by DD Prince
“I’m so fuckin’ in love with you,” he told me.
There was a lump in my throat. “Me, too.”
He pulled me back up to vertical.
“And I got your back in there with her tonight, okay, Jenna? No matter what she throws at us, we’re gonna be okay. Okay?”
I nodded.
God, it felt even better to have someone have my back than I could’ve imagined. He opened the door for me and I got inside and blew out a breath of relief, steeling myself for the night to come.
***
I knocked on the front door.
“You’re knockin’ on the door of your childhood home?” he asked, standing behind me.
“Yeah. I don’t live here anymore.”
He shook his head, perplexed.
I got it. Ella would never have to knock on the door of her parents’ house. Ever. I didn’t have to knock at her house and I wasn’t related by blood. But this house? Yeah, it would be frowned upon if I didn’t knock.
One day though, if Ella and Deacon had kids and we had kids, our kids would be first cousins. I’d be related to Ella’s family by blood.
God, that felt good.
I smiled at him.
He smiled back. He had no idea why I was smiling, but his smiling back at me gave me strength.
Mom opened the door and gave us a cursory eye sweep and waved us in.
Rider had a bottle of wine. I had a box from Andie’s bakery that was filled with macarons. Mom’s favorite.
“Nice to see you again, Mrs. Murdoch.” Rider held his hand out.
Mom took it and shook his hand.
“Dinner’s nearly ready. Please come to the dining room.”
Dad was already sitting at the head of the table.
“Hey Dad,” I went to him and kissed his cheek.
“You look lovely, Jenna,” he said.
“Thanks. Dad, this is Rider.”
Dad stood, and he and Rider shook hands.
“We met, Jenna. When he came over that morning.”
“Oh yeah,” I said.
“How’s things, Paul?” Rider asked.
“We’ll see,” Dad muttered and gestured for Rider to sit down.
It was a table for six, but only four places were set. Rider and I were closer to Mom than Dad. Mom returned from the kitchen where she’d gone to get rid of the things we’d brought.
Dad’s smile melted away at Mom returning to the dining room.
“What’s for dinner?” I asked. “It smells great.”
“Prime rib. I took a half day off to cook.” She put the butter dish and a dish of horseradish on the table.
“Mm, sounds good,” Rider said.
“Be right back,” Mom said and went back to the kitchen.
I looked at Dad. He looked better than I’d last seen him.
“Jenna, we have to talk after this. I don’t know if she’s going to say some of the things I wanted to say to you privately, but---”
“You mean, in case I tell her about your whore, you want to make excuses for all you’ve done?” Mom was back.
Holy shit.
My eyes widened. I tried to swallow down a lump in my throat. It remained where it was.
Rider’s eyes were on me. I felt steady just looking at him.
He gave me a meaningful look.
Dad’s eyes closed, and he let out a breath.
“Wine?” Mom asked and had a bottle, not the one we’d brought, in her hand.
“Yeah. Make it a double,” I muttered.
“Rider, I’m sorry, we meant for this to be just a family dinner. Jenna insisted you were coming so unfortunately you’re not seeing us at our best.” Mom was completely composed, but also seemed a little bit higher strung than usual.
And that was saying something.
“You see, my husband of twenty-six years is ending our marriage and he’s been having an extramarital affair for three and a half years.”
My heart dropped. She finished pouring my glass and moved to him.
Dad’s eyes were still closed.
“That means that when we spent our silver wedding anniversary renewing our vows, he was fucking someone else on the side. Now, Genevieve, since his whore is the whore he purchased your salon from, you’ll probably understand when I tell you that as his wife who’s entitled to half of his money, I want to sell immediately and liquidate all our assets so that they can be split down the middle.”
Rider’s glass was now full.
What? What? Debbie?
What? I don’t think I’d ever heard Mom use an F-bomb.
“Oh, you heard me,” she answered my unspoken whats.
“Dad?” I was in shock.
Dad’s eyes opened and were on me and they were filled with remorse.
“I didn’t want you to find out this way. I wanted to talk to you.”
Mom laughed with venom in her voice.
“I should have known. He has the perfect business for you, the perfect arrangement for the former owner to show you the ropes and stay on until you’re all set. Then he divorces me and moves on with her. She’s already a friend to you and swoops in to take my place and you’re instantly on their side.”
I heard the ‘ding’ of a kitchen timer and it sent Mom back to the kitchen. She strolled in there, casually, like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me.
“Dad?” I asked.
“I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”
I gave my head a shake.
Debbie was awesome. She was not far off Mom’s age, just a few years younger, but she was youthful, fun, interesting, sweet. She’d been amazing to me. She said she wanted to retire, work less but still cut hair for a while, so I’d taken over the business and she was staying on, renting a chair, for 2.5 to 3 years to help with the transition. I’d taken over her apartment over the shop and she’d moved into a really nice little Victorian house not far away.
She talked about sex, but she never talked about dating and she was a stunner. Now, I kind of understood. She had a love life. With my Dad.
She and her friends had just gone on a girls’ trip to Vegas.
Shit. My Dad had said while I was in lockdown in Sioux Falls that he was going on a business trip to Nevada.
Did Mom catch him?
Mom came back out with the pan with the roast. Surrounding it were roasted Parisienne potatoes and roasted baby carrots. She put it down and went back to the kitchen, calling “I could use a hand carrying out the rest, Jenna.”
I got up and followed her.
“Mom.” I felt so sad for her. She wasn’t nice. She was mean to me and barely nice to my father. As for their twenty-fifth renewal, she’d organized that in the garden with their friends and it’d felt fake even back then. I doubted Dad had a choice.
But he’d been cheating on her for all this time? With Deb. Deb! I considered Deb a friend. Deb knew so much about my life. I’d sat and moaned to Deb about my mother a hundred times, for heaven’s sake. I was feeling betrayed right now, too.
“I guess you think I deserve this,” she said, pouring gravy from a pan on the stove into her fine bone china gravy boat.
“No. Not even a little bit.” I said, my arms cradling myself.
“You’ll be on his side after he pulls you aside. He’s always spoiled you.”
“What? My father didn’t spoil me. Neither of you did.”
“Bring the rolls.” She walked out with the gravy boat and I followed with a basket of rolls.
She put the gravy on the table.
Rider was sitting there looking at me. My father was sitting there with a face like stone.
Mom smiled and said, “So, in light of the circumstances, we’ll need to liquidate all the assets and split them. Including the salon and the building the salon and apartment are in.” Mom started to slice the roast like she wasn’t talking about slicing my life into pieces.
Dad’s face went hard.
“Except this place.” She looked around
with disdain. “Your father had his mother make this part of your trust fund. I’ll move out and then he’ll either take it until you want it, or he’ll give it to you, I guess.”
“Mom…” I started.
“Karen. I’m sure we can deal with this without dragging Jenna’s business into it.”
“No.” She pointed the knife at my father.
Yikes.
She went back to slicing.
“Mom, I know there’s a whole lot happening here, but maybe we should all just…”
“No.” She started serving the meat. She served Rider first, then Dad, then me, then herself.
She started ladling vegetables onto Rider’s plate.
“Your father has spoiled you rotten. You have not shown the level of responsibility required to run a business, Genevieve. It’s better we just end it now.”
“I’ll buy you out, then,” Dad said. “This thing is between you and I and it shouldn’t touch Jenna.”
“There you go again. Indulging her bad behavior. Look at what she’s doing!” Mom gestured at Rider.
Rider’s eyebrows shot up.
“And she takes off for days leaving her business in the hands of your whore and her nail technician. She couldn’t care less about responsibility.”
“I love my salon. I’m doing well with it. I---”
“You’re a frivolous young woman who needs a reality check!” Mom hissed.
I shot to my feet. “Are you kidding me? Reality? I lived in a house with two people in a loveless marriage who tolerated me, at best, because of how much of a disappointment I was. Despite that, I put myself through beauty school. My business might only be my business because of Dad’s arrangement, but I never asked for that. I don’t ask either of you for anything. Affection. Support. Love. Not a thing.” I threw my napkin on the table. “I was in hiding because someone wanted to rape and kill me, not that you’d give a shit. If you want to take my salon, have at it. I no longer give a fuck.”
I stormed out. Rider was right behind me.
My first instinct was to climb Ella’s staircase to her attic. That’s where I always headed when I was furious with my mother. Because that was all I had. That wasn’t the case any longer. I had a man who loved me. I spun around and faced Rider in the driveway. “Please take us for a ride? Please?”
“You got it, gorgeous.” He kissed my forehead and opened the passenger door of the Charger for me.
We got to his garage, I hadn’t said a word on the way, and parked close to the burnt-out Deke’s Roadhouse. He unlocked the garage and took me in through the side door. His regular Harley and his vintage bike were both there. There was also a half-built bike in a similar style, but with pink in it. I touched the body of it.
“You making this for a girl?” I asked.
“Yep,” he said. “You want one, too? Teach you to ride?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I like that I can just hang onto you and enjoy the view.” I stared off into space.
“Jenna…” He approached me.
I looked at him.
“I’m not gonna cry over that,” I informed him.
“Okay, baby.” He put his hands to my jaw and caressed the apples of my cheeks with his thumbs. “But if you need to, lean on me, gorgeous.”
I put my arms around him.
My phone was ringing from my pocket.
I glanced at the screen.
Mom Calling
I answered.
“Hello?”
“End things with him and show you’re ready to be a responsible adult and I won’t drag your salon into the divorce.”
I held the phone.
“Your choice. Let me know by tomorrow.”
“I don’t have to think about it, Mom. I’ll give you my answer right now.”
She held the phone.
“Take it. Take it and sell it. I don’t care. I’ll work at another salon until I get my trust fund and I’ll buy another one. I don’t give a shit. He means way more to me already than that. You’re doing me a favor here, because this cuts the strings. We’re done. Enjoy yourself, Mom. Have fun basking in your bitterness knowing you’ve won.”
I ended the call, shoved my phone in my pocket, and put my ear to his chest.
Thumping steady and sure. This was all I needed right now. This, and the open road.
“We goin’ for a ride?” I asked, looking up at him.
He looked furious. “I heard what she said, Jenna.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“She offered to let you keep it if you gave me up.”
“Yeah.” I said, a sourness working its way through my mouth, my stomach.
“She’ll probably change her mind after she gets a chance to cool down. She’s just striking out at whoever she can because she’s so angry.”
“She won’t change her mind, Rider. And it’s okay. I’m so ready for her to have zero leverage over me, it’s actually a bit of a relief.”
I felt that, yeah, but I loved my salon. I hated that I’d also be taking away from Pippa, who would have to find another salon to work at.
And Pippa was supposed to be moving in with Joe, but the way things were with them right now? She wasn’t talking, but I could tell things weren’t good. I didn’t like the idea of her having to move out of our apartment and in with him if she had any doubts.
“I love you,” he told me.
I smiled. “I love you, too. Take me for a ride, please?”
“Let’s go. Tap my left elbow if you want me to pull off. My right one, when you’re ready to head back home.”
We took his Harley and drove for a good hour or hour and a half, before I tapped his right elbow and he took us home.
***
I was sitting on the edge of the bed, deep in thought, while he was in the bathroom a long time, the water running.
Finally, he poked his head out and crooked his finger at me.
I got up and walked into the bathroom. He’d run me a bubble bath. My scented warmer light was on, the lights off, and he put two plush lilac towels with satin edging on the vanity for me.
“Thanks, handsome.”
He kissed my forehead and left me to it.
I came out of the bathroom a half an hour later, relaxed and sleepy. He was in bed, watching television.
“You didn’t like the purple towels?” he asked.
“Those are my good towels. I don’t use those,” I said, tightening the beige bath towel wrapped around me.
He chuckled. “Why have ‘em if you can’t use ‘em?”
I smiled. “Because they’re pretty.”
“Yeah, well so are you, and I certainly plan to use you,” he teased.
I crawled up onto the bed in just the towel.
“If I use them constantly, they might not be pretty. If you use me constantly, I don’t know if that’ll be pretty, but it sure will feel good… so I won’t care.”
He snickered and undid my towel and tossed it. I crawled under the blankets with him and snuggled in.
“We didn’t get dinner. You hungry?” I asked.
“Not really,” he said.
“Me either.”
He didn’t make any moves, despite my nakedness, his nakedness.
I was glad. I wasn’t feeling sexy right now. I was feeling very, very tired. And sad.
He rubbed my back until I fell asleep with my head on his chest.
***
My dad was waiting for me at the salon when I got down the stairs in the morning. He was standing there chatting with Scooter, who was today’s shadow. Rider had already gotten up and showered to leave for work before I was out of bed, kissing me sweetly, telling me to have a good day and to call him if my mother tried to hassle me.
“Hi Dad,” I said.
“Hello, honey. Got time to talk before you open?”
I nodded, and we went into the utility room, leaving Scooter in the waiting area.
“I’m sorry you had to find out that way,”
he said as I started up the coffeemaker.
“Me, too,” I said.
“In Deborah’s defense, she didn’t like the lies. She gave me an ultimatum about it. Made me put a timeline on it. I pushed it off a few times, not wanting to hurt anyone. I’m lucky I didn’t lose her.”
I passed him a cup of coffee and started a new one for me.
“Your mother and I haven’t been happy for a really long time. If we ever really were.”
“Yeah, but lying doesn’t make it better. It’s cowardly, Dad.”
He looked down. “I know. I’ve been trying to get caught for six months. I think your mother knew for about two years. I think she suspected it when we had to have that meeting with Deborah to sign all the papers for the salon. She started punishing me even more but never confronted me. I think it was more fun for her this way.”
“How did it all come to a head?”
“The night we saw the news about that woman that got murdered and we couldn’t reach you. We were arguing. I was leaving for Vegas that morning and I was telling her that I wasn’t concerned about Rider. See, Deborah’s closest friend Laura used to date Rider’s father, so she filled us in on the kind of people you were with. And honey, that added to talking to Rider on the phone? That put my mind at ease. I was trying to settle your mother down, and finally I blurted how I knew that the Valentines were good people. It just spiraled out of control from there.”
I blew out a breath.
“It’s on me. I accept responsibility. And now she’s gonna make everyone’s life miserable. I’m seeing my lawyer. I want to find a way to keep the salon out of it. Our original arrangement should stand. It might make things take longer, but I’m not willing for you to take the brunt of this.”
“No, Dad.” I shook my head. “That puts me in the middle of this thing with you and her and I don’t wanna be.”
“She’s gonna tie up all our assets, or I would’ve---”
“I know.”
“The house is in your name in trust. I did that when my mother passed, so she couldn’t sell it out from under you if things came to this. Even then I think I knew we wouldn’t last forever. I could ask my lawyer about it. If you sell it, it would be more than enough to---”
I shook my head. “No. I’m gonna raise my children in that house.”