Spirited Ride (15 page)

“What?” she asked begrudgingly.

“I was just wondering if you’ve had enough yet. Are you ready for your complimentary ride home?” he asked.

“You don’t need to babysit me,” she replied angrily.

“I remember some lady once selling me out in all my drunken glory to the woman I love! At least I’ve not stooped to that level. I believe the lady’s name who dimed me out was…
Sherri
. Now get your stuff and let’s get out of here before you further embarrass yourself in front of the patrons sitting out at the bar. Be the example, Sherri,” he smirked, knowingly. “Also, I’ve not found anything unsavory about him yet… but I’ll keep looking if you want.”

“What’s the point?” she asked. “Don’t bother… it’s over. I win… I guess.”

She awoke the next morning on Carla and Greg’s couch with the worst headache ever… made even more so by the sounds coming from the computer where Carla’s oldest boy, Matt, sat watching a video.

Sherri drug herself to their bathroom where she found some aspirin and managed to freshen up somewhat. When she emerged the youngest boy, Ben, was just down the hall waiting for her.

“I’m going to be an uncle any minute now!” he supplied. “Mom and Chuck are at the hospital with Meredith. Greg went to tell Dickie. You can wait here with us if you want.”

She ended up calling a cab to take her back to the bar to pick up her car. Then she drove to Bobby and Lilly’s to get cleaned up. Once she was showered and managed to eat a little something to settle her stomach and the aspirin kicked in for the headache, it hit her. The perfect baby gift for Chuck and Meredith’s new little miracle was…
a house.

Having won the house because TJ opted to just bow out and let her have it so he didn’t have to deal with her anymore, just didn’t sit right with Sherri. In the beginning she felt like she was owed the house in return for him having done her wrong.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the sweet revenge she thought she would gain with the house had turned bitter instead.

The house was worth nothing in that neighborhood and donating it would ensure that neither one of them really won it in the divorce settlement. They could go their own way without the baggage of living in a memory laden house that would never sell.

Chuck and Meredith had worked miracles with Edna Jackson’s house and the two houses on either side of it. Along with slowly beautifying the neighborhood, the houses served a purpose. Those properties housed foster kids who had aged out of the system and had nowhere to go and no way to support themselves.

TJ was right… his grandmother would have approved and Sherri did too for that matter. While TJ may have only suggested it as a way to make her angry… the idea truly held merit. Snatching up her car keys she headed to the hospital.

She made a pit stop in the gift shop at the hospital to pick up a card and some flowers for Meredith, rather than balloons, since the happy couple hadn’t wanted to know the sex of the baby.

The waiting room of the labor and delivery floor looked much like it had when Little Three was born. The only person missing from their tight knit group was Dana because, as was normal, she had all the kids. Except for Gretchen who paced back and forth as though she was the one becoming a first time parent.

A few of them glanced Sherri’s way but didn’t say anything as this was Chuck and Meredith’s moment… not hers.

She sat down next to Lilly who reached over and grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently in a silent sign of support. As the time went by, Becca came and sat down beside her when the guys in the group decided to go down to the cafeteria for coffee.

“I guess TJ told you about the papers then?” Becca asked cautiously. Sherri could only nod in response.

“It shouldn’t take long since there’s nothing being contested. I’ll let you both know once I receive the actual decree in the mail. I’ll keep a copy on file… if either of you ever need one,” Becca said.

“I want to donate the house to Chuck and Meredith’s charity,” she finally blurted around the lump in her throat.

“May I ask why?” Becca asked after a brief pause to think through what she’d just heard.

“Because it somehow doesn’t seem right for either one of us to have that house. If we are actually going our separate ways then we should
both
start over. I have a business and can make my own way. He has a God given talent and will also be just fine. That way there is no winner and no loser in this thing,” she replied.

Somehow it didn’t feel like either one of them was a winner in this, whether having received the house or not. Glancing at Becca she could see understanding shining in the woman’s eyes, though she remained quiet. Instead she also reached over and squeezed her hand in support.

“I’ll look into what it will take to donate it so that at least you can benefit in the area of taxes. How about that?” Becca asked.

“Thanks, Becca. For everything,” she managed around the ever present lump at the back of her throat.

The men eventually came back from getting coffee and again the waiting room was full to capacity. A moment later, Chuck came through the door looking tired, happy, amazed and slightly pale. He approached the group and just stood there for a moment while everyone around him waited anxiously.

“It’s a girl and she’s crying worse than Gretchen
ever
did but she’s pink and healthy,” he said. “Edith said I should name her… So I named her Mona Lisa Reynolds… she’s the best work of art I could ever have hoped to create.”

The noise level became considerable after that. Fortunately all the mothers and babies were in the locked section of the floor or the nurses behind the desk might have been even more disgruntled at the large group gathered there. Chuck made his way around getting hugs and congratulations from everyone.

The nurse behind the desk told Chuck that only one guest could go back at a time, since Carla was already back there with Meredith and no more than three people were allowed at any time.

Without hesitation Chuck said, “Come on, Gretchen.”

Everyone settled back down in their seats to wait their turn as Chuck and Gretchen were let through the locked doors that led to the birthing suites. A few moments later the elevator doors opened and TJ stepped out.

He was carrying another bunch of the same flowers that Sherri had bought. He looked hesitant upon seeing her there and his words about not making their friends choose came to mind. Standing up she approached him holding her bouquet out.

“Here, can you give her mine too? I need to get going… I have to be at work in an hour. Give her my best,” she said, handing her flowers to TJ. Then she left.

A week later, Chuck called for the first time insisting that she allow them to buy the property from her instead of just donating it. The week after that when she went to the house to begin packing up her things to move them into storage, he called again. At his third attempt at the beginning of the week she agreed to sell it to him for a penny if he would just stop calling.

Since there wasn’t a rush to be out of the house she took the time to actually go through all the crap in the tiny home that had accumulated over the years and decide what to keep, what to throw away and what to donate.

Since it was her day off, she hoped to start on the kitchen this afternoon and evening. Pulling in the driveway she was shocked to find TJ’s car parked there. Upon getting out of her car she could hear the sounds of music coming from the garage.

Though the garage bay door was down, the side entrance was wide open and the industrial sized fan was in the doorway drawing out the hot air. The window air conditioner was on full blast and that only added to the noise.

She hoped they hadn’t left the door open that connected the garage to the house but smiled just the same. Unable to stop herself from going in to watch them and just look at TJ for a minute, she walked over and stuck her head inside the garage.

What he’d done with the little girls was nothing short of amazing in the small amount of time he’d been working with them. All three of them were as different as they could be but had a commonality in their love of music.

TJ’s ability to help them make music ensured that they adored him and he was eating up the attention and worship. Elementary aged groupies were obviously better than the real thing or so it appeared by the look on his face.

Today’s genre of choice was classic rock… from the sounds of the song. They were oblivious to the fact that they now had an audience so she just stood and watched.

TJ was playing bass guitar, Gretchen was playing her drums, Melody was playing TJ’s electric guitar and Ginny was sitting on the floor playing a small keyboard. Gretchen was singing a song and her sisters were acting as backup vocals. Sherri wasn’t familiar with the song but it was cute and they were doing pretty good with it.

Sherri wished Matt were here to capture the moment with either his camera or video recorder because they were all lost in the song and paying no attention to her or each other. TJ looked like some form of rock star with his long hair bouncing around as he played. The girls were having a blast… each lost in their own efforts.

She couldn’t imagine that anyone else but TJ could have done as good a job teaching three little girls how to play the instruments of their choice and sing together in such a short time. The girls weren’t perfect and missed notes here and there… but they were playing them and completely engaged in what they were doing.

She had a hard time keeping them interested in anything for longer than ten minutes… he had them coming back week after week. That was a talent in and of itself.

Much like the idea of donating the house to Chuck and Meredith had popped into her head, so did her next thought.

Heading back out of the garage before they saw her and it broke their concentration, she made her way inside the house through the front door. Then she called Chuck.

“You still insisting on paying me for this run down shack?” she asked when he answered.

“Should I be afraid?” Chuck replied hesitantly.

“That depends… is Nathan Patterson still selling real estate or has he retired from that now too?” she probed.

“Nope… the old man is still finding ways to make a quick buck… why?” Chuck asked.

“That little store up in the smaller shopping center in town that’s for sale… do you think he could find out how much they want for it and then talk them down even more?” she laughed lightly.

“Have some faith! Nathan gets down and dirty! He can strike a deal with the devil and come out the winner. I’ll call him and see what kind of agreement he can get for you on that place if you’re interested,” Chuck replied. “Where does me buying your house come in though?”

“Whatever price Nathan can get on that little shop is what I want for my house,” she said.

Pounding on his door at eight in the morning on a Saturday was a sure fire way to piss him off. Getting up out of the bed, TJ slid on his jeans, not bothering to button or zip them, and headed out to the living room. Throwing open the front door, he was surprised to find Sherri on his doorstep with a to-go cup of coffee in each hand.

After not even having laid eyes on her in weeks, he wondered at what point she would stop looking good enough to eat. He had to mentally shake his head at his wayward thoughts and scrutiny of her body as he drank her in.

God, she was pretty… and obviously up to something. Her cheeks were flushed, just the way he liked them, and she was breathing heavily for no apparent reason.

“Come on and get dressed, I want to take you somewhere,” she said, stepping inside before he could shut the door and leave her outside.

“I realize you’re forty now and that old people get up at the ass crack of dawn but seriously? It’s Saturday, Sherri,” he teased, sitting down on the couch and rubbing his hands down his face trying to wake himself up a little better.

“You’re not that much younger than me,” she replied with a frown. “Here drink this… it helps. Call it a little trick I picked up at the old folk’s home when I competed in the Canasta tournament last week.”

He hadn’t really spent too much time contemplating the fact that they were now officially divorced but seeing her standing in front of him, in all her derogatory and sarcastic glory, made him once again miss what they’d had at one time.

Back when neither of them took life or each other too seriously. Life had been good, sex had been better and the love between them had been the best thing that could have happened to either one of them. How did it go from that to this?

It still hurt… even weeks later. How long would it take until she was just like any other memory… not a heart wrenching question of what if?
Would it ever get easier?

To be hit with the realization that he had chased one vision only to end up losing both that fantasy and some of his other dreams as well, had sucked him in and made him a little intolerable the first month after getting the divorce documents in the mail.

Now here she stood. And as much as he’d like to say she was only a friend now… nothing more, nothing less… he knew he’d be lying. Given the chance, he’d bury himself in the sweet, moist warmth of her in a heartbeat. Her skin against his, the shuddered breaths she would take when he touched her.

Yes, he would claim her again if an opportunity presented itself. The only way to avoid making that mistake and extending his heartache out even longer was to elude her. He’d done well until this morning.

“It’s going to take more than that to get me up and going this morning,” he said instead. The innuendo of his words made him cringe a little and he glanced at her to see if she took what he’d said the way it sounded coming out of his mouth… and the way he hoped she didn’t.

She of course did. Her cheeks flushed again and he had to sit on his hands to keep from reaching for her when she bent in front of him to set his cup of coffee on the small end table near the couch.

“I guess Chuck told you that I sold him the house,” she said in an attempt to switch gears on their conversation and steer it away from the direction it was headed.

That wasn’t exactly what he wanted to talk about either. Had she come here to gloat? He’d had about enough of that shit to last him a lifetime from before he’d even signed the papers and taken them to Becca. Slicing him open apparently wasn’t enough for her… she needed to rub some salt in the wound as well.

“Yeah, I heard,” he said, not even attempting to keep the anger out of his voice.

“Go get showered and dressed. I want to show you what I did with it,” she insisted.

Just as he was about to tell her to go to hell, he caught a glimpse of true excitement in her eyes. It was something he hadn’t seen from her since he’d come back to town.

Whatever she was up to must be big because even getting her back in his bed hadn’t had the payoff this did. She absolutely glowed from it. That was part of what made her so exceptionally beautiful this morning… that and the fact that he missed the hell out of her.

“Let me drink my coffee first,” he stalled, grabbing his cup, leaning back more comfortably on the couch and propping his feet up on the coffee table.

Glancing at her, the look on her face gave away the fact that it was killing her to have to wait on him. She wanted him to hurry up because she was
that
excited. As contagious as her enthusiasm was, and how quickly he was catching it, he couldn’t resist playing with her a little bit.

He gently sipped at his coffee until she finally sat down in the recliner and released a frustrated sigh. She didn’t say anything though so he took another sip.

“I’m hungry. Are you hungry? I could make us some eggs and toast to go with the coffee,” he offered.

“No. I’m good. I’ll even spring for breakfast afterward, if you will just go get dressed,” she insisted.

Rather than dignify her with a response, he simply shook his coffee at her as a reminder that he hadn’t finished it yet. Then the Sherri he loved sprang to life. Standing up, she walked over to him and pried the cup from his hand and yanked on his arm until he finally stood up. Then she hauled him toward the hallway.

“Shower… now! I’ll reheat your damn coffee once you’re dressed and then you can take it with you. Come on, TJ,” she urged.

Since dragging him wasn’t moving him along fast enough she got behind him instead and began to push on his back in order to get him going. He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. This must be gigantic for her to be so impatient.

Glancing over his shoulder at her, he said, “I might fall asleep in there since I didn’t get to sleep in or finish my coffee. You might want to get in there with me and help hurry this process along.”

She stopped so abruptly, removing her hands from his naked shoulders and back, that he nearly fell backwards.

“I’m serious, TJ!” she huffed, crossing her arms across her plump breasts, pulling his gaze directly to them.

“Me too!” he laughed.

Then she belted him a good one and he burst out laughing. Then she stomped back to the living room and flopped down on his couch to wait. He grabbed a shower before getting dressed and as he entered the front room he noticed that she was already waiting at the door to the apartment with his re-warmed coffee in her hand.
No more delays.

He didn’t expect to like whatever she’d done with the money from the sale of his grandmother’s house since it was probably a way to further rub his nose in his overall loss.

The sooner they got on with it, though, the sooner she would go back home, where she belonged, and leave him alone. Then he could once again work on forgetting about her. Leaving no room for more interruptions, she led him to her car.

Before she could put the car in reverse he reached over and placed his hand over hers. Knowing he needed to nip this dropping by his place thing in the bud right now, he said, “After we go and see whatever it is that you need to show me so bad that you would wake me up early on my day off, that’s it. No more hanging out, going places together or visiting each other. We’re divorced which means we don’t
want
to be together or around each other anymore. I don’t want to get that confused for either one of us. Okay?”

A look of hurt crossed her face but she eventually nodded. As she backed out and drove out of the parking lot of the apartment building he couldn’t help but notice that some of the excitement in her had left with his declaration.

He felt guilty but knew that it was the prudent thing to do. They were divorced for a reason and recreating the same mess over and over where each other was concerned wasn’t very smart.

Sherri drove them to the smaller of two shopping centers located right in the middle of town. Things had changed a lot since he’d been gone and the building had been completely revamped and made into a series of smaller shops.

She parked in front of one of the stores and, looking up, he noticed the name on the sign. He read it again… and then a third time before being startled by Sherri opening his car door.

TJ’s Musical Madness was spelled out across the glass in the front window of the little shop in elegant hand painted letters and accented by musical notes. Grabbing his hand, Sherri led him to the entrance and using a key from her pocket she unlocked the business.

Then she held the door open for him and he stepped inside. Upon closing the door, she locked the deadbolt behind them to prevent any potential customers from coming in. The walls inside had been freshly painted and the flooring looked brand new. Shelves lined every available wall space where all sorts of music accessories had been stocked.

There were reed mouthpieces for woodwind instruments, numerous brands of guitar strings, straps for different instruments, music books for various genres of music and several cleaning solutions and polishing rags.

A long counter containing a cash register, phone and various other office supplies ran a few feet from the front window. Off to the side was a door with a sign on it indicating that it was a bathroom. He could only stop and stare.

“Come in here… you have to see the best part,” she prodded, again pulling him by his hand until he was in a second room off of the right side of the store entrance.

This room was much bigger than the first and contained a small collection of guitars, a small and medium sized drum set, a few different kinds of keyboards and various other instruments locked in glass cases.

Another doorway sat in the far back corner with the word ‘studio’ painted on the outside of it along with a recording indicator light on the wall next to the entrance. Upon noticing it, he could only glance at Sherri in shock.

“Is that a…” he said, pointing at the studio door.

“It’s small but it’s got a complete sound board. It is state of the art and completely sound proof… inside and out. In fact I recorded baby Mona crying for Meredith and it worked great. I even made her a copy of it that she put in Chuck’s car as a joke,” she said, rambling nervously.

“I figured you could charge a fee for people to come in and record their own stuff in there,” she finished.

He was completely shocked speechless. No one had ever done something like this for him. It was like the beginning of a new dream he hadn’t even known he had. Walking from one aisle to the next he was completely astonished at how well she’d done stocking the place.

“Tommy helped me order stuff so I hope you approve of the inventory. I know an astonishing amount about different beers, liquor and even food but not too much about music,” she tried to explain.

“I… I don’t understand,” he finally managed to spit out. When she didn’t say anything he glanced her way only to see yet another room beyond her.

Walking over to the door of the smaller room, he turned the knob and pushed it open to find what looked like a bedroom, complete with recently slept in bed.

“I’ll be out in a week, I promise. Then you can use this space to give lessons to people… like you do with Gretchen, Melody and Ginny,” she quickly explained.

She’d thought of everything. But where on earth had she come up with the money to do all this? Even any proceeds from the sale of the house wouldn’t have been near enough. Turning around he faced her. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, and that made it even harder to accept what she’d done for him.

“Why, Sherri? Why would do all this for me? Your ex-husband?” he choked out.

“I’m finally on board with your dream. It may be too late for us as… man and wife… but it’s not too late for you to make your mark on the music industry… somehow,” she replied, quietly. “I know it’s not what you had in mind when you left for Nashville but with the contacts you made there, who knows… maybe one of those songs you and Tommy come up with will still become legendary. Maybe it will just get recorded here and then
shipped
to Nashville instead of
created
there. In the meantime, until that happens, you’ve got a way to make money between giving lessons, recording other people’s music and selling instruments and stuff. Just don’t give up on your dreams, TJ. I never wanted that for you. I really didn’t.”

What could he say to that? He’d waited a decade to hear those words from her. Waited what felt like a lifetime for her to join his team and now she had…
after
they were divorced. Now when she was off limits to him, she had finally crossed the line over to his side.

She wasn’t challenging him. She was supporting him… and God it felt so good and yet hurt so badly at the same time.
Especially now that things were over between them.
Or was it over between them? Looking at her it was hard to accept that, even with a piece of paper declaring it so.

“Why didn’t you come with me to Nashville or at least come up after the fact, Sherri?” he asked. “I know it shouldn’t matter…
especially now
… but it still does. I need to know why. Were you that dead set against leaving the state of Florida or against leaving the bar for a few weeks or months? Did you not want me to do my own thing? Why, Sherri?
Why?
”

“I have never nor will I ever share my man with another woman. How were you prepared to explain that bitch, if I
had
shown up, TJ?” she asked angrily, showing some of her fire again.

“What bitch? Gina?” he asked.

“Gina?” she answered in confusion. “What does Gina have to do with it?”

“Wait, I’m confused…” he said. “What woman are you talking about?”

“The woman you left with!” she yelled. “When you didn’t call or anything I was all packed up and ready to go up there and then Gina told me to just stay here and run the bar while she went up there to find you. When she did come back she told me all about the woman you were with in Nashville.”

Tears of conviction, anger and devastating hurt shone in her eyes and his gut sank. If Gina had lied to Sherri… her supposed best friend… what else had she lied about? He felt sick to his stomach. He’d never liked Gina but would never have guessed that she would go so far as to lie to them
both
… effectively playing them against one another. Why? What purpose did it serve? Payback perhaps?