Taylor Lynne: The Women of Merryton - Book Two (12 page)

Girl’s night was perfect
timing. I left Easton’s office feeling unnerved. Our conversations were
becoming more personal than I imagined they would be. The brochure of living
near your ex was clearly wrong. It had said I would get to feel apathetic
toward him and find some satisfaction that the woman he left me for left him,
but no. I found myself feeling sorry for him and I had this desire to comfort
him. I also found myself wishing I hadn’t left him in the first place, but I
knew that was stupid. For one, you can’t change the past, and even if I had
stayed, it was no guarantee it would have worked out. I was supposed to come
here and get Easton out of my head and heart once and for all, but being around
him was having the opposite effect.

I came home, changed into
something more casual, and caught up with the girls before they met their dad
for pizza. Easton had invited me, too, and I was thankful for the excuse not to
eat with him. Dinner was still on at his house Sunday, and he even promised me
whole grains and no processed food. That thought made me smile. I shook my head
at myself.

I showed up at Jessie
Belle’s right at seven. I was nervous for some reason. I felt like the new kid,
but I was really old. I hoped they didn’t think I was lame. I had been friends
with Jessie for years, but she was only five years my junior. I think Rachel
was something like twenty-eight. I smoothed out my light yellow summer dress, took
a deep breath, and walked in. The café was pretty crowded, but I noticed
Jessie, Cheyenne, Abby and Rachel sitting around the unlit fireplace. I tucked
my hair behind my ear and walked toward them. They all looked my way and
smiled. I let out my breath and smiled back.

“You made it,” Rachel
said sweetly.

“Thanks for inviting me.”
I took the empty chair that surrounded the fireplace. I felt like they were all
staring at me. Not in a bad way, but in an observational sort of way.

“How do you like working
at the hospital?” Abby broke the ice.

“So far I really enjoy
it. This is something a little different for me, so it’s been good.”

“Shane has been nothing
but complimentary, he likes the way you’re helping everyone there focus on
incorporating nutrition as part of their recovery.”

“I’ve always believed
nutrition plays a vital role in a person’s recovery and overall health.”

“That’s probably why you
are still fab in your forties,” Cheyenne commented.

I smiled at her.

“But the real news at the
hospital is the extra visits the good doctor is now making,” she added.

I was beginning to see
that she didn’t mind making people feel uncomfortable.

Jessie smacked her. She
was closest. “Cheyenne!”

“What? I was cutting
Devon’s hair today and she just happened to mention that Dr. Cole seems to
spend a lot of extra time now in the Women’s Center in a certain nutritionist’s
office.”

Devon was a cute labor
and delivery nurse, or at least I thought she was cute until now.

I cleared my throat. “We
have a daughter together and …”

They were all staring at
me and smiling smoothly.

“We’ve been divorced a
long time.” I hoped that settled the matter.

They all nodded their
heads at me like
uh huh, sure we believe you
.

This isn’t what I
expected. I came here to quit thinking about my ex-husband.

“Don’t let Cheyenne get
to you,” Rachel said. “She’s jealous that Dr. Cole isn’t interested in her.”

“Guilty.” She wasn’t
embarrassed at all to admit it.

Wow, she is bold
,
I thought. “Don’t worry, Easton’s still available,” I said, but inwardly I
prayed he would be smart enough to avoid her. It sounded like he had already
made a critical error with wife number two. Emmy, Ashley, and even Easton
deserved a better number three, and I didn’t think Cheyenne fit the bill.

“Maybe,” Jessie said with
a smile. “But enough talk about men. Let’s get down to business,” she waved her
hand over the plethora of delicious looking food on the table in between us
all. “I even made sure to throw in some healthier fare for you,” she said to
me.

“Thanks,” I smiled.

From there, the night
went more how I expected it would. I got caught up on the Merryton gossip and
learned more about them. I was already pretty caught up on Jessie’s life as we
had communicated somewhat frequently over the years and especially this past
year as I was trying to decide on what I should do. I did love to hear her talk
about her stepdaughter and husband. I knew she and Blake had hit a rough patch
and I was happy to see that they were happier than ever.

Cheyenne was all that I
thought she was, a player to the core. I had to say I admired her tenacity, and
maybe I liked to see a woman get away with what men seem to do so easily. Abby
was the sweetest thing ever and a mom through and through. She and Jessie were
both worried about their kids starting high school this year. Both were trying
to talk me into joining the PTA and a ton of committees. I would have normally
agreed right away, but I was trying my best not to settle in Merryton. I wanted
as few ties as possible. I noncommittally told them I would consider it.
Jessie’s look told me she understood.

Rachel, though the
youngest of the group, was impressive. From the sounds of it, she ran her father’s
insurance agency and was savvy. I liked her even more. I especially admired her
sacrifice in choosing to raise her sister’s son from such a young age and by
herself. It was a brave and noble choice. I hoped someday she would find a man
deserving of her, if that was what she decided she really wanted. From the
Father’s Day conversation we’d had, I would bet she wanted that companionship.
I for one knew how lonely it could be to parent alone.

Another interesting
tidbit involved the baseball game the next day against Riley Insurance.
Apparently Landon Riley was Jessie’s high school boyfriend and things didn’t
end well. He was married now, but I guess he still held a flame for Jessie. And
to add to the craziness, he had a lunatic wife who once slashed Jessie’s tires
their senior year. This all added to the rivalry between the two teams. I guess
Jessie’s team had never beat his and they were hoping to change that tomorrow. Jessie
invited me to come and I accepted the invitation, only because I knew I would
end up there any way. Emmy and Ashley would make sure of it. The only one not
going was Rachel. She found baseball to be boring; football was her sport of
choice.

All in all, it was an
enjoyable evening and I was glad I went.

That feeling didn’t last.
I got home in time to see my daughter being kissed a little too vigorously for
my taste in Raphe’s little truck in my driveway. I was so shocked I didn’t know
what to do. In my flustered state I almost turned around, but then I thought,
hey that’s my kid. I did the only self-respecting thing I could think of to do.
I honked my horn. That broke up the hormone-crazed teens. They both looked back
at me from his truck, and even from where I was, I could see the little perp’s
face turn twenty shades of red. Ashley fled the vehicle and waited for me by
the lawn. I watched Raphe back out of our drive. I made sure to glare at him as
he passed me on the driver’s side. Not that it did any good. The kid refused to
look my way.

I didn’t even bother pulling
into the garage. My heart was beating out of my chest. I wasn’t ready for this.
Ashley was still Emmy’s age in my mind. She shouldn’t be making out with boys. I
knew I couldn’t overreact—besides the whole honking my horn thing. I took a
deep breath. It was times like this I wished for a husband, a partner, someone
to hold my hand.

I slowly walked to my
daughter, who suddenly had a strange fascination with the lawn as she kept
staring at it. “Hi honey,” I said calmly, with love.

She looked up at me with
those brown eyes of hers that reminded me of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s
night, they were usually warm. Not tonight. “Momma, I can’t believe you
embarrassed me like that!”

I approached her
cautiously, she had never really yelled at me before, but I was her mother.
“You weren’t embarrassed by the fact that the whole neighborhood could see you
and Raphe going at it?”

“We weren’t going at it,
Momma, we were just kissing.”

“Believe me, I could see
that.”

“We didn’t do anything
wrong.”

“Okay. Well the next time
I see your boyfriend’s tongue down your throat, I’ll dispense with the horn and
knock on the window. Will that be better for you?”

Her face reddened and she
threw her hands up in the air and stomped off.

I stood there dumbfounded.
She had never behaved like this. Not only had I witnessed my baby being groped
by some imbecile kid, but now I was the bad guy? I let her walk in and slam the
door. I followed, but stopped on the porch and sat on one of the steps. I felt
lost and alone. I pulled my sweater around me and wished for someone to talk
to. I had always worried about what would happen when Ashley got older. I
didn’t have a mother and father at this age; I didn’t know what to expect. Sure
I had Grams and Harry, but grandparents treat you a lot different than parents.
I felt so inadequate at the moment. I needed advice.

I looked at my phone. It
was 10:30. Too late to call Grams in Alabama. Then I had a stupid thought. I
could call Easton, he was the dad after all. I wondered if he was still up. I
wondered if I had lost my mind. Was I making a bigger deal of this than I
needed to be? I’m sure it would blow over. But what if I screwed everything up?
We’d had the perfect mother-daughter relationship in my mind. I looked at my
phone again and ran my fingers through my hair. The fact I was even
contemplating calling my ex-husband was insane. I’d never once called him to
discuss parenting issues. I took a deep breath and texted,
Are you still up?

I regretted it the second
I hit send. What was I thinking?

My phone rang, making me
jump. I wasn’t expecting him to call … and not so soon.

“Hello.”

“Is everything okay?” He
didn’t even bother with pleasantries or greetings.

I wasn’t sure how to
respond. Yes, everything was okay, per se, but I didn’t feel okay.

“Taylor?”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound fine and
I don’t think you would have texted me if you were.”

I snickered a little. He
was right.

“So what’s wrong?”

I took a deep breath of the
cool night air and sighed. “I came home tonight to find our daughter making out
with Raphe in his truck. I kind of panicked and honked my horn at them.”

He laughed. “That’s nicer
than what I would have done if I had been there. Do you know where that kid
lives, by the way?”

“Perfect, you can go beat
up him, then Ashley can be mad at you instead of me.”

“Is that what’s bothering
you?”

“Yes.”

He laughed again. “She’s
a teenager, I think it’s pretty normal for them to get upset with their parents.
In fact, I would think something was wrong if that never happened.”

“It’s never happened
before.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. We’ve had the
perfect relationship until tonight.”

“Taylor, life isn’t perfect,
and one blow up with our daughter doesn’t spell disaster. Believe me, this is
normal.”

“What if I messed
everything up?”

“You acted like a mother
tonight, a good mother.”

I began to cry. “What if I
don’t know what to do now that she’s older?” I felt so stupid breaking down to
him, but I was scared.

He paused for a moment. “Taylor,
you’re the best mother I know. I have no doubt you’ll figure it out. But every
now and then you’re going to make mistakes, that’s life and it’s okay. You
don’t have to be perfect.”

“What if I want to be?” I
sniffled some more.

“It’s still never going
to happen, but no one is going to count that against you, especially me.”

“Thanks, Easton. I’m
sorry I bothered you so late.”

“You can bother me
anytime. In fact, I hope you do.”

“Yeah, well, the next
time I see some kid sticking his tongue down our daughter’s throat, you’ll be
the first one I call.”

“I really didn’t need
that visual,” he laughed. “Now I really want to kill that kid.”

“Goodnight, Easton.”

“Hey,” he stopped me
before I could hang up. “Are you going to the game tomorrow?”

“Yes. I’ll see you
there.”

“I look forward to it.
Goodnight.”

I got up and stretched.
Sitting on the hard brick steps didn’t help me feel any better. It made me feel
old as I stretched my back. It was fitting, since I was so uncool now with my
kiddo. It’s not like I never thought she would kiss a boy, but in my mind we
should still be playing with dolls and braiding her hair. I wasn’t ready for this.
Sure, we’d had all the talks. She promised me she would set boundaries and I
wouldn’t have to worry about becoming a grandma for many years to come, but I
also knew how persuasive the opposite sex could be. I knew how hard it was to
say no in the heat of the moment. That’s how I had found myself eloping. I
thought back to our first night as husband and wife. We were both so young and
inexperienced. Having sex for the first time wasn’t as magical as they always made
it out to be. Looking back, it was almost comical in a sense, but practice
makes perfect. I shook my head. Sleeping with Easton was the last thing I
needed to be thinking about at the moment.