BOMAW 1-3 (66 page)

"Is that okay with you Sylvia?" She asked.

"Of course it is sweetheart. She's your mother, that will always be. Angela, no one - that includes me, should come before your mother to you. She is the reason you live, if for no other reason, you owe her a certain level of respect and consideration. Call her, check on her, tell her you're okay. See if she's okay - that you love her."

Angela nodded, leapt from the bed and went into the kitchen, they followed her out and went into the living room as she dialled her number. A moment later they heard her talking but couldn't make out what she was saying. She walked into the living room holding the cordless phone and clicked it off with her thumb. "They said my mother moved out days ago." She looked from her father to Sylvia for what to do.

"Call her cell phone pumkin'." Shawn advised.

She did and waited holding the phone to her ear.

"Hi mom, it's me."

"Oh Angela... how are you? I miss you. Do you miss me?"

"Ummm, yeah... kinda...I ummm, just wanted to see if you were okay? I'm okay. I've been having a lot of fun. I've been to my grandma's and grandpa's. I was with Uncle Derrick and Tia Meribel, I've been doing all kinds of stuff."

"Oooh, well... that's good. And... so... you're okay? Okay... staying there?"

"Yeah... I like it here. I like it a lot. Are you gonna let me stay?"

"Did your father put you up to this?" Deidre asked, hurt already.

"Nooo... he just told me to call you, to see if you were okay."

"Yeah, sure he did. I just bet. I've been looking for a place, and I found one. It's perfect for you and I... once I get furniture in there-..."

"Why can't I just stay here?"

"What about me Angela? I'm all alone. At least your father has Sylvia... and they're having a baby soon I imagine... you should be with me."

Sylvia and Shawn could both see the regret cross Angela's features for calling her. She wasn't saying much, but the look on her face told them plenty. Shawn held his hand out for the phone, Angela passed it to him and turned, running into her room. Sylvia stood and followed her.

"Deidre... it's me."

"YOU! You... why must you have everything!? You have your new life with Sylvia... the least that you could do is leave me with my daughter!"

"She's my daughter too Deidre! Come on... you know as well as I do, that she is better off with me."

"Well I'm not so sure about that!" She snapped, about to burst into tears.

"Deidre, this is not about you... this is not about me... it's about our daughter and what's best for her. Here, she's a happy little girl, living a happy little girls life. With you, she's alone. Take this time to get a life of your own."

"MY DAUGHTER IS MY LIFE! I love her!"

"I know you do Deidre. You can see her any time you wish, but leave her with me... where she will have the kind of life she deserves." Shawn was determined to be calm about it, knowing how difficult this was for her.

She was quiet, silently crying and then unable to help herself, "I didn't know Shawn, that my mother had been after you. I didn't know that she maliciously worked to destroy us-..."

"Deidre stop-..."

"...-I didn't know... all the things... I know - now... Shawn... I didn't know... this is killing me-..."

"Please don't do this to yourself." He whispered, not wanting Sylvia to know what was being said.

"Why didn't you tell me... why didn't you let me know-..."

"I'm gonna hang up if you continue talking about it." He threatened.

"How can you not love me at least a little? I had your daughter - I - I didn't know Shawn-..."

"I have to go." He clicked it off.

He stood from the sofa and looked through the house towards the hallway and the room where Angela and Sylvia had gone to. Walking back to the kitchen, he hung the phone up and returned to Angela's bedroom. Sylvia was laying on the bed with her back to the wall next to Angela , rubbing her back as she lay on her stomach, face hidden in her folded arms. Sylvia glanced up at him in the doorway. He stood a moment staring at them, at Sylvia, trying to imagine not being with her, going back to Deidre...and he couldn't see it. It would not materialize in his mind. Not even his vivid imagination could conjure a happy family scene with him and Deidre. While it bothered him that she hurt so badly, he could not change this course that he'd taken. She'd been wrong, he did love her... Deidre... but he was not in love with her. He loved her as he did his sisters, as he would any family member. The love he felt inside for Sylvia... was different. She made his stomach ache. Made him weak in the knees. Made him fear tomorrow without her. She held, gripped tightly in her hand the ability to twist him into knots. Deidre left him and hurt his pride. If Sylvia left him, it would cut him in two.

"You okay?" She asked him, still rubbing Angela's back.

"Yeah." He answered walking to the bed, sitting on the other side of his daughter.

"Pum'kin'?"

Angela turned teary eyes his way.

"Are you absolutely sure, this is where you wish to be? Your mother is really hurting right now."

"I'm sorry daddy... I don't mean to hurt anyone... but... I wanna stay with you. With you and Sylvia. I'll visit her, she can visit me... but I wanna live here."

Shawn sighed deeply, stroked her hair. "Stop crying, get under the covers now." He ordered, lifting himself to shift them so she could crawl under. Sylvia rose and crawled from the bed, to stand next to Shawn as he tucked his daughter in.

"Somehow, some way... we'll work it out, okay Pum'kin'?"

She nodded her head, Shawn bent down and kissed her forehead, "I love you."

"I love you too daddy... goodnight. Goodnight Sylvia."

"Goodnight sweety." She leaned forward and kissed her forehead as well, they both left the room, closing the door behind them.

Sylvia went into the kitchen and put the dishes away, wiping down her counter tops, polishing her stainless steel appliances and stove top, checking things over before she clicked off the light. Shawn stood in the bedroom doorway watching her. The living room was next, straightening up as she went, and then through the sitting area by the fireplace picking up along the way, heading for the basement door, that's where he grabbed her arm.

"Hey... leave it for tomorrow."

"I can't, won't take but a moment to straighten up down there, then I'll be right up to bed."

"The lights are off down there, I turned them off. The T.V. is off, everything is fine... come to bed." Shawn coaxed.

"I always check the house over before I go to bed Shawn." She whispered, a bit desperate.

"My future wife, are you a bit anal about cleaning?" He pulled her into his arms.

"No I'm not! But you never know... what if someone broke in - in the night, they're not catching my house a mess!"

Shawn tossed his head back laughing out loud. "Someone comes in here, the least they'll have to worry about is how messy this place is, and believe me - it will be messy by the time I'm through with their ass!"

"It's not the thief I'm concerned about Shawn, its the police... they gonna be looking around thinking, em hm, see how they are."

"Silly woman. Come to bed now. Come on...leave it." He pulled her into the room and closed the door.

"Did you check to make sure all the doors were locked Shawn? The one in the basement too?" She asked nervously biting into her lip.

"Be right back." He announced and went and checked all the doors, the windows, checked on Angela and returned to find Sylvia in bed waiting for him. "House is all secure madam." He announced and climbed in between the sheets with her, clicking off the bedside lamp, plunging them into darkness. "Come here." He ordered. Sylvia moved to him and felt his wonderful arms surround her. Snuggling in close, she decided... maybe his constant presence wasn't so bad after all.

"I don't want you here tonight... I think I want to be alone for once. Please go home." Doris announced suddenly to Jake. Who was lounging in the living room of her double wide mobile home, flicking channels with one hand while sipping a beer from the other. Doris wasn't rich, but she had money in the bank. Her children were in college and she'd left her husband for Jake. As she stood over him, she knew that it was the biggest mistake of her life, but the deed had been done. She had no excuse for her stupid act other than the fact that it went to her head to have a man like Jake pursuing her. There was after all, nothing special in her looks. She knew that, had always known it. So she'd settled early in her life knowing the odds of her ever finding Mr. Right looking as she did was nil. With thin blonde hair, that never seemed able to grow past her shoulders, plain flat features with a broad nose and no chin, slopping into a thick neck. Her figure, something else she never had, flat rear, squared high hips and sloping back with large breasts pretty much told her she'd best grab the first man that came her way. She had. They'd been married for 16 years, he was a foreman at the lumber company, made excellent money and she should have been content with that. Had been content until Jake started flirting with her.

He'd swept her off of her feet. Charmed and bedazzled her, made her walk out on her marriage so she could supplement his habits and break his moments of boredom. He'd never been faithful in their entire six year relationship. If anyone had asked her why she'd stayed with him for so long, she didn't know what she would say. All she knew was that the extent of her humiliation at his hands was building to the choking point.

"Shhh! I'm watching T.V. shut up!"

"No I will not shut up! Go home Jake!"

He sat and continued flicking through the channels as if she hadn't spoken.

"JAKE - GO - HOME!"

"Shut the fuck up! I'm watching T.V.!"

"You are such an asshole Jake... I don't know why I put up with your shit!" She whined then went to her kitchen table and plopped down in a chair, grabbed her cigarettes that were laying on the table and lit one up. Crossing her legs, she shook her foot, blowing out smoke.

"You treat me like crap Jake. You get some sick pleasure out of humiliating me at every turn. I'm getting sick of it. You don't even have the decency to hide what you're doing. Right in my face with it as if you dare me to say something. Well I'm saying something now... I've had enough Jake. I want out. I don't need this shit from you."

"So what are you saying? You want me to go? Is that what you're saying?"

"Yes! I want you to go."

"Yeah right... why? Hm? What's the problem now?"

"You know what the problem is Jake! Don't play dumb like you don't know what I'm getting at!"

"If I knew what you were getting at, I wouldn't ask now would I?" He stood from the sofa and walked over to the table. He wasn't wearing a shirt and Doris' eyes darted from him to the floor, trying not to look at him. Trying not to respond to his sudden move towards her. He knelt before her, looking up into her eyes. "Talk to me... what'd I do wrong this time?"

"The same thing that you always do Jake! The minute a new piece of ass shakes before you, you have to go after it."

"I beg your pardon... where do I sleep every night? Right here, don't I?" He asked her.

"Yeah, but its what you're up to during the day that's the problem."

"I work during the day...clearing land, cutting down trees, splitting wood and building face cords. So what are you talking about?"

"Maybe so Jake, but the minute there's a new face in town, you find a way to slink off and play!"

"You know what your problem is Doris... you're ungrateful! I don't have to come here every night. I have a place to lay my head. I come here, to be with you, to lie with you, because this is where I wanna to be. You think you're the only woman who wants me? No way... but I walk away from them and I come to you! They know I come to you, all of them do, what's my reward? Please go home Jake! Well let me tell you something... no matter what you say I do - all I can think about is getting back here to you. You gonna throw away six years of what we have together - all because you think I'm up to something. Fine... that's your choice... but if I walk out that door... I'm out of it for good."

He stood to look for his shirt.

"Well why do you always have to flirt with other women in front of me. Treating me like I wasn't there?!"

"Now you know me! You know I'm just kiddin' around. Don't mean nothing by it. I thought you knew me by now. Haven't I proven who I wanna be with? Who have I been with the longest? You! Why you think that is?!" He asked leaning over her shoulder, bracing one hand on the back of her chair, using the other to tilt her face up to look at him.

"I sometimes wonder that myself."

"'Cause I wanna be with you."

"Then why are you trying to get Sylvia?"

"Sylvia?! Is she what this is all about?"

"I seen you Jake, seen you watching her! Seen you lusting after her! I saw the way your eyes followed her when she was dancing by the bonfire!"

"She wasn't the only one dancing, Meribel was dancing, Shanna was dancing, the kids were dancing... I was just enjoying them all."