The Daddy Box Set

“Which you weren’t,” she said.

“I know!” It was nice that someone else was on my side about it. “I wasn’t, at all. He took it the wrong way though and said they were better off without me.”

“Son of a bitch,” Sierra said, flashing her teeth. “When did this happen?”

“Last night.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” she asked, rubbing my arm.

“It was late, and I wanted to sort through my feelings.”

“What are you going to do now?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I have no idea. But I don’t even feel like doing anything right now either. I’m still letting this all sink in. I can’t believe I’m never going to see them again.”

Sierra hugged me again, and I sagged against her. What was I going to do next? Sierra didn’t have any advice, so I knew there was only one other person I could talk to.

After visiting with Sierra for a while, I we

nt home and called Mom. I knew the timing was off due to our distance, but I needed to get another opinion on the matter. I would have liked to talk to Noah about everything. But I wasn’t going to call him. If he wanted to apologize, he’d have to contact me.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hello, love. I was just thinking’ about ya.”

“Mom,” I said, and then my voice cracked.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

Not physically. “I’m fine.”

“You scared me. What’s going on?” she asked.

I sighed and hung my head. “I got fired yesterday.”

There was a long pause on the other end. “Noah fired you?”

“He did.”

“What happened?”

I told her everything that occurred between us returning home and him firing me.

“That’s a load of shit,” she said. “That poor girl. She probably misses the hell out of you.”

“I miss her.” And him. But I was so upset with him right then that I didn’t want to focus on our personal relationship until I got over his betrayal.

“It’s ridiculous that it ended like that,” she said. “Has he called you?”

“No,” I said. I usually got paid on Fridays, but I had a feeling Allison was going to mail my last paycheck.

“And after coming down here with you and everything. It all seemed like it was going to work out for the three of you,” she said.

“That’s what I thought too.”

“And you didn’t even get to say goodbye to Gina,” she said, clicking her tongue disapprovingly.

“That’s one of the worst parts, Mom. My heart is broken. I can’t even think straight. What am I going to do?”

“What do you want to do?” she asked.