Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Kendall
I hear a light knock on the door and look over to find Aaron asleep next to me. We’d fallen asleep on my couch watching a movie and I wasn’t even sure what time it was.
Lifting his arm, I sneak out beneath it and lay it over a pillow.
Walking across my living room I peek out the front door and feel like the air is sucked from my lungs.
I hurry to open the door, before she knocks once again. “What are you doing here?” I ask my mother as I step out onto the porch and close the door behind me.
“Well I came to see my daughter, of course.” She stands before me wearing a pantsuit I’m sure cost more than my rent payment. Already knowing she convinced some schmuck to foot the bill for that, I fight the urge to roll my eyes.
Here she stands acting as if this is a common thing for her to show up in Alabama to have a mother-daughter reunion. As if she and I are so close and she missed me.
“It’s been years,” I remind her.
“I know.” She shrugs. “Yet here I am. Are we going to go inside? I’d love to see your place.”
“No,” I say, glancing back over my shoulder and know my mistake as soon as I make it.
“Do you have company?” The eagerness in her voice is obvious and I know the hook is already set. She won’t let it go.
“I do.”
“A man?” she asks, smiling happily. “Is it the same man? That O’Shay boy?” It’s almost like I can see the dollar signs dancing in her eyes.
“Honestly Mother, you haven’t been anywhere near here in years. You’ve called only to lecture me or tell me about your new guy friend, and then randomly here you are on my doorstep. You hate Alabama, you’ve made that very clear time after time.”
“Kendall.” She laughs me off like I am being ridiculous, but it’s forced.
“What is it?” I ask, knowing there is an ulterior motive for this visit. There is no way she showed up here for anything to do with me.
She holds my stare and then lets out a humph. “Fine, Walter kicked me out.” And there it is, the truth. Something she is rarely capable of giving.
“Who is Walter?” I ask suddenly confused. The last guy’s name wasn’t Walter.
“He’s just a guy I’ve been staying with for a few weeks.”
“You mean a new guy you were mooching off of,” I correct her.
“You don’t have to be so rude,” she tries to mother me and it only makes me angry.
“It's true,” I tell her. “And don’t attempt to chastise me for my choice of wording. You haven’t been a mother to me in longer than I can remember.
You were always too busy running around in search of your next husband.
Looking for someone to throw money at your feet. You didn’t care what you left behind.”
“You were old enough to take care of yourself.”
“I was seven.” My voice rises and she jumps.
When the door opens behind me and my mother’s eyes grow wide I look back to find Aaron standing there. Sleep still filling his eyes, he is shirtless and only wearing a pair of sweats hanging low on his hips.
“Well hello.” My mother’s frown instantly becomes a smile.
“Are you serious right now?” This woman has a lot of nerve. “You’re going to try to flirt with my boyfriend right in front of me?”
“Oh please, Kendall,” she hushes me and it only adds to my irritation.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” I say, staring at her.
“I can’t believe you,” she starts then stops.
“You are acting crazy,” she says and all I do is stare at her.
After I show no signs of backing down she turns around and walks back to her expensive car parked across the street.
Looking down the road I see my crazy ass neighbor staring and something flips within me.
“Enjoy the show you nosy ass bitch?” Suddenly an arm is hooked around my waist and pulling me back inside. “Get a fucking life, lady!”
When we are back inside and Aaron places me back onto my feet I spin around to face him.
“Babe,” he says, trying to bring me back to the moment. “You just yelled at your neighbor,” he says with a smile and I can’t help but laugh. “I bet she’s stewing, and the next knock might be her here with cops.”
“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” I say with a shrug. Laughter bubbles up in my chest and I flop back onto the couch, my body relaxing for the first time since I first saw my mother on my porch.
“So I take it that was your mother.”
“That is the lady that gave birth to me, but she was never really a mother.”
Aaron sits down at my side, wrapping his arm over my shoulder. “Want me to go flatten her tires?”
“No,” I say with a laugh.
“Hey I got it, why don’t we find out where she parks her car and go load it up on the truck, then dump it off in the middle of a field somewhere.”
“The lake sounds better,” I say, curling into him and letting him comfort me. “I’ve had a lot of years to build up so much hate for her. I guess seeing her in person after all this time triggered something.”
“I get it.”
“You don’t Aaron, because you have an amazing loving mother who would do anything for you.
But I love you for trying to sympathize with me.
” I let him hold me and later I allow him to carry me to bed.
When he slips in behind me and wraps his arms around me, that is the moment I felt completely safe.
That is the moment I give in and allow myself to fall asleep.
“Dad,” I holler as I enter the shop to find it still dark.
Only the light is on in his office and I start in that direction.
The closer I get, the more fearful I become.
I know my father still loves my mother. Even after everything she put him through, after breaking his heart and leaving the both of us behind, he still cares.
My heart sinks at the idea that she somehow got her claws back into him.
I pause outside the office, taking a deep breath before stepping inside. Instant relief hits me when I find him alone.
“Hey, girl,” he says, leaning back in his chair and tossing his pen onto the register before him. I glance down and right there on the last stub I see her name.
“Tell me you didn’t,” I say without looking up.
“She wanted to go to Miami,” he says in explanation and I finally look back up to meet his stare.
“So tell her to get her ass in that fancy BMW and take herself to Miami. You don’t write her a twenty-five hundred dollar check.”
“Kendall,” he tries to reason with me.
“No, Dad.” I spin around, trying to calm myself. I feel out of control. It pisses me off that she would show up here and take him for another ride. Hasn’t she hurt him enough? “She is a gold digger, and she will always take as long as you are willing to give.”
“This was it, Kendall,” he assures me. “I think we can both agree that her being in Miami and not here is better for both of us.”
He isn’t lying.
“I offered Kendall, because I know her being here brings nothing good. She left us, she walked away from her daughter, at a time when a daughter needs a mother and she didn’t look back.
I may have loved her once Kendall, and I won’t lie and say I don’t still care.
But that, her and I, there will never be a time when I would ever consider going back.
I’m being honest with you, and you know I don’t lie to you.
I just wanted her gone baby girl, I just wanted her gone. ”
I hold his stare and when I know without a doubt in my mind he is telling me the truth, I round his desk and lean over giving him a hug.
“You should really date.” He chuckles at my words. “I’m being serious, you should meet a woman.”
“How do you know I haven’t?” I lean back and eye him.
“Want to give me a little hint?”
“Not yet.” He smiles. “Let me see how things go first, then I’ll fill you in.”
All I wanted was for him to be happy. I wanted him to find a woman that loved him the way my mother never could. He is a good man, and he deserves that.