Chapter 4
Cate slammed her hand down on her old-school alarm clock, to no avail. Sitting up, she leaned over once again to turn the blasted thing off, only to realize it wasn’t her alarm clock, but her phone ripping her from sleep. A quick glance told her it was not even seven, the time she normally got up. She wandered to her phone, which she had absentmindedly had forgotten to turn off the night before, and saw her daughter’s name on the screen.
“Hello?”
“I was beginning to think you were ignoring me. I was expecting it to go straight through to your messaging.” Her daughter knew her well. She never left her phone on at night. If there was a true emergency, people would call her landline. If not, it could all wait until morning.
“I forgot to turn it off last night.” Cate found her way back into bed and under her warm covers.
“Wait? Are you home?” The latch of a door closing followed by the white noise of a running sink filled the silence. “I’m in the kitchen now, so I can really talk.” As if being around Heather had ever squashed her daughter’s being, well, her daughter.
“Of course I’m home. Where else would I be at this… Jamie, really?” Cate wanted to hide her head under her pillow as if her daughter could actually see her burning face. Her Jamie, her dear, sweet, very innocent as far as she was concerned daughter asked her if she was at a man’s home after spending the night. Not just any man, either—Jamie’s boss.
“Really, Mom.” Jamie spoke as if they were having a natural, everyday conversation and not one with all the awkwardness. “You’re not a kid, and it’s not like he was a stranger. Plus, he is hawt hawt hawt.” A faint whistle grew louder, interrupting her daughter’s “hawt” song. Thank goodness. Not that he wasn’t hot, but it wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with her daughter… ever.
“Is there a reason you called me before the rooster wakes?”
“I was calling to see how it went last night.” Of course she was. After her little shenanigans with setting Cate up, which in all honesty she owed her for, Jamie wanted details. It would’ve been nice if she actually had given Cate some notice though. At least enough to put on some mascara.
“About that—”
“You can thank me later.” Cate could envision her daughter swooshing her idea out of the way with an exaggerated hand sweep. “Tell me everything… well not everything, because ewww, you’re my mom.”
At least Jamie had some sense of propriety.
“Yet you accuse me of spending the night?” Cate teased back, hoping to squeam her daughter out just enough to end this line of conversation. Heck, she didn’t want to have this conversation with anyone.
“And if you said you had, I would have pictured you two sitting up all night reminiscing about days gone by.”
As any good daughter would, Cate mused.
“You watch too many sappy movies.” They both did. Thursday nights had been devoted to watching all the “make you cry they are so happy” movies when Jamie had still lived there. Mostly they talked through them and ate popcorn, but once in a while, they got entrenched in the woman’s search for her happily ever after.
“So you didn’t talk?”
Cate heard Jamie’s cup clink in the sink and looked over at the clock. Stinks. She had five minutes until her alarm went off. Not that she had to get up, but she had vowed to give a hundred percent this summer if she limited her temp work, and she was going to do so. She already had a handful of completed paintings, not including the ones from class, which were more directed and far less “her.”
“Of course we talked.” Cate got out of bed, switched the alarm off preemptively, and went to her dresser, pulling out her clothes for the day. A pair of ripped, faded jeans and a t-shirt some company had given her school about dental hygiene week. Not like she would miss it in her wardrobe if it became paint-ridden.
“And?”
“And nothing.” Not nothing, but far from something she wanted to share. As far as her daughter knew, he was just a high school friend who fancied her. Cate had worked hard to have Jamie see her father for all of the amazing he was, and part of her had always hidden her relationship with Levi out of respect for that. Not that his time in her life made her time with James any less, but putting any doubt in her daughter’s eyes seemed unneeded at the time.
“No kiss goodnight?” Annoying kissing sounds followed, as if any decent kiss sounded that obnoxious. Cate shook her head and started to dress with her phone smushed to her shoulder.
“No.” And that was the sad fact of it. After their hug and his very real statement of intention, he drove her to her car, still near his office. Instead of letting him get out of the car like the gentleman he was, she spouted off a good-bye and a thank you for dinner, and was out of there faster than fast, like a total loser.
“Fine if you don’t want to tell me.” The dejection in her daughter’s voice hurt her.
“It’s not that.” She pulled the phone away long enough to get the shirt over her head. “I’m embarrassed.”
“Kissing is natural between two adults who love each other.” Cate closed her eyes as the exact words she used while giving her daughter “the talk” were echoed back to her. “It’s not like I asked if he was into whips and chains.”
“Kill me now.” Cate groaned as she made her way to the bathroom. As it was, she was already doing the little kid pee-pee dance. But as uncomfortable as the conversation was, it was an important one and one she wanted to finish to its natural end, even if that meant the pee-pee dance.
“Nope, not until after you tell me about the kiss.”
“I did. There wasn’t one.”
“Why not? He’s not married. I asked.” Of course she did. As if that would be the only reason not to kiss someone. A good reason, but far from exclusive.
“Nosy much?”
A shower was running in the background, their time almost over. Darn adult responsibilities they both now had. Oh, for the days when summer vacation meant exploring the woods together and attending story time.
“No pivoting. Spill.”
“Fine. There was no kiss because as soon as he pulled up to my car, I panicked and ran out of there like a scaredy cat. He probably feels rejected, and that is that.”
The shower sound silenced. What had she ever done to deserve a daughter who would make her fears a priority over getting ready for work? Not that she should be grateful for her being irresponsible, but heck yeah she was.
“Why?”
“Because, Miss Nosy, he told me he wanted us to try us again, and five minutes later I fled like a bonehead. How would you feel if someone did that to you?” That was the sad truth of it. She basically slapped his declaration in the face all because she had the maturity of a seventeen-year-old.
“No, why did you run?”
That was the million-dollar question. Cate felt comfortable with him. She liked him. He had never been one to push anything, so she had no worries there. Yet flee she did, all because of what? Insecurities.
“Do you know how long it has been since I allowed myself to be in the position to be kissed?”
“Too long.”
Too long was an understatement. Not that she would change her past actions. She had done what was right for her daughter at the time.
“Well, anyway, I panicked. Done.”
“I’m pretty confident it’s not done.” Smug. Her daughter sounded smug. What the hey?
Cate couldn’t take it anymore and excused herself to quickly take care of business and, more importantly, have a moment to collect her thoughts.
“Sorry, I’m back.” Her daughter scoffed at her, and Cate knew it was because she put the phone down, whereas her daughter would have multitasked. Kids. “And why isn’t it done, oh wise one?” Cate shouldn’t ask, she knew that. But curiosity always seemed to best her.
“Because Amelia texted me for your address this morning.” Her daughter sing-songed her reply as if it were the best news ever.
“Why would she do that?” Amelia had no reason to stop by or to send anything her way. It was just plain weird, unless she was like the secretaries in the movies who took care of ordering the flowers and such. No, Cate couldn’t let herself get sucked into thinking like that. It could only lead to heartache when it could easily mean it meant nothing at all.
“Because the two of us have decided to make sure you guys end up together.” Great, her daughter was friends with Levi’s ex-wife. Nothing could possibly go wrong there.
“I don’t even wanna know why you two are in cahoots.” Except she really truly, honestly and for true did. She was a teenager all over again.
“Yes, you do, but I’m going to leave it there.” Of course she was. “But speaking of Amelia, she’s kind of why I called.” As if the phone call couldn’t get any stranger. “Want to go to her wife’s gallery with me tonight? They are having a showing. I think you would enjoy it.”
And somehow the conversation just got even weirder.
“You sound up to something.”
“I’m just trying to parlay dinner out of you.”
“Tell me another one.”
“She takes on a new artist every month, and I thought you might want to connect with her.”
Cate’s head was spinning. Her high school sweetheart was married to a woman who left him for a woman who now owned a gallery and is friends with her daughter who wanted her to get an exhibit there. Either the world was far smaller than she knew, or she was missing a key piece of information.
“How do you even know her?”
“Heather’s mom runs a cleaning service, and one of her clients is Susan, Amelia’s wife. Anyway, last semester, Heather and I were helping her out to make extra money for spring break. One of my jobs was cleaning her studio. One day I got stuck with vomit because people suck and no one told her they got sick behind … never mind. Anyway, she felt bad for me and gave me a tip. We got talking, and I told her how Heather and I were looking at the tech field. She mentioned Amelia, and that was how we ended up finding out about the internship.”
Cate would’ve put money on her daughter spitting out the entire story in one breath. As convoluted and odd as it sounded, it made sense. Heather’s mom was predominantly in the old part of town where many artsy type businesses flourished.
“She got you the internship. I need to meet this woman and give her a ginormous hug.”
“No, she told us about it, and we got them. But yes, you do want to meet her, but let’s lay off the hugs. She is married.” Jamie laughed at her own joke, and the shower started back up.
“Fine. I’ll go. What time and where should I pick you up?”
If it were late enough, she could manage to take some semi-decent photos of her work to bring with her, if the right moment arose. Her paintings were unique in their lack of concrete subject, and they could easily not be a good fit for the gallery. Although, after seeing Amelia’s wife’s own artwork, it might just be the perfect place.
“I’ll text you all of that.” Of course she would. No one just took down information anymore. “Are you working today?”
“Yes, but not at the temp agency.” Cate made her way to the sunroom just as the sun was beginning to rise. She loved to work that time of day. Everything just felt more possible by the new light. “I’m painting.”
“Good for you, Mom. It inspires me to see you jumping in with both feet like this.”
One day, she would tell Jamie how it was her poem that had inspired her, but only after she achieved a few milestones. Knowing her daughter, if Cate failed to make it, Jamie would blame herself, and nobody needed that. In Cate’s mind, she had already won. If not one painting sold, she had found her passion again, and that was everything.
“What are you doing with the paintings?”
“Apparently, I’m showing them to your friend with the hopes of getting a showing.”
“I love you, Mom.”
“Love you too, brat. See you tonight.”
As Cate pulled out a new canvas, there was no need for her to close her eyes and wait for inspiration to hit. Her day’s inspiration was the love and meddling of her sweet, smart, and slightly sassy daughter.