by Marin Thomas
Raquel smiled. “The computer takes a few minutes to warm up.”
“Not a problem.” Katelyn examined the collection of ceramic poodles in a display case until a tinkling sound caught her attention. A live standard poodle pranced into the room, wearing a rhinestone collar and a pink tutu. “Aren’t you the cutest thing?”
“That’s Princess.”
Katelyn held out her hand and the poodle lifted her paw for a doggie handshake. “The pink nails are a nice touch.”
“She’s the motel mascot, so her upkeep is a tax write-off. I spend more money on her pedicures and wardrobe than I do on my own.”
“How much for the room?”
“One ten.” Raquel printed off a receipt, then returned Katelyn’s credit card. “There’s a Jacuzzi out back for guests.”
“We’ll be staying inside for the night.”
“If you need anything after hours, I’m in room one.”
“Thank you.”
“I hope your mother-in-law feels better soon.”
“Me, too.” Katelyn carried the overnight bags and Shirley’s purse into room 3, then returned to the car for the soda, crackers and Pepto-Bismol. After locking the door, she slipped out of her sandals and propped herself up against the pink velvet headboard behind the bed nearest the window. She grabbed the TV remote and a second later her phone chimed with a text message. Don.
Why isn’t my mother answering her cell phone?
Not caring to go into detail about their dining adventure, Katelyn fibbed. She went to bed early.
Is she ill?
Upset stomach
Tell her I hope she feels better soon.
Katelyn didn’t answer.
There’s an offer on the house.
Already? Who’s interested?
Weren’t you there when the couple came through at one o’ clock?
Busted. Your mother and I left town.
Katelyn’s phone rang. “Yes?”
“Where are you?” Don asked.
“Stroud, Oklahoma. We checked into a motel for the night.”
“Why is my mother with you?”
“The apartment you leased for her won’t be ready until the middle of July or later.”
“What are you talking about? I had everything arranged.”
“She’s not happy with the flooring and the countertops you picked. They’re installing hardwoods and marble.”
“Unbelievable.”
No kidding. The past few days seemed surreal.
“You didn’t think to contact me before she made the changes?”
“Why would I do that? Shirley’s your mother, not mine.” Katelyn flashed her middle finger at the phone. “Besides, I didn’t even know she’d called the manager.”
“Where are you traveling to?”
“Little Springs.”
“Why is my mother going with you?”
“What was I supposed to do with her? Leave her alone in the house and ask the neighbor to come over fifty times a day to see if she left the gas range on?”
“Couldn’t you have waited to visit Birdie until I returned to town?”
“No, Don, I couldn’t. I’m tired of arranging my life around your schedule. I’ve been doing it for three years while you’ve been off screwing whatever her name is.”
“If you don’t want my mother with you, put her on a bus back to St. Louis.”
“Will you be there to pick her up at the station?”
Silence. Of course he wouldn’t be.
“I didn’t call to argue with you.”
Maybe that had been the reason for the lack of passion in their marriage—aside from a few differences of opinion, they’d never fought.
“I admit the timing could have been better,” he said.
Dumbass. “Is there a right time to tell your spouse you cheated on her?”
“You can’t be that surprised, Katelyn. We’ve both changed. We’re not the same people we were in college.”
Obviously he no longer cared for the person she’d become—whoever that was.
“Does she have a name?”
“Lauren and I met through an acquaintance.”
She heard the toilet flush. Shirley would be out of the bathroom any second. “The kids will want to know about Lauren . . . unless you intend to walk out on our children the way you did to me and your mother.”
“I’m not walking out on the kids.”
Relief filled Katelyn. She didn’t want the twins feeling as if their father had rejected them, too. “When will you be back in St. Louis so I can hand Shirley off to you?”
“I don’t know. Some problems have come up with one of our accounts and I may have to return to Japan after I leave Singapore next week.”
“She’s your responsibility, Don. You can divorce me, but you can’t divorce your mom.”
“I’ll compensate you for the inconvenience.”
Katelyn gave the phone the bird again. Don didn’t have enough money to offset the misery his mother inflicted on a person. “Since we have an offer on the house,” she said, “you should tell the kids about the divorce sooner rather than later before their friends ask questions.”
“I said I’d take care of it. Have my mother phone me when she has a chance.”
Katelyn ended the call before she sprained her middle finger.
CHAPTER SIX
“Who were you talking to?” Shirley asked when she stepped out of the bathroom, her face haggard and drawn.
“Don.” Katelyn hopped off the bed and opened the bottle of Sprite. “You need fluids.” She unwrapped a plastic cup next to the empty ice bucket and filled it halfway with warm soda, then handed it to Shirley when she sat on her bed.
“This is the gaudiest motel I’ve ever stayed at.”
“It’s fine for one night.” After learning the name of the woman Don was having an affair with, Katelyn was too distracted to get back on the road and drive to another motel. Maybe Jackson had crossed her mind on occasion through the years, but she’d chosen Don and until now, she’d never had a reason to look back.
Shirley finished the soda, then set the plastic cup on the nightstand. “What did Don want?”
“He was surprised you were visiting Little Springs with me.”
“Is he upset that I made changes to the apartment?”
Shirley looked so miserable that Katelyn didn’t have the heart to beat her down with the truth. “Of course not.”
“I can take care of myself, you know.”
Arguing the point would only antagonize her mother-in-law.
“Did you check for bedbugs?”
“I will right now.” After Shirley stood, Katelyn loosened the blanket and sheets at the bottom of the bed, then lifted the corners of the mattress. “No bugs.”
Shirley pulled the spread back and plucked a strand of dark hair from the pillowcase. “I don’t think they washed the sheets after the last person checked out.” With a disgusted sigh, she went into the bathroom and then returned with a towel, which she spread across the pillow before stretching out on top of the cover.
“Aren’t you changing into your pajamas?” Katelyn asked.
“I don’t want my clean clothes touching the bed linens.”
Katelyn had seen documentaries on motel room cleanliness. If she told Shirley about the ultraviolet black lights that revealed body fluid stains on bedspreads and carpets, her mother-in-law would sleep standing against the wall. She lowered the volume on the TV and then shut off the lamp between the beds.
“I’m sorry,” Shirley said.
Her mother-in-law must be delirious from dehydration, because she never apologized. “Sorry for what?”
“For not ordering the chicken-fried steak.”
Oh, brother. Kately carried
her toiletry bag and nightshirt into the bathroom and took a shower. When she returned to the bedroom, Shirley’s snores drowned out the QVC program promoting turboblenders. Katelyn crawled beneath the covers and watched the perky blonde drop a head of cauliflower into the glass pitcher. When she flipped on the mixer, Katelyn closed her eyes and imagined Don’s head being chopped into a million tiny pieces.
• • •
“The Red River looks more brown than red,” Shirley said.
“The color intensifies when the river floods and washes away the soil.” Katelyn slowed the car as she drove onto the bridge that would carry them across the water and a few miles later into the state of Texas.
“The terrain hasn’t gotten any prettier since we began this trip.”
They’d been on the road a little over two hours, and Katelyn was growing weary of her copilot’s grumpy disposition.
“What are those white things floating in the air?”
“Seedpods from the cottonwoods.” The fast-growing shade tree was popular in Texas, even though its life span was short.
“What are the bushes with the pinkish white flowers?”
“Salt cedar. Their roots travel beneath the ground and interfere with watersheds, so most ranchers remove the plants along the streams on their property.”
At the end of the bridge, Katelyn said, “The town of Burkburnett is coming up. Do you want to stop and stretch your legs?”
“That would be nice.”
Three miles later Katelyn pulled into a Whataburger restaurant and parked.
“I need to use the restroom.” Shirley got out of the car, leaving her purse behind. Again.
Phone in hand, Katelyn paced back and forth along the sidewalk outside the restaurant while she checked their route on the GPS app.
When Shirley returned, Katelyn asked, “How’s your stomach?”
“Fine.”
“It’s about an hour and a half to Wichita Falls, then another two hours to McCaulley. Can you make it that long before we stop for lunch?”
“Sure.”
They got back into the car, and Katelyn turned south onto Highway 44 and left the small town behind. After several minutes of silence, she glanced across the front seat and discovered Shirley had fallen asleep. Katelyn’s fingers relaxed against the steering wheel. The miles flew by, and she used the peace and quiet to figure out how to tell Birdie about the divorce. In the end she decided there was no good way to break bad news. After one p.m., she pulled into a Subway parking lot and nudged Shirley awake.
“Where are we?”
“McCaulley. Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
They washed up in the restroom first. Then Shirley ordered the Black Forest ham sandwich, and Katelyn the club. After they sat down in a booth, Katelyn said, “May I ask you a question?” She’d spent the past few days pondering her life as a wife and mother and had found no answers to how she’d arrived at this point in her life.
“What do you want to know?” Shirley asked.
“You earned a college degree. After you had Don, did you want to stay home with him, or was it something you fell into and didn’t know how to get out of?”
Shirley dabbed the napkin against the corner of her mouth. “What do you mean ‘didn’t know how to get out of’?”
“Never mind.” Katelyn regretted bringing up the subject.
“Didn’t you enjoy staying at home with Michael and Melissa?”
“I loved spending time with them.” She thought back on her career as a stay-at-home mother. The job had required sacrifices that she’d willingly made. She’d enjoyed volunteering for the kids’ school activities. But that part of her life had been like a slow-moving fog, and she hadn’t realized that with each passing year as the twins grew older, she was surrendering parts of herself.
She’d become so busy baking cupcakes for Valentine’s Day parties, chauffeuring kids to sports practices, chaperoning field trips and then taking care of everyone’s needs with weekly jaunts to the dry cleaner’s and the grocery store—never mind the hours she’d spent sitting in the car pool lane—that she’d given up doing the things she’d once loved and had morphed into a woman her husband no longer recognized. A woman she no longer recognized.
“You’re a good mother, Katelyn. You should be proud of that.”
“Thank you, Shirley.” In all the years they were married, Don had never told Katelyn she was a good mother.
“To be honest,” Shirley said, “I had no idea what to do with my English degree except that I knew I didn’t want to teach. Once Don was born, I became involved with other young mothers, and my social circle expanded.” She shrugged. “I was content with my life.”
Content. Katelyn mulled over the meaning of the word. Even after Don had given her the life she’d always dreamed of, she’d never been one hundred percent satisfied.
“But,” Shirley said, “I wish I’d taken time to find my own niche.”
“What do you mean?”
“My life revolved around Robert and his career. After he died, I was no longer Mrs. Pratt. I was just Shirley.”
Katelyn squirmed in her seat, uncomfortable that she had more in common with her mother-in-law than she’d believed.
“Now I’m too old to do anything with myself.” Shirley sighed. “What are your plans if you and Don don’t get back together?”
That was the million-dollar question. At the moment Katelyn couldn’t say what she wanted in life, much less what she stood for, what she believed in, what was important to her or what made her happy. “I’d always intended to get back to painting when the kids didn’t need as much supervision.”
“What stopped you?”
“Don’s career came first.” If she wasn’t throwing dinner parties for his bosses or clients, she was working with the other executive wives helping with corporate fund-raisers and community events.
“You sound resentful,” Shirley said.
“Lots of husbands help with the child-rearing and household chores so their wives have time for themselves,” Katelyn said.
“Do those husbands make the kind of money yours does?”
“That shouldn’t matter.”
“There’s a trade-off if you want nice things in life.”
“A marriage is supposed to be a partnership.”
“What didn’t Don do for you?”
“When the kids were still babies, he promised to cut back on his travel and stay home on the weekends.” She’d planned to use that time to paint and build up a portfolio of work that she could present to art galleries in the St. Louis area in hopes of getting her foot in the door.
“And you’re upset Don didn’t follow through?”
“He was my husband. Of course, I expected him to keep his promise.”
“Don is a man first and a husband second. A man will always put his own interests before anyone else’s. And we women let them, because they buy us baubles, beautiful homes and more clothes than we could possibly wear in a year.” Shirley’s pointer finger came out. “For a young woman who came from modest means, giving up a few things in exchange for a better life shouldn’t be difficult.”
Shirley made it sound as if there was no reason for Katelyn to be unhappy. Of course the girl whose father worked as a game warden and whose mother cashiered at a grocery store had not been reluctant to gain life on easy street, but Katelyn hadn’t thought she’d have to sacrifice so much of herself in the process. Don had manipulated her into believing his wants and needs were the same as hers, and she’d allowed him to use her for his personal gain.
“Good life or not, if Don was here right now, I’d give him a piece of my mind.”
Shirley wrapped the remainder of her sandwich in the paper wrapper, then pushed it aside. “It’s a good thing he isn’t here, because I’d have a few choice w
ords for him, too.”
“Thanks, Shirley.”
“For what?”
“For listening to me complain.”
“I still believe you and my son should work to save your marriage.”
Katelyn was tired of discussing Don. “Let’s hit the road.” She deposited their trash in the wastebasket, then checked to make sure Shirley had her purse before they got into the car. “What do you say we put the top down on the Mercedes?”
“I don’t want to mess up my hair.”
“Who cares about our hair?” Katelyn started the engine.
“Maybe that’s been the problem with your marriage all along,” Shirley said. “You don’t care enough about making yourself attractive to your husband.”
“Did Robert comment on your looks? Is that why you always put makeup on before you leave the house?”
“A woman is a reflection of her husband.”
“In that case, the top goes down.” Katelyn hit the switch and the trunk opened to allow the roof to collapse inside it.
Once she entered the highway and reached the speed limit, she glanced across the seat and smiled. Shirley held her hands against her face to block the wind. “Relax. Neither of us has a man to impress anymore!”
Katelyn turned on the satellite radio to eighties music and “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince blasted from the speakers. An hour later they passed a sign advertising a gas station and Shirley pointed to the exit. “I need to use the bathroom.”
Katelyn parked in front of the convenience store, then burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?”
The wind had destroyed Shirley’s perfectly teased hair. “Your head is covered in lightning bolts.”
Shirley lowered the visor and gaped in the mirror. “We can’t go into the store looking like this.”
“I dare you,” Katelyn teased.
Shirley pointed. “You look like Medusa.”
“I’ll go inside if you go.”
They entered the mart, both managing to keep a straight face when the clerk asked if he should call 911. After using the restroom, they purchased fountain drinks and then got back into the car.
