Whiskey In The Water

Chapter 14-Logan

Chapter 14

Logan

It’s been a month since Lori’s last appointment, and we are sitting in the waiting room to be called back. Hopefully we find out the gender today. I take Lori’s hand and lace our fingers together and bring her hand to my lips, kissing her knuckles. There’s a young woman sitting across from us, and she looks like she’s about as far along as I am. Lori looks at her and asks, “This your first?” The young woman looks up at her and says “Yeah. You?” Lori smiles and says “Yeah. Our first. I bet you and the father must be excited.” The young woman looks at her and says, “Oh um…It’s just me.” And she looks so sad. “Are you here alone?” I ask and she nods her head yes. “Family?” Lori asks and she shakes her head no.

Lori stands and moves to sit beside her. “I’ve been there.” Lori says and the young woman looks from me to Lori and says “Yeah.” Like she doesn’t believe her. “Seriously. I was pregnant when I met my husband. I can help. If you’ll let me.” Lori tells her. “Really?” she asks. I lean forward and lean with my elbows on my knees. “What’s your name?” I ask. “Marci Clark.” She tells me. “Marci, Lori, and I work with a place called KJ Mission. Have you heard of it?” I ask. She nods her head yes. “Where are you staying?” Lori asks. “A friend’s couch but I can’t stay there much longer, and I won’t be able to work for a while.” She tells us. “We can get you in at the mission. You will have a place to stay for as long as you need and we can also help you find childcare, a job and help you get on your feet if you like.” Lori tells her. “You’d do that? You don’t know me.” She says. “If it weren’t for Logan and the mission, I would be right where you are. I actually met Logan at the mission.” Lori tells her. “Would that be, okay?” I ask and she nods her head yes. “I’m going to have my best friend Izzy come to get you. Is that okay?” Lori asks. “Just her?” Marci asks. “Yes.” I tell her and she nods her agreement. “Let the nurse know that Izzy Montgomery is coming to meet you. The nurses here know her.” I tell her and she nods.

I pull out my phone and call Izzy. “Logan? Is everything okay?” she asks as she answers. “Hey Izzy. Yeah. Everything’s fine but we’re at Lori’s doctor’s appointment and there’s a young girl here, pregnant. Lori started talking to her and she doesn’t have anywhere to go and doesn’t have anyone. We’ve talked her into coming to the mission, but she doesn’t have transportation. Can you come to get her? Come alone to get her?” I ask. “Of course. What’s her name?” she asks. “Marci Clark. Looks to be about Lori’s age and about as far along as Lori.” I tell her. “Let the nurses know I’m coming to be with her. I’ll be there in ten.” She tells me and we end the call.

I walk back into the waiting room and take my seat next to Lori. “Izzy will be here in just a few minutes, and she will see the doctor with you and take you to get your things and to the mission.” I tell her. “Thank you.” She whispers. “You’ll be able to get settled in today and tomorrow I will come by and we can talk.” I tell her and she looks at me scared. “He’s a lawyer. He’s going to help make sure you have everything in place legally for you and the baby.” Lori tells her. “I can’t pay you.” She says, looking down at her hands. “Good thing I don’t charge at the mission.” I tell her with a soft smile.

After Izzy gets there and Marci is called back, we are called back. Once the doctor sees us and says everything looks great from her end and the nurse leads us to the ultrasound room and I help Lori up onto the table and she raises her shirt up and lowers her maternity pants. The nurse puts the warmed gel onto her stomach and then the wand. She moves the wand around and then we hear the heartbeat. “That sounds really strong. That’s what we want to hear.” The tech says. She moves the wand around and does some measurements of her own and then starts showing us our baby. “All ten toes. All ten fingers.” She tells us and I look at Lori and she’s smiling. “Here’s their perfect little face.” She tells us and we see this perfect little angel’s face on the screen. “Now, are we wanting to know the gender?” she asks. “Yes.” We say at the same time. She moves the wand around a little more and then says “Well, congratulations you two. You’re having a sweet little baby girl.” I look at Lori and she looks at me with the biggest smile. “Magnolia Jane.” She whispers. “Our little Magpie.” I whisper back and she kisses me softly.

Walking into the house after the appointment, we had called Izzy and Ashton to meet us there along with Mary and Evan. Alice is pouring sweet tea for everyone when we walk in. “Hey guys. Thanks for coming.” I say as I help Lori onto a stool at the island. “What’s up?” Evan asks. “We found out the gender today.” Lori says. “Well, in just a few months you will all get to meet Magnolia Jane.” I tell them and they all smile before coming to congratulate us. “Just think of all of the little dresses we’re going to get to buy for her.” Izzy says and Lori just laughs. I look at Mary and say, “What would you charge to paint a mural on the nursery wall?” I ask and Lori looks at her and says “Yes. Oh my God. Please?” she asks. “I wouldn’t charge but what would you want?” she asks. “I’ll leave that up to you. We trust you.” I tell her. “What?” she asks, shocked. “You’re family, Mary. We trust you. I know anything you paint will be perfect.” I tell her and Lori looks up at me with so much love in her eyes before snuggling into my side. “I’ll…um…I’ll draw something up and see what you think.” She tells us. “Sounds good. We’ve got a few months, so you have time.” I tell her and she looks at me with pride in her eyes and it’s the first time we’ve seen that confident of a look in her eyes.

After everyone leaves, Lori and I are sitting on the couch together. She has one of her journals out and is writing and I have a book, reading it. Lori looks up at me and just watches me. I finally look at her and ask, “You need something sweetheart?” She tilts her head and says, “What made you ask Mary to paint the baby’s room?” I close my book and put it on the end table. Turning to face my wife, I say “She’s family. I’ve seen her drawings. She’s going to be Magnolia’s aunt, and I thought it would be a good way to give her a chance to have a special connection to the baby.” I tell her. “Before they left, she told me that it meant everything to her that you asked her to do it. She said she knows that we’ve all known each other for a while and she’s the newcomer. She said it made her realize she’s actually one of us. Thank you for that.” She says. “Baby, you don’t ever have to thank me for something like that. Like I said, she’s family. And if things go the way Evan wants, she really will be family.” I tell her. “Wait. Has Evan said something?” she asks. “Not so much said but Ashton and I have known him for a long time, and he’s never been like this with another woman.” I tell her and she smiles.

After we talk for a while, we decide to sit out on the patio to watch the sunset. While we’re sitting there, Lori looks at me and asks, “How hard would it be to plant magnolias in the garden?” I look at her and say “Not hard. When the gardener comes in a few days we can ask him to plant some. Why?” I ask. “Well, I was thinking about having a section just for Magnolia. Have magnolias planted and set up where we can sit out there with her and when she gets older, put a swing out there for her. Kind of make it her own little space so when she gets older, she has somewhere to retreat to that’s hers.” She says. “Howard will be here in a couple of days, and we can get him to set it up. That’s an amazing idea, sweetheart.” I tell her and she smiles.

After the sun sets, we head to bed and she’s laying with her back to me. I put my hand on her stomach, and she puts her hand on top of mine and laces our fingers together and that’s how we drift off to sleep. A few hours later, I wake up feeling something tapping my hand and think it’s Lori. I open my eyes and look at her but she’s fast asleep and that’s when I realize that the baby is kicking. I rub her stomach and drift off to sleep with a smile on my face.

Waking up the next morning, Lori is still sleeping and has moved onto her back. I move down the bed, to her stomach and kiss her stomach and feel the baby kick. I smile and whisper “Good morning my little Magpie.” And that gets me another kick. I rub her stomach and whisper “Mommy and Daddy can’t wait to meet you little one. You have so many people that love you so much and you’re not even here yet. But you will always be Daddy’s girl.” I whisper and then I feel Lori’s fingers running through my hair. “Good morning mama. I didn’t mean to wake you.” I tell her. “You didn’t. I’ve been awake for a little bit. Was just laying here.” She tells me. “Did she wake you?” I ask. “Yeah, but it’s worth it to hear you talking to her.” She says. I kiss her stomach one more time before moving back up the bed and pulling Lori into my arms. “You’re going to spoil her, aren’t you?” she asks. “Just like I do you.” I tell her. “Oh Lord.” She says and starts laughing and I laugh with her.

We get dressed and head downstairs and Alice is plating our food. “How are you feeling sweetheart?” Alice asks. “I’m good. Little one here was having a conversation with daddy though.” She says and Alice laughs. “I read that the father can bond with the baby before they get here by talking to the baby bump. She was kicking me every time I spoke to her.” I say and Lori looks at me. “Where did you read that?” she asks. “I bought a couple of baby books. I wanted to know about the pregnancy and what to expect and how to help you.” I tell her. “You are officially perfect.” She says and I just shake my head.

An hour later, I’m on the phone with Howard, our gardener. “Hey Howard…No, there’s no problem but I was wanting to talk to you about something that my wife was asking about…Great…See you shortly.” I say as I end the call. “Who was that?” Lori asks. “That was Howard, our gardener. He’s coming by. He asked me a while back about updating the garden so he’s coming by, and I told him I wanted to talk to him about what you were asking about.” I tell her and she smiles.

A little later, we are sitting on the patio with Howard. “Now, we talked a little while back about updating the garden, but Logan said you were asking about something?” he asks. “Yes. We just found out we’re having a little girl and we’re naming her Magnolia, and we were wanting to look at a part of the garden that we can make for her to eventually have a place to retreat to that will be just for her.” She tells him. “We can do that. So, are you wanting to plant Magnolias?” he asks. “Yes.” I tell him. “Okay. Give me just a second.” He says and pulls up his tablet and it’s a grid of our garden. “How about this? We can work this section here since it’s right in the middle and do the entire outside of the area with magnolias. Then in the center area, we can build a gazebo with mountain stones around the bottom of the gazebo and plant some soft grass on the rest of the area. Putting a gazebo here, it can be changed up depending on her needs and wants as she gets older, and she can make it truly hers.” He tells us. I look at Lori and ask, “What do you think?” She looks at it and asks “I like that it’s in the middle. Kind of shows her that she’s the center of everything.” She says. “I didn’t think of that.” I say. “She’s going to be the center of your world so it’s only right to be the center of the garden. And then we can do decorative topiaries on the other four sections.” He tells us. “I trust your judgement on the rest of it, but I love the idea for the center. Let’s go with that. Just send me the bill.” I tell him and we shake on it, and he leaves to get everything in place.

We’re still sitting on the patio, and she says, “I love his idea.” I lace my fingers with hers and say “He’s the best. You know, Ashton, Evan and I went to school with him. He was a couple of years behind us, but he was really smart. His family didn’t have a lot of money, but he was always talented. As soon as I heard he’d started his own business, I hired him. He’s a good man. And knows his shit.” I tell her. “I can tell. He was really in tune with us. I mean, we didn’t really tell him much and he worked up something perfect.” She tells me. “Yeah, when he was starting out, I hired him to do my garden and then told him to take pictures and set him up with a website, and LLC and everything. Helped him get the word out.” I tell her. She shakes her head. “What?” I ask. “You. You’re always helping people.” She says. “And you’re not?” I ask. I look at my watch and see it’s a little after one. “We should get to the mission to talk to Marci.” I tell her and we head out.

Walking into the mission, I ask Lori “Can you get Marci? I’ll get set up in the meeting room.” She nods and kisses me softly before heading to find Marci. I head to the meeting room and Kathy walks in. “Hey Logan. How are you?” she asks. “Good. How are you?” I ask. “Good. I saw Lori. She looks better.” She says. “Yeah. She does.” I say. “She’s not been doing as many sessions since you came back from Greece. How’s she been, really?” she asks. “She’s been really good. Seems to be handling things better. I might suggest she have a session just to check in.” I tell her. “That would be good. I just want to see for myself how she is.” She tells me and I nod. “Hey, did you meet the young woman that was brought in yesterday?” I ask. “I did. We have a session this afternoon.” She tells me. “Good.” I say. “Izzy said that you guys met her at the doctor’s office?” she asks. “Yeah. You know how our girl is. She sees someone not smiling and she’s wanting to help.” I tell her. “She really is coming into her own, isn’t she?” she asks. “She is.” I say before Lori and Marci walk into the room. Kathy excuses herself and we take our seats.

“How are you feeling Marci?” I ask. “A little better. Haven’t been sleeping well since I’ve been moving around so much so it was a little better last night.” She tells us. “Good. Now, I’m going to tell you how this is going to go. I’m going to ask some questions and get an idea of what you’re going to need from me. Like I said before, I don’t charge with you being here at the mission so if you need anything, you let me know.” I tell her. “Thank you.” She says softly. “Now, tell me about yourself.” I say. “I’m nineteen. Been on my own for about a year. My family lives in Maine and I’ve been here in Tennessee for about a year. Moved here as soon as I turned eighteen. Lost my job about a month ago and my roommate kicked me out when I couldn’t pay rent. I’ve been bouncing from couch to couch for about six months now.” She tells me. I write all of this down. “Now, are you wanting to keep the baby?” I ask. “I’d like to. I didn’t think I would be able to until you talked me into coming here. Thank you for that.” She says. “Like I said, anything you need.” I tell her and she smiles at me and then at Lori. “Can you tell me about the father? Does he know about the baby?” I ask. “He was my roommate’s brother. He would hang out on the weekends and then we started hooking up. We weren’t in a relationship but when he found out I was pregnant, he never denied the baby being his but said he didn’t want anything to do with me or the baby.” She tells me. “Okay. So, here’s what I’m suggesting. Because if you don’t put his name on the birth certificate, he can still file to have visitation or even fight for custody if he ever changes his mind so I would suggest putting his name on the birth certificate. What we will do is meet with him. I can do it so that you won’t have to deal with him. I can have him sign papers stating he is relinquishing his parental rights so that he will no longer have rights to the baby.” I tell her. “Can that be done before the baby gets here?” she asks. “It can and we have a judge working with us that we can get to sign off on it to get it pushed through faster.” I tell her. “Then let’s do that.” She says. She writes down his name and phone number. “Do you know where he’s staying?” I ask. “No. I’m not even sure if that’s still his number.” She tells me. “I’ll reach out and if it’s not his number anymore then we can find it.” I tell her and she nods.

After meeting with Marci and getting what we needed from her, we head home, and I head to my home office. I pick up my office phone and call the number that Marci gave me. “Hello?” a guy answers. “Can I speak to Adam Burns?” I ask. “This is him.” He says. “Mr. Burns, this is Logan Edwards. I’m an attorney representing Marci Clark.” I tell her. “Please tell me she’s not going after child support. I told her I didn’t want anything to do with her or the baby.” He says. “Are you in agreement that the baby is yours?” I ask. “Yeah. I mean, she wasn’t one to really sleep around so I know the baby is mine, but I don’t want kids.” He tells me. “Okay, so, the reason I’m representing her is because she knows you don’t want to be a father, so she’s filed to have your parental rights relinquished.” I tell him. “Do I just come to your office to sign them?” he asks. “Yes. I’ll text you the address and you can just come into the office to sign them.” I tell him. “Can you give her a message for me?” he asks. “Depends on the message.” I tell him. “Tell her I’m sorry.” He tells me. “I can do that. I’ll be in touch.” I tell him and end the call.

After getting the papers drawn up and emailed to my assistant, I head downstairs to see Lori sitting at the island, looking down at her hands. I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her, and she leans back into me. “Something on your mind sweetheart?” I ask. “How can someone just not want anything to do with a child they created?” she asks. “I don’t know baby. But I spoke to the baby’s father and he’s not denying that the baby is his and he did ask me to tell her that he’s sorry.” I tell her. “So, he’s just not ready to be a dad?” she asks. “Sounds like it. But he never said one bad word about Marci.” I tell her. “Well, that’s good I guess.” She says. “Is there something else on your mind?” I ask as I move to sit on the stool next to her. “When I was growing up, I knew I wasn’t wanted by my dad. I knew he hated me. But instead of letting someone else raise me, he chose to keep me with him and make sure I knew I wasn’t wanted. But you, you’ve never once said that Magnolia wasn’t yours. My baby will never know what it’s like to feel like they weren’t wanted. She’s going to have such a better life than I did.” She tells me. “But that’s a good thing, right?” I ask. “It is. But not everyone has a Logan waiting in the wings to sweep them off their feet.” She tells me. “No, but they will have a Lori looking out for them and making sure they have all the things they need to get set up and be able to give their babies a better life.” I tell her and she leans her head on my shoulder. I kiss the top of her head and say, “He’s coming into the office in a few days to sign the papers and then I will take them to Evan’s office.” I tell her and she nods.

A few days later, I’m in my office and my assistant rings in. “There’s an Adam Burns here to see you sir.” She says. “Great. See him in please.” I tell her and a couple of minutes later, Adam is lead into my office. I stand to greet him and say, “Mr. Burns, thank you for coming.” I tell him. “I figure Marci wants this done as fast as possible.” He tells me. “Don’t you?” I ask. “I did.” He tells me. “Are you having second thoughts?” I ask. “I don’t know.” He tells me. I look at him a minute and say, “Do you care about Marci?” I ask. He nods his head yes. “Yeah. Just, when she told me that she was pregnant, I freaked out. I’ve had a little more time to think about things and, I don’t know, maybe being a dad is a good thing. I mean, I know Marci will be an amazing mom.” He tells me. “How about this? I can get with Marci and explain what you’re thinking. See if she’s willing to meet with you. We can do it somewhere she will feel comfortable and have a counselor there to mediate.” I say. “You’d do that?” he asks. “I’m about to be a father myself so I know how it feels to be worried. My wife is about as far along as Marci is, so I get it. Let me talk to her and then I will reach out.” I tell him. “Thank you, Mr. Edwards.” He says and I nod before seeing him out.

I head to the mission in search of Marci. I see her in the sitting room and walk over to the table and ask, “Can I sit?” She nods and I take a seat. “So, I reached out to Adam, and he made arrangements to come in and sign the papers.” I say and she looks down at her hands and I say, “But he didn’t sign them.” She looks at me shocked and I say “He said he had time to think and that he freaked out. He’s wanting to talk to you and maybe work something out about being there for the baby and he said he cares about you.” I tell her. She looks up at me and I ask “Would you be willing to meet with him? I can set it up with Kathy where you can meet in her office, and she can mediate.” I tell her. “I’d appreciate that.” She says. I text Kathy and she texts that she can see them the next afternoon. I tell Marci when to meet and then send the information to Adam. “Once you two meet, we can discuss the next steps for the both of you.” I tell her. “Thanks Mr. Edwards.” She says and I see myself out.