Room for You (2 page)

“I’m Alexa Campbell. Those two jerk-offs back there are Mark and Joey. Apparently they have yet to learn that the way to get a girl to notice you is to be nice to her, not pick on her as though we’re still in second grade.”

She glanced back at them and gave an over-exaggerated fake smile, batting her eyelashes. I finally felt confident enough to turn around and take a peek. Two giant football jerseys sat there with their shoulders hanging, looking down like scolded toddlers.

From that day on, Alexa and I were best friends. At first, I was pretty sure she was using me to cheat off of, but we were inseparable and everyone knew it. I wasn’t as openly self-confident as she was, but I was getting more comfortable in my own skin. I even ended up being pretty good friends with Mark and Joey. When Zach left and I moved home with the girls, Alexa told me they offered to find him and beat him up for me. The homecoming queen, Lauren Kolar, was also part of our group. She was innocent and always saw the good in everyone, pretty much the exact opposite of badass Alexa. The three of us evened each other out and were together constantly until Lauren moved away shortly after I had the girls. We were still close but only got to see each other when she came home to visit her parents.

“You guys ready for all this rain tomorrow?” Alexa handed the girls each a sucker.

“Eh, I’ll believe it when I see it,” I said, waving her off nonchalantly. “These weather people never know what the heck they’re talking about.”

“I don’t know, last I heard they were calling for over ten inches of rain just in the next twenty-four hours.” Her dark cobalt eyes were big and serious.

I sighed. “This is one of those times when living in the Land of 10,000 Lakes isn’t so wonderful. Nor is it great living on one, not with this much rain coming. We’ll be lucky if the gazebo doesn’t float away.”

“No shit.” She quickly looked down at Lucy and Piper and then back up at me and grimaced. “Sorry.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Girls, ignore Auntie Alexa and her potty mouth.”

“Mommy, you say that word sometimes too!” Lucy said with a big grin.

“Okay, let’s not talk about that right now.” I laughed and turned to Alexa, promptly changing the conversation. “So are you closing the shop tomorrow?”

Alexa owned a cute little flower shop in town called The Twisted Petal. She had an amazing eye for detail and was magnificent at the designs she created. People called from all over the county to place orders with her.

“Yeah, but hopefully just for tomorrow. Wedding season is just around the corner and I have a million things to do to get ready. But, no work for tomorrow!”

She locked arms with Lucy and Piper and danced around the foyer. “Oh wait,” she stopped suddenly, “I did bring a bouquet for your mom, though.” She went over by the front door and took a beautiful bouquet of roses, tulips and lilies out of their paper cone.

“Suck-up.” I shoulder bumped her, taking the flowers. “I’ll give them to her when she gets back.”

“Oh, I just saw her. She was in the garage talking to Fred. Something about sand bags.”

Fred was our maintenance man who lived in the apartment above the garage. He helped my mom with most of the outside chores and various repairs around the property. He’d been there as long as we had. He and my mom worked well together, and I was ecstatic when the girls unofficially adopted him as their surrogate grandpa.

“They’re probably freaking out over nothing. I’m still hoping those crazy weather forecasters are wrong and we won’t get as much as they think,” I said, crossing my fingers in the air.

“Pssh, you keep thinking those positive thoughts. I, on the other hand, am heading out to get some gas for the generator, grabbing a case of beer for Derek and heading indoors. Bye, girlies!” she yelled on her way out the door.

“Bye, Auntie Alexa!” they called out after her.

I left the girls munching on their suckers in the living room, while I went to the kitchen to put the flowers in water. I loved the kitchen in the inn. It was not only huge, but also warm and inviting. My mom made a point of telling every guest to please make themselves at home, so she left the kitchen open at all times. The cabinets were full of mismatched antique dishes and every small appliance imaginable. She also kept the larger-than-normal pantry stocked with all sorts of snacks and kitchen staples for people to use as they pleased. There were shelves in the pantry lined with mason jars full of fruits and vegetables that she had preserved.

I had just finished putting the flowers in a vase when the back door flew open, and Mom came, along with a huge gust of cold air.

“Whew! It’s already getting windy out there,” she said, trying to close the back door with an armful of groceries.

I set the vase on the island and hurried over to take the bags from her.

“Fabulous,” I answered sarcastically.

She glanced at the flowers on the island. “Those are beautiful!”

“Yeah, Alexa brought those for you. She actually just left. She said she saw you in the garage.”

“Oh, right,” she said. “Fred and I were debating whether to put sand bags down by the shore or not. Did all the guests leave? Any problems?”

“Everything was fine. The Richardsons said they’d be back in a few weeks.”

“Good. What about Alexa? Did she close up for the week?”

“Not sure, at least for tomorrow. She stopped by to bring you those and get the girls sugared up for me. She had to go and get a few things for Derek, then she’s heading in for the next couple days.”

Derek was Alexa’s husband. They’d been together since freshman year in high school and got married right after graduation. Everyone assumed she must have been pregnant, but they were just really in love and excited to start their life together. They had been married almost 6 years and still hadn’t talked about having kids. She told me once that whenever she heard her biological clock start ticking, she spent a day with Piper and Lucy and hit the snooze button for another year.

“Alexa and Derek are a cute couple, aren’t they?” My mom tried to ask innocently, though I knew where she was headed. I sighed, immediately wishing I hadn’t said Derek’s name.”Yes, Mom, they’re adorable. Don’t start.”

“What? I’m not starting anything, I was simply making an observation,” she said, matter-of-fact.

“Mm-hmm.”

“Okay fine, I was starting. I just think you would be so much happier if you found someone too.” She started rambling as fast as she could. “I just want to see you happy. You deserve-”

“Stop,” I interrupted her. “What makes you think I’m unhappy?”

“I didn’t mean unhappy. You’re only twenty-four years old, Kacie. You’ve been single for four years now. It’s about time you get back out there. What about the Richardsons’ son, Cameron?” She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows up and down at me.

“Mom, first of all, I have no interest in Cameron. Second of all, I’ve been on dates. None of them were what I was looking for ... I need the right guy, the perfect guy, a
stable
guy. I need to give up on guys that are good kissers and use my brain this time. I’ve dated the immature, irresponsible loser before. Look where it got me.”

“It got you two beautiful children, that’s where,” she said defensively, as she continued putting groceries in the cabinet.

“Of course they’re wonderful, Mom, but I wish we had a real family. Raising two five-year-old girls alone isn’t easy,” I replied, rubbing my temples and quietly wishing away the impending headache.

“
Alone
?” she accused, whipping around to face me.

I knew I was in trouble.

“You’re
hardly
alone, Kassandra!”

Uh-oh. She called me Kassandra; she never did that.

“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded, Mom. You are extremely helpful. I just meant that I wish I had a traditional family. You know, two parents…” I said quietly, tracing the raised glass decoration on the vase with my finger, trying not to make eye contact with my mom.

“Well, it’s time you got out there, Kacie, for real. Zach left, and he’s not coming back.”

My mouth dropped open as my eyes shot up to meet hers. We didn’t talk about him.

Ever
. Just the mention of his name made me sick to my stomach.

She continued, her voice softer this time. “You need to move on and live your life.”

I stood frozen to the ground, my stomach heavy with emotion-filled rocks. Did she think I didn’t know that he was gone? I lived it; every single day, I lived it. I figured she, of all people, would understand the pain of someone walking out on you. Tears stung my eyes.

“Um, I’m gonna go lay down. I don’t feel so good. Can you keep an eye on the girls for me?” I spat out, hurrying to leave the kitchen before she could answer.

“Kacie, please don’t go!” she called out after me, but I didn’t turn back. I was already halfway down the hall leading to our apartment and right then, all I wanted was to be alone. I heard her call my name one more time as I threw myself down on my bed and cried a deep, therapeutic cry into my pillow before falling asleep.

After tossing my duffel bag on the floorboard of my black Ford F250 Super Duty pickup truck, I stepped back so my black lab, Diesel, could hop up on the passenger seat. I turned to face my mom who was standing behind me with her arms crossed over her chest, tapping her foot nervously. I couldn’t help but grin at her.

“Mom, I’ll be fine,” I told her for what felt like the millionth time that morning.

“It’s a long drive, Brody, and the weather is going to get
really
bad. Can’t you leave your truck here for a couple days and take a quick flight home?” Her eyes pleaded with me not to drive back to Minneapolis today.

“First of all, it’s a 3-hour drive, not that long. Second, if the weather is that bad, I wouldn’t get a flight out today anyway. And third, I have a ton of shi-” I stopped myself as she raised her eyebrow at me, “stuff to do at home. I’ll be fine. And before you ask again—no, I won’t leave my truck here.” I walked over and picked her up off the ground in a bear hug.

“Please call me every 5 minutes.” She muffled into my shoulder, the worry evident in her voice.

“No problem. I won’t be able to see through the downpours anyway, so taking my eyes off the road to keep calling you shouldn’t be a problem.”

She squirmed out of my arms. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she punched my arm as hard as she could.

“Not funny, Brody Michael.”

It’s amazing how even at twenty-seven years old, when your mom says your middle name it reduces you to feeling like an eleven-year-old kid who just broke the living room window with a baseball. Or in my case, a hockey puck.

Bending my knees, I lowered myself to her level and put my hands on her shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes.

“I. Will. Be. Fine. Please stop worrying.”

“When you have kids one day, Brody, you’ll get it. They may grow up and leave your house, but they never leave your heart. You never stop worrying.” She sighed, narrowing her eyes at me. “And when your son is Brody Murphy, you tend to worry more than most.”

“Ha! Thanks for the confidence, Mom. Seriously though, I’m good. The meteorologists were saying this morning we might not get as much rain as they were originally thinking anyway.” “Yeah, well the meteorologists are idiots. It’s already started south of here, and a lot of it.” She wrapped her arms around herself, and her hair practically turned gray right in front of me.

“I’ll just drive really fast through it. No problem. The longer I stand here, the longer it’s going to take me to get home.” I winked at her and hopped up into my truck as she returned a death stare. I’d already said good-bye to the whole family inside, but somehow I knew she’d follow me out, begging me one last time to stay, and I loved her for it. The engine roared to life as I started my truck and quickly pulled out of the driveway before she decided to throw herself on the hood. I rolled my window down and gave her one last wave on my way down the street.

“Okay, a big cup of coffee and we’re good to go,” I said out loud to myself as I pulled into the Dunkin’ Donuts. I reached over to the radio and flipped it to the AM station to get a weather update. Mom would never know, but I was a little nervous. They were calling for one of the worst strings of storms we’d seen in a long time and I really did want to beat it home. I meant to leave a couple hours ago, but she insisted on feeding me first and who was I to turn down my mom’s biscuits and gravy and bacon? The clock read 11:30.