Page 64 of As It Was

And made me do all the cleaning.

He’s lucky I’m busy right now.

Never let me go back.

I’ll drag you kicking and screaming away from him if I have to. ICK.

His anger was growing, and though he didn’t say anything in meetings or in front of my parents, I knew the second I gave in and spoke to him, he wouldn’t hold back. I told myself I would be safe if I didn’t talk to him.

But the fact that I felt that way at all put my nearly five-year relationship into perspective.

Soon after, my phone rang. I almost ignored it, but I saw that this call was from Mom.

“Why did you call your father about a lawyer, Mollie?” Mom’s voice was exasperated. “Just what is going on out there?”

“It was for a ... friend.” Cain definitely wasn’t a friend, but was Eric? Either way, the less Mom knew, the better. “There’s a child custody battle going on?—”

“Don’t get involved in the day-to-day there. It’s all petty drama.”

I knew for a fact that she loved petty drama in her neighborhood. Often, she was the cause of it when she went after people for having unapproved flowers in their garden.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m not too involved. I just wanted to help him.”

She gasped. “Him?”

“His gender has nothing to do with this.”

“It has everything to do with this. What does this help turn into? A date or two?”

“It’s not like that,” I said. It never would be. Did I think Cain was hot? Sure. He was a hot man who loved animals and was good with kids. Most women would melt for that.

But it was a problem when he opened his mouth. Or whenIopened my mouth.

He’d seemed shocked that I’d done a nice thing for him. But I knew it wasn’t going to change anything. Tomorrow, we would be back at each other’s throats over nothing.

At least I didn’t take shit from him. I felt like the same little girl who would say anything that was on her mind when I was here.

I needed to be her again.

“Well, what am I supposed to think? You’re taking a breakfrom the healthiest relationship I’ve ever seen to go be in the middle of nowhere with a random ma—” She paused. “Please tell me this friend you helped isn’t that farm manager who lives there.”

“Uh, it’s not?”

“You’re lying. Why is this farm manager in a custody battle?”

“I thought you didn’t want me to be involved in petty drama. Now you wanna know?”

She went silent for a long moment. “Fine. I don’t want to know. What I do wanna know is when you’re coming back.”

Cotton made its way to my throat. “Not sure. Soon, maybe.”

She let out a sigh. “I just don’t understand why you’re even there.”

“You really can’t see any reason why I’d like a quiet, small town over the city?”

“No, I can’t.”

“It’s slower here. I can talk to the people who live here.”

---