Chapter 34
Cassie
I decided to start staying with Scott. That was where I felt the most comfortable, and he liked to have me close. On Monday morning, we both got up, dressed, showered, and got ready for the day ahead. I felt wiped out after confronting my father the night before, but like Whitney said, life continued to go on and I had to as well, or else I was going to get left behind. I had to admit it was nice to have breakfast with Scott and kiss him good-bye before going our separate ways to work.
The day itself was nice and quiet. The guys on the crew were getting work done for once, but I knew that had something to do with us being behind and everyone’s jobs being threatened. Bill was happy to see me there and sent me on my rounds of the site. Everyone was quiet and content. Even Carl didn’t say much to me. I assumed my father had told Carl how it was after he ratted me out and either threatened his livelihood or paid him off to leave me alone. Either way, it was nice to no longer worry about getting caught alone with him since he made a beeline in the opposite direction of wherever I was walking. I wasn’t particularly fond of the job, but it got me out of the house and got my blood pumping, which was good at that stage of my pregnancy.
I wished I could say the whole experience was worry free, but it wasn’t. I knew my father was on the warpath. There was no way he couldn’t be. He would have known from the morning briefing that I had decided to go to work. I was looking over my shoulder all day, wondering if he was going to show up out of the blue and fire me, or worse, yell at me in front of everyone and spill my secret to the people who worked for me. It was stressful hiding out in the different stations and peaking around the corner every time a truck pulled up out front. Happily, though, he never did show up to fire me or even talk to me at all. Maybe Scott was right. Maybe giving him some space to think things through was exactly what my father needed to come to terms with what was going on.
I barely made it through the rest of the day. I was exhausted, and it felt like instead of getting better, I was getting more and more tired every day. By the end of the day, I was ready to go back to Scott’s house and crawl into his bed and take a nap. I hailed an Uber, having left my car at my dad’s, and headed back to my new temporary home. While we drove through town and toward the house, I let my thoughts loose in my head. I started to question whether I had made the right decision to tell my father. Maybe I was too quick to jump on the horse and should have given it more time to establish a solid base in my relationship first. What was done was done, though, and there was no going back. My father knew. Soon my mother would know. It would spread like wildfire from there on out.
When we pulled up to the house, I paid the driver and got out, then noticed a strange car parked in the driveway behind Scott’s. Not only was he home early, but he had someone in the house with him. For a moment my stomach flipped, but then I reminded myself how much Scott cared about me and that he would never do something like cheat on me. I was being emotional and paranoid, two things that had become staples since I’d gotten pregnant—a two things that were driving me absolutely nuts inside my own head.
I stopped and grabbed the mail out of the box for Scott and headed up to the house. I took my boots off outside because they were so muddy from the site and then walked inside. I put my bag on the hook by the door and yawned, trying to wake myself up. If there was a guest here, I didn’t want them to think I was rude, but I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. It was getting harder and harder to keep up a normal routine, and not having my things in one place didn’t help. I couldn’t go back to my father’s though, so I would have to make do with what I had and get the rest when the time was right. In the meantime, I had some clothes and things at Whitney’s house I could bring over.
“I’m home,” I yelled from the front of the house as I walked into the living room.
I stopped and smiled, staring at an older woman sitting on the couch. She stood up and smiled big, looking over as Scott came out of the kitchen with a couple glasses of iced tea. He smiled at me, and we all stood there awkwardly for several moments. Finally, Scott snapped out of it and put down the drinks and walked over to me, wrapping his arms around me and hugging me tightly.
“Hey,” he said. “You okay? You look exhausted.”
“I’m okay.” I smiled. “Just a long, strenuous day at work.”
“Hear anything from your father?” he asked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head and glancing over at the woman. “He stayed away from the site today, and he hasn’t called me at all.”
“He will,” Scott said. “Don’t worry. It’s only been one night.”
“I know,” I said, kissing him on the cheek.
“But now that you are home, I want you to meet someone,” he said excitedly and pulled me over to the couch. “This is Aunt Ida. After my father died, she was a staple in my household. She has been like a second mother to me my entire life. She lives down the street from the house I grew up in and lived at until my mother passed away a couple years ago. I think you will find that the two of you have similar, stubborn personalities. She is one of the most important people in the world to me and one of my last living relatives. Aunt Ida, this is my girlfriend, Cassie, the one I have been telling you about all afternoon.”
“My sweet Cassie,” she said, walking over to me. “It is so good to meet you.”
She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly, and I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of both happiness and jealousy. I didn’t have anyone in my life I was that close to, not anyone who would have given Scott that kind of greeting without knowing him. This woman was the typical older aunt who I could tell didn’t have any children of her own. She was petite with the same striking blue eyes as Scott, and she smelled like apples and cinnamon.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” I said.
“Scott has never introduced me to a woman in his life before.” She giggled and took my hand, pulling me over to sit down. “You must be a very special young lady. He told me all about you, your schooling, how smart you are, and how much he loves you.”
I looked at Scott, who was both smiling and blushing with embarrassment. I had never seen him interact with anyone like he did with her, and I found it sweet and endearing. I could tell this woman was the most important family member he had, and I started to feel special to be able to meet her. Scott walked over and leaned down to my ear.
“Do you have the picture with you?”
“Oh,” I said. “Hold on one second. I put it on the dresser before I left for work. I didn’t want it to get wrinkled.”
I stood up and walked into the bedroom, grabbing the sonogram off the desk and smiling down at the sweet little baby in the picture. I held it to my chest and walked back into the living room. I handed it over to Scott and stood, waiting to see what the reaction would be. I was so used to the reaction being negative that I held my breath.
“Aunt Ida, we have some news,” Scott said proudly, handing over the picture. “We are going to be parents.”
“Oh my God, are you serious?” she exclaimed. “Oh God, look at that precious little baby. No bigger than a bean in this picture. Oh, Scott, this is absolutely the most beautiful thing you could have shown me.”
She got up and hugged Scott tightly. She whispered something in his ear and turned to me, hugging me again as well. She looked down at the picture with pure love, and a bit of sadness ran through me. I wished my own father could have had even a smidgen of happiness in his heart when he found out.
“This is beautiful,” Ida said with tears in her eyes. “Congratulations, you two. Your mother would have been so happy. She would have already told the world she was going to be a grandma.”
“I was hoping that since Mom can’t be here, you could be the grandma,” Scott said. “I can’t think of anyone else in the world who would be better to have in our child’s life. You gave me so much growing up, and you were there through the toughest of times. I would love for you to do the same thing with our baby.”
“I would be honored,” Ida said, tears flowing down her cheeks. “This baby is going to have such a beautiful life with the two of you. I can see the love in your eyes when you look at each other. I am so proud of both of you.”
“Thank you.” I smiled, feeling good that our child would have such a lovely woman in its life.
“I don’t have any children of my own,” she said. “My husband died very young, and I never met anyone else. He was the one and only for me. So, I never thought I would be a grandma. This is so very exciting. Thank you, both of you, for making me a part of this. Now, let’s get that dinner on the table. This young lady needs to feed that baby.”
“Oh, God yes.” I laughed and following them into the kitchen.
It was a wonderful evening, sitting around listening to stories of Scott from when he was a little boy. I learned about his mother and who she was and got to watch Scott interact with his aunt. I was trying to keep my spirits up, but I was devastated. My own mother was nowhere to be found, and my father hated me. I didn’t have anyone but Whitney in my life who was happy for me and hoping for the best for me. It was discouraging to be the person all alone with no one else to introduce Scott to. I had never felt like this before, and it really made me realize how important the people you loved were.