The Miner's Girl

Chapter 71

(((May 11, 2015)))

Nicole's POV
I woke up this morning to my alarm clock blaring music. I reached over and shut it off while I still had my eyes closed. I opened my eyes and saw Parker smiling at me. He kind of startled me, but I smiled back at him.

"How long have you been up?" I asked him.

"About thirty minutes." Parker answered. "Just been thinking. And looking at you."

I smiled. "What you been thinking about?"

"About us. And the baby. What we're going to do. I honestly have no idea what we're going to do."

"We don't have to do anything. We have somewhere to live, we have Mom and Dad and Hannah and Payson."

"We don't have the house that you wanted for us and the baby. I don't know how much money we're going to make this season, and we need money for the baby." Parker exhaled as he ran his fingers through his hair that was getting longer everyday. "I'm just stressing out. As if I didn't have enough to worry about on the job, now I gotta worry about supporting you and a baby."

I don't know what or why, but something inside me just snapped at that moment.

"Well, I'm so sorry that we're stressing you out." I said as I got up to start getting dressed. "But you know what, Parker? You don't have to support us. I can leave right now and support me and my baby."

"You're not going anywhere, Nicole." Parker ordered. "You're not leaving and taking my baby from me. You just keep on doing what you've been doing and let me do whatever I want to."

"What do you mean, 'do whatever you want to do', Parker?" I said, annoyed.

"Just let me worry about supporting you and the baby. I'm not losing you, and I damn sure ain't losing that baby. You're not going anywhere without me."

"Whatever you say, Parker. I'll do whatever I want to." I said as I went into the bathroom and slammed the door.

"Try to leave me and see what happens, Nicole Elizabeth." Parker said loudly as he went out the door, slamming the door behind him.

"I'll leave whenever I want to." I muttered to myself as I was washing my hands. "I should leave just to show him that I can."

Instead of leaving, I put on a tee shirt and shorts, then went into the kitchen to get breakfast ready. When I walked in the kitchen, I saw Rick and Parker sitting at the table talking.

"Hey, Prego!" Rick said, smiling.

"Don't call me that, Rick." I said, unamused.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Rick said. "Last night you were happy and now you're crabby."

"I don't know what's wrong with him, Rick." I stated. "I'm just fine."

"I'm just fine, too." Parker added.

I rolled my eyes as I opened the refrigerator.

"Looks like it's going to rain." Rick commented.

"It might." I said.

"I hope not." Parker said bluntly. "We're falling behind in the gold clean outs, and the last thing we need is a rain out."

"Once I get my operation running, the gold will start pouring in." Rick smiled.

"Rick, let's just take this one thing at a time, okay?" Parker said, annoyed as he rubs his face.

I turn around from where I'm soaking bread in French toast mix and smile sympathetically at Rick. I know that Rick has been aching to get back to Indian River ever since Parker pulled everyone off of it when he found out the ground was frozen in the extended boundary cut. I guess seeing that Parker was just going to be an asshole all day to everybody made me feel like I should be all happy and nice. Maybe then Parker will stop being so grumpy.