Page 38 of The One I Want
Somehow I hear Oliver’s voice over the crowd, waving us down to our normal table where he, Simon, and Shane are already seated.
“Sorry we’re late,” I say, pulling out Betsy’s chair for her. “We had to go get the kids’ bags so they could spend the night at my mom’s.”
“Yes, this is a ‘we’ situation,” Simon says, reaching over the table and extending his hand for Betsy. “Simon Banks. You must be the famous Betsy I’ve heard so much about.”
Instead of shaking her hand, he brings it to his mouth and kisses it.
What the fuck was that?
“I am,” she says. She also doesn’t pull back her hand.
“I thought Wes was going to hide you forever.”
This makes her laugh as she and Simon finally let go. “He allows me out from time to time.”
I shoot Simon a look, who is giving me a fucking smirk as he takes a sip of his whiskey. I have no idea what Oliver and Shane have told him. But it has to be something because this man is intentionally trying to push my buttons. And he’s not even letting me get a drink in before he starts his shit.
“Well, we’re glad you're here,” Oliver says as he extends his hand. But in the correct way. Because he’s not an asshole. “And we haven’t formally met. I’m Oliver. Or Uncle Ollie as the kids call me. The quiet one here is Shane. He would introduce himself, but that would require words.”
She returns Oliver’s shake. “Nice to officially meet both of you. And I must say Oliver, you run the smoothest pickup line. The other teachers should take notes.”
“I take that as the highest compliment,” he says. “Can I get you a drink?”
“Sure. Gin and tonic?”
“Oh, I should have clarified. Tonight we only drink Thanksgiving Dreams. Except Simon. He doesn’t know how to have fun.”
“What’s in it?”
“That’s the beauty of it. No one knows.”
Betsy gives me a worried look as Oliver walks away.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “It’s safe. It will just make your worries of today a thing of the past.”
“Then go tell him to get me two,” she says.
“Rough day?” Simon asks.
“Something like that.”
And just like that, her mood changes. I can’t even blame Simon; he didn’t know what she went through today. It’s my fault for bringing it up.
When she walked into my mom’s house tonight, I had to pull the kids off her leg so she could have a minute to herself. I could tell she had been crying. When I asked her if she was okay, she put on a brave front. But I heard that conversation, and no one could have walked away from it unscathed.
What she doesn’t know is that this holiday was hell on me and the kids as well. I didn’t know how the kids would take the first Thanksgiving without their mom. The kids asked to call her during the parade. They watched it together every year. Luckily, Cara remembered the part of her that actually liked being a mother and picked up the phone. Hard to say if that did more harm than good. When they hung up, their mood was very subdued. Which I get, but I didn’t know what to do. It took all I had not to scream into the abyss in frustration and anger at what Cara’s doing to them.
As we were getting ready to go to my parents, and I was fumbling all over the place with Magnolia’s hair, it hit me. The kids needed their sunshine.
They needed Betsy.
And so did I.
As soon as I called her, the air in the room shifted. Their smiles came back. And so did mine. That’s just what she does. Even when she was in a toxic place, belittled by her parents just minutes before, she was still able to pull us out of the dark.
It’s what I want to do for her now. Bring her to the light. I hate what happened to her today, but I can’t change it. Just like I can’t change what Cara did. But just as she’s making us see the sunshine through the clouds, I want to do that for her. Betsy deserves that.
She deserves everything.
