CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Paige sat beside the pool, her mind as empty as her glass. The Nashville sun had tanned her brown skin over the past three days. Patrick was rarely at the condo because his girlfriend, a Tennessee State University graduate student, kept him busy. She had changed him, Paige noticed. Patrick looked as if he’d dropped thirty pounds and he dressed more stylishly. She wanted to meet this mystery chick and find out what her secret was, but right now she was more content watching sweat roll down her flat belly. She wished it were Brian’s tongue running across her body. Quickly she stood and reproached herself for thinking of him.

Brian isn’t thinking about you. He’s rekindling his romance with Olivia.

Paige walked into the condo and fixed herself another rum and cola. She’d been drinking for three days, but the alcohol didn’t take her mind off Brian. If anything, it made the longing for him worse. She dreamed of him at night, so she stayed up late watching old movies and eating marshmallows and then she would get up and run six miles. By mid-afternoon, Paige would be lounging in her bikini at the community pool, dozing off as the afternoon crept by. Patrick would wake her up before heading out with his girlfriend and then Paige would get up and fix herself a sandwich, return to the pool and drink some more.

As she walked over to her chaise, someone whistled behind her. Paige turned around and smiled at the young man. She hoped he would stay where he was, but he took her smile as an invitation to come over. “How you doing, ma?” the boy asked, revealing a gold tooth and his youth.

“Not too good,” Paige said as she took a sip of her drink.

“Really? What’s wrong?” he asked as he looked up and down her body. “‘Cause you look great.”

Paige sloshed her drink around in her glass. “Well, my man is getting back with his ex-wife. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in three days and the last thing I want is to talk to some gold tooth playboy coming over here to try and pick me up because he likes the way my ass and breasts look in my bikini.”

He threw up both of his hands as if she were holding a gun ready to shoot him. “Damn, ma, it’s not like you’re all of that.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “I must be some of that, otherwise you wouldn’t have ambled your ass over here.”

The boy walked away as if his pride had been destroyed. Paige rolled her eyes. It was obvious that she was back to her old abrasive self. She plopped down on the chaise, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. After what seemed only a few minutes later, Patrick was waking her up. She’d actually been asleep for an hour and the deep tan lines on her shoulders told her that she needed a new type of sunscreen.

“Still living the lush life, I see,” he said as he took her empty glass from her hand.

Paige sat up. The pool seemed to be spinning. “What else do I have to do?”

“Go take a shower, you’re coming out with me and Caron tonight.”

Paige ran her fingers though her hair. “Who is Caron?”


“The woman who is probably going to have my sons.”


Paige stood up and wrapped a towel around her waist. “I don’t want to be a third wheel,” she said as she walked a few steps ahead of Patrick. He grabbed her elbow.

“Paige, I know you’re nursing a broken heart, but life goes on and rum and Coke isn’t going to do anything thing but make you fat.”

She laughed, but it was hollow, like the look in her eyes. “All right, I’ll go,” Paige said. “Besides, the best way to get over an old man is to get underneath a new one.”

Patrick shook his head as he watched his friend walk into the house.

A few hours later, Paige, Caron, and Patrick were sitting at a table at one of Nashville’s newest hot spots. Paige thought Caron was a lovely woman. But the last thing she wanted to see was how much in love these two were. Watching them feed each other and finish one another’s sentences was pure torture.

“So,” Caron said. “Patrick tells me that you guys were roommates.”

Paige nodded as she sipped her water. As a favor to Patrick, she was skipping alcohol. “Patrick is a great man. I wish I could clone him,” she replied.

Caron smiled, causing her dark brown eyes to twinkle. Paige had to admit it. This was the kind of woman she’d seen her friend ending up with: tall, deep brown skin that looked like chocolate milk, and a positive attitude. Basically, the total opposite of herself.

“How did you two meet?” Paige asked. “Some people keep you out the loop when you move away.”

Patrick and Caron looked at each other. “We met in the grocery store,” they said in unison.

Gag me, Paige thought as she forced a smile.

“He ran into my cart and made me drop my eggs. Patrick was so nice. He offered to take me out to breakfast. It was love at first sight.” Paige looked away from them as they shared a quick kiss. She thought about the first time she’d seen Brian. He was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen. She wondered if Caron felt the same electricity that she felt when she saw Brian. Love sucks, she thought. Love? Am I in love with Brian? There’s no way I could’ve fallen in love with that man. Even if he’s caring, gentle and passionate, he’s confused!

“Earth to Paige,” Patrick said, snapping his fingers in front of her face.

“Guys, I’m sorry. I’m just not good company tonight,” she said.

Caron nodded. “Honey, if he can’t see how beautiful you are, you don’t need him.”

Paige furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”

“I know that look,” Caron said. “The blank stare means you’re thinking about him.”

“Am I that transparent?” Paige asked as she picked up her glass of water, wishing it were something stronger.

“Yes, you are,” Patrick said. “And instead of you trying to have a good time here and drinking yourself into a stupor, you should go back to South Carolina and find out if you should be spending your precious time worrying about him.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “Can’t I have a vacation? Who cares about Brian? He and his wife are probably planning their second wedding by now.”

Patrick shook his head as he waved for the waiter. “There’s no talking to you when you’re like this,” he said as the waiter made his way to the table.

Paige smirked. “If you know that, why do you try?”

Brian and Mickey sat on the front porch eating Popsicles. Mickey’s allergic reaction to his grandmother’s cooking had kept him out of commission only for a day and a half. Brian was happy to see his son up and running around, happier than he had been in months. And to Brian’s dismay, it was because he was seeing his mother every day. Olivia was back in their lives and it seemed as if Paige was gone. And in the midst of all of the drama, Brian’s vacation had ended and it was time for him to start traffic duty.

“Daddy,” Mickey said. “Where’s Miss Paige?”


“I don’t know.”


“I miss her. Why hasn’t she come over and cooked dinner again?”

Brian sighed. “I think she’s just really busy.”

“Is Mommy coming back to live with us? She said she wanted too,” Mickey said as he slurped his frozen treat.

“I don’t know what your mother is going to do,” Brian said as he stood up. He looked wistfully across the street. He would give anything to see Paige flying down the street in her Mustang. Why had she listened to Olivia? Brian cared about her and he prayed that wherever she was, she was safe. He turned to Mickey. “All right, champ, I have to go to work, so you’re spending the night with Mommy.”

“Okay,” he said a little dejectedly.

Brian kneeled down and looked at his son. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, Mommy leaves me alone with grandma and she smells like smoke,” Mickey said. “Can I stay with Aunt -?”

Brian frowned. Why was Davina smoking around his son? That woman was incorrigible. And they wonder why I don’t want my son over there. “I tell you what. I’ll call your auntie and we’ll see. Okay?”

Mickey nodded happily. A few moments later, Olivia was pulling into the driveway. “How’s my boy,” she said as she got out of the car.

“Mommy!” Mickey called out as he leapt off the porch and ran into her arms.

“Guess what. I just got a call from my boss in Atlanta. She found a house for us.”

“But we have a house here,” the little boy said in confusion.

Brian walked out on the porch. Olivia looked at him, her eyes cold. He knew why she was giving him the evil eye.

The night that Paige left, Brian had gone back to the hospital where Olivia was sitting with Mickey.

“You can leave now,” he told her.

Olivia stood up and looked at Mickey. “I’ve missed him so much,” she said.

“So much that you left him alone with your mother the other night. So much that you just walked out on him and me six months ago.”

Olivia looked at him. “Brian, I told you I made a mistake,” she said. “I love you, don’t you get that?”

“You love me so much you left me? So when did you decide you wanted me back? On the drive to Elmore from Atlanta or when you saw Paige in my arms?”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Well, you see how stable that relationship was. How fast did she run out of your life? Brian, if we make love just one more time, you’ll see that we’re meant to be. No one has ever made me feel the way you do.” She walked over to him and stroked his face.

He grabbed her hand. “Don’t touch me. Olivia, we haven’t had that kind of relationship in years. Why should we change that now? I had to put my son first. I gave up my career to be a good father while you went out and pretended to be a fashion designer. What a joke.”

She stepped back from him. “So, nothing has changed, huh? You still think you are the only one that has a career and what I want is a joke?”

Brian laughed. “You’ve been nothing but a house wife. I haven’t seen you draw in years. Now, all of a sudden I’m supposed to believe that you’re a fashion designer. Olivia, you’re a spoiled, selfish, sorry excuse for a mother. You left and not once did you think of the ramifications that your leaving would have on our son. Now, because of your neglect, my son ended up in the hospital. Make love to you? I can’t do that because I loathe you.”

She ran out of the room crying. Brian knew there was going to be hell to pay.

It looks like it’s payback time, he thought as he listened to Olivia talk about a house in Atlanta.

“Olivia, we need to talk,” Brian said.

She nodded her head. “We sure do.”


“Mickey, go inside, I need to talk to your mother.”


He walked inside the house and Olivia slowly crossed over to Brian. 
 “I don’t know what came over me the other day. I shouldn’t have tried to come on to you. But I want to take Mickey to Atlanta with me, since we’re not going to put our family back together. I deserve to have my son with me.”

He closed his eyes. “You deserve? What about what Mickey deserves?”

Olivia put her hands on her hips and looked at him as if he had just sprouted a second head and wings. “Brian, Mickey has two parents. I want to spend time with my son without you hovering around. I’m taking my son to Atlanta for the rest of the summer so that he can see there is more to life than Elmore. I want to spend time with my son without your little girlfriend butting in, but then again, that isn’t going to be a problem anymore.”

Brian glared at her and shook his head. “Mickey isn’t going to Atlanta.”

“How in the hell are you going to stop me from spending time with my son? Brian, this doesn’t have to be ugly.”

“You abandoned him. Don’t you know what that does to a child? Do you know how many nights he woke up crying out for you? I’m protecting my son.”

“Protecting him?” she exclaimed. “I’m his damned mother.”

“If you want to go to Atlanta, hit the highway, but Mickey is staying here!”

Olivia ran to her car. “You want a war? You just got one.” She sped out of the driveway, spinning her tires loudly as she roared down the street. Brian turned around and saw Mickey standing at the door.