Liam and I continue to sit on the back porch and just talk about a little bit of everything. I can’t believe it but it’s like talking to my best friend.
“What about the twins’ mom? What happened to her?”
Liam gives a grimacing look, letting out a deep breath as he explains, “We met when I finally moved out of my childhood home. It’s not that I had to or anything like that. I thought I just needed space. Anyway, I was out jogging one morning and this woman jogs up beside me. We ended up jogging together daily. One thing turned into another, and she became pregnant with my sons. We got married after the boys were born, and she quickly figured out that I wasn’t going to tolerate her sleeping with the guys from Xander’s restaurant. I got a paternity test done on the boys to make sure they were mine. I then divorced her and didn’t leave her with a dime. When I tried to get a custody agreement going, she said Don’t bother. They’re your kids, not mine. Have fun with that. Then she signed off her maternal rights and rode off into the sunset.”
“How old were the boys?” I ask.
“They were only eight months old at the time.”
“So, you’ve raised these boys solo for nine and a half years?”
“What, like it’s hard?” Liam jokes, letting out a laugh, then asks, “What about you? What’s your story as to why you are a single mom?”
“I got older, gained some weight, got so wrapped up in caring for him and our kids I stopped caring about myself. The more I did, the more he complained about the stuff I didn’t do. Nothing I ever did was good enough. I wasn’t enough for him, apparently,” I confess somberly.
Liam moves closer to me and places his hand on my cheek, his thumb gliding gently across my cheekbone. “I need you to help me understand something, Mia,” he starts.
“I can’t promise, but I can try,” I say as he places his hand on my chin and moves it so that my eyes meet his gaze.
“Help me understand why you don’t see how beautiful you are,” Liam states.
I let out a chuckle as tears pool in my eyes. “Why the tears, Mia? You have to know how beautiful you are.” I find myself lost for words at the moment as Liam continues, “You know, I should feel bad about this, but I don’t.” Liam’s declaration pulls me out of my negative thoughts.
“Bad about what?” I ask, confused.
“Being happy that you and he didn’t work out.”
“How is that a happy thing?” I ask, shocked.
“He didn’t deserve you, Mia. You have to know that by now. You’re amazing just the way you are.”
“Chris wanted someone who was forever young, so he traded me in for someone young enough to be his daughter,” I state with a shrug.
“That isn’t the real reason. The truth is, you deserve so much better than that. You’re smart, beautiful, funny, loyal, honest, trustworthy… the list goes on and on. You were too much for him to handle, Mia. I just met you and I already know that you’re an amazing woman. I just have to find a way to get you to believe it. You deserve someone who’s going to tell you that you’re beautiful a minimum of twice a day if not more. You deserve someone who’s going to go to work and be useless that day because he’d rather spend the day before in bed with you.”
“You overheard that story?” I ask him, feeling kind of embarrassed.
“Don’t be embarrassed about it. I did hear it, and you know what? It pisses me off. If I had a woman like you naked in my bed, I wouldn’t want to be away from you for a minute. Look, I’m not proud of it, but I’ve had my share of girlfriends in the past and believe me when I say not a single one of them can hold a candle to you.” Liam brushes his thumb gently across my cheek to wipe a tear away. “It pisses me off to no end that you don’t see your worth because of that asshat you were once married to that couldn’t appreciate you for the strong woman that you are. I know that we just met, but I feel like I’ve known you forever. I promise you, Mia, I will make it a personal goal of mine to make sure that you hear how beautiful you are at least twice a day, until someday you start believing it yourself.”
I gasp in disbelief at his words. No man has ever spoken to me like this before.
“I’m willing to bet you already have a million reasons why it didn’t work out between the two of you,” he says.
“I do, actually. I have beat myself up over it for quite some time. Thinking that I am the reason. Finding every little flaw that I have.”
“But you’re not the reason, and your flaws are so minimal, they’re not even worth mentioning.”
“I should’ve seen the signs sooner. He didn’t go to the doctor’s appointments because he had work, or he didn’t visit our daughter in the hospital on the weekends because he was too tired. Chris never once offered to sleep in that hospital chair. He was very hands-off with our son too. Garrett just wanted to go fishing, to throw the ball around, to play basketball, or to go camping. He just wanted male attention that he should’ve been getting from his father. Garrett originally joined karate thinking it would finally be some one-on-one time with his dad, but that lasted three weeks. His dad stopped taking him to karate, claiming he was too tired. He then refused to sit with Arianna so that I could take him. After a while, Garrett started asking if Paw-Paw could take him. All those little things kept adding up. Finally, Chris decided that it was time for him to live in Florida for the winter months, so he got a job and left. Garrett called him to tell him about school and I heard this woman’s voice. Apparently, Chris’s dad is quite the skank entertainer and introduced them.”
Liam looks at me dumbfoundingly. “Are you serious? He just up and left you and the kids to live with his dad during the winter?”
I shake my head yes.
“Whoa.”
“There is no love lost between his father and me.”
“That bad of in-laws?”
“Chris is a foot shorter than me, and the first thing his father asked when he met me was, ‘Is she worth the climb?’ and was trying to get his son to see me for the lazy, opinionated, worthless, bitch that I am. His mother actually told me that I was fat when Ari was six weeks old. My daughter was c-sectioned, so the scar wasn’t even healed over yet. A year almost to the day of Arianna’s transplant, his stepfather told me I needed therapy after I flipped out over Chris changing his airline ticket without telling me so he could stay in Florida longer while I stayed at home with the kids. So yeah, there is no love lost between me and them.”
“You’re serious?” Liam looks completely mortified.
“They were always comparing me to his brother’s girlfriend. Something about those two being together and playing house for fifteen plus years and never marrying just so that they could cash in on the government help. It really pisses me off. I bust my ass to make sure that I am not using anything but what is necessary, which at this point it is strictly health insurance. But wouldn’t you know, his mother made sure that I knew everything they did—new house, new truck, new car, new this, renovated that, bought this, bought that—yet they couldn’t even be bothered to be at the wedding.” I find my temper flaring just thinking about these people and how much bullshit they spew, and the lack of family morals they have. I let out a deep breath in hopes it will calm me down. “Thank God, they live where they do and not here. I would need a self-hugging jacket if they did.” Liam and I both chuckle. “Why is it that people are like that?” I ask rhetorically.