Page 28 of Single Mom's Mountain Men
I shrug. “It didn’t feel like it. It felt sometimes like I was just following arbitrary orders. And after a while, I started to hate it. If you haven’t noticed, I'm not really the following orders type.”
“Oh, I noticed." She smiles, and I wink at her.
“So, what did you do before you came here?” I ask.
“I was a waitress." I notice an almost imperceptible stiffening in her shoulders that I'm not sure she’s even aware of.
She doesn't want to talk about herself. I can accept that, for now.
But the way my curiosity is set up, it won't be long until I'm digging deeper.
I’ll let her hold onto her secrets for now, but sooner or later, I will want to know everything about her.
We pass the gas station where Patty had first met my brother Charlie, and I tell her more about our life, growing up, embellishing a few of the stories so I look cooler than my brothers. She grins and laughs in all the right places, calling out my more obvious fibs, but each time I ask her about herself she sort of shuts down once again, and her smiles disappear.
Eventually, we enter the town of Gasten and approach two gray buildings separated by a fence, upon one of which sunflowers have been painted to provide a little brightness.
“That's the grocery store." I point at the other building. "And next to it with the sunflowers is the daycare-preschool and kindergarten I was telling you about, Gentle Roses. Been standing for thirty years and the lady who owns it once cleaned my diapers.”
Patty snorts.
“You want to check it out?”
She purses her lips. “I’m not sure." She turns to the girls. “What do you guys think? You wanna see the daycare?”
They nod frantically, and I chuckle. I guess they were getting pretty bored of staying at the main house all morning while their mother worked. I can't blame them. I get bored staying at the yard all day too.
Patty still doesn’t look too sure, so I say, “It’s pretty safe at Gentle Roses. They have security cameras, and they closely monitor anyone coming and going. It has a small class size, so they can pay special attention to the kids. Mrs. Weatherby, the owner, loves kids and she's a pretty tough lady. She’s got what around here we call a “no nonsenseattitude”. Even shot at her ex-husband when he tried to hit her."
Patty throws me a sharp look to the rearview mirror and I glance at it, realizing that her two little girls are paying rapt attention to what we're saying.
"Oh sorry, I mean...he uh…played rough with her. Anyway, he’s dead now thankfully. Not from her gunshot through. A heart attack a few years later."And thank God for that.“He was known for drinking too much and getting violent in his cups. Anyhow, one night he came back late from drinking and gambling at the bar and he had worked himself into some kind of a violent fit, and decided to take his anger out on his missus. So the story goes, she grabbed his shotgun from its rack on the wall and shot one barrel up into the air and then aimed the second barrel right at his face and scared him off is all. Apparently he left the house in just his underwear, which he’d soiled due to the gun going off, and ran out into the darkness. Spent the night in old Mr. and Mrs. Simmons’ stable, bedded down with the horses. They said he stank to high heaven the next morning where they found him lying on a bed of hay and sleeping off the alcohol, so they sprayed him down with a hosepipe and sent him home, a lot more sober and feeling pretty sorry for himself. Although no one would have blamed Mrs. Weatherby if she did kill him, I'm glad she didn't have to face jail time for that drunken piece of shi... err… crap .” I glance back at the girls and Patty again who rolls her eyes at me.
“Nice save,” she comments with a wry smile. “Alright. We can check it out.”
"Awesome,” I pull my truck into the parking lot next to a small red Peugeot belonging to one of the daycare workers. One of the lights is cracked.Charlie could probably replace that,I think as I hop out and travel over to open the backdoor. Maddie holds her arms out and I carry the little girl into my arms, placing a fond kiss on her hair.
Katie hops out the other side, taking her mother's hand, and we walk together into the building with brightly lit corridors featuring more flower paintings, a splatter of handprints, and a large welcome sign hanging over the reception area at the other end.
I already hear the sounds of young kids squealing in excitement and running around enjoying themselves. Maddie’s eyes travel to the playground we can see at the back through the reception window.
She starts kicking her heels in excitement. “I wanna go there.”
"In a second honey,” I say. "Let your mom get you situated.”
"As I live and breathe, is that Wes Norris in my hallway?” A loud booming feminine voice says, and I turn around to find a formidable but yet still friendly looking woman, perhaps in her mid-sixties, with graying hair and wearing comfortable looking clothes with sensible shoes, walking toward us. "And with a family of all things?"
“Mrs. Weatherby.” I smile as she reaches me. I remember marveling at how tall she was when I was a kid. In my mind, she was a giant, but she’s actually about my height. Which I suppose is still tall for a woman, but she carries it well, managing to fill the entire place with her presence.
Her tallness matches her handsome features and tomboy attire, wearing her usual get-up of jeans and a flannel shirt.
She pulls me into a hug and Maddie hiccups as she’s squashed between us.
“Sorry dear, “Mrs. Weatherby apologizes to Maddie. "And what's your name?"
“Maddie,” the girl immediately states.
“That’s Maddie and this is her sister Katie,” I gesture to her sister who is watching the large woman silently. Even Patty is blinking at her in surprise and Mrs. Weatherby beams at them. "They're on a vacation tour and they’re guests of ours up at the lodge for now."
