15. 14 - Drama in Aisle Three

14 - Drama in Aisle Three

I didn’t hear from Walker for the rest of the day, and by mid-day the kids were hungry and begging me to fix them things for dinner that we didn’t have in stock at the house. We packed up and headed to the local grocery store to go grab everything, since I didn’t have work again that night, which left me with plenty of time to shop and cook.

That was where my day took a turn for the worse. We rounded up everything we needed from the produce section and grabbed the bread, then as we headed into aisle three, the whole day turned to shit in an instant.

At the other end of the aisle, coming from the opposite direction was Terry, Dina, and the boy they claimed was my husband’s other son. “Mom,” Ariel whispered worriedly when she noticed them too. “Should I call Auntie Shaina?”

“No, not just yet.” I stood my ground beside the pasta that we’d come to the store for and waited for Terry to bring the drama to me. She did not disappoint.

“I hear your little girl has a smart mouth on her and likes to start shit,” Terry announced loudly.

“Actually, she told your daughter to prove the things she said after she started shit with Ariel.”

Terry worriedly looked down at her daughter. Her face blanched ghostly pale as Dina nodded her head. “You stupid girl,” she hissed at her daughter who glanced up in shock at her mother.

“What? I told her exactly what you said to Missy. Danny is her dad’s kid because you were sleeping with Miss Ambrose’s husband.” Unfortunately for Terry, her daughter also did not have any semblance of a volume control for her voice. Everyone within three aisles of ours had to have heard the girl announce that her mother was a man-stealing, home wreaker who had an affair baby.

“Keep your voice down,” Terry insisted before shooting a glare my way as if I were responsible for her daughter being loud and airing her dirty laundry all over the Pack and Save.

“No offense, but that boy doesn’t look like he could have come from my husband,” I mentioned. The boy was very obviously mixed race. That was fine, but I knew Terry’s family going back three generations and we had those ancestry DNA things done years ago when Josh Jr. was born. Now that I thought about it, Josh’s parents had suggested we get it done, and it made me wonder if they were making sure the grandkids were really theirs. Not that it mattered, since they abandoned them after their son died.

“How the hell would you know?”

“My husband was one hundred percent Scottish and English descent. I also know your family, and he doesn’t look a thing like any of them,” I pointed out. Terry’s face grew red in anger.

“You know what, little miss bitch-face?” She yelled, as if her kindergarten-level taunt wasn’t embarrassing enough for her. “I didn’t want Dina to know that she’s the one who really belonged to Josh. She’s his daughter,” she recited smugly. “And she’s four months younger than Ariel, so you do the math on when that might have happened.” She had the audacity to wink at me.

I stared at Dina for a minute and catalogued her features. It was possible. It might even have been something a younger Josh did and figured he’d be able to hide it forever. He had dated Terry first and I knew she tried her best to get him back, even after she knew I was pregnant with his child.

Dina did not take the news as well as I did. “Mom! What the hell? How could you just blurt that out in the Pack and Save without telling me first?” She screeched out some other obscenities and then ran off leaving Terry to stare after her. I thought a saw a bit of regret there, but then she turned her hate-filled eyes my way again.

“You always knew how to screw everything up. You stole Josh from me. Then, you forced him to marry you even after he decided to come back to me instead.”

“Josh proposed to me, and I said no the first time he did,” I informed her. She stared at me with her mouth moving like a fish out of water trying to breathe. “As a matter of fact, it would have been about the time you claimed to have gotten pregnant with your daughter that we had a huge fight about me saying no, even though I was already almost five months pregnant with Ariel. We waited to get married until after I turned 18, after she was born. He asked me again the day she was born, and I said yes that time. Had I known that there was a chance he went back to you when he was angry about the first time I told him no, I would have told you to keep him.”

“Maybe I should have spoken up sooner then,” Terry taunted.

“You definitely should have spoken up sooner. You might have had a chance at keeping him then.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Not a damn thing. You and Josh are the ones who had the problems.” At that point, I turned around and walked away with Ariel standing tall beside me. I hated that my children had to witness any of that ugliness, but it couldn’t be helped. We lived in a small town that thrived on gossip. Even if they hadn’t been with me at the store for the showdown, they would have heard all the details come Monday morning at school.

I purchased what we already had in the cart and decided to stop at the little general store on the way home for the other things we needed. Josh and Ariel were quiet on the way home. Josh probably didn’t understand what had been said, but Ariel did, and she was stewing on the fact that her mortal high school enemy might just be her half-sister.

What a freaking day. By the time we got home, made dinner, and then cleaned up afterward, we were all drained and exhausted.

I was shocked when there was a knock on the door just before I settled into bed. I went back downstairs and took a look out the peephole to see Walker standing there.

“Sorry, I know it’s late. I broke my phone earlier and couldn’t text, so I wanted to come by and let you know I’ll get one as soon as the cell place opens in the morning.”

“Come on in,” I invited as I stepped back out of the way.

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve been through the wringer today.”

“Feel like it, too.” There was no point in denying it. “Let’s go in the living room and get comfortable. Want something to drink?”

“I have water,” he said as he shook his refillable bottle at me.

“I’ll be back in a minute then.” When I came back out into the living room, Walker lounged on the couch and waited for me. He patted the seat beside him, and I gladly took it. Then, I explained everything that happened that day.

“Well, shit. Need you to give me the names of all the assholes Josh used to run with before he died. I’m going to have Quickshot look into things for you. Need access to that DNA shit you guys did, too.”

“Why?”

“Easiest way to find out if that bitch is lying is to get a hold of that girl’s DNA and send it in, since your husband is already on file there.”

I nodded my head. That made sense. “How will you get her DNA?”

“Eh,” he hedged. I gave him the look that said I meant business and he shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t hate me, but I figured I’d get Griff to work his magic and charm the girl into cooperating.”

“I want to be mad at you for involving him, but if it answers the questions my daughter has, then so be it. She deserves to know.”

“So do you.”

I shrugged and then leaned into Walker’s side. “I suppose, but it doesn’t really matter anymore. He’s dead. I can’t yell at him or change things. If that girl is his daughter, I feel sorry for her because she had no clue. Imagine finding out the man who was coming around your house – if that part was even true – was your dad and no one told you? That is so sad.”

“It’s fucked up, but we’re still going to get to the bottom of it, otherwise Ariel will always question shit where her dad is concerned, and it isn’t fair that all this was laid at her feet, and she doesn’t get some kind of resolution.”

“You’re right. Thank you for caring enough to want to help us.”

“Anything for you and your kids, Ree.”

“Thank you for coming over. I had started to worry.”

“Yeah?”

“Not about us, but about you. I know there’s a lot going on in your club right now, and I worried that it was too much when I hadn’t heard from you.”

“It was enough that I threw my fucking phone and busted it.” Walker admitted that as he chuckled and shook his head. “Let’s just say that shit hit the fan when the rest of the club heard that Sweet would no longer be our president. Fingers were pointed and blame was cast, but Ghost stepped in and set everyone straight. I think a few people are going to be shifted to other chapters and we’ll get some different members in as well who are looking for a change of scenery.”

“I hate it for you guys that everything seems so up in the air.”

He ran his hand up and down my arm in a comforting gesture. “It happens sometimes with clubs. The Tallahassee Chapter had a complete overhaul years ago after their old Prez stole from the club and left them near bankruptcy. The old guard down there, including my father, were thrown out on their asses or told to get in line.”

“Your dad was kicked out?”

“Nah. He chose to go nomad for a while but decided to settle in south Florida and gave up on paying his dues to the club. He quietly quit the club without taking the official steps necessary to truly quit. Got word a couple years ago that he washed ashore after working on a shrimp boat for a few years. Guessing he pissed someone off and they tossed his ass in as bait.”

“That’s awful,” I yelped.

“That’s life when you live it being an asshole to everyone.” I was truly indifferent to the bullshit after growing up with my dad. “Whatever other kids he managed to father over the years were lucky that he never stuck around for them as far as I was concerned. Then again, the women he tended to fuck around with weren’t model citizens either, so the kids were probably still fucked.”

“He sounds like a real gem.”

“Yeah, hate to tell you, but there will be no in-laws to deal with if things ever get that far between us.”

“Well, it’s just my mom on my side. My dad took off a long time ago and Tillie’s dad doesn’t acknowledge her at all. He’s the mayor a couple towns over and everyone knows he’s her dad, but they all pretend they don’t know. It’s crazy.”

“It’s always Tillie here with your kids. What’s up with your mom?”

“She travels too much. Every six months or so, she’ll flutter back to town and tell us about her latest adventure. She loves up the kids and enjoys her G-Maw time then she sets off on a new adventure. My mom was never one to be tied down by anything. She did right by my sister and me and raised us here, in the town where she grew up because she knew it would be better for us. Whenever she was able, she took off again for another adventure. Since I got pregnant and graduated high school, I’ve pretty much been on my own.”

“Looks like yours is slightly better than mine.”

“What about your mom?”

“She had one too many good time adventures with a needle after I left town.”

“So, the club really is all the family you have left?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“And you almost lost that?”

“I did.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It was my own fault.”

“Still, that had to be hard to handle.” He nodded and continued to rub up and down my arm. I think it was more to comfort himself at that point. I snuggled in and hugged him. “You have me now too.”

“I’m thankful for that, baby. So fuckin’ thankful that you didn’t let the stories about me frighten you away.”

“I’m glad you’re the man who proved those stories are ancient history.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re perfect, Ree.”

“Nah, maybe just perfect for you.”

“Damn right.”