Falling into a Second Chance by Alie Garnett
Chapter Twenty-Four
A buzzing phonewoke Agatha earlier than she usually liked. Ignoring it, she snuggled deeper into the covers. She could feel the rough fabric encasing her legs and wondered why she was wearing jeans in bed.
Pulling out the phone, she answered it with a sleepy, “Morning.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Sera yelled at her. Sera never yelled.
“Home, sleeping.” Rolling over, she realized Chris wasn’t with her. She missed him right away.
“Bull. You weren’t home when Violet came home from school yesterday.” Sera was pissed, which was not a normal emotion for the woman. That meant that Agatha was in trouble.
Sitting up Agatha, dropped the phone. Suddenly, she was reminded of the events of the day before. From Sera’s baby’s birth to bringing Poppy home with her. The baby wasn’t in the room with her, and she had no idea where she was. A glance at the clock told her she had been sleeping for twelve hours. She had been right. She wasn’t mother material. She had lost her baby in less than one day!
Scrambling out of bed, Agatha left the phone where it had dropped and was almost to the door when Chris came into the room holding Poppy in his arms. He was shirtless, and she was resting her head on his shoulder, her little chunky hand lying on his chest.
Relief turned into pain as she saw them together. Her daughter in the arms of the man she loved—their daughter. Both appeared content and happy with the situation. It seemed Chris had taken over the duties of parenting without her asking; in fact, she had told him not to, but here he was, melting her heart in just another way.
Agatha grabbed the phone off the floor when she realized Sera was still yelling her name. “Sorry, Sera, I just had something big come up yesterday and it took way longer than I thought it would. How’s the baby?”
Sera sighed and started to tell her all the things Benjamin had mastered in his first day of life, from eating every two hours without fail to latching on almost immediately. They were even getting out of the hospital a day early because the baby was so smart, or so Sera said. Her anger was forgotten, at least for a moment. Agatha listened as Chris sat down on the bed with Poppy still in his arms. Exactly where Agatha wanted to be.
“When you get out of the hospital, we can talk then,” Agatha said, knowing Sera had two more days in the hospital. And knowing Sera’s anger at Agatha would be tiny compared to her finding out Agatha had put a baby up for adoption without her even knowing.
“Yes, we will,” Sera said as if she knew everything that was going on and was not pleased. The woman probably thought that her being gone had something to do with Chris.
Hanging up on her stepmother, Agatha asked, “How’s Poppy? I’m sorry I crashed. I shouldn’t have. I’m responsible for her now; I can’t just sleep when I need to anymore.”
“We did just fine. There were a few rocky moments, but we made it through. Poppy’s not sure she loves pink,” he joked, trying to ease her worries.
“She has no choice. The baby industry says she loves it. I got other clothes in other colors when I could find them.” She touched the baby’s back, wanting to take her away from Chris but also wanting to enjoy watching him hold their baby for just for a moment longer.
“Does your mom know about her?” he asked.
Biting her lip, Agatha pushed herself up against the headboard. “No, I never told her. She was in the middle of a pretty hot affair at the time and didn’t notice.”
“She had an affair while she was dating Harrison?” he asked in surprise.
“The affair was with Harrison. Then she was busy with marriage prep and planning all my sisters’ weddings. We hosted quite a few weddings this last year. Nobody was paying much attention to me, and I just wanted them happy and not to worry about anything,” she admitted. Even if she wouldn’t have it any other way, it still made her sad.
“That doesn’t explain whose baby Poppy is,” he pushed, rubbing the baby’s back.
Agatha took a deep breath. “Mine. I gave her up for adoption when she was born. Yesterday, her parents gave her back. Apparently, they have a new baby they like more.” She drew up her knees and watched him. Even now, she couldn’t see that she’d had any other choice. How could she not have taken her baby back?
“What the hell? Who could not love Poppy best?” He hugged Poppy to him, just like Agatha had the day before. He wanted to protect her from the world also.
“The couple had one of their own last month.” She gently pulled the baby from his arms and held her tight, needing to hold her close.
He grabbed Agatha’s foot and rubbed it with his thumb, then asked quietly, “You don’t have to answer, but why did you feel like you had to give her up in the first place?”
Looking at her daughter’s curls, she felt the misery she went through when she did it again. Agatha closed her eyes. “I wasn’t doing so great at life then. Everyone still lived here at the house, and I was able to hide from the world. I do that sometimes. I had quit or been fired from all my jobs, and nothing was working out in my life. I was doing worse than a high schooler—at least they thought they had a future. I didn’t. Then I was got stupidly pregnant. Nobody else got pregnant; well, Lucy did, but I didn’t know that at the time.”
It had only been after Poppy was long gone that both her sisters, Lucy and Buzz, had gotten pregnant before getting married. In both cases, everyone rallied around the new mothers, which made Agatha realize she should have just said something from the start. But it was too late, and for both of her sisters, the babies’ dads had been in love with their mothers. All were now happily married. That wasn’t going to happen for her. No matter what her heart wanted, her brain knew better.
“You were not stupid, Agatha. It happens.” Chris tried to comfort her.
“Yeah. I do stupid stuff all the time. I gave Poppy away to people who were supposed to love her forever no matter what. But no, they ended up just like my parents and wanted out when something better came along. Everybody leaves.” She hugged the baby to her, hating that Poppy had felt the pain of rejection even for a moment. But hopefully, she was too young to remember later—unlike Agatha.
“When are you going to tell your mom? You can’t hide Poppy for long. Nobody even knocks when they come in the house,” Chris reminded her.
“I have to wait until she comes home from the hospital. Let her and Benjamin have their time without me getting in the way,” Agatha replied, though she knew she was only stalling for time.
“I don’t think she’ll mind. I think she’ll be pretty excited to meet Poppy.”
“She’s going to be pissed.”
“How did you carry and give birth to a baby in a house full of people?”
“Nobody was paying much attention to me. They cared that I was gaining weight, but nobody said anything. And then Poppy was born while Sera and her new family were all on vacation. It worked out perfectly, actually. Harper and Maby were married and didn’t live here anymore. Lucy was staying with Maby that week. Buzz was around but was working, and I just told her I was with friends. Nobody ever questioned it.” At the time, she thought luck was finally turning her way, oddly only so that she could give away the one thing she loved more than life itself. All without anyone knowing it had happened.
“Until yesterday. Then it wasn’t so perfect. Or maybe that means it is perfect because your life is back on track, and you can raise her now,” he said, moving closer to Agatha and tucking her hair behind her ear.
“But I fell asleep and didn’t know where she was.” Agatha knew she had messed up badly. It was way too soon for her to feel that it was going to be alright.
“I knew. You were tired, Agatha. When I’m here, I will help you.” He kissed her lips above the baby’s head.
“But she’s mine. I need to take care of her all the time.”
Because there was one thing she knew: she couldn’t count on Chris being there for her all the time. He didn’t even know her; not really. And once he did, he would be gone. Because nobody stuck around for Agatha Christie Lovely … they never had. Why would Chris be any different?
