Love Therapy (Stanton Falls #2) (7 page)

Donna stood around the
counter watching her mother cut up vegetables and preparing her typical
Saturday roast.  The familiar smell of mixed spices, onions, garlic and
only God knows what else were permeating the small kitchen.  Donna inhaled
the delightful aroma.  Even uncooked, her pot roast smelled divine.
 A precursor of a happy tummy to come, that’s what Donna always called the
smell.  

“Mom, I knew there was a
reason I made the trip here from Dallas at least two weekends a month.
 Your pot roast might be my actual favorite food of all time.”

Her mother chuckled at
the comment.  Since she had been back to town, it seemed like she had
found her way over there for Saturday dinner almost every week.  

“Honey, you know that
you are welcome here any time, but I do hope that some of your visits are more
about seeing family than they are about filling your belly.”

“Oh come on mom, you
know I love you as much as, if not more than your pot roast.”

“I guess I will take
that as a compliment even though it has been a while since I’ve been compared
to a roast.  That might be the first time ever.”

“Now mom, if you
consider how good your roast is, you will understand just the magnitude of that
compliment.”

“You’re right.  I
remember your father used to love my roast.  He’s actually the reason I
cook it every Saturday now even still.”

Donna felt her stomach
turn at her mother’s mention of him.

“Geez mom.  Why do
you do that?”

“What honey?”

“You know I told you a
while back that I don’t want to talk about him, ever.”

“Yes, but dear he is
your father.  You have to be able to at least talk about him.  You
know that.”

“You see mom.
 That’s where you are wrong.  I don’t have to talk about him at all.
 It’s my choice and I don’t want to talk about him.  I won’t tell you
not to, that’s your choice but I don’t want you to force him down mine.
  I come here to spend time with you and I don’t want it to be
uncomfortable.  In fact, I’d have been gone already if I didn’t already
start a countdown till supper in my mind already.  I just want to enjoy
this meal with you mom, please.”

Her mother relented.

“Alright, alright
sweetie.   The last thing I want is to alienate you.  I love our
weekends together.”

“Me too mom.  I
really do look forward to them.”

“Ok.  I promise to
not bring him up at our dinners again.”

“Deal.”

“Let’s talk about
something else then.  How is everything else with you?  Anything
juicy and new?”

Donna looked at her
mother in surprise.  

“Mom!  Juicy and
new?  What do you think my life is, a soap opera?  No, there isn’t
anything juicy going on.  Just work, which I am totally loving.”

“Really Donna, that’s
it?  Nothing going on in life besides work?”

Donna’s stomach growled
with the smell of the roast growing stronger.  She grabbed an apple off of
the counter, rinsing it before biting.  

“No mother, nothing at
all.  Besides, if I had something juicy, I wouldn’t be sharing that with
you.”

“If there really is
nothing new in your life, then you need to do something different Donna.
 I’m almost twice your age and your life makes mine sound exciting.”

Donna scoffed at her
mother’s false admission.

“Serious correction
mother.  I know you and you are still more than double my age.  That
will change next year, old lady.”

Her mother wiped her
hand on her apron and then placed it on her hip.

“Well gosh honey, you
know you could have just given your old mother that one.”

“I could have, you are
right, but then I’d be just as wrong as you are.  It’s not my fault you
waited until you were twenty four to have your first child.  And you are
still young mom.  You’re not even fifty for a few years.”

“Did you just say that?
  You’re supposed to say that I don’t look a day over forty.
 Really, do you have any good girlfriends with those comments?”

“Yes I do mother, I just
choose to be honest with people is all.”

“Enough about my slow
aging.  Back to you.  When I was your age, I was happily in love.
 I had hoped that when you came back from school, you would have found
yourself some nice doctor or lawyer to bring home to eat one day.  Right
now I’m getting a little desperate as a mother so I will now settle for any
man, as long as he has a job.   ”

“Mom I know you didn’t
just seriously go from talking about dad to this?  Yea, that’s a great
idea.  Let’s go ahead and continue creating that correlation between dad
and any man I might be considering.”

“But sweetie, I wasn’t
really talking about your father.  I was talking about myself and you and
what I want for you in life.  What any loving mother wants for their
daughter.”

Donna felt her patience
leaving her.  Times like then she hated the most because they were the
times she reminded herself of her father.  Temper short, and a little bit
of anger coming out.  She always fought to control that part of her.
 The part of her that she knew had to come from him.  Whenever her
mother went into those pie in the sky love stories that was when it tipped the
scale for her.  Still, she tried to talk to her mother with respect.  She’d
been spoken to badly for long enough already.

“What do I deserve mom?
 Love?  Marriage?  A relationship?  Didn’t you realize all
of that was a waste of time with dad?”

“Oh honey, none of it
was a waste of time.  Yes, your father and I had issues, but we also had love.
  And we had you as a result of that love.  Now your father and
I are not you and our issues do not determine the future that you are going to
have.  You do.”

Her mother walked around
the counter, giving her daughter a tight hug.

“You know you amaze me
sometimes Donna.  For you to be such an intelligent person it is
interesting how you could be so oblivious to your own truths at the same time.”

“Why do you say that
mom?”

“Honey, you and I both know
that if you were in your office talking to a patient and they laid out their
life and actions like you have, you would have told them that they have daddy
issues and that they shouldn’t let that interfere with finding someone to
love.”

Donna stood in the
kitchen silently looking at her mother. She knew her mother loved her and she
knew she wanted to help her.  She also knew that her mother was right.
 In fact, she had recently had a client that she had had that very same
conversation with a few weeks back.   Beyond that, on many a night
when she sat at home alone wondering what was going on with her life, she had
told herself the same thing as well.  But knowing it and doing it were two
different things.  She knew she shielded herself from relationships with
men because it would be easier to protect herself than to let her defenses
down.   Typical fight or flight only she found that since her
childhood, she’d never stopped running.  If her mom could break it down to
her like that, then she had to admit the truth of it.  What kind of
therapist would she be if she couldn’t take advice herself?  

“Alright mom.  You
win.”

“I win?”

“Yeah you win.
 You’re completely right about me not dating anyone.  I don’t like
the idea of getting hurt and I do compare every situation to what happened when
I was younger.”

“Donna, I’m sorry you
had to grow up like that but you have grown into a beautiful young woman.”

“Thanks mom.”

“Now all we need to do
is find you a man then.”

“Actually, about
that…..”

Her mother dropped
everything and smiled at her.

“You
do
have new
and juicy after all!”

“Mom, enough with that
already.  But I did have a possible dinner invitation yesterday.”

“Really?  Who is
he?”

“Well, if we are
pretending to be girlfriends now I guess I have no choice.  You know the
Dellingers
, right?”

“Who doesn’t know the
Dellingers
Donna?”

“Right.  Biggest
family in town and all. Well I told you that I started working for a local
company as a therapist.  It turns out that the company is run by the youngest
of the
Dellingers
, Nick.  He asked me out
yesterday but I said no.”

“Nick goes to my church.
 How in the world did you say no to a man that cute?  I guess when
you have got a made up mind, nothing is getting in.”

“Its funny mom because
when I used to work at the diner, he’d always come in all the time but I never
knew it was him.  It wasn’t until recently that I found out it was the
same guy.”

“Ok, enough of the back
story, are you going to call him now or what?”

“Right now?”

“Yes right now.  Or
would you rather I call him?  I can invite him for supper tonight if you’d
like.”

“Goodness no mom!
 I’ll call him.  Just give me a minute.”

“Sorry sweetie, I’ve
given you long enough.”

Her mother went into her
purse, took out the phone, and handed it to her before she even realized what
was happening.  Donna took a deep sigh and grabbed the phone from her,
getting up from her chair.  Her mother immediately questioned her.

“Where do you think you
are going?”

“Into the other room.”

She looked at her mother
and laughed.

“I know that you didn’t
think I was going to call him with you standing right there dissecting my every
word.  I am not a glutton for punishment.  I’ll be back when I am
done talking, and for all this, you better make some extra cornbread and maybe
even a cake”

“Well worth it.
 One extra batch of cornbread and a German chocolate cake to go.  Now
you get to dialing honey.”

“I’m going mom.  No
eavesdropping either.”

Donna walked out the back
door and sat on the rocker on the back porch.  She was nervous.  Once
she called him that meant that she was opening herself up to whatever could
happen.  She wouldn’t be able to just change her mind and she would be
changing her whole philosophy on so much in life.  Right or wrong, she
didn’t think her mother really understood the magnitude of what she was doing.
 Or maybe she did.  Donna had never made the decision to do something
different before even though she had thought about doing so hundreds of times.
 Maybe her mother knew that she needed the push.  

Donna scrolled through
her past calls until she saw his number from the previous day.

Now or never I guess.

Donna closed her eyes as
she hit the send button, silently hoping he would save her from the
embarrassment by not answering the phone.  At least she could say that she
tried.  When the phone when silent after the first ring she looked down,
shocked that it said call ended.  Now she just felt embarrassed.  He
probably saw it was her and hung up since she had already rejected him once.
 She turned to go back into the house when her phone began to ring.
 It was him.

“I’m sorry, is this
Donna?”

“Yes it is.”

“Hi this is Nick.
 I don’t mean to bother you but my phone rang just now and it says it was
you.  My phone has been acting up recently so I assumed it was probably
behaving funky still but I wanted to make sure that I hadn’t actually called
you by mistake or something.”  

“Nick, there is nothing
wrong with your phone.  Or at least not regarding this.  I was the
one that called you.  “