Page 36 of Make Me

Soon, the party dies down, and people start to leave. Aunt Mae and Jackie stay behind to help us clean while Ivy plays with her new toys in the living room.

I do my best to appear calm and upbeat, but the events of today won’t leave me. Aunt Mae must sense it, because she pulls me aside.

“Don’t get in your own head, baby. You have support here. We won’t let anything happen to you, and after the way you handled them, I doubt they’ll be back. Your mom could never handle anyone standing up to her.” I nod at my Aunt Mae and hug her.

Soon, everyone is gone, leaving me alone with Cooper and Ivy. The house is back to being immaculate, and I can no longer pretend to be busy cleaning.

“I think I’m going to put Ivy in her pajamas and take a shower. I’m tired,” I say, massaging the back of my neck. “Don’t you need to walk Sam?”

“I go!” Ivy says, hearing my words. She runs to the closet and comes back with her coat and boots. Cooper, who can never say no to Ivy, helps her put them on. He kisses my cheek and says, “Take your shower. I’ll get Ivy ready for bed when we come back, but we’re going to talk tonight.”

Like a zombie, I walk into the bathroom and turn on the shower. While the water heats up, I undress, leaving a pile of dirty clothes on the bathroom floor.

The hot water is soothing against my skin and taut muscles. I held the rest of my tears at bay, but they come flooding out in the shower. The tears outside the house were for what happened tonight, but these tears are because I know that this was the end of whatever ties I had to my mother.

Bringing Doris here was the last straw. I don’t know her motive, but whatever it is, I’m not going to be the collateral damage. The happiness and safety of my daughter come first.

I take longer than I normally do in the shower, and by the time I come out of the room dressed in my pajamas, Cooper and Ivy are already back. I step inside her room just as he pulls her covers back, and she climbs in. She reaches for me when she sees me, and I grab her favorite book and start to read. I don’t get to page three before she’s sound asleep, and we leave her bedroom and walk to ours.

Without a word, I climb in bed while Cooper strips down to his underwear. Regardless of how cold it gets, he only ever sleeps in his underwear with me wrapped in his arms. His body is like a furnace, and it dawns on me that I have a hard time falling asleep without him. I’ve never had anyone to hold me at night before Cooper, and it’s amazing how quickly you get used to things.

Even now, I know his next moves. He drops down and does his usual five pushups before he slides into the bed. He scoots all the way to the middle and wraps an arm around me, turning me on my back. His large hand automatically goes up my shirt and cups a breast.

My body is instantly on fire. Hell, it was set ablaze the second he stepped inside the room. It’s always like this. A single look will have my heart beating so fast I’m afraid others can hear it. One touch from him sets my skin on fire. I can’t help myself. I do what I always do. I turn to him, capture his lips, and lay a hand on his heart. We don’t talk that night like we should. Instead, we lose ourselves in each other, over and over again.

Chapter 22

Cooper

She’s shutdown on me completely, retreating to a place I can’t reach. I imagine this is where she was when she found out she was pregnant and was forced to marry that fuck.

Laces has been on autopilot since Saturday night. That’s four days too long. She talks when she’s supposed to. She smiles when she thinks it’s required, but those smiles never reach her eyes. The only times I get a glimpse of my Laci is when I touch her. My touch always does it. She’ll relax and fall into my arms, but every day she retreats a little further into herself.

This ends today. I pull in front of the small south-side Chicago house. It’s a one level little brick house. The front lawn is immaculate with a fresh coat of snow. The timing for this operation was perfect. I had to come to Chicago for a seminar, and as much as I’m going to miss my girls tonight, I knew I couldn’t leave this city without stopping here.

The December evening is already pitch black. More snow threatens to fall, but I don’t plan on being here that long. I open the gate and ring the doorbell. The sound of the television tells me there are people inside.

I hear a hand on the knob, but the door never opens. I ring the bell again, determined to get inside this house one way or another.

“Yes,” a tentative voice says. I recognize the voice, and the slight tremor tells me she’s already seen me through the peep hole.

“It’s Cooper.” There’s a pause, followed by a jiggling of keys. A few seconds later, the door opens, and I look into the familiar eyes of Laura Kemper. She looks just like Laci, with the same dark eyes and high cheekbones. She looks frail today, much different than the woman who barged into the house a few days ago.

“Who’s that, Laura?” A short, round man walks into the room. He stops short when he sees me. He doesn’t have the grace to come and stand by his wife. That’s when I notice the cardboard boxes along the wall. The man, who I assume is her soon-to-be ex, puts down the box in his hands and lays a roll of packing tape on top of it.

“This is Cooper,” she says, wringing her hands. “Laci’s…” she lets the word hang and finally says, “whatever.”

“Boyfriend,” I say, taking a step closer to her. She backs away and so does the man. I don’t bother telling her the title boyfriend is only temporary, because she doesn’t deserve to know that.

“I’m almost done,” he says to no one in particular. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“William Kemper, right?” I ask. I step around Laura and stand directly in front of him. “Yeah, I know all about you. And your wife too.” I give Laura a scathing look. “You can help me by staying away from Laci. If either of you ever come to Oak Bend again, you’ll regret it.”

“Soon to be my ex-wife,” William says, taking a big step back.

“I have every right to get to know my grandchild.” Laura sounds defiant and goes so far as to jut out her chin.

“You don’t.” I get right in her face and point my finger in it. If a man ever got in Laci’s face, he’d be eating my fist, but Laura’s husband runs and stands behind her. “You fucked all of that up. She wants nothing to do with you. This is your last warning, or I’ll make sure your husband ends up back in prison.”

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