Now, just scant days later, she wandered lost and blue around the nearly empty apartment. Her roommates moved to their new house last weekend. It was a beautiful house with a big back yard. They promised to have her over as soon as they returned from their honeymoon in Spain but right now waiting two weeks to see them again felt like forever. She had become so accustomed to being with them daily.
Her footsteps echoed on the hardwoods as she moved from room to room. Her belongings were packed in boxes waiting for the movers scheduled to arrive early tomorrow. She had a rental car downstairs with a trunk packed to overflowing with the things she believed she would need for the next month or so. The rest would go into storage.
Keeli reflected again on all the changes coming at her with warp speed. She needed a new collection, including more pieces than she had ever created at once, and pieces that were more expensive. She needed a new place to live. She had a completely new group of friends and a completely new set of demands on her.
She had moved from the world of designing all winter and selling all summer to selling year round and she was still struggling to figure out a schedule that worked in this new environment. She needed a new studio to accommodate the hot weather better and the larger output.
And she needed to get over Wyatt. The news she overheard at the wedding changed nothing. He would still marry Sloane and she would still be alone. All the work that kept her busy, all the pep talks she gave herself, they had not helped. Seeing him Sunday, stunning in his tuxedo, suave and sun-kissed, had confirmed her worst fears. She was nowhere close to getting over him. If anything, overhearing Sloane just made her love him more.
Overwhelmed by the amount of work, by the decisions, by the changes, Keeli came to a decision that surprised even her. She decided she would go home, back to Gilman, her family and the farm.
After listening to too many whining calls from her mother, she had finally decided to spend several weeks in Gilman. She would catch up on work and regroup without distractions. She missed her brothers and the quiet of the farm and she needed a roof over her head until she made new plans.
Going home allowed her to save on rent, savings she could apply to upgrading her metals and gems. She needed a luxurious collection, something new and innovative and she needed to produce a lot of inventory. Keeli had six trunk shows in November and her contract with Estime required that she have 25 pieces available to them at all times. They were aggressively marketing her designs and she needed to replenish their supply often. The work was grueling, more than she was accustomed to, but incredibly rewarding.
Keeli could not help but gloat. She was going home a success - a major success. Chicago’s elite had discovered her and so had the press. She no longer sold her work on Etsy. Instead she had her own website. She was selling at Estime, the two boutiques in Evanston and negotiating with four other posh boutiques in Chicago and its suburbs. She even had inquiries from New York and LA. She finally felt validated as an artist. She could believe in her talent at long last. The press called her an overnight sensation (ignoring seven years of paying dues).
Her head pounding from another night of drinking at an impromptu farewell dinner with Missy, Keeli carefully folded and packed the last of her clothes, sealing the box before dropping like lead to her mattress without washing her face or brushing her teeth, too tired to move.
It felt like an instant later when Keeli lifted her heavy lids to find the sun streaming through her window and blinding her. Covering her eyes, she found them crusty with mascara and sleep. Hitting the alarm on her phone with force, Keeli dragged herself to the shower, scrubbed her face hard to remove the last vestiges of her late night, then threw out the remaining shampoo and soap. She donned her comfortable jeans and t-shirt, boxed the sheets and pillows she had slept on and took one more turn about the apartment to assure herself she had everything.
The movers showed promptly at 7:00 a.m.. They had her meager belongings loaded in just 45 minutes and now she was following them to the rented storage facility. They unloaded even faster and she was on the road by 8:30. If it weren’t Sunday she would be panicking about rush hour, but instead she looked forward to the leisurely, 90-minute drive. Stopping for hot tea and a scone, she had everything she needed for the ride. Soon she was merging onto the highway, long-haul trucks buffeting the rental car in their wake.
After almost an hour of moderate traffic, the number of trucks thinned out and she crossed the swollen Kankakee River. Houses gave way to fields of corn and soybeans and electric towers stretched as far as the eye could see like a chorus line of dancing metal women. Keeli felt her heart swell as towns became familiar, recognizing Clifton, then Pontiac, then the football field for rival Central High. It felt surprisingly good to be home.
No one knew she was coming and she was as excited as a kid on Christmas to see everyone. At the last minute, Keeli skirted the main road, turning off past the new library to come in from the West to surprise everyone. Now that she was actually close, Keeli suddenly worried that she should have called first. What if they did not want her, or they were too busy? Or what if her mother was her usual negative self? She could not afford to have her mother undercut her confidence now, when she had so much to accomplish.
Too late now.
Only Buster, their German Shepard, came to greet Keeli. She patted his warm body, breathing in his familiar smell and that of the fields. It smelled like home bringing a lump to Keeli‘s throat and making her so nostalgic. In that moment she could not imagine why she had stayed away so long. Keeli scratched Buster behind the ears for a few minutes and gave him a big hug before reaching into the rental and laying on the horn. Buster scampered away from the noise and retreated to curl around himself on the sagging front porch.
The farm was quiet. She could hear the far away sound of the wind whipping through the fields and the loud buzzing of mosquitoes and gnats. In the far distance she could hear the sound of machinery tilling under the last of the autumn corn.
The trees in the front were in full leaf - lush, green and shady. Keeli remembered climbing those trees, trying to keep up with her brothers until she fell and broke her arm, diminishing their allure. The buildings needed a coat of paint, that old barn needed to come down now that the new metal one was in place and the garden needed weeding. It all looked smaller than she remembered.
When no one came running, Keeli laid on the horn longer. This time it took only seconds for people to descend on the strange car. Keeli could see them trying to figure out who was making that racket on a Sunday. Realizing it was her, her older brother, Daniel, broke into a big grin and sped up his steps. Her brother James let out a whoop, came running and swung her around and around in his large arms.
Putting her down reluctantly, James gave her a loud kiss on the cheek, about to scold her for staying away so long when she cut him off by admonishing him for working in his church clothes. “Just running the tractor,” he countered.
Then her mother stepped between them, quietly taking Keeli in an embrace. She hugged her for several moments before holding her at arm’s length to check her out from head to toe. “Bout damn time you came home.”
Questions came from everyone at once but Keeli was able to make them understand she had come to stay for a while. “Not for good though?” her mother asked in her gravely, chain-smoker’s voice. Avoiding her mother’s sour expression, Keeli pointed to the car and told her brothers that she had a lot of stuff for them to carry up to her old room.
“Will you work the farm, Keeli? It can be like old times,” Daniel said, easily lifting heavy boxes from the trunk of the rental. “Or at least the county fair?” James chimed in. “Oh shoot, the tractor! I forgot all about it.” James hollered over his shoulder heading back to the tractor he left running in the clearing.
“Well, I can see nothing’s changed here,” Keeli observed as Daniel abandoned her boxes next to the car and headed back to the fields, leaving her alone with her mother and an awkward silence.
“You look good,” her mother acknowledged begrudgingly. “I like your hair like that.”
“You look good too, Mama. I’ve missed you so much.”
“Well, you could have called a bit more often, come home more.”
Keeli was determined not to let her mother rile her so she pasted on a smile. She wrapped her arms around the woman’s waist and responded, “Well, I am here now, and I plan to stay a spell.”
“Are you out of money?” Her mother’s tone was concerned but Keeli had no trouble hearing the underlying satisfaction.
“No, Mama. I am just so busy that I needed a quiet place to work.” After a moment too long she added, “and of course I missed everyone.”
“Of course. Well come on in and help me get lunch on the table. The boys can get your luggage later.”
Following her mother up the worn steps, Keeli noticed more gray hair on her mother’s head, less weight on her body. She realized that her mother was aging and she made a promise to herself not to stay away so long next time. It was strange to compare her mother in her mid-fifties to the elegant women of the same age she knew in Chicago. The comparison was certainly not favorable to her mother.
“How you been feelin’, Mama?”
“Same as always, I guess,” came her mother’s cryptic answer. She offered no additional information so Keeli changed subjects.
“Is my old room ok?”
When her mother nodded, Keeli took the stairs two at a time and dropped her tote bag and purse on a chair inside the door. The room looked exactly as it had in high school - single bed centered against one wall, a beat up dresser with a mirror above it that still had photo booth pictures with friends and ticket stubs tucked into the frame. She had painted that dresser and the desk against the other wall bright white back in college, trying to make it look new. Now she could see it was just old furniture badly painted. There were all her college textbooks neatly arranged on the lone bookcase. She walked over to run her fingers along the framed pictures from homecoming, graduation and an old faded picture of her dad. The curtains and bedspread were more faded, but otherwise unchanged.
Buster followed Keeli up the stairs and was about to curl himself on the rag rug when Keeli called to him over her shoulder, “Come on Buster, I’ll give you a treat.” The dog bounded ahead of her, almost knocking her down the stairs, and was sitting under the treat bowl when she arrived in the kitchen.
Her favorite room in the house, the kitchen still reminded Keeli of growing up here. Nothing had changed and her nostalgia was heavy even as she recognized how desperately her mother needed new appliances.
“Mm. Smells yummy. Corn bread?”
“And a late season peach cobbler too. We will have to put some meat on those bones of yours,“ her mother said while handing her over mitts and directing her to get fried chicken from the oven.
I will have to do some serious exercise or I will go home fat as a pig.
The two women prepared lunch while conducting a strained conversation. Keeli told her mother of her growing success but her mother responded with enigmatic “oh’s” or “mm hmm’s” until Keeli’s brothers came in smelling of the outdoors. Their presence instantly lightened the mood and their encouragement made Keeli feel much better.
In between grabbing food and filling plates, Keeli brought them up to date on the growth of her business. James was excited and supportive, anxious to check out her website. Daniel suggested he could buy something for his wife, “if I can afford any of your fancy stuff.”
“And just where is Sarah today?” Keeli asked, a little embarrassed not to have asked sooner.
“She took the kids to church and Sunday school but they should be running through that door any minute.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for them before we eat?”
“The kids‘ll eat mac and cheese when they get here, and Sarah doesn’t mind if we start.” Almost on cue, Keeli heard the sound of car doors slamming and the high voices of her nephews.
“Whose car is that?” Sarah hollered from the hallway before joining them in the kitchen and grabbing Keeli in a fierce bear hug. “Oh my god, oh my god. Am I ever happy to see you,” Sarah said, her voice muffled into Keeli’s neck. “I have missed you so much.”
Finally releasing Keeli, Sarah dropped a kiss on the top of her husband’s head, starting the water boiling for mac and cheese and got her children’s hands washed. Putting warm cornbread on each of their plates, they were quietly munching while conversation swirled around them.
“You have both grown so much,” Keeli fussed over the little ones, now aged four and two. She had missed their entire toddler years she realized sadly.
“I’m four now. I’m all growed up,” Joshua explained solemnly. Keeli nodded seriously and strived not to laugh.
“Yes you are, Josh. You are quite a man already. And so are you, Joe.”
“He’s still just a kid,” Joshua quickly pointed out and the adults all started laughing.
“Oh Sarah, they are perfect,” Keeli gushed, unable to hold her emotions in check.
“Did you know when you fixed me up with Daniel that we would have such perfect children?”
“Nope, I just knew my best friend was making goo-goo eyes at my big brother.” Sarah rolled her eyes at the accusation, but didn’t deny it.
They spent the rest of the meal helping Keeli catch up on town life - who was born, who got married, who died. She found out that James was dating a girl from the class behind hers at Iroquois West High School. She could see that the whole family was hoping he would settle down with her.
The farm was doing well they told her, giving her details on crop yields and plant rotations. Keeli felt a bit like she had stepped into an episode of “The Waltons.” It was both strange and familiar at the same time.
“And what about you Keeli? You seeing anyone?”
Keeli had been dreading this question, but was prepared for it.
“I was seeing someone for a while, but it didn’t work out and we went our separate ways. Now I am working too hard to date. I’ll get back to it in a few months.”
The too busy remark got her exactly the response she wanted as she was peppered with more questions about her business.
“Well, my business is finally growing,” she explained modestly. “I actually came home to get some work done. My roommates got married. They can do that now in Illinois,” she gave her mother a snide look. “So they bought a house. I need a new place to live, a new studio and a new collection. It seemed like this was the place to figure all that out.”
They asked a few desultory questions but were not very interested in the specifics of her work. At least they had congratulated her on making her business succeed.
“And you are too busy for a husband, Keeli?” her mother finally asked. “You are getting too old to put dating on hold, my girl. Time is passing more quickly than you know. Just look at Sarah.”
“Leave me out of this,” Sarah chimed in.
“John Remington just took over his father’s place and he is still single you know. You own your own business now, Keeli. You can set up shop anywhere you please now that you use the Internet. No reason you can’t just stay in Gilman now.”
Keeli flashed her mother a look of frustration and began clearing the table without answering her mother.
“Did you hear me, girl?” her mother prodded. She would never drop this until she broke her, Keeli realized.
“I heard you Mama, but I am pretending I didn’t cause I don’t want a fight. I have been home less than two hours. Can we discuss this another day?”
“Keeli, that is not fair. It is a reasonable question,” Daniel said firmly until Sarah put her hand on his arm gently to silence him.
“You’re right, Daniel. I am not interested in John, Mama. I live in Chicago now. I am happy there. I am not dating anyone at the moment, but I was seeing someone wonderful and I am sure when the time is right I will meet a man to marry.”
/> “You’ll meet someone who will keep you in Chicago. Keep my grandchildren away from me. And just when will the time be right?” Her mother was relentless.
“I don’t know, Mama. It won’t be today though.” Keeli threw down the dishtowel she was holding and with a mumbled ‘excuse me’ shoved open the back door and headed out for a calming walk in the fields before she said something she would regret.
Well, I made it through almost two whole hours before losing my cool. How the hell am I going to keep from killing her so I can get some work done? What on earth was I thinking when I came home?
Taking several deep breaths, Keeli got her emotions in check and strode down the road toward the barn and grain silo. Buster caught up and loped beside her as she got her temper under control.
“I better find a new place fast, Boy,” she said to the dog. “Otherwise, I am not responsible if bodies pile up.”
“I knew I would find you here,” Sarah joined Keeli in a quiet corner of the large barn. “You always hid in the same place.”
“Just cooling off before I head back.”
“Yeah, good plan. She just needs to get it out of her system you know? Your mom wants to see you settled and taken care of. She doesn’t realize that you can take care of yourself now.”
“I can you know. I am really making it on my own.”
“I can tell that you are Keeli, and I am so proud of you. You have worked hard for this success, and against some tough odds, you have made it.”
“It was tough, and now I just want to be able to enjoy it. Is that too much to ask from my family?”
“Keeli, I am your oldest friend in the world. You might fool someone else but you can’t fool me. It was not the work stuff that set you off, it was the guy you mentioned.”
Bedazzled (The Beguiling Bachelors Book 1) Page 29