Life Over Love (9 page)

           
Ryker leaned against the counter and laughed while he chewed through the rubbery Salisbury steak. He thought that pretty little cashier had been right about one thing, the TV dinners were no bueno.

15

B
rianna was totally fine with walking home anytime day or night. She was the type of person that just did what needed to be done.  By her way of thinking strangers were often less ominous than lovers. She frequently turned down rides from co-workers, and she had no problem with walking home in the rain, in fact if it hadn’t been smack in the middle of winter she would have loved to play in the rain, but she was glad for the clear starlit sky tonight.

She felt so good to be on her own, she walked along the rail road tracks, and
passed by the colorful shops in the old town square. Brianna waved happily to passersby and people closing up shop.

She’d seen a guy discarding a Christmas tree behind one of the buildings and realized she had forgotten to get one, that and she ha
dn’t had the extra money.  She flagged the guy down. He was hoping to get her number or give her a ride home, but instead she asked him about taking the tree.

He offered to give her
and the tree a lift, but she refused saying she lived real close by. He said fine shaking his head at her stubbornness, he watched her pull and tug the tree along the side walk.

Brianna was thankful that she only had to go one more block with the tree,
after a full day’s work and the walk home, she was about ready to forego the hot bath in favor of just dropping into bed for the rest of the night.

Brianna propped the tree
against the railing by her front door. She continued looking at the Christmas tree until she unlocked the door and actually stepped inside. It definitely was a Charlie brown Christmas tree, but it was the first one in their home.

She leaned against the door, she was way too tired to cook dinne
r, but thinking about having the next day off gave her enough strength to change her mind about that hot bath.

Her tub was her
most
favoritest
thing about the apartment.  The landlord had just renovated before renting to her. The deep claw foot tub was calling her name. Brianna ran the water and lit fragrant candles. She was giddy with the anticipation of soaking her exhausted body in an uninterrupted bath.

She went to the kitchen to fix some hot cocoa, and laughed when she saw the frozen dinners by the ice tray
s in the freezer. Thinking of officer Sexy pants, who was the next best thing to Hugh Jackman in real life, with his amber eyes, and tall physique.  She dropped some ice into her steaming cup of cocoa and made sure to grab her book before sinking into the tub.

Brianna’s bath was short lived, she was only fifteen
minutes into the story when she started to nod off and she was forced to call it a night and drain the tub. She had been so exhausted the night before that she didn’t even remember falling asleep wrapped in a fluffy purple towel. Her hair and the sheets were still damp from the attempt at indulgence.

Stretching she rubbed her eyes and cherished
the comfort of her bed. When she’d assembled the futon, she bought a luxurious cobalt blue down comforter to throw over it, and decorated the bed with white lacey throw pillows.

Brianna had been thankful
when she’d put it together that the bed was more comfortable than it looked because, besides the tub, that was her second favoritest room in the apartment. Thinking of the silly word favoritest, made her miss her babies.

Thinking of them remind
ed her of the uninterrupted soak she’d promised herself. She eventually shuffled into the bathroom, peed, and half way fell back to sleep on the toilet while waiting for the tub fill. She sank into the bath so happy to be awake enough this time to enjoy the relaxing experience. Any mother with little kids would agree so rare a thing was meant to be savored.

In fact
Brianna couldn’t even remember a time when she wasn’t bombarded by little children that could hear the sound of running water from a mile away, and try locking the door! Well forget that! The cries, the violent rattling of the door handle, the plain ferociousness of the children turned monsters, determined to get in at any cost, had taught her long ago, to give up and just leave the stinking door wide open.

Remembering
of her little stink heads made her smile, she missed them already after only one day of being without them. She lingered in the bath tub until she would either need to add more hot water or freeze.

Brianna
reluctantly stepped out, and wrapped up in another purple towel, chuckled at her reflection. Everything she bought to decorate common areas in the apartment were various shades of Chelsea’s first love purple.  She wasn’t sure what she was going to when Brody got old enough to care.

Everything she did revolved around providing her children with joy.  She didn’t spoil them, but more often than not she went without
something if she had to choose. She’d even placed several pictures of Mike sporadically around the kid’s room.

Once dried off she shrugged into a soft white t shirt and her favorite pair of ancient jeans, worn thin in several spots, but super soft to the touch.
She painted her toenails, and jotted down a list of things she wanted to buy for Christmas.

Brianna had promised Chelsea that S
anta knew where they moved and that he would have no trouble finding their front door even though it was tucked underneath Mrs. Jenkins the apartment stairs.

The loud knock at her door startled her to the point that
she’d nearly fallen off the bar stool.   She fussed a loud about the loud banging, it was completely unnecessary because anyone could’ve seen Brianna sitting at the island/table, through the huge window on the door. A simple tap would have sufficed, and she planned on saying so too, until she came face to face with officer sexy pants in her doorway.

He held Brody in one arm, and as soon as Brianna opened the door Chelsea hopped inside, dancing p
ast her straight to the fridge. Her mouth had been open for a few minutes before she’d realized she’d been staring. “Uhh hmm, I’m sorry ma’am, but I pulled your husband over and after running his tag, I’ve got no choice. I’m going to have to bring him in, he was driving with a suspended driver’s license, among other things.”

Ryker could
practically feel the embarrassment radiating off her. She closed her eyes hoping to will away the redness spreading up her neck and into her cheeks. “He’s not my husband, has he been drinking?” She leaned over in front of him to try to make eye contact with Mike in the back of the squad car. When she realized he wasn’t going to look her way, she moved back. 

“He’s my
ex-husband, and he’s actually, never even been here.”  She heard what she’d said and after it registered in her mind she put Brody down inside and both her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

Ryker knew fear when he saw it
, and decided now was not the best time to tell her about the hand gun he’d confiscated. “Well, he told me that you didn’t have a car to pick up the kids, so I figured I’d bring ‘em when he said you lived so close, save you some steps.

Brianna was visibly shaken,
she couldn’t speak. She nodded her thanks, once back inside, Ryker saw her slide against the wall down to the floor, and he heard the little girl ask her mommy if she was ok.

He was furious by the time he got back to his squad car. He slammed the door and focused his attention on the passenger in the backseat.
“Say buddy, what did you do to that woman that would make her run away from you like that?”

Mike didn’t appreciate the
officer’s tone, he met his stare in the rearview mirror before responding. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, buddy.”  Ryker nodded “sure you do, amigo. She was under the impression that you didn’t know where she lives.” Mike winced before he answered the officer.  “I used to be a mean SOB, when I was drinking, that’s all that’s about.”  Yeah right, mean, was all. Mike thought, judging by her terrified reaction, that wasn’t all.

He had z
ero tolerance for scum like this guy, still looking in the mirror, “So what were you planning with that gun that you don’t have a permit for by the way?” Mikes eyes bulged when Ryker mentioned the gun.  “Nothing officer, sir. I forgot that it was even in there.  I used to hang around some real shady places and I carried it for protection, I was messed up for a long time, I’ll admit that. To be honest sir, I was dealing drugs, but that’s been a real long time ago, I swear I forgot about the gun!”

Ryker studied Mike. His story rang true
to him, after seeing how the man had been tender with the children, so much so that they didn’t even cry when he’d had to arrest him. He’d been sorry to have to be the one to go tell some poor woman he was arresting her husband. He had been impressed with the way Mike had distracted the kids on the way to the apartment, making the trip seem like an adventure.

B
ut when he remembered the panic he saw on her face he got ticked all over again. “Alright buddy, enough chit chat, I’m taking you in.”

B
rianna was a wreck. After she composed herself she realized, she was the one freaking her kids out. Chelsea managed to make Brianna laugh loudly as she enthusiastically regaled her mother with the awesome police car ride that her daddy had planned, just for them. Chelsea still didn’t understand why her mommy had cried like that, for a long time after daddy and the big police man left.

Brianna said she stubbed her toe.  Chelsea understood then, because she cried like that when a big girl stepped on her baby toe on the bus. She made sure to tell her mommy that she definitely understood, and she left out no details about how the big girl had hurt her toe.

Brianna wasn’t sure why she’d had such a violent reaction to the news that Mike knew where she lived. She’d already halfway decided to tell him herself, and eliminate the police station trips anyways.

She guessed she was just upset at first seeing a police officer at her door holding her kids, she’d been really worried, then
humiliated, and after she realized that Mike had either followed her home or pried the info from someone, actually she didn’t care how he’d found out, it was his persistence that had frightened her. 

As far as she was concerned it was just one more way for him to control her, she wanted the choice to tell him if and when the time came
, and the decision to do so was supposed to be hers.    

She didn’t want to revert back to the pathetic
creature she had been in all those months ago. She also wanted to enjoy her day off, she decided then that it was the perfect time to decorate the house for Christmas and forget about Mike.

Chelsea said the Christmas tree was “wimpy” and she thought that Santa probably wouldn’t know where to leave their presents. Brianna kind of a
greed, so she got an idea.

She
bundled the kids up and the walked to the hardware store in the square. She bought sparkly white, silver, and blue spray paint. The kids were beside themselves with excitement to actually be allowed to play with spray paint.

Brianna dragged the tree around to the back of the apartment building. She threw a
shower curtain down, rolled the tree on top, and let the kids loose.  Together they turned the Charlie Brown tree into a very pretty Christmas decoration.  She beckoned the children to stand back and admired their work. She was happy that they were all in agreement that it was pretty.

Chelsea was in the middle of saying that Santa wasn’t going to want to go to anybody
else’s house after seeing their tree, when she got side tracked. Her new best friend pulled up to the stop sign and waved at the lovely family.

Brianna was
glad to see Ryker and flagged him down, she wanted the opportunity to properly thank him for bringing the kids home and to apologize for the melt down.

He took the right hand turn and pulled into the apartment building
’s parking lot. She left the freshly painted tree on the shower curtain and pulled it around to the front porch.

Ryker thought she’d flagged him down for help with the tree, but she brushed him off, and he had to wait in the cold for several more minutes, while she struggled with the tree.

He did admit to himself that the view was worth it, he enjoyed watching her bend over the tree, and after a while he forgot all about the cold.  She stood up, arching her back to stretch, and after noticing officer Danner’s downward stare. She hastily closed her sweater.

Realizing she hadn’t bothered to put on her bra at all that day
, she rolled her eyes dramatically at the nerve of him, thinking,
OMG
men are all the same! Ryker chuckled at her for knowing exactly what had been on his mind.

He walked to his squad car and pulled out his
cigarettes, leaning against the car door, he leisurely exhaled. Brianna called inside the house for the kids to take off their wet clothes and wait for her on their bed.