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The women had been planning this celebration for months. Pastor Phil would perform the ceremony at the church, then the reception would be held under a big tent at the farm. The whole town was invited.
“We didn’t have a big wedding, so I figured we could go big for this.”
Hannah loved the idea. Emma’s christening had just involved cookies and coffee at church after the service.
Annie, the middle Boudreau daughter, held up a picture of their family at the Grand Canyon. “Look at Daddy’s belt.” The large turquoise and silver buckle practically covered his belly.
Maggie smiled. “He loved that belt.”
“Jake told Sam he knew you,” Georgie said to Hannah, as the others looked at the photograph.
“Where are all the guys?” Hannah hoped Georgie wouldn’t notice her avoidance of the subject. She had thought Jake had gone home.
She hoped he hadn’t told anyone about their encounter with Troy. She didn’t want to admit that he’d been coming to her work, sometimes just asking after her and Emma, other times asking for money. Mostly the latter, lately, she admitted with an inward sigh. She had mostly just given in, anything to get him out of there.
Olivia had once told her to call the police.
“It’ll be on his record.” Olivia said. “You could use it in the divorce.”
“I don’t want to ruin him.” But why, really, did she continue to protect him?
Well, Troy had enough of his own problems. She didn’t need to add fuel to the fire by calling the police on him. Not when it was pointless, anyways. She knew what they could legally do, and it wasn’t much. Domestic abuse wasn’t considered a serious crime. And it would just prompt him to go around town telling everyone more lies about her. His mother still loved to spread rumors about her sleeping around. The reality was that she had only given in to Troy after he told her it was how she could “show him her love”.
She shuddered at her own stupidity.
Olivia held Mae’s little hands so she could stand, then said, “You know, that Jake is very handsome.”
Hannah shook her head. “He’s a bit uptight.”
“You really think so?” Olivia seemed surprised. “He seems like a nice guy. You know, you two would be cute together.”
Hannah nearly choked. “Oh no, I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
Mae’s fingers slipped from Olivia’s hands, and she fell on her bottom. Her bottom lip began to wobble.
All the women started laughing and cooing to distract the baby, but it didn’t work. She wailed.
Olivia looked at her phone, checking the time. “Let me put her down, and I’ll be right back to open up that bottle of wine in the fridge.”
Hannah picked up the Grand Canyon photo and slipped it into a frame, looking at the young Boudreau women looking up at her.
“That was a fun trip,” Maggie said from her recliner. “Though the girls almost killed each other.”
Hannah smiled at the idea of three sisters in the back of a station wagon, stuck together as they travelled across the country. Regrets crept in. A trip like that wasn’t in the cards for her and Emma. She’d never have enough savings to risk spending on such an adventure. She knew how this game was played. She’d learned from her mother. As a single mother, she either had to sacrifice Emma’s happiness, or sacrifice her own. She couldn’t have both.
The summer Hannah’s mother left her with her father was the summer her mother met Mitch. He really liked Hannah… especially when her bra size changed. He always looked a little longer than he should, or hung around her until it got weird, or just liked to get a little too close. When her mother walked in just as he was reaching out to touch her knee, she exploded not at her creepy boyfriend, but at her daughter.
“Are you flirting with my man?” she snarled at Hannah, after he left the room.
“No!” Hannah cried out, pulling down her school blouse to cover her knees. She remembered being confused, and hurt, and then mad.
When school finished for the year, Hannah would be alone in the house for the summer with Mitch, and her mother wouldn’t abide that. She packed her bags while she was at a friend’s house, and drove her to Prairie Valley that night.
In the end, her mother didn’t stay with Mitch, but there had been so many more Mitches that Hannah lost count. She couldn’t remember when she’d last seen her mother. Long before Emma had been born. She didn’t even know if she was still alive.
Her father didn’t refuse her, but he didn’t welcome her, either. He treated her like a maid. She had to cook dinner, clean the house, do his laundry, and still give most of her part-time job money over to him for bills. Once she got her license, she had to do the shopping as well. She did everything he asked, but he still complained constantly, delighting in pointing out her mistakes.
