Curves in the Road (The Southern Devotion Series Book 2)

by Amy K McClung

  "Gracie. Of course you can imagine the name Cameron came up with." I said, rolling my eyes.

  She tapped her index finger against her chin, stared up to the ceiling in thought and guessed, "Club Cameron?"

  With my index finger I pointed to my nose then to her. "Tell the lady what she's won, Bob." She giggles at my game show reference. "Honestly though, Cameron has been great. His interior design degree came in handy. It was nice to be able to do everything we needed and keep it in the family. My dad was…" It hurt to talk about my dad still after all these months and my voice showed it by sputtering over his name.

  Mary Jane placed her hand over mine on the table and lightly stroked the back of my hand with her thumb. "Your dad helped too?" I nodded, unable to speak until I controlled my emotions. "I think that's great. I'm proud of you. I remember you talking about it being a dream of yours and Ash's. It's really amazing that you can make that dream come true." She paused a moment then asked, "How's your mom?"

  "She's holding up as best as she can. There are days I go by to check on her or drop Katelyn off for grandma time and you can tell she's been crying. They were together over thirty years. You know it's been two months and I still find myself picking up the phone to call him. In fact, I started to call him yesterday to tell him I was taking you out. He loved you MJ. He scolded me for not running after you when you left. He said, 'You don't let a good woman get away, especially one that is loved by your child. Children don’t accept strangers easily, especially into their parent's lives. My Katie is a smart girl and she loves that MJ as much as you do.'"

  Tears streaked down Mary Jane's face. I reached over and wiped her cheek, "What did I say, sweetheart?"

  She swiped her tears away, "Nothing, and everything. It's wonderful to know your father approved of me. It means a lot. You have no idea how much."

  The waitress interrupted our moment by dropping off our food. We let go of each other's hand in order to make room for the food on the table. "If it's not too weird, maybe I could spend a day with your mom and Katelyn both?" Mary Jane asked before taking a long sip of her iced tea.

  "That's not weird at all. I think my mom would love it. She's very fond of you as well, MJ." My phone rang and I pressed my finger to my lips silencing Mary Jane. "Hey Katie, are you having fun with Aunt Gracie?" His eyes widened and he grinned, "Yeah, I did hear something about Mary Jane being back in town. Actually she asked me if she could spend a few days with you if you want to." I held the phone away from my ear to lessen the noise from her squealing. Mary Jane heard the excitement, beaming with excitement herself.

  Less than a minute after I hung up, Mary Jane's phone rang. She glanced down and started laughing. Turning the phone toward me, she showed me that it was Gracie calling which meant most likely it was Katelyn. "Hello?" She held a thumb up to me. "Hey Katie-cat. Tomorrow?" She looked to me for approval, I nodded. "I'd love to spend the day with you tomorrow. Just the two of us. And if it's ok, I'd like to spend a day with you and your Grandma when she has a day free as well. I'll pick you up in the morning then. Bye," She paused, closed her eyes and said, "I love you too sweetie."

  Chapter Sixteen

  **Mary Jane**

  It was nine o’clock on the dot when I pulled into Derrick’s driveway. The front door opened as I was strolling up the walkway. Derrick was sprinting towards me with a grin on his face. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me long and hard before saying hello. “Good morning beautiful,” he smirked as I couldn’t wipe the happy grin off my face.

  “Good morning, yourself.” Then I came to my senses pulling away from him quickly to keep from being seen by Katelyn.

  He laughed and said, “Don’t worry, she’s still getting ready that’s why I wanted to come steal a kiss before she came out.” I followed him into the house. He went to the bottom of the stairs then yelled, “MJ’s here, kiddo. Get a move on!”

  Katelyn’s exasperated voice responded with, “Can you send her up here? I’m having a bad hair day.”

  Derrick smacked his palm against his forehead and turned to me, “What kind of six year old worries about bad hair days?”

  “The kind who wants to be fabulous of course.” When I reached the top of the stairs, Katelyn was in her room with her back turned. She had her head resting in her hands with her elbows propped up on the vanity as though she was utterly exhausted. “What’s wrong Katie-cat?”

  She sighed, “I was trying to French braid my hair the way Gracie taught me and I can’t do it. My arms get too tired.”

  I sat down on the edge of her bed, “Come here, sit between my legs and I’ll fix it up for you. Gracie taught me how to French braid too.” Katelyn’s hair was almost down to her hips so it took a few moments for me to braid it all the way.

  When I was tying it off with a pink satin ribbon, Derrick knocked on the bedroom door. “You almost done up here, ladies?” He noticed Katelyn’s hair and said, “Your hair looks great, Boo.”

  Katelyn runs her hand along the length of the braid. Then she shocks both of us, “Are you two dating again?”

  Derrick answers, saving me from embarrassment. “We’re getting to know each other again as friends.” The look of disappointment on her face tore into both Derrick and me.

  “You ready to get our day started?” Katelyn nodded and I turned to Derrick, “I’ll have her back by dinner.”

  Derrick reached into his pocket and pulled out his key ring, “Here is a spare key to the house in case I’m not home when you get here. I’m working on some stuff at the club this afternoon.”

  Adding the key to my set, I said, “Great. We’ll see you tonight. Text me if you need anything or just to check in.” I winked at him because Derrick constantly checks in on Katelyn when she’s out of his sight. It’s an adorable habit he has and wins him more points as a great father, not that there was any doubt.

  Katelyn and I started our day off at the Nashville Zoo. When I lived in Nashville before I had a membership to go to the zoo, it was my favorite place to go for a walk for exercise or just to enjoy the animals. When I walked up to buy our tickets, I splurged and bought the family membership so we could come back again later. Katelyn smiled when she heard me say family membership and list her name and Derrick’s for members. What she didn’t know is that I did that in case I leave for Florida so they could still come and enjoy it.

  Derrick and I had been dating without anyone but Ashton and Gracie knowing. It was getting more and more difficult to go slow and to keep things from our friends and from Katelyn. Every moment we spent together we grew closer. Not much had changed in two years in spite of everything we had both been through we still loved each other equally if not more than we did before. The job at Disney was still open to me, I had around two weeks to make a decision on whether I’d take it or not. No one knew about it though, I wanted to make the decision on my own. My relationship with Derrick told me I wanted to stay; my job search told me I needed to go. It was beginning to stress me out a bit. If I told Derrick about it now, most likely it would start a fight.

  We stopped first at the Meerkat exhibit. Katelyn ran ahead to crawl into the tunnel that allows you to pop up in a plastic tube inside the habitat. With my cell phone ready I snapped a few pictures of her crawling through then popping her head up. When she noticed me taking pictures she started to pose in different ways, first as a meerkat with her hands pulled together in front of her face in a begging manner the way they look when they stand up. When she was done, we went to the petting zoo portion. While we were there, I said, “Hey kid, it’s been over an hour and your dad hasn’t called. Can you believe it?” She giggled with me. So we decided to take a couple of selfies to text to him.

  First we pressed our faces together and gave our best happy smiles, the second one we each stuck our tongue out and crossed our eyes as best as we could. I sent the text and said We’re proud of you for not checking in for an hour. Thought we’d let you know we’re having a blast together. ~MJ and Katie-cat. He
responded instantly I promise not to bug you two if you promise to keep sending these pics throughout the day. Deal? ~Derrick. I responded with Deal ~MJ and KC to which he asked KC? ~Derrick.

  Katelyn rolled her eyes, “You’d think he’d get it.” I responded As in Katie-cat. She said she wanted initials too. ~MJ and KC. The next text I omitted the part about me, I love you both. Have fun ~ D.

  I told Katie he said he loved her, but the fact I was included in that made my grin hard to hide. “Let’s go have a snack.” Katelyn and I stopped in at the in park restaurant and bought a basket of fries to share along with a Frozen cherry cola for each of us.

  When the girl behind the counter delivered our fresh fries to the table she said, “I love how you did your daughter’s hair, it looks so pretty.”

  Katelyn smiled up at her and said, “Thanks. My mom does the best French braids.”

  The young girl returned the smile, “She certainly does.” I was stunned first at the girl thinking Katelyn was mine, then at the fact that Katelyn called me Mom. The most surprising thing is that it felt right, like it was true.

  When the woman walked away, Katelyn said, “Thanks for playing along. I’ve never had anyone to call Mom before so it was nice to say it for a change.” My heart hurt for her. “I wish you were my mom,” she added before taking a long sip of her frozen drink. I didn’t know how to respond, and then she grabbed her head and yelled, “Ugh, brain freeze.”

  “Take your thumb and press it to the roof of your mouth, it’ll make the brain freeze ease quicker.” I said, hating to see her in pain.

  She followed my instructions and a moment later she felt relief, “See, you’d be an awesome Mom. Dad needs to know that trick.”

  I moved to sit next to her at the table. Kissing her cheek, I wrapped my arms around her tightly and said, “I love you Katie-cat.”

  She giggled, “I love you too.”

  “Where do you want to go next? Giraffes? Elephants?”

  She thought for a moment and said, “Playground?” I nodded almost as excited about playing around as she was. We ran around the playground hopping from swings to slides to monkey bars, finishing the day off by slipping our shoes off and jumping into the bounce pit which is basically a big pile of cushions you can jump up and down on. We both collapsed into a pile and rolled over to lay next to each other while laughing about how much fun we’d had. At this point, we were both sweating profusely and in desperate need of a shower.

  “What do you say we go back to your house for a bit, get cleaned up and then go out and have a really nice lunch?”

  Katelyn held her arms out to me, “Only if you carry me to the car, I’m exhausted.”

  I laughed, “I’m sorry, kid. You want to take a nap before we go out.”

  She yawned and said, “That’d be nice. You can take one in daddy’s bed.”

  I gulped and said, “I think I’ll sit on the couch and read for a bit. She was dragging herself so slowly back to the car that I felt bad and finally lifted her up onto my hip. She rested her head against my shoulder and fell asleep. By the time I got to my car my arms were killing me. I strapped her in the booster seat in the back and snapped a picture.

  Texting it to Derrick I said, I wore her out at the zoo. Taking her back to your house for a nap.~MJ and KC When he texted back I grinned from ear to ear, Maybe I can come home and join you in that nap? Feel free to take my bed, keep it warm for me.~D.

  Carrying Katelyn up to her room was quite a chore. I finally got her up there and tucked her in before kissing her head and shutting the door as quietly as I could. Although the ride and the struggle to get upstairs didn’t wake her so I wasn’t sure anything could. While she slept, I ran into Derrick’s room and grabbed a quick shower to rub the dirt and grime off myself as best as I could.

  When I got out, I lifted my t-shirt and it smelled terrible, like grass and dirt and sweat. I knew Derrick wouldn’t mind me borrowing one. In his closet his business suits were hanging and then there were t-shirts stacked on a shelf above them. I reached to pull one down and knocked over a shoe box in the process. Pictures spilled out of the box so I bent to pick them up. The first one was of Derrick with his arm around a girl; they looked to be in high school. There were quite a few of him and this girl in different poses making faces or kissing. Then I found a picture of him with the same girl only she was sporting a pretty large belly. These were all pictures of Katelyn’s mom. I felt a twinge of jealousy for a moment that he’d kept these. Did he lie to me about what happened to her? Some of the pregnancy pictures make her look really excited. There were movie stubs, an ultrasound photo, dried flowers; this was a memory box and he still keeps it. Returning the box to its rightful place I left the closet. It wasn’t right for me to go through that and I should’ve stopped myself sooner. Emotionally and physically drained at the moment, I curled up on the bed, inhaled the scent of Derrick that covered the sheets and drifted off for a nap of my own.

  The bed sunk behind me, I started to roll over when I felt strong arms embrace me. Warm lips kissed my cheek and a husky voice said, “I could get used to coming home and finding you in my clothes and my bed.”

  My cheeks flushed with heat as Derrick continued kissing my neck softly, his hands moved inside my t-shirt caressing my skin. I turned to face him. “I thought you were kidding about coming home to take a nap.” I said, smiling at him.

  “Only kind of kidding. I had to come home to change into a business suit. I have a meeting this afternoon with an investor for the club.”

  I sat up and said, “Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

  He sat up next to me, “Of course, what’s up?”

  “Someone mistook Katelyn for my daughter today and then she went along with it and called me Mom.”

  Derrick’s brow furrowed, “And it upset you?” he asked sounding confused.

  “No, of course not I’d love to be her mom, but I’m not.”

  Derrick was still confused, “I know that, and so does Katelyn. I don’t think I understand the problem MJ. It’s not as though I was married to her mom or she died and you’re trying to take her place. Her mom’s never been in the picture, and that was her choice.”

  I mumbled, “Picture is kind of the magic word here.”

  “What?” he asked.

  “When I got this t-shirt down, I accidentally knocked over the memory box.”

  He looked surprised to hear that I found it. At first I thought I made him mad because he got up and left the room. When he came back he closed the door and lowered his voice, “Sorry I wanted to make sure Katie was still asleep and didn’t overhear us. That box is an ‘I hope she never asks but I kept this in case she does’ box.”

  I laughed nervously, “That’s quite a name for it.”

  He smirked, “Yeah, sorry. Basically I kept all of that as a way to show Katie that she was created out of love. Can you imagine growing up with a mother who didn’t want anything to do with you? I don’t want Katie to ever feel like she was a mistake. As someone who didn’t know me then, how do those pictures look to you?”

  I blushed, “Like two people in love. So much so that I was a little jealous at first.”

  He grinned, “Oh really?” then shook his head to get back on topic, “We thought we were in love back then, neither of us knew what that meant though. I despise her mother for walking away and for not wanting her, but if Katie wants to know about her then she will and she will see good things only. I’ll do that for my daughter’s self worth, nothing more. Does that make sense?”

  Silently I bobbed my head up and down. He lifted my chin before asking, “What’s wrong?” Fidgeting with my nails, avoiding eye contact, I said, “You amaze me more and more every day.”

  Then his phone rang. With a quick glance he said, “I have to take this, hold that thought.” He walked into the bathroom and shut the door for privacy. A few moments he came out looking stressed.

  “Everything alright?”

  He ran his finge
rs through his hair as he scrolled through his contacts. “No. That was the investor I’m supposed to meet with. He can’t meet until after seven tonight. I need to see if Ashton or my Mom can take Katie for the night in case it runs late. This club is a dream come true for me, but I hardly get to see my girl these days.”

  I snatched the phone from him, “Do you have any more meetings before that?”

  He shook his head, “No but I have to find…”

  I covered his mouth, “Let’s go have a meal, then you can drop us off here and I’ll stay with her until you get home.”

  “Are you sure? I mean do you not have plans tonight?”

  I pulled him in for a quick kiss, “I’m free tonight and I want more Katie-cat time. We’ve had a blast today. Tonight we can curl up on the couch, watch movies, eat popcorn and relax. If you’d rather have some time alone with her before then, I can go home for a bit.”

  He tugged her closer, “Nothing I’d rather do more than spend time with my two favorite girls for the next few hours.”

  Derrick went to wake up Katelyn. As I was walking towards her room I heard her say, “Dad?” in confusion then cry out, “Oh no! I slept too long and missed my whole day with MJ! I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

  She sounded so disappointed I couldn’t let her go on thinking that. “I’m still here, Katie-cat.” She saw me and ran straight into my arms almost knocking me over.

  Derrick teasingly said, “What am I chopped liver?” Katelyn grinned at him when he winked.

  “Your dad has a few hours free and was going to have a late lunch with us. Then he has a meeting tonight so I was going to see if you’d mind me hanging around for a girl's night.” Katelyn’s face resembled a child seeing her toys on Christmas morning she was so excited.