Best Of My Love

by N. D. Jackson

  Dre shrugged. “I was already there and I knew she’d go nuts. You do the hard stuff, showing up and caring. It’s not nothing Shay.” Their gazes locked and Dre sharpened hers to make sure her friend go the point.

  “Thanks.” She examined Dre, who ignored her perusal, for a long moment. “You’re good with them.”

  “I like them. They’re cool kids.”

  “We like you too Auntie Dre,” Eli sang, shooting her a mustard stained smile.

  She gave him a wink and he looked away with a blush. “See? Cool.”

  “Aunt Dre why did you choose computers?”

  That was a loaded question if ever she heard one. She couldn’t very well say “Well after my mom died it kept me sane and focused.” So instead she just said, “I loved computers from the moment I learned how to use them. Computers are easy.” People were hard.

  “And it made you rich?”

  “Zoe,” Shayna admonished.

  Dre nodded. “You could say that. I sold a website and a few apps so I have some money. But I’m good at it because I love it.”

  The little girl seemed to take in her words and then she nodded. “Okay. I want to be a professional soccer player.”

  “Those women are pretty badass,” she nodded her approval.

  “Dre!” Shayna again.

  “You know not to say it don’t you Zoe?” She nodded and Dre stuck her tongue out at her friend, happy to see her face was just a sickly shade of yellow instead of the brutal blue-green it had been for the past week. She turned to her. “Who’s blowing up your phone?” The damn thing had been buzzing for the past thirty minutes. Dre could guess who it was.

  Shayna shrugged and avoided eye contact. “He wants to talk.”

  JT. “And you’re going,” she realized because didn’t need to ask. Her friend’s face said it all.

  “I have to. Can you take them out for a bit?”

  She shot a dark look across the blanket. “You don’t have to, you’re choosing to.”

  “I owe him at least-,”

  Dre cut her off. “You don’t owe him a damn thing,” she whispered sharply. “But you’re gonna do what you want no matter what I say so, whatever.” She looked to where the kids were occupied with their devices. “How does ice cream sound?” The kids shouted their happiness at more sugar and Shayna sent her a grateful look. Too bad Dre wasn’t in a mood for gratitude. Seeing JT was a bad idea especially after he nearly knocked her eye socket out. The man was as volatile today as he had been in high school and she knew she would worry the whole time Shayna was away with him. But she was an adult and this was her mistake to make. Not my business.

  “I want a caramel sundae!”

  She looked to Zoe. “Let’s give the little man what he wants.”

  “I want a hot fudge sundae with peaches!” Orchid bounced happily in the passenger seat, chattering the whole way to the Milk House.

  “Peaches? That sounds terrible!” Erick kept his eyes on the Saturday afternoon traffic. The whole town was out shopping, enjoying the early summer weather or catching up on gossip, which meant he needed to keep an eye out for cars as well as pedestrians.

  She giggled and smacked his arm playfully. “It’s so delicious Daddy, you have to try it.”

  He smiled but there was no way in hell he’d eat that weird concoction. “I think it’ll be too good for you to share.” Pulling into a spot a few doors away, grateful that most of the people milling about had walked, Erick looked down at his sweet little girl. “Wait for me kiddo,” he told her and stepped from the car.

  “I’m a big girl Daddy,” she groaned, crossing her arms once he’d helped her from the car.

  “Yes you are, but you’ll always be my little girl. Besides a gentleman always opens the door for a lady.” She was growing up entirely too fast. He wasn’t ready, not yet. She was supposed to stay a kid a little while longer, still sit on his lap and wrap her tiny arms around him before falling asleep. She wasn’t supposed to have him buying nail polish or lip gloss. “Let’s go get your gross sundae.”

  “Da-ddy,” she whined quite impressively.

  “Fine. Let’s go get your culinary masterpiece.”

  “That’s better,” she answered smugly. Too smug for a girl who couldn’t do her own laundry yet. “Oh look, Auntie Dre!”

  In less than a second his daughter had dropped his hand and ran full speed right towards the one woman in town who wanted nothing to do with him. And she still insisted on calling her ‘Auntie Dre’. It made things all kinds of weird, especially in his mind. Erick shook his head and slowly made his way to the table Dre shared with Shayna’s kids. He walked up just in time to hear her greet his daughter.

  “Hey Squirt, how’s it going?”

  She giggled and grabbed Dre’s hand. “I’m fine. How are you?”

  “Eating ice cream so never better.” She licked the spoon and winked, making his daughter giggle and making him…feel things he shouldn’t. So what, she was nice to his daughter, Orchid was a child who’d done nothing wrong.

  He on the other hand. “Hey Dre.”

  “Erick.” Her greeting was still icy but he detected a thaw.

  “How are you settling in?”

  Her gold-flecked brown eyes narrowed at him, her posture now rigid. She didn’t want to answer but a quick glance over her shoulder told her what he already knew. They had a rapt audience. “Just fine, waiting on a few things. You?”

  “Can’t complain. I really owe you a thanks for helping me out with those French guys. I have no clue what I would have done without you there. Didn’t know you spoke French.”

  He knew it was a mistake the moment the words left his mouth, didn’t know what made him even say it again, but the way her eyes blanked of all emotion told him exactly what she thought of his unspoken question. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

  “Right. Come on Orchid let’s go place our order and let them eat in peace.” She didn’t move, stayed in her seat beside Zoe whispering and giggling furiously. In their own little world. “Orchid.”

  She turned, flipping her ponytail over one shoulder. “Can you get it Daddy while I sit with Zoe. Auntie Dre doesn’t mind, do you?” Turning those big green eyes on Dre, daring her to say something other than what she wanted to hear.

  “Not even a little bit.” She sounded genuine which was odd because he knew she didn’t want him to stay. Did she? Of course she doesn’t want me to stay. She’d be happy to never see me again. What he ought to do was take someone else up on their offer, like the cute young thing batting her lashes at him while she took his order. Or Kerry’s friend Sophie. Or any other woman. But he couldn’t.

  Not yet.

  “Here you go,” he set Orchid’s science project they called a sundae in front of her and sipped his root beer float. Right beside Dre.

  “Cool kid,” she said before he could choose a topic of conversation.

  “Yeah I like her.”

  “Good.”

  Damn but this conversation was painful. It never used to be like that between them. They could spend an hour talking about the best use for a potato and now they couldn’t even get a conversation going when they hadn’t seen or spoken to one another in more than a decade. That was…kind of devastating actually. “So we,”

  “Oh. My. God. Andrea and Erick back together again!” Hilary Plimpton beamed a smile down at their table but he caught the glint of trouble in her eyes. “Is this a happy reunion?” She glanced between them, at the way their legs sort of, almost were facing each other and her smile widened. “I have to tell you Andrea I was so sorry to hear about…everything.” Hand to her heart she looked like a sympathetic friend to anyone watching. And everyone was watching.

  “Somehow I doubt that.” Leave it to Dre to forget all about the strange social convention where women said shitty passive aggressive things to one another, veiled as a compliment.

  She gasped, apparently having forgotten about Dre’s sharp tongue. “Of cours
e I was, I mean we all thought you’d get married someday. I mean, I couldn’t imagine if I were you.”

  Erick saw the clench of her jaw and he knew Hilary would soon wish she’d just kept walking. “Really, you couldn’t imagine Hilary? From what I understand Kyle has a second family a few towns over.” A few shocked noises sounded at her words. Not shocked by the news, of course everyone in Emerald Creek knew. But no one spoke of it. Ever.

  Except Dre. He had to smile at her gall. He’d missed her no bullshit way of speaking. The way she wasn’t afraid to offend people or stand up for herself against any enemy, great or small. “Thanks for stopping by Hilary. You don’t mind leaving two old friends to catch up, do ya?” Yeah, okay so maybe he poured on the charm and flashed his lady killer smile. But it worked.

  “Of course not Erick, you should’ve just said so. Good seeing ya,” she rushed out and walked away with her head held down.

  “That was so cool Auntie Dre! She was being mean,” Orchid said on a pout. Zoe nodded her disgruntled agreement.

  “Yeah well some people are ass--,” she stopped and then smiled, “some people are mean for no reason. Sometimes you have to show them why it’s a bad idea to be mean to you.”

  Erick bit back a smile at the way she tried to watch her salty language in front of the kids though he knew it was a pointless exercise. She’d always gotten in trouble in school for her language but she’d never tried to fix it then. But for the kids she tried.

  “Do you know her?” He didn’t need to ask questions when his daughter was doing a very good impression of Detective Olivia Benson.

  “We went to school together but I haven’t seen her in years. Some people are so miserable they try to make the rest of us just like them.” She shrugged and sent a soothing smile to the kids who gave her their full attention. “You just can’t let them.”

  “I won’t,” Orchid said a little louder than necessary.

  “Me either,” Zoe piped in.

  “Yeah,” her brother added a little later.

  And just that quickly something else had taken their attention, friends for the girls and a tablet for the boy. Erick leaned over. “You’re good with them.”

  She shrugged. “Kids are easy. Treat them as equals and be honest.” Not like adults, hung in the air unspoken between them.

  “Orchid hasn’t stopped talking about you.” He could admit it made him a little jealous but also a little glad. He was supposed to have kids with Dre, a house full once she got her business off the ground and his restaurant was open. They would live in a big farmhouse on the outskirts of town with a garden and maybe a few chickens for fresh eggs. That had been the plan. Now his life was…different. “I was a little jealous at first.”

  She snorted in disbelief. “You’re her dad.”

  “You of all people know how little that can mean under the right circumstances.”

  She nodded her acceptance of his words. “Well she talks about you a lot so I assume that means she likes you.”

  Erick tried not to let himself get too happy that she was finally treating him like a human being, instead of like the scum she thought he was. He nodded at her words and swallowed. Twice. “But it feels like I spend all my time at the restaurant. I’m missing so much.” He braced himself for a sarcastic comment or a witty putdown, but none came.

  Pushing her hair back off her face with both hands, Dre turned to him. “Hire people you can trust. Make sure they know your standards and then delegate when you can. Most importantly know when you can leave the job for someone else.”

  Color him surprised. That was more helpful than he’d expected, but he knew he shouldn’t be surprised. Dre was bright and she’d been running her own business for nearly a decade. “That simple, huh?”

  She shrugged, her gaze back on the crowd on the sidewalks. “If you want it to be, it is.”

  Chapter Six

  Fresh from her morning run Dre made her way to the kitchen for water. And coffee. Days with kids were exhausting and she needed to start her caffeine infusion early. Like now. “What are you doing up so early,” she asked Shayna who stood at the stove pushing something around a pan.

  Smiling over her shoulder she shook her head. “We don’t all get to sleep until noon Dre.”

  She snorted. “Yeah well we don’t all work until three in the morning either.” She’d spent all night getting the beta site ready for her clients in Hawaii, whom she’d left to come here and help out her best friend, only to get shit for her sleeping patterns. The crazy part was that her sleep had taken the biggest hit. She normally slept four hours a night but she’d quickly learned kids didn’t give a damn about a schedule.

  “You could get a real job.” She offered up this ‘advice’ in that sickly sweet way that was so fucking passive aggressive it made Dre want to scream.

  “I actually have a job Shayna, it’s called the company I run.” It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet and she was already over this day. This town. Over Shayna and her stubborn insistence that she knew better. “What’s the problem?” They’d been friend long enough for Dre to know something else was eating at her friend and the reason for her sudden bitchiness.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she answered in a shaky voice and turned back to the stove.

  Yeah right. “Cut the shit Shayna, what’s going on?” She wasn’t in the mood to deal with her friend’s tendency to speak around what she had to say. “Speak,” she barked out harshly.

  Shayna turned from the stove, skillet in one hand while she scraped the eggs onto two plates. She looked better than she had when Dre first arrived in town. Her smooth skin no longer discolored or swollen by bruises and her red hair was shiny and bouncy like a damn shampoo commercial. She looked like the young mother she was today in denim capris, a hot pink polo shirt with matching canvas sneakers. She looked like the spokesperson for soccer moms everywhere. “After talking with JT the other night…I just think…I mean,”

  “You’re taking him back,” Dre spat out, saying the words Shayna tried very hard not to say.

  “I’m thinking about it. He is the father of my child Dre and just because that doesn’t mean anything to you, doesn’t mean I can’t care!”

  Right. This shit again. “And the fact that he beat the absolute shit out of you has nothing to do with why I might feel that way? Sure. Do whatever you want,” she murmured taking her water and coffee to the small guest bedroom on the first floor. Chugging her coffee while she checked her email, Dre finished and quickly undressed. She was more than ready for a hot shower.

  As usual it took her less than thirty minute to shower and get ready for the day. Black curls were half dry and already a mass of chaos hung over her old Nirvana t-shirt, though she preferred the term retro. Jeans and sneakers completed the look and she grabbed her laptop and bag, ready to face the day somewhere else. Hell anywhere else. One foot was out the door when Shayna called to her. She turned to face her friend. “What is it?”

  “I appreciate you coming to help me out.”

  “No problem,” she nodded. “We’re friends no matter what you decide to do. But I’m not staying here.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not staying here with him and I’m not staying knowing that any day you’ll take him back and I’ll be forced to leave. I’ll find my own place for the summer.”

  “On a Friday afternoon,” she asked with a laugh. “I know you haven’t lived here in a long time but you know everyone closes up early on Fridays.”

  She did know that. “But one thing I’ve learned since I’ve been away is that people generally hop at the chance to make money.”

  “This is Emerald Creek not Los Angeles.”

  “Sure,” she shrugged because she didn’t want to argue about it. She would find a place today because she needed to. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought.

  “Stay,” Shayna whispered softly but Dre heard the pain behind the words. She wanted her best friend there for support but Dre wouldn’
t stay as long as JT lived there. She’d probably kill him before the sun set on the first day.

  “I’ll be fine Shay.”

  “You always are but the rest of us need people.”

  “I need people too but I’d rather have no one than be surrounded by the wrong people.” It had always been where they differed. Shay threw herself into high school by becoming someone else. Dre hadn’t bothered, if they didn’t interest her she’d rather be by herself. Instead of waiting for more conversation she turned and left.

  Without breakfast. Dammit.

  Driving through town brought back a few memories of her and Shayna riding their bikes and then later driving around town. Up First Avenue where the big park with the climbing Jungle Jim sat, down Redwood Street where her favorite diner used to be. Turning into the first spot she found, Dre got out of the car and inhaled the scent of the best hash browns she’d ever tasted. Gloria’s Good Stuff was not only still there, but open with a hot grill. Score!

  She opened the door and the sweet greasiness hit her nostrils, making her stomach growl. Luckily the old timers at the counter laughed too loud for anyone to hear it. She needed hot black coffee, Wi-Fi and breakfast. In that order. Taking a booth in the back so she could face the door, Dre looked over the menu while her laptop started up. She flipped her cup over as the waitress headed her way.

  Ah, finally I can breathe.

  “I suppose you thought you could hide the whole time you’re in town.” Her stepmother Annie took the seat across from Dre, scowling while attempting to look like she wasn’t.

  “Who would I be hiding from?” Certainly not the phony Stepford in front of her.

  “Me.”

  She rolled her eyes, feeling for a moment like her teenage self. “I hadn’t thought about you at all until you interrupted my breakfast.” It was rather surprising just how easy it was to forget about the woman who’d had a part in the worst day of her life. “Is there something you wanted Annie?”

  She sighed in frustration, dressed like a maternity ward in a khaki skirt with a lavender and yellow shell and matching cardigan. Lips pinched she sent her best ‘disappointed mom’ look. “Haven’t you punished your father enough?”