I laid in bed, not being able to shut off my brain to sleep, continuously thinking of what could have been.
I grabbed my phone off of the nightstand and immediately went into my texts and found Mike's name.
Are you awake? I texted him, sighing.
Mike: Unfortunately at this hour, I am. Why are you awake?
Carrie: I have too much on my mind and it's keeping me awake.
Mike: Is it about me? I'm sorry for bombarding you, Care. I can back off a bit, but I do want to know Mackenzie.
Carrie: You don't have to back off. I'm glad you are both getting to know each other. She likes you. In fact, she thinks I'm being a "hoe" because I have a boyfriend and she doesn't quite understand who you are lol
Mike: I'm sure you're far from a hoe haha. Does she know we've dated?
Carrie: She poked around and got me to tell her we did. So now she thinks I dated you and her dad and got pregnant all in one year🤦♀️ I feel like we have to come clean soon, but I don't know when the timing will exactly be right to do so.
Mike: Time will tell. Stop thinking so much, okay? It'll be alright and I'll be here every step of the way when things get hard. We'll tell her when the both of us are ready, there's no rush. Now get some rest, I'll stop by in the morning to help you bring Ken to school. I'll bring you your favorite coffee. Goodnight, Care
With that, I let out a small smile and closed my eyes, laying my phone on my chest. Before I knew it, the sun came out and I woke up to a screaming teenage daughter.
"Mom! What the hell! You over slept, I'm gonna be late!" Mackenzie barged in and set Isaiah next to me in bed, "feed him, he's fussy."
Mackenzie disappeared out of my bedroom with a joyful attitude. I sighed as I picked up Isaiah and sat up in bed.
"Hey." Mike said softly as he entered my bedroom, "is it okay to come in?"
I nodded and smiled as Mike had his hands full with coffee.
"I just told Mackenzie I'd help you out by taking her to school and she gave me her first teenager attitude. Is it weird I'm happy about that?" He chuckled.
"Thank you," I said as I took the coffee cup. "Enjoy it while you can, it only gets worse." I giggled as I sipped my coffee.
"Well I better get her to school. Are you gonna be home after?" Mike wondered looking away from me as I breast fed Isaiah.
"Mike, everything's covered it's okay," I laughed. "I'll be here all day."
"Sorry, uh, would you mind if I came back? I'd like to know Isaiah too if you don't mind. I know I'm not his dad..." Mike began to say only for me to cut him off.
"It's okay, Mike. I'm sure he wouldn't mind." I said letting out a little smile.
"Okay," Mike laughed lightly, "see ya soon."
Mike's POV
The car ride to the school was silent. The only sound was the radio lightly playing throughout the truck.
"Sooo..." I dragged on my o's. "What grade are you in?" I asked.
"12th." Mackenzie mumbled.
"Have you decided on a college? If you're even going to college, sorry. I don't kn..." I said as Mackenzie cut me off.
"Mom wants me to stay local, but I have a couple of weeks to pick between a few schools." She said.
"Do you want to stay local?" I wondered as I gripped the steering wheel tighter of nervousness.
"I don't really know if I want to go to college. Mom has always pushed it on me as if I didn't have a choice, so I don't know what I want." She sighed as she laid her head against the window. "Mike?"
"Yeah?" I looked over at her and back to the road.
"My mom said you two dated in high school. Did you know my dad?" Mackenzie asked me.
"Uh, I did. Yeah." I lied.
"Was he nice?" She questioned.
"Yeah, he was nice but I didn't know him that well." I lied again.
"Why are you sticking around exactly? Do you have intentions on trying to be with my mom?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Uh, I... I really don't know what intentions I have with your mom." I said at a loss for words.
I couldn't let Mackenzie find out that I'm her dad from me just yet. I had to wait until Carrie was ready and especially to tell our daughter together.
"Did you ever love her?" She asked.
"Of course. We just weren't in the right place for a relationship. We were young and it wasn't going to work." I stated.
"If you want things to work now, if you love my mom and think you want to work on things with her, you may want to do it soon. Tony is planning to propose to her. And in case you were wondering, he's a complete jerk. He uses her and I've seen him be slightly abusive to her. She can't marry him." Mackenzie admitted to me.
"Thanks for the ride."
