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Chapter Eight
“Shanda, I’m really sorry about missing your party,” Reanna said. “Things got a bit out of hand.”
“Is Bobby still hanging around?” she asked.
Reanna shook her head. “Jerry sent him packing.”
Shanda grinned. “Really? How romantic is that?”
“I don’t know if I’d call it romantic. Maybe more embarrassing. I should’ve been able to make him leave myself,” Reanna sighed.
“You had once,” Shanda reminded her.
“As a policewoman, I should’ve been able to get him to leave this time. But when he was standing there and telling me how desperate his situation was, I shut down. Guess it is the guilt for leaving him in the first place.” Reanna knew deep in her heart that Bobby made his own choices, no different than she did. “If he’d spent as many hours at a job as he did chasing after other women, maybe he wouldn’t be broke and homeless now.”
“Good for you. I’m glad you see that. I hear the talk in town. You’re the one who always steps up, helps everyone. Maybe it’s time for you to make other people accountable. Your shoulders weren’t meant to carry the weight of the world,” Shanda said.
“What do you mean talk?” Reanna asked.
“Do I need to give you an example?” Reanna nodded and Shanda added, “Why are you working the night shift this week?”
“Because one of the guys is on vacation and—”
“Officer Long was the only one who could switch her life around,” Shanda said sarcastically.
Reanna laughed. “You make me sound like I can’t say no.”
“I know better. On duty you are by-the-book, and ‘no’ is something you say a lot. But outside of work, you want to make sure everyone else is happy.”
“I wasn’t out to make Bobby happy. I just didn’t want to hear it anymore. He really believes that his life would be so much different if I hadn’t divorced him,” she said.
“He’s right. You would’ve taken care of everything. That doesn’t mean you should’ve stayed married to him. Damn it, what kind of man leans on his wife for everything, and then goes behind her back with other women? He’s lucky your brother was serving overseas and didn’t know about the crap he was doing to you,” Shanda added.
I think Jerry would’ve been equally deadly.“And now Jerry knows about Bobby, and what an ass he was to me. We spent longer than I wanted, talking about Bobby. At one point I think Jerry had been contemplating searching for him just so he could kick his ass. I explained to Jerry that there was nothing we could do to Bobby that was worse than the life he was choosing to live.”
Shanda smiled. “I’m glad things are working out between you and Jerry. I had a feeling you two were a match when we had dinner together.”
“Just think, if Brenda would’ve shown up for that blind date, it might be her with Jerry,” she said, hating the thought, but knowing it was a possibility.
Shanda burst out laughing. “Brenda and Jerry?” She laughed even harder. “He almost didn’t want to be the best man because we were asking Brenda to stand up with him.”
“I didn’t know they knew each other,” Reanna said.
“They met briefly at a party we had at my home. Let’s just say Brenda left a lasting impression, and not a good one,” Shanda explained. “Your sister can be loud and pushy, if you haven’t noticed.”
“She has been all her life.” Reanna had told Brenda to tone it down more times than she could count. Over the last six months, things had been getting better. I miss you, Brenda. Wish you were here so we could talk like this. Funny thing was that even if she were, Brenda wouldn’t stop long enough to listen. She was always on the go.
“Funny how different Brenda and I are, but I love her anyway. She makes a great friend. A lot of fun to be around,” Shanda said. “Just it’s going to take someone with a lot of patience to date her.”
Reanna chuckled. “Maybe someone hard of hearing.”
“Who knows, maybe she’ll find him in California. Wouldn’t it be great if we got invited to her wedding?” Shanda said.
“Let’s see how long she lasts at that job out there first. But if she finds her match, I’ll be on the first plane to—”
“Make sure he’s good enough for her?”
Reanna nodded. “That’s what sisters are for.”
