There’s a hazy look in the girl’s eyes but she nods mechanically anyway. “Okay…” She plods away and assumes her next yoga pose.
My chest throbs. Gosh. I feel for the child. I know firsthand how painful and confusing it is to be cut off from your parents, especially at that age.
Jessa sighs. “It breaks my heart when she does that. And she does it all the time. Any time she sees a blonde woman, late twenties, early thirties, she asks if it’s her mom. The poor kid. All she wants is a mother,” Jessa whispers to me. “What do you tell a child who's been abandoned by her parents? How do I make this okay?” she asks, her eyes pleading.
I give her a small smile. “Just make her feel loved. Let her know she’s special everyday. You may never be able to replace her mother but just shower her with affection and make sure she knows she’s cared for.”
Aunt Lucille was not able to substitute the love I craved from my mom but she did her best to ensure that I felt a sense of belonging in her house. It was the best she could do.
Jessa wipes a tear from her eye and huffs. “If I meet that Gabby woman one day, I swear I’ll punch her in the throat."
I almost giggle. "Throat-punching is not fitting of a Disney Princess, Jessa. But I totally get where you're coming from. The woman is a real bitch."
Jessa tucks her knees against her chest and props her chin there. “What’s Gabby like, anyway? Did you know her?”
It’s easy to forget that Jessa and Lexi didn’t grow up in my hometown. They only moved here a few years ago.
I shrug and lean back against the wall. “Not really. When Gabby lived in Crescent Harbor, I tried befriending her on more than one occasion but my attempts were never well received. She was super standoffish. I took a hint and I let it go.” I bite the corner of my lip. “There was always something 'off' about her. She just didn't seem...satisfied with her life. Still, it took me by surprised when she straight-up ditched her child and left town the minute Eli got arrested. It takes a special kind of cruel to abandon your child days after her father was ripped from her life.”
Footsteps draw my attention to the doorway. Walker enters, his presence too large for the room. “Hey, ladies.” His eyes linger on me and my heart takes off like a stone skipping across the surface of a lake. I’m still trying to train my body not to react so viscerally to the man.
"Hi Uncle Walker," Callie chirps. "Look at me. I'm a...a..." she searches for the right word. "A yoga person!"
That causes us all to laugh.
"I'm a yoga person, too." Walker peels off his cowboy hat and drops it to the floor. He strides on over to where the child is and they bumble their way through a sun salutation sequence. It’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.
When he folds into downward dog, I’m almost drooling. Well, damn. My baby daddy has one hell of an ass. The thought causes me to snicker.
Walker throws me a glance over his shoulder. "What's so funny?" He smirks.
"Nothing," I say, "Nothing."
When Callie grabs his leg, he nearly topples over on top of her. He catches his balance just in time. The child looks up at him with hopeful eyes. "Uncle Walker, is that my mommy?"
Walker leans in closer, eyes on the screen. That's when he falls flat on his ass. “Holy shit—that's Gabby. That's Callie's mom."
40
Walker
I’m sitting in a stark white room, surrounded by barred windows and men in orange jumpsuits. My ass is parked on a cold, hard bench at one of the many tables in the visiting room.
To be honest, this place makes me antsy. Uneasy. Even though none of the prisoners seem to give two shits about me. No one has even looked in my direction since a guard let me inside. Everyone is busy with their own guests.
I expected chains and handcuffs at every turn, but I guess I’ve been watching too much Showtime TV. Things aren’t that intense in a low security jail like this one, I see. Still, I feel nervous. Like one wrong move, and they’ll lock me up in a cell next to Eli.
Penny spent a good part of yesterday evening trying to talk me out of my rage. I was just so damn pissed off after seeing that yoga video. Because I know that having an absentee parent can really fuck up a child. For a kid, there’s nothing worse than the sense of instability that comes from losing a parent. And Callie? She lost both of hers. While my niece is living each day in emotional limbo, her father is behind bars, twiddling his thumbs and her mother is at some yoga retreat, perfecting her downward warrior fish pose or whatever the fuck it’s called. That makes me livid.
Livid enough to confront my dead-beat brother.
I can’t understand the person he’s become. The man he turned into is completely unlike the brother I grew up with. The nerdy kid who wanted to follow in our dad’s footsteps. My closest brother. My constant sidekick.
Now, he’s a hardened criminal.
I’m still sitting at the table, knee bouncing, when an oversized guard escorts Eli into the visitor’s room.
His face…he looks the same, yet so very different. It’s like all the playful goofiness of the little brother I once knew is gone. His youthfulness is gone. I see the face of a man who’s been hardened by tough times.
Eli drops onto the bench across from me, resting his arms on the table between us. “Hey.”
I nod in response. “Hey.”
He wears a mix of suspicion and
