DAMON
I take Eve’s hand and we walk up the stairs together. I close the bedroom door behind us as Eve sits on the bed and wipes her tears again. “What’s going on? I thought you said it was happy tears and now you’re all in here crying.”
“I don’t know why I’m crying. Maybe it is happiness? Jesus, I didn’t expect the conversation I just had with her.”
“Okay…” I take a seat next to her and she takes my hand.
“She wants to be a Mason.”
“Wants to be? As far I am concerned she is. Pretty sure that goes for the rest of my family too.”
“That’s what I told her, but she wants to be one in name, not just in feeling.”
I didn’t expect that answer. “Whoa, she wants to change her name?”
Eve shrugged, “That’s what she said. I don’t know what to think. I’m worried that she’s just saying this out of jealousy or fear, maybe both.”
“Who would she be jealous of?” I’ll admit it, I didn’t really understand teenage girls. Lizzie and I bonded over food and cooking, beyond that, I had no idea what I was dealing with.
“She said that the baby would be a Mason and eventually we’ll probably get married and I’ll be a Mason, which means she’ll be the only one without the last name of Mason.”
“But you two don’t share a last name as it is.”
“I told her that,” Eve said, clearly exasperated. “But I get where she’s coming from. In this day and age, blended families are normal, but it isn’t one child having a different last name. I think she’s worried it would be this reminder to her that she’s not like everybody else.”
“That’s bullshit. I’m never going to treat her differently because she has a different last name and neither will anybody in my family.”
“Once again, I know this and you know this, but this is about the hormonal almost 15-year-old that is sitting downstairs. She’s gone through a lot of changes this year. I think this is a pretty normal reaction.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her that we could talk about it, but I guess I didn’t really know what to say either. She’s going to be an adult in the blink of an eye, I guess she could always change her name then.”
I cringe, “I’m guessing it didn’t do well to tell her she needed to wait.”
Eve shook her head, “She doesn’t understand why we can’t do it when the new baby is born.”
I run my hand through my hair, “So before we’re even married she wants to change her name?” Eve nodded. “But Eve, we haven’t even talked about marriage except it is something we’d both like to do in the future. She wants to change her name to my name and I’m not even her step-dad yet.”
“You may not technically be her stepdad, but how else would you refer to your relationship?”
“Um,” I pause to think, “I guess I haven’t thought about that. Everybody knows who Lizzie is, I don’t have to define our relationship when I talk about her. She’s just Lizzie. I love her, she knows that, right?”
“She knows that you love her, Damon. That’s probably why she’s taking this so hard.” Eve leans into me and I wrap my arms around her. “God, this is so confusing. They didn’t cover this in the parenting books.”
I hate when Eve has to deal with these frustrations and I’m not sure what I can really do to help, so I do the only thing I can and rub her back and try to understand. “Let’s just pretend that you let her change her name when the baby is born, what does that entail?”
“I don’t think she can. I don’t think we can change it.”
“Why not? Eden changed Joey’s name.”
Eve chuckled, “That’s the exact same thing she said to me, but Fletch adopted Joey, that’s why they could change his name. She was doing a name change because of adoption, not just because.”
I nod along, “So I’d need to adopt her to change her name?”
“I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know all the ins and outs of this, but Lizzie’s dad still has parental rights.”
“Hold the fuck up,” I move Eve off of me and turn to face her, “what do you mean he still has parental rights? I thought he was out of the picture.”
“He IS out of the picture. I haven’t talked to him since our divorce was finalized. He’s never paid a penny in child support and never contested my having full custody.”
“But?” I encourage her to continue before I blow a gasket.
“At the time when I was granted full custody, he was still legally her father and was supposed to pay child support. He just never has and I never took the time to fight him in court for it. Plus, I eventually got remarried and we didn’t need the child support. Even if I did fight for child support, I don’t think it would make a difference. Courts don’t strip rights away just because you don’t pay your child support.”
“Yeah, wouldn’t they for just ghosting your kid for their entire life and not showing a bit of interest in them?”
Eve winced, “I don’t know. You don’t get it, Damon, but taking all these steps never occurred to me because they never seemed worth it.”
“Until now?” I ask.
“Yeah, until now when I met a real man who actually wants to step up and make him hers. But in order to change her name, I’m almost positive that we’d either have to get him to sign his rights away or approve the change, I think.”
“Do you think that would be a problem?”
“You’re telling me that you’re actually considering this?”
“I don’t know, maybe? I mean if this is what Lizzie wants, I’d want to do everything I could to make that happen. If he hasn’t seen her in fourteen years, do you really think he’d say no to signing his rights away? You’d probably have a good case for abandonment”
“I don’t know, Damon. I haven’t even talked to him since the divorce. I know nothing about whether he’d try to be a douche or something.”
“What’s his name? You said like Jeremy or something?”
“Jeremiah Maxwell,” Eve confirms.
“You got the name of that PI that you used to find Toni still?”
“Damon,” I move from the bed to the dresser where I left my phone. Eve tries to follow me, but it takes her a bit longer to get off the bed with her pregnant belly. “Are you sure about this? It could open Pandora’s box.”
“What’s the worst that could happen? He says no?”
“The worst that could happen is him trying to get custody of her!” Eve raises her voice in fear. I walk back over to her and hug her.
“I don’t think that would happen.”
“You can’t be so sure. All it would take is one hair out of place and we could be driving her to the state border every summer and every other Christmas and I’m selfish as hell, but I don’t want to do that.” Tears begin to form in her eyes as she rambles on.
“But what if that isn’t what happened, Baby? What if he signed all his damn rights away and we could get her name changed and then maybe one day before she’s 18, if she wants, I could adopt her?”
She wipes the tears from her cheeks, “I feel like that is a dangerous game to play though.”
“The risk would be worth the award,” I cup her face and kiss her lips.
“You can promise that, Damon. Don’t you see why this is so hard? I want to give her everything she wants. If the one thing that she wants right now is to have her name changed I wish I could snap my fingers and have it happen. But I’m scared. She may be almost 15, but she’s my baby. What is worth the risk to you is something that would break me to my soul if the risk actually happened.”
“And you think it wouldn’t hurt me too?”
“Not the same.” Eve shoves against my chest to back away from me and heads to the bathroom where she closes and locks the door. I put my head in my hands and shake it back and forth with a low groan. I’m not ready for this conversation to be over, but obviously, she is. So I’ll drop it….for now. This thing with Lizzie isn’t going to just go away though.
—--
Even with the tensions looming for the last couple of days, we still head to my parent's place for Sunday brunch. Even with all that is going on, I think all three of us know how important these meals together are. I’ve tried at least three more times to talk to Eve about Lizzie’s dad and she was having none of it. It’s annoying that she doesn’t understand that I’m not taking this lightly by any means. I’m just trying to do what’s best for Lizzie.
Regardless of what is going on at home, we try to put that aside and show up for a good time. The second we get there Lizzie ditches us to go find Zach. She gets on the floor and he toddles away from Eden towards her, welcoming her with slobbery baby kisses. I pour orange juice for Eve and take it to her where she is sitting with Toni and Cade. I reach over from behind and kiss her cheek as I hand it to her. “A virgin mimosa for you, my love.”
She takes the glass and groans, “When I have this baby I’m going to go back to mimosas sans the orange juice.”
Toni tugs are her free arm, “When you are ready, we totally need to have a girl’s night.”
“Don’t drag innocent Eve into your girl’s nights,” I jokingly protest.
“Pssh, innocent? Remember how this happened?” Toni motions at Eve’s stomach and Eve and I both laugh as she gives Toni a little shove.
I give kiss her once more on the cheek, “I’m going to go catch up with Fletch, do you need anything else?”
“Nope, I’m perfect.”
I pass by Fletch and give him a nod to head into the garage with me. We walk in there and I sit up on the freezer and groan. Fletch leans up against mom’s car which is parked in the garage. He senses right away that something isn’t right, “What’s wrong?”
“Lizzie wants to be a Mason.”
He tilts his head in confusion, “Like she isn’t one already?”
“That’s what I said,” I say, throwing my hands up, “but she told Eve that she wanted to change her last name.”
“Oh shit, that’s a pretty fucking big deal.”
“I know, right? Don’t get me wrong, part of me jumped for joy when I heard that but I guess it isn’t as easy as it seems and now Eve and I are fighting about it.”
“That’s not good,” he grimaces, “what’s up? She doesn’t want to change it?”
“No,” I shake my head, “I think she’s fine with it, but she dropped the bomb that Lizzie’s dad still has parental rights. This means that we couldn’t do anything without either getting his permission or getting him to sign over his rights.”
“What’s the problem with that? Eden had her ex sign over the rights of Joey, it was pretty easy. I mean, if he hasn’t been involved with the kid, right?”
“That’s what I said!” I throw my hands up again. “If he hasn’t given two shits in over a decade, why wouldn’t he just let her legally go? But apparently, that was the wrong answer. She’s worried that it’ll MAKE him want custody.”
“If he hasn’t tried to interfere since she was a baby, I can’t see him doing it now. This would be a great chance for her to have a full extended family in her life.”
“How do I get Eve to understand that?”
Fletch chuckles, “Well the last thing you do is tell her she needs to understand you because that’ll get you sleeping on the couch.”
“Experience with that?” I smirk at my brother.
“Maybe.”
“So what do I do about Eve? I want to do what is best for Lizzie, but I also don’t want a bigger can of worms to open.”
Fletch nods his head, “I hear you, Damon. I wish I could give you a better answer. Our experience isn’t the same, but I know it was really stressful for Eden when she was worried about her ex trying to get back custody and visitation of Joey. Not taking any further action has worked for them and she feels safe and secure that Lizzie isn’t going anywhere.”
“But I don’t want Lizzie attached to that asshole. Eventually, I’m going to marry Eve and when I do I want Lizzie to share our name too. I know it makes me selfish, but that’s what it fucking is.”
“Now that part I can understand. Adopting Joey was just as important to me as marrying Eden. Everything will fall into place, Damon. You just have to trust in the process.”
“That’s not something I’m very good at.”
“Clearly. Just drop the topic of Lizzie’s sperm donor for now. The two of you don’t need to be stressing over that when she’s so close to having the baby.”
“You’re probably right about that part.”
“I’m always right about everything.”
And just like that, we were back to our normal brotherly antics and I flipped him the bird before going back inside.