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“That’s sad,” I rock back, laying my head against the headrest.
“Hate seeing the frown line, sweetheart.”
“Not frowning momma,” I am definitely frowning.
“What do you think about me keeping the girls tonight so you can get a little me time for yourself?”
“I promised them we’d make popcorn and watch Little Mermaid.”
“Well, your dad and I can hold up that promise, but we’ll do it here instead.” I turn my head toward her, thinking about everything I should be doing instead of moping around. “I have to pick them up in an hour.”
She waves her hand. “I got them,” reaching out she pats my knee. “I’ll take them by your house, let them get their pajamas and giraffes. Then we’ll come back here, get dinner going and when Grandpa gets home, he’ll be happy to see we’ve got a couple sweet visitors for the night.”
“Are you sure?”
“Go.” Again she waves me off. “Work, don’t work. Drink, or sleep all day and night. Whatever you need, go do it.”
What I truly need is for Carson to agree to the terms of the divorce so I can finally move forward from this part of my life.
I step back from the dress displayed on the mannequin and look over its details. I should be working on my orders but instead I am finishing the surprise birthday dresses for my girls. Very soon they will turn four and I’m making them matching princess dresses, both white, one with purple accents and the other pink.
I’m not even sure what time it is, but I know I’ve been hiding in the back of my store for hours, lost in my work.
Part of me wishes I hadn’t taken my mother up on offer to take Riley and Regan. This entire strung-out divorce is making me feel the need to be close to them. Like Carson’s inability to be a father is somehow my fault and I have to make up for it.
“Zoey?” I look up to see Brook, my part time employee peeking around the corner. She is still in high school but so mature and dedicated. Saving up for college the girl works hard and honestly, I don’t know what I would do without her picking up odd hours.
“Yeah?” I ask around the bobby pin I have pinned between my lips.
“You have a visitor,” before I have the chance to ask who she steps back and suddenly the doorway is filled with the man that still to this day manages to make my heart race.
Jayson Lincoln, tall, fit, his dark smoldering eyes staring at me triggering a rush of heat to fill me from head to toe.
“Wow,” he says and for a moment I wonder what that one would means. Then I see him look over my workspace, taking in myin-process projects and even those finished and still displayed. “I guess I can’t really say I’m surprised that you can create such beautiful things.”
Jayson turns his attention back to me and I take a deep breath, because what am I supposed to say. Thank you?
“You were the one that was making her own clothes by the time she was twelve and had half the girls begging you to make them things too.”
Why after thirteen years is it so hard for me to relax and be me around him. I shouldn’t feel my heart race and my pulse quicken. I shouldn’t find it difficult to breath or even form a full sentence.
“I’ve spent the last several days building up to coming to see you.” Jayson takes a few steps into the room and pushes his hands into his pockets, as he rocks back on his heels. His thighs flexing beneath the joggers he wears.
He was always into cardio, running every day religiously, rain or shine.
“Say something,” he adds, his smile triggering a whole new set of feelings to flow through me. He always did have the smile that could make me do just about anything.
“What do you want me to say?” The words sounding hoarse as they leave my lips.
“What if I said that I’ve missed you?”
“I would say not enough,” I bite at the inside of my lip. If only things were different. If only he came back to Magnolia Grove, and he and I created a life. But then I think I wouldn’t havemy girls and even through all the heartache I’d suffer it all over again to have them.
Jayson nods, but never looks away from me.
“I thought about what life could have been if I did come back.”
“You can’t live a life of what ifs,” I tell him. “They change nothing.”
