AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh my God, Damon. You didn’t!”
“I didn’t mean for it to happen. It was an accident.”
I carefully set my wineglass down on the coaster and slapped him as hard as I could across his cheek.
“You cheating asshole,” I screeched.
He grabbed my hand before I reared back again.
“Stop it. You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m being ridiculous? How do you accidentally sleep with another woman? Did you trip in the office after an emergency call, fall on top of her, and your penis slipped out of your scrubs and into her vagina?”
“Of course not. I messed up. I made a mistake.”
“A mistake. Oh, silly me. A mistake. That’s no big deal. Except for the oopsie you left behind in her uterus.”
He sighed, and his head fell into his hands. “She said she was protected.”
“And you believed her? You’re a doctor, for fuck’s sake. How many times have you told a young man to make sure he protects himself?”
“I know. It was stupid. But you do stupid things when you’re in love.”
“Love?!”
He brought his eyes to mine.
“I thought it was an accident, a mistake?”
“It was. I didn’t mean to fall for someone else.”
I stood and started walking back toward the kitchen island. All of a sudden, I was dizzy, and I felt like I might throw up. I was angry at his indiscretion. I expected him to deny it or cry and beg for forgiveness—not profess his love for another woman.
He stood and reached for me, and I swatted at his hands.
Pain slid down my spine as reality sunk in.
“Get out!” I cried.
“Taeli.”
“I said, get out!” I screamed.
“We have to talk about this.”
“No. I don’t feel like talking. I want you to leave.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “That’s fine. I’ll go. For now.”
A horn blows from the car behind me and shakes me from my memory. I give him a curt wave and gun it through the traffic light that apparently turned green while I was reminiscing.
“Mom!”
Caleb’s irritated voice comes from the backseat, and I look in the mirror to see him scowling at me.
“Sorry, buddy.”
“Are we close?” he asks.
I nod toward the sign up ahead that reads, Welcome to Balsam Ridge. One thousand two hundred fifty-seven smiling faces and one old grump.
His eyes skim the road sign.
“Is there really an old grump?” he asks.
“Oh, yeah, and you’ll know when you meet him,” I answer, hoping to get a smile or a grin or even a grunt from him.
He just rolls his eyes and looks back down at his monitor.
Needless to say, I’m not winning any Mom of the Year prizes anytime soon. My kid hates me. Not his father. Me.
I don’t blame him. I’m the one who ripped him from his home and everyone he knew and fled to the hills once word got out about Damon and Ivy.
You see, in Naperville, it’s all about who you know and what you have. Girlfriends might have your back at brunch when you complain about your husband, but it’s a different story when shit really and truly hits the fan. And Dr. Damon Lowder is more important to remain friends with than his cheated-on and dumped wife. Shunned. That’s me. Poor, pitiful, shunned Taeli. I had to escape. Damon can have our ex–dream home, our ex-friends, and our ex-life. To hell with them all.
So, here we are, ten miles from my mother’s house. The home where my brother, Gene, and I grew up. The place I couldn’t wait to leave in the rearview mirror the second I graduated high school.
Fuck me.
The sun starts its descent behind the mountain as we turn onto the gravel road that winds up to the old farmhouse.
The road is narrow, the climb is steep, and there’s not a streetlight or guardrail in sight.
I throw the Volvo XC90 into four-wheel drive, and rocks ricochet off the tires and ping against the undercarriage.
Caleb removes his earbuds and tosses his tablet across the seat.
“What’s wrong, buddy?” I ask.
“There’s no reception,” he says as he looks out the window and his eyes go wide.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” I ask as he takes in the view.
“We’re going to fall down the mountain,” he says with a tremor in his voice.
“No, we aren’t. Your momma can drive these mountain roads with her eyes closed. This is my old stomping ground. I learned how to drive a stick on this very gravel.”
“A stick?”
