ust before spring break, which Mac insisted on driving up to bring her home for, at one of her doctor's appointments they found out it was a boy and they agreed the child would be named after her father Michael, and his, Walter. This was an easy agreement between them, one of the only easy things out of bed for them.

Finally, she finished school for the year and moved back home and in with her Aunt Isabelle, by now Isabelle knew she was having a baby. Julie refused to live with Mac, she refused to marry him and he let it slide, by now she was showing and anyone who didn't know who's kid it was was deaf and blind. Mac had practically taken out a billboard to announce it and let any dude who was thinking of sniffing over her way to back the fuck off.

Walter was against the whole idea, and he found out quite by accident one night in the caves when they were cooking in the spring before she arrived with her baby filled belly, and one of the guys said something in front of him. He didn't say a word for a long time, then he put down what he was working on, walked over to Mac and smacked him in the back of the head.

"You dumb fuck!"

Mac's hand went to the back of his head where the unexpected blow came from, "What the fuck old man?" He turned, it had been a long time since Walter had hit him.
"She's knocked up! What the fuck were you thinking?" Walter raged, "What are you getting married now like a fuckin pussy whipped douche,"

"I was thinkin I was getting my dick wet, what do you think I was thinking," Mac roared back, then he stopped and added, "And She won't, I keep asking her and she won't."

Walter found that hilarious, and he laughed for a full minute before he replied, his eyes were merry and bright now, "That girl is smarter than I thought," And that was the end of it for the most part with Walter and he did have a new found respect for Julie. Once in a while Walter "Reminded" Mac where his loyalty ought to be, "Nice going cholo." was all he would say and Mac would know his father still didn't approve.

Devon called Walter grandpa and got smacked in the side of the head for it, so most of the time this baby was the elephant in the room that no one dared to talk about in front of Walter and that was just fine with him. All of his kids were fuck-ups as far as he was concerned, this just proved it.

Mac knew all too well where his bread and butter came from, he was a skilled mechanic but there were only so many people around needing their cars serviced. He depended on his income from his and Walter's enterprise to live on day to day. Even if he wanted out it would be hella difficult.

Now he had a kid to take care of, he was in as deep as could be and for the first time, he wished he wasn't. He was thirty-two years old, getting tired of chasing whores and cooking drugs. Now he thinking of a different kind of life and of how to be a better man.

Julie made him think of a different kind of life, she made him want it too.

All this time he thought his main attraction to Julie had been because she turned him down so many times, but maybe it was more than that now. Since he found out about the baby he had laid off the meth, and just smoked pot primarily, and never around her; his thoughts were clearer. For the first time in his life he thought about things like the future, rather than just where was he getting drugs and pussy from that day

She was different than most women he knew, smart. Mac didn't bother with people like that mostly, it was all so new for him, that was great progress. She was still ambivalent about him, but at least they got along somewhat now.

Maybe the person who made you want to be better was the one you were supposed to be with, he really had no idea and no one to ask, Walter was not speaking to him much, but that was fine. For the first time in his life, he gave fuck all about what his father thought about him and his life.

/

"I been thinking about those classes at the hospital," Mac said to her one day on the phone and Julie almost hung up on him. She had been sitting on her Aunt's front porch with her feet up enjoying her day and then he had to call her about childbirth and parenting classes. When he did stuff like this it made her wish he was always that way, it made her hopeful and she knew better than that.

Why couldn't he leave it alone and let her continue to hate him? When he called her about this stuff and took her shopping all those times for groceries and vitamins when she was at school it was hard to be indifferent to him. Slowly but surely he had chipped away at her defenses and Julie didn't like it at all.

"What were you thinking?" She asked cautiously.

"That we should sign up for them soon," Mac said, "See, I don't know if you noticed but my parental examples are not so good."

Julie winced, of course, she knew that. Everyone in town knew Walter beat the shit out of him and Devon when he was a kid. Their sick alliance aside, Julie felt sad for Mac when they were kids, he always had some sort of evidence of abuse, a black eye here, a broken bone there. He was like a stray dog looking for scraps and sometimes even now he acted that way, as if he was still afraid of getting a beating. That was part of the reason why Izzy was so easy on him, she felt sorry for him.
"I gotta learn what to do." He was sincere and it was hard to not be touched by that. But she also knew the other side the enigma that was Mac, the bossy, drug using, abusive side that was still very much a part of him. He may have cut way back on using but he had a long way to go in her opinion. But now, this thinking ahead he was doing touched her.

"You're really serious aren't you?"

"Yup," He answered, and she smiled, part of her hoped this change would stick for all their sakes, "Thinking of getting a straight job, Walter won't like it but he can fuck right off."

"Wait, why?"

"Cause this kid shouldn't grow up like I did, I wanna do better than that. I'm gonna be there for you both. Izzy said she doesn't care if I crash there sometimes."

Julie sat up in the lounge chair she was sitting in, what the hell was he going on about now, "What if I mind?"

"Guess we're gonna fight about this too? Cause I'm getting sick of fighting you every step of the way." He raised his voice, to his credit only slightly, "I already told you..."

"And I told you!"

"Hey, are you going to breastfeed?" Mac said trying to ward off a fight that wouldn't be good for the baby, he had been reading a little bit. Yelling and picking her up against her will was stressful for her and the baby, he was trying not to act that way now.

"Hey, can you stop being so creepy?"

"Well, I can help you with feedings if you pump..."

"Mac I am not talking about pumping breast milk with you!"

"Don't be such a prude, yeah?" He laughed, "Don't make me have to tie you up again."

So much for change, sometimes it was a slow process, what was the saying? Progress, not perfection.

/

Mac showed up a few days later with a duffel bag of his shit and moved it right into Julie's room. Izzy had talked to her and reminded her of all the times when she and Mac were kids and wishing for a way out of the canyon life. If he was making even a slight effort to give them a better life, Izzy was on his side. The baby needed a father in it's life, Julie agreed with that, but Mac had a lot of changes to make before she was going to trust him.

"Alright, alright you can stay, just shut up about it OK?" She finally relented as they got changed for bed later that night in what was now their room. They undressed easily in front of each other now, as if they had been together forever. It was funny how things like that occurred when you weren't paying attention.

"And the online classes? You can't go back to Salt Lake City, it's too far." He said, sitting back on the bed and patting beside him for her to sit and she did. Julie sat down next to him and he handed her a water bottle to drink.

"For this year, we'll see after that OK?"

"I got an idea," Mac said as he scooted down on the bed and Julie rolled her eyes at him, a regular occurrence.

"What?" She said with a laugh, she could only imagine an idea of his.

"Why don't you stop rolling your eyes at me and running your god damn mouth and come sit on my face."

That made her laugh, and when she was done laughing she did as he asked.

At least they were getting along, it was a start.