Blackjack

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Beep beep beep.... I roll over turning the alarm off on my phone groaning at the fact that it says 4:30, but I wanted to get the last 6 hours of driving out of the way early enough in the day that I'd have time to unload the boxes from the car and get settled a little. I sat up on the bed for a minute and rub my eyes before going over to the coffee maker and brewing a cup of coffee. I gather my clothes and head into the bathroom. I slip on my black capri leggings and a grey tank before grabbing my brush and looking at myself in the mirror. My blue eyes look exhausted from the long trip, I sigh and brush out my long brown curly hair. I throw my hair in a ponytail and decide I better put on a little makeup.

After getting myself ready I head out of the bathroom to grab my coffee and wake up Addie.

“Addison it's time to get up”

Opening her eyes and looking over at the clock on the night stand she glares at me. “Mom it 4:45, ur killing me”

“Sorry princess but we only have 6 more hours to go, I wanna get to the house early enough to get a little settled in today.”

Addie rolls out of bed and I hand her some clothes as she sluggishly walks to the bathroom. Coming out of the bathroom in the black under armour shorts and a pink tank top she hands me the hair brush and a hair tie.

“Mom can you braid my hair?

“Of course” I smile grabbing the hairbrush. I love when she asks me to do her hair. It was always my favorite part of getting her ready when she was little but as shes gotten older I don’t get to style her hair very often. After finishing her hair, I pack up our stuff into our bag and we head to the lobby to check out. I leave off our key card and thank the receptionist and head for the car.

We have been driving for a couple hours now and I see a sign for Dunkin Donuts off the exit ahead.

“You ready from breakfast now Addie?”

“Yea I'm starving” she replies

We pull up to the drive through and order our breakfast and some extra donuts for later. We continue on our journey just 4 more hours to go. I start to get nervous about running into Alex. It's bound to happen eventually, I just hope not too soon and not when I have Addie. Before I know it we are pulling onto our street. I look back at a sleeping Addie ad envision her as a toddler in her car seat. She always fell asleep in the car no matter how short the trip. I’m really missing the younger years lately, it went by too fast. I let out a sigh of relief as we pull into the driveway.

“Addie, we are home”

She sits up excitedly and we hop out of the car. We are greeted by Miranda who had been hear unloading some things I had ordered online and had shipped here so we didn’t have to bring anything more than I could fit in my car.

“Hayley, Addie! I'm so glad you are finally here!” Miranda says

“Aunt Mandy!”

Miranda and I have been best friends since 1st grade, she was always more like a sister to me then a friend. I watch as Addie runs up to Miranda giving her a big hug. She was the thing Addie was looking forward to most about moving here. We chat with Miranda for a bit as she helps bring in some boxes and unpack some stuff. After a few hours of setting up the house I decide to call in some delivery pizza.

“Miranda you staying for pizza?” I ask

“No, I let you ladies enjoy your night and get some rest. I have to run errands for my mom tomorrow so if you need me to grab anything while I'm out text me a list and I’d be more than happy to pick up stuff.”

“Thanks Miranda” I say bringing her in for a hug “You have been such a big help.”

“Since you offered can I text you a grocery list?” I ask handing her some cash

“Of course” she smiles “I’m gonna go and give Addie a hug before I leave, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I finish unpacking my clothes and put some clean sheets on the bed while I waited for the pizza to arrive. I was glad that I had taken the time to come here and clean when I was here a few weeks ago for my interview. The house was a wreck as I expected, mom was never much of a house keeper before she got lung cancer. The carpets were all gross and it reeked of cigarettes. I hired Mirandas brother Tyler to come over and replace the carpets and paint for me and it really made a difference. It was like a new house, except it still held the painful memories of my childhood. The doorbell brings me out of my daze I'm in. I grab my wallet and open the door to grab our pizza. Only to find Alex on my doorstep.