CHAPTER 7
Lainey’s phone rang Saturday morning as she was pulling out of the driveway heading to the grocery store. It was Robert. Vivian was in the car, and she didn’t want to navigate a conversation with him in front of her.
She still didn’t know how to explain to a six-year-old that Mama is dating again. There would be questions, like “What’s dating?” and possibly, “Are you looking for a new Daddy?”
She let it go to voicemail. On the drive, she kept waiting for it to chime, letting her know he’d left a message, but it never made a sound.
Once inside the grocery store, she told Viv, “Stay with me. Do not wander off,” then she checked her phone.
There was no voicemail, just the missed call.
Why did it bother her he hadn’t left one?
He’d told her another set of trainees would start BCT on Monday, and he’d be occupied for the next ten weeks.
That was probably a good thing. She’d practically thrown herself at him Thursday night.
She wasn’t sure how far she would’ve gone if it hadn’t been for the patrolman interrupting. What a Godsend!
When she returned home and put away the groceries, she disappeared to the bedroom to call him back. She walked in, and her wedding picture greeted her from the nightstand. Cora was right. She grabbed it and studied it one last time.
Geoff was so handsome in his dress uniform.
They were both younger, and she looked at the bride in the photo.
She barely recognized her younger self. Thirteen years had passed.
If she could go back in time and tell the beaming bride in the photo somehow to prepare herself for the road ahead, what would she even say?
She still loved her wedding dress, though it was beginning to look dated with today’s trends.
It’s time, Lain, Cora’s words replayed in her mind. She sighed and placed the frame in a storage box on the top shelf of the closet. She’d accomplished removing the photo from the room but lost her gumption to call Robert back.
Was it that easy to tuck Geoff away in a box? If he were here, and she weren’t, would he be moving on this soon too?
“Mama?” Vivian called from the hall.
“I’m in the bedroom ... my bedroom, Viv.” She had to start thinking differently. After all, she was the only one who’d slept in the room the past three years. It was her bedroom and no one else’s. “What is it?”
“I’m hungry. Can I have a snack?”
Lainey met Viv at the door and petted her head. “Yes. What about the grapes we bought at the store?”
“Okay,” Viv smiled, and they walked to the kitchen.
* * *
On Sunday morning, they went to church followed by the weekly custom of Sunday dinner at Geoff’s parent’s house.
Geoff’s sister, Lillian, along with her husband, Ethan, and their three children attended too.
It was a family tradition Lainey cherished.
Viv played with her cousins and got to see her grandparents every week.
It was healing for all of them after Geoff’s death to keep with the norm, though his presence was greatly missed.
Geoff’s parents had taken Lainey in as their own daughter in many ways, especially since her parents had passed years ago. They’d stepped in and helped with Vivian in Geoff’s absence, and though they weren’t Lainey’s flesh and blood, they were Vivian’s.
After dinner, Geoff’s mother dished out dessert. An apple crisp Lainey had made the night before as her contribution to today’s afternoon meal. The children gobbled up their portions, then rushed outdoors to spin each other on the tire swing and jump in the piles of leaves.
The adults remained at the table, sipping coffee, commenting on the preacher’s sermon and what the weather would be like the coming week. It was the niceties of this tradition Lainey enjoyed the most.
Lillian’s husband, Ethan broke the bliss of the moment. “Lainey, did I see you walking into Maverick’s last Tuesday? I was picking up our dry cleaning in the same strip mall,” Ethan said.
Her breath caught. This was exactly why she was relieved when Robert took her to Salina on Thursday. Could she tell Geoff’s family she was getting back out there? She wasn’t ready. But they’d caught her red-handed. “I was meeting a friend for happy hour.”
“What friend, dear?” Geoff’s mother asked innocently enough.
Crap! She didn’t want to lie to Denise. Denise had been her rock when she needed someone to watch Viv for the first four months after Geoff’s death. She’d drop Viv off, then return home and cry for three hours straight. She’d disguised it as running errands.
“Well,” she sipped her coffee, “Emma at the bank...”
“Oh, she’s sweet. I like her,” Denise said.
“Yes, she is, but it wasn’t her. It was a friend of her husband’s.”
Geoff’s dad turned his attention to their conversation. He had been listening to the pre-game broadcast resounding from the den. At the same time, Lillian made a subtle face at Ethan and took a sip of her coffee.
“Someone we might know?” Denise asked.
“No, I don’t think so. He’s from Chapman originally, but he hasn’t lived in Kansas for over twenty years. His name is Robert.”
“Oh,” the realization of what she was telling them washed over Denise.
After giving her mother a moment, Lillian asked, “What’s Robert do? Is he nice?”
“He’s in the Army and stationed at Fort Riley. Yes, he’s nice. But I’ve only been out with him twice...no, three times, I guess.” Lainey took a drink of coffee trying to swallow the lump which had formed in her throat.
“Three times?” Ethan raised his brow, looking at Lillian.
“It’s not serious.” She assured them. “Emma set us up. I’m not even sure I’ll see him again,” Lainey shrugged.
“You didn’t like him, dear?” Denise asked.
“Um...It’s not that. I like him. But I’m not sure I’m ready to date,” she was hoping this last statement would put a wet blanket over the table, lessening the anxiety she was feeling.
“We understand Lainey,” Lillian spoke up, apparently deciding to speak for the entire family. “We just hope that whatever your future brings, you’ll still join us for Sunday dinners and feel comfortable including us. We want you to be happy.”
“Thank you,” Lainey said. “I appreciate that.”
Mike hit his palms on the table. “The Chiefs game’s about to start.” He rose, motioning Ethan to join him in the den.
Denise began collecting the empty dessert dishes and iced tea glasses to take to the kitchen.
* * *
Lainey and Vivian returned home. After getting settled, Lainey changed into sweats and decided it was time to call Robert back.
She hadn’t planned on telling Geoff’s family she was dating, especially not this soon. But it had gone better than she could’ve predicted. The last thing she wanted was to hurt his parents. She truly loved their son and didn’t want them ever to think otherwise.
Denise and Mike had embraced her as soon as Geoff had brought her home to meet the family for Thanksgiving fifteen years ago.
She’d met Geoff in Kansas City when she was a twenty-two-year-old waiting tables and taking her Gen-Ed classes at a community college.
His firefighter career had just begun, and he was waiting for an opening in Abilene. He wanted to move back to his hometown.
After two years of dating, a spot opened up, and he’d asked Lainey to marry him and make a life here.
They were happy. Lainey got a clerical job at a local accounting office, and after trying on and off for five years, Vivian came. Lainey became a stay-at-home mom until Geoff’s death, then she acquired the teller job at the bank.
Today, his family found out she was dating again. If she kept dipping her toe in the dating pool, it was better to rip the Band-Aid off now, rather than when they received a wedding invitation in the mail, she figured.
Marriage? Again? That was the point of dating, right?
Courtship was about finding that person to spend the rest of your days with.
That special person, who picks you, and you pick them to be an intimate witness to each other’s lives.
Companionship, where you complete each other and become one... right?
That’s what she had with Geoff. But that was over. Severed by, till death do us part. And here she was with her half, returned from the two that’d become one.
Was Robert even marriage material? If she were being serious, she’d need to ask this question, or she’d be only setting herself up for failure.
She owed it to Viv and her late husband’s family to be serious, that is. She can’t be willy-nilly about this dating thing, no matter how nonchalant Cora said she was allowed to be.
Did Robert even look at it the same way? Was he only here for a good time, but not a long time?
She sat on her bed, listening to the phone ring, but he didn’t pick up. She debated whether or not to leave him a message. After all, he hadn’t left one for her.
Before she could decide, the tone beeped.
“Hi. It’s Lainey. I missed your call yesterday.
Sorry it took me so long to call you back,” she sighed.
“Anyway, I know you start the next BCT cycle tomorrow,” she hoped she’d used the acronym correctly, “and if you don’t have time to call back today, I understand.
Ok, well....” She had nothing more to say, and now it was recording her lingering silence.
“Yep,” she said in conclusion and hung up.
She exhaled with a grunt and smashed her face into a pillow.
* * *
Robert got out of the shower and noticed he’d missed Lainey’s call.
The phone rang two times, “Hello,” Lainey answered.
“Hey, sorry I didn’t pick up. I was in the shower. How was your weekend?” he was smiling, actually smiling. He was happy she’d called. This woman affected him in a way he couldn’t put his finger on.
“Ran errands half the day yesterday, then church and family dinner today. You?”