Chapter 21
Candy
Even though I had to go to Las Vegas to get it, I had in the end got everything that I wanted. With that thought in mind, I should have been happy. The papers were signed, and I was on my way back home. But I wasn't happy. Now I felt like I was leaving a part of me behind, a part that I forgotten was there and I would never get back again.
Strange enough, I hadn't talked to Jax since I left. He kept calling, most likely wanted to find out when I was coming home, but I wasn't too worried about it at that moment. I wasn't thinking about him and there was a lot of guilt associated with Jax right now for me. While Colt was technically my husband, what we had done together was wrong on so many levels. I knew that I was going to have to handle it when I got back home. Nothing was ever going to be the same between me and my fiancé again.
The flight was delayed on both sides and it was almost 2 o'clock in the morning before I got home. At first, I was going to just go to the house, the one that I shared with Jax, but that wasn't really where I wanted to go. I didn't have the energy to face him right now, especially not with what I had to tell him, so I went home to my parents. I knew that I could get in and get out without them knowing I was there. All I had to do was be quiet.
The house was rather large for what my father did for living. It was my mother and her innovation to do anything possible to make money that gave them the standard of living that they had. She did fund-raisers, rubbed shoulders with the rich, all in a pursuit to get a little of their money in her pocket. I had known that she was always that way, because we had never really gotten along because of it. While I was looking love, my mother Cynthia, was always looking for the next payday. I know that's what she saw Jax as.
I snuck in the back door that was always locked, but the key was under a fake rock in the garden. I moved up to my room and laid down in my bed, my mind swirling with too many things, but at the same time, I was too tired to worry about it. I went to sleep moments after I got there, and I already knew who I was going to dream about. I had a feeling I was going to dream about Colt for the rest of my life.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
I woke up to the loud voice and saw that my mother’s face was only a few inches from mine. She looked angry and it took me a minute to realize what was the matter.
“I didn't think you would mind.”
“I don't mind that you were sleeping in your bed Candy, what I mind is why you are not back home with your fiancé? You have been gone for several days and the last place you should be is here. Why aren't you back at home with your husband?”
“He isn’t my husband for one.”
She looked at me as I asked I was speaking blasphemy and I decided to shut my trap before I got into an argument that I wasn't going to be able to get out of. Cynthia, what she wanted me to call her, so she didn't feel so old, was a very hard person to deal with. She had very clear lines to her life, that I didn't expect in my own. It had made it so that we never got along.
“Don't you dare say that.”
“What? It is the truth you know.”
My mother sat on the bed next to me, pushing me over so that she could have more room and I knew what it was that she wanted to talk about. She wanted to have a pep talk to make sure that I was still going to marry Jax, her next golden goose for her retirement.
“You two not being married is only temporary. I thought that is why you went to Las Vegas for the weekend? Didn’t that man sign the paperwork like he was supposed to?”
The way she said, ‘that man’ was funny to me. It was clear that she didn’t know what she was talking about. I almost wanted to tell her that Colt was actually far better off than Jax was, but I knew that it wasn’t going to do any good. There was a huge part of me that knew that I needed her to stop worrying about my love life. It wasn’t going to help matters any.
“Yes, Colt signed the paperwork. He was actually really nice about it.”
Cynthia turned her nose up and asked a little bit about him.
“I still can’t believe you got married without telling me.”
“It just happened mom.”
“So how bad was he?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, he lives in Las Vegas, so what does he do?”
I was going down a dangerous road, but I didn’t want to hear negativities about Colt. She didn’t know him and though she thought she knew what she was talking about, she really had no clue. She must have imagined him to be some total lush or something. I didn’t like that she thought badly of him, even though it didn’t actually matter what she thought.
“He is a lawyer like Jax for a big firm. Colt made partner though, years ago. He said something about being the youngest partner in the company’s history.”
That got her attention and I stilled my tongue. I knew better, and this was not going to help.
“But like I said, he signed the papers so that is taken care of.”
Mom asked a few more questions, but by the direction they were going, I didn’t want to hear them or answer them. She was on a fact-finding mission and I didn’t like it at all. It was what she was going to do with those facts that bothered me so much. If she knew the truth, mom would be on Team Colt, by the end of the conversation.
“I don’t know that much about him mom. We didn’t get into all of that. I don’t care how much money he has, or any of that.”
“Did you sign a prenup?”
“I’m not talking about this. It’s over. We’re getting divorced as soon as I file the paperwork with the lawyer.”
“Why don’t you let me take them over to Charlie. That’s who you’re using, right?”
She was being too helpful, or I was being too cautious. I really wasn’t sure what the problem was, but I knew that I was going to have to be careful.
“I can take it mom. I know that you’re probably busy.”
“Nonsense. I would love to do this for you. You need to go see Jax and tell him the good news. Don’t worry your head about it again.”
I didn’t want to go see Jax, but I couldn’t tell mom that. I hadn’t even woken up really good yet, so dealing with her like this was not advisable. I agreed, just so that she would leave, and I would get a moment to myself.
“I’m glad that you are home Candy. You and Jax should come over for dinner tonight. I will make a lamb roast.”
I agreed, but the truth was that I didn’t think I was going to be welcomed if I didn’t bring Jax. She was about to realize that her little plans were not going to work, and I didn’t want to be around for it.
When mom was unhappy, everyone was unhappy. I’d learned that lesson well from before and I breathed out a sigh of relief when she was gone.
Now I just had to figure out what in the world I was going to do about Jax. I had averted one crisis with mom, but I didn’t think that the same thing was going to be possible with Jax. He was going to be far worse to face and I laid back down, covering my head, because I just didn’t want to do it.
The unexpected wake up call had me thinking about the wonderful dream I was in moments before. I wanted to go back to that place, but I had a feeling that I would only dream of my mother now.
That got me up and out of bed. I didn’t have a choice, but to keep on going on with my plan. The new plan that no one knew about, but everyone would soon enough. It wasn’t going to be easy, with external pressures.