Spencer's Face (Buckeye Hawks) (40 page)

After the doctor
checked me out, he said that I wasn’t in real labor, but he wanted to go ahead
and take our baby anyway since my blood pressure was really high. When he said
he wanted to take her now, he meant right now. As in, hold out your arm so we
can stick this IV in it. It was the scariest thing I’d ever been through. I
wanted my mother with me, but she wasn’t accepting my calls. Janel and Spencer
were on either side of me as the doctor cut out our daughter.

It was the
scariest thing I’d ever been through in my life, but the most beautiful. Seeing
our daughter for the first time was amazing. Seeing Spencer see our daughter
for the first time was absolutely heavenly. He turned to mush before my eyes. Big
tough football player holding our little tiny daughter. My heart was already
gone, but now it was completely his.

Our daughter was
small, but beautiful. She had a head full of dark hair, and bright blue eyes.
She had Spencer’s ears, and my snub nose. Janel cried the whole time. She also
took pictures of the whole thing. I could tell she was sad, but happy at the
same time. Several years ago, she’d had a little girl who died right after she
was born.

Spencer stayed
with our daughter the entire time until they brought her to my room. The three
of us were in the hospital bed together, while Todd and Janel took pictures
like crazy. We’d have plenty of pictures. Everything was perfect for us.

Yes, if we had it
to do over, we would have waited to get married and have a baby. But that
wasn’t our destiny. Everyone has a different destiny in this life, and this was
ours. We placed Destiny Hope Hart in her little plastic bassinet next to my hospital
bed, and went to sleep for two hours.

--

Spencer must be
totally in love with me, or crazy one. He should have packed his bags and run
as fast as he could right after Destiny was born. I was a nut case, a total
bitch to him. I even screamed at him once. I was so full of self pity, and self
loathing for being such a bitch. He hung in there with me. He knew I was in
pain and beyond tired. Everything hurt after our daughter was born.

I was exhausted
all the time. I nursed Destiny, like my mother did all of my sisters. Every two
hours I had to wake up and feed her. That schedule took its toll on me. Spencer
put his foot down and insisted that we give her a bottle every other feeding,
just so I could get some rest. We fought about that. He won.

I had lots of
experience with babies, being the oldest of six girls in my family. But somehow
it was different having my own daughter. It was a lot more work, first of all.
Second, it was so much scarier. I constantly doubted myself on every little
thing with Destiny. I worried that I was using the wrong diapers, and the wrong
bottles, and the wrong formula. When she got a diaper rash, I blamed myself.
Janel helped with that one.

Destiny was three
months old now and our lives were smoothing out finally. She was sleeping
through the night most nights. She was growing so fast. She changed a little
every day. She was a little person with her own likes and dislikes, and she
definitely had her own personality. She had my temper and my stubbornness, but Spencer’s
smile. We loved her so much. My mother was right. There is no love greater than
the love you feel for your baby. That’s why she had six. I wasn’t going to
follow in her footsteps though. Spencer and I decided to wait a few years
before attempting our next one.

I converted a
storefront downtown to a gymnastics studio. Well, actually I hired Dale and his
brothers to do it. They were trying to start a construction business on their
own. They had the studio looking really great, very nice and very professional.
We’d put mirrors along the walls. I had all of the professional gym equipment
in it. I’d gotten access to my trust fund when I turned eighteen, so I used
some of that to buy everything I needed. We rented the other side of the
building where I had my gymnastics studio for Spencer’s music studio. Dale and
his brothers had helped with that too.

I’d called up
several of the daycare centers in the area, and they offered the gymnastics
classes to their students. I had lots of two to five year old children during
the day, three days a week. At night, I had several older girls taking
gymnastics and cheerleading lessons. Spencer had used the same marketing
techniques. Our friends helped us spread the word.

Spencer now had
several students taking music lessons. Word had spread that he was a published
songwriter. He’d sold another song. We barely had to touch our trust funds. His
song royalties and his music lessons were almost paying the bills and buying
groceries. It worked out great. We both held classes three days a week. I could
drop everything every time Destiny cried. I could hold her while I showed the
girls how to do most of the moves. I couldn’t do flips with her strapped to my
chest, but I could do almost everything else.

It seemed that
everything was perfect. Both businesses were doing fairly well, mine and his.
Destiny was almost never laid down. Spencer or I had her at almost all times.
She was spoiled rotten, between us, my sisters, and Todd and Janel.

I waited in the airport
terminal for my grandparents to arrive. It was the first time they’d been to
Arizona. We usually went to see them, so they didn’t have to fly. It had been a
year since I’d seen them. I was a little nervous to see them, but really
excited. Last year, I was just a regular teenage boy. This year I was a husband
and a father. I couldn’t wait to show Destiny to them. She was at the studio with
Taylor. I couldn’t wait for them to meet Taylor either.

“Grandma! Grandpa!”
I yelled to them the second I spotted them walking toward me. I ran to greet
them.

“Spencer. You’ve
grown so much over the last year. You’re over six foot tall now.” Grandpa said
immediately. He always said something about my size for some reason.

“You’re so good
looking too.” Grandma said as she patted my face. “Why is your face different?
Your birthmark looks like it’s almost gone.”

My grandparents
released me from their vise-grip arms. “I had to have plastic surgery after the
accident, so they took care of some of the birthmark.”

“Accident? What
accident?” my grandparents echoed out together.

“Oh, we didn’t
tell you about that. We didn’t want you to worry. I’m fine. Better than fine.
Everything is healed now.” I assured them. “Let’s go get your luggage.”

I led my
grandparents to the luggage carousel, where we finally found their bags. They
didn’t travel much, and didn’t realize that everyone carried black luggage. I
grabbed several people’s luggage before we realized that it wasn’t theirs. Aunt
Janel always tied goofy looking ribbons around ours when we traveled. I thought
it was hilarious at first, but then we always spotted our bags easily.

After finally
getting the correct luggage, I led my grandparents to my truck. As I was
driving home, I had to tell them all about Arizona and the weather. They were
already sweating. It was something I had to get used to when I first moved
here. No easy task.

“So, you have a
house?” Grandpa asked me.

“We do. It’s
small, but it’s nice.” I told them.

“So your life
insurance money came in handy. You haven’t spent it all. Have you?” Grandma
asked me.

“Not even close.
The only thing I’ve bought so far is the house, and this truck. And, it’s not a
big house. It’s smaller than Janel’s and Todd’s. No pool.” I told them. Taylor
and I didn’t want anything extravagant.

“That’s good. You
need to make that money last. For you and your family.” Grandma said.

“I am Grandma.” I
assured her, then tried to change the subject. “I can’t wait for you to meet
Taylor and Destiny.”

“They both look
beautiful in the pictures you sent.” Grandpa said. “Where are they now? Why
didn’t they come with you?”

“Taylor’s
teaching a few classes this afternoon. The baby is better off there than
traveling to Phoenix in the heat.”

“We’ll see her
soon enough.” Grandpa told Grandma.

“It’s just
another twenty minutes.” I told them both as I sped up to get on the freeway.

“Don’t drive too
fast.” Grandpa told me.

I slowed down.
“Okay, maybe another twenty five minutes. Janel and Todd are supposed to stop
by tonight and take you to their house. They both had to work.”

I was trying to
change the subject.

“We wanted to
spend time with you and the baby too, though.” Grandma said.

“Don’t worry. You
will. Taylor and I are both off tomorrow until Monday. We’ll be glad to show
you around and spend time with you. But you’ll like staying at Janel’s house
better. They have a nicer guest room.”

We chatted about
the weather and everything we could do this weekend together. I told them all
about Buckeye as we entered Buckeye. I turned into our parking lot at the
studios and waited for them to step out of the truck. Grandma needed some help.
She wasn’t accustomed to riding in a truck. It was a little too tall for her. They
owned luxury cars in California. “This is it, Grandma and Grandpa. Did you want
to see my studio first, or go see Taylor and the baby.”

“Let’s see your
studio. I want to see how you make all that money writing songs.” Grandpa said
quickly.

“Okay.” I said,
as I opened my studio door. “This is it.”

“Oh my. It’s big
and so nice looking Spencer.” Grandma said immediately as she looked over
everything. “That’s your father’s drum set. Isn’t it?”

“It is. Those are
his guitars on the walls. I retired them finally.”

“This is nice.
You teach students now?” Grandpa asked.

“I do. I’m
usually booked up three days a week, but I rearranged my schedule so I could
pick you two up.”

“You’re such a
good boy.” Grandpa said to me, and patted me on the back. “Our Elise would be
so proud of you right now.”

“Thanks Grandpa.”
I said. I could tell it still hurt them to even speak my mother’s name. “Would
you like to see my daughter now?”

“Absolutely.”
Grandma exclaimed, stepping faster than I’d seen her move in a long time.

I led them both
outside my studio. We walked past the big window in front of Taylor’s studio.
She had a class still in session with several grade school girls. They were all
performing a routine. We stopped to watch for a minute. Taylor had her back to
us. “That’s Taylor.” I pointed to her, although they could probably spot her by
themselves since she was the only one over four foot tall in the room.

About that time,
she turned around. She had Destiny strapped to her chest. She saw me
immediately. She smiled and waved, then took Destiny’s little hand and waved it
too. She continued on with her dancing after that.

“Oh she’s so
cute.” Grandma said. “When can we hold her?”

“Right now.” I
said, then walked into the studio.

Taylor didn’t
stop dancing as I walked up to her and took Destiny out of her carrier. I took
Destiny over to meet my grandparents. “Here’s your first great granddaughter.”

Destiny was half
asleep, but waking up. She had one eye open and one eye closed. “She looks just
like you did as a baby.” Grandma cooed.

Grandpa joined in
on how beautiful my daughter was. Gorgeous black hair and a perfect chubby
little face. Of course, I knew they’d do that. I was their only grandchild. I
could do no wrong in their eyes. Ever. Grandma took Destiny to hold her. Destiny
didn’t cry when she woke up completely. She looked at her great grandparents
with awe. She did that a lot. She was very attentive and interested in
everything around her. I led them to Taylor’s office where we kept the playpen.
There was also a nice couch there. Grandpa and Grandma sat there and played
with Destiny for a few minutes.