Living With No Regrets (9 page)

The question had shattered the silence that they’d been riding in; Randy to much in awe of everything to speak, so it shocked Russ on several levels.

“I don’t think your momma would want to live here, Buddy.” he told his son.  “I wouldn’t mind, but I think Leigh is happier with your Mimi and Mark.”

Randy nodded and had a serious look on his face. 
A look
, Russ thought,
that was too old for a five year old. 
“Yeah.  Mimi needsh Momma, and Momma needsh me and Mark.” Randy answered.

“I’m sure you’re a very big help to your momma.” he told his son, knowing how much the smallest of praises had always meant coming from his own father.  “How long have you been such a big boy to help her out?”

“For a while.” Randy said as Russ had to stop to fix a hole in the fence line.  “Momma was shick one day, and Mark told me that we wush gonna have to shtart helping Momma a lot more.  He shaid she wush gonna be tired a lot.”

“Well, I’m real sure that your momma appreciates the help.”  Russ wondered what had made her sick, and why would she start being tired?  Leigh had told him that she’d gone into remission, and he knew she wouldn’t have lied to him, but he was wondering if maybe she was having problems again.  “How long ago was that, Bud?”

“A little ‘fore we moved here.  And yeah, Momma paysh me a lot of money, but I never know what to buy with it.  Momma, Mimi, and Mark get me all the toysh I want.  I bought Momma shome pizza one time, and started crying and kishing me shaying thank you.  I don’t wanna make her cry, so I let her take me to the bank and give it to the people there.  She shaid that they would save it up and I could get it back anytime I wanted to.  She promished that they wouldn’t shteal it.”

“Wow!” he said, smiling at Randy’s reaction to a banking account.  “You must be rich, Son.”

“Yep, but I’m not shuposhta tell no one.  Momma shaid that a lot of people don’t have much, and it’sh not nishe to talk about it in front of them.”

“She right on that.  And don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

Russ looked up at the sky and then looked at the time, realizing it was already time for dinner, so they turned around and headed back to the main house.  “You want to spend the night over here, Bud?” he asked Randy.  He knew that once school started that he would only have him on weekends, and already he knew he would miss being around him.  He would stay in the main house in his old room like he’d done the other night he stayed over.  That way Randy would have as much time with his grandparents as he did with him.

“Yea!” he hollered out, then turned back to Russ.  “As long ash Momma don’t need my help.  I gotta call her.”

“That’s fine.  You can call when we get back and wash up for dinner.”

Leigh had gotten home from her lunch with Randy and Russell to find a note explaining that Mark was driving her mother around on some errands and that they would be back later that afternoon.  She spent her time returning call to the Doctor at CMC in Charlotte that her oncologist had referred her to when she found out that Leigh was moving.  Then she called both Torres, to promise to keep in touch, and the new Pine Grove sheriff, her old friend, Zander Boyd.

“I didn’t know until this morning that Bill was still giving you problems, Leigh.  Me and my dad could have kept everything going.”  Zander was seriously disturbed because the evidence they had gotten back then was missing.  “I can’t figure it out, though.  It can only mean that somebody working here either took it or let someone else in who took it.”

“It’s alright, Sheriff.” She could hear the sincere distress in his voice and just wanted to make him feel better.  “Detective Torres has enough reports on file that you’ll still be able to charge him if you find him, but I haven’t physically seen him in over a year, so maybe he will just stick with the harassment instead of approaching me.”

“I hate to tell ya Leigh, but it all started because of his jealousy of you and Russ.  I’m afraid of what he’ll do when he finds out you moved back here; if he hasn’t already.”

Her heart stuttered in her chest at the thought, but she refused to live in fear like she used to.  “I know sheriff.  I’ll call you if I hear from him or see him, and I ask you to do the same, please.”

“Of course I will,” he said.  “And I asked you to call me Zan.  You were my first and best friend in school.  I would hope that we were past all of the formality.”

“I’m just so proud of you for getting elected Sheriff like your dad.  You always wanted that, so I’ll just continue to show you how proud I am by calling you by your respected title.”

Zander just laughed before saying goodbye and ending the call.

After putting the cordless phone on the receiver, Leigh went to sit on the front porch to wait for her mother and Mark.  She knew the time was coming to have to tell everything to Russ and his parents; her mother and Mark knew some, and she’d tell them the rest over dinner.  Things were going to be changing soon, and everyone needed to be prepared.

“You’re going to have a wonderful time, quit worrying.”

Leigh, Lexi, Kerry, and Dawn were all at Lexi’s house getting ready for the hour drive to Charlotte where they were treating themselves, and Leigh, to a massage and spa treatment.  They were going to take her to the club afterwards, but she wasn’t supposed to know any of that.  Lexi had told her on the side because she knew that Leigh didn’t like those sort of things, but Leigh had decided to just endure the day since they had gone through all of the trouble and expense to set it up.

Kerry had been smiling the whole time, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes, so Leigh knew something was off with Russell’ friend.   They had always been on friendly terms, but Kerry was closer to Russell than to Leigh.

“Tell me what’s wrong.” Leigh said softly so the others couldn’t hear.

Kerry looked up to her in surprise that quickly turned to tears.  Leigh just put her arm around Kerry and led her to the bathroom and away from prying eyes.  When her tears slowed and she calmed down, Kerry was finally able to answer.

“It’s Bill.” she said.

“What about him?” Kerry and Bill had been dating for six months, and they both seemed so much happier than they had been.  Russell had even been tolerating Bill a little more and the four of them had been going on double dates.

“Come on Leigh.  This is your time and I don’t want to mess it up.” She said, though her eyes were shining with unshed tears she was trying to hold back.  “We’ll talk when you get back from your honeymoon.”

“No.  I can’t have a good time if I know two of my friends are not happy.” Leigh said; including Bill in the statement.  “You may be Russell’s friend, but I hope you consider me one as well.  You can talk to me.”

Kerry sighed as if deciding what to do, but when she looked at the seriousness coming off of Leigh, she caved.

“Bill took me to dinner last night; said he had something he needed to talk to me about.” she started.  “I actually thought he was going to propose because he was taking me to Outback, which he only does on special occasions.  After we sat down and ordered, he took my hand and told me he couldn’t see me anymore.”

“What!  Why?”  By that time the tears were flowing down Kerry’s face, ruining the make-up she’d applied earlier.

“He said he was in love with someone else and couldn’t continue on with me.”

“I’m going to rip him a new one!” Leigh said under her breath at seeing Kerry’s upset.  “Did he tell you who?” she asked.

“No.  He wouldn’t say, and I left.” Kerry laughed humorlessly.  “I had lost my appetite after that.”

“Listen.  I want you to go with Lexi and the girls.  Get your mind off things.  I’m going to stay and try to figure out what he’s thinking.” Leigh told her, holding her hand.  “I swear I have never seen him with anyone else, and he sure hasn’t mentioned anyone but you.”

“I don’t feel right doing that when this was all planned for you.”

“They know me and will be alright with it.  Y’all go enjoy the spa, go clubbing, and be safe on the way back.  Lexi is designated driver since she doesn’t drink anyway.”

Leigh got up and walked with Kerry back into the other room and explained that she had some last minute things to take care of and for them to have fun for her.

“Alright now,” Lexi said as Leigh was gearing up to leave.  “You have the key, so just come back here and spend the night like we all planned.  We’ll call it an early night and come back here, too.”

“Sounds good.” Leigh kissed all of her friends’ cheeks and left to head over to Bill’s house and find out what caused his temporary stupidity. 

“LEIGH!”

Leigh was brought out of her thoughts by Mark who had obviously come in with her mother.  They were both looking at her in concern.

“Are you alright, honey?” her mother asked.

“Yes.  Sorry.  I was just thinking about something.  Must have gotten lost in my thoughts.”

“It’s alright.” Her mom answered hesitantly.  “If you’re sure.  I’ll just go and start dinner.”

“No, don’t worry about it.”  Leigh looked over at Mark, who seemed to be watching her, and back at her mother.  “I was going to order out for us tonight.  Randy will be having supper at the Kennedy’s, so I figured we could all sit and talk.”

Mary Leigh looked at her daughter, glanced at Mark, and knew something as going on.  “Alright.  Pizza or Chinese?” she asked them.

Just as they all had agreed on Chinese, the phone rang and Leigh answered it.  After a fifteen minute conversation, Leigh was shocked speechless when she hung the phone up.  She immediately picked it back up and dialed Russell’s cell phone.

“Do you have a moment to talk?” she asked after he picked up.

“Sure.  I was about to call anyway.  Randy…No I asked Randy to stay the night here.  Would that be alright, or do you need him home?”

“No, that;s fine.  I’ll send Mark with a change of clothes and his pajamas.  And if I can, I’ll come by tomorrow to talk to you both about something.”

“Yeah, you can come anytime, but why not just tell me now on the phone?”

“Because I called to tell you about who just called me and why.” Leigh said.  “The rest is a longer conversation, so I’ll wait for tomorrow.”

“Okay, so who called and why?”

“Lexi Peters just called me.  She apologized to me for the way she has treated me and asked me to give her another chance.  She also promised that she would do all in her power to make sure Randy had no problems from anyone if we allow him to go to school there.”

Russell huffed over the phone line in disbelief, and his words matched the sentiment.  “It’s awful convenient that she says she’s sorry when she knows we’re going to be supporting another school.”

“Actually Russell, she sounded sincere,” Leigh defended her ex-friend.  “But I also told her that I would still donate to the school, even if Randy didn’t attend.  She said that it didn’t matter if I didn’t or if you didn’t, she just realized that she had done me wrong, and even if she hadn’t, she hadn’t been fair to Randy who is innocent in everything.  Lexi truly sounded repentant.”

“So let me guess, you want Randy to go to school here now.” Russ said.  He was disappointed that she had given in so easily, but knew it was in her forgiving nature to do so.

“Actually, no.” Leigh answered, surprising him.  “My wish is to have him home schooled so I could spend more time with him, but it’s not what would make him happy, so The Christian Academy is the better choice.  I know he won’t receive grief over who his mother is regardless because no one knows me there…And it really does have the better curriculum.”

“So we can still send him there?”

“Why do you want to so bad?” Leigh figured Russell would want Randy to go to school closer to home.

“Even if he is treated great, you won’t be, and I won’t stand for it.”

The call ended with Leigh not really knowing how to respond to that.

Chapter 6

Leigh, Randy, and Russell were all riding horses – Randy on Misty with Leigh – and spending their first real quality time as a family.  Leigh was letting Randy hold the reins and lead since he’d just learned and was doing so well.  He was a natural on a horse, just like his father, and would probably take over the ranch one day.  Watching and listening to them interact with each other was so heartwarming.  It was as if Russell had always been together.  Leigh was happy that she’d included Russell in everything in Randy’s life.  Even though he wasn’t there, Randy had felt his presence because Leigh had always talked about him.  Almost everything she knew about Russell, Randy knew.