Page 52 of Overachiever
“We took turns, and I’m too wired to be tired.”
After promising to be careful and text them when I arrive in Remee’s hometown, I hop back in my truck.
My strong willed girl is about to find out I can be just as stubborn.
Chapter Eighteen
Remee
It’s just getting dark when I leave Mom’s house and head straight for Gerald’s Buffet, a large restaurant just west of town. The sign on the door shows me they close in less than an hour. If Rachel isn’t here, I’ll have to come back in the morning. I’ll stake the place out if I have to.
No stakeout is necessary. The second I step through the door, familiar blue eyes look into mine. Polar opposites in looks as well as personality, we stare at each other. For a moment, I’m afraid she’s going to ignore me.
“Remee,” she says, her voice cracking, and tackles me with a hug.
“I looked everywhere for you,” I cry, squeezing her back. Mom expected her to move in with the father of her baby’s family, but it didn’t take long to discover she hadn’t. He wanted no part of a kid. Instead, she joined a program for women dealing with a crisis pregnancy and disappeared.
“I’m sorry. I had to get away.”
“Rachel? Everything okay?” An older man wearing an apron sticks his head around the corner.
“Yeah, can you cover for me for a few minutes?”
“Sure, grab a break.”
Rachel leads me through a mostly empty dining area and past the wall length buffet that’s being broken down and cleaned by two young men. We end up in an empty breakroom. “I guess Mom told you I was here?”
“She did. Rach, I’m sorry for how things happened. I know we never got along very well, but—”
“It wasn’t your fault. There were so many times I picked up the phone to call you, and I just couldn’t. I left that life behind, and I needed to figure out how to live on my own. Mom kicking me out was a good thing in the end. I don’t want my son raised in that kind of environment.” She shakes her head, and swallows back tears. “Where everyone’s disposable once they screw up.”
“What’s his name?” I ask, sitting across from her at a small table.
A smile leaps across her face at the thought of her son. “Colby. Do you want to see a picture?”
“Of course I do.”
She taps her phone screen a few times, then hands it to me. “You can swipe. The whole album is him.”
My heart swells in a way I never thought possible at the sight of a little face grinning at the camera with a front tooth missing. “He’s beautiful. He looks just like—”
“You,” she exclaims, which wasn’t what I was going to say but isn’t untrue. “Two blond parents, and he has your dark hair, plus that toothy grin you always had when we were little.”
“What’s he like?”
“He’s a terror,” she laughs. “Not mean or hateful, just the opposite. He’s always happy and excited. Just wild as hell. He knocked that front tooth out trying to jump from the top of the slide to the jungle gym at school. At least it’s a baby tooth.”
“Who would’ve imagined your kid would be wild,” I tease, swiping through the pictures of him. It’s clear he’s well taken care of and loved. There are pictures of him at a playground, swimming in a pool, and running toward the camera, always with that huge smile on his face.
“He may look like you, but he’s definitely inherited parts of me.” She chuckles, taking her phone back, then glances up at me. “Would you like to meet him?”
“I’d love to meet my nephew.”
Rachel nods and tucks her phone away. “Family is the one thing I haven’t been able to give him, you know? Brian has never wanted anything to do with him, nor has anyone on his father’s side.”
“Are you back in town for good?”
“I plan to stay. You’re living in Morganville for school?”
