Period of Adjustment

Chapter 8

Brenton, Clementine and I ended up staying in Wetumpka for an extra week to have some more family time between the three of us and so Clementine could get to know her grandparents a bit more. Brenton's parents absolutely love her. They don't like me, but they hate me a little less now since I'm the mother of their son's kid. And they're thankful for it because I did such a great job raising her. We ended up having dinner with my parents and brother every night, and we spent the rest of the time either helping Brenton pack or with his parents. Both my family and his are coming up to Charlotte for her birthday.

Both his parents and sisters tried squeezing two years of birthdays and holidays into a week and a half, but that backfired pretty well. So they just decided to try to be in her life as much as they can. Dear god, the house is going to be full this March for her birthday between the three of us, Rian, Connor and Shayla, my family, Brenton's family and Connor's parents and Leigh. Brenton's friends ended up meeting Clementine too, and that turned out to be a bad idea. They told me things I didn't want to know about, and showed her things she doesn't need to know about at her age.

"So, Daddy ended up covered in marker and lipstick." Clementine said, and Brenton's parents started laughing.

"Piper, I think Clementine is going to be a makeup artist one day!" his dad said in between laughs.

"Maybe. She does it all the time. Right, Clementine?" she burped. "You've been hanging out with Uncle Connor too much,"

"She looks like a her mother, but she acts like her father." his younger sister, Mary, pointed out.

"Eh, with some stuff. She's mostly like her mother in more ways than one."

"Well, yeah. She would be. She's never been around you until a month ago." his other sister, Leah, reminded us.

"Leah!" his mother yelled.

"Piper has her reasons for not telling me we had Clementine, and they were probably good reasons. But we have years to see who she turns out to be like." Brenton explained.

"Can we not talk about this with her here?" I said.

"Why? She'll probably learn to resent you for keeping her from him. They both will. You might as well lay it out now." Leah shot back at me.

"Ah jeez. Here we go," Brenton groaned.

"Leah, go to your room now!" His dad yelled.

"You know I'm right."

"Now!" He repeated.

Leah had more hate for me than Brenton's parents did. Mary took to me right away. Even though Mary was the youngest, she talked to me more than Leah. Come to think of it, that was probably why she hated me so much. Evidently, Clementine also favored Mary more.

"Well, this is awkward." Mary said after a few minutes of silence.

"Mama, what does 'resent' mean?" Clementine asked me.

"'Resent' means 'hate'. Leah thinks that you and Daddy'll end up hating me because he wasn't around until a month ago, and he didn't even known about you until a month ago," I explained.

"But you read me the letters you wrote to Daddy. You didn't keep me from him on purpose."

"And now that I know about her and spent time with her, I don't think I could ever hate you." Brenton looked at his sister. "Mary, can you take Clementine upstairs?"

"Sure. Come on, Clementine." She followed her aunt upstairs.

"She knows?" His mother asked me.

"She's really smart. Smarter than we give her credit for. For being as young as she is, she's smarter than I was at her age. She picks up things, she uses big words on occasion. She's two years old, and she helps me work on cars. She plays violent video games, and watches horror movies with me from time to time. She asked me about him. She found the letters I wrote him, and she wanted me to read them. She knew she had a dad before I got with my girlfriend. That doesn't scream 'average child' to me."