Breaking Ties

by Tracie Puckett

  “It’s nice to meet the man who’s caught my daughter’s eye. Victoria,” she introduced herself, and their hands folded together. I couldn’t help but notice the way his large palm swallowed her tiny fingers. He pulled his hand away from hers, only giving her the faintest smirk. Mom continued, “I’ve been keeping my eye on the two of you. You’ve caused quite a stir out here with the press lately, huh?”

  We didn’t answer, and she stared between the two of us with a deep look of concern as if she couldn’t believe that neither of us were giving her anything to work with. It was troubling that she thought she could show up here and make small talk, like nothing ever happened, like she hadn’t forced us out. And then to stand there and look at us like that, like we owed her some kind of welcome or explanation.

  “It’s great to see you two actually worked this whole thing out,” she said, still trying. “When I first saw the video online—”

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  That was it. Hearing about the video, seeing it, talking about it … it was bad enough without having it come from my mother. She was the last person I wanted to discuss our relationship with.

  “Oh,” she rounded her lips and looked down at the bags at her feet. “Your sister didn’t tell you, then?”

  “Bailey knew you were coming?”

  “She didn’t know, Mandy,” Gabe assured me. “I would’ve known.”

  “I told her,” Mom said. “It’s not my fault that she chose to ignore my texts and voicemails.”

  “And you can’t take a hint?” I asked. “Bailey didn’t answer her phone because she didn’t want to talk to you. No one here wants to talk to you.”

  “Maybe you should go inside,” Gabe said, turning to me. I nodded because I wasn’t going to argue that. There was nowhere else I’d rather be but inside—far, far away from Mom … or at least far enough away that there was a door between us.

  “Amanda,” she said, and I closed my eyes at the chilliness of her voice as I turned away. There it was—the reason I hated that name so much. The way those three syllables rolled off her lips was enough to put chills up my spine for a lifetime. I’d hoped I’d never have to hear it again, but she wasn’t about to give me anything I wanted in life. “I just flew halfway across the country. Don’t walk away from me.”

  “I’m sorry, but the last time I checked, you gave up your right to hand out orders,” I said, turning to deliver her a scathing look. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

  “Please,” she said. “I don’t want to cause you any trouble. I only wanted to see my family.”

  “We are not your family,” I said. “You don’t get the honor of calling us that. Dad, Bailey, Gabe, Jones … they’re my family. But you, no.”

  “Amanda—”

  “Go away,” I said, biting back a world of nastier things I wanted to say to her. There were so many things she deserved to hear, so many things on the tip of my tongue. But I couldn’t say any of them, not in front of Gabe. Not after the morning we’d had. I wasn’t going to let her ruin my day any more than she already had. “You need to leave. No one here has anything left to say to you. We’ve made our peace. We’re happy.”

  I started to turn again, Gabe right at my side, and this time we made it all the way up the steps before she called out again.

  “Amanda—”

  “Stop calling me that!” I yelled, whipping back around.

  “Listen to me,” she said, a breathless quality in her voice. She slumped her shoulders and let her head hang low for a few seconds. “I wanted to see you so that—”

  “What?” I asked. “So you can have a guilt-free wedding? Because you can’t go through with it until you have our blessing? Okay. Sure. Go ahead, Mom. Marry Ronnie. No one here’s going to stop you. Do whatever it is that you need to do to be happy, and go on with your life. Just leave us out of it.”

  I didn’t even know if that was it, but rational thinking was gone at that point. I only had what Bailey had given me to go on, and that wasn’t much. Plus, Dad himself had told me that she and Ronnie were headed down the aisle at some point. I couldn’t have been too far off in my assumption.

  “Honey,” she said, quietly, following us up to the porch, leaving her bags on the lawn. “I’m not here to ask for your blessing.”

  Gabe took it upon himself in that moment to move between us, not to let her get any closer than the few feet away that she already stood. He then turned to me, his back to my mother, and lowered his face.

  “Mandy,” he said, his words low and calm, intimate, and only meant for me. “You don’t have to do this—not here, not now, not like this. You have a choice. You can go inside. You can get away from this—at least until you’ve calmed down, until you’re ready to face her on your own terms.”

  “She won’t leave,” I said, shaking my head. “She wants something.”

  “She’ll go,” he promised. “I’ll see to it. I’ll make sure she gets set up at a hotel. You won’t have to see to her again until you’re ready.”

  “But—”

  “I can’t tell you what to do,” he said, the warm whisper of his breath brushing across my face. “I’m just advising you. Before you say something you regret, please go inside. Please?” he asked, framing my face with his hands.

  And right then and there, I knew the argument was closed. There was no way I could argue with someone who only wanted the best for me, and in that moment, getting away from my mother was the best possible thing I could do. He was right. I had to give myself distance, get away from her. I knew that if I stood out there, I would only make the situation much, much worse.

  “Okay.”

  “Go on,” he whispered, leaning over to press the softest, most gentle kiss on my cheek. “I’ll call you later.”

  I turned away from Gabe, letting myself inside without another look in my mother’s direction. Back inside the comfort of our house, I stood with my back to the door, already hearing his muffled voice on the other side, pleading with her to leave my family and me alone. I couldn’t make out the words, but they matched each other in determination with their separate arguments. He wasn’t going to back down. He was going to do what he thought was right. He would get rid of her.

  I closed my eyes and listened, hoping that their muffled voices would soon fade into the morning. Gabe would see to it that she left, and then he’d report back to me with nothing but good news. I was confident of that much. And as I started to hear their voices quiet, another voice caught my attention. I looked up to find my sister standing only feet away with a grin stretched from one ear to the other.

  “Oh, Mandy, you better run. You are in so much trouble,” Bailey said, shaking her head. “Dad is on a tear, you know that? He’s going to absolutely destroy you.”

  “I don’t have time to focus on that right now,” I said, peeling myself off the door. I started down the hallway, but Dad cut me off as I walked by his room, blocking my path. Arms crossed at his chest, he glared at me.

  I threw my head back and stared at the ceiling, knowing nothing that Dad could say or do would make me feel any worse than my mother had made me feel.

  “You want to tell me where you’ve been?”

  I turned away from him and headed back for the kitchen. Bailey was propped on the counter, allowing herself a prime viewing spot for our impending argument.

  “Changing location isn’t going to make this problem go away,” he said, following closely behind. “Where were you?”

  “I’m not sure that’s what we need to discuss right now,” I said, pointing back at the door, ready and willing to tell him all about Mom’s impromptu visit. “Did you know—”

  “I told you that you were not to leave this house.”

  “Okay, that’s fine, Dad, but I think—”

  “I gave you orders.”

  “Yes, I know, but I think you’re going to feel a bit silly for putting so much focus on this teensy-weensy-nothing-of-a-problem once y
ou hear—”

  “Did you seriously think you could get away with it? Did you honestly think you could sneak out of this house without being caught?”

  “Okay. You want to talk about this now, then fine. Yes. I did. And obviously that’s not the real issue,” I said. “I snuck out just fine without being caught. It was the sneaking back in part that tripped me up. But seriously, Dad, I think you need to know what’s going on out there.”

  The doorbell rang.

  “Who in the world?” Dad said, glancing at his wrist to check the time, but he hadn’t yet put on his watch.

  “See, that’s what I’ve been trying to say,” I said. “We have company.”

  “Oh, that’s just Jones,” Bailey said from the counter. She jumped down and headed for the front door.

  “Jones?” Dad asked, now momentarily focused on his other daughter. “At nine o’clock in the morning?”

  “He’s coming over to pick up his—” she opened the door. “Mom?”

  “To pick up his Mom?” Dad asked, shoving by me and out of the kitchen. “What in God’s name is—”

  Then he saw her.

  As Bailey stood at the open door, looking out at our mother on the porch, Dad rounded the corner and acquired the same view. And though I could feel Gabe’s apologetic stare, I never looked his way. I only looked between Mom, Bailey and Dad, waiting on one of them to say something—anything.

  After a few long seconds of silence, Mom spoke up again. With nothing more than a plain and simple, “Surprise.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Is anyone going to invite me in?” Mom asked, looking between Dad, Bailey, and me. Gabe stood behind her, and when I threw a glance in his direction, he shrugged apologetically.

  “I tried,” he mouthed.

  I honestly felt bad for him. I shouldn’t have left him alone out there. I knew my mother. I knew she fought dirty. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had knocked him upside the head with one of her stilettos if it meant getting around him to ring the bell. Thankfully, though, he seemed physically unharmed. She probably just weaseled her way around him, and poor Gabe could only do so much.

  My eyes fell to Dad. He was locked in position, his body tense as he stared at her, open-mouthed and surprised, probably feeling as shocked and stunned as I’d felt when she first pulled up. When he started to move his lips, I swore he was going to ask her inside. He was going to be nice to her. He was going to act like nothing had ever happened, like they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years.

  And then he lifted his hand and pointed behind Mom, his index finger fixed pointedly at Gabe.

  “You,” he said, his eyes growing wider by the second.

  Gabe looked behind himself before turning back to Dad. “Me?

  “Get in here,” Dad demanded. “Now.”

  There was a sudden hitch in Gabe’s breathing, and fear briefly crossed his face.

  “No, thank you.”

  “It wasn’t a request,” Dad said, firmer this time.

  “I was on my way out,” Gabe said, taking a step back. “I have to meet the team at the church for the—”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Get in here.”

  Gabe took Dad’s order at once, stepping around Mom. He crossed the threshold, and the moment he stood inside the house, Dad lunged forward and slammed the door in Mom’s face.

  So there we stood—the four of us, no one sure what to say.

  “What … how did … why is she …”

  “What happened?” Dad asked, looking between Gabe and me. He wasn’t remotely interested in entertaining my sister’s series of unfinished questions. She droned on in the background with her whats, whys, and hows, all the while Dad looked between Gabe and me. “When did she get here? What’s going on?”

  I heard Gabe breathe a sigh of relief, hopeful for the moment that Dad wasn’t going to rip his head off for playing a part in my sneaking out of the house. Dad wasn’t interested in that, not for the time being. He was much more concerned with the fact that his cheating ex-wife had wound up on his doorstep without so much as a heads-up.

  “She pulled up in a cab about ten minutes ago, Mr. Parker—”

  “Stop it with that Mr. Parker crap,” Dad said, pointing his finger at Gabe again. “You are not to give that woman even the slightest impression that this isn’t the happiest family in town; do you understand?” Gabe nodded, and I smiled. “As far as I’m concerned, you two were not sneaking around behind my back this morning. She’s not to catch wind that I’m doing anything less than a perfect job at raising my—”

  A faint knock at the door interrupted our huddle.

  I opened the door to Mom’s questionable glance and held up my index finger with an amused smile.

  “Sorry. Family meeting. We’re gonna need one second.”

  And then I slammed the door in her face again.

  “What are we supposed to do?” Bailey asked, putting a full sentence together. “Why is she here?”

  “She said she already left the answer to that question in the form of a message on your phone,” I said, turning to her. “Did she mention coming to Sugar Creek?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve ignored the last few messages. I deleted all of the texts as they came in, and I only ever listened to the first voicemail.”

  “And what did that say?” Gabe asked.

  “I already told you,” she said. “That she wanted to talk, that’s all.”

  “Listen to your messages,” Dad said to her. “All of them. Now. Find out why she’s in town.”

  “She brought bags, Dad,” I said. “Two big, giant bags. She’s not here for a quick trip; I can promise you that.”

  “The easiest way to find out what she wants is to ask,” Gabe pointed out. “Do you guys think that maybe we should let her in?”

  “No!” Dad and I said in unison, and he held both hands up defensively, as we each delivered him a hard, scathing look.

  “So what, you guys are going to make her stand out there and wait around until you figure out a game plan?”

  “Basically,” Dad nodded. “Something like that.”

  “I know it’s not my position to step in here,” Gabe continued. “But since you invited me in, I’m guessing my input is at least somewhat valued?”

  We turned to him with hopeful stares. Maybe he actually had a decent idea.

  “Let her in. Listen to her. Find out what she wants.”

  Or maybe not.

  “She didn’t say what she wanted,” Bailey said, pulling her phone away from her ear, but there was a weird grin on her face as she delivered the news. “I’ve listened to all of the voicemails. She kept saying that she wanted to talk, and when I wouldn’t answer her calls, she decided to fly in. She said there are things she needs to say.”

  “I’m not in the mood to sit and listen to her,” I said, looking to Dad. “Whatever it is she has to say, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Listen,” Gabe said, his eyes softening as they trailed away from my dad and sister. “It doesn’t have to be today, but give her a chance. I know what she’s feeling right now, Mandy, and it’s painful. She’s desperate; she’ll do anything for an opportunity to be heard. She’s looking for one small success at a time, and right now, all she wants is a chance. You can give her that.”

  “But—”

  “Does she deserve it? Probably not,” he continued. “She victimized you, and I know you’re still hurting. But you’re not any better than she is if you keep closing her out, hurting her, because you know you have the power to do so.” I closed my eyes, dropping my head forward. Gabe lifted my chin. “I’m not asking you to forgive her. You don’t even have to say anything. Take a breath, take your time, and give her a chance.”

  I looked past his shoulder to Dad and Bailey, and both of their faces softened.

  The doorbell rang as if on cue.

  “You’re going to have to wait!” Dad yelled, and then a gruff cough c
ame from the other side of the door.

  “You guys know there’s a chick out here on your front porch, right?” Jones asked through the door, and then Dad whipped it open, took a fistful of his shirt, and pulled him in.

  And then he closed the door again.

  “Oh my God, this is turning into a circus,” Bailey said, looking up at the ceiling. “Can we please do this? It’s not fair to keep slamming the door in her face. She’s a person, too.”

  We all looked at one another, Jones looking as confused as ever, and then shrugged.

  “Sure,” Dad said.

  “Thank you,” Bailey echoed.

  “I vote yes,” Jones said, adding his two cents. “I mean, I don’t have a clue what’s going on here, but that chick’s hot. You should at least see what she’s selling.”

  “She’s not selling anything, Jones,” I said, widening my stare. “That’s our mother. She’s decided to pay us a visit this morning.”

  “Whoa, dude,” he said, patting Dad on the back. “Way to go, man. She is fine.”

  They all turned to me, their stares eager as they awaited my response. I was the only one who hadn’t jumped on board the let-Mom-in train.

  Bailey says yes.

  Dad says sure?

  Jones gave his opinion for a definite go-ahead, and Gabe wanted me to give her a chance.

  “Fine,” I said, giving in. “But I won’t promise to play nice.”

  ###

  It was a family affair, and as far as I was concerned, that meant Gabe and Jones had every right to stick around. They both agreed, though, right alongside Bailey and Dad, that the Mom situation was one we should handle all on our own—just those of us called Parker.

  So Gabe left, and after Jones picked up the bag he’d left in the garage after last night’s rehearsal, he followed Gabe out. As the two of them left the driveway, we stood at the door, still staring at Mom on the porch.

  “You’re going to have to make this fast because I have somewhere I have to be,” I said, turning away. The fact of the matter was, I didn’t have anywhere to go. I was left to stand there and deal with her, and I didn’t have a clue how to begin.