by Kris Jett
The bells hanging over the heavy wood door to MoonBeans jingled and Melody and Wynn both looked up at the same time to see Eric push his way into the warm coffee shop. Even though she felt a physical rage mixed with disgust when she saw Eric, she couldn’t deny he was still as gorgeous as ever with his thick blonde hair and aqua blue eyes. Wynn’s gaze darted around, looking for any site of badly bleached blonde hair. She’d wondered if he was still dating his teenage bag girl and if he dared to show up at their meeting with the young twit. She felt a flutter of relief that the girl was nowhere in sight. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with her and seeing Eric again at the same time.
Wynn looked down at her daughter. Melody had already returned her attention back to the puzzle pieces and didn’t give Eric a second glance. Wynn had wondered if this might happen. Melody had no idea who he was. He was nobody to her. Melody was only a little baby when Eric left them. Wynn wondered how this must make Eric feel. That his own daughter doesn’t recognize him as anyone other than a stranger.
Eric smiled widely at Wynn as he made his way over. Wynn tried to smile back but her face just wouldn’t let her do it. If anything, she felt the urge to reach out and slap him. But she knew she couldn’t do that.
“Wynn, hey,” Eric said when he reached them.
Wynn thought about standing up but then feared Eric might try and hug her or something so she stayed firmly planted in her chair. “Hey,” she returned slowly and pulled her sweater tighter around herself.
Eric looked down at Melody and then crouched down at her level. “Hi, there, Melody. I’m Eric. Look how big you are.”
Ha! Eric. He wanted his daughter to call him Eric. Figured. Wynn felt, at once, smug satisfaction and intense relief that he didn’t want to be called Dad.
Melody looked up and studied Eric’s face, like she wondered where he had just come from. She glanced at her mom and then back to Eric and held out a fistful of puzzle pieces to him.
He accepted the puzzle piece with a grin. “Thank you.”
Melody nodded and went back to work on the mountain of pieces she was making.
Eric stood up and turned to Wynn. “Hi,” he said again.
“Hi,” Wynn echoed. She stared at him. Waiting for him to say something else since they’d really beaten this whole “hello” thing to death at this point. He was the one who had asked to see them. She certainly wasn’t going to be the one to carry the conversation.
“Um,” Eric looked around the coffee shop, clearly looking nervous now. “Did you want anything to drink? Eat?”
“We were waiting until you arrived,” Wynn said.
Eric’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, well let me go get you something. What would you like? Just name it.” His face looked flooded with relief at having a task to do.
Wynn pursed her lips, thinking of a dozen awful things she could say to him right now but wouldn’t. Finally, she said, “A chai tea for me would be great. And a cookie for Melody. Maybe a little container of 2% milk too if they have it.”
Melody looked up and squealed, “Cookie!”
“Great,” he said. “I’ll go get them. Be right back.”
Oh, sure. Don’t talk to your only child for over a year but buy her mother a tea and her a cookie and we’ll call it square, Wynn thought sarcastically. Her stomach twisted and she wished she could just pick Melody up and leave. Why was this turning out to be even harder than she thought it would be? She wasn’t sure what she expected to happen but she felt incredibly uncomfortable even seeing Eric, let alone sitting for drinks with him. Did she think they’d just ease into conversation? Thank God, she’d only agreed for coffee and nothing else. She couldn’t bear to sit through a whole meal with him.
A few minutes later Eric returned with their drinks and a giant chocolate chip cookie for Melody. She was in heaven. Kids were so easy to win over. Too bad Eric couldn’t give Wynn a cookie too and everything would just be fine.
Eric took the over-stuffed chair opposite of Wynn, tossed his coat over one of the arms, and set his large coffee down on the small table between them. He stared down at Melody and smiled as she happily chomped away on her cookie.
Wynn sipped at her tea and watched Eric. Waiting.
He finally looked up at Wynn and wiped the palms of his hands on his jeans.
“So, what brings you all the way to Snowy Ridge?” Wynn said, finally breaking the silence.
Eric took a deep breath and exhaled. “Melody.”
Well, duh, Wynn thought. Of course he didn’t come back just so he could have tea with her. What does he want with Melody is the real question.
“What about Melody?” Wynn asked. “Did you just want to see what she looked like? I could have sent a picture.”
“No, I mean, yes, but,” Eric stammered. He looked flustered while he searched for the right words. “Listen, Wynn, I know I’ve been a terrible father…”
She started to roll her eyes but caught herself. This was the understatement of the year but she didn’t want to start a fight with him.
“I was so stupid and immature. I never should have left you and Melody the way that I did. I feel like such a horrible person,” he said.
Wynn cringed. Oh, dear God, she thought. He’d better not be trying to get back with me. There is no way in hell.
“If I could go back in time,” he continued, “and change some of the ways I handled things I would. I’ve just, I’ve made so many mistakes.”
Wynn’s stomach hurt. She felt like this was some kind of cruel joke. Why does he now feel bad for what he’s done? He wasn’t a kid. It’s not like they were teenagers having a baby. The man was in his thirties for God’s sake. She didn’t want to sit here listening to this.
“I’m not sure what you want from me,” Wynn interrupted. “We haven’t talked in a long time. You’ve sent checks for Melody, and, thank you for that. They have helped tremendously. But what is it you want now? Why are you in Snowy Ridge?”
Eric took a deep breath and wrung his hands together. “I want to see Melody. I want to start spending time with her. I want us to have a real relationship. I want to be her dad.”
Wynn was stunned. She’d thought all this time Eric was happy having his single care-free life. She didn’t think he’d ever want to be active in Melody’s life.
“I’ve grown up, Wynn. I’m more stable now. I want Melody to get to know me and her step-mom now,” he said.”
Wynn blinked hard. She felt like she’d just run into a brick wall and needed to shake the stun of it off. “Um, what?” she said, trying to keep her voice even but teetered on screeching. Melody dropped the last bit of her cookie on the table and put one chubby hand on her mom’s knee.
“Mommy okay?” she asked.
Wynn pat Melody’s hand and tried again to steady her voice. “Yes, baby. Mommy’s okay. Don’t worry.”
She took several breaths, hoping to calm down. She should have started yoga with Luci. They would have showed her the right way to breathe and she wouldn’t be feeling on the verge of a panic attack right at that moment. She bit her lips and briefly closed her eyes. She counted to five and then popped them back open and looked at Eric. “Did you say, step-mom?”
Eric looked on the border of having his own panic attack. “That, um, that was the other thing I wanted to tell you about. I’m getting married. To Brittany.”
Wynn slumped back into her seat. She’d felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. She tried hard to put her thoughts together before speaking. Finally, she said, “Um, is Brittany…I mean, was she the girl, I mean, that bagger girl from your store?” She didn’t know why she bothered asking. Like there was any chance she’d ever forget that Brittany. But maybe this was a new, different Brittany. A much older, more professional type of woman. Maybe she was a kind teacher or lawyer. A CEO of a fortune 500 company. It had been a while since she’d seen Eric. Plenty of time for him to fall in love with an actual woman and not a child.
Eric slowly nodded.
“I see,” Wynn said. She put her hand over her mouth and stared toward the door. Bets was giving her a concerned look. She put up her thumb as if to ask if everything was okay and Wynn nodded even though everything was very much not okay. Let Eric screw up his life however he wanted but there was no way in hell this teenager would ever babysit Melody let alone be her mother.
Chapter Nine
Bryce walked into the bowling alley and was smacked in the face with sensory overload. The place was packed with people bowling, and those just lingering and watching. People were talking and laughing at high decibels, pins were being cracked by balls, and somewhere, an arcade was pretty busy because the sounds of aliens getting shot and people yelling, “Yes!” and “Die sucker!” filled the air. Bryce wanted to turn right back around and go out into the safety of the quiet parking lot. But, he had promised Ed he’d show up, so he made himself push through the cigarette and body odor scented bodies and searched the lanes.
When Bryce reached about midway into the bowling alley, he detected Ed’s laugh and followed it right to the lane where he and his wife were putting on their rented bowling shoes.
Ed looked up and grinned at Bryce. “Hey, you made it!”
Bryce, “Yep, dragged myself out. Did Tiffany take one look at me and run out the door?” he kidded.
“Nope, I’m here.”
Bryce turned around and came face-to-face with a stunning woman with short brown hair, bright eyes, and a beautiful smile.
She held out one hand to Bryce while balancing a bowling ball in the other. “Hi, I’m Tiffany.”
He took her hand in his and shook. “Bryce.”
She held his gaze for a long beat and then released his hand to put her ball in the ball return. He felt his hand tingle where she’d just held it and rubbed his fingers. Wow. She certainly was better looking than he ever expected. Granted, he had kept his hopes really low after being burned on blind dates before. But, Tiffany was certainly a knockout. How was she not some big buff guy’s girlfriend or some rich dude’s wife?
The two couples started to bowl and Bryce quickly remembered why he never went bowling anymore. He hated it. He was so very bad at it and it was quickly obvious to the rest of the group after his fourth gutter ball. On the flip side, Tiffany had just made her third strike.
“Dude,” Ed said, studying the scoreboard up above the lane, “you never mentioned you sucked so hard at bowling.”
Bryce shrugged. “It’s just not my game.”
“I’m sure he’s good at other things,” Tiffany said, coming to Bryce’s defense.
He shot her an appreciative smile. “Why don’t I go grab us some drinks and you guys can just throw my next ball straight into the gutter for me.”
Ed chuckled. “Sure, grab me a beer.”
“Me too,” Tiffany said.
Bryce paused to admire the fact that Tiffany was a beer drinking kind of girl. He tended to like a girl who drank beer over those fruity kinds of drinks. “What about you, Nikki?”
“Ah, something fruity,” she replied.
Bryce smirked. “Got it, be right back.”
A few minutes later he returned with the drinks and the foursome paused to enjoy them. “So,” Bryce said to Tiffany, “when you’re not spending hours of practice time in your local bowling alley, what do you like to do for fun?”
Tiffany grinned and took another gulp of beer. “I’m actually not a huge fan of bowling.”
Bryce faked surprise. “What? No dreams of quitting the grind and becoming a pro bowler? Touring the best lanes across America?”
“Not in this lifetime,” Tiffany said. “I’m actually more of a homebody. I prefer staying home and having a Game of Thrones marathon to say, the bar scene.”
“Excuse me, what?” Ed asked. “Did you hear that Bryce? She’s your dream woman! Get thee to an altar, stat.”
Tiffany laughed. “So, you’re a homebody too?”
Bryce considered this. “Put it this way, there are more days of the week that I don’t wear pants all day than there are days that I do.”
Tiffany nodded. “Pants are a pain in the ass.”
“Aren’t they though?” Bryce asked. “And I just like my home so much more than everywhere else, you know?”
“Yeah, I know,” Tiffany agreed. “All my favorite stuff is there. Why go hang out in other places where like, I don’t have easy access to my stuff and have to use other people’s substandard stuff?”
“Seriously, my mind is like, being blown right now. You are the female Bryce,” Ed interjected.
“You two sound like an old couple who’ve been married forever,” Nikki added.
“We’re just more evolved,” Bryce said. “We know what we like.”
“Exactly. Like right now I’d like to use the ladies room. I’m just going to dash. Be back in a few,” Tiffany said.
Bryce nodded and watched her head down the hall. When he’d turned his head back he noticed Ed and Nikki grinning at him. “What?”
“Are you kidding?” Ed asked.
Nikki smacked Ed on the shoulder. “What did I tell you? Didn’t I say Tiffany would be perfect for him?”
Ed rubbed his shoulder, pretending like Nikki had hurt him. “You did, you did. It’s absurdly amazing how well matched these two are.” To Bryce he asked, “So you like her? Seems cool, right?”
Bryce hesitated briefly and then responded. “Yeah.”
Nikki’s face crumpled and she suddenly looked pissed. “What? You mean you don’t like her? What don’t you like? She’s gorgeous, funny, smart,” she said as she ticked off the points on her fingers.
“You guys did seem like you really clicked,” Ed contributed.
“I didn’t say I didn’t like her,” Bryce countered. “I said, ‘yeah.’”
“It’s the way you said ‘yeah,’” Nikki said angrily and threw herself into the seat near the ball return. “Fine, whatever. I give up. I’m not setting your friend up with anymore of my friends, Ed.”
“All right, everyone settle down. Tiffany will be back soon,” Ed said.
“I don’t understand the problem,” Bryce said. But that wasn’t exactly truthful. Tiffany did seem like a really great person. Perfect even. This was definitely the best blind date he’d ever had. He should be all over this. And at any other time, he probably would. But he wasn’t putting his whole self into it and he knew it. His mind kept returning to Sara. What was she doing right then? Would he ever be able to find her again? Should he start hanging out at that same bar, hoping to run into her one night? Why didn’t he get her number? Maybe she didn’t want him to have her number. That was probably it. He knew he should just accept it for what it was: a one-night stand. He needed to wipe her from his thoughts; but, he couldn’t. There she was, again and again.
Chapter Ten
“Mom, you’re up cooking? You don’t have to do that. I was going to make brunch for us,” Wynn said. She felt like she’d had to drag herself out of bed that morning. Last night was awful and this morning’s aftermath was still hitting her. Her head ached and she beelined right for the medicine cabinet to pull out some ibuprofen.
Wynn’s Mom was standing at the counter, taking cinnamon buns off of a baking sheet and placing them onto a bright, cheery-looking, yellow platter. Her hair was down and recently brushed. And she was wearing jeans and a pale pink button down dotted with tiny yellow flowers. It was the best she’d seen her look in some time now.
“I’m feeling good today,” her mom said. “You girls have been taking such wonderful care of me. I wanted to bake you something.”
Wynn tossed two blue pills in her mouth and chased it with a mouthful of water from the sink. “We’re happy to take care of you. You don’t need to do anything for us. And you don’t want to run down your energy.”
Her mom hushed her. “Stop worrying about me. If I get tired, I’ll take a break.” She set the cinnamon rolls on the counter and took a dozen eggs out of the refrigerator and set them
by the stove.
Wynn poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. She wrapped her hands around the warm mug and stared down into the blackness. Things hadn’t ended that great with Eric last night. When he’d told her about Brittany, she’d picked Melody up and walked straight out of the coffee shop. Eric followed her, trying to get her to stop and talk to him, but she didn’t want to. He had rattled on about what a good step-mom Brittany would be and how her being young was a good thing because she was fun and in-touch and Wynn just didn’t want to hear any more of it. She’d put Melody in her car seat, got in the driver’s seat, and drove away.
Eric continued to text her repeatedly for the rest of the night, but Wynn ignored him. She didn’t know what she was going to do and therefore had nothing to say back to him that made any sense. In one of his last texts, he said that he didn’t want to do this but if she wouldn’t be reasonable, he would be forced to take things to court; and, if that happened he’d ask for 50/50 joint custody of Melody. When she’d read that message, she’d thought her heart stopped. She couldn’t imagine not having Melody with her every single day. Melody was her child. Eric had given up any claim he had to her. She couldn’t even envision a world where she’d send her daughter off to live with Eric half the time. It wasn’t right. None of it was right. He shouldn’t be able to show up when he felt like it and make demands.