Chapter 16
16
G eena grabbed Taylor’s arm and slowed to a stop. Then she bent over with her hands on her knees, struggling to catch her breath.
“Need… a second,” she said through ragged breaths.
They had made their way almost entirely around Geena’s neighborhood. Taylor usually ran through a park where she and Austin lived in Breaux Bridge near the shelter. But the sidewalks on Geena’s block were nice and wide, great for a beginner. More importantly, Taylor wanted to make the transition from townhouse to running path as seamless as possible for Geena. No room for chickening out in between.
Geena wasn’t sure if she was grateful for the plan or if she would hold this against Taylor for the rest of her life.
“It’s time to cool down anyway,” Taylor said. “We can slow walk back to your place. Just focus on restoring your breath to normal and keep moving so you don’t cramp up.”
Geena nodded and stood straight again, matching Taylor’s much slower pace as they headed toward Geena’s townhouse.
Her sister had started Geena out easily with a series of one-minute jogs alternating with a minute and a half of walking. But even an easy plan had been hard on Geena since she hadn’t run a day in her life. Maybe a little in high school P.E., but she couldn’t remember that anymore. She was definitely out of shape for this.
“How do you feel?” Taylor asked. “And I don’t just mean your legs.”
“Emotionally?” When her sister nodded, Geena said, “Exhausted.”
“I don’t know that exhaustion is an emotion. That’s a physical state. But it’s good for your emotions.”
Geena’s breathing was returning to normal. Well, maybe not normal, but she could at least maintain a conversation again through her mildly labored breaths.
“I don’t see how this is supposed to have any effect on my emotional state.”
“It clears them out. All the built up stuff like work or your divorce or whatever. How do you normally deal with emotions if you aren’t burning off your stress?”
“I don’t know,” Geena said. “I just think through them, then move on.”
“You can’t outsmart your emotions.”
“Why not? I can think through everything else. It’s worked for me so far.”
“Has it?” Taylor let out a soft laugh. “You’ve been pretty tense the last few months.”
“With due cause.”
She’d be the first to admit the divorce mediation had taken up too much of her time and mental energy. And seeing Ricky at the restaurant a few days ago had brought up some annoyance, just like it did every time she spoke with him since they separated.
“Fair,” Taylor said. “But you aren’t dealing with that stress.”
“I told you, I’m working through it all.”
Was she?
She was still struggling to sleep at night, and she couldn’t blame that on Gary anymore. He was mostly silent once she covered the cage, and what little noise he made was inaudible from her bedroom.
But that was just how it was sometimes. Didn’t everyone have trouble sleeping from time to time?
“You need to get those emotions out of your brain and out of your body.” Taylor put her hands above her head, breathing near-effortlessly. “Why do you think I run?”
Geena did feel like she was clearing out some stuff. But it felt more like she was clearing out a lung than any emotions.
“I feel a little better,” she admitted. “Does the breathing part get easier?”
“Eventually,” Taylor said. “But we’re going to level you up each week.”
“We’re going to what?”
Taylor grabbed her phone from the bag around her waist. “I’m sending you the link to the app I used when I started. It’ll keep track of the running and walking timing for you. We can run together on Sunday mornings, and you’ll just need to run two other times during the week to keep up with the program.”
“Wait, wait, wait. I said I’d run with you today. I didn’t commit to any program.”
Taylor tapped a button, and Geena’s phone dinged in the bag Taylor had given her to wear. “Give it a week and tell me how you feel next Sunday. It’s just two days. Try it?”
Geena didn’t really want to commit to anything. Once she committed to something, she was locked in. Her brain wouldn’t let her off the hook for any reason. So she had to guard her commitments like they were precious things.
“I’m giving this two more times of what we did today,” she said, her breath finally regulating as her townhouse came into view. Just in time since low, dark clouds were quickly rolling over them. “I’ll let you know next Sunday if I want to keep doing it. That’s all you’re getting from me for now.”
Taylor dropped her arms to clap with glee. “You’re going to love it. Promise.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“You came out once with me. That’s the hardest part, the getting started. The rest is easy. Momentum is magic.”
Geena couldn’t argue with that. “One. Week.”
Taylor’s hands went up in defense. “Got it.”
Geena unlocked the door, and they both went straight for their water bottles. Geena chugged hers, feeling like she hadn’t had any water in a week instead of half an hour.
“So how have things been with this guy?” Taylor waved her bottle in Gary’s direction.
“Thiiiis guuuuuy.”
Gary’s vocabulary was growing the more he settled in. Geena couldn’t tell if he was picking up new words and phrases or if he was just showcasing more of what he had already learned.
“Pretty good,” Geena said. “We’re past the getting acquainted stage and growing more comfortable with each other and our routines. Isn’t that right, Gary?”
“Bet your ass!”
When Taylor giggled, Gary fell into a raucous cackle of laughter.
“And how’s the other guy in your life?”
“Who? Ricky?”
“Jeez, no.” Taylor made a gagging noise that Gary tried to mimic. “Cody. You said he was coming over to install something earlier this week, but I didn’t get to ask you about it yesterday.”
Taylor had been busy with a mild medical emergency involving a kitten in a foster home. Geena had only seen her in passing while she was taking photos, so Taylor hadn’t had time to grill her yet.
“He’s not a guy in my life.”
Taylor looked away from Gary and pointed a finger in the air. “Technically, he is a guy and in your life.”
“Fine. Technically. But you know what you meant by that.”
“Either way, how’d it go?”
“Fine.”
Taylor frowned. “More, please.”
“He installed a security camera on my door, so no one has to worry about me and Gary anymore.”
“Still gonna worry. You might be my older sister, but I’m gonna worry about you as much as you worry about me.”
“Fair,” Geena said. “But the camera works great, and I can see it from an app on my phone.”
Much more useful than that new running app her sister had installed. But Geena left that thought in her head for now. She’d promised a week, so she’d give it that much.
“Great. Now what about Cody?”
Beep beep boop beep.
“What about him?”
“Did he bring you more food? Any more perfect guesses of what you like? I still say that’s a gift you shouldn’t brush off.”
“No, he didn’t bring food.” Geena paused, but eventually decided Taylor would find out one way or another. “I bought him a burger at that place down the road. He wouldn’t let me pay for the security system, so I treated him to dinner.”
“So this was date number… four?”
“It wasn’t a date. It was a repayment of sorts.”
The more Geena thought about that evening, however, the more she wasn’t so sure about that. As always, their conversation flowed smoothly, and there was plenty of laughter. It felt like the stress-reliever Taylor promised running would be.
“Uh-huh. You could have bought him a gift card or something, but you chose to spend time with him. Again.”
“I don’t think it’s called a date when your soon-to-be ex-husband joins the party.”
“Ugh,” Taylor said, while Gary tried to mimic her gagging noises again. “For real?”
“Him and Monica. He was as charming as you might expect.”
“Did Cody punch him? Please say yes.”
“No, thank goodness,” Geena said. “It was a little dicey on that front for a bit, but I defused the situation.”
Taylor scrunched her nose. “Why would you do that?”
“I don’t know, Taylor. Maybe because violence is never the answer?”
“I think we could make an exception for Ricky.”
Geena would love it if that were true, but it wasn’t. “It was odd. Ricky gets under my skin easily, but I was surprised at how quickly he’d enraged Cody.”
Taylor tilted her head at her sister. “What set him off?”
“Oh, you know how Ricky is. He made some backhanded comment at my expense.”
“Soooo he was upset on your behalf?”
Geena remembered the flash of anger on Cody’s face. As much as she was denying, to herself as well as to Taylor, that it was a date, she couldn’t deny that he had no other reason to be angry except in her defense.
Had they really grown close enough to trigger that kind of reaction?
“I guess so,” she said.
“And you don’t think there’s anything between the two of you?”
“I’ve said this a million times.” Geena let out an exasperated sigh. “It doesn’t matter what’s between us. We aren’t a good match.”
Maybe, just maybe, based on his reaction to Ricky, Cody might actually feel about her the way she now felt about him. But that didn’t change the fact that he would be leaving soon. He had given her no indication that those plans had changed.
“What did I say earlier about not trying to outsmart your emotions?” Taylor grinned. “And don’t think I didn’t notice that, ‘what’s between us,’ bit.”
“Don’t you have to get back to Austin and Tink?”
Taylor’s grin widened. “Austin would fully support this info mining.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
Taylor’s grin disappeared as she looked earnestly at her sister. “I just like seeing you happy. And he seems to make you happy, whether or not you want that to be true. I want you to admit that you like him.”
“Okay,” Geena said. “I don’t not enjoy his company.”
“Nope, try again.”
Beep beep boop beep.
“Fine. I enjoy his company.”
“I know you’re afraid to get hurt or pick the wrong guy again,” Taylor said. “Really, I do. But can you just admit you like him? Trying to squash your feelings won’t make them go away.”
Geena sighed heavily and counted backwards. This time, it wasn’t because she was angry or frustrated. This time it was because Taylor wasn’t wrong.
In a low voice, she gave in and said, “I like him.”
“Good. Now that you got through the hard part of admitting it, maybe you can do something with those feelings.”
“More running?”
Taylor laughed. “If that helps.”
It didn’t help anything. The words couldn’t change the fact that Cody would leave eventually, and Geena wouldn’t get involved if there was a ticking clock for the end of a relationship.
“Are we done here?”
Taylor hugged her sister, and they walked together to the door. “See you next weekend. You’d better do those runs. You promised to give it a week.”
“I will,” Geena said with less enthusiasm than Taylor probably wanted. “Promise.”
C ody followed his nose into the kitchen where his mother was brushing sauce on a sheet pan full of ribs. It was her favorite dish to make for him, and she woke up early to cook them on low heat for several hours before basting and broiling them at the last minute. She always picked up the side dishes from a local market, but the ribs she made especially for him.
“Smells awesome, as usual.” He kissed his mom on the cheek. “I brought the French bread.”
She closed the oven door, then wrapped him in a big hug. For a tiny woman, she packed a mighty embrace.
“I thought I told you to bring a date, not bread.”
“The bread was easier.”
“Who said anything about easy? You think these ribs are easy? No. But they’re worth it.”
Ah yes. His mother still couldn’t admit that his father wasn’t worth all the years she gave to him. All the forgiveness. All the tears. She couldn’t admit she’d gambled and lost.
But he saw what his father took from her. He saw how no matter how much his mother had loved him or how much she’d given, it still wasn’t enough to make up for the man’s selfishness.
Cody had long ago vowed never to do what his father did to anyone else. If it meant he stayed single for the rest of his life, or at least until he was sure he wanted to settle down with the right person in the right place at the right time, so be it.
Maybe one day love would be worth it.
For now, it was just these ribs.
“Next time I’ll bring bread and dessert. How’s that?”
“I’d rather you bring a girl home.”
“What if I brought a guy?”
Cody had never outright told his mom about his sexuality, but he’d never intentionally hidden that fact either. Whether she considered the guys he’d brought home in high school to be friends or dates, he never knew.
“I will be happy with any human you bring in this house.” She took both of his shoulders in her hands and looked into his eyes. “I just want to see you happy.”
“I am happy,” he said. “Because I’m not tied down or hurting someone when it’s time for me to move on to another job elsewhere.”
Her hands dropped from his shoulders, and her whole body slumped. “Why does it have to be time to move? I wish you could stay here longer.”
“No. You wish I’d stay forever.”
“Okay, fine. I wish you would stay forever,” she said. “But I’d settle for a little longer.”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know I didn’t get the Arizona job.”
“I’m sorry.” Her face displayed genuine remorse. “I’m not happy about your disappointment. And I assume you’ve sent out more resumes.”
Cody nodded. “Waiting for a few responses.”
He’d enjoyed this time at his hometown zoo, but he had to move on before he got attached to the job or his coworkers.
Or anyone else.
Geena, in her llama pajamas from the first time he showed up at her door, flashed across his memory. Their easy conversations over the last week and a half had been a pleasant surprise. Even more so after their crappy first date. He felt comfortable around her now.
No, it was more than comfort.
Exactly why it was time for him to move on.
“Who is she? Or he?” his mom asked. “They?”
“Who is what?”
“Whoever you’re thinking about. You’ve got this look. I know what that look is. Who is it?”
“It’s no one.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t lie to your mother.”
“Her name is Geena,” he said. “But don’t get excited. It’s not a thing. She’s just been helping me out with zoo stuff.”
“That’s not a zoo stuff look,” she insisted.
“Doesn’t matter. I’m leaving soon enough and she only wants something serious. She’s an accountant ,” he said. “I don’t fit in her equations.”
“Did she say that?”
“We have been upfront about what we both want,” he said, remembering that first date when she’d been clearly annoyed by every word that came out of his mouth.
Since then, though, she was almost a different person. Her walls had lowered around him.
But maybe that was precisely because there was no end game for them.
“I still say it’s worth a shot,” she said. “You never know what could happen.”
“Can we talk about something else?”
He was finding it harder lately to think about leaving. The zoo. Lauren. Geena. Even Gary.
And, of course, his mom.
He’d kept his distance as much as possible since he left home after high school, and he didn’t think he’d get so attached to his place of origin.
But here they were.
Another reason to head out as soon as he could.
His mom grabbed the spoon she’d been stirring the warmed baked beans with and waved it gently at him. “You’d better learn how to fly or drive in for visits.”
Cody smiled. “You’ll be my first vacation location.”