Page 42 of Pumpkin
Pumpkin rubbed his chest as his heart panged at the idea that his daughter might not want him in her life. Fuck, that hurt.
Whether he was in her life or not,both their lives, they would still have his protection. Turning to Demo, his friend must have seensomething on his face, because he gave him an encouraging smile before squeezing his shoulder again and finally dropping his hand.
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything,” Demo promised.
“I need you to make me two property cuts. One for a woman about Paige’s size and the other for a little girl a bit smaller than Lila.”
Demo’s eyebrows raised. “Frankie and I are the only ones who know about your jacket, Pumpkin. You could take it back and no one would be the wiser.”
Pumpkin shook his head. “I’m not taking anything back. She’s mine. They both are. I’ll try to be as patient as I can, but I won’t deny them.”
Dinner that nightwas beyond tense. JJ was the only one immune to it as she regaled her family with tales of her kindergarten adventures. Dosia fought to keep her composure, to give her daughter’s stories the appropriate responses, but fuck, it was hard.
After dinner, Calliope left the house almost immediately. She had a bee farm in the backyard that she’d kept since she was a little girl. She supplied local honey and comb to soap makers, candlemakers, and farmers market vendors. The honey Mabel used in her bakery was also from Calliope’s bees. Calliope was annually hired to bring her bees to different farms all over the state, including the Amish ones nearby, to help them pollinate their fields.
She and her bees were so comfortable with each other that Calliope rarely wore a protective suit. When someone nearby had a bee problem, likely a swarm, they called Calliope to come remove the bees.
Dosia had never before wished her aunt to get stung, but her dark thoughts went there as soon as Calliope went out the back door.
Grandma Solstice’s eyes kept glancing between her daughter and granddaughter all evening, but she kept her mouth shut, rightfully guessing that the conversation was not for JJ’s ears.
All too soon, and yet not soon enough, Dosia gave JJ a bath, helped her brush her teeth, tucked JJ into bed, and read her a goodnight story. The book JJ chose was about forgiveness, and it made Dosia wonder just how much of her side of the family JJ had inherited. Since Calliope hadn’t been alone with JJ since driving her home from school, Dosia knew Calliope hadn’t put her up to the book choice.
Or maybe she had.
Goddess help her, because she was getting more and more paranoid by the second.
Finally, Dosia was closing JJ’s door and heading back downstairs. The living room was deathly quiet as she walked in, Grandpa Marmot and Calliope on the couch with Grandma Solstice standing in front of them. Everyone turned to look at Dosia.
“Could you leave us alone?” she asked her grandparents.
“I already told them,” Calliope said, her voice small and regretful.
Dosia’s cheeks flamed. Calliope was the only person in the world who knew that JJ’s father was not a fellow college student who wanted nothing to do with the baby. Dosia hadn’t meant to lie about that, but someone else had made that assumption and Dosia had never corrected it. She’d also never spoken those words out loud and it was only word of mouth that had spread that rumor. Still, it was a lie by omission.
“Everything?” she demanded.
Calliope’s eyes lifted to meet hers, and Dosia refused to let her aunt’s tears sway her anger. “Just about today. And…last night.”
Dosia wasn’t sure how that had worked, but she was grateful for at leastsomediscretion. Still, they couldn’t have this conversation without her entire history brought to the surface. “Tell them the rest.”
Calliope’s eyes widened, and then Dosia listened to a very dulled-down version of her twenty-first birthday party. Neither Grandpa Marmot nor Grandma Solstice looked horrified by her actions. Clearly, they knew Dosia wasn’t a virgin. They didn’t stress about marriage and staying pure as much as other religions did. They’d taught all their children, and then grandchildren, about safe sex at an early age and didn’t treat sex as taboo or wrong. Growing up, Dosia,Calliope, and Dosia’s brother, Ambrose, had suspicions that the monthly get-together Marmot and Solstice went to at various friends’ houses were actually swingers’ parties. Not that any of them wanted to confirm that suspicion, but it had been the running theory.
After she’d finished speaking, Dosia just stared at Calliope for a long moment. “Do you have any idea what it feels like to be played a fool?And by my best friend!My life is my own, Calliope. We agreed years ago that you wouldn’t interfere unless you saw something that endangered my life. But you’ve been playing some chess match with my life for years!”
Tears streamed down Calliope’s face and she ducked her head.
“Did you know I would get pregnant that night? Did you encourage me to go without you knowing what would happen?”
Calliope shook her head. “They weren’t that clear back then. It was an inkling. As much as I wanted to celebrate with you and be with you on your birthday, something was telling me to let you leave. I knew a life-alteringsomethingwould happen, but the feeling wasn’t dark. I never would have let you walk out that door if it was!”
As pissed as she was, Dosia did believe that. Calliope wasn’t cruel.
“You were with me every step of my pregnancy. You knew that I’d come back here to find Vod—” Dosia stopped mid-name. “Pumpkin,” she corrected herself, frustrated. “Did you find him? Did you know about his road name? Is that why you started calling JJ ‘pumpkin’ too?”
Calliope shook her head. “I’ve never met him before today. I’ve seen him around town but I didn’t know who he was. You never gave me a description, and it wasn’t until you came back last week that the visions started to get stronger.”
