Page 24 of RiffRaff's Reward

I briefly wonder what he means then decide to ask once the dust settles from this particular bombshell we’re going through. I’m willing to embrace the MC lifestyle, but there are a lot of terms I don’t understand and ‘club princess’ is one of them. I can presume what it means but want clarity for my own peace of mind.

“Well, I’m gonna go so I can wrap this up and then eat lunch before it’s time to get Kimber and have a heart-to-heart conversation with her.”

“I’ll be waiting to hear from you tonight. Love you, Jilly Andrews. It’s all gonna work out just fine.”

“I love you too, handsome.”

“Kimber, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” I tell her once she’s settled in the car. Then think better of it. We can’t have this intense of a conversation in a moving vehicle. “But I don’t know how you’re going to take it, so we’ll wait until we get home. How much homework do you have?”

“None, Mom, we had a substitute today, so we focused on classwork. I’ll probably read the next chapter and do the questions ahead of schedule, so I don’t have to worry about that when the teacher comes back. Katie and I are hoping we can have a sleepover this weekend either at our house or hers so we can finish making some…thingsfor Christmas.”

“We can talk about that too. What are you wanting for dinner? We need to eat kind of early because we have to go back to the clinic later to give everyone their medicine. Dr. Webber and Cora are both sick with the flu and we have a few patients who are being medically boarded.”

“Do we have the stuff for stir fry?” she asks.

I think about the contents of the freezer and fridge and shake my head. “Nope. Let’s hit the grocery store because I think we need stuff to make some snickerdoodles.”

“Yes! And I found this recipe for something called sour cream cookies.”

“I have a little brother?” she whispers, her lips quivering.

Her face is pale, and I can see the immense hurt in her eyes that her father wasn’t the man she thought he was. I hate that he’s fallen from the pedestal she put him on as a little girl, but those were the choices he made. My job as her mom is to protect her heart to the best of my ability and unfortunately this time, I was the bearer of bad news.

“Yeah, sweetie. He’s almost five years old now and his mom passed away. Since you two are half-siblings, there was no way I was going to say no. I hope you understand.”

“Will it hurt you seeing him because of what Daddy did?” she questions.

“I don’t think so, Kimber. I forgave him long ago even though at first, it killed me.”

I’ve always been honest with Kimber, even with tough subjects. Of course, I keep it age appropriate, but I’m a firm believer in answering a child’s questions to the best of my ability. There was so much I wasn’t taught or shown that I walked into the adult world utterly clueless about so many things it’s not even funny. So, when Kimber was born, I made the decision that I would teach her everything I thought she would need to know to become a productive member of society.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Daddy before, Mom?” she softly asks, curling into my side. She grabs one of the warm cookies off the tray and starts eating it as she waits for me to respond.

“I think… well, because you were your daddy’s little girl and loved him so much, I just couldn’t do that to you. The problems we had were adult problems, not for a child to be burdened with, especially not when you were grieving him so much.”

“I probably hurt you too when I would cry about missing him. I’m sorry, Mommy.”

She throws her arms around me as she sobs while I murmur nonsensical stuff to calm her down. “You didn’t hurt me, Kimber. If anything, my hurt was for you not because of you. I don’t know if I could’ve moved past what he did to our marriage, to be honest, but you had a child/parent relationship with him and shouldn’t feel bad that you spoke your mind back then. Not one bit, you hear me?”

“Do you… do you think you would’ve gotten a divorce?” she queries.

“I don’t know, honey. We had talked about separating while we went for counseling, but if his affair had come out, I can’t say I would’ve been willing to reconcile. Because what he did was disrespectful to me and to the vows we took when we got married. I deserved better than that, and just so you know, you will too when you’re old enough to date.”

She starts giggling and looks up at me from her position in my arms. She’s all legs and arms right now, so her being in my lap is not the most comfortable place, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world, especially right now.

“What’s so funny?”

“RiffRaff told me I couldn’t date until I was forty,” she says, still giggling.

“Forty, huh?” I briefly wonder when she started talking to him outside of when he’s at the house and ask her, “So, you’ve been chatting with him while he’s been gone?”

“Yeah, but it’s secret Christmas stuff right now, Mom. I had sent him a text asking him what he likes so I could buy him something with my own money. Then, out of the blue, when I was telling him about a new boy in school, he told me that there’d be no dating until I was forty.Thenhe said that he’d be sure to let my dates know that he and my big brother, as well as all my uncles carried and knew how to hide a body so it would never be found,” she replies as her eyes light up with giddiness. Having men of their caliber in her corner is a new and excitable thing for her.

I can’t help it, I burst out laughing because I can picture his fierce face as he tells Kimber what’s gonna happen. “I think I can get him to agree on sixteen, sweetie,” I tell her, brushing back the hair from her face.

“I love him for us, Mom. He makes our house feel more like home now. Not that it wasn’t home before, he just adds something special to it,” she quickly says.

“I’m glad because he’s going to be moving in when he gets home since I’m his ol’ lady now. Let’s head over to the clinic and get that chore done, okay?”

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