One Day at a Time (Starting Over Series Book 4) (18 page)

Hunter pulled her down the stairs. “Did he hurt you, sweetheart?” He grabbed the arm her dad had grabbed. Fingerprints were evident against her skin. “Fuck,” he muttered. She turned back to her brother, who was trying to pry Cash’s fingers from her dad’s throat.

“Hunter, help him. I don’t want him getting in trouble because of me.” He let go of her and went to help. The look on Cash’s face scared her. His jaw was tight, his face was red and she could see the tick in his jaw. “Cash, please let him go. He’s not worth it.”

Her voice seemed to penetrate because he let go and came right to her, pulling her and Daisy into a hug while her brother helped handcuff her father. “Are you okay?” he asked, his lips pressed against her temple.

“I’m fine. How did you get here so fast? How did my brother know to come?”

They followed Jonathon and Hunter, while Hunter led their dad away in handcuffs.
“Mac called me about an hour ago. She said there was a car sitting in front of the house with a man inside of it. She watched him and saw him get out and start looking through windows in the front. When I hung up it hit me that you saw your dad last week. I called the police station and they said they’d get a hold of Jonathon. I sped here when Mac called me back that he was coming to the gate and that you were lying in the backyard.”

“I-I thought he was going to hit me.” Cash wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight against his chest. Poor little Daisy had no clue what was going on, she licked their faces until they both paid attention to her.

He led her around the side of the house and found Hunter loading her father into the back of the police car. Jonathon stalked toward her and she knew what he was going to say. “He came to see you and you couldn’t be bothered to tell me? What the fuck, Tessa! You’re supposed to be smarter than that.”

Her eyes immediately filled with tears that threatened to spill over. Why did the men in her life have to hurt her and make her feel like shit? She already felt like a jerk for not telling him, but she wasn’t going to stand there and have him belittle her in front of Cash. He had never raised his voice at her before, at least not in anger. She’d never tell him that when he yelled like that he looked like their father. Pulling away from Cash she turned around, running through the gate and into the house from the back. She could hear her brother and boyfriend’s raised voices.

“Great,” she muttered. She was always messing everything up. “No, that’s not who I am. He was wrong, I don’t mess anything up.” Wonderful, now she was talking to herself. Their raised voices disappeared and a minute later she heard the sliding door shut.

She turned as her brother walked up to her. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. The sight of that man, to this day, makes me irate.” He placed his hands on her shoulders. “You need to know he’s tried to get to you before. You had been living with us for a couple of years and Alex found him sitting outside our apartment. He took off when she approached his car. We never told you because you were so broken when you first came to live with us.

“The nightmares you had at first were painful to watch. You’d cry, scream, and thrash around in bed. I never wanted you to have to see him again. It’s been over two years since the last time I saw him.”

She pulled away from him. “I wasn’t broken. I’m not b-broken. You don’t know what it was like for me. You don’t know the things he used to say and do to me. He called me a r-retard. He said that M-Mom should’ve ab-aborted me. He used to lock me in my room for days.” She pointed to the scar on her forehead. “This was one of the last times he hurt me. He threw me on my bed so hard I bounced off and hit my head on the corner of my nightstand. I had to hold a shirt to my head until it stopped bleeding, but when he let me out it was too late to go have it stitched up.” It was like verbal diarrhea. She felt like she was finally purging her soul to her brother. For years she kept it to herself, but not anymore. He needed to know that she survived and she was strong. Her brother’s eyes were bright with unshed tears.

“All I wanted to know from him is why he hated us so much. What did we do to him?” She started to cry. Arms enveloped her and she knew it was Cash. She turned into him and took the strength he was giving her. After what felt like a few minutes, she felt Jonathon kiss her forehead.

“We’ll talk when you come home. I love you so much, Tessa.” His voice was pained. She heard him tell Cash to take care of her and then a door close. Cash led her down the hall and laid her down on his bed. She let his scent wrap around her.

***

“Do you still want to go to my sister’s house?” Cash asked, grabbing her hand and bringing it to his lips. “You’ve had a rough day. I love those kids but they can be a handful on a good day.”

“No, I want to go. It’ll keep my mind off of everything. Plus, I love your sister and her family. They’ve all been so sweet to me.” She swallowed hard because there was something she needed to ask. “How much did you hear?”

She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. What if the things that happened to her changed his opinion of her? No, he wasn’t like that. Not with his own history.

“I heard enough to know just how strong you really are. Baby, you’re a survivor—you didn’t let it break you. Your brother really didn’t know what was going on?”

She shook her head. “Yes. He took a lot of it when we were younger and he was still living at home, but as soon as he moved out, our dad began hitting me. I was good at hiding it from him.”

***

“I want you to start staying with me.” They pulled into Journey and Dylan’s driveway, “I would feel better if you stayed with me. I know you help with your niece, but the nights he works you can bring her with you. I’ve got a spare bedroom she can use. Please, baby. I’d feel so much better if I knew where you were at night when your brother was gone.”

Before she could answer him Joey climbed up on the side step and was knocking on the window. “You gettin’ out, Aunt Tessa?” It did something strange to her insides when Joey called her Aunt.

“Get down, honey, so I can open the door.” Cash was already out and lifting Joey down. She got out of the truck, picking up Joey and kissing his cheek. “How are you, buddy? How’s school?”

“I’m good. Momma says I can’t hog you because you’re Uncle Cash’s special lady. I got in trouble today because I kissed Sissy Brown in the libwary. Momma had to come and talk to my teacher. I can’t help it that the giwls like me. Daddy says it’s ’cause I’m good looking. Do you think I’m good looking?” He was by far one of the cutest little boys she’d ever seen. Plus, he had such an outgoing personality. It was no wonder he was kissing the girls. They probably lined up for him. She looked at Cash for guidance, but he just smiled and shook his head.

“Joseph Carmichael, I thought I told you to leave your aunt alone. You’re still on my you-know-what list.” Journey had the stern mommy thing going on because when Tessa set Joey down, he ran by his mom into the house. “Sorry about that. I don’t know what I’m going to do with that boy.” Even pregnant, Cash’s sister was pretty; she glowed and looked fresh-faced. She watched brother and sister hug and then accepted the hug Journey offered her. “You’ll have to excuse the chaos. The boys are in rare form today, and Abby’s in a mood.”

Sure enough the night turned out to be very interesting. The kids were mainly hyper but that seemed pretty normal. Abby was just quiet. Dinner had been delicious. They had homemade lasagna, salad, and garlic bread. She tried to get Journey to accept her help but the other woman wouldn’t hear of it. Dinner was loud, but fun. The kids all vied for her and Cash’s attention.

She and Journey talked about the latest romance novels while Cash and Dylan were discussing something about tools. All through the night, anytime Dylan walked by his wife he was either kissing her or touching her. It was clear they loved each other very much.

While Dylan gave Parker a bath and put him to bed, Journey was waiting for Abby to tell them goodnight before she went to tuck her in. Abby had been quiet when they first got there, but slowly came out of her funk. She gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight, thweetheart.”

“Goodnight, Tessa.” She watched the little girl walk over to Cash. The pain coming off of him made the air thick. The little girl wrapped her arms around his neck and he hugged her tight—like he didn’t want to let her go. There was some sort of connection between them, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before. His eyes were so sad it was breaking Tessa’s heart to watch. Her stomach twisted. There were things she knew he hadn’t told her yet. There was a story there that she needed to know.

***

Some days it didn’t affect him, seeing his little girl being raised by others, but tonight of all nights, while he was there with Tessa, he was losing his shit. He could tell Abby had been off since they got there, but it was no longer his place to say or do anything. After she had hugged Tessa and then came to him he felt the burning in his eyes start when she threw her skinny little arms around his neck. Her hair smelled like baby shampoo and reminded him of one of the last times he gave her a bath. He’d had enough money so he splurged on the Johnson & Johnson brand. They played with the bubbles until she turned into a prune, but that smell stuck with him.

It was after that night that things started to fall apart. He squeezed her in a tight hug—holding her tight. For a long time she was hesitant to touch him, but they eased into it slowly. The first time she came up and hugged him on her own he had wanted to cry.

“I really like her,” she whispered in his ear. He gave her a smile and kissed her forehead.

“I’m really glad, sweetheart.”

Journey came and got her and promised them she’d be out in a minute. Turning toward Tessa he knew he needed to tell her the truth. He just needed to get her back to his house and tell her.

“Baby?” She looked at him. “Let’s get out of here. There’s something I want to talk to you about.” He was already starting to sweat just thinking about the conversation they were going to have to have.

“Okay, is everything all right?” she whispered.

“Everything’s fine. There’s just some stuff I need to talk to you about,”

She grabbed Daisy and told Dylan and Journey goodnight when they came out into the living room. His sister looked confused but Dylan caught on to the vibe. “Guys, I’ll be right back.”

They walked out to the truck in silence. He helped her inside. “I’ll be right back, baby.” She nodded and he shut the door. He jogged up the steps and once he was inside with the door closed he proceeded to bang his head against it.

“Cash, what is it? You’re scaring me.” His sister grabbed his hand.

“I need to tell her about Abby. I don’t want it coming out before I can talk to her about it.” Scrubbing his face with his hands he looked down at his sister. “I’m scared, but it’s got to be done.” He kissed her cheek and slapped Dylan’s shoulder. Making his way back to the truck, he took a deep breath.

They were silent through the first half of the ride back to his place. He took it as a good sign that she slid over next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. They were ten minutes from his house when his phone rang. He saw it was Betsy, but he’d wait till they got back to his place before he called her back. Instead she must’ve hung up and redialed him. He handed it to Tessa. “Answer for me and put it on speakerphone.”

“Hey, Bets, I’ve got you on speakerphone. What’s up?” He could hear sniffling on the other end. “Betsy?”

“Cash, it’s Dario. Jared just called. Sam’s wife left him. He went on a bender. His sister found him. He was already dead.”

Tessa wrapped an arm around his middle. He kissed her forehead and took in her scent, trying to let it center him. “We’ll be right there.” He had her hang up and then did a U-turn in the middle of the street.

He needed to find out what the fuck happened. Things were going well for him since he relapsed over six months ago. What could’ve possibly happened that would cause Loni to kick him out?

A short time later they pulled in the other couple’s driveway. He hopped out of his truck and met Tessa at the front. She grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze. That was another reason why he loved her—even though she was obviously upset with him she was still giving him her support and love. Betsy met them at the door. Her eyes were red and puffy. His girl pulled away from him and went right to Betsy. He walked by them, stopping to kiss both girls on the head, before he went inside where Dario was sitting on the couch with a sleeping Margot on his lap.

Dario gave him a sad smile. “She heard her momma crying. She cried herself to sleep.” He joined him on the couch and rubbed a hand through the little girl’s hair.

“What the fuck happened, Dar?”

“His sister thinks he did it on purpose. Remember when he relapsed six months ago?” Cash nodded, “Well, I guess he cheated on Loni and got some eighteen year old pregnant. He didn’t even remember it. Do you believe that shit? It’s fucked up and now Betsy is so afraid she’s going to relapse. She’s already been on the phone with Bonnie.” Bonnie was Betsy’s sponsor.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell was he thinking? How are Loni and the kids?” They had two little boys. While they waited for Betsy and Tessa to come back in, he gave Jared a call to check in on Loni and the boys. He sounded terrible but he knew how close Jared was with Loni and Sam.

He hung up when the girls came in. They said they were going to make coffee. While the coffee brewed, Betsy came out and she and Dario took Margot down the hall to her room. Tessa came to him, sitting down in his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Are you okay, honey?”

He kissed her lips and then rested his forehead against hers. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Well, whatever you need, I’m here. I love you, okay? No matter what, I love you.” Her voice was firm, and sincere.

They didn’t stay too late because Betsy looked exhausted and the girls would be up early. Silence filled the cab as they made their way back to Cash’s house. Daisy had slept the whole time they were at Betsy and Dario’s, so as soon as they got home she wanted to play. It helped distract him from the pain that seemed to be growing in his chest. He could understand Betsy’s fear of relapsing. When he was having a bad day he sometimes subconsciously scratched at his forearms. He looked down, noticing he was doing it. Pulling his hand away, he looked up to see Tessa watching him.