Two | Avery
Two
Avery
“I really don’t think we should be here,” I hissed at Cassidy as she held Kennedy’s hand while trying to balance a bag of groceries on her hip.
“You’re fine, now stop it,” she hissed back, giving me a look over her shoulder before turning the knob and opening the front door of her parent’s house.
“We’re here,” she called out.
Warm air that smelled of freshly baked bread greeted us, immediately overwhelming my senses as my mouth watered.
Cassidy set the bag down on a table in the entryway, then helped Kennedy out of her jacket as I hung mine on the rack behind us. I nervously smoothed a hand down the front of my dress, hoping it wasn’t obvious how out of place I felt. While I grew up around Cassidy and her family, it had been seven years since I’d been back to Sugarplum Falls, and a lot had changed since then—like me marrying a controlling asshole, having his baby, and then filing for divorce and having to start over.
“Do you need help?” Sam asked as he rounded the corner from the living room.
“We got it, but thank you,” Cassidy said, leaning in to hug her brother. “Kennedy is going to help me make macaroni and cheese for dinner tonight.”
I smiled at how happy my daughter looked as she bounced excitedly with Cassidy.
“I can’t wait. I’m sure it will be delicious,” Sam said, smiling down at her.
Cassidy led Kennedy into the living room, and it surprised me how much she already felt at home there. We’d come by yesterday to say hi to Cassidy’s parents after she insisted I needed to get over myself when I refused to come for dinner. Amelia and Ron were two of the nicest people I had ever known, and they always made me feel welcome in their house.
“I brought wine,” I blurted out, handing Sam the bottle I had carried inside my purse. “Cassidy said sometimes you guys drink it, but don’t feel obligated to indulge because of me.”
I shook my head, already irritated with myself for rambling. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, trying to give myself something else to focus on other than the way Sam was looking at me.
“Wine is always welcome in this house,” he said, accepting the bottle. “We’re happy you and Kennedy are joining us for dinner.”
“Cassidy didn’t give us many options,” I joked with a soft laugh. “She threatened to knock me out and carry my lifeless body inside if I didn’t agree to come willingly.”
“Well, I mean, you did give her a weapon.” He held up the wine bottle as evidence.
“True.” I laughed, enjoying the way the corners of my mouth felt. It had been so long since I’d smiled, let alone laughed, that it felt foreign to me.
“So, how are things going?” he asked, staying in the entryway.
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my dress and lowered my head.
“They could be better,” I admitted. “But soon, I’ll be on my feet again, and that’s all that matters.”
“If there’s anything I can do...”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. Right now, I’m just super thankful that Cassidy is offering us a place to stay as we pass through.”
“Where are you headed?”
I noticed the same furrow in his brow that I’d seen yesterday.
“I’m not sure yet.”
He nodded and rubbed his lips together as if keeping from saying something.
“Well, like my grandpa used to say, life always has a way of sorting itself out.”
I smiled the best I could, but it felt like those words were impossible to believe right now. He nodded and led the way into the living room, where I found his parents sitting on the couch, talking with Kennedy.
“Thank you for having us for dinner,” I said as they stood to hug me.
“Oh, dear, like I said yesterday, you’re always welcome in this house. You never need an invite. Just show up and make yourself at home.”
“Thank you.” I blinked to try to keep the tears away as I turned to Kennedy, who was tugging on my arm.
“What, sweetie?”
“Can I lay down? I’m tired.”
“I thought you were going to help Cassidy make macaroni and cheese?”
“I was, but now I’m tired.”
She covered her mouth with her hand and yawned.
“I’ve got it,” Cassidy assured me. “She can go lay down in the guest room if she wants.”
“Guest room?” Ron scoffed. “No way. This little princess is staying right here. Get some pillows and blankets, Ma. We’re setting up a comfy fort.”
“I’m on it!” Amelia said gleefully, shuffling down the hallway.
“They don’t have to—”
“Stop,” Cassidy said, cutting me off. “They don’t have grandbabies yet, so let them enjoy this. If Kennedy wants to rest, let her. I’ve got dinner. Just relax and take a break for once. You don’t have to do all of this on your own anymore, Avery.”
The tears prickled my eyes again, making my nose burn as I tried to force them away.
A few minutes later, the couch bed was pulled out, piles of blankets and pillows were added to it, and somewhere inside the mess was my happy little girl.
I sat at the kitchen table, watching everyone as I thought about how different their lives were from mine. I was never close to my family growing up as a single child to two parents who were married to their jobs. I cherished the time I spent at Cassidy’s house because her family always made me feel like I was one of them. But along the way, I’d forgotten what that felt like.
I’d gotten married seven years ago and moved to North Carolina, where Grant and his family were from. When we first got together, I was impressed by his drive and ambition. I trusted that he worked hard so he could build us the life I always wanted. When I got pregnant with Kennedy two years later, everything slowly started to change.
Instead of Grant spending more time at home with us, he spent more time in the office. He was constantly traveling, and I never bothered to question why all of his extra dedication to his job never seemed to improve our quality of life. We went from being a single-income family and me being a stay-at-home mom taking care of Kennedy to us needing two incomes and me working sixty hours a week sometimes just to make ends meet.
It wasn’t until I accidentally opened his bank statement that I found out where all of the money was going. He had not only been cheating on me for the past two years—hence the bogus work travel, he’d also been buying said mistress everything her heart desired while our family suffered.
There were charges from some of the most elegant boutiques that I’d only ever dreamed of visiting to several large cash advances that never made their way to our bank account. Once I found out, I immediately contacted a lawyer and filed for divorce. Unfortunately, the divorce was messy and took over a year to finalize, which resulted in Grant getting to keep everything we’d built together over the past seven years. But none of that mattered because I got sole custody of Kennedy. I didn’t ask for anything else because none of it meant anything to me. Everything we had was built on lies, and I wanted a fresh start. I might not have had a penny to my name, but I had the only thing in life that made it worth living.
“Stop it,” Cassidy scolded, eyeing me from across the kitchen as she worked on dinner.
“Stop what?” I asked, getting up from the table and joining her at the island that separated the kitchen space from the living room.
“I can see you over there thinking about him. Stop it. It’s going to give you wrinkles from all the frowning you’re doing,” she teased with a wink.
“It’s not that easy,” I admitted, smiling even though it felt forced.
“Do you still love him?” she asked cautiously.
“What? God, no.” I pulled my head back and scrunched my face in disgust. A few months ago, my answer would have been different. But after finding out everything he had been doing to tear our family apart, I couldn’t find the love I used to feel for him anymore.
“Then you have to try to let it go. Don’t let him take another ounce of your happiness.”
“It’s not my happiness he took. It was the money I’d busted my ass working for and stupidly put into our joint savings account.”
“I know. But that’s done and over. Now you forget about it and we will figure out your next step.”
“How am I supposed to take the next step when I feel like I can barely even stand on two feet?”
“You don’t. You stop. You rest. You give yourself some grace because you are an amazing mother, and you will get back on your feet. Until then, you lean on your family to help you guys. There’s nothing wrong with needing some help, Avery.”
I turned and tried to blink away the tears, but her arms wrapped around me before I could stop them. I cried quietly while my best friend held me, promising me everything would be okay.