Chapter 9
Whitney
I’ve nearly finished the last project I was sent and have a new one on the cloud ready for me to start.
That’s going to be a tricky one as it is historical.
A Viking romance, and that means a lot of research on my part.
Fact checking is going to be paramount, although a note states that the author has researched extensively.
Typing the last notes, I rub my neck, which is aching with the tension of sitting in one position for a long time. I upload all my notes and think ‘Tada’ to myself. That’s the cowboy book finished.
After closing the laptop, I close the door to what is now my office, which was the third bedroom before walking through to the kitchen. I pour a glass of soda and stand at the large window overlooking the front yard.
The snow has cleared, and although it gives a Christmas feel, it is also cold, and if it gets too deep, it’s hard to walk in.
I still have Christmas shopping to do, and with Lee coming I need to get all the fixings for a real Christmas feast. I love doing that and had done it every year while married.
All that effort to have a good marriage I feel was wasted, and looking back, I don’t know if Kyle ever loved me as much as I loved him?
Turning to look around the room I study the TV, which is on a small TV table at the moment.
I got that in a reduced area of the store, and I’m not sure I like it now!
Maybe I’ll ask Clem to hang the TV on the wall, that’s if he can.
It would be out of the way, and it would look neater than perched on that table I’m sure.
Oren is coming to me after school today, so I need to be ready.
I’m thinking of making cupcakes when he gets here.
I open the cabinets and check I have all the fixings and nod to myself that I can make chocolate ones with chocolate frosting and shavings.
This will be messy I’m sure, but it will be fun too.
Knocking on the door takes me by surprise because who would visit me? Maybe another neighbor wanting to say hi?
Shock runs through me when I open the door and Kyle is standing there. “What are you doing here?”
Looking a little sheepish, Kyle gives me the small grin that I used to love at one time, but I don’t react to what is him trying to get me to bend. “I wanted to speak with you, Whit. Make sure you were okay, and to apologize for everything.”
Sighing, I step back to allow him to enter. I’m not happy about him being here, but he is, so I have to deal with it. I take his coat because he’s taken it off and looks embarrassed. “Take a seat,” I say without snapping at him.
Once we are both seated, I urge him to continue. “So, you wanted to say sorry.”
“I do. I’m not sure how we came to this.
I know it’s my fault, and I’m seeing a counselor.
After I had a conversation with Brennan, who you know divorced…
well he said it showed that I had stopped seeing you as I should have been.
He spoke with me for a long time and opened my eyes to see that I had neglected you.
I’m sorry for that, Whitney. I’m sorry for all of it.
I know we are divorced, and I’m grateful you didn’t take the house.
But I don’t want this to sour you.” Kyle looks honest, cut up, and knowing him as well as I do, I see he is sad about what he has done.
“I think we'd best leave the past in the past now, Kyle. I’ve moved on. I have my cottage, I have a good job, and I have friends. Oh, you can tell Pamela and Stacey thanks for the support, and yes, I’m being sarcastic.”
Nodding while he is swallowing hard because he knows they were supposed to be my friends.
“I’m going to cut off contact with everyone for a while, Whitney.
I need to find out who I am again, why I neglected you as I did, and what I want for my future.
But know that I cherish the time we were together.
There is no way I would have wanted to miss that time with you. ”
“Well, it’s done now, so let us both move on. I wish you well for the future.” Before I can say more the door flies open, and Oren rushes into the cottage.
“Hi…who are you?”
I giggle at the look on Kyle’s face, but the indignation on Oren’s is hilarious. He doesn’t like the fact that a strange man is in my cottage.
“Hi. I’m Kyle. I’m…”
“Oh, you were Aunt Whitney’s husband.” Oren grins, and I mean it’s a nasty grin like he’s got one over on Kyle sort of grin. “But not anymore.”
“Oren, be nice,” I keep my voice calm, but I feel like laughing. Oren is still giving Kyle a dirty look, and I’m sure Kyle doesn’t know what to make of it.
“I’ll have to get going, Whit. You take care, and if you ever need anything I’m here for you.”
“Yeah, thanks.” But we both know I’ll not contact him no matter what is happening.
I watch him grab his coat and walk out, turning to give me a sad look before he closes it behind him.
I’m sure he had much more to say to me, but Oren turning up at that moment I think was a blessing.
We needed to just close the door on our relationship and call it done.
I turn to look at Oren, give him a shake of my head to show I don’t want to discuss this. “Okay, I’m going to make double chocolate cupcakes. Do you want to help?”
That changed his thinking process quickly, and he has his coat and shoes off, and hands washed before I can tell him to do it.
We had a great time mixing the batter for the cupcakes. I had to keep telling him to stop putting his finger into the batter, but he said he had to check if it was chocolaty enough.
Eventually, the cupcakes are cooked and on the cooling rack. We have to wait for them to be cool enough for the topping, which we have ready in a bowl.
I have Oren opening one of the boxes that Lee had saved and brought for me. Things that I wanted to keep from the house when I left.
“Are these your things?” Oren asks as he pulls out a throw blanket from the box he’s emptying.
“Yes, they are. That throw blanket was my mamma’s, and it means a lot to me.”
“I don’t have anything from my mother.” Oren looks at the throw blanket in his hands, and I can see his mother has hurt him badly.
“Well, your mother is a menace, and you are better without her. But you know you have your father and your uncle, which is more than a lot of kids have. You wouldn’t want to be an orphan would you?
” I’m not sure how I’m going to get him to see he doesn’t need her, and to stop this terrible abandoned feeling he has.
“She’s a menace?” Trust him to pick that out of everything I said.
“Well, she was when she left you. She isn’t someone you would want putting obstacles in your future.
I think you have two great men in your life, both would do anything for you, and you should concentrate on them, and not a menace of a mother.
You have me now too, so we say we don’t need her in our lives.
Just like I don’t need Kyle in mine. He was in my life for seven years, and I loved him.
But he stopped loving me, and I saw that, so I left him.
It hurt, just like you are hurting, but you know we are better without them.
” I look down at him and give him a high-five option.
The huge grin on his face as he high-fives me shows he is going to be okay.
While we finish frosting the cupcakes, I look at Oren with the frosting all over his apron. Thank goodness we put one on. “Do you think your Uncle Clem is clever enough to put my TV on the wall?”
“Yeah, I can do that,” a voice remarks, which has me letting out a shriek much to Oren’s amusement.
"Heck, I didn't hear you sneak in," hand covering my heart.
“You were both too busy making what looks like my favorite cupcakes. Double chocolate with chocolate shavings?” Clem asks the last part with a hopeful tone in his voice.
“Yeah, they are Uncle Clem,” Oren smiles and holds one up for Clem to take.
Clem looks at me and I nod that he should try one, and the cupcake doesn’t last long. But the look on Clem’s face was worth making the darn things. He closes his eyes and hums, then looks at Oren. “My, oh my, they are fantastic. Hmm…hmm, give me another one.”
Oren looks mortified that Clem is eating more than one, so I throw my head back laughing. “Come on, Oren, we can make more another day.”
The week moved along quickly. Clem fitted the TV to the wall. I love it where it is, and I put the TV table outside with a notice that it was free if anyone wanted it. It didn’t take long to disappear from the front yard, but at least someone will get use out of it.
It's Thursday already, and I’ve made some headway with the research for the Viking book.
But it is a little heavy going, which makes it slower than I hoped it would be.
My eyes get tired from staring at the monitor of the laptop, so I’ve purchased some eye drops to freshen my eyes up when they start to feel irritated.
So far it seems to help, but I’ll speak to my optometrist on my next checkup.
Oren is bouncing into the cottage every day after school, and it’s not taken him long to settle into the routine.
I look forward to the time he’s due home and always have something to do with him when he gets here.
Yesterday we were making hot chocolate drinks and testing toppings.
It was great fun, and by the time we’d finished I was so full I didn’t have an evening meal.
Rushing around the shops, I pick up a few groceries before walking into a gift shop.
I hunt through cards until I find one I like for Lee.
She loves that I get her cards for birthdays and holidays.
She always puts them in her office and makes sure everyone sees them.
I go for an over-sized card, and it has a winter scene with an old-fashioned village, and snow softly falling.
It’s really pretty, and I’m sure she’ll love it.
I get one that says ‘Nephew’ because Oren has adopted me as an aunt.
I hope Clem won’t be angry about it, but if he is, he’ll have to get over it.
I buy some dinosaur pajamas, a T-shirt with a dinosaur on the front, and I get him a set of pens that have silly sayings on them. I’m happy with my purchases but have to stop or I could get Clem angry.
In the liquor store, I pick up a bottle of Jack Daniels for Clem, and I am surprised at the price, but don’t want to look mean.
I bought a bottle of Evan Williams for Myles even though I haven’t met him yet.
I grab a nice bottle of non-alcoholic red wine for Lee too because I know she loves a glass after a long day.
I’m feeling darn good when I arrive back at the cottage, and I hide all the gifts from prying eyes. I know Oren doesn’t miss much.
I place two packs of popping corn on the counter, and do so with a smile because I’m going to surprise Oren with what we are going to do at the weekend.