for a while, admiring the hairpin curve of her lips as she drifted off to sleep. She looked so much like him. It was uncanny. I’d pick her up in the morning and be hit with those big blue eyes and, suddenly, I’d be thrown back to that night.

That night I spent with my deep, dark prince.

I rubbed my neck, feeling the spot he’d marked three years ago. Back then, I’d covered it up for two weeks while it faded. But now? I’d give anything for it to be back.

I bent down and kissed Ana one last time before I ventured back downstairs. As I watched Kevin and Cassie giggling on the couch, I realized I wouldn’t trade this for anything. No matter how much of a surprise Ana was and no matter how much it hurt to lose my parents, I had the family I wanted.

The family I’d pieced together from the remnants of my life.

There wasn’t any part of it that I would change, no matter what.