Romance: New Adult: One Game at a Time - A College Football Romance (Bad Boy Romance) (Sports Contemporary Short Stories) (39 page)

Chapter Four

In the three days since her arrival, Joyce had seen much more of Anne and Gary than she had of Tom. Her initial meeting with Tom had been
brief
and he had enough time for her to introduce himself and say hello to his daughter before he was off to work.
He
didn’t come home until late in the evening, usually eating his dinner in a restaurant in the town. He told Joyce that they would speak privately on Saturday, which was still a day away, and that they would make plans to
be married
at that time.

It wasn’t the most pleasant way to meet your future husband.

She hadn’t been having an easy time of it with Eliza either. She had to learn everything about caring for a baby from Anne, who had apparently been taking care of Eliza the most. Joyce found herself wondering why Anne and Gary hadn’t
simply
adopted Eliza and taken her care off of Tom’s hands. And mind.

She woke up frustrated that Thursday, hearing Eliza calling from her room. The sun had barely
risen,
and Tom
was already gone
. She threw the covers
from
her legs and sat up, frustrated.
This was
not the life
she
had wanted. She had wanted fun,
adventure,
and new love. Not to be saddled with a baby and a
never-present
husband that she didn’t even know and didn’t consider all that handsome.

The money she had tucked away beckoned her every morning. She sighed
heavily
, deciding once more to ignore its call and
go tend
to the child.

She pulled on a robe and slipped her feet into her slippers. Eliza was awake much earlier than usual. No one would have made any coffee yet.

Joyce went into Eliza’s room and picked her up and out of her crib. “Here you go,
Ellie,
” she said. “Good morning, good morning.” She kept her voice pleasant and forced a smile on her face. There was no way she would let this happy child feel her frustration. That wouldn’t be fair at all. Her unhappiness was her
own,
and she wasn’t going to make a baby feel it too. Besides, her crying would be endless. That was the last thing Joyce wanted at this point.

She set Ellie down
in
a chair and took up a towel to brush her little hands and face with water from the basin. Then she brushed the little girl’s curls and helped her rub a small cloth over her tiny teeth. She had adopted her
own
morning routine for the
child,
and Ellie didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. She opened her little mouth and displayed her teeth, separating them for Joyce to get the insides of them too.
She
bounced slightly in the chair while Joyce brushed her yellow curls. She sat perfectly still and closed her eyes while Joyce wiped her face with first a wet towel and then a dry one.

When Joyce
was finished
, she was rewarded with a big grin and a hug around the neck. Every time Ellie hugged her, Joyce felt her heart melting a little more. She wished that Ellie was her
own
child and was slowly coming to realize that she might as well be.

“Let’s go exploring today, Ellie, shall we?”

Without having the slightest clue what “exploring” might mean, Eliza jumped up and down and clapped her hands. “Yes, yes, yes!”

Joyce laughed. “All right, let’s go!” She held out her
hand,
but Ellie held up both arms. “
Oh,
you are going to get heavy pretty quickly, little
one,
” Joyce said. “But I’ll carry you for a bit, okay?”

“Up! Please!”

Joyce couldn’t resist her. “Okay, dear.” She leaned down and picked the little girl up in her arms. “I imagine your little legs get tired pretty quickly, don’t they? Although you don’t have nearly as much weight to carry as someone big like me.” She continued chatting, knowing that Ellie wasn’t processing much of what she was saying, if anything. She talked to her as if she was much older than she
really
was. Apparently,
she
was smarter than most. According to Anne, she had learned to walk
early,
and though she didn’t say many words, she was able to read the alphabet and numbers and could understand a few words that were written down on paper, such as “dog” and “cat
.”
At sixteen months, that was an incredible accomplishment.

“Which way should we go, Ellie? This way or that way?” She pointed down the hallway once she’d reached the second floor. Ellie looked as though she were
really
thinking about it, which made Joyce want to burst out laughing. She smiled instead and waited, biting her bottom lip gently.

“Dis way!” Ellie pointed to the left. Joyce was glad. She hadn’t been down that way before and was anxious to see what there was to see. There were three rooms on each side of the house. Most of the new construction was on the bottom floor. The house spread out back over the
land,
and its length couldn’t
be seen
from the front. You had to round the entire house to see that it had
been added
on to extensively.

The first door she opened was to what looked like a spare bedroom. On the other side, a floor to ceiling window was covered by long blue draperies. The furniture consisted of a canopy bed with dusty curtains, a side table, a dresser and an area rug. All
were covered
with a thick layer of dust. She was glad to see that there were no cobwebs. The room was probably only attended to once a month, from the look of it.

She closed the door and gave Ellie a look. “It’s too dusty in there!” She exclaimed. Ellie giggled.

The second door led to a room that looked similar to the first but was slightly less dusty. The furnishings were the same,
with the exception of
the coloring, which was green as opposed to blue in the first room.

She closed the door and looked at Ellie once again. “It’s too dusty in there, too!” She made a
face
and the baby laughed.

“Well, let’s try the third one then, shall we?”

When she opened the door to the third room, she was surprised and frightened to see that someone was in there, standing at the large window on the opposite side. When her
eyes
adjusted to the light coming through the glass, she saw that it was Tom. He turned and looked at her. His hands
were clasped
behind his
back,
and he stood there rigidly, with a terribly sad look on his face.

“Hello, Tom!” Joyce stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. This room was not dusty. It was immaculate. The furniture was
polished,
and the bed looked as though it may have been slept in the night before. It wasn’t Tom’s room. It
was filled
with flowers,
pretty
pictures on the walls, a red velvet drapery that was pulled back from the window and held in place with a gold tassel and a soft, silk pink curtain around the canopy bed. “You…you scared me. Are you
…
all right?”

Tom looked back out the window, resuming the stance he’d had before she came in.

“Do you see that long patch of grass down there?” He asked, pointing.

Joyce set Eliza down and came to stand next to him.
She
looked through the window to where he was pointing. “I do.”

“Lizzie and I used to picnic in that very spot. She made the best sandwiches I’ve ever eaten. They were always delicious and made just the way I like them. She never forgot anything. She always knew what I liked.”

Joyce pressed her lips together.
His voice was so sad.
His eyes gazed mournfully down to the patch of grass before sliding out over the rest of the land that could
be seen
. “We went for many walks down there in the garden and around the
land
here.”

“How long had you been married to her?”

“I had her for six very short
years,
” he replied.

Joyce suppressed a sigh. The woman had died almost two years previous. Tom’s heart
was stuck
in the past. “Tom, why did you call me here?”

Tom lowered his
head,
and she could see he was ashamed. Her heart ached for him. She put one hand on his shoulder, glancing back to see that Eliza had pulled herself up on the bed and was rolling around on it, pulling the blanket along with her. Tom noticed as well and smiled softly. His love for his daughter
was plainly written
on his face. For Joyce, that was all she needed.

“I’m not angry, Tom. Please tell me why you brought me here.”

“I…I need to make some changes. I need to…let go.”

“I’m glad you feel that way, Tom.” Joyce kept her voice very soft and was glad when he looked down directly into her eyes. “I think you’re right. You’ve been in mourning long enough. You must try to think about your daughter.
If,
for any reason, you should because she is a part of Lizzie. You even gave her a name that would honor her mother. The Bible itself says that we may mourn for a
while,
but that rejoicing comes in the morning. If you look at your little girl, how can you not rejoice in the fact that she is here? God gave you a piece of Lizzie to hold on to and love forever. He called His daughter home, would you
really
want to deny Lizzie of that wonderful blessing? Would you want her back here where there
is
pain, unhappiness and tears? I know you don’t.”

Tom shook his head but said nothing. He was listening to her, so she continued.

“I know you loved her with all your
heart,
and she probably felt the same way about you. If she did, she wouldn’t want you to feel this way forever. She would want you to let go and live your life and be happy. Especially so that you can take good care of Ellie.”

“I like that you call her
‘Ellie.'
It’s fitting for this little light.”

“Yes, I agree. And you don’t want
to really be
reminded each time you call your daughter, at least not until
you
’ve become strong enough to accept the loss of someone you loved so much. You need to show Ellie that through the death of her mother, you have found
a fresh
respect for life. You can’t drag in the mud forever. She needs to see you happy. She needs to see
you
.”

“You are such a good woman, Joyce. I am so glad you came here. God must have sent you to me.”

“Tom, I know it’s going to take you
some time
still to pull out of your grief. But you
can
do it. And I will help you.”

“You are a beautiful woman.”

Joyce blushed. “Thank you.”

“I don’t just mean on the outside, I mean on the inside, too.”

“I must admit I was thinking about leaving and going back to Virginia at first. I was very much contemplating it.”

“It’s natural you would feel that way. I lied to you. Well, I didn’t admit to the truth, did I? I just…I just couldn’t take a chance that the only response I got to my ad would not come because of my sadness and my
little baby
girl.”

Joyce licked her lips and moved closer to him. She put one hand up on his
chest,
and he put his hand over hers. “I will not leave you, Tom, if I can help it. You can’t stay in mourning forever. You
must
pursue happiness. You can’t expect it
to just come
to you.”

He nodded. “In this case, I think it did.
You
have come.
You
will help me feel better. I am blessed to have you. So is Ellie.”

“God has blessed us
both
, Tom. He gave us both what we didn’t know we needed.”

*****

THE END

Chapter One

When Mary Ann fell back against the pillow, she was exhausted and grateful that the ordeal seemed
to be finally
over. Both babies had left her
body,
and she was on the verge of passing out from the strain of having given birth to them both.
She
could barely see the
mid-wife
finishing whatever she had to do and the two nurses holding the babies swaddled in blankets. Her heart was pounding hard for
them,
and she held out her arms to take them from the nurses.

“Let me hold them,” Mary Ann murmured. Both nurses came to her bedside and gently laid the tiny girls in her arms. Tears rolled down her face when she looked
in
their precious faces. They were identical – or so it seemed to her eyes. She could not believe how beautiful they were. Andrew, her husband, wouldn’t be
happy; she already
knew that. But at this point, she didn’t care. She had carried them for nine months, trying her best to stay healthy and stress-free despite the fact that he was so adamant that he’d never wanted children. It wasn’t just something that could
be prevented
. He was the one who had taken her to bed. She had no control over whether the babies were conceived or not.

She was afraid of what he would do to them all. Since he’d found out she was pregnant, he had turned into a vicious monster, with his words and his fists. No matter what he’d done, these babies survived and so did she.
She felt blessed to see their healthy faces. Even though they were underweight and so tiny they both fit in her arms comfortably.

Their eyes were closed, asleep. She kissed their noses and snuggled her face into them.

“My sweet babies. Sweet, sweet babies.”

“What will you name them, madam?” Asked one of the nurses as they stood looking on with soft smiles.

Mary Ann looked up at them both. “I think Rebecca and Annabelle. What do you
think
?”

“Those are
wonderful
names, Miss!” The other nurse gushed. Mary Ann smiled wide and gazed down at the babies again.
They were so beautiful.
She felt her heart overflowing with love for them.

Her heart almost came out of her chest when the door burst
open,
and Andrew came stomping through,
a hateful
look on his face.

“Are you done?” he asked, approaching the bed as the
nurses
scattered.

She instinctively held the babies closer to her.

“Yes,
” she answered, fear
obvious
in the
lone
word she said.

“Good. Give them to me.”

She held them even closer. “What are you going to do? I can’t give them to you. They need
me; I
just had them.”

“I said give them to me
now
! I told you I don’t want children. I’m giving them both to the orphanage. You will never see them again!” He was enjoying himself. She could see it by the look on his face. His scowl mixed with a sneer was almost a smile.

“No! No, you
can’t take them
! They’re
mine
!”

“Oh no? Watch me.” He reached down to grab the
children,
and she turned away, holding them against her chest so that she could keep them in her arms without suffocating them against her large bosom.

“No!” She cried out, tears streaming down her face. “No!”

“Give them to me
now
!!!” Andrew screamed at her.

“
No! No!”

Andrew pulled back and growled at her.
“Look, you
can give them to me now or suffer the consequences later. I’ll tell you what, you give me one of
them,
and you can keep the other.”

“No! I can’t separate them! It’s not right! You can’t do this!”

He grabbed her shoulder and yanked on it so that she fell back against the pillow flat again, unable to resist his strength in her weakened condition. “You won’t choose?? I will!” He began to wrestle Rebecca out of her hands. She was too weak to hold on to the little girl and felt her heart being ripped out of her chest as he pulled the baby away.

“No!” she screamed, reaching out
to
the baby. “No, you can’t take her! You can’t take her!”

“Take a good look at it, Mary Ann! I told you what would happen if you had any children. I told you I didn’t want any! And now you get to see what happens when I don’t get what I want. You get to suffer! You shouldn’t be
worried, you
can still see the same face in the one you have left. Cherish that because you are going to suffer for this. I promise you!”

The nurses had surged around the bed but couldn’t say anything to the man. The three nurses that were in the room and the
mid-wife
all knelt next to the bed, putting their hands on Mary Ann and bowing their heads. Two of them were already crying. The other two were whispering prayers.

“Bunch of stupid women. Like I want
two
more whining women in my house! You couldn’t even give me a son! You’re worthless and a complete waste of my time!”

“No, Andrew! Don’t take her!
Don’t take her away from me! Don’t take her!”
She continued to grab for the child. Her fingers touched the soft pink blanket just before he turned away quickly so that she couldn’t see Rebecca’s face.

“
Rebecca
!” She cried out.

“Already gave it a name?” Andrew continued to sneer. “Say goodbye! You aren’t going to see it again. Count yourself lucky I let you keep that one! You’ll be alone taking care of it!”

“
Rebecca! Rebecca
!” Mary Ann cried out as he left the room, reaching for her baby. When the door slammed behind them, she pulled Annabelle up to her face, showering the child with wet kisses. “We’ll find her,
baby, we
’ll find her. I’ll get her back. I’ll get her back somehow.”

Once he was gone, the nurses threw themselves over her legs and held on to her arms, crying with her and saying soothing words. She was crying harder than she ever had and didn’t know if she would ever stop.

Despite his anger, Andrew held the tiny newborn gently against him as he stomped out of the house. He wondered if he could get any money for it. There might be somebody at the orphanage who would pay him for it. It seemed healthy
enough,
and it had all of its fingers and toes. It still hadn’t made a sound or opened its eyes.

Still holding the baby girl tightly, he pulled himself up into the saddle on his horse and took off toward town. The orphanage would take
it,
either way, he knew. He thought about what he would do to Mary Ann and the one that was left when he got back. He was going to make sure she was as miserable as he was for having made him a father. He resented the fact that she couldn’t even produce a boy for him. Either way, he didn’t want any sniveling rats running around his feet.

The ride to the orphanage was short. The town was small. Along the way, he stopped at the general store and picked up a wicker picnic basket with a lid. He ignored the look the clerk gave him when he immediately put the baby
in
it. He left the lid open until
he left
the general store and then closed it once he was back in the saddle. The orphanage was just two blocks up and to the right. He didn’t need everyone in town staring at him carrying a baby and leaving it on the stoop of the orphanage. He didn’t need their judgmental looks. He did need the customers for his carpentry business, so they didn’t need to know anything about his personal business. No one in town had even known Mary Ann was pregnant except the nurses and
mid-wife
and he’d already told them what they would get if they spread the word.

Now he was going to have to contend with the one that was left. Mary Ann would be sorry for betraying him by getting pregnant and having not one but two more females for his house. An only child, the loneliness of growing up alone with stand-offish
parents,
made him jealous and spiteful of his twin daughters.

He got to the orphanage quickly, slid from his horse and left the basket on the front stoop, leaving as
quickly
as he came. They would find it sooner or later. He wasn’t worried.

As he rode back to the house, he pondered all the fun things he was going to do to make Mary Ann pay for what she’d done. He was smiling and whistling as he imagined denying her food she would desperately need in her condition, making her do extra housework, forcing her to neglect her child when it was crying.
He
chuckled. He was going to have fun.

His smile turned in
to
a frown when he saw two men on horseback heading in his direction. He knew who they were. They were
customers,
and he’d cheated them on the price he’d given them for some repair work on one of their buggies. He wondered if they knew he’d cheated them. From the looks on their faces when they saw him, he could tell they did. He sneered, slowing his horse down so that it would take longer for them to get close to him.

He reached to his side but felt an
empty space
. He hadn’t come prepared for this. He’d left the house without any protection because he was carrying the baby. He remembered his gun belt was on the table by the door. He gritted his teeth. There was little chance he was getting out of this using words. He didn’t like these
two,
and they didn’t like him. He was betting they were armed and ready to fight.

He stopped in the middle of the street, scanning the two to see if they were reaching to their sides. When he saw them both
reaching
, he turned his horse around and kicked her sides to take off in a gallop back in the direction he’d been
coming from
. He could hear the men yelling
behind
him and knew they were giving chase. He leaned forward, urging his horse to go faster when he felt and heard a bullet whiz past his head.

That was
close
, he
thought just before he felt something hit the back of his head and didn’t feel anything anymore.

When Nurse Green entered the room, it was getting dark. She was holding a gas lamp and set it down on the side table next to Mary Ann. She sat on the
side
of the bed and leaned over to brush some of Mary Ann’s long brown hair from in front of her face.

“Miss Mary. Miss Mary, wake up.”

Mary Ann was awake quickly, the stress she was
under
making her sleep very lightly. Her eyes snapped
open,
and she looked directly at the nurse. “What is it? Where is Annabelle?”

“She fine, madam, she’s
fine
. I came to tell you something. Something has happened.”

Mary Ann couldn’t tell if the nurse looked sad or happy. Her face was a mix of emotions. She sat up in bed, pushing herself up in one motion with both her hands.

“It’s Andrew.”

Mary Ann’s eyes opened
wide,
and her heart thumped hard in her chest. “What is it?”

“He was killed
in
the street today.” Nurse Green said bluntly.

Mary Ann’s eyes opened
wide,
and she gasped. “My baby! Where’s my baby!”

Nurse Green shook her head, her
face
sorrowful. “He didn’t have her with him.”