“Hi, honey . . . I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Her mom always sounded as if she were on the edge of a breakthrough announcement. Considering their family dynamics, she often was.
“I’m on a break. Is everything okay?”
There it was, Sheryl’s anxious sigh followed by a telltale groan. “It’s Zanya.”
Zoe’s baby sister was now a mother with a three-month-old. Without hearing the details, Zoe could tell by her mother’s tone that this wasn’t a call about disaster striking. “I assume Blaze is okay.”
“Your nephew is fine . . . it’s Zanya. I think she’s pregnant again.”
Zoe was sure her jaw dropped enough to invite a flock of birds to nest inside. Of all the things her mother could have said, Zanya being knocked up before her vagina had healed from pushing nine pounds of Blaze out wasn’t expected.
“What?”
“I found a pregnancy test in the bathroom.”
Zoe sat forward, head in her hand. That lack-of-food headache was quickly shifting into something that would need more than protein to fix. “Was it used?”
“No. She can’t do this a second time. I knew when she started seeing that ass again things would go downhill.”
That ass was Blaze’s father, Mylo Barkov. “You can’t expect him to sit out on his son’s life.”
“Fine. He doesn’t have to sit out, but he doesn’t have to stick it in her again!” Zoe found a smile on her lips at her mother’s crass and pointed statement, despite the severity of the situation. “Can you talk to her? She won’t listen to me.”
“You might be jumping to the wrong conclusions.”
“Pregnancy tests don’t just land in your cart at the market, Zoe.”
Zoe rubbed the bridge of her nose. “No, they don’t.” And thank God she’d never had a scare like the one her sister was going through. Zanya was barely able to drink legally in a bar and was a single mother who’d dropped out of school and had no real employable skills outside of retail and service work. Which in a small town the size of River Bend meant she’d be living in her mom’s mobile home for years to come. Seemed her sister was living the life Zoe feared and ran from. Too bad she hadn’t been able to take her baby sister with her when she’d left all those years ago.
“I have to be back on set in twenty minutes. Is she there? Or should I call back tonight?”
“She’s gone. But please call as soon as you can. If she isn’t knocked up again, she needs to have someone slap her into closing her legs.”
“Mom!”
“I mean it, Zoe. I love you kids, but I don’t need to raise another lot. I’m willing to help, but Blaze is a full-time job by himself. I can’t have another one around here. I’m getting too old for this crap.”
Late forties wasn’t old. Many hard years of life, however, gave Sheryl the appearance of a woman ten years older.
September slipped into the room with a bag in her hand.
Zoe raised her index finger in the air and finished the conversation.
“I’ll call her, Mom. Try not to stress about this. It’s probably a false alarm.”
“Damn well better be.”
“I’ve gotta go.”
“Call her,” was her mom’s final demand.
Zoe ended the call and tossed her phone on the sofa with a moan.
“That bad?” September asked from the door.
“Why can’t family call just to say hi? Why is it always drama?”
September started to laugh. “Friends call to say hi. Family call when they need something.”
“I feel guilty,” Zoe moaned.
“Because you’re living your life?” Mel asked after getting the scoop on the Zanya situation.
“Because I’m not there keeping my baby sister from making more mistakes.”
“You’re talented, Zoe, but stopping your sister from having sex isn’t a skill you have.”
Zoe rested her head in her hands as she spoke on the phone. “I haven’t been there for her. My mom isn’t exactly the perfect role model, and we both know Zane can hardly take care of himself, let alone be a big brother for more than ten minutes at a time.”
“You’re her sister, not her mother. You can open the communication door, but she needs to walk through it to make it happen.”
Zoe knew her friend was right. “Still feel guilty.”
“I’ll talk to her. Make sure she knows I’m here to listen. Being a single mom is hard. It’s easy to fall into the trap of sticking with the wrong man to make it easier.”
If anyone knew that, it was Mel. Her eight-year-old daughter was born before Mel turned twenty. The baby daddy was a piece of shit, rest in peace.
As the words rolled around in Zoe’s head, she pictured Hope’s father the last time she’d seen him alive. Nathan had tried to gain custody of Hope for all the wrong reasons. Went so far as to hire thugs to make Mel look like a bad mom. Everything backfired on the man, and one of the thugs he’d hired did a hell of a lot more than set Mel up for an unwinnable court battle.
“You didn’t stick with Nathan for long.”
“No, but it wasn’t easy on my own. I can’t say I wouldn’t have caved if he’d lost his selfish gene and stepped up early on.”
“It would never have been good with that man.”
“Don’t I know it. If I knew men like Wyatt were out there, I wouldn’t have ever slept with Nathan to begin with.”
“Yeah, but then you wouldn’t have Hope. And you wouldn’t have made it back to River Bend and met the love of your life.”
“Who knew you were such the romantic?” Mel teased.
“I’m not.”
“Speaking of Wyatt . . . has he called you?”
Zoe felt a smile on her lips. He hadn’t, but she knew why Mel was asking.
“Nope, why?”
“Oh, I don’t know . . . ask you my ring size, maybe.”
Zoe giggled. “I don’t know your ring size.”
“Six. We’ve talked about this.”
“I must have forgotten.” Wyatt was working up the right time to pop the question. The question everyone already knew the answer to.
“You’re just as frustrating as Jo. Maybe I should put my ring size on the box of condoms.”
“I’d hope you’re on the pill by now,” she teased.
“I am, but I’ve forgotten to take the damn things twice now. We need backup.”
“How is it you’ve forgotten something as important as a pill?” Mel was the smart one, or so Zoe always thought.
“I kept them on the bathroom counter. Someone moved them, and I forgot to take it. I remembered the next day.”
“Where did you find them?”
“In my makeup bag. I never put them in there.”
“How did that happen? I can’t imagine Wyatt doing it.” Mel worked alongside Miss Gina at her bed-and-breakfast. She had the caretaker’s room and a private bath that wasn’t cleaned by the staff brought in on busy weekends. For the most part, the large Victorian home held only Miss Gina, Mel, and Hope. Plus the occasional overnight guest otherwise known as Wyatt. Though Wyatt had his own place just outside of town.
“You’re probably just being blonde.”
“Ha-ha! Very funny.” Melanie was as blonde as Zoe was dark haired. “So when are you coming to visit us again?”