Oops, WIP Wednesday: Blood isn't always thicker than water

Oops, I didn't realize the end of Chapter 3 was included in Muse Monday! MM was my WIP in full and in the correct order, also a little cleaned up and slightly edited. But I didn't mean to include the end! So Here is the end of Ch 3 for those who thought, eh I read these parts already. So here is WIP Wed: 

I was elbow deep in soapy water when the buzzer rang, so Alex set surrendered to Officer Pablo and let Lilly up. While I was drying my hands I heard my phone vibrate on the coffee table. Alex answered it.

“Mrs. McAllister, I can't understand–” from the sound of it, Alex couldn't get a word in edge wise, so he handed me the phone, “It's your mom.”

“Rocky? Rocky?”

“Hi, mom what's going –” before I could even ask my mother was chattering away in her native Russian, a language I barely spoke. If I'd been paying attention, I could have picked up most of what she was saying, but I didn't feel like it.

Lilly knocked on the door, so I wedged the phone between my shoulder and my cheek and opened the door for her. She was a mess, mascara smeared across both cheeks and her eyes were swollen with tears. On the phone my mother was still rattling on about Thanksgiving and the airport, “Mom... Mom! I'll have to call you back.”

I slid the phone into my pocket, and my hands became fists so tight that the skin over my knuckles screamed in protest. I could kill Carlos, I could literally strangle that prick.

Down the hall I could hear Pablo coming, “Mommy!”

I looked back at Alex and mouthed, Get the baby! He was about to ask when he caught Lilly's expression. His face fell in pity, but his hands exposed the same anger as mine. He swooped down to catch Pablo just as he was barreling past and launched him up into the air, humming the Batman theme and galloping past us into the hall and down the stairs.

I turned back to Lilly, who was on the verge of sobbing.

I grabbed a box of tissues out of the bathroom and gestured towards the hallway. We sat in the stair well, and I waited for her to talk. She held her face in her hands and the quiet sobs shook her body from head to toe.

Almost inaudibly, she gasped, “He doesn't want joint custody anymore.”

My heart just about stopped beating. “He wants to take the baby?” I nearly screamed.

She shook her head and sniffled, “No, he doesn't want custody at all. He said he'd rather just pay the extra child support.”

Every muscle in my body turned to stone, I never wanted to hit anyone so hard in my entire life.

“He'd rather pay extra than see his son three days a week. How am I supposed to explain that to Pablo?”

“I'm sorry Lil.” There was nothing I could say to fix it. It was like watching her drown.

Lilly looked me in the eye for the first time, “I don't want his money, I just want him to love his fucking kid! And I work twelve hour shifts when he has the baby, that's almost six hundred dollars. The child support won't go up even half that much.”

“Me and Alex can take him as often as you want, we'll just switch off between classes.” There was nothing I wouldn't do for her, but nothing I could do would make Carlos a good father. I turned and hugged her, when the tears soaked through my shirt, I realized they weren't just Lilly's.

She rested her head on my shoulder and we looked out the window at the front lawn. Across the parking lot, under a huge oak tree, Alex was chasing Pablo around a mountain of leaves, smiling and laughing. The sun would be setting soon and the light coming through the yellow leaves lit the tree and Pablo's sandy brown curls like a blazing gold fire. That child was a force of nature, I swear joy seemed to radiate from his pores. Clearly he got that from Lilly. Thankfully, his olive complexion seemed to be the only thing Pablo inherited from his father.

“That's all I ever wanted from him.” Lilly whispered, I'm not sure she had intended me to hear it.

When her tears were under control and after I fixed her make up, Lilly loaded Pablo into the car. She asked me softly if I was serious about the offer, “ Come on Lil, you know I'd do anything for you and P.”

Back inside the apartment Alex was finishing the dishes for me. I told him about Lilly and Carlos. Before I could bring it up he asked, “Why don't we take him? I mean, our classes don't overlap so why not?”

I smiled, “I was hoping you'd like that idea, because I sort of already told her we would.”

Alex rolled his eyes and laughed. So now we would be taking care of a toddler three days a week. Don't get me wrong, I love that kid and I was happy to watch him, but now the universe seemed to be getting on my case with this settling down crap too. Though, I had to admit, the way Alex was with kids was. . . kind of attractive. He didn't hesitate to put on a cowboy hat or dive head first into a pile of leaves.

“What did your mom want? Seemed like she was spazzing out.” Alex asked.

“Um, actually, I'm not sure. I wasn't really listening.” I admitted. I strained my memory for the details I did manage pick up, “From what I caught, it sounds like Nick is coming home early from the base for Thanks Giving. So they're going to pick us all up from the airport. I think.”

“Oh. That's... nice.” Alex choked out. My sisters boyfriend, Nick, was not one of Alex's favorite people. Or mine. Nick was a Naval officer from a wealthy Boston family and he was four years older than Gabby. Alex and Gabby have always been close, he is the obnoxious big brother she never had. So when she brought a 23 year old to prom, Alex was practically foaming at the mouth.

I really wasn't interested in talking about Nick. I had other things in mind.

“So, can I take you up on that rain check now?” I asked. A second later I was pinned to the floor. Mission accomplished.