by Robin Janney
“Anxious to get rid of me already?” asked Craig, his tone light.
Les wasn’t fooled. His son’s anxiety was getting worse the longer he stayed here without his wife, and it was getting harder for the younger man to hide it from his father. “Of course not. I just want the two of you to quit hovering. A man needs space to breathe. You’ve both been by my side constantly. You both deserve a break.”
“Alright, fine,” replied his son, rising from the couch. “I’ll go for a walk then, just through the park, so I won’t be far. Call me on my cell if you need me.”
Les sighed as his son disappeared and he heard the shutting of doors. He looked at Veronica.
She smiled, her pink lips shimmering in the afternoon light. “I’m not going anywhere Les. How about I fix us a drink and we can watch something together?”
“I’d like that,” he answered. He sighed as she left him alone in the spacious living room. The kitchen was partially blocked from this angle and the breathing room was welcome. He leaned his head back and breathed deeply, but even now he found he was as anxious as his son looked and acted.
For some reason, Veronica had been the one to move into their spare bedroom. Allegedly to give him easier access to the bathroom and main living area. Across the hall from the son she’d once molested. Would Craig tell him if his stepmother made a move on him? Les wasn’t sure, and he didn’t think it was something he could even ask his son about. So – he’d have to start checking the security cameras to make sure.
J eremiah Craig Moore.
Even though the child in the stroller occupied her attention, Katie was more than able to watch his approach.
God, but time had been kind to him. Those long legs covered ground quickly; his thumbs were tucked into his pockets preventing his arms from swinging with the natural rhythm of his gait, but she’d be willing to bet the muscles he had as a teen were even more defined as an adult. Hadn’t she heard he’d kept up on his black belt? How she used to love watching him in the tournaments.
With a flash of irritation with the fussing child, Katie plugged the child’s mouth with a pacifier. It wasn’t even her child, just a loaner for the afternoon. From what she remembered of their foolish childhood dreaming, Craig had been big on family. How many kids had he planned out? Four? Six? She couldn’t remember that part. Although he and his wife were childless so far, Katie doubted his desire for a large family had changed. And so, she had to fake this moment good enough in the hopes he wouldn’t see through the impatient disgust.
But, she reflected as she moved gracefully around to the back of the stroller, some things were worth a bit of deception. And the man walking this way on the path was certainly worth it.
Setting the stroller in motion, the child finally quiet, she began to walk in his direction trying hard not to stare. God, Craig had been cute as a teen, but as an adult…it made more than her mouth water as she looked at him!
She waited until it was almost too late before stopping in her tracks and gasping. “Craig? Craig Moore is that you?”
He stopped, his attention now focused on her as she stood before him. “Yes. Do I…oh my God! Katie Davis?”
Smiling widely, Katie replied, “It’s Davis-Miller now, but it’s still me.” His smile had the same heart pounding effect it used to, and it was one reaction she didn’t have to fake. “You don’t look that much different from the last time I saw you. Still handsome as ever.”
He gave her body a quick glance. “You’ve certainly changed.”
She managed to make her smile a sheepish one, deliberately avoiding touching her breasts since he’d noticed them on his own. “Yeah, just a little. Andy sprang for the boob job for our third anniversary, got tired of hearing me complain about them.”
“You were fine the way you were,” Craig said kindly. But then her words registered, and he looked surprised. “Wait, you married Andy Miller? I thought he was gay.”
Not exactly how she had intended the conversation to go. “Well, people thought you were gay, too.”
Craig laughed in amusement. “True enough.”
“So, I thought you lived out in the country somewhere. What are you doing here in Central Park?”
As Craig stepped to the side to clear the path for an afternoon jogger, his expression sobered. “Just trying to clear my head. My dad was injured in a drive-by about three weeks ago, and even though he’s mostly recovered from the actual wound, there were some complications.”
“Andy told me he hadn’t been to work for a while, but that’s all I’ve heard,” she lied sympathetically. “Is he okay?”
“Like I said, there were complications.” Craig shrugged, and she was momentarily distracted by how his button-down cotton shirt moved over his shoulders. He still liked to leave the top two buttons hanging open. “He’ll probably never walk again, and he’s been having a hard time coping with that. Dad denies it, but it’s the truth.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Katie replied honestly. Even already knowing the answer to her question didn’t prevent her from feeling compassion for the man who should have been her father-in-law. “How’s your mother dealing with it?”
“Ah, Veronica’s been better than I expected,” answered Craig, shrugging again but much more uncomfortably. “Almost the way she used to be when I was a kid.”
“Oh?” she asked. What was that supposed to mean?
“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” His smile was easy. “Water under the bridge.”
“So…I heard you got married?” Switching gears, Katie smiled teasingly. “I thought you swore off girls in high school.”
This time as he shrugged again, he glanced away quickly. She’d made him uncomfortable again. She had to quit dropping the ball!
“I met one who changed my mind,” he said with a smile. And was he blushing? How adorable! “Wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Is that all it takes?”
Craig laughed quietly. “Yeah, I guess so. Her name’s Angela.”
“That’s a pretty name. Is she in the city with you?” Again, Katie asked a question she already knew the answer to, but he didn’t need to know that.
“No, I left her in charge of things at our ranch. Her brother is working for us this summer and I didn’t think it was fair to them to drag her all the way out here.”
“Oh. Well, do you have a picture of her? I’d kind of like to see the girl who won your heart.” The heart that used to be hers. She didn’t want to see any picture, but Katie had to play this part if she wanted him back.
“Sure.” He pulled an iPhone out of his back jeans pocket. She waited patiently as he awakened the phone and did what he needed to before passing it to her. “Here.”
It was a candid shot, the other woman standing in a field of wildflowers, presumably one of theirs. She was laughing at something, her arms stretched out on both sides. Bright blue eyes sparkled beneath gorgeous auburn hair. Katie was jealous even though she knew herself to be just as pretty as the younger woman in the photograph.
“She’s pretty,” said Katie, careful to keep jealousy out of her voice, making sure Craig heard admiration instead. “Are there more?”
“Yeah, just swipe to the right.”
Katie did so, thankful for the contentment of the child in the stroller. As the photos began to show his wife with a horse, she looked at the horse almost as much. “May I watch this video?” she asked, even as she began it.
“Sure. It’s just Angela and Belle going through their jump course,” answered Craig with a shrug.
Katie nodded and watched the woman put the horse over jump after jump. “She’s good, Craig,” she stated after a moment. “Really good. Does she compete?”
“No,” Craig answered. “Angela is happiest at home. Large crowds still unsettle her.”
“Not the best quality for your social status,” she murmured. She herself loved being the center of attention. A little louder, she said, “My God, Craig, is this the Southern Belle?�
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“It is.”
Katie looked up at him in shock. “You bought your wife a prize winning thoroughbred and they don’t compete?”
“My wife deserves the best,” was Craig’s remark.
She shut the video down and handed the phone back to him. “Is the issue with crowds the reason why you didn’t bring her with you?”
Craig’s expression hardened. “I didn’t bring her because I need her at home. Her brother just started working at the ranch.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Craig.” She rushed to undo another blunder. “It’s just that you said she was uncomfortable in large crowds. Which is pretty much what New York City is – one great big crowd.”
His face relaxed and so did Katie.
“How much longer do you think you’ll be here?” she asked him.
He shrugged once more. “I’m not sure. Not until I’m happy with Dad’s recovery.”
“That’s understandable,” she murmured. She pushed the stroller back and forth idly, thankful the child was still behaving. Pulling her smartphone out from her bra strap, she asked, “Do you mind if I have your number? Who knows, maybe we could get together before you leave for old time’s sake?”
“Yeah, sure.” He rattled the number off for her. “I have to get ahold of your brother too. He and his wife want me to stop for dinner some time.”
“Mike knows you’re here? And he didn’t tell me? That brat!” Katie smiled at Craig’s laughter.
“I happened to run into him last week, he must have just been getting out of work.”
“I’ll be sure to scold him when I talk to him again.” Katie sighed. “My brother! Insists on working for a living!”
“Some people do,” confirmed Craig.
Slipping her smartphone back under her bra strap, she smiled up at him. “And some people don’t! I must get going Craig, I have to get little Brandon back to his mommy. I hope to see you again before you leave.”
“That would be nice,” Craig agreed.
“Are we still good enough friends I can beg a hug off of you?” She looked at him imploringly.
His face froze for a moment, but he nodded. “Sure.”
“It was so good seeing you, Craig,” she said as his arms barely touched her while she squeezed him in a light hug.
“It was nice seeing you too,” he said, pulling himself back with a small smile on his face. “Time’s been kind to you, Katie.”
“Thank you!” She beamed up at him. “You look good too. I’ll give you a call sometime.”
“Bye.”
Katie turned away and resumed pushing the stroller to the edge of the park. She may have put a bit more bounce in her step than usual, just in case he was watching her walk away. A quick glance over her shoulder told her he was, and she smiled shyly.
Mission accomplished.
B elatedly, Craig remembered he’d forgotten to ask Katie about her own children. She had been pregnant their senior year. Not by Andy. He wasn’t sure who the father had been, he had never heard that piece of information even back then. At the time, he had just been relieved it hadn’t been him. He’d come so close to crossing that line with Katie when they’d been dating in high school.
Shaking his head, he turned and returned to his walk in the park. Seeing Katie had taken his mind off his father’s injury and recovery, if even for a moment. She was the same flirtatious girl she’d always been and part of him was glad she hadn’t changed.
Dr. Rashid seemed optimistic about his father’s recovery, but Craig wasn’t sure himself. And his father’s almost apathetic attitude towards it all bothered him.
His cellphone rang, and he glanced at the caller ID even though the ringtone told him it was Kevin. He had never connected with his friend over the Dragon Dream he’d had before coming to his father’s bedside. That seemed such a long time ago.
Accepting the call, he put the phone to his ear. “Hi Kevin.”
“Hey buddy! I finally caught up to you!”
“Nothing like a good game of phone tag to keep you entertained for a few weeks.” They had never been big on texting each other, preferring to talk to each other.
“Part of the cons of living in different time zones, I guess. So, what’s up?”
Craig sighed. “Actually, I’ve been back in your time zone for a few weeks now. I’ve just been in and out of the hospital for my Dad and that’s caused the missed calls.”
“What?”
“Sorry. When I first tried getting a hold of you, it was because of a Dragon Dream I had. And because I’d gotten a phone call from Veronica telling me Dad had been shot in a drive-by.” Craig spent the next few minutes recounting the events of the past few weeks. “I’ve been in the city since.”
“That’s a lot happening all at once,” agreed Kevin. “And you had the Dream the night before the phone call?”
“Yeah. Do me a favor and don’t jump on Angela’s bandwagon and try to claim there’s some meaning behind it. I’ve heard it already.”
“Alright, I won’t. I’ll just say you haven’t had a negative Dragon Dream in how many years and suddenly you’re having them again?”
“Come on, Kevin. Really? Besides, I’m not having them again. It was one dream.”
“Just the one?”
“You sound surprised.” Craig sat down on a bench just off the path he was on. He leaned back and squinted into the afternoon sunshine.
“A little,” the doctor admitted. “Anxiety has always triggered your dreams.”
“Well, sorry to disappoint you. I have more important things to worry about than stupid dreams. Like my stepmother apologizing and my doubting her. Like my father who’s ignoring his injury. At least I know my wife is safe, and she’s the one thing I don’t have to worry about right now.”
“I understand. How is Angela handling this?”
Craig stamped down the flare of irrational anger his friend’s question provoked. Why did it matter how his wife was handling this? It had nothing to do with her; it wasn’t her father, or her problem and she wasn’t even here. “She’s fine,” he said brusquely. “She’s not having any problems handling the ranch while I’m gone. We chat on the laptop each night, and we text on and off all day.”
“I didn’t realize she wasn’t with you. I guess I can understand why. How long has your father been out of the hospital? You did say he was out, right?”
“Yeah. He came home today. Kicked me out for some fresh air, accused Veronica and me of hovering.”
There was a sound on the line like muffled laughter. “You don’t say.”
“The man is most likely paralyzed for the rest of his life and doesn’t want to deal with it! Can you blame me for being anxious?”
“No, I don’t blame you, Craig. I just don’t think anyone has ever called you on your overprotective tendencies towards the ones you love before. It’s why Angela is still in Montana, and why you left here shortly after Jared’s graduation instead of staying as long as you’d planned.”
“Do you think I’m wrong in how I take care of my wife, or try to watch out for my father?” Craig knew the other man’s wife held this belief, and now wondered if Kevin felt likewise.
“Wrong is too strong of a word,” replied Kevin. “I think it’s understandable, given what you and your wife went through almost five years ago. Given that until then, you and your father weren’t exactly talking.”
“So – what are you saying then?”
Kevin’s sigh was clear across the line. “Exactly what I said, Craig. I don’t talk in riddles like you tend to do. I was merely amused that one of your loved ones has called you on something I’ve witnessed for the past few years. There’s nothing wrong with it, although I imagine it can be a bit claustrophobic for the person it’s directed at. But if they’re not complaining, it’s not a problem.”
“So, what? I’m just supposed to bring Angela to New York City without any consideration as to how I’m supposed to protect her here?”
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“I didn’t say that, but if it’s the first thing to pop into your mind: Maybe. I don’t know.”
The conversation lapsed into silence as Craig considered it. He wanted his wife here with every fiber of his being. Especially since Veronica had moved across the hall. He was barely able to sleep. But there were her snide comments about his wife’s sensitivities, which were all too true but annoyed him nonetheless.
“I can’t do that, Kevin. I just can’t expose my wife to my stepmother’s vitriol. I know Veronica apologized to me, but I’m not comfortable around her. The three weeks Dad was in the hospital was torture. If I wasn’t at the hospital, I stayed in the bedroom if she was home. If the door had a lock, I would have locked it.”
“Has she done anything, said anything?” Kevin asked softly.
“Aside from a few comments about my wife’s sensitivities, no – she hasn’t said or done anything questionable towards me. So I know that makes it my problem. I’m unable to forgive and forget; unable to trust.”
“I don’t expect you to trust your stepmother, or even forgive and forget what she did. She abused you, Craig. And while her apology is a step in the right direction for both your healing, it will take you time to get to the point of forgiving her.”
Craig watched a jogger go by, the sweaty man checking the time on his wrist as he passed. “The problem is, I thought I had. We sure as hell talked about it enough during the months I was trying to date my wife. I thought I’d come to terms with all of it. Moved on.”
“And you have moved on, Craig. You have a healthy relationship with a woman, emotionally and physically, which you weren’t able to have in the past. It may be this situation has brought up forgiveness issues, but it doesn’t mean you haven’t moved past what Veronica was trying to do that night when she abused you. Quit being so hard on yourself.”
“But forgiving her…”
“Comes in time, Craig. I know many churches teach that it’s a requirement, or a magic moment where all the pain is released, but the truth is: that’s not how it really works. In all instances, forgiveness is a process. It’s different for each person, and for each issue. Forgiving someone for eating the last slice of pizza during finals week doesn’t even compare to forgiving the one who abused you.”
