Chapter Nine
Visitor
I lay on my back on my bed staring at the ceiling and hearing the TV in the other room. Kate, Dane and Keira were watching a movie that, from what I could tell, had a lot of explosions.
My cell phone was on my stomach, my hand curled around it and I had two choices. Either I needed to make the call to end things with Joe or I wanted to make the call just to talk to Joe.
I closed my eyes.
Things couldn’t get weirder or more messed up.
It was now Thursday.
On Saturday, during the day, I’d had to have the talk with the girls, telling them I was going out on a date. I couldn’t just trip out the door with an unknown man and call, “See you later!” as much as I wanted to. I had to do what I could to make this transition from Mom and Dad, to Mom no Dad, to Mom dating as smooth as possible even though that was impossible.
I still had to try.
So I stood at the kitchen counter while they both sat on stools at the bar opposite me and I told them I met a man named Lieutenant Mike Haines and we were going out on a date.
I expected they’d both be pissed. They loved their Dad and I couldn’t imagine that, the time having come when I was moving on with life, dragging them with me, they’d be thrilled to bits.
What I didn’t expect was Kate to say, “That’s great, Mawdy.”
But I kinda expected Keira to snap, “What about Joe?”
Which was what she did.
I closed my eyes but opened them when Kate asked Keira, “What about Joe?”
“Joe’s a hottie,” Keira replied to Kate.
“Yeah, he’s a hottie, so? Mom likes the clean cut guys,” Kate returned and this was true, Tim was a clean cut guy and Tim had been the only guy who I’d liked. Then again, it was kinda untrue, Joe was anything but clean cut.
“Joe bought us dinner, told Mom she looked great in her Lucky’s and gave us electric eyes,” Keira retorted and when Kate opened her mouth to speak, Keira finished, “and he likes her cupcakes.”
“Maybe this Mike guy’ll like her cupcakes too,” Kate suggested.
At this point, I was feeling weird about my girls talking about the men in my life liking my cupcakes so I waded in. “Girls –”
Keira looked at me and declared, “I like you with Joe.”
Kate leaned into Keira and declared, “She’s not with Joe.”
Keira’s head twisted around to Kate and she returned, “She could be. He likes her, I can tell.”
“All right,” I cut in, “enough. This is a date, just a date, with Mike. Joe, Keira baby,” I looked at my youngest, “let’s just let that lie for now.”
“He likes you,” Keira stated stubbornly.
“I like him too,” I agreed and it was the truth, surprisingly. “He’s been good to us but I’m kinda takin’ this one day at a time and I need you girls to let me do that.” I leaned both forearms on the counter and finished, my voice quieter. “I’ll do my best to make good choices, for you and for me, but I also need you to trust me to do that. Can you trust me to do that?”
“Yeah, Mawdy,” Kate said instantly but she would say that instantly. She trusted me, like she trusted her Dad, she trusted us both implicitly.
Keira glared at me. “I like Joe.”
“Can you give it up with Joe?” Kate cried and Keira transferred her glare to her sister and then she said something that hit me like a punch in the gut.
“He needs Mom and us more than we need him. He needs a family. He’s over there, all by himself, he has nobody. We have each other.” She looked at me and stated, “He needs somebody. I can tell.”
“Baby,” I whispered, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes.
She threw up a hand as she hopped off her stool. “Go off with your Mike guy, I’m cool with that,” she looked at me but her body was turned away, “but I still like Joe.”
Then she walked down the hall to her room and I heard her close her door.
I looked at Kate who was staring after her sister, her face thoughtful.
“Katy honey?” I called and she turned to me. “Are you really cool with me goin’ out with Mike? I mean, you girls and your Dad –”
Kate cut me off. “Can’t say I don’t wish you were goin’ on a date night with Dad to Rico’s and we were in our old house and Grams and Gramps were just down the street but…” she shook her head and looked away but I saw the tears glistening in her eyes before she finished, “whatever.”
“Katy.”
She slid off her stool not looking at me and muttered, “Gotta get ready for work.”
“Kate –”
She stopped and turned to me. “Can Dane come over while you’re out with Mike?”
“Sure, baby.”
I mean, what else could I say?
“Thanks,” she mumbled and then headed down the hall.
I dropped my head and looked at my midriff through my arms thinking that could have gone better.
I was also thinking about what Keira said about Joe.
Then the phone rang. I straightened, happy to have something to take my mind from my thoughts, walked to it, picked it up and put it to my ear.
The minute I said “Hello,” whoever was on the other end hung up.
Mike called while I was at the garden center and told me that he got reservations at Costa’s and I should dress nice.
This was a miracle. I’d heard about Costa’s, a lot about it, and everyone said it was great (Feb especially loved it, she’d mentioned it more than once, but then I noticed Feb liked her food) but it wasn’t easy getting a table there, especially at short notice.
This was also nice, Mike thinking to call and tell me to dress up. He’d obviously had a wife and knew the drill (this was something I suspected that Joe didn’t know, considering Bonnie was his ex and they’d been over for at least seventeen years, if I read it right, though he could have five ex-wives as far as I knew). I was already panicking about my double decker night starting with Mike and ending with Joe. I didn’t need to worry about my outfit.
And it felt good, going home, getting gussied up to go out on a date. I’d never actually done that as an adult, it was kind of exciting and scary at the same time. I wore my clingy lavender dress that Tim thought was hot and my new high-heeled sandals that hadn’t until then made it out of the box. I liked having a reason to wear them, it felt good.
Even so, I’d kind of been hoping that the date would suck, which would make my life easier since I could call things off with Mike if it didn’t work out.
But the date didn’t suck. Mike picked me up and I noticed yet again he was very good-looking but this time I also noticed that he dressed well (blazer, shirt and jeans, casual for what was supposed to be a dressy night but he pulled it off because he had a good body, broad shoulders, lean hips, long legs, he wasn’t as tall as Joe but he was taller than me, even in my sandals and that was saying something). And the date was good because Mike was like he was at the bar, easy to talk to, he smiled a lot, he teased, he flirted, he laughed and he made me laugh. He was into me and made no bones about it, which felt better than having a reason to wear high-heeled sandals.
And the food was amazing.
As easy as Mike was to be with at the restaurant was as anxious as I got on the drive home, which was to say by the time I got home I was a wreck. First, he told me he would kiss me which meant, second, I had kids at home who I didn’t want to see me kissing someone and, last, I had a booty call next door who I also didn’t want to see me kissing someone.
But Mike had an answer for that too. He got out of the car and came to my side as I got out then he took my hand and he didn’t lead me to the door. He led me to the open stretch between my house and garage, out of sight of anyone but someone who really wanted to look.