“Mrs. Watson—”
“Walk. Away,” Dad shouted, his voice shaking us all. James lowered his head and nodded before he turned to walk off. Everyone’s eyes moved to stare at me. Dad released Mike and within a second, Mike was dashing off after James. As he rounded the corner, all I heard was a screaming James and Mike shouting how he was going to kill him once he got a hold of him. “I should go get him…” Dad grabbed his coat from inside and headed off in the direction of the two boys.
Mom wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “It’s cold, come inside.”
I followed her into the house, but I hardly warmed up.
* * *
Mom spent a long time telling me that everything would be all right, but I hadn’t a clue how that could be true. I felt the walls around me collapsing. Things had finally been getting better. Everyone was coming around to the idea of the baby and the adoption. Then James had to decide to ruin everything.
“We’ll wait until morning to sort through this all. Okay? Don’t worry too much. It will all work out.” She kissed my forehead and left the room.
The moment she left, a few tears fell from my eyes. The whole situation was overwhelming. My fingers rolled over my stomach. He was the only thing that kept me breathing right now. Each breath I took was merely for him.
“James is the dad?” Grace asked, standing in my doorway.
I closed my eyes, wiping the few fallen tears away. “I’m not in the mood right now, Grace.” She didn’t reply, but I listened to her footsteps walking closer to me. “Grace, I said I’m not in the mood.” I opened my eyes and saw her holding two beaded necklaces.
“I used my Christmas bead set and made one for the baby and one for you.”
I swore I felt my heart breaking. I thanked her for the necklaces, and she smiled. “I’m glad you didn’t turn out to be an ugly pregnant person.”
Snickering, I hugged her with my huge belly. “Thanks, Grace.”
* * *
I waited until the next morning to head over to Levi’s house and explain what had happened the night before. Mostly I was embarrassed, and also angry at James for thinking it was okay to kiss me, to even touch me. Standing on Mr. Myers’ porch, I knocked on the door, waiting for an answer.
When the door finally opened and a fragile Mr. Myers appeared with purple shadows under his eyes, I hiccupped nervously.
“Yeah?” he muttered, staring blankly at me.
“I’m looking for Levi,” I said, giving him a half smile.
Mr. Myers grumbled. “He’s gone.”
“Oh.” I bit my bottom lip. “Is he at Soulful Things?”
“No. He’s gone back to Alabama.”
His words didn’t register at first, because those words made no sense. I’d just seen Levi yesterday afternoon; how could he be gone? “What do you mean?”
“I sent him back home yesterday.”
My heartbeat increased as I stared into a pair of brown eyes that were much colder than the ones that belonged to the boy I’d come to see. How could Levi leave? How could he not say goodbye? Why would Mr. Myers send him away?
“Why would you do that?” I asked angrily. “All he wanted was to be with you!”
“We don’t always get what we want, girl. This ain’t no fairy tale.”
“He’s been nothing but good to you. You’ve treated him like he’s nothing, but all he did was take care of you. And then you ship him off because you’re sick of him? Because he’s a hassle? How could you be so selfish?! How could you just take the easy road and send him away?”
“You think this is easy?!” he shouted, tossing his hands in the air with defeat. “You think it’s easy having your son care for you, spoon feed you, because you’re too damn weak? You think it’s easy living with the demons that took over my soul long ago? Living with the memories of the things I’ve done to people in this town? To Levi? To his mom? Well, little girl, you are stupid if that’s what you think. You’re a fool if you think anything about my life is easy.”
“And what kind of issues do you think you left with your son when you chose to ship him off instead of trying to fix some of those past mistakes?”
“It’s too late to fix anything,” he said, rubbing his hands nervously together.