by Morgan Utley
“What a trollop,” her mom stated.
“Which one?” Peyton asked.
“I don’t know. That’s the sad thing.” She bit her lip, which was what she usually did when she was worried or stressed.
“Did he see you?” Peyton wondered.
Her mom shook her head. “No, they walked right past me toward the produce department. Thank heaven. I don’t know what I would have said if I saw him. I mean, I guess I do. I would play it cool and not bring you up, of course. But I’m glad I didn’t have to. I wanted to throw one of my apples at his head,” she surmised.
“I would have cheered you on.” Peyton put her head in her hands and fought back tears. She felt so ashamed and embarrassed. She couldn’t believe that she had let herself permit a guy to waltz back into her life, let alone allow herself to have feelings for one. It was at this moment that she realized that she had been falling in love with him. She could see him with her every day—laughing, cooking, traveling, having a family, growing old together, and being together forever. Little did she know that it was all a lie. He had played her, and she fell for it.
“Sweetheart, it's okay,” she felt her mom put her hand on her back. “Maybe it's not what we think it is.”
Peyton lifted her head and scowled at her mom, “Okay then, Mom. What else could it be? It was nothing but a tease, and I freaking fell for it. I feel so stupid. I should have never let you push me into this. I wasn’t ready!”
“Yes, you were! And you are! Honey, I know it's scary to put your heart back out there, but you deserve to be loved. You know as well as I do that nothing compares to the happiness you feel when you have someone by your side who truly, truly loves you and who stands by you no matter what. Someone that you can constantly rely on and go to and trust! You deserve that! You should have that!” she protested and put her hand back on the steering wheel.
“Mom, I already had all that. I crave it every day. For him to be by my side again. He’s the one I’ve desperately wanted to talk to these last few months, up until Noah maneuvered his way into my life. Then I started feeling all those mushy-gushy feelings again like being excited when I saw him or got a stupid text from him, and now, as soon I realize I really like the guy, I found out it's all a lie! He's a two-timing, two-faced jerk, and I never want to hear from him again. There’s no way on this earth I’m going out with him tonight.” Peyton was fuming. She folded her arms and looked out the window, letting tears trickle down her cheeks.
“Peyton, you don’t know that! You don’t know…” her mom stopped once she heard her cell phone ring. She picked it up to look and see who it was and decided to answer it.
“Hello?” she answered. Peyton listened closely to the muffled voice coming from the cell phone and recognized it to be her dad’s.
“Oh, really?” her mother queried. She was listening to her dad's voice rattling on, and it sounded as if he was worked up.
“We’re about ten minutes away,” she informed him. “I’ll call the vet right now.” She stopped talking to listen to her husband's voice and Peyton made out the words “Thank you” and “Love you.”
“Love you too. Bye.” Her mom hung up the phone and immediately started dialing what Peyton assumed to be Dr. Stapleton. She was our vet and lived a couple of miles down the road. She was usually available to come whenever her dad needed her.
“Mom, what’s going on?” Peyton asked and wiped the tears off her face. Her feelings had now switched from anger to worry.
However, her mom ignored her and waited for the doctor to answer the phone. “Hello, Nicki? Hi, it's Cheryl. Are you at home?” she asked.
Peyton was straining her ears at this point to try and make out the words but couldn’t do it.
“Good, it's an emergency. Can you head over to our house? There’s a calf being born, and my husband says he thinks it's a breech birth,” she informed her.
Peyton covered her mouth and started to panic. She had just checked on Betsy last night, and everything had looked fine.
“Thank you so much, Nicki. See you soon.” Her mom hung up the phone and set it back in her purse.
Peyton stared at her mom, who was staring at the road intently with her hands wrapped around the wheel so tight that her knuckles were turning white. Peyton reached over and put her hand on her mom’s shoulder.
“It’s going to be alright,” she consoled.
Her mom looked over at her and smiled. “I hope so. Nicki is heading there right now. Hopefully, the cord isn’t wrapped around the poor thing's neck. Your dad was really banking on this calf.”
“Well, at least she will be there,” Peyton sniffled.
Chapter 13
Peyton and her mom were home not more than five minutes later. Peyton had looked over at the speedometer and noticed that her mom was going fifteen miles per hour over the speed limit. Luckily, they saw Dr. Stapleton’s car in the driveway, which caused Peyton to breathe a sigh of relief. She was happy to know that her dad had support now. Once the car was in park, they both jumped out and sprinted toward the barn.
When they reached the stall, they looked over to see Dr. Stapleton checking the calf’s vitals. Her dad was stroking Betsy’s back and watching intently over Dr. Stapleton and the calf. They waited silently for what seemed like forever until finally the doctor looked up and shook her head. Peyton choked back a sob and opened the stall door. Her mom walked over to her dad to hug him, and Peyton knelt next to the calf. Despite it being slimy, she touched the top of the calf’s head and looked at it.
“What happened?” she asked glumly.
“Well, multiple things, I think. The calf is huge, and I think it was too big to turn around. And on its way out, it got tangled in the cord and choked. The poor thing didn’t have a chance. There was nothing we could have done,” Dr. Stapleton lamented.
Peyton nodded her head and wept over the cow. Her mom knelt down next to her and hugged her tightly. “Thank you for coming on such short notice, Nicki.” her mom sniffled.
“Anytime. I’ll check everything on Betsy and make sure she’s not bleeding too much before I go.”
“Thanks, Nicki,” her father said. “Peyton, Cheryl, I’ll walk you back to the house. Do you need my help with anything?” he asked the doctor.
Dr. Stapleton shook her head, “No. I’ll take care of everything here. You guys just go ahead and head back to the house. I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you,” he said, and they walked out of the stall and headed to the house.
As soon as Peyton walked into the house, she started bawling. Seeing the poor dead baby cow laying helpless in the hay broke her heart into pieces. She blamed the death of the calf on herself. She had sworn that from last night's check, the head had felt like it was turned the right way. She felt absolutely guilty and helpless.
Not to mention she was still upset with Noah. Seeing him so happy and laughing with that other girl made her feel worthless. She had nothing on that other girl. The blonde was beautiful, vivacious, and bubbly, and Peyton felt like she was damaged goods. It was a no brainer for Noah. Why would he want to have leftovers when he could have a brand new meal?
“Peyton, it's going to be alright,” her dad informed her and sat by her on the stairs, wrapping his arm around her. “I checked on the other cows this morning and discovered that two of our other cows were pregnant. I don’t know how far along, but Nicki is going to check them out after she looks over Betsy. Our neighbor's bull that escaped into our fence a couple of months ago must have done the dirty work before we got him out. It’s going to be okay.”
“Oh, really?” she blubbered. “Well, that’s good. At least we have that. That poor little calf. Just lying there, helpless. I could hardly stand it.”
“I know,” her dad rubbed her shoulder. “He fought so hard.”
“And it was all for nothing. He worked so hard and fought for his life only to make his strangulation worse and end his poor innocent life! It would have been better for him to not
have even existed. The poor calf didn’t deserve that. He didn’t do anything wrong. He just wanted a chance at life—to be happy and live happily ever after. The poor little calf!” Peyton wailed and cried into her dad’s shoulder.
“Um, honey. I have a feeling we're not talking about the calf anymore,” he pointed out.
“That’s because she’s not,” her mom stated.
“Mom,” Peyton moaned and leaned away from her dad and tried to stop crying.
“She already told me, Sis,” he informed her.
Peyton rolled her eyes and put her head in her hands, “Great.”
“Maybe it's not what we think it is. That bubbly blonde, as you two put it, could be anybody. He said that he really liked you last night, right? And that he would rather be with you than study?” her dad coaxed.
Peyton’s eyes narrowed at her mother. “You told him?”
“Peyton, I tell him everything. You have got to know that by now,” she deflected.
“Peyton,” her dad said, trying to get her attention back. “Did he say those things to you?”
“More or less, yes. But, I mean, wouldn’t people want to do anything else besides study?” Peyton countered. “Dad, it looked like they were together. She was hanging all over him, and he was laughing and smiling and looked really happy. And you know what, honestly, if he’s happy, I don’t want to mess with that. I don’t want to get in the way. I just wish that he had never messed with my feelings.”
“I do too. Plus, he seemed like such a nice guy, and it didn’t seem like he was the kind of guy to mess with a girl like that. I guess only time will tell,” her dad said.
“Yep. Time. I’ve got lots of that now,” she mumbled.
“Hey, it's all going to be okay.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Peyton smiled. “I sure hope so.”
“I’m going to go see if Nicki is still here. I want to know how the other cows are doing.” He stood up, walked over and kissed his wife on the cheek then walked out the front door.
Peyton continued to sit on the stairs and stare at her mom unloading all the groceries. She couldn’t believe the day she had had. Last night, she had been told by an incredibly sweet, handsome, kind guy that he really liked her and wanted to be with her. She had woken up with the realization that she was beginning to fall in love with him. By noon, he became a two-timing scumbag, and she was fooled. Only moments later, she saw a poor, helpless baby animal die, and then not long after that, she was comparing herself to the dang calf. Her life had become so complicated in just twenty-four hours that she missed her life of a couple of weeks ago when Noah wasn’t in the picture at all. She didn’t think she could miss being miserable.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw that she had received a text from Noah.
“Oh, no,” Peyton mumbled and opened the text. Hey, Peyton, how are you doing today? I was wondering where you wanted to go out to eat tonight.
Peyton snorted and texted back, Sorry, I had something come up. I won’t be able to go out tonight.
“What are you doing over there?” her mom asked.
“Noah just asked where I wanted to go out to eat tonight, and I told him that I wouldn’t be able to make it,” she informed her.
“And you're okay with that?” she questioned.
“Yeah, Mom, I am. I have no desire to go out with him. I don’t deserve that. I can’t compete with gorgeous blonde locks accompanied with perfect makeup and long legs. And I shouldn’t have to.” Her phone buzzed again in her hand, and she opened the text. Okay, does another day work better for you?
Peyton responded, Yeah, I’m busy all week, sorry. Have a good weekend! She decided to turn her phone off for the night. She didn’t want to be tempted to call him and give him a what-for or to wait around for a text that might never come. She needed some time to herself.
She helped her mom prepare dinner, which was a simple spaghetti with salad and garlic bread. Then she helped clean up the kitchen, sweep and mop the floor, and start the dishwasher. Once she was done in the kitchen, she picked up her book that she had previously thrown on the couch, sat down, and lost herself in her book. She figured the best way she could get through this weekend without spending too much time thinking about Noah was busting out a book. She was reading Pride and Prejudice again. She had read it so many times that she lost count, but she didn’t care. She loved to read, especially Jane Austen.
When it got to the point where her eyes were getting fuzzy and she couldn’t make out the words on the pages, she decided it was time to go to sleep. So, she trudged up the stairs to her room, completed her nightly routine, sprawled out on her bed, and passed out.
Her dreams consisted of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy hashing it out and arguing, and then it would turn into Peyton and Noah fighting. This was what she dreamed of back and forth all night until the last dream she had, which was about Derek, of course. He was sitting on the fence that housed the goats, and he was shaking his head. He kept saying, “You can’t fall in love twice” and “Why have you forgotten me so quickly?” Once she heard him ask that a couple of times, she woke straight up with sweat beading down her face, panting as if she had just gotten done running. She never wanted to feel like she was replacing Derek. In Peyton’s mind, he could never be replaced. But, she also knew that she deserved to be loved and cared for, which was something Peyton was lacking. Of course, her parents loved her and took care of her every day, but being married to somebody who was as dedicated to the relationship as you were was just the best kind of love. It was nice with Derek because he was very open about his feelings, whether it was verbal or by his actions. She never doubted that he loved her. It scared her to think that she had already been fooled once and didn’t want it to ever happen again. Oh, the joys of dating!
The next couple of days passed, and Peyton did her best to not mope around the house. When she wasn’t reading Pride and Prejudice, she was helping her mom in the kitchen or helping her dad with the cows and checking on them. To really help pass time, she hopped on the riding lawn mower and mowed the grass. Luckily for her, this took a couple of hours, and to avoid letting her thoughts get away from her, she plugged in her headphones and blasted music in her ears, singing along. At one point, her mom walked by her on her way to the garden, and she looked at her and started laughing. Peyton smiled but didn’t care. For those couple of hours, she felt like she was on another planet far away from her troubles.
Occasionally, she would receive texts from Noah asking how she was doing and what she was up to. Peyton would give him brief answers, saying she was fine or say that she was working a lot with her dad. Thankfully, Noah wasn’t one to press for answers and seemed satisfied by her simplified replies. Peyton did wonder why he still bothered texting her. She thought she was giving off pretty good hints about not wanting to go out with him or text him. But still, every once in a while, he texted to check on her, and even if it could be considered sweet, it was beginning to annoy her.
Before she knew it, it was Thursday morning, and Peyton was getting ready to head into her appointment with Dr. Schoenborn. Of course, she was dreading it. The last few days had gone by so fast that she didn’t even realize it. It felt like she hadn’t even done anything, and still, the days flew by.
“Mom, if there were ever a time to let me stay home, today would be the day,” Peyton insisted, leaning over her breakfast.
“Honey, you have to go. You can’t miss any of your appointments unless you're throwing up or dying. It’s going to be fine. Maybe that other lady is back, and he won’t even be there,” she encouraged.
“She’s not going to be back for a while. He’s definitely going to be there,” Peyton started rubbing her temples. “Do headaches count as excuses to not go?”
“No, they don’t,” her mom said and sat down next to her at the table. She held Peyton’s hand and squeezed it in encouragement. “It’s going to be fine. Just put a smile on your face and don’t let him see you upset.”
Peyton did her cheesiest smile possible and her mom laughed, “That’s my girl. Now let’s go. Why are you eating so late anyway? Usually, you're done by now.”
“I couldn’t sleep last night, so I let myself sleep in and run a little later than usual,” Peyton explained.
“I can tell. Your hair is still kind of wet. What kind of impression are you trying to give off? At least you did your make-up a little bit. Although it's not your best job,” she pointed out.
“Hey, Mom, you’re not helping,” Peyton admitted.
In a short fifteen minutes, they were parked in front of the office and Peyton was hesitant to get out of the car. She slowly unbuckled her seat belt and reached her hand up to open the car door but couldn’t bring herself to open it. She dropped her hand and put her hands over her eyes.
“Get out and get it over with already,” her mom groaned.
“Mother. Will you just, okay?” Peyton stammered.
“Honey, I’m meeting with a couple of ladies at some new restaurant they want to take me to, and at this rate, I’m going to be late. So, can you please just be a big girl and do this already?” she pleaded.
“Fine!” Peyton exclaimed and burst out of the car.
“Call me when you're done!” her mother called, and Peyton slammed the door.
She turned around and marched up to the doors only to hesitate again once she looked through the windows and saw Noah at the front desk. She drew in a deep breath and opened the door slowly. She walked into the office, and Noah looked up right away. When he realized it was her, he smiled and stood up from his chair.
“Hey, I was waiting for you to come,” he grinned. He was wearing a lighter wash pair of jeans but paired them with a blue and green flannel shirt that was opened up, revealing his white shirt underneath. The sleeves were rolled up three-quarters of the way, and he had a pencil behind his ear, which led Peyton to believe that he must have been studying for his board exams again.