Earning His Love

Camille

I swear, my life the last ten months has been a series of unfortunate events mixed with some well-timed tragedies. I guess some of those tragedies go back further than ten months, like as far back as the day I got married at the age of eighteen to the man I thought was ‘the one’…it turns out I was the only one who felt that way. Ten months ago, I found him cheating on me, a month later we were divorced, but when I look back, our marriage was over pretty much as soon as it began...I just took longer to realize that than he did. Add to all that the fact that the company I was working for went bankrupt four months ago which meant I was jobless and then the call yesterday that my grandma had a heart attack, yeah…pretty damn unfortunate.

With nothing keeping me in the city, I loaded up everything I could into my SUV, called movers to handle the rest and then hit the road, making the four hour drive to my grandma’s home in Levinston. I made sure to call the hospital and check on her, but was informed she wouldn’t be released for at least another four to five days at the earliest. I pull up to her house and a flood of memories washes over me, remembering every happy memory I have of living with her here during my childhood.

I turn off my car and sit for a moment, letting my mind settle as a new determination fills me. I’m twenty-two years old, divorced and unemployed…I will not let this dark chapter of my life define me…I hope. I climb out of my car, square my shoulders and take my first step only to freeze when I hear a high pitch screech just as the screen door to the neighbor’s house bursts open and a kid that looks to be around three runs out with another kid who looks to be around five. The following events seem to happen in slow motion and it makes my heart thunder in my chest. First, the little guy misses the first step, then he tumbles down the rest of the stairs and hits his chin on the sidewalk. Before I can think, I’m already almost to him, but the poor thing is already crying hysterically.

“Hey, it’s okay, bubba. Let me see.” I drop onto the ground beside him then pull him into my lap and tilt his entire body so I can see his tear streaked face and scraped up chin. Another kid comes out the door, this one looks to be around eleven, and he hurries over to me with his panic stricken eyes locked on the little one in my arms.

“Joey? Are you okay?!” I look up at the older boy and force a smile, hoping to keep him calm so he doesn’t make the little guy freak out more.

“Hey, my name is Cam. Are your parents home?” The kid nods, but he keeps his eyes on Joey.

“Yeah, dad got home from work a little bit ago, but he’s in the shower. Is he okay?” It melts my heart to see how worried he is even though Joey’s hysterical cries have calmed to a mild whimper.

“I think he’ll be fine. Can you get me a wet cloth, or some wet paper towels so I can clean his scrapes up?” He nods then takes off back into the house. He comes out a minute later with a wet kitchen towel that he quickly hands to me. I say a quiet thank you as I take it from him and reposition myself so I’m sitting cross legged on the ground with the little guy in my lap, his little butt in the hole between my legs and his legs hanging over my thigh.

I get to work gently cleaning his scrapes and am almost finished when the door flies open and a very tall, half naked man storms out. He’s easily six foot four, broad shoulders, a muscular build with wet locks of what looks to be dirty blonde hair hanging over his forehead and deep blue eyes that are glaring down at me.

“What the hell are you doing?!” His reaction startles me, but I try to keep it together for the sake of the kids. I slowly hand the cloth back to the older boy then help Joey to his feet.

“He fell down the stairs. I was just helping clean up the scrapes.” I hold my hands up in, what I believe to be, an unnecessary show of surrender.

“I don’t know you and I don’t know why the hell you thought it was okay to put your hands on my son, but you need to leave.” His fists are clenched tightly at his side and while I can appreciate his concern and protectiveness over his children, his reaction, in my opinion, is way over the top.

“Sure, no problem.” I get to my feet and turn to head back to my car where my purse and my keys are laying on the ground where i dropped them. I grab my purse and get my cell phone out of the car then close the door, finding all three boys and their dad staring at me.

“What the hell are you doing at Mary’s?! Does she know you’re at her place?” Okay, now I’m a little pissed.

“Last I checked, it is literally none of your damn business if I’m at my grandmother’s house.” I don’t give him a chance to respond before storming up the porch, unlocking the door and going inside before he manages to be an even bigger dick, something I fully believe he’s capable of.

Feeling angry, frustrated and, in general, just overwhelmed as hell, I decide to do some cleaning to calm down before I go visit my grandma at the hospital. The old woman may be one of the cleanest people I know, but I still take the time to dust, vacuum, mop and wipe down the kitchen counters. When I finish, I decide to go ahead and bring in the things I plan to keep here for now, figuring the rest can go in storage once I get a unit rented.

I sat at the hospital with my grandma for an hour, though all she did was sleep, then picked up a chicken ceasar salad from the grocery store while picking up a few essentials, like caffeinated coffee since my grams only drinks decaf. When I get back to her house, I notice the dickhead neighbor sitting in a chair on his front porch with another man, both holding a beer in their hands. I see the new man say something to the dickhead that seems to piss him off, but I try to ignore them as I climb out of the car and grab the four bags off the passenger seat. I almost make it to the porch…almost…but then an unfamiliar voice stops me.

“Hey, you staying with Miss Mary?” Thankfully, it’s not the dickhead, but the other guy and he’s already approaching when I turn around.

“Yeah, for now. She’s my grandma. I’m Cam.” I shift the bags and extend my hand which he happily shakes, flashing me a wide smile.

“I’m Brett, Cole’s best friend.” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder toward the neighbor’s house, making it clear that the dickhead’s name is Cole, though I think dickhead suits him better.

“It’s nice to meet you.” He surprises me when he reaches forward and takes the bags from my hands.

“Here, let me help.” Unsure of how to respond, I give a tense nod then quickly unlock and open the door. I lead the way into the kitchen where he carefully sets the bags on the counter for me.

“Thank you.” His smile is still on his face and he quickly responds in an upbeat tone.

“No problem. So, how’s Miss Mary holding up?” His happy tone is more hesitant when he asks, making his concern for her clear. The fact that he's worried about my gram softens my expression some and makes me a little less tense.

“The doctor says she’ll be kept at the hospital for the next four to five days, longer if anything else goes wrong. She slept the whole time I was visiting with her though.” He nods, but doesn’t seem surprised by what the doctor said.

“Are you staying here for a while then?” Unlike his friend who seems to hate me for no reason other than me helping his injured child, Brett actual seems okay with me being here.

“As much as I’m sure your wonderful friend would prefer I pack my shit back up and leave as soon as humanly possible, yeah, I’ll be here for a while.” Brett winces, as in actually winces as if my words wound him.

“Cole’s not a bad guy, really. He’s been through some pretty bad shit over the years and raising the boys on his own…it hasn’t been easy for him.” I get it, I do…but…

“We all have our own shit, but that doesn’t give any of us the right to go around being dicks to other people. I was literally only helping his kid who took a chin dive off the porch, but he made it seem like I was some kind of psycho that might hurt or take off with his kid. His reaction was uncalled for, but it’s whatever. My ex was an asshole, so why shouldn’t my new neighbor be one too?” I take a deep breath and sigh loudly, already regretting my outburst, but feeling slightly better to get some of this shit off my chest.

“Yeah, Holden told me. I’m really sorry about how he acted.” I should tell him it’s not his responsibility to apologize for how his friend acted, but instead, something completely different comes out of my mouth.

“Which one’s Holden?” He chuckles and scratches the back of his neck, the action making him look almost like a giant child instead of the grown ass man he is.

“Holden’s the oldest, he’s almost eleven. Cody’s the middle child and just turned five. Joey, the one who ate concrete, he's the youngest and he’s two and a half.” I nod my head as I lean against the counter, mentally filing the information away.

“The kids seem pretty cool. Well, if you can tell your friend that I apologize for overstepping, I’d appreciate it. I don’t need the neighbors hating me when I don’t know how long I’ll be stuck living next to them. I’ll be sure to keep my distance in the future, so he doesn’t need to worry about me being around his kids.” His sympathetic look is in no way comforting, but at least that tells me he gets it…he knows his friend’s a dick.

“If you need anything, now or even when Miss Mary comes home, you call me anytime.” He pulls out a business card, because of course he just happens to carry one around with him, then flips it over to show me the back where a phone number is written.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” He looks lost for a second before nodding and heading to the door, leaving me alone in an empty house with nothing but my thoughts.