If only having that support would make passing Cody over to his dad for ten days easier. Nothing would, though, and I couldn’t even bring myself to make a wish that Neil would cancel the trip because it would hurt my son too much.
No, I was going to have to suck it up and pray that my ex-husband had grown up in the three years we’d been apart.
Unfortunately, I’d end up being wrong.
Chapter Thirteen
Alex
I’d never had to share custody or endure the other parent taking DB away for periods of time. If I had, I’d expect I’d be acting just like Evie was as she walked back into her house the morning after her ex had collected Cody.
She usually had a brightness and air of excitement about her, but today, as she walked away from the chicken coop, her shoulders were slumped, and it looked like she was trying to push through a pool of mud. It was painful to see, and when she crossed over to where Bernice was excitedly waiting for her with her paws on the fence, her smile was so sad, I ached for her.
Obviously I wasn’t the only one who picked up on it because my dog started whining and nudging at her jaw with her nose, wanting to fix it for her.
Because the window was open, I heard it when she said, “It’s okay, baby. I’m sure it’ll get easier,” and it spurred something inside me.
I couldn’t fix what she was going through, but I could at least distract her and make her laugh a little during it.
Making a plan, I picked up my phone and texted Jacinda and Sayla, who had both given me their numbers during Cody’s recovery. Letting both women know their friend needed them tonight, I also told them I’d be getting some things delivered to help them and that I’d be taking over tomorrow.
Unfortunately for us, there’d been another uniform change, but this one had been in accordance with safety, so I didn’t mind.
Under our shirts, we’d now be wearing an undershirt of our own choice with a slimmed-down and more lightweight vest over it than the one I’d worn in Houston protective.
Because I’d dealt with this before, I’d recommended an undershirt made by UnderArmor that pulled the sweat away, because those vests were good at making you warm. Over it, we’d have our monogrammed P.V.P.D. polo shirts, and over that, we’d have the tactical vests so much money had been spent on.
The shooting of Damien Parks had caused the change, and because three towns over, another shooting had occurred while a group of officers were walking out to their vehicles without their vests on.
Now that we had a mayor who gave a shit about our safety, we were learning from mistakes and rectifying them instead of saying ‘at some point, we’ll get you these,’ like before. Hurst made sure we learned from other mistakes and backed the ongoing de-escalation training and techniques and equity and diversity training.
No police department was perfect, but going forward, we hoped to be as close to it as possible.
Making sure I had my utility belt and everything I needed, I left the house, waving at Evie as she got into her car to go to work. Her wave back was half-hearted, and she barely even smiled.
Yeah, something had to be done.
Rolling over in bed after a power nap the following day, I picked up my phone and smiled when I saw a thank you message from her for the wine and food I’d had delivered last night while she and the girls did a review on something called TikTok leggings. I didn’t even know what they were, but the guys at the station with women in their lives claimed they were created to make men lose their minds.
Granted, I’d felt a little unsure when I’d heard that, but operation smile was in full action, so I shrugged it off. If leggings could do that for a woman—i.e., Evie—it was worth it.
Cody had told me to download the app while he’d been recovering so I could watch the things his mom posted on there when I was having a bad day, and so far, I was almost addicted to it. The videos were short, but damn they were hilarious.
Seeing they’d downloaded a series of four videos the night before, I scrolled to the one that had a caption reading, “Are the leggings that good? Part 1.”
“So, we all went for different colors in them,” Jacinda said as she took a sip from her wine. In front of the camera, all three women were lined up with weird-looking leggings on. “I got pink, Sayla got the turquoise ones, and Evie went with black.”
Turning to the side, Evie jiggled her head as she took in her side profile. “I like the way they make my ass look fuller and lifted, my thighs look pretty good, and they don’t emphasize any shadows on areas like the stomach region.”