Choosing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 2)

by Kris Jayne

“You’re nervous about that. What have you said to your mom before?”

  “Normal stuff.”

  “You can keep saying normal stuff.”

  “You won’t get mad?”

  “No. Why would I be mad?”

  “I dunno.”

  “Listen, Olivia.” Taryn took the girl’s cheeks into hands. “You can say whatever you want to your mom or anyone. I think you’re going to like being able to talk to your mom. I love you, honey, so I’m happy if you’re happy. That’s what it means to love somebody.”

  “Are you sure? Grandma and Grandpa, they won’t be mad?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Good. What kind of dessert did Daddy get?”

  “Let’s go find out.” Taryn lead Olivia out of the bathroom by the hand.

  She felt like a liar. A liar and a hypocrite. She couldn’t guarantee people wouldn’t be mad or hurt or upset. Of course, it wouldn’t be Olivia’s fault. No one would blame a seven-year-old.

  Taryn hadn’t exactly embodied the ideal of “love means being happy when your loved ones are happy.” Taryn had to work to keep her suspicion of Shannon in perspective. Her emotions were all over the map and wandering into some areas that didn’t make her proud.

  Tonight, she would focus solely on Olivia’s well-being. As she accompanied the little girl into the dining room—hand in hand—she put a genuine smile on her face for the first time that evening.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “You sure like green beans. Don’t you, Olivia?” Shannon asked.

  Olivia looked around the table of adults and squirmed as she stacked pieces of green beans onto her fork. “They’re okay. For vegetables.”

  “I didn’t like vegetables when I was little either. Not even green beans,” Shannon confessed.

  Nora pointed her fork at her son. “Jeff would always eat his veggies. That was the rule if he wanted to have dessert.”

  The safety of green bean talk didn’t mitigate the banality, which gave dinner the tone of a surrealist play. Taryn considered shoving a green bean up her nose. How far would she have to shove it to put herself out of her misery? She speared a bean, and it flopped on her fork. Too limp. Asparagus. That’s what she needed to end it all.

  Sweet baby Jesus, why did Shannon have to be a junky addict? Being forced to get through a strained family dinner without a cocktail was just wrong.

  “Your daddy always liked to follow the rules. Me, not so much,” Shannon admitted. An awkward silence created by unsaid snide remarks followed. Taryn took a gulp of water. Jeff turned a side glance to his mother. Jeff’s dad munched on his chicken parm.

  “Can you pass me more of that pasta?” Frank asked Taryn, who obliged him.

  Jeff cleared his throat. “Olivia went to the Perot science museum this week at school, and she saw some exhibits of animal habitats. I told her that once the weather gets better, we’d go to the zoo.”

  “I’ve been before with Dad and Miss Taryn. We had the best time. I got to see the big cats.”

  “Big cats?” Shannon looked from Olivia to her ex-husband.

  “Wild cats that live in Africa—lions, leopards, and cheetahs.”

  “Oh, lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Shannon piped in. The reference flew right past Olivia.

  “Just lions. Tigers aren’t in Africa. I don’t know about bears,” Olivia informed her. “Are bears in Africa, Taryn?”

  Taryn didn’t know why Olivia thought she could answer that question.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of bears in Africa, Liv. We can Google it after we eat and see.”

  “There were bears in the Bible. Isn’t that Africa?” Shannon asked.

  “That’s the Middle East, dear. And mostly that’s in Asia,” Nora said.

  Frank nodded and swallowed emphatically. “True, but Egypt is in Africa.”

  “Miss Taryn said we could look it up. We can look on her phone. She always finds the answer.”

  Shannon smirked. “Technology is amazing, huh? Anybody can find the answer to anything.”

  “That’s true. I’m not exactly a wildlife expert.” Taryn had no intention of provoking Shannon, so she kept her bitchiness under control.

  Olivia continued to press the case that Taryn knew more than Shannon thought. “But you’ve been lots of places. You’ve been to Africa.”

  “That’s right, you went there right after you and Jeff started dating,” Nora said. “Your job always sounds so exciting.”

  “It does. I told Jeff that when we had dinner the other day.” Shannon threw out the mention of dinner and locked eyes with Taryn, who only smiled.

  “He mentioned that to me, and I do get to travel a lot. I was in South Africa doing a sales conference. Most of the time, I don’t get to see much though since I’m working.”

  “Fun.” Shannon twirled her pasta.

  “I enjoy coming up with the ideas for venues and activities and all that. I love the feeling when an event wraps. Everything in the middle kind of makes me wonder why I do it.”

  “Still going all over the world, seeing new things—it sounds interesting.”

  “She and Jeff went to Paris last year,” Jeff’s mom interjected.

  “That was fun because we stayed over and got to have fun. Ask Jeff how much fun I was when he got there, and I still had one more day to go.”

  “You were stressed. Way stressed, but we did have a great time afterward, touring around with Micky and Nick.” Jeff turned to Shannon with an explanation. “Micky and Taryn work together. Nick is her boyfriend. He surprised her in Paris.”

  “Now planning that was fun. Micky had no idea Nick was coming.” Taryn grinned.

  “I’m happy for Micky. I fully expect to be getting an engagement announcement any day now,” Nora continued. “I’m trying to talk your father into going to Paris for next year. All your pictures looked so romantic.”

  “It was. But I don’t know about Micky and Nick getting married anytime soon. They’re happy living together right now. You know Micky.”

  Taryn knew Nora McConnell didn’t agree with modern relationship trends. She and Jeff went out of their way to avoid discussing the nights Taryn sometimes spent at Jeff’s house. Her future mother-in-law waggled her head.

  “When I was coming up, you didn’t live together. It wasn’t proper.”

  “God forbid anybody does anything that isn’t perfectly proper,” Shannon said.

  Jeff turned and saw Olivia, eyeing Shannon. Olivia pursed her lips and stared.

  “Sorry,” Shannon murmured, blushing.

  “Daddy said Grandma and Grandpa have to be nice. So you do too,” Olivia informed her.

  Taryn grimaced. Olivia must have heard their conversation. No wonder she was nervous about people’s being angry. She looked at Shannon, who registered what Olivia said and laughed.

  “Daddy’s telling everybody to behave, huh?” Shannon queried. Jeff shrugged and gave a slight smile.

  Taryn piped up to keep the mood light. “Well, if we all behave, do we get dessert? Olivia was very interested in knowing what you had to offer, Jeff.”

  “I got a chocolate cake. Why don’t I go get it sliced up?”

  Jeff jumped up, and Taryn followed immediately. “I’ll help.”

  Once in the kitchen, Jeff turned to Taryn in a panicked whisper.

  “Was that as bad as it sounded? I had no idea Olivia heard us. You’d think by now I’d realize little ears are always listening.”

  “It’s fine. You think Shannon doesn’t know she’s not the most popular girl in the house? She thought it was funny,” Taryn assured him. “She’ll appreciate that you’re telling your parents to be nice to her.”

  “I guess that was more exciting than green beans talk.” Jeff laughed as he took the cake out of the fridge.

  “I thought I was going to pass out from boredom.” Taryn pulled a cake knife out of the drawer and held it out for him.

  “Can you cut it? I’ll just make a mess of it.
Layer cakes give me trouble.”

  “Sure. I’m a cake cutting master.”

  “It’s a good thing you’ll be there on our wedding day. Otherwise, I’d hack our four-tiered, cream-filled art piece to bits.”

  “Yes, it’s a good thing you’re marrying me instead of a cake killer.”

  Jeff’s body pressed behind her as he slipped his arms around her waist. She inserted the knife tip into the center of the cake and brought it down quickly for a clean slice. Jeff moved her hair away from her neck and planted a soft kiss at her nape.

  “Don’t distract me. I’ll mess it up.”

  A gentle trickle of laughter escaped her lips as he continued to nuzzle his face in the crook of her neck. The swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room clicked loudly shut. Startled, Taryn looked up. Shannon stood there, her face impassive.

  “I’m looking for the bathroom.”

  “Down the hall. Second door on the left,” Taryn told her.

  “Thanks,” Shannon snapped.

  Jeff sighed into Taryn’s hair. “Isn’t this fun? Don’t ever say I didn’t offer you new and exciting experiences.”

  “Oh, yeah. It’s thrilling.” Taryn plated the cake slices so Jeff could add a dollop of ice cream to his, his father’s, and Olivia’s.

  “You think Shannon wants ice cream?”

  Taryn laughed. “I don’t know. You don’t know?”

  Jeff stopped for a second and thought. “I think no ice cream.”

  Just then, Shannon came in from the hallway.

  “Did you want ice cream?” Taryn asked.

  “What? Oh, ice cream. Yes.”

  Taryn watched her. Whatever lady. Jeff and Taryn carried the plates into the dining room.

  “Jeff have you heard anything from that company trying to buy your outfit?” Frank asked, earning a quick elbow to the ribs from his wife. He wrinkled his brow and glanced at her.

  “We signed a letter of intent with Moveo, but we’re still in negotiations, investigating each other and finalizing the terms. It’s a slow process, but we’ll get there.”

  “You said something about selling your business. I thought you loved working with computers?” Shannon asked. Taryn stayed focused on Shannon’s face to see what she could read in the other woman’s demeanor.

  “I do. I’m not getting out of development altogether. Paul and I are just selling this tech company. We’d always planned to build it and attract a buyer. Now it’s happening. We should close the deal by summer.”

  “Even after you sign it will be a while before everything closes out though right? They spread the money over several years.” Taryn felt compelled to clear away the dollar signs appearing in Shannon’s eyes, and her words got the woman’s attention.

  “How do they get away with that? Seems like if they take over your company they should have to pay you full price.”

  “They do. In time,” Jeff explained. “We’re still hammering out that stuff, but we’ll get part of the funding when the deal formally closes and then have payments spaced out over a few years like Taryn said.”

  A spark of realization flared in Shannon’s eyes and then receded. Jeff wasn’t the instant win lottery ticket Shannon thought he was.

  “Still must be nice to have everything pay off. I remember when you and Paul started talking about going into business together. You and he used to sit around in the living room drawing things out on that whiteboard you hung on the wall.”

  “We talked about a lot of different ideas back then. It’s been a long haul.”

  “You must be proud of your daddy, Olivia. He’s real successful.”

  Olivia shrugged at her mother. “I guess. He works a lot.”

  “We’re all proud of him.” Taryn squeezed Jeff’s arm. “I’ve thought about running my own business, but I’m not sure I have the stomach for it.”

  “You’d be great. Maybe if things work out, we can start up your private events business.”

  “We’ll see.”

  Nora beamed. “You two are in such a sweet spot. Starting your life together with all these plans. Reminds me of when I was young. Frank and I use to dream of all sorts of things. It’s good to see your children making their way.”

  Jeff shifted in his seat. Taryn could tell he was uncomfortable with all the praise. He hated talking about himself—especially his money and his success. She decided to change the subject.

  “That’s enough shop talk, I think. I forgot to ask if anyone wanted coffee with their cake. Jeff got a new espresso machine.”

  Frank waved off Taryn’s suggestion. “I can’t have coffee this late. I’ll be up all night with indigestion.”

  “Oh, Frank. They don’t want to hear about your GERD. I’ll pass as well.”

  “Well, it’s the truth, and she’s asking.” Frank took another bite of cake with ice cream.

  “Coffee is gross,” Olivia proclaimed. “Daddy let me taste his once. It smelled good, but it tasted like dirt and medicine.”

  “Well, I love espresso. The stronger, the better.” Shannon flipped her hair and smiled at her daughter.

  “Me too. I can get it.” Jeff motioned like he was getting up, but Taryn stopped him.

  “No worries. I’ll get it. Two cups, then?”

  Like Frank, Taryn didn’t like having caffeine so late. Getting coffee did provide a great way to escape the conversation. They had spoken enough about Jeff and his impending windfall. From what Taryn had seen, Shannon didn’t need any more information or encouragement to be thinking about Jeff’s money.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Shannon didn’t get back to her new apartment until nearly midnight. She stepped in the door, and the place was dark, but not empty.

  She heard Kid—or so she assumed—knocking around in the back bedroom. She asked him to smoke outside, but of course, the air stank of cigarettes. Shannon fumbled on the wall for the light switch, but things were still so unfamiliar, she stepped to her right, feeling along the wall. Her foot slammed into a solid object on the floor. It felt like a boulder.

  “Dammit!” she screamed. She lurched forward and braced herself, one hand coming down on the floor and the other on a beer can, now crushed. Heaving herself up and standing on one leg, she hopped along the wall. Finally, the light switch. She looked down at a stack of weight plates on the floor. More stuff.

  Kid kept moving in more of his shit. He had to stop. What if Jeff wanted to bring Olivia here? She could explain the cigarette smoke, but how was she going to explain a weight bench and a pile of Hustler magazines? Her apartment looked like a testosterone explosion where some guy had pumped iron and himself all day.

  “What the fuck is all that noise?” A warbled voice screamed the question from the back of the apartment

  “I hit my toes on your weights.”

  “I’m trying to sleep.”

  He didn’t look like it. Kid’s face poured sweat, and he couldn’t stand still. He turned back toward the bedroom and then whirled around again to face Shannon. He was lit.

  She could leave him to it and come back, but she was tired. The apartment had been nice and hers for all of two days. She’d bet Taryn’s place wouldn’t be littered with beer cans and porn. The perfect wifey-to-be probably had throw pillows and throw blankets and those tiny decorator candles.

  Shannon had seen some pictures on the walls at Jeff’s house. Taryn and Jeff were in a dining room—probably Taryn’s apartment. Behind them had been a display of crystal wine glasses. Shannon looked around her living room. This life was shit, and she had to get out of it. Fatigue twisted her despair into helplessness.

  Right now, what she wanted was to go to bed. With some of the money Jeff had given her, she’d splurged on some super soft cotton sheets. She’d never imagined spending fifty dollars on sheets, but they were on sale at the discount store, allegedly marked down from a hundred bucks.

  In her excitement, she put them on the bed right out of the package. Even before she washed them,
they felt thick and smooth like butter, totally different from scratchy threadbare sheets she usually had on her bed. She wanted to wrap herself in cotton and fade away.

  “Sleep is exactly where I’m headed. I just need to get some ice for my foot. It’s killing me.” Shannon hobbled into the kitchen.

  “Grab me a beer while you’re in there,” Kid ordered, flinging himself on the couch, his knees restless. Shannon grabbed a bag of frozen carrots from the freezer and a Miller Lite from the fridge.

  “You want a little something else to take the edge off. I may have a Xanax in my purse.”

  She knew she had a Xanax. She’d found the stray pill today when she was digging for lipstick in another handbag. She knew she shouldn’t take it. It was no good for her, but she also didn’t know how dinner was going to go. So she’d slipped it into her small purse as an insurance policy.

  It was best for her to get rid of it. And it was best for her to settle Kid down. Two birds with one stone. She should maybe look again in the other bag. Maybe there was another. Both were for Kid. She needed to keep herself together. Plus, she was tired enough.

  Shannon handed Kid the beer and the pill and lurched to the bedroom. Her bag was still on the bed, and Kid had his rig on the nightstand. Please let there be another pill.

  She sat on the bed and scooted back to raise her foot, bending her knee and placing the frozen bag across her toes. Fumbling through the bag, her fingers closed over another insurance policy she’d put there.

  Guilt assailed her, but she beat it back. Jeff wouldn’t miss something as small as the watch she’d taken. He’d probably think he misplaced it, which, technically, he had. Shannon had found it on the bathroom counter after dinner. Initially, she picked it up to see it up close. She’d weighed the heaviness of it in her hand. Tag Heuer. Shannon didn’t know the brand, but she could tell it wasn’t cheap. He’d probably taken it off to wash his hands and forgotten.

  Jeff was brilliant, but sometimes incredibly absent minded. When they were together, he’d take off his watch or his wedding ring for some reason and leave the item in the living room or the bathroom or somewhere. She once found his wedding ring in a potted plant on the patio two weeks after it went missing. Jeff had been grilling burgers and taken his ring off to handle one of the raw patties. Somehow, it found its way into the clay pot.