Chapter Ten

No Apologies, No Regrets

“Girls, how could you?” Sammi said in a disappointed tone. Her voice was shaky. It sounded as if she wanted to cry, but the girls knew she wouldn’t. They hadn’t seen her cry since their father’s funeral. Her eyes had watered, tears had threatened to fall, but each threat had been idle.

Just a couple minutes ago, Sammi had walked Bo to the door, apologizing for her daughters’ actions the entire time. He’d left without telling her that he accepted the apology. The rawness and burning in his throat as a result of the pasta sauce had prevented him from being able to speak.

As Bo walked out of the door, he had put his hand to his ear and mouth as if it were a phone, signaling Sammi that he would call her. She knew in her heart, though, that he wouldn’t. Sad thing about it was, she couldn’t blame him. There were, though, three other people she could blame.

Kennedy, Daryn and Joy each sat on the couch silently with no reply to their mother’s question. They were slightly moved by Sammi’s obvious frustration with them, but the feeling of victory deep down inside them was too overwhelming for them to truly show it. They hadn’t intended to hurt their mother, but the look on her face proved that they had. So even though their faces expressed some regret, they still couldn’t help but to rejoice over the success of the evening; according to their plans anyway. Of course, their mother saw things differently.

“So not one of you has anything to say?” Sammi asked her daughters. Again, there was no reply. “Not even that you’re sorry?” Sammi shook her head in disgust.

Kennedy finally spoke up. “But we’re not sorry,” she declared. “We’re sorry that you are sad and I guess a wee bit angry.” Kennedy placed her index finger over her thumb and held them just a tad bit apart. Sammi tightened her lips at Kennedy’s downplay of her level of anger. “Okay, a lot angry,” Kennedy admitted. “But we’re not sorry that we did it. There was no way we could just let some strange man think he was going to barge into our house and take Daddy’s place. So, no, Mom, we’re not sorry. The only other thing besides hurting you that we could possibly be sorry about is that you brought him here in the first place.”

“Whoa, hold up!” Sammi said, putting her hand up. She rattled her head as if she were shaking water out of it. She was double-checking that she had heard her oldest daughter correctly. “Since when do you determine who I bring into this house?” she said to Kennedy and then looked to the other two girls. “Since when do any of you determine such?”

Kennedy could tell by the way Sammi’s voice was rising that she’d better not respond. This was probably what she’d heard adults refer to as a rhetorical question.

Daryn looked over at her older sister. She could tell that it was killing Kennedy inside not to be able to speak her mind, for fear of disrespecting their mother more than they already had. “Mom, look, we’re sorry that we upset you. We didn’t mean to; honest. But-”

“Well, you did upset me.” Sammi cut Daryn off. “And you embarrassed me as well.”

“So now we’re an embarrassment?” Kennedy stood up and said, not being able to bite her tongue any longer. “Is that why you’ve been kickin’ it with this cat for months and we’re just now meeting him? Because you were embarrassed of us?” Kennedy shook her head. “Well, that explains a lot. First we’re invisible, and now we’re just a complete embarrassment. Let me guess, next you’ll be sending us off to boarding school.”

“Boarding school?” Joy stood up and exclaimed while looking back and forth from her sisters. “Did she say boarding school?” She then looked at Sammi. “Did I hear the words boarding school? Because Rebecca Joe’s big sister said that when a woman sends her kids off to boarding school when she gets a new boyfriend, it’s because she wants to be with him more than she wants to be with her own kids?” She said this all quickly and in one breath. Her chest was rising up and down as if she’d just run a marathon she was so out of breath.

“Is that true, Mother?” Daryn stood up and asked. Now all three girls were standing like stair steps. “You don’t want us around anymore? You like Mr. Bo better than us?”

Sammi’s eyes remained watered, but she refused to shed tears. She did not want the girls to think they were getting the best of the situation. They were, however, getting the best of her heart. “I can’t even believe you girls would ever think anything like that. What kind of mother do you think I am?”

Kennedy crossed her arms and poked out her lips. “Harrumph.” She looked to her sisters then back to her mother. “You tell us.”

Sammi’s blood began to boil. The heat from the burning fire inside of her quickly dried up any pending tears that had been threatening to fall from her eyes. She couldn’t believe she was a grown woman having a stand off with some kids; her own kids. Well, she wasn’t having it!

“I’ll tell you something all right.” Sammi pointed her finger in each girl’s face as she walked by and spoke to them. “You girls might have thought a little bit of hot sauce, pepper and salt could get rid of Bo-”

“Actually it was a lot of hot sauce, pepper and salt,” Joy corrected with a slight grin. “I mean, you should have seen the way we just piled it…OUCH!” Joy screamed after Daryn elbowed her in the side.

Sammi plastered a fake smile on her face. “Then I stand corrected…you girls might have thought that a lot of hot sauce, pepper and salt could get rid of Bo-and it might have…for the night. But it didn’t get rid of my feelings for him.” Still pointing, Sammi continued chastising the girls. “Now, I’m going to go upstairs and take a shower so that I can get cleaned up.” Sammi looked down at the punch that Bo had spit out all over her. “And so that I can think about what I’m going to say to Bo when he calls me.”

Kennedy cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered to Daryn, “If he calls her,” then stifled a chuckle.

Sammi only glared before continuing. “You girls, on the other hand, are going to go clean up that kitchen and get ready for bed.” Sammi made her way back to Kennedy. “You got that, head sister in charge?” Her finger was idle in Kennedy’s face.

Kennedy was speechless, and not because of the fussing out she had just received, but because of what she had just noticed. “Your ring…” were the words that fell out of Kennedy’s mouth. “You’re not wearing your wedding ring anymore.”

Sammi looked down at her left hand. It was now vacant of the wedding ring she had worn for years, even after her late husband’s death. “Don’t try to change the subject,” Sammi said, not knowing how else to respond, especially after seeing the hurt look on each of her daughters’ faces. “The issue at hand is that you girls ruined the entire night, and perhaps my entire relationship with Bo. Now I’ve got to go figure out a way for us to make it up to him.”

“Us?” the girls shouted.

“Yes…me…you…we…all of us,” Sammi replied. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it.” Sammi made a quick exit without getting back on the subject of the ring. She sighed a sigh of relief after she was around the corner and out of the girls’ sight.

“Harrumph,” Kennedy sighed a few seconds later as she folded her arms and flopped down on the couch. “We’ll see about that. We‘ll make it up to Mr. Bo Hart all right; we’ll make up something to top what we did tonight.”

“Yeah,” Daryn said, flopping down next to her older sister. “I wish I might fix my lips to even apologize to that jive turkey for what we did tonight, let alone make it up to him.”

“Me either.” Joy joined her sisters on the couch.”

Kennedy shook her head after thinking for a minute. “I don’t know, girls. I think Mom must really be diggin’ this dude. I mean, she took her ring off that Dad gave her.” Kennedy looked at her little sisters who nodded in agreement. “So, you girls know what that means, right?” Kennedy sighed.

“What?” Joy and Daryn said.

“That if Mom does get back in Bo’s good graces…this time we have to try even harder to get rid of him…for good! We’ll really have to out do ourselves.” Once again, Kennedy looked at her sisters for approval. When a gleam of support twinkled in their eyes, Kennedy put her fist out. Daryn placed her fist on top of Kennedy’s, then Joy’s on top of Daryn’s.

“Soul Sister’s Operation Get Rid of Mom’s New Boyfriend; Mission incomplete,” Kennedy stated. “Now for phase two…”