Loving Her (22 page)

He shook himself out of my hold. “As if the cold air didn’t do my dick in, now you want me to be a pretty lady? Okay, I quit!”

I laughed and sat up, watching him pacing around, taking such offense to something that was meant to be a compliment. “All I said was that you’d be beautiful. It’s your features.”

He leaned on the foot of the bed. “Next you’re going to say you’re in love with me, aren’t you?”

I nodded and bit down on my lip, deciding to play his game. “Mmm, I do. So much.”

He stood up straight with his arms extended and looked down between his legs, except there was no penis, because he’d tucked it in. “So you’d love me with a vagina?”

I covered my mouth with my hand and giggled. “Oh yeah, definitely.”

“I’ve gotta be honest with you, baby. If I was a woman, I’d totally dyke out with you.”

He jumped on the bed, and my phone began to ring. I climbed out of the bed, pulling half of the covers off as I went. The call was from my mother, and right away I felt worried.

“Hello?”

“It’s John, Miranda. Listen, your mom is havin’ a bit of a fit this mornin’ with Bella. I was hopin’ you could have a talk with her.”

“Sure, John. Put her on the phone.”

The call was silent and I could tell when he was getting closer to my mom and Bella. She was screaming, with no respect for her elders. I became so annoyed with her, so disappointed that she’d act that way toward my mother, of all people.

“Hello.”

“Bella, what’s goin’ on?”

“Nothin’!”

“It’s not nothin’ when I can hear you yellin’ through the phone, young lady. What is wrong with you? Why would you speak to an adult in that tone?”

“She wanted to talk about Tyler and I don’t want to.”

Since Ty was standing over my shoulder, I didn’t want to have to mention that she’d called him by his name and not her father. “Isabella, when you get home, you’re gettin’ it good. I don’t know what else to do with you. Since you can’t seem to settle yourself down, I guess we’ll have to come get you.”

“No! Please don’t come. I don’t want to come home. I want to live with Grandma, and that’s why she’s mad. She said I can’t.”

“You belong at home with me and your dad.”

The line got silent. “Bella, say somethin’?”

My mother got on the line. “Randa, it’s me. I’m sorry we had to call. She’s really acting out this morning. I’ve tried to sit and talk with her, but she’s adamant about fighting me. I don’t understand this change in her. Why would she want to come live with me and John?”

I rubbed the top of my nose, feeling a giant headache coming on. “I’ve got her seein’ a therapist, and she’s been punished since it all happened. I don’t know what else to do with her.”

“I told her she couldn’t live with us.”

“I’m so sorry, Mom. I figured she’d be fine with you.”

“She was fine until I brought up her father. The fact that she’s calling him Tyler is really disturbing me. This can’t go on much longer. If Tyler heard that, he would have been so upset.”

“I know, Mom. Do you want us to come get her?”

“No. That’s not necessary. We’re going to take them to see some caverns today. John’s sitting with her now and she seems calm. Maybe she just needed to hear that we really would call you.”

“If it happens again, please call me.”

“I will, honey. Tell Ty hello.”

I hung up the phone and looked at my husband. “So much for her being subtle.”

“She’s disrespecting your mom now?”

“Apparently.” I lifted my hands in the air, as if to give up hope of things changing.

“Do we need to leave?”

I shook my head and sat down beside him. “No. Mom says that they have it under control. She said she thinks that her calling us did the trick.”

Ty rubbed his face and kept his hands there. “I can’t believe it’s gotten so bad. She’s obviously acting out. I just hope it doesn’t persist. I mean, how much worse can it get?”

“Don’t say that. We don’t want to jinx ourselves.”

Ty stood up and cleared his throat. “Let’s go get something to eat. If your mom says she’s fine, there’s nothing we can do from here. When we get home, we need to get in touch with that doctor again. There’s got to be something we can do to fix this. If I need to stay at my mom and dad’s for a few nights to make her feel better, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything to make her happy again.”

“Leaving isn’t the answer, Ty.”

Although, after hearing my daughter, I was starting to wonder if that’s what she wanted this whole time. Was she acting this way to get me to choose between the two of them? I honestly didn’t know anymore, and I was worried more than ever
before.

Chapter 29

Tyler

Miranda didn’t know I could hear Izzy calling me Tyler. As much as it broke my heart, I didn’t want her worrying about me when she already had so much on her mind.

She got ready to go to breakfast in silence, and I gave her some space to clear her head. Unfortunately, it only made things harder for me. There had to be a way to reach out to our daughter. I knew that deep down inside she still loved me. It was clouded by her feeling so betrayed, but it still had to be there.

We headed off to breakfast, neither one of us wanting to address the elephant in the room. Maybe it should have hurt me that she wasn’t telling me what our daughter had said about me, but I understood her predicament. She didn’t want me to have to suffer any more than I already was.

Knowing that she’d been able to sense my change in attitude, I knew I had to act like nothing was wrong. We were able to find a place that served the best breakfast, who was also open year round. Instead of waiting in a long line, like we had to do when we went to the beach, we were able to seat ourselves. A few other couples were enjoying their meals, but it was quiet and relaxing.

It could have just been me, but the longer Miranda went without telling me, the more upset I got. “Baby, I heard what she said on the phone. I know you didn’t want to tell me.”

She looked up at me, seemingly astonished that I’d heard and waited so long to admit it. “I’m so sorry. She doesn’t mean it, Ty. She’s just actin’ out, and when I see her she’s goin’ to get it.”

I placed
both of my hands on the table and looked down at them. “Let’s just stop. If she’s doing all this to get to me, it’s working. I think we need to act like it isn’t. She’s lashing out because I hurt her, we know that. So I say we take a chance and act like it doesn’t bother us. Maybe, just maybe, she’ll stop acting the way she has been. It’s about attention. If we take that away, she’s got nothing.”

Miranda raised her eyebrow and I could tell she was wondering where I’d come up with such an idea. “If you think it’s worth a shot?”

“What else do we have to lose? She can’t hate us anymore, can she?” When I said it I realized that it was causing me to lose my appetite. We were both losing hope, and as far away as we’d tried to distance ourselves, the problem wasn’t going to go away.

“Alright. When we get back we’ll pretend that we don’t care anymore. No more exercises, no more pleadin’. We’ll just act like she isn’t there and see what happens.”

“It won’t be easy, baby, but I think it’s worth a try.” I looked up at the waitress who was approaching our table. “Let’s try to enjoy the rest of our weekend. We don’t get to do this that often, and aside from Izzy, we’re having a good time.”

Miranda reached across the table and ignored the waitress for a second. “We are, Ty.”

I didn’t know how hard she was trying, but neither of us discussed Izzy for the rest of the morning. We decided to go shopping at some outlet stores, since it was drizzling a little bit and not the kind of weather to sit on the beach and relax.

There was only one problem with our shopping plan.

Me.

I hated to shop. It was so redundant and boring that I had to do things to pass the time. Usually it was things that would embarrass my wife, so much so that she’d promise to never bring me again. In lieu of her forgetting, I decided to make it a shopping day that she’d never forget.

The first store we went in was a kitchen store. Miranda was looking for some kind of pasta machine for her mother. While she searched, I began browsing the isles. Of course, a clerk came up to me instead of her. “Can I help you find something?”

I spotted my wife one isle over, giving me that look like I better not do what she thought I was going to. I smiled back and turned my attention to the clerk. “Yes, my wife and I are looking for a special kind of apron. It’s plastic.”

She guided me over to where the aprons were and started pointing to some. “We have these. Did you need it to be water proof?”

I could hardly contain myself. After bringing my hand up to my chin and pretending to ponder on her question, I straightened my face and looked right at her. “Actually, not just water proof. We’re into bondage and it can get real messy. I need it to be urine and feces proof as well.”

Her mouth dropped, and it took everything I had in me to keep a straight face. I felt a tugging on my arm and turned to see that I was being pulled out of the store. Once the doors shut, I got smacked in the chest and the evil eye. “Seriously?”

“Baby, did you see her face?” I couldn’t contain myself.

“Yes. She was repulsed. Why must you do this every single time I take you anywhere?” She started walking in front of me, and I hurried to catch up.

“Come on. It was funny.”

Miranda turned and looked right at me. She was annoyed, as usual. “Can we please shop like two grown adults?”

I put up my hands. “Fine! You’re no fun.”

She shook her head and started walking toward the next shop. Deciding not to push my luck, I did behave in the next few stores. We stopped and grabbed a bite to eat and had two more stores to go in. I was exhausted and tired of carrying the slew of bags around. All I wanted to do was stop at a drive thru and take my wife back to the hotel. We had a perfectly good room waiting to be used, and we were out in the rain, shopping.

Finally we came to the last store of the day. It was a clothing store, and I just couldn’t contain myself any longer. First, Miranda was shopping for some special bra. I located a clerk, grabbed the skimpiest little outfit they sold, and held it up to my chest. “Excuse me, is there somewhere I can try this on?”

The woman, who looked to be in her sixties, appeared to be appalled. She tightened her lips and guided me to the fitting room without saying a single word to me. I made sure to thank her for helping me, which made her even more angry.

I came back out a couple minutes later and caught the eyes of my wife. She looked in my hand and then back at me as I approached the same woman that had helped me. I handed her the undergarment with a straight face. “It just wasn’t what I was looking for. Do you have anything with the nipples cut out? That’s what my lover likes, and I find it so hard to find them in my size.”

Miranda came over to where I was standing and grabbed me by the back of the pants. I waved to the lady while being pulled out of the store backwards. She had bags in both of her arms, but refused to ask me for help. I was laughing so loudly that people were beginning to watch us. She got me to the car before I was shoved against it. Her finger was up in my face, and I couldn’t stop laughing at her.

“I asked you nicely, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. You expected me to stand in that shitty underwear store twiddling my thumbs. I was giving that woman something to go home and tell her church group about.”

Miranda shook her head and threw her bags in the backseat. She climbed into the passenger seat and crossed her arms.

I got in and sat there for a second before turning to face her. “Come on, baby. Didn’t you see her face? She was starting to have a stroke.”

Miranda started to laugh, but stopped herself. “Don’t say that.”

“Fine, she was about to shit in her Depends. You know she was.”

I didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

At the same time as me, we both burst into laughing fits. It felt like we were young again, even before we were a couple. 

“You’re still embar
assin’, Ty. Now I’ll have to pay full price back home for the same item.”

I pointed toward the store. “I can go back in.”

“Forget it. Let’s just head back to the quiet room and get back in that tub.” She leaned over and kissed me slowly, as if she was telling me that somehow she’d gotten turned on by my antics.

I leaned over enough to kiss her. “So you’re not mad?”

She shook her head and kissed me again. “No, I’m not mad. I probably should be, but I certainly know who I’m married to. Besides, it ain’t like I have to see that woman again.” She laughed and looked down for a minute. “Plus, I may have sent Van and Amy a picture of you naked on the balcony this mornin’.”

I pulled away and just shook my head. I should have known she’d send it. When I saw her taking it, I promised that I’d sneak her phone away and delete the photo before she could. She’d always promised that photos had been deleted when they weren’t. I knew how she liked to save them for ammunition. “I’m sure they liked it.”