Caught by Emma Louise
Chapter Two
"Don’t laugh at me!” I try my best to sound offended, but I can’t keep the smile off my face.
“Oh, come on! It couldn't have been as bad as you describe it.” Natalie tries to hide her grin behind her coffee cup.
“You’re right,” I mutter. “It was worse.” She loses it at that, laughing hard enough for tears to stream down her amused face. I’ve just finished telling her all about my disastrous last job. After a night of tossing and turning while thoughts of how badly it went ran rampant in my mind, I rolled out of bed and made my way over to my only friend’s house as soon as it was socially acceptable. The sounds of giggling voices coming from upstairs catch our attention. “Thank you again for watching her.”
“Not a problem,” she says, waving my comments off. “Aara loves having sleepovers.”
Her easy acceptance of us here in her home warms my insides. I was utterly alone when I found myself unexpectedly living in Virginia, and for a long time that suited me. I wasn’t in a good place and didn’t trust people easily. I was a young single mom, and I was happy for it to just be me and Cassidy.
Sure, I struggled to find jobs that I could bring her to, but we made it work. When she was old enough to start pre-K, Cass immediately became friends with Aarabelle, and in turn, I had no choice but to become friends with Aara’s mom, Natalie. It’s taken some getting used to, but over the last year I’ve learned to open up and accept the friendship when it was offered. Especially on the odd occasion like last night when I needed to be out late. I usually only accept work when it’s during school hours, but after my last meeting with Serena, I wasn't really in a position to say no when she offered me that last chance. Luckily for me, Cassidy loves getting to stay with her best friend, so she didn’t even notice me leaving after I dropped her off last night. Natalie, or Lee, as she insists on me calling her, is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a best friend.
We spend the next few minutes with me filling in the rest of the details of my night and enjoying the relative quiet of the early morning, until a stampede of tiny feet make their presence known. “Mommy!” my daughter screams unnaturally loudly as she launches her tiny body at me.
“Morning, my little love bug.” Gathering her in my arms, I relish the feeling of her tiny hands making their way into my hair just like they always do. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” she says seriously before she wriggles her way out of my arms.
“Who wants pancakes?” Lee asks, earning a chorus of cheers from the girls and her toddler son, Liam. Once they’re all settled at the table, filling their mouths full of food, Lee comes back with a fresh coffee for the both of us.
“How did your boss take it when you told her?”
“That I failed again?” My mind wanders back to exactly how painful that particular phone call was. “Long story short, she fired me.”
“What are you going to do?” she asks, concern heavy in her voice.
“I have no idea.” I sigh. “I filled out a few applications for local grocery stores when I got home last night. I just hope I can find something that works around Cass and school hours, you know?”
“We’ll help as much as we can; you know that right?”
“Who needs help?” Liam, Natalie’s husband, appears from around the corner, interrupting our conversation.
“Darcey. She finally quit her job.”
“I was fired; I didn’t quit,” I interrupt, not wanting Liam to think I'm a flake. Although, I’m not sure that getting canned is much better.
“You should have quit. That job was ridiculous,” she fires back at me on an eye roll. “Hey, isn’t Crew looking to hire someone to help out in the office?” Her excited eyes come back to me. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. This is perfect!” She claps her hands excitedly. “A couple of guys that were in the Navy with Liam got out a few years ago and opened up a security firm. They need someone to answer the phones and keep the paperwork in order; it would be ideal for you!”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Lee.” Liam’s gaze looks between me and his wife skeptically. “Those guys ... they can be a lot to deal with.”
“Hey!” I interrupt. “I’m not as weak as I look, I’ll have you know.” Liam looks at me for a beat, and I’m sure he’s trying to suppress a smile at my indignant tone. My eyes narrow on him as I bristle at his insinuation that I can’t hold my own. He has no idea just how strong I can be when I need to be.
“They’re good guys,” Lee says softly.
“Babe...” Liam starts, but his words melt into a soft groan at the expression on his wife’s face.
“Fine. I’ll make the call, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He points over at me, and I can’t help the grin that makes its way across my face. I have a good feeling about this. If these people are friends of Liam's, they must be decent because he’s one of the only men I’ve ever known that is actually a good guy.
“Thank you.” She bats her eyelashes prettily at Liam who just rolls his eyes in response. Leaning over her, he wraps a hand around the back of her head and pulls her closer until their heads are pressed close.
“You can thank me properly later,” he says as he kisses her soundly on the lips in a sickening display. Urgh. I don’t want to see their display of affection, but I long since learned to accept it because these two are never able to refrain from being all touchy feely with each other.
The familiar pang of jealousy hits, and I fight to push it away. You don’t want a man; you learned the hard way that they’re more trouble than they’re worth. I lie to myself.
“Mommy!” Cassidy asks, climbing up on my lap, her sticky, syrup-covered fingers landing on my cheeks. “Can we go catch fishes?”
“Huh?” I ask as her request catches me off guard.
“Kai, from school, said he gets to go catch fishes with his daddy ebery Saturday. I wanna do that too.” Her too big for her little face eyes stare up at me, and my heart cracks at the longing I see in the deep, denim-blue depths. Fishing. The latest in a long line of requests to do things her friends are doing with their dads. Guilt is a bitch, sneaking up on me at the worst, most unexpected times.
“Sure, love bug. We’ll look into taking you soon, okay?”
“O’tay.” She grins her gummy smile, but it does nothing to soothe the riot of emotion that threatens to consume me. That ever-present fear of failing at being her only parent rears up, and I have the urge to cry.
God, I hope I’m enough for her. I hope she doesn’t grow up hating me for not giving her the father figure that I fear she really needs.
“All set up,” Liam announces, coming back into the room. “You have an interview at Elite Security first thing tomorrow morning.”