Page 9 of Fight For Her
I let this information take root. Damn that was soon. Mike worked fast to lock his woman down. I didn’t blame them. When you knew it was right, why wait?
Jill went on. “We know it’s last minute. Mike’s family owns an inn down there, and they had a cancellation, so we jumped on it. We understand if you can’t make it, but we hope to see as many of you there as possible.”
With full watt smiles on both their faces, they sidled over toward the exit to chat with Mark. “Oh, on your way out, grab an invitation! All the info is on there as well as my email to RSVP. We need to know by Friday of this week if you’ll be there.”
After saying another round of goodbyes to Mia and Olivia and congratulating Jill with a stiff hug on the way out, I sat back in the seat of my car as my mind reeled. Maybe a little getaway to the Keys was exactly what I needed to recharge and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Maybe I’d even get a certain someone out of my head completely. Being in Palm Cove with my mother calling me every five minutes and dealing with Lee’s mistakes made it difficult to focus on the future. Staring out at the now dark Main Street with its most hopping location being Sal’s Pizza, a frozen rum drink on the beach surrounded by awesome people sounded like heaven.
Chapter 4
Coby
Mymamastaredvacantlyout the window as we drove into Salt Lake City. Thinning white hair took over where dark curls once were and lines deep as canyons spread across her forehead. Lines that were a roadmap for the years of worry and grief that she dealt with living with my father.
I almost hadn’t believed that my father was dead when Daisy called me. The stubborn son of a bitch I grew up with would have seen death knocking at his doorstep and shoved his boot straight up that cloaked fucker’s ass while hollering at him to get off his property.
Mama had been blank and empty ever since I came back. When I’d first walked into the house weeks ago, I had an inkling that she didn’t recognize me. After a moment, her vision seemed to clear, and she embraced me, pinching my dimple like she’d always done.Maybe she was in shock? She too must have thought Jed Barnes would remain a crotchety old man until he was well over a hundred.
I stepped out of the car first, taking in the surrounding mountains some of which were already capped with snow. Green grass and full trees of varying colors stood out everywhere I looked, vibrant in a way that Verdant Valley could never be.I walked around to the passenger side and helped her out of the car. My mother’s hazel eyes met mine before she looked beyond me.
“That’s a lot of green, huh, Mama?” I gestured to a nearby tree with squirrels scurrying up and down, chittering. “You’ll even get to enjoy fall colors here. Nice, right?”
She nodded but reached her frail hand on my arm to steady her balance. “It looks lovely.”
Caroline Barnes had learned to become a woman of few words after years of marriage to my father. I always wondered if that’s why I was so talkative, to make up for all the awkward silences growing up in my home.
We made our way toward the entrance of Breezy Village. Fragrant planters of golden mums and yellow pansies lined the path, fallen leaves crunched underfoot, releasing their crisp scent into the air.After so many weeks of inhaling dust while packing the house in Verdant Valley, my senses seemed to liven up again outside in the fresh air.
Mama shuffled along beside me, quiet and small. Her grip on mine was the only thing that kept me from believing she wasn’t a shadow.
Inside, a slim black woman greeted us. Her graying hair was cut short. She wore a navy skirt with a matching jacket, not a wrinkle to be seen. The feature that stood out the most was her chunky macaroni necklace. I’d pin her to be in her fifties, maybe with a couple of grandkids. She had that look about her, like she’d sneak you a ginger snap under the table while your mom wasn’t looking.
I reached out to shake her hand. The gentle squeeze she gave me, followed by a soft smile, let me know she was aware of how tough my situation was.
“Welcome to our village Barnes family.” She reached out her knobby hand to my mother’s and gently squeezed. “I’m Mrs. Thompson, the manager here. We’re so very happy to have you.”
With a quick glance at my mother, I saw her meeting Mrs. Thompson’s eyes and the trepidation she had earlier seemed to lessen.
Mrs. Thompson took us on a brief tour of the main facility, which was aptly named the Village Square. My mother would come here for her main meals and social activities.Staff members dressed in scrubs passed us in the brightly lit hallways and waved or said hello.
With each passing minute, the tightness in my chest receded. I hadn’t realized how wound up I’d gotten on the drive. I’d been going through the motions of making sure mama was comfortable, but in doing so, I hadn’t stopped to consider how incredibly nerve wracking it was for me to be moving my mother out of state and away from everything she’d known for over forty years.
The sliver of doubt I was holding onto shattered the moment my mother saw the grand piano. The shining white beauty was tucked into a corner of the enormous common room next to a floor to ceiling window. She increased her pace. Her hands visibly shook until she reached it.
I stood back a few feet to watch. Tears formed in the corners of my eyes. And I didn’t fucking cry easily. She caressed the smooth lid like she was reuniting with a lost lover. Mrs. Thompson glanced at me and her lips turned up in a bright smile.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” She clapped a hand on my shoulder, sensing that I was getting emotional.
I cleared my throat and watched as my mother sat on the gleaming bench like a pro. “Too long. At least twenty years.”
I didn’t want to share all the details of my childhood with this woman, no matter how motherly she came off. She didn’t need to know that my father had slammed the case of our crumbling upright piano when I was thirteen or that he raged at my mother for having the audacity to ask if she could play at the Cowboy Club on the weekends for some extra money. He had always looked at her teaching me and Clyde the piano with a curled lip, spitting that we thought we were better than him with our fancy music.
There she was, Caroline Barnes, finally reunited with her first love, music. I breathed in as deep as I could, willing myself to remember the way my mother’s eyes shone, how deftly she stroked those keys, and the melodic tune that came from her fingertips as they glided across the keyboard.
Stars prickled the darkening sky by the time I left Breezy Village. A lovely orderly named Jeanie helped me get Mama unpacked and settled into her studio apartment. We set up framed photos of me and Clyde as boys right near her bed and another one of Clyde and Daisy, posing next to a Christmas tree. It was from when they first moved in together and weren’t as dysfunctional.
It surprised me that Mama hadn’t packed any photos of my father. But as I looked over at her resting on her new plush sofa with her eyes closed and her breathing slowed, I thought maybe she wasn’t as attached to Jed Barnes as she always made me believe. Maybe, deep down, she was happy he was gone.
As I requested, her new home was only a short walk from the main hub. This place was costing me a fortune, but after so many years of my mother not letting me help her, this was the least I could do for her and my own guilt-ridden brain.
