Life After Wife : Small Town Romance (Balsam Ridge Book 1)

by Amber Kelly

  Thank goodness this is a temporary job.

  I give in. “Okay, but you’ll have to deal with my boss.”

  “I’ve got you,” he says, and then he proceeds on making me more than a few minutes late.

  It’s a busy day at the office. Holiday weeks in a tourist town like Balsam Ridge are already a flurry of activity. Visitors from all over the country make their way to the valley to spend the week enjoying the festivities.

  The campground is at maximum capacity, and I send at least a dozen travelers to other sites. Every motel in town is showing no vacancies available, and the rentals with Rocky Pass are all spoken for.

  By the time I get into my vehicle to head home, I’m exhausted.

  My phone rings, and I answer it without looking as I back out of the parking lot.

  “Hello.”

  “Hi, sweetheart.”

  It’s Damon.

  Great.

  “I’m not in the mood to talk, Damon,” I bark in greeting.

  “Long day?” he asks.

  I don’t answer.

  “What do you want?” I ask.

  “I had my attorney look over the divorce papers. I need to see you to talk about the terms you outlined.”

  “Just have your attorney contact mine,” I suggest.

  “No, I think you and I should work this out ourselves.”

  “There’s nothing to work out. My proposal is more than fair.”

  “You want the house. I never agreed to that.”

  “It’s Caleb’s home.”

  “It’s my home too,” he insists.

  “So, you don’t care about the house. I designed it and picked out every detail. Now, all of a sudden, you want to keep it and make your son move?” I ask.

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “Well, someone has to move.”

  He sighs.

  “Can’t we just talk? I’ll fly out there to you,” he offers.

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “Taeli—”

  “Just sign the damn papers, Damon!” I yell and then click off the line.

  When I make it home, I find a note, letting me know that Mom and Weston took Caleb into town to pick up some supplies for the greenhouse and they will be back before dinner.

  I look in the fridge to see Mom defrosted a roast, so I grab a tenderizing hammer and proceed to beat the crap out of the hunk of meat.

  Then, I place it in the stove with potatoes and carrots. I chop vegetables for a salad and pulverize them to shreds.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Mom asks as she walks into the kitchen with Weston and Caleb close behind.

  “Rage cooking,” I answer.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Rage. Cooking. Now, sit down. All three of you. You’re about to have the best meal of your life,” I command.

  Weston and Caleb hop onto stools at the island and watch in amusement as I continue to stomp around the kitchen.

  When everything is done, I set a plate in front of them and plop down to eat myself.

  Weston takes a bite and looks over at Mom.

  “You should piss her off more often. This is amazing.”

  “I didn’t piss her off,” she says and then looks to me. “Did I?”

  “No. It’s just been a stressful day.”

  “Mom?” Caleb’s tentative voice says.

  I look over at my son and smile. “I’m okay, bud. Nothing some deep breathing and meditation won’t cure.”

  Weston gives me a peculiar look. “Meditation? You’re not one of those New Wave weirdos, are you?”

  “Asks the man who supplies my mother with weed.”

  “Weed is not weird,” he deadpans.

  That makes me lose control and dissolve into a hoot of laughter.

  “Mom. You’re cuckoo,” Caleb says.

  “Why don’t you run yourself a bath, and Caleb and I will clean up?” Mom suggests.

  “A bath sounds nice,” I say.

  “Go on, then. Relax.”

  I stand and make my way upstairs, but I bypass the bathroom and collapse on the twin bed. For a moment, I consider packing a bag and checking into a motel room for the night, so I can sulk in privacy because I know as soon as Weston leaves, my mother is going to have twenty questions for me. Then, I remember there are no rooms available.

  I miss my house.

  There is no way I’m going to give in and let Damon keep it. He doesn’t even like it. Not the same way I do. Every inch of it was built to my specification and decorated by my hand. He just wants to make me angry because he knows he doesn’t have any control anymore.

  Taeli

  The next morning, I tell Sara-Beth and Erin everything over coffee in the break room.

  “You know, if you ever need your own space, you can tell me, and Ted and I will go out for the evening. You can soak in my tub and hang out at my house,” Erin offers.

  “Thanks, but I’m not running you out of your home,” I tell her.

  “I might have a solution,” Sara-Beth says.

  Both of us look at her, and she grins.

  “Would you like to take a look at the caretaker’s cabin? It’s unoccupied at the moment,” she asks.

  “Caretaker’s cabin?”

  “Yes. Our former manager used to live there before he met his wife. They bought their house after the wedding, and he moved out. It’s been empty ever since,” she explains.

  “What does he do now?” I ask.

  “He and his wife opened the organic pet supply store in town. The cabin has been sitting unused. Hilton intended to have Graham do an addition and update the place to add it to the available vacation rentals, but they haven’t gotten around to it yet,” she explains.

  “Is it close by?” I ask.

  “Yes. It’s about a half-mile from here. It’s on the river. And if you’re interested, we can let you use it as part of your salary. All you’d have to do is have utilities hooked up.”

  “You don’t have to do that. Especially if Mr. Tuttle wants to use it for rental income.”

  She waves me off. “He was married and moved out eight years ago. I don’t think Hilton is in any hurry. Besides, it’ll be good for you and Caleb to have your own place. Come on. Let’s go have a look.”

  She grabs a set of keys from one of the desk drawers, picks up her purse, and walks to the door, and Erin and I follow. She turns the sign in the window to show that we’ll be back in thirty minutes, and the three of us climb into her car.

  Ten minutes later, we pull up in front of a tiny post-and-beam cabin in the woods.

  “Here we are. What do you think?” she asks as she turns off the ignition.

  “It’s definitely conveniently located close to the office,” Erin encourages.

  “Come on. Let’s take a look inside,” Sara-Beth encourages.

  We exit the car and follow her up the three steps to the porch. It’s wide, and it stretches across the front and wraps around to a side door close to the parking space.

  She takes a key from the pocket of her blazer, inserts it into the lock, and turns. The latch releases, and she pulls open the heavy green door. We walk inside, and she flips a switch on the wall before light fills the space.

  Everything is made of wood. The walls. The ceiling. The floor.

  That’s a lot of wood. Like, a whole lot of wood.

  How many trees had to die for this?

  “It’s small but charming. You just have to use your imagination,” Sara-Beth explains.

  She walks over to a piece of furniture that is covered with a drop cloth. She takes a corner of the fabric and pulls. A cloud of dust surrounds us as she reveals a soft, well-worn brown leather couch.

  “It comes fully furnished. I can’t say the furniture is nice, but it’s sturdy, and it will get you by until you have the chance to get your own. It has a bedroom and a bath down that hall. The washer and dryer are behind the accordion door. There is a second room and a half-bath off t
he kitchen. It was used as an office, but it’s a good size, and it would make a great room for Caleb.”

  The kitchen and living room are open with an island separating them, and it has a rock fireplace. She’s right. It’s charming, and I can see the potential. Besides, it has to be better than sleeping on the twin bed in Mom’s sewing room.

  “What do you think?” she asks.

  I turn to her and smile. “I think it’s wonderful.”

  “I can have the boys come down and get everything uncovered and swept up. It could be ready for you to move in by the end of next week. How does that sound?”

  “It sounds like a lot of trouble for you to go through just for us to have a place to stay for another month.”

  She waves me off. “It’s no trouble. We rent places by the day and week. What’s a month?” she assures me.

  I take a look around.

  “Caleb would love being able to walk outside to the river. He’s really taken to fly-fishing,” Erin says.

  “He would,” I agree.

  “Then, it’s settled,” Sara-Beth declares.

  “Okay, but only if you let me uncover everything and clean it up myself,” I tell her.

  It’s the least I can do, seeing as they are letting us stay for free.

  “It’s been closed up for a while, and I want to have housekeeping from Rocky Pass come and give it a good scrub down before you bring your son here. Now, let’s go grab some lunch and get back to the office,” she says without giving me a chance to argue further.

  She moves to walk past me and to the door, and I catch her arm. She stops and turns to me.

  “Thank you,” I choke out, and she pats my hand that is still clutching her.

  “You’re welcome, Taeli. We are very happy to have you as part of the Rocky Pass family. Even if it is temporary, but I have a sneaking suspicion you’re considering staying a bit longer, aren’t you?”

  I haven’t said it out loud to anyone yet, but the more I think about packing up and leaving Balsam Ridge, Mom, my new job, the girls, and Graham to return to face Damon and my shredded life in Illinois, I get nauseous.

  “I thought so,” she says, reading my thoughts.

  “I don’t know what to do, Sara-Beth. It’s selfish of me to uproot Caleb because I don’t want to be there anymore. That makes me no better than Damon. Putting my own wants ahead of his,” I cry.

  She embraces me.

  “The best thing you can do for your son is to give him a happy mother. You need to sit him down and have a conversation with him. Let him be a part of the decision. You might find that he, too, has taken a liking to Balsam Ridge. He deserves to have a voice in it, and you two can decide together,” she advises.

  I’m on cloud nine when I pick Caleb up for dinner. I decided I needed to take him on a mother-son date tonight. Mom got him ready, and when I pull into the drive, he comes out of the house, clutching a handful of wildflowers he proudly presents to me.

  I let him pick where we go to eat, and not surprisingly, he chooses the pizzeria.

  We select our slices and take a seat in front of the window that overlooks Main Street. People are milling around on foot, walking to dinner or enjoying a friendly game of miniature golf at the Fantasy Golf and Arcade Room across the street.

  “Can we play after we eat?” Caleb asks around a mouthful of pizza.

  “Sure. I think we can squeeze in a game or two.”

  “Yay!”

  “I wanted to talk to you one-on-one, bud.”

  “Okay. What do you want to talk about?” he asks.

  “You know how much I like my job, working for Hilton and Sara-Beth, and they really like having the help. So much so that, today, Sara-Beth offered you and me a cabin of our own to stay in. It’s a few minutes from the office, the river is in the backyard, and you can walk downtown from it. What do you think?”

  He blinks up at me and wrinkles his forehead as he absorbs the information.

  “Why do we need a house? You said we were only staying for the summer,” he asks.

  “I know I did, and I didn’t mean to lie to you. I honestly had no idea what would happen once we got here. I just knew we had to leave for me to figure things out.”

  “So, now, we’re just going to live here all the time?” he asks.

  “Not if you don’t want to.”

  “But you want to, don’t you?” he asks.

  “I think I do. I like my job and my friends here. I know Granna loves having us close, and she isn’t getting any younger,” I explain.

  “And you really like Graham,” he points out.

  “There’s that too,” I agree.

  “What about Dad?” he asks, and my heart breaks a little more when I see the pain and uncertainty cross my son’s face.

  “Dad is staying in Illinois.”

  “So, we aren’t ever going to see him again?” he asks.

  I move to him and sit beside him. “Of course you’ll see him again. He’s your father, and he always will be. Once the divorce is final, we’ll hammer out a schedule, so you can spend time with him too.”

  “Divorce? You never said anything about divorce!”

  “I’m telling you now. I know you were hoping we would work things out like before, but some things just can’t be worked out,” I explain.

  “Did you even try?”

  “It’s complicated, but I promise that we didn’t make this decision lightly,” I explain.

  “What about school and my friends?” he asks.

  “We’ll enroll you in Balsam Ridge Middle School. It’s where I went to school when I was your age. You’ll make lots of new friends. I can even talk to them about letting you try out for the soccer team even though they already have a roster. I bet Coach Pittman from your other school would write a recommendation,” I tell him.

  He turns his eyes to me. “I don’t want new friends or a new school.”

  “Then, we’ll go back, and I can find a job in Chicago.”

  “Dad will support us,” he insists.

  “Buddy, Dad has a new girlfriend, and they are going to have a baby together.”

  His eyes go round. “What?”

  I take a deep breath. It’s time to tell my son the whole truth about why we left. He knew his father and I were fighting, and he knew that his dad moved out, but we’d fought before, and everything worked out. I know, in his mind, he thought it might happen again.

  “Do you remember Ivy from your dad’s office?”

  He nods.

  “Well, she and your father became close and …”

  “And he cheated on you and made a baby with her?” he asks, his little face turning red.

  “Something like that,” I whisper.

  He jumps to his feet. “I don’t want him to have a baby with her,” he yells.

  “I wasn’t thrilled either, but it’s not something we can stop,” I explain.

  “Is that why we came here?”

  I nod.

  “You said Dad did a bad thing and you needed time apart. I thought he yelled at you or stayed out late or something.”

  “It was a bit more serious than I let on,” I admit.

  “Why didn’t you say so?”

  “Because I didn’t want you to worry about this. It’s a lot and—”

  “I’m not a baby, Mom,” he insists.

  “No, you’re not. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about everything, but, Caleb, you’ll always be my baby, and it’s my job to protect you.”

  Tears threaten to stream down his face, and I can see him trying to hold them back and be strong.

  I pat his seat. “Please sit down,” I beckon.

  He sits back in front of his plate but pushes it aside.

  “I don’t expect you to understand. I had to get away from there. From everyone and everything because I was never going to heal there. Every person I ran into and every place I entered just threw it in my face. I wasn’t enough. And Ivy bouncing around with her baby bump and ha
ppy glow was killing me,” I confess.

  “You should have told me.”

  “I know. But you’re twelve, and it’s not your job to worry about my happiness.”

  “Yes, it is. You’re my mom. Don’t you worry about my happiness?” he asks.

  “Of course I do. Every day.”

  “Well, the same goes for me. I care if you’re sad,” he says.

  And now, I feel like an ass.

  I ruffle his hair. “You know, I forget how grown up you are sometimes. I promise to work on that.”

  “Can we get my stuff from my old room, or do I have to take Uncle Gene’s funiture?” he asks.

  “I think we can arrange to have your own things sent down.”

  He nods.

  “You want to give this a shot with me?” I ask.

  He taps his fingers on the table like he’s thinking hard.

  “I guess so,” he decides.

  “You want to go take a look at it?” I ask, excited to show him the place.

  He reaches forward, grabs his second slice of pizza, and takes a bite.

  “After I beat you at mini-golf,” he says around his mouthful.

  “Deal.”

  Graham

  Mom and I have recruited my brothers to get one of our cabins ready for Taeli and Caleb. It was a surprise when she called and announced that they would be moving into the old place. I had no idea she was considering leaving Leona’s home.

  When I voiced that surprise, Mom shut me down, saying, “She needs more space, and I think it will be good for her and Caleb to have a place to call their own.”

  When I saw Taeli and Caleb later that day at the Fourth of July picnic celebration, she asked me to take a walk with her and told me about their plans.

  “So, you’re staying in Balsam Ridge permanently?” I asked.

  “We’re staying for now. I talked to him and told him everything, and he agreed to give school here a try,” she said.

  I wasn’t sure how to react to the news. I hadn’t let myself think about the future between us because until now, I hadn’t seen a future. She explained that she didn’t expect anything from me and that I didn’t need to feel obligated to continue whatever was going on between us.

  I didn’t say a word. Not one damn word. I just walked her back to the crowd, and we ate and went to watch the fireworks, like there wasn’t this heavy subject left unresolved.