Starting Over (Whiskey Ridge Book 1)

by Rachel Hanna

  “He’s a friend,” she said, thankful to have such a simple explanation.

  “Yeah, sure. And I’m Aretha Franklin,” her mother said, as she’d done a million times in her life.

  “You’re couldn’t hold a tune in a bucket, and you’re as pale as a ghost, mother, so you’re no Aretha,” Kelly said as she walked toward the kitchen for a glass of water. She wanted something stronger, but getting drunk at 1am wasn’t the best idea for a grown woman.

  “You know, you could be a little nicer. My house did burn down tonight. I barely made it out alive!” her mother said. Kelly started to shake as she turned around.

  “Seriously? You want me to feel what? Sorry for you?”

  “Well, any normal person certainly would!”

  “Mom, you brought this on yourself! That house was a fire hazard and had been for years. I just told you this when I visited, for goodness sakes! It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who wouldn’t listen!”

  Edie jutted her chin out and made a grunting sound, her typical response when she had no comeback. Kelly felt guilt starting to creep into her body. She walked toward her mother and put her hand on Edie’s arm.

  “Look, Mom, I’m so grateful you got out of there alive, but I’m exhausted and mentally drained. Let’s get some sleep and tomorrow we’ll figure out a place for you to live…” she said as she started walking toward the bedrooms.

  “Excuse me?” Edie whipped around and grabbed her daughter’s arm. “I thought I was staying here.”

  “Let’s talk about this tomorrow,” Kelly repeated but Edie didn’t budge. She had that look in her eyes that Kelly had seen so many times growing up. Anger. Resentment. Stubbornness.

  “We’ll talk about this right now, young lady.” Kelly sighed.

  “Fine, mother, have it your way. You cannot stay here long term. This is my home. My sanctuary. And it’s clean and tidy and comfortable.”

  “It feels like a museum.”

  “Maybe so, but it’s my oasis, and I’m sorry… but you won’t ruin that for me. It took me years…”

  “Wah, wah, wah… I’ve heard this story a million times. Your terrible childhood. Your awful parents. You’re an adult now, Kelly. Get over it!”

  Kelly’s blood felt like it was literally boiling in her veins. Her mother would never understand because she couldn’t. Her brain was fried from the drugs she did for years. Her viewpoint on the world was just “different” and that couldn’t be undone.

  “You can take the room on the right,” Kelly said without engaging her mother. “There are fresh linens on the bed. Good night, mother.”

  With that, she walked down the hall into her own room and shut the door.

  Chapter 9

  When Kelly woke up a few hours later, she smelled coffee and bacon. Had she been sleepwalking? Maybe she was at a four star hotel and cabana boys would appear in her room at any minute…

  “Wake up!” her mother yelled from the doorway after swinging the door open.

  Kelly groaned and rolled over to look at the clock. It was only seven. A whopping four hours of sleep had just not been enough. She called Maggie and asked her to open the spa and then padded into the kitchen where her mother stood wearing one of her robes. Her nice, plush $150 robe from New York City. Her splurge from two years ago. And now it had a coffee stain on it. Just great.

  Edie stood in front of the stove, bacon grease popping up and drenching the microwave above it. Flour was all over the counters and there was another big coffee spill right next to the pot that she hadn’t bothered to clean up.

  “This place is a wreck! How did you already make such a big mess?” Kelly asked as she started frantically wiping the coffee spill.

  “Oh, good Lord. What’s a little mess? I’m cooking for goodness sakes!” Edie said, yelling over the loud exhaust fan as she tried to suck the smoke out of the kitchen.

  “Maybe you could clean as you go…” Kelly continued as she focused on cleaning up after her mother. She raked the flour into her hand and tossed it into the sink.

  “Well, maybe you could be more grateful that someone is cooking a nice breakfast for you,” Edie said, glaring at her daughter. “These are your grandma’s homemade biscuits.”

  “You remember the recipe?”

  “Of course I do! I love to cook. I just haven’t had a reason to in a long time,” Edie said continuing her process.

  “You mean you didn’t have space to,” Kelly mumbled. She didn’t remember her mother being a good cook, but then again she was the one who had to do most of the cooking for the household anyway. Her sister certainly didn’t do anything.

  Edie finished up and walked to the table with a plate of biscuits, some overcooked bacon and a pitcher of orange juice.

  “Eat up,” she said as she turned to get two glasses from the cabinet.

  “I don’t really eat breakfast…”

  “Eat,” Edie said again. “Probably why you don’t have a boyfriend. You’re way too skinny.”

  “Thanks,” Kelly said, rolling her eyes. She took a bite of the almost black bacon and started to gag.

  “Jelly?” Edie asked as she looked through the refrigerator.

  “I don’t eat processed sugar, so I don’t own jelly.”

  “Good God, what is going on with you?” Edie asked.

  “Sugar is poison.”

  “No, sugar is damn good on biscuits… in the form of jelly.”

  “I’ll make note of that.”

  “I’ll go to the grocery store today and get us some real food,” Edie said as she shoveled a piece of bacon into her mouth. Kelly took a bite of her grandmother’s biscuits and was pretty sure she was rolling over in her grave. They tasted like sheetrock, and Kelly would probably choose to eat sheetrock with a little jelly before she’d take another bite of those biscuits.

  “Listen, I’m running late for work. I need to go get a shower and wake up.” Kelly started toward the hallway when she noticed a truck sitting at the top of her driveway. It was Quinn’s truck. She opened the door and walked outside just as he got out of his driver’s side door.

  “Hey!” she called from the front porch. He seemed startled when she called out to him, and she wasn’t sure why didn’t pull down closer to the house.

  “Good morning. Nice outfit,” he said as he walked closer to the house. Kelly looked down and remembered that she was wearing her pink kitty cat pajama set and looked more like a ten year old girl than a grown woman.

  “Thanks. I was a little tired and didn’t really care who I am impressed with my PJ attire at two in the morning,” she said with a smile. “Why’d you park way up there?”

  Quinn turned and looked at his truck. “Just didn’t want to startle you by coming close to the house so early in the morning.”

  “I don’t typically shoot people just because they pull into my driveway, Quinn.”

  “Noted.”

  “What are you doing here anyway?”

  “I… uh… your mom left something in my truck.” He seemed to be stumbling over his words.

  “What’d she leave?”

  “This,” he said, pulling a small hair clip out of his pocket. Kelly laughed as she took it from his hand. “Why are you laughing?”

  “Well, first I’m laughing because you came all the way over here to give me a cheap little hair clip at seven in the morning. And secondly, I’m laughing because this was my hair clip in elementary school. I can’t believe my mother somehow managed to keep up with it after all these years.”

  “I thought it might be special, so I wanted to return it,” he said, a little bit of irritation in his voice.

  “Don’t get all offended. I was just surprised to see you here so early.” She thought they’d formed a friendship, but he really did seem to be upset about something. “Are you okay?”

  “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked, looking down at his shoes for a moment before making eye contact.

  “I don’t know. You just seem… dist
racted,” she said.

  “I’m tired, Kelly.”

  “Of course. I’m so sorry. Thank you again…”

  “Please stop thanking me. Listen, I have to go, but I’ll see you around, okay?” he said as he turned and headed back up the driveway.

  She would never understand men.

  * * *

  “So your mom is at your house right now?” Maggie asked, chomping on her strong smelling watermelon gum. Kelly hated the stuff, but Maggie insisted on chewing it constantly.

  “Yep,” Kelly said, feeling her teeth grinding together as she typed something onto her spreadsheet.

  “And you’re okay with that?” Maggie asked as she leaned against the desk and twirled one of Kelly’s prized red pens around with her finger. Kelly slapped her hand on it to stop the spinning.

  “No. I’m most definitely not okay with it but what can I do? She has no place to go.” She leaned back in her chair and sighed. “She’s going to turn my house into a garbage dump.”

  “Mel, you’re a grown woman. You can handle this. Is she rebuilding her house?”

  “Nope. She has decided to stay in Whiskey Ridge until she gets her insurance money and then travel around the world, starting with Vegas.”

  Maggie’s mouth dropped open. “Is that even legal?”

  “Don’t get me started. All I know is that she’s currently sitting in her bathrobe on my very expensive sofa, probably watching court TV shows and eating my stash of dark chocolate.” Kelly plopped her forehead onto the desk in front of her. “She’s going to give me a stroke. I just know it.”

  “You’ve got to calm down, girlfriend. Seriously. I think you’re being a bit over-dramatic. Don’t you?”

  “I wish I was…”

  “Hey, ladies,” Quinn said from the doorway. Maggie’s mouth dropped open again. Never one for subtleness, Maggie wore every one of her emotions on her sleeve. And her face.

  “Hey, Quinn… Nice to see you,” she gushed. Kelly wanted to throw up.

  “Nice dress, Maggie,” he said with his best Hollywood smile. Kelly reminded herself that he was her friend now and she couldn’t secretly loathe him. He’d been there in her time of need, and she was going to try to be his friend and stop lusting after him.

  “Thanks,” she said, turning about the same shade of red as her hair. It was like she’d been transformed into an eight year old girl, flirting with her schoolyard crush across the playground.

  “Mind if I talk to Kelly alone for a minute?”

  “Oh, sure,” Maggie said, giving Kelly a knowing glance as she grabbed a folder and went into the foyer to welcome a new client.

  Quinn walked around to the front of Kelly’s desk and sat down in the plush tan chair. “How’s it going?”

  “Oh, just dandy,” she said with a fake smile. “Things are perfect. I have a sixty year old woman currently staining my couch with my expensive dark chocolate while watching Judge Judy, and I’m sitting here having inner panic attacks every few minutes. I feel like I just won the lottery!”

  Quinn started laughing which only served to irritate her further. Assessing the look on her face, he stopped himself and bit his lip.

  “I’m sorry. I know it’s not funny, but seeing you like this kind of tickles my funny bone.”

  “Great. Thanks. I thought we were friends,” she grumbled as she closed her laptop and looked at him.

  “You’re right. We are friends, and that’s why I’m here right now.”

  “I’m waiting…” she said, tapping her fingers on her desk.

  “Well, I thought maybe you’d like a night out.” Her stomach started to turn upside down.

  “Are you asking me on a date, Quinn Maverick?” The hope in her own voice almost made her cringe.

  “Um, no…” he stammered. “We’re friends, right? Can’t friends go out for dinner?”

  Suddenly, she felt completely let down and she didn’t want to admit to herself why. Of course he didn’t want to date her. Why would he? They were nothing alike, and she was a stick in the mud compared to him.

  “Sure. Just wanted to clarify so you didn’t get the wrong impression,” she said, trying desperately to save herself from an embarrassing situation.

  “Great. I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said authoritatively as he stood up and walked toward the door.

  “Wait a minute! You mean tonight?”

  “Well, yeah…”

  “I can’t go tonight. My house is probably already a disaster area with the queen of hoarding having full control all day.”

  “Fine. Then I’ll come to your house. We can have a nice family dinner with your mom. Maybe she can tell us more about her digestive system.”

  “You’re not funny. How is that taking me for a night out?”

  “Exactly. I’ll see you at seven. And dress a little bit fancy.” With that, he walked out and Kelly was left wondering what this was really all about.

  * * *

  When she arrived home after working a long day with no lunch break, Kelly was exhausted. The last thing she wanted to do was face her mother, or her house for that matter, but she knew there was no way around it. She couldn’t just abandon her home and run away, although she’d thought about it a few times throughout the day.

  She thought about it when her mother called at eleven to yell at her about the remote control not working. Kelly had pointed her to the battery drawer. Yes, she had a battery drawer. It was nice and neat and made sense for her life. And when somebody needed batteries, who did they call? Actually, they probably just went and bought batteries. Truth be told, nobody called her for batteries. But it still made her feel better to be prepared.

  She also thought about running away when her mom called at 1:30 to complain that the mailman came to the door and delivered a package. And then at 2:30 when she called to complain that she was hungry and Kelly only had healthy food in the house.

  As she keyed the door, she prepared for the worst but was shocked to find very little out of place. In fact, it almost looked like her mother had wiped down the kitchen counters. How could that be?

  “Mom?” she called out. Edie came out from her bedroom wearing a pair of Kelly’s shorts and a T-shirt. “I see you helped yourself to my clothing.”

  “Well, would you rather I prance around naked? I’m sure all of Whiskey Ridge would be talking within the hour. How many people live in this town anyway? Like fifty or sixty?” Her mother’s smart remarks about the size of her town were starting to grate on her nerves.

  “About ten thousand, actually.”

  “Ooohhh…. Thriving metropolis you have here.”

  “Mother, honestly. Do you have to be contrary about everything?”

  “Contrary? Who uses that word?”

  “I do!” Kelly yelled. “And I have healthy food and a battery drawer. And a nice mailman named Sam who brings me my packages because I bake him homemade oatmeal raisin cookies at Christmas and give his wife an occasional free facial. This is my life, mother. And I love it!”

  “Do you?” her mother asked in a accusing tone. “Or are you just trying to be everything I wasn’t?”

  Kelly snarled at her mother. “Can you blame me?” There was so much more she could say, and even wanted to say, but what good would it do? She couldn’t undo the past and yelling at her mother only attracted more negative energy into her life. And if there was one thing that running a spa had taught her, it was the importance of controlling the energy around her.

  “You can never let it go. And you’ll be miserable your whole life. Everything has to be just the perfect way. For goodness sakes, you had to send a freaking maid to clean the house today? You couldn’t trust me for one day here alone?”

  “What? You let someone in here to clean?”

  “Yeah. Her name was Gertrude. She was a rotund woman with wiry red hair, but she seemed to do a good job. Said she’d already been paid. Are you saying you didn’t hire her?”

  “No, I didn’t hire anyone. I cle
an my house myself,” Kelly said confused. She walked into the kitchen and saw that it was spotless, as was the living room and bathroom. The only room where things were starting to get messy was her mother’s room, of course.

  The thought of this random woman in her house made her nervous and very uncomfortable. Was she some kind of strange criminal, going around Whiskey Ridge cleaning houses and staking out the joint looking for diamonds? Maybe she’d been watching too much Dateline NBC. And since she didn’t have any diamonds, she couldn’t figure out any reason why this woman would’ve been in her house.

  “Did she leave a business card? What was she driving?”

  “No and I don’t know. I was watching TV in my tiny little bedroom. You really need more space. This house is…”

  “Mother! You had like four feet of usable space in your house and…”

  Suddenly, the doorbell rang interrupting her thoughts and startling her.

  “Maybe it’s the cleaning lady coming back to kill us,” her mother said, laughing at her own joke as she walked into the kitchen. Kelly rolled her eyes and opened the door to find Quinn standing there, dressed in a dark pair of jeans and a pressed gray button up shirt, looking like the best thing she’d ever seen in her life.

  And she wasn’t ready. And it was seven on the dot.

  “Good evening,” he said with a smile. “Weren’t you wearing that today?”

  “Very observant, Mr. Maverick,” she said, opening the door and inviting him inside. Edie peeked her head around the kitchen door, rolled her eyes and disappeared from sight again.

  “She doesn’t like me,” he whispered. “And I’m starting to wonder if you do.”

  She smiled, realizing she wasn’t being very hospitable. “Sorry. I just found out some random stranger came here today and cleaned my house.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing? I mean you were worried about your mother destroying the place, right?”

  “Good that it’s clean, but bad that I don’t know the woman.”

  “Gertrude is a trustworthy lady. Now, get ready so we can make our reservations at Limelight.”