Page 24 of Creed

No ‘Missed you.’

Just silence, and not the,they were just tired kind of silence. This felt different. I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.Austin was hard to get to open up, especially when it came to his father, so I decided to start with Chrissy. I tapped on her door, and when I stepped inside, I found her yanking her clothes out of her backpack and angrily tossing them on the floor.

“Hey, sweetheart.” I stepped over and placed my palm on the small of her back. “How was your weekend?”

“It was okay.”

She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. Looked like it, too, so I pressed, “Are you sure? Because it seems like something is wrong.”

“It’s just…” She let out a breath, then turned to me with annoyance. “Dad broughtherto the lake.”

“Who?”

“Hisnew girlfriend.”

The words hit like a slap right to the face. I knew the time would come when Brian would start dating again, but I thought there would be some kind of warning or mention of him being interested in someone. But there was nothing. Not even a hint of someone else, and now, he’d suddenly brought a woman to the lake with the kids. It made no sense.

“Oh, honey…”

“He didn’t eventellus that he had a girlfriend,” she muttered, tossing another item of clothing into the hamper. “He just pulled up to some random house and told us a friend of his was coming with us. A few minutes later, this woman came out and jumped Dad like a hungry hippo.”

“A hungry hippo?”

“She was all over him, Mom.”

“I’m so sorry, sweetie. That must’ve been hard.”

“I didn’t want to be mean, but I really didn’t like her… at all.” She fell back on her bed with a thud. “And Dad left us with her and acted like it was all no big deal, but it was a big deal. It was a very big deal.”.”

“Left you with her?”

“He had to drive back here Saturday night for a few hours, but it seemed like an eternity. I finally just went to bed.”

God. I wanted to scream.

The Momma Bear in me wanted to call him right then and tell him what an absoluteassholehe was for blindsiding them like that and leaving them with some stranger.

But I would have to wait to ream him. Right now, I needed to focus on Chrissy. I sat down next to her and reached for her hand. “You’re right. It was a big deal.”

“We didn’t want to spend the whole weekend with someone we didn’t know, but he didn’t care about that.” Her lip trembled, and she curled up to me, resting her head on my shoulder. “He didn’t care about anything, except being with her.”

“I see… So, does this woman have a name?”

“Brooklyn.”

“Okay.” The name didn’t sound familiar, so I said, “That’s a nice name.”

“I guess.”

“What was she like?”

“I don’t know.” Chrissy sat up, and I could tell she was about to unload. I could feel it coming. It was like she was going to explode if she didn’t get it out. “She was really pretty, but the fake kind of pretty. You know? She had blonde hair and wore a lot of makeup, and she had ginormous boobs.”

“Chrissy,” I giggled.

“Ah, Mom. I’m not kidding. They looked like two big ol’ balloons, and she was wearing this string bikini that had to be two sizes too small.” She grimaced as she told me, “I mean, she bent over, and herentirebutt came out. It was so gross.”

My stomach twisted.