Chapter 54
"Are you sure you can't come with me," Randy asked softly as he nuzzled Jenna's neck. He had to leave for the airport in fifteen minutes and he was desperately trying to convince his fiancé to come with him to Houston.
"I can't. I have to stay here with Amanda," she whispered back and leaned against him; he tightened his arms around her waist and ground his hips into her backside.
"Hmmm….we could bring her over to Nana's pretty quick; or she could go stay with that dead beat father of hers," he murmured as his lips started to explore the back of her neck. He felt her stiffen up when he called Cody a deadbeat. 'Damn it,' he thought to himself as she moved away from him.
"Please don't start in on Cody. He's going through a rough time right—" she started to say before he cut her off.
"What do you know about Cody going through a rough time, Jenna?" he asked with his tone of voice full of accusation and jealousy.
She sighed and started to walk away from him. "I don't want to talk about this right now, Randy," she said softly as she left their bedroom and walked down the hallway into the kitchen.
Randy let out a small growl of frustration before he grabbed his overnight bag off of the bed and headed down the kitchen. He had to leave soon for a day and a half and he didn't want to leave if she was upset with him. Jenna being upset might make her start to rethink their relationship. He found her in the kitchen facing the sink. He dropped his bag on the floor and walked over to her, placing his big hands on her narrow waist. "Please don't be mad at me," she whispered.
"I'm not….I just don't understand why you constantly defend him. It's not like he made your life any easier over the past year. If anything, I would think that you would be ecstatic that he's not in your life anymore."
She sighed again. "No matter what happened between me and him, he's still Amanda's father."
"I know. Trust me, I know," Randy said quietly. "I have to leave in a few minutes. Are you sure you two girls don't want to come with me? We could find a hotel that has a waterpark and let Mandy run wild," he said with a smile as he thought of how much his soon-to-be stepdaughter would love to spend a week at a waterpark.
"Not this time, honey. I have a lot to do here, with packing, and making sure that all the paperwork for Mandy's school is filled out," she rattled on about menial tasks that she needed to take care of before they moved.
"Hmm….But I'm going to miss you…." he mumbled as he pulled her closer to him again. "Miss you so much….Promise me that while I'm gone you'll start making wedding plans, baby. I can't wait to marry you…." he trailed off as he placed one more kiss on the back of her neck, slapped her ass and pulled away from her.
He yelled into the living room. "Amanda! I'm leaving, come say good-bye."
Within seconds Mandy sprinted from the living room into the kitchen and wrapped her little arms around Randy's legs. "How long are you going away for?" she asked as she hugged his legs tightly.
Randy chuckled. "I'll be back tomorrow night. You won't even know I'm gone."
Mandy stuck out her bottom lip. "Yes I will. You won't be here to read to me before I go to sleep tonight," she pouted. Randy looked down at the little girl that looked so much like the object of his affection; he picked her up.
"I'm sure mommy will read to you tonight," he whispered in her ear.
"Yeah, but she doesn't do it like you do," she pouted again as she laid her little brunette head on his shoulder.
"You'll be fine. Tell you what, if you're a good girl, I'll be sure to bring you back something from Texas, ok?"
A smile broke out onto the five year old's face. "Promise?"
"Promise," he said before he kissed the top of her head and set her back down on the ground. "Go play. I've got to say good-bye to mama."
He waited until Mandy went back into the living room before he grabbed Jenna by the waist and pulled him closer to her. Without waiting for her to realize what was happening, he covered her sweet mouth with his and kissed her with enough passion to leave her breathless. "I'll miss you," he whispered.
"Call me when you land?" she said quietly as she wrapped her arms around his waist for a hug. He squeezed her tight and mumbled 'I will', before he let go of her and grabbed his bag from the floor and headed out the door.
.
.
Jenna waited ten minutes after Randy left to be sure that he wasn't coming back unexpectantly. She found her cell phone and dialed his number. It rang a few times before he picked up. She could hear a screaming child in the background before he could say hello.
"Everything all right," she asked.
"Um. Not really. McKenzie is being a pain today…" he said quickly. "Can you come over and help? I would have called my dad but he took off for the day," he asked with a twinge of desperation in his voice. "I know I shouldn't be asking, but you were always able to calm….McKenzie! No!" he yelled before it sounded like he threw his phone down and Jenna heard something crash and then the loud wail of a screaming toddler.
Mandy chose this moment to wander into the kitchen. "Hey, Mandy?" Jenna asked quietly. "Do you want to go play with your sister today?"
Mandy let out a squeal of delight and jumped up and down. "Yes! I'll go get my dolls!" she said before she ran out of the kitchen and down the hallway to her bedroom.
Cody came back on the phone. "What happened?" she asked.
He sighed in frustration. "That damn yappy dog that Layla left here somehow got on top of the television and McKenzie had almost climbed up there but she fell down before she could get to the dog. Are you coming over? Please?" he pleaded.
Jenna held back a giggle. "Yeah, we'll be there in a few minutes. Hang in there, daddy," she said before she hung up the phone.
.
.
After Jenna and Mandy arrived at Cody's house, she was able to calm down McKenzie within a few minutes. She then sent the girls off to play in McKenzie's room. After she was sure that were out of earshot, she turned to Cody. "Hey…." she said softly.
He smiled and walked over to her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, "Hey," he said back as he leaned down and kissed her gently on the mouth. "I miss you…." he said as he went to sit down on the couch, pulling her into his lap as he did. "You have no idea how much I miss you, Jenna."
She laid her head on his shoulder. "Why do we do this to ourselves, Cody? You know this is wrong; I'm engaged to someone else….."
"Jenna, if you were really happy with Randy, you wouldn't be here right now. You would have told me to fuck off and to take care of my own kid. But instead, you called me this morning and you came rushing over as soon as I needed you to. You miss me as much as I miss you. Face it, baby, we're meant to be together…it's supposed to be me and you….."
"I can't stop loving you; I don't know how to, Cody. But things are different now. I still can't get over the hurt that you caused me when I found out about Layla—"
"I'm sorry, Jen. I don't know how many times I can say that, but I am sorry….." he murmured as he covered her mouth with his again. Her kiss was addicting; he couldn't get enough of it.
.
.
Meanwhile, in McKenzie's bedroom, the girls were playing with their dolls quietly. McKenzie toddled over to her bed where she had a toy purse and brought it over to her big sister. "Look, Mandy. Phone," she said with glee as she pulled out a pink iPhone. Mandy knew right away that it was her mommy's phone.
"McKenzie! That's my mommy's phone! You can't play with that. Where did you find that you silly girl," she giggled as she held out her hand to her little sister.
"I find it," McKenzie said proudly. "It mine."
"No, no. it's my mommy's, we have to give it back to her." Just then the song 'Voices' by Rev Theory came blasting out of the phone. Mandy let out a little squeal. "That's Randy!" Looking down at the phone, Mandy tried to remember which button mommy always pushed to make the other person start talking. Within a minute she found the button. "Hi Randy!" she said gleefully.
Randy was stunned; why was Mandy answering Jenna's phone? He had just landed in Houston and had wanted to let Jenna know that he had made it ok. "Hi princess; what are you doing?" he asked as he settled back on his hotel bed and prepared himself for a detailed account of what Mandy had been doing since he left the house six hours ago.
"I'm playing with McKenzie!" she said happily. "We're in her room, which used to be my room, and we're playing with her dolls."
"You're at your daddy's house?" Randy asked, trying like hell to keep his voice low and calm right now. However, inside he was absolutely furious that Jenna was at Cody's house. 'Calm down,' he told himself, maybe that asshole is just babysitting while Jenna went out to run some errands.
"Yep. Mommy asked me if I wanted to come over and play with McKenzie. She was crying really hard, so me and mommy came over, and we made her feel better. McKenzie's not crying anymore. Do you think it's because I'm a good big sister, Randy?" she prattled on.
"Of course it is," he said distractedly. "Mandy, why do you have mommy's phone?"
"Oh. Because McKenzie found it and we were playing with it while Mommy talked to Daddy. Are you mad?" she asked, fearful that her friend Randy would be mad at her for touching mommy's phone.
"Of course not, princess. Where is mommy? Did she drop you off at your daddy's?"
"No, she's still here. Do you want me to go find her?"
"Yes, please."
Randy listened as Mandy carried the phone with her and was walking. A few minutes went by before Mandy started talking to Randy again. "Hi Randy," she said.
"Hi, Mandy. Where is your mommy?"
"Mommy can't talk to you right now, Randy," she said quietly.
"Why not, princess?" Randy asked as he swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat.
"Because. She can't talk right now."
Randy sighed. "Mandy, what is she doing that she can't talk to me right now?" he was started to get frustrated.
"Because you can't talk when you're kissing someone, right?" she said innocently.
He swore his heart was going to stop beating right now. "Who is mommy kissing?" he demanded.
"Daddy."
Son of a bitch….
