Chapter 4
I really needed a shower and for the kids to be about ninety percent quieter. Maybe if I asked nicely, Eve would share her headphones with me. Risking a glance at my walking emotional volcano, I earned an annoyed eye roll as Liam squealed in his baby seat. Right, that would be a no.
Gran had told me that Victoria had bought out the old brewery and turned it into a café. I thought that sounded like a lovely way to start the day.
We strolled into the brick building with gorgeous floor to ceiling windows and Victorian chandeliers and came face to face with Garrett.
I pulled up short. Of all the people I expected to see this morning, he was not one of them.
“You stalking me, Daze?”
Garrett’s eyes held mine and I chuckled.
“Not today, officer.”
I was about to ask where he was off to, when Kaley, in true Kaley fashion, hopped right in front of me.
“Why are you everywhere?”
She demanded with her hands on her hips.
It was this attitude that earned her the nickname of Sassparilla from David. I fought every urge to laugh at her audacity and reprimand, “Kaley!”
She could care less as she held Garrett’s stare. He laughed and got on her level. God, that uniform hugged him in the very best way and the way he humored Kaley with a genuine smile? I was in trouble. I didn’t even catch what he said to Kaley, I was too busy staring at his inviting blue eyes.
Trouble with a capital T.
“Makes sense.”
Kaley nodded appeased by his response.
Eve looked at her sister in disgust and muttered, “You are such an embarrassment.”
Then, she stalked to the corner booth.
“Eve, if you don’t order your drink, I am getting you an apple juice like Kaley,”
I called across the room to her, thankful Garrett and my crew were the only patrons in the café at the moment.
Eve folded over the table and huffed before joining us in line.
“Garrett!”
Victoria sat his drink down and Garrett placed a bill on the register.
“Thanks, V. Put what’s left towards their order, okay?”
He tapped the counter and turned to head out with his drink.
Victoria nodded, sending him a fake salute. “You got it, boss.”
I was poised to object, but Liam chose that moment to send his stuffed giraffe soaring across the room. Kaley laughed and Eve sighed, dragging her feet as she went to retrieve the toy.
“You need the caffeine as much as I do, Daze. Have a great day.”
I stared at the beautiful man in front of me, getting lost in his ocean eyes. I needed to find a release and soon, I had no business being attracted to Garrett. My face heated at the thought of what it would be like to find that release with him.
Garrett smirked as he left. Kaley watched the interaction with too much interest before grabbing my arm and pulling me to the counter.
She stood on her tiptoes to see over the tall counter and declared, “I want a chocolate milk.”
“Kaley,”
I reprimanded.
She rolled her eyes at me with a sigh and turned back to Victoria, “Please.”
Victoria covered her laugh with a cough and nodded. “You got it, Kaley. Lucy, what can I get you?”
“Your strongest iced dirty chai latte, please.”
I adjusted Liam in his carrier and looked at Eve.
“I want an iced lavender and vanilla latte, please.”
Eve wasn’t looking at Victoria as she said it though, instead she was captivated by the black chandelier above the register. Hanging from one of its rungs was a Beetlejuice doll.
Victoria grinned. “Did you see the sequel?”
“Yes!”
Eve gasped, bouncing on her toes as she leaned on the counter looking up at the doll. “It was so good. I was nervous at first, but I loved it!”
“Me too,”
Victoria said with a wide smile. “Garrett gets his drinks for free here in exchange for my rent on the apartment above this place. Your drinks are covered with his twenty.”
I shook my head, taking a deep breath. “Thank you.”
Eve strolled around the dining area, observing all the different light fixtures and metallic ceiling tiles. “I love your café.”
“I do too.”
Victoria beamed with pride as she poured the espresso shots. “It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”
“I want to work here when I turn sixteen.”
Eve met Victoria’s eyes, hope filling her expression.
“Well, we will just have to make sure you all stay in Whispering Springs for the next three years.”
Victoria smiled and placed our drinks on the counter.
“We are going for a hike in the mountains!”
Kaley beamed as she took her cup.
I laughed, taking a sip of my drink. “We are going to walk the trail behind Gran’s house. It’s nothing crazy.”
Kaley looked up at me and scoffed. “Ya-huh! You’re going to show us where Daddy proposed to you, right?”
Victoria offered a gentle smile and turned her attention to Kaley. “That is a beautiful trail. Be sure to bring your bear spray, though.”
“Bear spray?”
Eve gasped, fear leaking into her voice.
Kaley jumped up and down with excitement. “I want to see a bear!!”
I rolled my eyes and placed a hand on Kaley’s shoulder, urging her to find calm. “Not these bears. Thanks Victoria! This is delicious.”
I lifted the cup as we turned to the door. “Come on girls.”
Eve lagged behind, having found a shelf of oddities and pop culture art. “I want to come back tomorrow, Mom.”
I smiled, glad she found something that excited her about Whispering Springs. “Of course. Come on.”
Eve joined us and played with the lid of her drink as she got in the car. “Did you see the Frankenstein picture? That was so cool!”
Kaley wiggled as she buckled in as I finished fastening in Liam. “Victoria has always had an eye for art. She has a gallery in Denver somewhere. We will have to go check it out.”
“Can we go tomorrow?" Eve stared at me with wide and excited eyes. She even stuck her bottom lip out, putting her all into the request. “I’ll change Liam’s diapers for the next month. Mom, please?”
Laughing, I start the car. “You don’t have to do anything, Eve. I want to go, too. I will have to look up the hours. She can’t run a café and art exhibit at the same time. I promise we will go.”
Eve’s shoulders fell, slightly dejected that we couldn’t go tomorrow, but she nodded and took a small drink. “Ok. Good. Soon, though, right?”
“Yes. Soon.”
I put a hand on her knee and squeezed. “I love you, Eve.”
She looked at me for a moment before rolling her eyes and looking out her window. “Love you, too,”
she mumbled under her breath.
I couldn’t help but laugh. At least she said it back.
I began driving to the trailhead when Eve asked nervously, “Do you think she would be willing to look at my sketchbook?”
“Yeah, hon, I think she would.”
Let me be the first to admit, taking three kids hiking on my own was probably a mistake. Ten minutes into the uphill climb, it was made abundantly clear that I should have thought this through better. Liam wanted nothing to do with his carrier. Eve was panicking about every spider web she walked through, now brandishing a very long stick, swinging it haphazardly in front of her. Kaley kept stopping to look at bugs and cool rocks.
I closed my eyes and breathed in the mountain air praying for the serenity that was supposed to come from doing this sort of thing.
David had always been the one to help the kids find the magic in things like this. He could make anything an adventure.
“I bet you can’t find a yellow flower before I do,”
David called to Eve who was grumbling about having to walk in the trees.
It wasn’t a hard task, seeing as it was spring, and dandelions were everywhere. I laughed and rolled my eyes. It was my idea to come out here and get a good hike in. Kaley was taking forever to arrive, and my organs had nowhere else to go. I was officially five days past my due date and losing my mind with every passing hour.
“Dad,”
Eve groaned. “There are a million yellow flowers over there.”
She pointed to the valley ahead of us and looked incredibly annoyed with the lack of creativity in David’s challenge.
“Yeah, but I said you had to find them before me. That means it’s a race to pick the first yellow flower you find and give it to your mom. Ready.”
He crouched down. “Set.”
He leaned forward and Eve began to grin. “Go!” Eve burst into a sprint toward the valley.
David shot me a playful wink as he raced after our daughter. They pushed and shoved against one another as they ran into the field. Eve fell into the grass, laughing and clutching her belly. David snatched a flower and stuck his tongue out at her.
She gasped at his audacity, gripped a dandelion from the ground and chased after him.
“Here!”
David thrust a flower into my hand as he rushed back.
“No! You cheated!”
Eve huffed as she handed me a flower and tried to catch her breath.
“How?”
He was doubled over, hands on his knees, panting.
“You gave her a blue flower, not a yellow one!”
Eve pointed to the blue bonnet now in my grip.
“Oh, she got you there, David.”
I laughed. “Eve you’re the winner!”
Eve stuck her tongue out at her dad and wiggled her body, mocking him. My handsome husband gasped and tackled Eve to the grass, tickling her until she was crying from laughing and begged him to stop.
“Let’s take a break here,”
I suggested and began to take Liam out of the carrier. “We can have a snack and play a game.”
Eve plopped onto the boulder on the edge of the path. “What kind of game?”
“I Spy!”
Kaley shouted as she jumped up and down.
“You cheat at I Spy.”
Eve pointed her stick at Kaley. “I’m not playing I Spy with you.”
Liam reached for the ground. He was so close to walking. I understood his want for the ground, but knowing him, he would try and put a rock in his mouth. Taking the blanket out of my backpack, I laid it on the dirt path before giving him an opportunity to crawl around.
“How about a scavenger hunt?”
Eve glared at the mountain ahead of us. “Fine.”
“Yay!”
Kaley leaned down and kissed Liam’s forehead. He reached for her hair as she stood back up.
“Go find something heart shaped. When you get back with your heart item, we will have a snack.”
The energy may not have been that of David’s, but we were able to spend the next three hours playing scavenger hunt. Thankfully, Liam did not show interest in eating rocks today. The same could not be said for grass and leaves, but I took the win’s where I could. By the time we got back to Gran’s we were sweaty, tired and smiling.
“It’s about time!”
Dylan barreled toward us scooping me into his arms and spinning us in a circle. Liam, who was still in my arms, screeched and giggled.
“Hi, Dylan.”
The girls were caught somewhere between shock and laughter. Kaley settled on laughing. Eve remained skeptical, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Girls, you remember my baby brother, Dylan?”
I gestured to him, only to have my hand smacked away.
“Baby brother my ass, you’re the baby!”
Dylan whined as he glared at me, fighting a smile.
“Maybe, but maturity wise, I am at minimum the second oldest,”
I countered, throwing my hand that wasn’t holding Liam to my hip.
“Whatever, Miss Sass.”
Dylan gave a side eye and broke out into his staple huge, crooked smile, dimples popping in the movement.
Eve frowned. “You have a lot of energy,”
she declared before turning on her heel to head upstairs. “I’m taking a shower. I feel like I have spider webs all over me.”
“Better watch your pet tarantula scaling your back, then,”
Dylan called after her. “You don’t want him to get washed down the drain!”
“Dylan!”
I scolded as I smacked his arm. “Eve, there is not a spider on your back.”
Eve’s eyes were huge as she contemplated how much she was going to freak out.
“How do you know, Mom?”
Kaley asked tilting her head to look at Eve. “We can’t see her back right now.”
Dylan fell to the ground, his laughter echoing through the house. I kicked his stupid combat boot and grumbled. “This is your fault.”
Eve began bouncing on the stairs, flailing her arms. “Mom!”
I glared at Dylan and pushed Liam into his arms before scaling the steps and swiping my hands over Eve’s back and arms. “There, no spiders. Go shower, and when you’re done, we will spike Dylan’s coffee with hot sauce, ok?”
Eve took a shaky breath but smiled at the thought of getting even. “Deal.”
A spider crawled off her boot as she climbed the stairs. I quickly stomped on the beast. Eve turned with a questioning glance.
Waving her off, I said, “My shoe was slipping off. Go shower.”
She accepted that and closed the bathroom door behind her.
“Your shoe was falling off?”
Dylan mocked me with a quirked brow as I joined them in the living room. “You are the world’s worst liar.”
Dylan was exactly as I remembered, but his hair used that used to peak wildly beneath a backwards baseball hat, was now trimmed short. He was clean shaven with a neat haircut, short on the sides and longer on top, just long enough to curl.
Kaley was already sitting on his lap, while Liam crawled around on the carpet.
I joined him on the couch and ruffled Dylan’s curls. “What happened to my baby brother? You actually look like an adult now.”
Dylan pushed me over into the arm of the couch and huffed. “Keep calling me a baby brother and we’ll have to go outside for a wrestling match. If I remember correctly, our last one ended with you in tears. Plus, you are the baby!”
I laughed as I sat back up. “I don’t think that’s the entire story, is it Dylan? If I recall, David saw me in your headlock, crying, and then he brought you to tears.”
Dylan scoffed, rolled his green eyes and turned to Kaley. “Don’t listen to her. She likes to make up stories.”
Kaley looked at me with wide eyes and giggled as I shook my head.
Gran made her way to her rocking chair and sighed with closed eyes as she sat. “Gardening is not nearly as easy as it was ten years ago. Don’t get old kids.”
“You should have waited.”
I watched her relax into her chair and was hit with the reality of her age. Mom had Brett when she was seventeen, Gran was only thirty-five at the time. Now, she sat before us at seventy-two years old. “We could have helped you.”
She waved off my statement and opened the magazine on her side table. “Dylan already tried to help, but he almost pulled my sugar snap peas as he was weeding. Nope, I enjoy having this chore. My back just gets angry.”
“I did not! That was a dandelion, Gran.”
Dylan looked flustered. She must have really given him grief.
“Psh, you had the vine, not a weed, child.”
Kaley watched with rapt attention as Dylan and Gran broke out into a debate about what weeds looked like.
Deciding it was best to let Gran and Dylan duke it out themselves, I went to the kitchen to get a drink when my phone went off with a text:
Mae: Girl, your man is looking FIIINE in his uniform today. Better come get him before Desperate Debra makes her move.
Mae: *Picture of a definitely smoking hot Garrett*
Was it even legal for his pants to be that tight? I laughed as I poured the lemonade into a glass.
Me: He is not my man, Mae. Let Debra have her fun.
Mae: *Dog gagging gif* Debra is ancient.
Me: He still isn’t mine. Get a whiteboard eraser and have him throw it to the swarm of teachers. Whoever catches it gets to go on a date with him.
Mae: *Crying laughing emoji* If I catch it for you, would you go on a date with him?
Me: That man does not want to go on a date with me. He is a bachelor living his best life. I come with three kids and boat loads of trauma. He can do better and honestly, I don’t think I’m ready.
Mae: *Sigh* fine. Just real quick. *Picture of Garrett’s backside as he faced the stage* Look at that ass!
She wasn’t wrong, and I definitely looked. Okay, maybe I was staring. Definitely not drooling, though. He had to work out. There was no way he would have an ass like that and not work out. Right? Black looked good on him. Dammit, I should stop.
Me: We are no better than Desperate Debra…
Mae: LOL, ahh so you admit you appreciate the view.
Me: Never said I didn’t.
Mae: So, there IS hope… *gif of someone tapping their fingers together mischievously*
ME: Goodbye, Mae. Enjoy your PD day.
Mae: *One more picture of Garrett cringing at Desperate Debra touching his bicep*
Me: LOL
I said lol, but there was a part of me, a miniscule part that wanted to be the one touching…
“Mom!”
Kaley yelled from the living room. “Dylan is taking us to the park. Are you coming?”
I took my cup and leaned on the doorframe between the kitchen and living room, watching as Dylan laced his black boots.
“We just got back from a hike. Aren’t your tired?”
I asked Kaley who was crawling onto Dylan’s shoulders while he was still bent over working on his shoes.
“I never get tired,”
she proclaimed as she flopped over his shoulder, hanging like a sack of potatoes.
I laughed and looked at Liam who was beyond exhausted. “I need to get your brother down for a nap. Why don’t you two go play on the swing or climb the trees in the backyard?”
Gran was already snoozing in her chair, her mouth hanging slightly open as she snored softly. Liam crawled to me and fussed until I picked him up.
“What do you think, shortcake?”
Dylan stood, holding her on his shoulder and bouncing dramatically with each step, earning a fit of giggles. “Shall we go climb some trees?”
Dylan spun her in a big circle as she squealed, “Yes!”
“I’ll be in my room rocking Liam if you need me.”
I reached down and picked up my boy. He sleepily rubbed his face against my shoulder.
Dylan ran out the door with Kaley bouncing on his shoulder and I couldn’t help but smile. Coming home was starting to feel like the right decision.