Waiting Fate

by Kinnette, W. B.

  The waves were mild and lapped gently at the sand. Desee plopped herself on the semi-wet ground and began digging with her fingers, shovel forgotten. Sadi peered up at Ivy, begging with gigantic brown eyes. Ivy laughed. “Go, Sadi. Run!”

  Sadi ran. Oh, that dog loved to run. Long and hard, and she didn’t stop until she was nearing collapse. But she always came back. Ivy watched her for a few seconds, loving the abandon that Sadi raced away with. When she turned to come back, Ivy glanced back at Desee. Archer had settled himself next to her and was filling her bucket with sand. Desee sat silently, not watching what he was doing, just staring at his face with an indeterminable expression.

  Ivy sat next to them, realizing as she did that she was getting sand all over her butt, but not caring. At least, not caring now. When it came time to vacuum her car seats, then she might be annoyed.

  Sadi raced past them, not even hesitating, her feet pounding against the sand as her breath came in controlled, steady pants. “You have a strange dog,” Archer said, raising an eyebrow as Sadi spun and raced back the other way.

  “Yeah. She’s awesome.” Ivy smiled as she watched her dog run. They spent the next several minutes digging. Ivy would talk to Desee every so often, explaining what she was doing as she built a castle; Archer helped quietly, flipping over the bucket for turrets and starting over again. Desee, also, remained silent, but she did start digging, watching Archer out of the corner of her eye.

  There was a chance that the castle was the grandest thing Ivy had ever built, and she was leaning back to take a picture of it when Sadi dropped a large stick in her lap and blinked at her, pleading. “This is muddy, you know,” Ivy muttered, but she stood up, dusted her butt off, and threw the stick as far as she could, making sure to keep it away from the water. Ivy loved the sand, but not water. In fact, she may have been the only dog Ivy had ever met that couldn’t swim. One time, on a camping trip in Alaska, Vick had thrown Sadi off a dock. Sadi had sunk under the water and not come up. After several seconds of thrashing and her head not breaking the surface, one of Vick’s friends had gone in after her, carrying her to shore. Sadi was deathly afraid of the water. Even sprinklers made her nervous.

  Ivy played fetch for several minutes, laughing as Sadi kept dropping her stick when she’d try to bring it back — the thing was bigger than her head. So it took Ivy a while before she realized she could hear quiet chatter behind her. She froze, afraid that if she turned to look, Desee would notice and stop. “You get water. For here,” Desee said, and out of the corner of her eye Ivy watched Archer stand up to get water out of the dam, carrying the bucket carefully so he didn’t slosh water over the sides. “Good!” Desee squealed as he filled the moat.

  Desee was talking. Not just talking, but talking to Archer. It hadn’t been months, or even weeks. Ivy was so stunned she didn’t notice Sadi had dropped the stick at her feet until a big paw smacked at her shins. “Okay. Sorry!” Ivy bent to retrieve the stick, gagging a little at the slobber, and hucked it again as hard as she could. A few more throws like that and she was going to be sore tomorrow. Sadi took off, stretching her body out as she ran as hard as she could.

  Behind Ivy, Desee giggled. Ivy felt her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “No, Archie. Flag not in ditch. Flag here.” Archie?

  “Oh. Right. The flag goes in this wall?”

  Desee giggle again. “No!” More giggles. “Here!”

  “Oh. The flag goes in the doorway.” Desee cackled, the laugh she reserved for being tickled or something truly hilarious. She didn’t laugh like that often, and Ivy just about fell over. Sadi, too, seemed to realize something wasn’t normal. She stood next to Ivy, the stick dangling from her mouth, watching. Ivy turned slowly, afraid if she moved too fast Desee would remember that she was afraid of people and go back to the big-eyed silent treatment. But Desee continued to laugh, so hard she fell backward into the sand. As she struggled to sit up, Archer held out his hand to help and she took it.

  Ivy was sure she was going to pass out right there and die from happiness. She glanced at Sadi, who still stood transfixed. As if aware of Ivy’s stare, she looked up and blinked, dropped the stick, and trotted off. Ivy was pretty sure that in dog language, Sadi had just called Desee a traitor.

  Ivy sank down next to Desee, still half-afraid if she intruded, Desee would retreat into her shell, but Desee said, “Mama, look! We made big castle!”

  “I see that, baby. It’s as big as you!” Desee beamed, got up, mimicked her mom as she tried to dust her pants off, and chased after Sadi. Her short little legs didn’t get her very far very fast, but she sure could move them.

  “She’s gotta be the cutest kid I’ve ever seen,” Archer said.

  Ivy smiled as she watched her run across the sand, her little arms moving faster than her legs. “Thanks. I think so too.” Turning her attention to Archer, she said, “That was so not normal. I meant it when I said it takes her months to start talking to people.”

  Archer winked at her. “I’m good with kids.”

  Ivy snorted. “Apparently.”

  They stayed for two more hours, until Desee fell asleep building a shell pile. Archer scooped her up, like it was the most natural thing in the world, and carried her to the car. Ivy waited as he set Desee in her car seat, expecting him to ask for help — those car seats with all their safety features were complicated, even more so for a guy who didn’t do it on a regular basis. But Archer snapped her in and swung Ivy’s door open. Sadi stood back, her tail between her legs, until Archer went to his side of the car. Then she crept up and slid inside, ever so slowly. Ivy’s heart ached for her. Never again, Sadi. I won’t let anyone hurt you again.

  “So whatcha got planned for the rest of the night?” Archer asked as Ivy navigated the canyon again.

  “I have a huge paper due Monday. Desee and I will be writing that tonight.” Ivy glanced in the rearview mirror at her sleeping baby.

  “Gotta be nice having your mom there to help out, huh?” Archer asked.

  Ivy nodded, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye because taking her eyes off the road would just be crazy. “It is, but she’s off to Arizona for Thanksgiving. It’s just me and Desee tonight.”

  Archer frowned. “How will you get your paper done?”

  Ivy shrugged. “I’ve been doing my homework with Desee on my lap for almost two years.”

  “It doesn’t sound like an efficient way to work.” Archer sounded dubious and Ivy burst out laughing.

  “It’s not. She likes to help type. And color on my books. But whatcha gonna do?” Ivy grinned in the rear-view mirror at Desee, who slept like an angel. At least sleeping helped the stuck-in-the-car-seat-forever phobia.

  “How about this? I’ll stay and play with Desee. You write your paper.”

  “Why would you do that?” Ivy asked before she realized that wasn’t the most polite way she could have phrased that.

  Archer smirked at her. “Because you need help. That’s what friends do, right?”

  Ivy’s heart sank, even though she was grateful for his offer. Friends. Right. “I would appreciate it so much. If I could cook, I’d even offer dinner. I do have leftovers and TV dinners though, if you’re interested.” Ivy pulled into her driveway, scanning the road for suspicious vehicles, like she did every time she came home. And like every other time, there were none. Archer saw her, though, and frowned. She felt a blush creeping up her neck, yet again, and tipped her head forward so her brown hair hid her face.

  Chapter Ten

  “So you can’t cook, huh?” Archer asked as Ivy laid a still-sleeping Desee on the couch.

  “Nope. Like my ex says, I’m quite the catch,” Ivy said. She didn’t seem to even realize she’d said it until it was out, and then she froze. “I mean, I can cook. Like mac and cheese, and I make some mean scrambled eggs.” He could tell she was trying to be flippant, to brush off her comment, but Archer could see the pain underneath. She hid it well, and if he hadn’t spent so much time memorizing her
every move and learning by heart every emotion that passed across her face, he wouldn’t have noticed. But he had spent all his time watching her, so he saw the pain, and he felt his fingers slowly curling into fists. Her ex deserved to be pummeled into the ground. And maybe locked in a box with fire ants.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind keeping an eye on her? She should sleep for at least another hour. This baby likes her sleep.” Ivy glanced at him and then back at the ground. Her shyness was adorable, especially when she seemed to think she was so good at hiding it.

  “Not at all.” He settled himself on the couch next to Desee.

  “Here’s the remote if you want to watch TV.” She backed away. “I’ll just be around the corner if you need me.”

  “We’ll be fine, Ivy. Get to work,” Archer smirked. He had two little brothers and a thousand cousins. He could handle one cherubic little baby. As he watched Desee sleep, her pacifier tucked under her bottom lip in the strangest way Archer had ever seen a baby hold a pacifier, he wondered if Ivy had any idea at all of how easy a baby Desee seemed to be. He’d heard Ivy say it often, but didn’t all mothers try to convince everyone their kid was the best behaved on the planet?

  He could hear her in the other room, muttering under her breath, keeping time with the tapping of the keyboard. Unlike most of the people Archer still knew from high school who had stayed pretty much the same, Ivy had changed. She wasn’t the enthusiastic, carefree girl he remembered. She was still kind and sweet, but her eyes had darkened with pain and her smile was more forced. And always, the hunted look that would cross her face when she thought no one was watching.

  She was scared. She was hurt. But she was also strong. She put Desee first in everything, and she was fighting to finish school against all the odds. And she’d had the courage to leave a horrible situation. No, she wasn’t the same girl at all, but that just made him care even more.

  Now he just had to convince her that he would never hurt her. His eyes drifted again to the hallway. Yeah. That’s gonna be real easy.

  He dozed on the couch off and on through random talk shows, until he felt Desee stirring next to him. He looked over to see those big hazel eyes staring, that undecipherable look on her face. Here we go again. “Hey, Des.”

  Ivy was suddenly just there; he had no idea how she even knew Desee was awake. “She takes a while to wake up. Cartoons help.” She slid the remote from under his hand, her eyebrows drawn together like she was stressed.

  “I got this. Go back to work, woman.” He stole the remote and waved her away.

  Ivy bit her lip, glancing at Desee, who was still staring at him. “Desee?” she asked.

  “Archie. Turn cartoons,” Desee muttered, rolling on her side and pulling her stuffed puppy up to her face, staring at the TV expectantly.

  “Okay then.” Ivy grinned and left the room. Archer watched her go. She was beautiful. So beautiful. And she had no idea.

  ****

  Archer was sure he had never played house this much in his life. Luckily for him, Desee’s version of playing house was lining up all the dollies, feeding them pretend food, and then lining them up again somewhere else and putting them to bed, and starting all over again. So it didn’t require much creativity on his part. For that, he was immensely grateful, because he was way out of his element here.

  He’d always heard that toddlers had short attention spans, but they’d been playing house on the kitchen floor for hours, and her attention hadn’t drifted one bit. He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t think that was normal.

  Ivy came in at five thirty, rubbing the back of her neck. “Hungry?” she asked, yawning.

  “Sure.”

  She smiled as she walked past him, ruffling Desee’s silky dark hair. The baby tipped her head up with a bright grin. “Hi, Mama. You workin’?”

  “Taking a break, sweet pea. Ready for dinner?”

  “Nope, playin’ with Archie.” Desee returned her attention to her toys.

  Ivy swung open the freezer, peering inside. “We’ve got sirloin beef tips, mac and cheese, or Salisbury steak. Any of that sound good?”

  “Nope,” Desee said without looking up from her dolls.

  Archer chuckled. “I’ll have the Salisbury steak, if that’s okay.”

  “Of course.” She had said she couldn’t cook, but apparently TV dinners were no problem. She ripped the box open and punched holes in the plastic with a fork without reading the directions.

  “You’ve done this a few times, huh?” Archer quirked an eyebrow.

  “A few.” Ivy smiled over her shoulder at him, the sexiest smile Archer had seen in his life. He watched as she moved around the kitchen, popping open jars of food with one hand while pulling black plastic covers on TV dinners with her other hand. She might not be able to cook, but she was still a wonder in the kitchen.

  “Mama, share!” Desee demanded, abandoning her dollies and Archer to swipe at her mom’s food. Ivy scooped a small bite of potatoes onto her spoon and blew on them before touching them to her lips.

  Archer’s eyes stayed on those perfect bowed lips long after the potatoes were gone. And then she laughed at Desee, saying something about how Desee had to eat her own food and weren’t mashed sweet potatoes yummy? But that smile was all Archer could see, and the world seemed to fade around it.

  “Archie, share!” Desee poked his leg, and he jerked out of his trance to look down at the pouty little face, demanding his food.

  “Okay, Des. Just a second.” He copied Ivy, blowing on the small bite and testing the temperature before spooning it into Desee’s mouth, open and waiting like a baby bird.

  “What do you say, Desee?” Ivy sat across from him, watching in amusement.

  “Tank oo.” Desee smiled sweetly and went back to Ivy for more.

  “She’s working us. Is she supposed to be this smart?” Archer asked as Desee went from one to the other, stealing bites and expertly avoiding her sweet potatoes.

  Ivy shook her head. “I don’t know if she’s supposed to be or not, but she definitely knows what she’s doing.”

  “So how’s your paper coming?” Archer didn’t even taste the food. He was memorizing her face, the way it moved, the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled. And he was trying to be discreet, sneaky even, because they were supposed to be friends. But he wondered, the way she looked at him sometimes… he wondered if she felt the same way he did. They weren’t supposed to be together, but they were.

  “Hello?” she smirked at him, waving her fork in front of his face to get his attention.

  He choked a little on his food. “Sorry,” he gasped. “What was that?”

  Smirk still in place, she said, “It’s about halfway done. But my brain is fried. I’ll take a break and pick it up again when Des goes to bed.”

  Archer glanced at the clock. It was after six now. He was supposed to be to Gunner’s to watch football at seven.

  “How about this? We watch a movie. When Desee goes to sleep, you go to sleep because you look exhausted, and I’ll come back tomorrow morning so you can finish.” Yeah, he’d promised Jay he’d work on the wiring in his shop tomorrow, but he could blow it off. It wasn’t like Jay had never done the same thing to him, and this was for a good cause.

  But Ivy was already shaking her head. “I don’t want you to waste your whole day off helping me. Des and I will be fine, won’t we, baby?”

  “No. Archie come.” Desee pouted. She looked so much like Ivy, from the brown silky hair to the big eyes, although Ivy’s were dark, dark brown, and Desee’s were hazel. The nose, the lips, the face shape were all the exact same as her mama’s.

  “She’s gonna be a stunner when she grows up,” Archer said.

  “I’m taking it one step at a time. If I think about her being a stunning teenager, I might just have a panic attack and die.”

  “Nah. I’d save you.” Archer winked at her and grinned when her face flushed. The way she blushed was adorable. Oh yeah, you got it bad, he thought to himself, bu
t it didn’t scare him like it should have. Instead it just felt… right.

  ****

  He didn’t sleep. He lay in bed, tossing and turning all night long, but thoughts of Ivy kept him awake. And every so often he’d burst out laughing, remembering something random Desee had done.

  She doesn’t talk. To anybody, Ivy had said, but Desee had talked to him.

  It wasn’t even nine yet when he’d gotten to Ivy’s, but given the fact that Ivy and Desee were both already dressed, and Desee’s hair already done in cute little pigtails, he guessed that they had been up for a while.

  “Hey.” Ivy smiled at him like he was her hero, and he could have died happily right there. “You’re up early,” she said. She and Desee were both curled up on the couch under a blanket, watching cartoons.

  “Yeah, I usually am.” Never mind that he had been awake all night and probably looked as tired as she did. And also never mind the fact that he had been staring at the clock for the last two hours, waiting for it to be a semi-decent hour so he could come over. “Don’t you ever sleep?” he asked.

  “Sleep? What is this sleep you speak of?” she teased. “Have you had breakfast? We ate a while ago, but I could make you eggs.”

  He chuckled. “I’m good.”

  “Hi, Archie.” Desee waved but didn’t turn her attention from the TV.

  “We’re at an important part.” Ivy grinned. “The princess is about to save her pet monkey.”

  “Sit, Archie,” Desee commanded, patting the couch next to Ivy before curling back into her mama’s lap.