Underestimated (61 page)

My mom let go of me and walked back to

Caroline. She squatted to her level and held her hand out

for me to come.

“Caroline, do you know who this is?” she asked as

she took my hand. I squatted too. I didn’t know what I was

supposed to do.

“My sister,” she smiled. I held out my hand and

took her little hand into mine. “It’s nice to meet you,” she

said.

I shook her little hand and smiled. “It’s very nice

to meet you too, Caroline.” I fucking loved the kid, right

off the bat. I fucking loved the little girl that I hated and

resented just five minutes earlier.

“Come on kiddo, let’s go batten down the

hatches,” Jason said to Caroline, wanting to give us some

time.

“There’s a big storm coming,” Caroline informed

me.

I only smiled. I didn’t know what was wrong with

me, but I suddenly had no words in my brain.

Jason kissed my mom before taking Caroline’s

hand and leaving us alone. She was happy, and I was

happy that she was happy. I’m not sure why. I hadn’t felt

like that before I had gotten there. I hoped that she was

miserable.

“Can you bring Morgan’s things in?” she asked,

kissing him back as she hooked his fingers with hers.

What? I’m not staying…

“Sure thing. Can I have your keys?” he asked.

I gave him my keys.

“Do you want to take a walk?” my mother asked.

I shrugged. “Sure.”

This was strange. This was not the mother that I

had grown up with for almost eighteen years. My mother

was a loud mouth drunk with the vocabulary of a drunken

sailor. This woman was soft spoken, well kept, and very

loving. She was pretty with the same dark hair as mine,

manicured nails, painted in a light pink to match the toes

sticking out from her sandals. She looked healthy and in

shape. My mother wore slutty clothes and didn’t keep

herself up at all.

She held my hand as we walked along the beach.

We both laughed when we slid out of our shoes at the

same time. We walked out to the end of the pier and sat

down with our arms over the railing and our feet dangling

from the side.

“You can ask me anything that you want Morgan. I

am sure that you have a million questions,” she started.

I couldn’t hate her. I just couldn’t do it. I loved

her, no matter what she had done. I loved her damnit.

“I want to know about my real dad. How did you

meet a rich man from Vegas in the hills of West Virginia?”

My mom took a deep breath. I had just married

your dad. We had been trying to get pregnant for about

four months.” She laughed. “I wanted to have a baby so

that I could get a monthly state check, like everyone else. It

just didn’t happen. He decided to take off for the summer

and follow the carnival across the south side of the United

States. Michael was there on business, something about

some diamonds that had been found while mining coal. I

don’t know a lot about that because he had told me that it

was all hush, hush and he was there to retrieve them

before anyone caught wind of the outrageous find.

“He was so young and good looking. He made me

want out of there and make a better life for myself. I

always knew that he wouldn’t be my knight in shining

armor and be the one to save me, but none the less I

dreamt about it. I fell head over heels in love with

Michael. We spent the entire two weeks that he was there

together. We spent it in Charleston of course, in some

fancy hotel. He wasn’t the type to stay in the rent by the

hour hotel back home. When your dad got tired of being a

carney and came home after three months, I was almost

two months pregnant.”

“He beat the hell out of me but never told anyone

that you belonged to another man. He would throw it up to

me occasionally, but no one else knew.”

“How did Michael find out about me?” I asked.

“He came back six years later for the same reason.

That find didn’t turn out to be the gold mine that he had

hoped for. They were just some sort of crystals that wasn’t

worth much. I was still waitressing at the truck stop. I

spent the night with him and told him about you.” She

snorted. “I was hoping that he would take us away from

there. He didn’t, and he was gone before I woke up the

next morning.”

“I still don’t understand. How did you end up

here? How did my little brother end up adopted by a

family in Vegas? How did I end up married to a man that I

didn’t even know?” I asked, not taking a breath from the

never-ending questions.

“Is he good to you, Morgan?” she asked, moving

my hair from the front of my shoulder to the back.

“Yes. He is very good to me,” I said. That wasn’t

a lie. He was good to me. It just wasn’t always like that.

What was I supposed to do, tell her that he took me to be

his lawfully fuckable sexmate? To fuck and to suck in

various positions until his orgasm do we part? I had a

good feeling that she had been through a lot herself, and

this was harder for her than I had originally thought.

She smiled content with my answer. “Mr.

Callaway showed up at the truck stop when you were

close to eighteen. He had a whole slew of pictures from a

private investigator that had been spying on me. He made

me feel like a piece of shit when he showed me the

pictures of the trailer back home and the living conditions

that I allowed my children to live in. He had pictures of

the church bringing in food, you in a thin worn coat, trying

to pry frozen wood apart, Justin with the same clothes,

three days in a row. I didn’t think I had a choice, Morgan.

Please try to understand that I did this for you and Justin,

not myself. I would have agreed had he not offered me one

penny.”

“He explained that he never knew about you until

Michael was on his deathbed. I knew that you were going

to marry Drew Kelley. I knew that Justin was going to be

adopted by Hillary and Peter Dunn. They had tried to have

kids for years and were not able to. I knew he would have

a good home, and you would never want for anything.”

I wanted for a lot of things, mostly love.

“But the welfare department came and took him

away. I was there when they did,” I assured her, still not

understanding.

“That was only temporary. Mr. Callaway arranged

that until the paper work was complete. He wasn’t about

to let him stay there. He didn’t want to take you until you

graduated because you were so close. I could have stayed

until then too, but I couldn’t stand the thought of being

there without Justin and not being able to tell you what

your future held.”

“Where did you get all of the pictures?” I asked.

“That was the deal. I would only agree to walk

away quietly if I was insured that I would always know

that you guys were okay. I have actually talked to Justin’s

new mother. He was sick once, and she wanted to know

about our family’s medical history.” My mom smiled.

“She was so worried about him. They really do love him,”

she added, happy of the fact. I smiled too, knowing that he

was with a good family made me glad that things worked

out the way that they had, if only for him.

“I like your hair better your natural color. Blonde

just isn’t you,” my mom said, playing with my hair again.

I snickered. “I did that for Drew,” I replied. I did

do it for him. I just didn’t have a say in the matter.

“Tell me about him,” she coaxed.

How was I supposed to do that? Oh, we have this

amazing fucked up sex life.

“Well, he’s busy. He works a lot.” I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t think of anything to tell her that wasn’t going to

sound fucked up.

“So things are good with you two?”

I pondered for a second before speaking. “Not

right at the moment. We are on a trial separation right

now.”

“But you’re going to work it out, right?” she asked,

almost desperately.

I shrugged my shoulders, and for the life of me, I

don’t know why I had just blurted out the rest.

“I’m kind of in love with someone else.”

“Oh,” she said, surprised. “Are you still in love

with Drew?”

“I am so in love with Drew that I don’t know

which way is up, but I am in love with a simple sheriff

with a simple life too.”

My mom smiled. “Life is a fucked up mess,

Morgan, but it always seems to find a way to work its self

out.”

I laughed at her choice of words. I knew I had

picked up my foul mouth from her. I just didn’t normally

say it out loud. It was normally during conversations

within in my own mind.

“Tell me about Jason. I like him,” I said. She

smiled. I could tell that she loved him.

“Jason is a good man and a good father. I wished

that you and Justin would have had that.”

“I think Justin does have that,” I replied.

“Mr. Callaway let me choose anywhere in the

world that I wanted to live. He told me to make it count

because I was only getting one chance and would be cut

off from his wallet. I didn’t know where to go or what to

do. I’d never even been out of the hills before. A week

after our first meeting a man showed up with an envelope.

Do you remember the man that I had left with the day that I

told you goodbye?” she asked.

“Yes.” Of course I remembered that. I had

nightmares about it.

“Mr. Callaway had done some homework himself,

and thought that this place would give me a fresh start, and

I would be able to run a business here and be able to take

care of myself. I loved the pictures and the thought of

living on the beach. The problem was, I knew nothing

about bookkeeping, taxes, or how to run a business. He

hired Jason to work with me for a few months to get me

started. He and I stayed in this huge house alone for three

months. I think I fell in love with him the first night. Of

course I thought he was way out of my league, and I didn’t

have a chance,” she added. I could see how she felt that

way. I felt that way about Drew. I didn’t think he could

love a backyard, hillbilly like me.

“Jason and I had so much fun together those first

few weeks. I was upfront and honest with him from the

beginning. He knew about you and Justin. I swear if he

hadn’t been there during my many crying sprees I would

have fed myself to the sharks.”

“I was so mad when Drew told me that you were

married and had a new family. I felt like you forgot us,” I

sadly told her how I felt.

“Oh, baby,” she said hugging me tight. “I have not

gone one day without thinking about you both. We even

have birthday cake for both of you every year,” she said in

my hair.

“You do?” I asked, pulling away to look at her.

“Yes, we do. I know it’s silly, but I kind of like

being silly. It makes me happy.”

“I’m happy for you, mom,” I said. I was happy for

her. This wasn’t what I had in mind at all. It wasn’t even

close. I had planned on coming there for all of ten minutes,

giving her a piece of my mind and spinning my tires out of

there so fast. I was glad that my plan failed. I was glad that

she had Jason and Caroline. I was glad that she was

happy.

“Caroline reminds me a lot of me,” I said with a

smile.

“She reminds me of you every day,” my mom

assured me. “She is so smart, sometimes too smart for her

own good,” she added with a smile. “Guess what she

loves,” my mom persuaded.

I shrugged my shoulders with a big smile. I was

happy. I really was.

“Peanut butter and pickles,” she laughed.

I laughed too. That was my favorite food growing

up. “I haven’t had one of those in years,” I said.

“Oh, don’t worry. You will, just give it a day or

two. How long are you staying?” she asked.

I shrugged again. “I don’t have a deadline. I can

leave whenever I want. I was supposed to be using this

time to figure out what to do with these two difficult men

in my life, but so far, I’m still at square one.”

She smiled. “I hope it takes you a month,” she

squealed, happy that I didn’t have to leave right away.