Chapter 19

TALIA

As “payment” for letting me stay at the packhouse, I agreed to help Lucy with her baby. And, to be completely honest, Lucy’s baby was a very strong form of birth control. Libby made me never want to spread my legs again. Bring on the cotton panties and grandma bras!

Libby was teething, and so she was spending most of her day crying, with big fat tears rolling down her lobster-red cheeks. Lucy was at work today, so I was stuck trying to soothe her, trying to figure out how to get her to stop. I'd tried stuffed animals, rattles, pacifiers, tickles, rocking. Nothing worked. I began shedding my own tears out of frustration, and, let's be honest, grief. The tightness in my chest that had become a new normal for me refused to loosen.

I swallowed against the constriction in my throat. I missed my mom. She was always so loving to me and always knew the right thing to say or do. I bet she would’ve known what to do with Libby. She had always held me so gently, so lovingly when I was dow