Miss Trailerhood

by Carina Taylor

  I hadn’t been able to stop the tears that had started when Wren fell asleep. I knew I needed someone else to tell me it would be okay. So, I’d donned my slipper flip-flops and darted across the dark street, hoping Nate would still be awake.

  “Come here.” He held his arms out, and I flew to him, letting the tears flow freely.

  I’d never had the luck to be a pretty crier; I wish I had.

  But Nate had seen me cry before. It was not a surprise to him.

  We stood there for a long while before Nate picked me up and carried me toward his beanbag couch. It was like something straight out of a college dorm, and I was determined to drag it to bonfire night one of these days.

  After a few minutes of letting me ugly cry against his T-shirt, he said, “I’ve been looking into the legalities of Frank trying to get custody of Wren, and I really think we could push the abandonment angle.

  “We could try, but I think he could claim that he routinely came to visit her.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ve been doing a lot of research about it, and I think, with a good lawyer, you would win this case, hands down. He hasn’t contributed in any way, not with the care or the finances. He had the chance to take care of her when your mom got sentenced, and instead, he let that responsibility fall to you. The courts are going to pay attention to those kinds of details. I’m going to call Dad tomorrow. You know he has connections. He’ll find the best lawyer. We’ll wrap this up, and you’ll have permanent custody of Wren.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m scared. It’s not guaranteed that we’ll win.”

  “Maybe they’ll drop it. Frank didn’t seem as into it as Tia. But no matter what they do, you’re not alone anymore. I’m here to help you fight this. I’m going to see what I can dig up on Frank. I already texted a buddy of mine who’s looking into it.”

  “A buddy of yours? What, like a hitman?”

  He chuckled, his chest reverberating beneath my cheek. “Hey now, I did some aerial photography for a private investigator once. It was actually a lot of fun. Anyway, I texted the guy just now, and I’m hiring him to look into Frank. If there’s anything to find, he’ll find it.”

  “That sounds marvelous.”

  Nate reached a hand down and grasped my chin, tilting my head back so he could kiss me. “You need to get some sleep and stop worrying about this. It’s going to be settled so fast you’ll forget they ever said anything.”

  I tried to smile, tried to catch the confidence he was sending out.

  “Riley, I love you. I think I’ve loved you since Nola first brought you home after school.”

  I remembered that day. The day Nola had decided we would be best friends. She’d asked Sharon and Rob if I could go over to her house. When I first walked into the house, I assumed she had an older brother because Nate was taller. He had been funny, and I liked him. Then, he started making fun of my current celebrity crush, and I called him annoying.

  It had always bothered me when he had girlfriends. Now I knew why. “I love you, Louis Nathaniel Mercier.”

  He kissed my lips. “You’re the only one allowed to call me that.”

  “Thanks, Louis.”

  He pinched my side and growled. “Enough of that.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Riley

  "Can you open the door for me?" I asked as I climbed the porch stairs, my arms full of pillows. If he was going to stay in this trailer, then I was going to make it look livable.

  We’d heard nothing from Frank or Tia in two weeks. Whatever had sparked that terrible brainstorm must have left their minds.

  In the meantime, I’d been working on rebranding and niching down on my influencer platform, Wren had started a makeup vlog, and Nate had spent half the time away for work and the other half hanging out with Wren and me.

  Nola, Bane, Nate, and I went on a double date. They’d regaled us with their story of meeting each other. We’d promised to go visit them in their new house soon.

  Nate smiled and opened the door for me, letting me step inside first. He was such a gentleman. Wren and Macy would have fun having girls’ night in the trailer, and I could enjoy Nate.

  All to myself. Knowing that he was my boyfriend. It still felt weird to say that.

  Little skinny Nate had somehow turned into boyfriend material.

  "Welcome to my wonderful mansion! Would you care to adjourn to the west wing?" he spoke in a British accent.

  "Why does everything sound classier when you’re British?"

  "Don't bother trying to explain a well-known fact." He scowled mockingly at me. "Might I interest you in a beanbag sofa seat? How about some lovely tap water that sometimes has extra bits of rust in it?" I chuckled as I set the pillows down on the love seat I’d bought at a thrift store and refurbished for him. "Oh, that sounds lovely. Can't find that at a high-end restaurant."

  "No, there are some things not even money can buy."

  "How's that new mattress working out for you?" I asked as I walked down the hall to take a look. I opened the door to the room but could only open it halfway.

  "Well, it's a tight fit," he said with a laugh.

  "How in the world did you get this thing in here?" I asked as I peered around the door.

  "It wasn't easy," he admitted. "Hired a delivery and set-up man. He almost quit. But luckily, I made him go in the room first so he couldn't get out until he had it set up."

  "Kind of sounds like a hostage situation."

  "I paid for a service; I expected him to follow through. Want to test it out?"

  I stared at the mattress. "No, thanks. You'd probably complain that I'd messed up the memory foam."

  "I would if you would even leave a dent in it. Here's your water bottle." He passed me a cold bottle. "Something else to drink instead of water?"

  "No, this is fine. What are we having for dinner?" I cracked the lid and opened the water bottle.

  "It's a surprise," he stage-whispered. "We'll find out when the takeout man gets here."

  Taking a sip of the ice-cold water, I grinned. "So, you're saying it's pizza."

  He chuckled. "Only thing that they delivered to this trailer park. Which is unfortunate. But you know me—I never turn down a good, greasy pizza."

  I followed him back into the living room and sat down on the beanbag couch next to him. I had to admit it was still comfier than the loveseat I’d bought.

  Nate draped his arm around me, pulling me close to his side. The couch started to canoe with our weight centered in the middle of it, causing me to roll into him—not that I minded it.

  We chatted as we waited for our fancy pizza dinner, reminiscing about the things we'd done as kids, swapping funny stories about Nola. It was hard to imagine that there had ever been a moment when I wasn't attracted to him. It was hard to imagine thinking of him in any other way than I was right now. But I guess that's the difference between youth and adulthood. Your entire perception of things changed.

  "Where is your next job at?" Would this be the part where he told me he would be working far away?

  “I’m filming in southern Oregon. A property. They’re calling it Rustic Springtime Ranch. It's been turned into a dude ranch, essentially. Might as well call it what it is."

  "Sounds like fun. Does that mean you're going to fly in a helicopter?"

  “Probably helicopter and drone."

  He began running his fingers through my hair at the base of my neck. I rested my head against his shoulder, the tingles reaching all the way to my toes. My eyes slowly closed as he continued to massage my head.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  “Where werz waaat?”

  He shifted, upsetting my pillow situation. “Are you drooling on me?”

  “I’ll never tell.”

  “Shh.” He sat up straight. “I heard it again.”

  We sat quietly as we listened for whatever it might have been. We didn’t have to wait long.

  A mouse with an extraordinarily
long tail came walking into the living room. Walking. Not running. Not scurrying like one expects a mouse to do. No. This mouse was walking. Sashaying his hips. I watched in horror, waiting to see him do the bend and snap.

  He didn’t, but Nate did.

  “Mouse!” he yelled, leaping up and dragging me after him down the hall. He jerked me into his bedroom and slammed the door shut.

  He didn’t realize the door had such a wide gap on the bottom that the mouse could walk right under it.

  Nate pushed me onto the bed and clambered on after me. “Okay, what are we going to do?”

  We were not—neither one of us—large mouse fans. In fact, we hated mice. Especially thanks to the pet mouse Nola had rescued from sure death. I would never forgive her.

  “What are we going to do?” Nate asked again as he frantically searched the room for something to defend himself with.

  “I’ll call Wren.”

  I pulled my phone out and clicked on Wren’s name. It rang three times before she answered.

  “We’re fine, Riley; quit worrying,” she answered in an annoyed tone.

  “But I’m not! We need—“ My words were drowned out by Nate yelling and pointing at the mouse that waltzed into the room, the bottom gap in the door so large that the little squirt didn’t even have to duck. Nate started grabbing pillows off the bed and tossing them at the intruder as it stared at us. It was no ordinary mouse.

  Nate yelled and threw another pillow at her. It was definitely a her; she had a big personality. It was probably Nola’s pet mouse come back to haunt us.

  That mouse had bitten Nate when he was fifteen. His hand became infected, and he had to sit out the baseball game against our rival school. He’d been scared of mice ever since.

  “Stop throwing things!” I latched onto his arm. “We have to figure out how to get rid of it.”

  “I have an idea,” Nate said as he stared at the mouse. “Let’s climb out the window.”

  With a laugh, I tugged him back by his shirt. “That window is probably rusted shut.”

  Nate looked at me, then the window, then the mouse. “I’ll break the glass.”

  “Isn’t it weird that it’s not running from us? Shouldn’t it be scared of us?”

  “It’s probably a demon.”

  “If you start praying in tongues, I’m going to leave you here to deal with it yourself.”

  A door slammed somewhere in the house.

  The mouse—duplicitous little rat that it was—scurried toward a vent in the wall and disappeared inside.

  “Where are you?” Wren’s voice carried through the house.

  “In the bedroom!”

  “Oh, please no. There are some things I can’t unsee!” she whined as she opened the door. “Oh good. You have clothes on.”

  “What kinds of TV have you been watching?” I gasped. “Of course we have clothes on!”

  “Hmm, yes. Also, the stork dropped me off on Mom’s doorstep.”

  “Why do you have a tire iron?”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “You called me, screaming bloody murder. What else were we going to do?”

  She leaned to the side so that I could see Macy standing behind her, holding our only frying pan. “Looking very Rapunzel-y, Macy.”

  She grinned. “Thanks. I have been trying to grow my hair out...”

  “What is going on in here?” another voice called from the front door.

  I hopped off the bed. Nate slowly stepped off. “Just a mouse. It was chasing us around the house.”

  “What?” Wren laughed. “You two were screaming like that over a mouse?”

  The four of us shuffled into the living room. Eldon stood there with a wrench in one hand. “Eldon, what are you doing here?”

  “I heard the screaming. I came over to see if I could help.”

  “It’s just a mouse. There isn’t much to help with, unfortunately.”

  “You catch the feller?”

  “The fellow,” I said, “is still running around the house.”

  “I’ll catch him.”

  And that was how Eldon ended up going on a witch hunt in Nate’s single-wide. No stone was left unturned. No warped laminate floor was left untouched.

  The doorbell rang, interrupting our entertainment of watching Eldon chase after a phantom. I noticed that Nate wasn’t about to help look. He was only too happy to stay away.

  Nate opened the door, and Sam and Elise burst in, Sam carrying a six-pack of beer. “What’s going on?” Elise demanded.

  “Mouse hunt,” Nate informed them.

  “We brought drinks.” They brushed past the pizza girl and into the house, hurrying down the hall after Eldon.

  Nate tipped for the pizza then took a big sniff as he carried it into the kitchen. “Perfect. I’m starved.”

  “Me too!” Macey said as she set down the frying pan on the counter. “What kind did you get?”

  “You already ate dinner,” Wren reminded her.

  “But I’m hungry again.” They both shrugged, grabbed the pizza box from Nate, then took it into the living room. I grabbed a plate and threw a piece of pizza on it.

  “This is what our future is going to be like, isn’t it?” Nate quietly asked, as if any of the other crazy people would overhear him.

  “This is what our life is like now. We don’t even have to wait for that future.” I laughed.

  “I’m just glad you’re a part of that future.”

  How could he get away with being so romantic?

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Nate

  I stepped outside to make the phone call the next morning. I hadn’t slept well knowing there was a mouse in my house. I was pretty sure I’d heard that mouse again when I was trying to get some work done on my laptop.

  I’d never called my dad about the lawyer. Riley had insisted that the issue had gone away, but there was something bothering me about the whole thing, and I didn’t want to scream like a little girl when I spoke with my dad. He’d never let me hear the end of it.

  “Nate. How are you?”

  “I’m good, Dad.” My voice caught on the last word when I glanced at my window and spotted the mouse on the windowsill, staring at me.

  “How’s that single-wide treating you?”

  “I have a rodent problem.” The mouse held a crumb to its mouth and nibbled away at it.

  He chuckled. “I heard Nola and Bane stopped by. How did that go?”

  “Really well. Nola was great. Riley was happy to see her, and I think it was relieving to see that Nola was happy with Bane. Nola was Nola, of course. Bane had to pry her off of Riley.”

  Dad grunted. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “Meh, what can you expect from her? We went on a double date with them last week. I heard some interesting stories about ‘Sally.’”

  Dad laughed. “Oh, they told you about that, did they?”

  “Pure gold. I like Bane. You were right about him.”

  “Yeah, he’s good stuff,” he replied. “When’s Riley coming to visit? Your mom and I are ready to see her, too.”

  “Soon, Dad, she’s been busy with some work stuff, but she keeps asking about you guys.”

  There came a point in every person’s life when they were able to call their parents without a favor to ask. I wasn’t at that point yet, so I blurted out the reason I called. “Wren’s biological dad wants custody of her.”

  Dad mumbled something he probably didn’t want Mom to overhear. “Is he a valid option?”

  “He’s never tried before. He’s visited her regularly but never contested guardianship.”

  “Has he supported them financially?”

  “No.” The mouse was gone from the window, and I sighed with relief.

  “Well, that’s good. For Riley. If he’s had contact but has not pursued legal guardianship, it doesn’t make sense that he would want her now. What changed?”

  “He got a fiancée.”

  “Aha.”

  “Yup.�
��

  I leaned back against my front door. There were two kids biking down the street, one of them towing another kid on rollerblades. They were Kristin’s kids. Not a helmet in sight, but there was lots of laughing.

  Their laughter stopped abruptly when a large white SUV barreled into the trailer park. I shouted at them to get out of the way as I leapt down the steps, hurrying toward them. The car didn’t slow, but the kids had the sense to hurry off the road. The kids stood there, stunned, watching the car go past.

  It pulled into Riley’s driveway and parked.

  “You kids okay?”

  They looked at me with wide eyes and nodded.

  “You go home to your mom, all right?”

  “But Mom said don’t come home until dinnertime!”

  “Tell her what happened, and that I sent you.”

  They looked at me like I was a crazy person to even dream of testing their mother.

  “I’ll walk you home and talk to her. But we have to hurry.”

  I jogged behind them.

  “Nate? Nate? What happened?”

  I’d completely forgotten about Dad on the phone.

  I lifted my phone to my ear. “Frank and Tia are here. They almost ran over some neighborhood kids.”

  “I’ll head over. I’ll call a buddy of mine who’s a police officer here in Riverly. Maybe he can tell us what to do.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” I paused, catching my breath when the kids scurried up the steps into the single-wide. “But I think I know a guy who’s a lot closer.”

  Johnny’s house was right next to Kristin’s.

  “I’ll call you back, Dad.”

  I hung up the phone as Kristin leaned out her kitchen window to call to me. “Did someone try to run over my babies?”

  “Yes, ma’am! I told them they should go home until the people leave.”

  Kristin pointed her curling iron at me threateningly. “You point me at them, and I’ll let them have a piece of my mind.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll do it for you. I was going to see if Johnny would want to come talk to them with me.”

  She nodded and leaned her elbows on the windowsill while she wrapped the end of her hair around the curling iron. “He just pulled in. Must have been a long night for him. I should make him some coffee.”