Two Different Lives (AU)

Chapter Twelve

Around two, Darcy heard a knock on her front door. She had believed it was Peggy or Chris at first, but the knock didn't sound like their usual. So, she walked to the door and peeked out, before she seen Jeremy standing on her front porch. He had a scowl on his face, and his arms were crossed.

"You here to get Ava?" She asked, smiling at the man.

"I wouldn't be here for any other reason." He retorted, making her frown.

"Okay, give us a second. She needs to get her shoes on and collect her things." Darcy replied, but the man simply kept his scowl on his face and stayed silent.

Darcy stepped away from the front door and walked towards her living room.

"Ava, your daddy's here. You need to get your shoes on and I'll get your things." Darcy said, and the little girl quickly nodded.

Ava wore a simple pair of slides, so she didn't have troubles putting her shoes on. Darcy had made the children their own tote bags and a cute hoodie for them to wear in the winter time. Darcy placed Ava's hoodie inside her tote bag, before placing the Tupperware bowl of cloud bread in the bag as well. She also added a couple of stickers and coloring pages that she had printed out for the little girl.

Ava came into the kitchen and grabbed Darcy's hand, so Darcy could bring her to the front door where her daddy was waiting. The moment Ava seen her daddy, she ran over and wrapped her arms around his leg. Darcy held out Ava's tote bag of things to him.

"I hope you don't mind, I made her a few things, and she brought home something for you that she made with the other kids." Darcy said, as Jeremy took the bag.

"We're not a charity case. I don't know what Peggy told ya, but we don't need hand-outs. We're gettin' by just fine without special rich-y people things." He snipped, causing the woman to frown.

"I didn't do it as a charity, Mr. Renner. I make things for a living, and the kids thought the stuff was cool, so I made them some things, that's it. I'm just showing some kindness." She replied, making him scoff.

"Kindness?" He seemed to question,"What a load of bull-" He cut himself off before he could say a curse word in front of his daughter,"ain't nobody showed us kindness out of the goodness of their heart unless they were wantin' somethin'." He retorted, causing her to shrug.

"Believe what you want, but that's all I was doing. You can ask Ava if you don't believe me." She commented, but he simply scowled one last time, before picking up his daughter, and heading out to his truck.

Darcy didn't know what she did to the man to make him so cranky with her, but she hoped he didn't act this way towards his friends or his daughter. If Peggy and Chris truly believed that was nice, than they had some real questions to ask themselves. If he acted that way towards his daughter, well, then Darcy would have some real issues to work out with the man. He may have been very attractive, but his attitude definitely wasn't.

The moment Peggy came to get the kids, Darcy decided to question the woman about Jeremy. She wanted to know what pissed in his cheerios. She wanted an explanation, and she wanted it now.

"Is he always so snippy and rude?" Darcy asked, but Peggy shook her head.

"No, but he's also not use to being showed any kindness. Chris, Seb, Mackie, Dorthy, and I are the only ones who show him kindness in this town, without havin' some ulterior motive. Some women try to be nice to get his attention, while others are tryin' to get more to gossip about. He's stayed mostly to himself since the drama with his ex, and the people 'round here like to try and find somethin' else about him to talk about. They've been talkin' about you since you moved in, and they're just waitin' on a new story." Peggy said, causing Darcy to sigh.

"What happened with his ex?" Darcy asked, making Peggy sigh.

"I'm not gonna tell ya everythin', since some of the stuff he only told Chris, but I can tell ya some stuff," Peggy answered, and Darcy nodded,"Her name was Rachel. She was from his home town, so he went to school with her. They got married right outta high school, but it didn't stay happy long. They stayed together for a long time, mostly because she threatened to take all his money and his grandpa's farm from him. After she had beaten the crap outta him with a gardenin' tool because he wouldn't give her money, he went to the court and filed a restrainin' order. About a week later, he got the papers for a divorce, but she smacked him with a positive pregnancy test. He revoked the papers until she gave birth, but once she gave birth, he tried divorce again. She threatened to take Ava and run, so he took her to court. At the time, the judge ruled in Rachel's favor and gave her Ava. Jeremy was destroyed, but two years later, Jeremy was given Ava after she was arrested for neglect and endangerin' a minor. She went to jail after signin' the divorce papers, and he hasn't heard from her since, but rumor is she might be dead."

"Crap, that's a lot to handle." Darcy commented, and her friend nodded.

"It is, so cut him a little slack, but if it gets worse, just let me know and I'll handle it." Peggy said, making Darcy smile.

"Also, I wanted to know, does his family not live here?" She asked, causing Peggy to shake her head.

"No, they live hours away in a bigger city. The farm Jeremy has was his grandpa's. He got it about fifteen years ago when his grandpa passed. His grandpa bought the farm a few years before Jeremy was born, so he'd known it his whole life, and wanted to keep it." Peggy answered, making a little smile appear on Darcy's face.

The poor man had been through a lot, but from what she heard, he was family oriented and had a good heart. She just hoped one day he would accept her kindness and show her the good heart his friends claimed he had...