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This week couldn’t go by fast enough. Once she was gone, I’d be able to think straight again. I wouldn’t be expecting to see her every time I turned around. I would be able to sleep again, knowing she wasn’t just a car ride away.
“Hey there, Officer Kingston!” Marcy Winter called out as she walked across the parking lot with her son, Kenny. “I heard you helped out poor Ruby Rhodes yesterday. Bless her heart.”
I couldn’t sneeze in this town without half the population offering me a tissue. Marcy was the sixth person to mention my interaction with Ruby, which only made it harder for me to stop thinking about the gorgeous blonde.
Marcy lifted her hand in a wave. “You have a nice day and give your grandaddy my love.”
My head dipped in a nod, and I lifted my hand in a wave as the dashboard of my truck lit up. I looked down and saw “Baby Mama” appear on the screen. Taylor had saved herself under that moniker on my phone. She thought it was funny.
Harper’s mom, who also happened to be my best friend, was overseas on her final tour before she got out in three months. The distance was hard on both of the most important women in my life, Harper and my “baby mama.” Thankfully, Taylor was usually able to call once a day, sometimes twice.
Taylor and I met at boot camp and became fast friends. She immediately noticed my accent and asked me where I was from. When I told her I was born and raised in Texas, she mentioned she had family in Texas. Her aunt, uncle, and two cousins lived in Wishing Well. She was shocked when I told her that was where I was from, and I couldn’t believe she was related to the Hales. I’d grown up playing ball with two of her cousins, Milo and Mason.
All my life, I’d heard the phrase it’s a small world, but I’d never really believed it until that day. That was the first building block of our friendship. After that, we spent years adding more. She and I clicked in a way I’d never experienced before.
For years, we were firmly in the friend zone, until one drunken night, we crossed the line into uncharted territory. The next day, we laughed about our misguided sojourn and promised each other it wouldn’t change our friendship.
Two months later, she peed on a stick, and it had two lines. We discussed trying to be together but ultimately agreed we didn’t work romantically. We loved each other very much, but neither of us was ever in love with the other. A lot of people didn’t understand our relationship, but I didn’t give a shit about other people’s opinions. We were still best friends and kickass co-parents.
I pressed the answer button. “Hey, I’m in line at school, picking her up.”
Tay and I had agreed to enroll Harper in pre-K to better equip her to handle kindergarten next year. I still couldn’t believe my baby girl was going to be five in just a few months. It felt like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital, swaddled in a pink blanket. Then she was teething, walking, saying her first words. I knew that I was going to blink, and she would be walking across the stage at her high school graduation.
“No worries, I’ll wait.”
“How ya doin’?” I asked.
She’d been deployed for five months out of an eight-month stint. This was the third deployment she’d been on since Harper was born. The previous two were only for four months; this one was double that.
“Good. Missing Peanut.”
“I bet.”
I’d gotten out of the Navy before Taylor had Harper. In fact, the drunken night we had spent together was to celebrate the beginning of a new chapter in my life as a civilian—the day I received my discharge papers, meaning I would never have to spend an extended period of time apart from Harper.
I couldn’t imagine how difficult it must be for Taylor. She handled it well, or at least as well as she could. But I knew she was happy that this was going to be the last time she’d have to leave our baby girl for months at a time.
“How’s Grandad?” she asked.
“He had a rough morning, so we’re headed over after I pick her up.” He thought he’d be getting released today, but his doctor said he needed at least one more week. He wasn’t taking the news well.
“So, he’s not coming home today?”
“No, but hopefully, it won’t be much longer.”
“Is he behaving?” I could hear Taylor’s smile in her question.
“Define behaving,” I joked.
“I bet he’s giving those poor PTs a run for their money.”
“That is the word on the street.” The first word most people associated with Otto Kingston was stubborn. The next was hardworking. He wasn’t one to sit around and twiddle his thumbs, which was exactly what he considered his recovery to be.
“Do I need to have a talk with him?” Taylor asked.
“If anyone could get through to him, it would be you.”
Taylor and Grandad had always gotten along like a house on fire. When he found out Taylor was expecting, he told me, in no uncertain terms, that I needed to step up to the plate and marry her. He’d even gone as far as to give me Grandma Margie’s engagement ring, which was still safely tucked away in the top drawer of my dresser.
