Chapter Twenty-Six

~December 2017~

 

Stella walked past Adam’s closed door and heard him talking to his father. She lingered at the sound of Riley’s deep country drawl. It still sounded as if his voice was gravel over honey. And the sound still caused her to feel that same strange electrical zing.

She continued on to her bedroom. Every night Adam Skyped with his dad before going to bed. It was the new age of co-parenting. But Riley and Adam could do a lot of things via Internet. For his sixth birthday, his father had sent him a cell phone of his very own. He called his dad anytime of day or night and for any little reason.

Stella didn’t realize that Adam was doing that until one morning she heard him calling his daddy just to ask if he should wear Timberlands or sneakers to school that morning. When she told him that he shouldn’t bother Riley while he was at work, Riley had overheard and instead of talking to her directly he had instructed Adam to tell his mother that he could call anytime day or night.

Things were a little tense between her and Riley. They hadn’t left Cobb Hill on the best of terms. Riley had told her that he was developing feelings for her. And she had still been angry. She told him that she didn’t want to be with a white man, no offense. None taken, he’d said snidely.

It was the truth. She didn’t want to live her life with a white man that she had to explain why she felt and believed the way she did. Whenever something political happened she didn’t want to have to wonder which side he was going to take.

She had returned home and had picked up things with Evan. That hadn’t lasted long. She didn’t like Evan and regardless of whether he had a good job and was handsome, he irked her for some reason.

But at least she was open to the idea of having a man in her life. She’d gone out on a few dates and the guys were mostly cool, but she didn’t feel that…connection.

She knew the feeling that she was looking for because she had felt it before… But none of the guys sent an electrical zing through her nerve endings. They didn’t make her heartbeat speed up. And they didn’t cause her eyes to linger on the V of their back or the way their toned legs filled out worn jeans. None of them had slow country drawls that sounded like gravel and honey.

She and Riley did communicate—just not on Skype. Regular phone calls worked for them. Basically they were about Adam’s classes and setting up a payment schedule for child support.

She knew that she’d pissed off Riley when she told him that he didn’t have to send so much child support. She had the money to support Adam. He’d taken it all the wrong way and said that he had the money to take care of his child.

“I didn’t mean to imply…”

“What? That I was a redneck that couldn’t afford to keep my son living in the style that you’ve created for him? Don’t worry. I didn’t take it that way.”

Riley was supposed to come to Cincinnati for Christmas—at least that had been the plan before things had taken a turn. Under the circumstances she didn’t think she would feel comfortable with him there so she had contacted him and told him that she’d bring Adam and he could stay for a week.

“Are you sure?” Riley had asked, not wanting to get his hopes up too high.

It had pleased her to be able to do something like that for him. Besides, she might not trust the people on that mountain, however she did trust Riley to protect her son.

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

“I’ll come and get him-”

“No. You don’t have to do that. We’re going to be driving up from my parents place. We stay with them for a few days and celebrate on Christmas Eve with them. I can drop him off at your place on Christmas morning.”

“Stella…I don’t know what to say. It means a great deal to me. I’ll drive him back home, though, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Thanks.” He said and for the first time in a long time neither sounded defensive.

 

 

Riley rushed out to the shed for his axe. He needed to find a Christmas tree and then he needed to go through those old boxes for the Christmas decorations. He could have gone down to The Wal-Mart for matching decorations with perfectly painted surfaces and sparkles strategically placed. But he liked the homemade ornaments that they had made when he was a kid. He needed to see the old ornaments—to remember something good about his childhood.

Christmas was next Monday and he had plenty of time, but he still went out in the middle of the night with his flashlight and located the perfect tree, not too big but not too small. He took it to the shed to get it prepped and sat it in a bucket of water. Only once he was satisfied that it would be perfect did he return home and to bed. After work he’d run into town to finish shopping. He hadn’t bought anything for Stella, but he would. He wanted her to have something to open on Christmas Day.

On Saturday he stopped at J&B’s market and loaded his grocery cart with all kinds of things that he thought his son might like. Miss Lemon had looked at the contents of his cart critically.

“Adam coming into town?” She asked with a wink.

“How did you know?” He asked incredulously.

“Because you haven’t purchased this much breakfast cereal since the summer when your son was in town.” She wrung up his order and then threw in two large candy canes. “Stocking stuffer. You did get Christmas stockings, right?”

“Yes ma’am. I got stockings.”

“Good. Bring him in if you get a chance. I want to see how big he’s gotten.”

“Yes. Thanks Miss Lemon. I will. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.” He loaded his groceries to his truck and looked out at the clear sky. It would be nice if it snowed. He could have taken Adam sledding. But the temperature was almost balmy. Still, it was going to be a great Christmas, snow or not.

On Christmas Eve he Skyped with his son on his new cell phone. Adam showed all the Christmas things that he’d gotten from his mom and grandparents. “I got you something, too, Dad.”

“You did?” Riley asked. Adam showed him a big box, which had been wrapped haphazardly with two kinds of wrapping paper.

“Did you wrap it?” Riley asked.

“Yeah but I ran out of paper. Mom helped me.”

“Are you all packed?” Riley asked him.

“Yep. We gonna leave early in the morning. Mom said she wants to be at your house by 8 am so she can have time to get back home before the snow fall gets heavy. Did you hear, Dad? It’s supposed to start snowing tonight in time for Christmas.”

“That would be nice. If we get a few inches I’ll take you out sledding.”

“Cool!”

“Get some sleep. See you in the morning, son,” Riley said. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Goodnight, Dad.”

He hung up feeling as if there wasn’t one thing in the world that could match this feeling…and then he thought about Stella.