“Mama, I’m so happy to have a grampa!” She shouts as she hangs off him.
When Demon looks at me he has a tear in his eye, and I must admit I am feeling weepy myself.
“You have any problems?” He questions.
I shake my head.
“Good.”
We go inside and I prepare them both something to eat while we wait for Carter to get here. Ellie hasn’t shut up. She’s been talking a mile a minute. Telling her grampa all about school and her favorite things. She wasn’t supposed to start kindergarten until next fall, but she tested higher than most of the kids currently in kindergarten, hence her starting early. I guess I can’t deny that Gladys taught her well.
I thought it would be best to let them meet at my father’s house. I have so much I need to do. I need to figure out where Ellie and I are gonna live. Will Carter want to get a place together? Will I need to sell my house? It’s all a bit overwhelming.
After he finishes a few small bites of his soup and sandwich I watch my father take an assortment of pills and vitamins. Seeing what he is going through tugs on my heartstrings. The pile of medical bills on his kitchen counter further cement that he is telling me the truth. Most of the envelopes are from the office of an oncologist. I’m finally getting my life back and learning to accept this man and I have to lose him in return. It isn’t fair.
Ellie is in the living room watching cartoons.
“Don’t look at me like that, Princess. Don’t need you feeling all sorry for yourself or me. Life is what it is. We know what’s coming, we just gotta make the best of it.”
“For you I guess that means losing yourself in women and liquor,” I tease.
“Yesterday, maybe. But now I got you and my granddaughter with me. I plan to make the most of it. Gonna spoil that girl rotten.”
I smile weakly.
In a way, I don’t want Ellie growing attached to him. She will fall in love with his wicked charm and then he’ll be gone.
“Isn’t there anything we can do? There has to be a specialist who can give you an experimental treatment,” I suggest, feeling a shred of hope.
He takes my hand and squeezes it. “Doc told me, I could do some chemo and radiation, and it could buy me a few months at best, but I’d be sick and weak. I’d rather have a few good weeks than a few more miserable ones. I’ve lived a wild but good life. I did the one thing I wanted to…I got you girls here with me. Let me enjoy it. Don’t be sad. Be happy I lived and loved a lotta women.” He winks.
I start to cry and he shakes his head. “I raised you to be tougher, Harlee. Pull yourself together. I’m gonna go watch cartoons with my grandkid.”
I nod biting back my tears until he leaves the room. My hands are shaking. He’s just giving up. That’s it. I wrap my arms around myself and let my tears fall freely.
Chapter 33
Wrecker
After dealing with the bitch and disposing of her, I’m sitting outside of Demon’s house about to meet my daughter. I’m nervous. Me…fucking nervous. What if she doesn’t like me? What if she hates me for not being around? I don’t know how to be a dad. I never had one myself. I had to be the man of the house when my piece of shit father took off when I was five. I stepped up to look after Keisha because our mom sure as fuck wasn’t going to. She was just a baby and I had to make sure she had formula and diapers. I’d walk to the corner market from our roach infested apartment and use the WIC vouchers the lady at the health department gave my mom, but she was too busy running needles in her arm to care about shit like diapers and cereal.
I did the best I could for Keisha. I made sure she graduated high school and had nice clothes. No one else was going to step in and do it. I did whatever I could to provide for her and I love my sister as if she were my own child but I did a bang up job on her. Look at her, a fucking club whore laying with old men for money.
She swears her kid is Demon’s but I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t know shit about being a dad, but I will do my damndest to do right by Ellie. I didn’t ask but I am guessing she is named after Harlee’s mom, Ellen.
I want to be so fucking mad at Harlee, but the more I sit and think about why she did what she did, the more I understand it. I don’t like it but I can’t hold it over her head if we’re going to work. And fuck I want us to work. Plus, all the shit I did to her it just wouldn’t be right for me to stay mad at her about keeping my child from me. I have no right to be pissed, she makes me crazy but I wouldn’t have her any other way.
She was made for me.
I get off my bike and see her standing in the doorway waiting for me. On her hip is our daughter and fuck me the image is perfection and what I want to always come home to.
I take the porch steps two at a time. The kid is asleep with her head on her momma’s shoulder. I lean down and kiss her forehead then bring my lips down on Harlee’s.
“She’s had a long day,” she whispers careful not to wake our sleeping angel. As I stare at my daughter, I realize she’s the spitting image of Harlee, fuckin’ hell, I’m gonna need to buy more guns.
“We all have,” I grunt and take her into my arms, smelling her strawberry scented dark hair as I hug her to my chest never wanting to let her go. I’m crying like a bitch and I don’t care. This little girl is mine and no one will ever keep me away from her again.
I follow Harlee inside and Demon is asleep in the recliner looking exhausted. The changes in him are subtle, but now that I look at the bastard, I can see the circles under his eyes and the way his clothes hang on him. He’s lost a lot of weight. I guess I see him so much I didn’t notice before now because I wasn’t really looking at him.