AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Fourteen
Ava
Ava carried her homemade peach cobbler through the gate and up the back steps, headed toward Rosa’s for their Tuesday night social/crochet club. It amazed her how much she’d looked forward to these gatherings over the past weeks. Turned out she had more in common with those women than she thought. And Rosa had been a lifesaver, suggesting Jack attend those day camps. What else would she have done with him all those hours? Keeping him off video games with it so prevalent in the house proved to be an enormous feat. But she had learned to become Zen. At least embracing meditation was something good that came out of this crazy summer. And it made her approach with Jack, regarding his summer packet, go more smoothly when she wasn’t freaking out about it.
The peach cobbler had taken longer to put together than she’d expected, so she rushed up the steps, hoping to get to Rosa’s before the others arrived. With this whole weekend and the last two days weighing heavy on her, she wanted to further discuss Wesley’s son with Rosa. Other than sharing texts over the past few days, she wanted to get Rosa’s thoughts, and maybe confess things had begun to develop between her and Wesley. Though, since Tejas’s arrival, she and Wesley had been strictly coworkers, friends.
When she saw two of the ladies had already arrived, she paused outside the doorway, taking a cleansing inhale and exhale, like she’d been doing in meditation.
Paisley smiled and rushed over when she entered, helping her with the dish. “What did you make us?”
“It’s peach cobbler, an old family recipe.”
“I have to thank you, Ava.” Paisley held her hand over her heart.
“This wasn’t any trouble.”
“No, not the cobbler! The meatloaf recipe you gave me with the dried mustard and ketchup glaze. My husband loved it.”
“Oh, cool.” Last week, Paisley had practically been in tears, telling them how much her husband complained about her cooking, though she was a fantastic baker, and his especially rude comment, about her meatloaf having the taste and consistency of cardboard, had Ava rattling off her mom’s recipe.
“Hi, Ava.” Naomi gave her a big hug.
“What was that for?”
Naomi glanced at Paisley while pointing at Ava. “This woman is a lifesaver.”
Paisley’s eyes grew wide. “She sure is. This new meatloaf recipe might have just saved my marriage.”
“I thought I was going to lose my mind with the girls.” Naomi pressed her temples, her voice elevated. “I say, Lara honey, don’t throw your princess dresses on the floor. And then Lea looks right at me and does the same thing!”
Ava thanked the universe for not giving her twins—and having a boy.
Nia had walked in, overhearing and shaking her head. “I’m glad I have dogs. If they don’t listen—they get put outside. I do time-outs too.”
“Well,” Naomi continued as her voice returned to normal, “remember Ava telling us about meditation? She mentioned a sort of mini meditation—like take a cleansing breath and count to three or ten, whatever it takes to dissipate your anger and regain control. I tell you, it works.”
“I’ve done it with my husband,” said Paisley, nodding like a firm believer.
Shanice waltzed up, lips pursed while snapping her fingers. “Mmhmm, I did it the other day when the salesgirl refused to take back my Coach purse. Counted to five, before I laid into her.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Rosa said.
“Haven’t you used that bag since the Fourth of July?” asked Nia.
“Honey, it didn’t suit me. Besides, I know the manager. He took it back.” Shanice held up a brand-new purse twice the size of the last one.
Ava chuckled. It felt odd having these women take her advice and praise her. Especially Naomi. Ava had been hesitant bringing up her new method of controlling her temper around Jack, figuring she wasn’t the best mother to be giving advice.
Glancing at the Oldport housewives, her heart swelled, feeling a true sense of comradery with them. This constituted an entirely different type of chumminess than the ones she shared with her army brothers or the team next door. She fit in as one of the girls, instead of one of the guys. Ava had girlfriends for the first time in her life.
For the rest of the evening, she relaxed, chatting easily until they went home.
“Hey, Rosa,” Ava swallowed the last of her beer, “want to sit outside with me for a few minutes?”
“Let’s go.” Rosa didn’t hesitate, making her way outside to their favorite lawn chairs. “So how is everything going? Miguel missed seeing Jack for two days.”
“Jack’s free tomorrow. Tejas is leaving in the morning.”
