The last she’d heard he’d been on the rodeo circuit doing well for himself. She’d made it a habit not to ask her daddy too many questions.
“Does this have anything to do with a man?” Jane lifted a teasing brow.
My goodness, she looks just like him…
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Had Mindy shown some subtle sign that her mind had wandered to Creed?
“I’ve always had a feeling you’ve never gotten over someone. Is it my father?”
Mindy cleared her throat. “Jane—”
“Mom, it’s okay. I’m joking. I know we’ve had this talk. You both were young, he wasn’t interested in being a daddy, and he’s riding bulls for a living.”
Taking her daughter’s hand, a heaviness crawled into Mindy’s throat. “We’ve always been open about your father, but if you ever wanted to meet him…”
“No. Branch is my father, at least the only one I’ve ever known.” She pulled her hand away then slipped on her mirrored shades that hid her telling eyes from view.
Seventeen years ago, Mindy and Branch had agreed to raise Jane as his daughter, but Mindy had carried the weight of guilt on her shoulders all those years. Her intention hadn’t been to deceive Creed or keep his daughter from him. The night they’d shared in the back of his beat-up truck under the moon and stars had been an unplanned tryst that created an amazing gift.
Mindy had left for college two weeks later and Creed had enlisted into the military. It had only seemed right that they would be each other’s first, but she hadn’t anticipated that the condom would fail. What young couple did think of such things?
“Anyway, I would totally approve of you having smash.” Jane slurped up her Coke through a straw, smiling widely.
“I don’t have smashes.”
“Do you even know what the word means?” Jane lifted her pierced brow—the piercing she snuck and got when she was seventeen and then a few months later a fist-sized tattoo of a butterfly on the small of her back. She’d always been spirited, curious and ambitious. And had the biggest heart. At twelve she found an abandoned litter of kittens and fed them through a dropper and back to health. On her fourteenth birthday she raised donations for the local animal shelter. During her summers she visited nursing homes, worked babysitting jobs and volunteered at underprivileged camps.
“No. I don’t know teen lingo and I was afraid to ask.” Mindy picked up her can of diet Coke and stretched her gaze to the jet ski speeding by. People were out enjoying the beautiful day on the water. Once upon a time, Mindy and Branch would take Jane out on the boat on a day like this one, sail for hours, swim, and eat picnic lunches. Much had changed since then. Her only child was now an adult and starting college and Branch had moved in with his girlfriend before the ink was dry on the divorce papers.
Mindy wasn’t bitter, but divorce never was an easy thing.
Her friends had been encouraging her to start dating again, but after seventeen years of being with one man, dating seemed more like jumping off a cliff than an act of fun. Her ex-husband certainly had no problem in that area. He’d decided a year ago that he’d rather be with his twenty-five-year old assistant, Sian, rather than his family. The urge to blame her for the disintegration of their marriage seemed a natural emotion, but if it hadn’t been the vibrant, firm-assed Sian taking him away, it would have been the next twenty-something that came along who gave him some attention. Mindy knew this. Understood this. Her marriage with Branch had been over for years. Although he’d been a decent father, he’d always had one client, another appointment, or a need that kept him from coming home early.
Mindy had kept her focus on her daughter, while Branch had fixated on adding another place value to his bank account. No one could deny he’d created a reputable business from the ground up and that took time and work, but somewhere along the way he’d lost himself—lost his family.
“Smash means casual sex. A hook up. A fling, or whatever your generation calls that activity.”
Mindy gave her daughter a raised brow. “I most definitely don’t do that activity, and this is a conversation we shouldn’t have.”
“Mom,” Jane simpered. “I’m eighteen. I already know about the birds and the bees. You deserve someone who can show you how beautiful you are, especially after Dad made the biggest mistake of his life and dumped you for Sian Infantile.”
“Sweetheart, that’s not very nice.” Mindy had worked hard to be in a place where she could encourage peace with Branch, and Sian.
“You wouldn’t be defending her if you were around her for more than five minutes. She uses ‘like’ after every word and calls Dad “Baby Love”. It makes me sick.”
“Your dad loves her, so you need to respect that. As for me, I’m not looking for anyone. I’m concentrating on finding myself.”
Jane frowned. “In all seriousness, how are you since the divorce? It’s been what…two months?”
“Six months.”
“Sheesh.”
“Honey, the divorce decree was just a piece of paper stating what I already knew. The marriage was over years ago. I’m okay. Really I am. Thank you for your concern but you don’t have to worry.”
“I think I do. You’re running away.” She reached for the bottle of sunscreen, flipped open the lid and poured the thick cream into her palm.
“I’m not running away!”
