by Jayton Young
Living with No Regrets
By Jayton Young
Copyright © JaytonYoung 2014
Blurb
After being run from her hometown six years ago by scandal, Leigh Hampton is finally coming home to face the man who caused it all. And she has unfinished business.
Russell Kennedy was a fun, outgoing person until the love of his life betrayed him. Since then he has grown into a hard, jaded man. He has his life just as he wants and has no interest in changing it, until the woman who caused it all comes waltzing back to their small town of Pine Grove.
Finding out that things have just changed in more than just one way, Russ has to revisit the past and re-think long time opinions. No matter how much he wishes he didn’t have to.
There is an unknown timeline to beat and unexpected foes for both Leigh and Russell to face. With all the obstacles popping up in the way, it’ll be hard for the truth to find its way forward. Can the high school sweethearts overcome all of the adversity to rekindle the flame that never died?
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge Jory, Kayla, and Trent. They are my loveable, devilish children who encouraged me to start writing in the first place, and have inspired the personalities of many of my characters. Also, to my husband Billy, who, grudgingly, puts up with the mood swings I get occasionally due to writers block. To my family, The Sanders, The Bradfords, The Beasons, and The Blantons, for overlooking my rocky past to support me in my passion of writing. They believe that the past does not dictate who you are, or who you will be. Last but not least, to my strongest supporters who have become some of my closest friends: Sharon Honyumptewa, Channy Kelsh, Veronica Seetho. They have been there with their critique and support from day one for me. Their opinions mean the world to me.
Prologue
Russell Kennedy sat staring at a photo just handed to him; one that had just tilted his whole world on its axis - his fiancé, his high school sweetheart, his first love; his only love - all phrases that had described the woman displayed in the picture up until it was shown to him.
Leigh Hampton had always been the quiet, shy girl who avoided crowds, but got along with everyone. She was an average looking girl with her curly brown hair, hazel eyes, and 5’4 curvaceous frame, but that hadn’t been what drew Russ to her.
All during middle school, he was built into ‘the person to be or be seen with’, and he had loved it. His swollen head and large ego soaked up all of the attention, and first year of high school, even the seniors of Pine Grove High School had included Russ in everything. It was a small town in South Carolina and he was the big man on campus. Everyone loved him; every boy wanted to be like him and every girl wanted his attention.
During those years, though, he let his grades drop. Sophomore year of high school Russ was informed that if he wanted the college recruiters looking at him, he had to get his GPA back up to par, so he was signed up for tutoring.
Leigh came into the library that first afternoon with a polite smile on her face and was extremely helpful from the very beginning. He knew the Hampton family, though Mr. Hampton had died in a car accident the year before. Mrs. Hampton – Mary Leigh – was the owner of the town’s grocery store and had expanded to add in a hardware store so the town’s people didn’t have to drive 30 minutes to get what they needed. But he had never really paid attention to Leigh in all the years they had gone to school together. He had seen her in the halls, but had never talked to her. She always had her head down when walking; only speaking in answer to those who spoke to her first.
She was a year younger, but had skipped eighth grade and started high school the same time as Russ. He figured he would give her a thrill and take her on a date for helping to tutor him. Her response shocked him so much that it took a moment to register what she’d actually said.
“No, thank you Russell,” she had said as she gathered her things to leave when the hour was over.
“Good. Would you rather down home cookin’ or something a little….What?” He looked at her in astonishment. “Did you just say no to going out with me?”
“I’m sorry, Russell. I just want to go home, but thank you.” If she had had a better than thou attitude, he would have understood it better. As it was, he was left speechless as Leigh left with a parting ‘see you tomorrow’; a genuine smile on her face and a tone in her voice like they were old friends.
It was her indifference to him and who he was that made him take a better look. Russ took the time during those study sessions - which got him back on the honor roll lists - to get to know Leigh Hampton better.
Everything he found out about her just endeared her to him even more. He fell in love with her that year, but it took twenty seven date invites before she finally relented. From then on they were inseparable.
Leigh told Russ later on that she had loved him for a while, watching him from the sidelines, but had to be sure he was serious about her and that she wouldn’t just be another conquest won for him. Russ was her first lover, and he had wished he could go back in time and change how he’d been so he could have gifted her with the same.
They both went to Clemson University and graduated a year apart, Leigh’s computer technology doctorate taking longer to obtain. Russ spent that year taking over his father’s duties at the family ranch.
Now, the wedding was tomorrow, and all Russ wanted to do was cry and scream out his rage at what he was seeing. He had thought he knew Leigh, heart and soul, as she knew him.
How, after eight years of being together, three of those spent living together, could she cheat on him? With his enemy at that.
Bill Huff had never been a true friend. He’d been a boot-licker that everyone knew was jealous of Russ. They had all gone to college together, along with the woman standing in front of him.
“How did you just happen to be there to take the picture, Kerry?”
“Billy told me that they would be there,” she said, not realizing that he wasn’t too happy with her right then either. “Neither of us thought it was right what she’s doing to you, so I was there to take the picture.”
“So,” Russ had to clench his teeth to keep from yelling. “You and Bill thought it would be a good idea for him to screw my fiancé, and you watch? Instead of just coming to tell me and letting me catch her myself?” Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling, he looked up from the picture. “I suggest that not either one of you come around me or even call me ever again.”
Kerry started realizing her mistake and scrambling to talk her way out of it. “But…I didn’t watch. I just took the picture and left.” When she saw that had no effect, she tried a different tactic. “It was Bill’s idea.”
“Which make you even more stupid for going along with it. Get the hell out of here.”
After she left, Russ bent over in his chair and buried his face in his hands. He was humiliated, hurt, and extremely pissed off. He had no desire to go screw someone himself just to get back at her. He actually still loved her, no matter what she’d done or how angry he was at her, but he knew he could not marry someone he couldn’t trust. And he was angry enough that he came up with a way to get back at her in such a humiliating way that…he didn’t know, but maybe he would feel a little better afterward.
He would warn Marry Leigh, though. She had just finished her radiation treatments for her breast cancer, and didn’t deserve the shock the whole town would get. She was a Godly woman and that was what made Leigh’s infidelity so much worse. He’d thought Leigh was just as Godly and sweet as her momma.
Well…at least he had found this out before he made the biggest mistake of his life.
Chapter 1
“You got a new tenant moving in, Mary Le
igh?”
Russ had been stopping by to see if she needed anything from town. He didn’t know how bad it was, but he did know that they had found more cancer after six years in remission.
Seeing a look of pity cross Mary Leigh’s face, Russ knew who was moving in just as the words came out of her mouth. “Leigh’s coming back. She’ll be here tomorrow.”
Trying to act like the news hadn’t just knocked his feet from under him, Russ figured he try to keep the conversation as even keel and normal as possible. “Who drove the U-Haul out? Her husband?”
Russ hadn’t meant to ask that, but in the six years since Leigh left, he had avoided talking to anyone about her, and most people knew to avoid the subject. They had taken his side, and were angry at her for what she had done to him. Everyone except her momma. Mary Leigh had begged Russ to talk to Leigh before he did anything rash, but he’d refused, and finally she had given up asking. She said that there had to be something more to it that it seemed, but Russ didn’t see it that way. Leigh had sex with another man. What else could there be to it?
“No. Leigh has never married.” She answered softly. “That is her housekeeper slash cook slash…well he has several titles. Here he is…Mark! Come over here and meet a good friend of mine.”
The man who was walking toward them was built like a wrestler, not a housekeeper. What kind of man cleaned houses for a living? he wondered. This Mark character was bleached blond with dark roots in a spikey style. His legs were so thick that he walked like something was stuck up his butt, and he was taller than Russ by a couple of inches; which made him around 6’2 or 6’3 to Russ’ 6 feet even. As soon as he opened his mouth though, Russ wanted to laugh.
“Hi,” Mark said, holding out his hand to shake Russ’. “Any friend of Mary’s is a friend of mine.”
The way he spoke, the tone of his voice, the gestures he unconsciously made with his hands made Russ think that this man was so obviously gay that, for a moment, he didn’t respond; so Mary Leigh stepped in for the introductions.
“Mark Lands, this is Russell Kennedy,” she missed the flicker of recognition and anger that crossed Marks face until he slipped his ‘pleasant’ face back in place. “Russ, this is Mark. He is a man of many trades and has adopted Leigh as his little sister for the past four and a half years. He works with her and for her, but they’re inseparable regardless.”
“Nice to meet you, Russell.”
The way he said that had Russ wondering what lies Leigh had concocted to tell other people. When her mother had told her what Russell planned to do at their wedding as the guest arrived, Leigh had taken off in the middle of the night, after a lengthy and tear filled phone message to him that he didn’t bother paying attention to; he just deleted it.
“Nice to meet you too, Mark.” Russ turned back to Mary Leigh. “Are they coming to help you out around the house and do your running around for you?”
“Mark’ll see that everything is done, don’t you worry, but please don’t be a stranger.” He could see the tears in her eyes that Mary Leigh was holding back. “Leigh has been telling me for years not to interfere, not to say anything, but I know that you have sent back every letter she sent you unopened.” She looked Russ straight in the eye and grabbed his hand. “The only thing I will ever ask of you is that when she gets here, you let her in your door at least one time. She will come to see you very soon, and if you trust no one else, trust me son. You’ll want to hear what she has to tell you.”
Russ looked off into the back yard of Mary’s house, took a deep breath before releasing it, and turned back to her. “Just one time. I will listen to her, but afterward, please let her know that if possible, I’d like to avoid her in town. I don’t want to see her, but I’ll do it for you. I will try to stop in to see you when I don’t see her car here. And you can still ask anything of me that doesn’t pertain to her.”
Russ kissed Mary Leigh’s cheek, said a polite goodbye to Mark, and headed back to his truck. Before he got in, he remembered to look back and ask what kind of car she had.
“She drives a pearl white Yukon SUV.” Mark answered.
“What’s a little bitty thing like her…” Shaking his head, he didn’t finish before he got in and headed to town. It was none of his business what she would need with an SUV that size.
*****
“How do you think he’ll react, Momma?” Mark asked as the truck turned out of the long driveway and around the bend. He grabbed Mary’s elbow to help her back into the house.
“About which news?” she asked as she sat down on the recliner. Mary Leigh loved Mark as she would if he were her son; just as she did Russell. His parents disowned him when he graduated high school and came out of the closet and he had worked hard to put himself through school for web design since he had always loved computers and been good at graphics. He had never looked back.
Mark told her once that if his parents loved him as they did his siblings; they wouldn’t have been able to do that to him. As it was, only one of his sisters and one of his brothers ever talked to him anymore. Mark said he was alright with it, but she knew how much he was hurting inside. So did Leigh. That was one of the reasons they had become such good friends. Leigh had been run off because of a scandal not of her making, and Mark because of his lifestyle choice. What ever happened to ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’?
“I guess that’s the question. All of it I suppose.”
“It depends on how much she chooses to tell him.” Mary sighed at her daughter’s kind, yet broken hearted stubbornness. “You know what she says. It wouldn’t change the fact that he doesn’t believe in her. If you love someone, you have to open your heart enough to trust them no matter what, she told me and he wouldn’t listen to her.”
“She said she forgave him, but if you forgive someone with your whole heart, wouldn’t you give them another chance?”
“If the person asked for it yes, but I don’t see him ever asking for it, and neither does she.” Mary Leigh blinked back the tears that were still trying to escape.
Mark headed for the door to finish unloading the U-Haul. “Maybe he will once he sees what his avoidance of the issue has made him miss.”
*****
“Are you finished packing?” Leigh asked her son Randy.
“I shtill have the few toysh I’ll play with on the plane.” Smiling, she took his hand and walked upstairs to his room.
“Do you mind if Mommy checks your room? Just to make sure nothing is hiding in a corner, or under a bed?”
The little boy giggled as they looked around and, sure enough, found several Legos Ninjago warriors.
“Come on, baby. Let’s go camp out in the living room one last time. Our flight leaves early and Mark said his friend would have the truck waiting for us at the airport so we can go see Mimi.”
They made their way back downstairs and to the living room where they had used a sheet to set up a tent like place in front of the fireplace. Leigh would just have to gather up the last few items and put them in a box in the morning.
The family that had bought her house had wanted all of her furnishings, too, so she didn’t have to worry about the furniture. She had gotten that house after she started her web construction business and started turning a hefty profit. Never having wanted to live off her family’s money, she had worked hard to build the business up and had amassed millions in the process.
Having learned from her mother, she lived simply; only having one car and the house (both paid off) and all of her other monies not used to live day to day was split between charities and a trust fund for Randy. Neither him nor his children, and probably grandchildren, would have to work if they didn’t want to, but she was trying to teach him a good work ethic in chores even now so he wouldn’t expect everything handed to him on a silver platter.
Randy didn’t understand about money, but he knew he had what he needed, and had to earn the things he wanted. That was enough for him, and he was still a very happy little boy.
They had been sitting there playing with the Legos men, so she picked him up and scooted him onto her lap. She didn’t want Randy to see the tears in her eyes since it always bothered him immensely when she cried.
After quickly composing herself so her voice wouldn’t crack, she answered honestly. Leigh had told Randy about his dad, since he was old enough to ask and understand when he was three years old, and about what a wonderful man he was. She didn’t taint his opinion with mistakes that had been made in the past, but knew she would also have to prepare Randy for the kind of homecoming she was expecting.
“Hey little man, your dad is going to love you, but you remember that he doesn’t know about you right now so he’ll be very surprised. The whole town will be shocked.”
“Why did Mimi not give him my pictursh when he didn’t get the lettersh we shent?” He snuggled into her arms and she knew it wouldn’t be long before he was asleep. Randy had been looking forward to meeting his daddy since he’d found out the month before that they were moving to the same place his mimi and daddy lived.
“Something like that needs to be told from one parent to the other, baby. I asked Mimi not to say anything, I’m sorry.”
“Why haven’t we ever gone to shee him?”
“Remember that I told you that Daddy was mad at Mommy last time I was there,” Taking a deep breath she continued, wondering how to tell a five year old in a way he’d understand. “And a lot of others are mad at me, too.”
“I thought you didn’t do nothin’ wrong.”
“I didn’t, baby. It was a misunderstanding.”
“What doesh that mean?”
“It means that everyone thought I did something very bad, but I didn’t.”
“I thought people was shupposed to forgive each udder.” A tear slipped down as she heard the bewilderment in her son’s voice. “You shaid God and Jesus want us to forgive, cuz they forgive us.”