Mazie Baby Read Online Free PDF

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door as Mazie placed his dinner on the table.
    “Ariel,” he screamed from the back
landing.
    Mazie cringed. “She’s upstairs
doing her homework.”
    “Ariel, get your ass down here.” His
face was crimson, that tell-tale vein over his left temple pulsed in time with
his heavy breath.
    Mazie set her jaw, her shoulders
tense, and braced for the coming storm. “What’s wrong?”
    “She left her goddamn bike in the
driveway, that’s what. Ran over the fucking thing. If she’s lucky, there won’t
be a hole in my tire.”
    Ariel ran down the stairs and slid
on sock-covered feet across the polished kitchen floor, her hands out like a
surfer vying for balance in the curl of a twenty-foot wave. When she stopped,
she turned her smiling face on her father, a trick that used to melt his heart
and garner her anything she wanted. “What, Daddy?”
    Cullen reached out and laid his paw
on her shoulder. He shoved her toward the back door. “See that?”
    “My bike! Why’d you break it?”
    “You left it there. You made me run
over it.”
    She looked up at him, tears in her
eyes. “I forgot. I — I’m sorry.” She began to cry. “Can you fix it?”
    “Fix it?” He turned his glare from Ariel
to Mazie. “You hear that? She’s as stupid as her mother.”
    “She is not stupid!” Ariel pushed
against his chest and wrested free of his grip. She ran for the stairs.
    He caught up with her, spun her
around and lifted one hand.
    “No!” Mazie screamed and ran across
the room. She stepped between Ariel and her husband, inched backwards until
Ariel found the stairs and raced up to her room.
    Her heart in her throat, Mazie
found her voice. “Cullen, what the hell is wrong with you?”
    He dropped his hand, squinted, and
stared at her. “I beg your pardon?”
    Mazie glanced at her feet,
swallowed, then raised her head to meet his gaze. “You were going to hit her.
She didn’t do it on purpose.” She planted her feet, prepared for the blows to
come.
    He turned away and ran his hand
over his face. “You want to know what’s wrong?” His voice was deadpan, barely
audible. Not normal. “Another round of layoffs today.”
    A pang of fear sliced through her
chest. “Did you lose your job?”
    “Not yet.” He turned back to face
her, his eyebrows pinched together, his jaw clenched. “But it’s just a matter
of time.”
    Mazie nodded. “Okay, but you
haven’t yet. And even if you had, how is that Ariel’s fault?”
    Cullen’s eyes clouded over and his
stare bore into her. “What did you say to me?”
    Mazie grasped the railing. She
scanned the room for an escape, but he blocked her path. The only way was upstairs,
and all that waited there was certain pain. She swallowed hard and dropped her
gaze to her feet. “I just don’t understand why you’re taking it out on her.
She’s not to blame.”
    “You’re right.”
    Shit. She glanced up.
    He bowed his head and looked at her
from under heavy lids, his eyes ablaze, like a wolf about to pounce on its
prey. “You’re both to blame.” He took a step forward. “If you hadn’t got
knocked up with her I’d never had to do this shit work. I’d be writing music,
performing. Maybe touring. Maybe I’d be on the road. Maybe I’d be just a tiny
bit happy.” He held the thumb and index finger of his right hand a half-inch
apart and took another step forward. “Maybe I’d feel a little proud of myself. But
you know what I feel instead? Disgusted.” Tears dripped from his eyes. “I can
barely look in the mirror. This was not supposed to be my life, you know that? My
back hurts. And look at my fucking hands!” He held them both up and shoved them
toward her face.
    Mazie flinched and stepped onto the
first stair. She was very familiar with his hands. How they looked. How they
smelled. The sharp sting of their slap and pain of their punch. Like sandpaper
when they encircled her throat and tried to choke the life from her.
    “I used to make music with