For the passed couple hours, Brenton and I have been sitting on the couch, talking about Clementine. She woke up about a half hour ago, and was now currently running around the house with her stuffed puppy. Brenton ended up falling on the floor, and possibly almost having an asthma attack, from laughing so hard.
"Clementine Braelynn Daniels, calm yourself down." I walked over to the bottom of the stairs and picked her up. "I know you're two, but I'm beginning to think you have ADHD."
"Mommy, can I have yogurt?"
"When you calm down. I know you're excited, but damn." I set her in her chair. "Two and a half minutes in the chair then you can have yogurt."
"Okay, Mama."
"Wow. You parents her by giving her the amount of minutes for year she's been here in a chair?"
"Yeah. Punishments get worse as she gets older. Take away her toys then her phone and don't let her go out. You should remember what that was like."
"Sadly. Two phones later, my parents said we weren't allowed to talk to each other anymore."
"Clearly that didn't work out," I looked at Clementine. "Otherwise she wouldn't be here."
I walked into the kitchen, and got two packs of strawberry yogurt. Clementine and I both loved strawberry yogurt and fruit more than anything. Hard to believe she's Brenton's daughter because he practically lived off pizza, burgers, tacos, chips, popcorn and soda. I could too, but I love fruit and salad, yogurt and energy drinks more. For someone who ate a lot of junk food, he sure was skinny.
"Here." I handed a pack of yogurt to my daughter. "Your two and a half minutes are up."
"Thank you, Mama." She opened her pack and practically started drinking it.
"And she's my daughter?" He joked.
"Hey, she's more like me than you. So far, the only physical thing y'all have in common is your eye color. But she's just as charming and loves her video games. She plays with Connor all the time."
"Guess we'll have to change that." She grinned.
"Oy vey." I shook my head.
As if on cue, the front door came flying open, and a woman, not much taller than me, in camouflage, came walking in. She set her rucksack next to the door, and started unlacing her boots. Clementine came running out of the kitchen.
"Rian!" She jumped on her.
"Hey, little orange." Clementine took off her hat, and placed it on my head. "You and my hat."
"It's cool." Rian set her down.
"Were you good for your mother while I was away?"
"Yeah! We made you cake! Come look!" She started pulling Rian towards the door.
"Clementine, can you give her a minute? She just walked in the door. Let her take off her boots and shirt and say hello to Mommy."
"Exactly. Listen to your mother." She paused for a second. "Hey, wait a minute!"
Both Clementine and I burst out laughing. After we finally contained herself, I walked over to my girlfriend to give her a hug and kiss. She just spent the last nine months overseas, and we haven't heard from her much except through letters. Clementine and I each write separate letters, so she doesn't occasionally get confused about who I'm talking about. And Clementine can work on her writing.
"Hey, babe." She said.
"Hey. How was your thing?"
"Too long. I hate being away from you and Clementine." She ran a hand through her hair. "At least I have a month off before I get deployed again."
"Good. Now you can take Clementine to school and pick her up and play with her while I'm in the garage."
"Sounds like fun."
"Oh. Rian, this is Brenton. Clementine's father. Brenton, this is Rian. My girlfriend." I said awkwardly.
"'Sup?"
"Hey."
I could practically feel the tension between us. Rian didn't know much about Brenton, and he didn't even know I have a girlfriend. I may be short, but it don't take a giant to see the hurt and anger in his eyes. Rian never really expected this day to come, but she was pretty calm about it. She figured they would have to meet anyway if he wanted to be part of her life."
"Clementine, why don't you go show Rian her cake, and go play downstairs?"
"Okay, Mommy." They went into the kitchen.
We sat there for a few minutes in an uncomfortable silence. He didn't even try to say anything. Every time I did, my face heated up and I felt dizzy. I. Plus only imagine what was going through his head. I told him I loved him, and hadn't even attempted to tell him about Rian. He probably thought I hadn't told him about Clementine because I was too busy playing house with somebody else. I could tell from the hurt in his eyes he was making scenarios about me not telling him because I wanted to pretend Rian and I adopted her so we could have our own family.
Every scenario he came up with probably ended up with I was never going to tell him because I wanted Clementine to have two mothers instead of two mothers and a father. Both Rian and Shayla told me something like this would most likely happen if he came along later in her life, and I hadn't told him. If I wanted to play house for Clementine with anybody, it would be Brenton. She needs him more than she needs Rian. Even though she looked, acted and sounds guyish, she could never take Brenton's place. Connor couldn't either because, at some point, he has to play the part for someone else.
"I should've told you about Rian." I finally sad.
"You're playing house with our daughter with someone else?" Applause for my prediction. "How long have you been together?"
"Year and a half she just showed up here one day and never left. But, believe me, she never tried to be Clementine's other parent. Not even if we were to get married."
"Great. Someone else became a parent to my daughter before I got the chance to be. Piper, it's suppose to be you, and and Clementine. Not you, me, Clementine, half the state of Alabama, and the entire state of North Carolina."
"It is not the entire state of North Carolina and half the state of Alabama. Rian just spent nine overseas, and Connor and Shayla aren't helping me raise her. They've only been in her life everyday since before she was born because I've been living here since before I found out I was pregnant. They're my family, and they're here family too. Connor, Shayla, Rian, me and now you are the only family she has, that she's known since the day she was born.
"Brenton, I didn't plan on getting with Rian. I didn't plan on Clementine taking to Rian. I didn't plan on Rian coming here. But I did plan on telling you we had Clementine. I just didn't plan on how I was gonna tell you. I planned on the three of us being a normal family. I just didn't plan on it ending up like this." I took a deep breath. "Brenton, she needs you. She needs you more than she needs Rian. More than she needs Connor Shayla. She needs you as much as she needs you. We are her parents. That's you and me. Not me and Rian. Not me and Connor or me and Shayla or me, Connor and Shayla or whatever combination you wanna go with. It's you and me. Our names are on her birth certificate, and they will always be on our birth certificate.
"Her original birth certificate that the hospital gave me when she was born. It does not say Connor's name, it does not say Shayla's name, and I don't plan on it ever saying Rian's name. It won't anyone else's name unless you sign your rights over and she's adopted."
"Like that'll ever happen." He snorted. "I'm not signing my rights over. But I actually do wanna sit down and talk to your girlfriend to try to get to know her."
"Understandable. Most parents would want to know who their kid hangs around with."
"Are you and her gonna get married?"
"I don't know. We haven't really talked about it. If we do, it won't be for a while. I'm not even sure if I wanna be with her for the rest of my life." I sighed. "But what I want and what Clementine needs are two different things. I have to do what's best for her. If marrying Rian is what's best for Clementine, then that's what I'm gonna do."
"If it's not something you want, you shouldn't do it just because it's what she needs. It has to be something you want and she needs."
"You can stay here tonight. If you want. Spend some time with your daughter, do fatherly things with her. Just to start out in case custody gets split or something."
"I'm probably gonna end up moving here so I can see her, and, if you decided to let me take her, nobody's driving from state to state."
"Chase each other all around the world just to see our daughter. I'm gonna go see if Rian wants to go work in the garage."
"Okay." I went downstairs.
Rian changed out of her army uniform into a black T-shirt with an orange Camaro on the back and a pair of shorts. Clementine's face was covered in frosting, and half the cake was already gone. One of her coloring books was open on the floor, and Rian was passed out on the floor with makeup all over her face. I had made the mistake of buying Clementine her own makeup so she would stay out of mine. I realized how bad of an idea that was when I came home from work on Rian's first night home last year, and her name was written on her forehead in lipstick. I have pictures of it in a photo album under my bed from Clementine's makeup attempts that Rian don't know about, but Connor and Shayla do.
I pulled my camera out of my bedside table, and snapped a quick picture of Rian. I had the film in a shoe box in the closet since she never goes in there. After she deployed, I get them developed so we have something to laugh at while she's gone. Guess I'll have to make some changes to the photo album since she'll probably do the same thing to Brenton.
"Rian. Rian, get up." I nudged her with my foot, but she just groaned. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you when you go into the bathroom, and there's makeup all over your face."
"What?!" Her eyes flew open and she jumped up.
"Yeah. Clementine drew all over your face in makeup again." I said nonchalantly.
"Are you serious?!" She ran into the bathroom. "Clementine!"
Clementine busted out laughing when Rian started scrubbing her face. I just stood there and smiled. She was mad about it, but she was okay with it as long as Clementine's happy and I'm smiling. Her face was darker than a tomato when she was done scrubbing, and Clementine started turning blue from laughing so hard.
"Clementine, breathe. Breathe. You're turning blue, and that's not very good."
"I'm trying to." She said in between snorts.
"Try harder." Rian told her.
"Clementine, do you want Daddy to spend the night?" She automatically shut up.
"Can he?! Can he?! Can he?!" She yelled.
"Sure, but you have to stop laughing and apologize to Rian."
"Okay, Mommy." She turned to Rian. "I'm sorry, Rian."
"Hey, I don't mind as long as you and your mother are smiling."
"Is Daddy still here?" Clementine looked up at me.
"Yeah. He's in the living room. You wanna go up?"
"Can I please?" She twanged a bit.
"Go right ahead. Go spend some time with your father."
"Thank you, Mama." She ran upstairs.
"I'm gonna head to the garage to help Connor. I'll be in later." She grabbed her work shirt and went upstairs.
I could tell by the way Rian left to go to the garage without asking if she was that were in for an awkward and irritable month.
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Well this was a really awkward chapter to write.
Who do you think Piper should be with? Brenton or Rian? Lemme know in the comments below!