The Amendment by Melanie Moreland

Author:Melanie Moreland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moreland Books, Inc

RICHARD

“Gracie, stop it,” I ordered. “I can’t cope with you and your sister right now.”

She frowned, furrowing her brow the same way Katy did when confused. Normally, I would find it adorable—today, I found it annoying. I glanced at my watch. How long was Katy going to be in the shower?

“What’s cope, Daddy?” she asked, milk dripping from her spoon as she stared at me.

I stifled my groan. She was getting milk everywhere. Heather refused to eat, fussing and fretting as I tried to slip the nipple into her mouth. She squirmed and pushed at me, and I struggled to keep her in my arms. Gracie was chatting nonsense, the same way she did every morning, and usually it was endearing and I would listen to her intently, but things had changed, and I wasn’t in the mood.

I was never in the mood anymore.

My body ached, my head hurt, and I was impatient. I hadn’t slept well again, and all I wanted was to be alone. I needed time to think without people hovering and my thoughts always interrupted.

“It doesn’t matter,” I snapped.

She stared at me, her lip quivering. “Is you mad, Daddy?”

“It’s are you mad, Daddy,” I retorted, ignoring the voice inside telling me to stop being a dick. “Can’t anyone speak properly here?”

The quiver got worse. “Did I-did I do sumfing bad?”

Katy came into the kitchen, her hair still wet from her shower. “No, baby girl, you didn’t.” She stroked Gracie’s cheek and pulled the spoon from her hand. “You go play for a few minutes. We’re going out, and we’ll have a snack, okay?” She lifted Gracie from her highchair and set her on her feet, glaring at me the entire time. Gracie toddled away, her little feet thumping on the hardwood floor. She disappeared around the corner to the family room. Katy took Heather from my arms, settling her close and sliding the nipple into her mouth effortlessly.

“She’ll take it from you,” I grumped.

“Maybe because she can sense she isn’t bothering me. Unlike the way you were half-assedly trying to feed her while correcting the grammar of our toddler and making her feel as if she’d done something wrong.”

“She was getting milk everywhere and asking silly questions.”

Katy stared at me, bewildered.

“Questions you used to love. And she’s still a baby, Richard. Learning. Of course, she gets milk everywhere. Usually she’s sitting on your lap, spilling it on you and you never think twice about it.”

“Well, that isn’t happening anymore, is it? Not while I’m in this chair. I can’t cope with both of them while you’re flitting around, Katy.”

“You offered to help while I had a fast shower. Gracie was eating, and you said you would feed Heather. I was gone ten minutes. I thought—I thought maybe you were feeling a little better this morning.”

“I guess you thought wrong—again.”

The words, achingly familiar and hurtful, hung in the air between us. Memories of another time when I used to snap at her using the same phrase pushed on the edges of my brain.

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