Serenity Falls (19 page)

I
stand in my bedroom with a million different scenarios running through my head
as to what Mrs. Sandy is going to say or do. Wes and I having sex in the shower
is not how I wanted her to find out about us. I knew that we were going to have
to tell her soon, especially since everyone else found out today. I close my
eyes and take a deep breath, willing myself to calm down. I reach for the door
and open it. Time to face the music.

As
I begin my descent, I hear hushed voices coming from downstairs. When I hit the
bottom step, I stop and listen. “Mom, she’s really worried that you and Dad are
going to kick her off the ranch.” My eyes widen in surprise when I notice it’s
Wes’ voice. I can’t believe he would go down there and try to intervene in this
inevitable conversation. As soon as I walk into the kitchen, all talking stops.

“Come
on over here and have a seat,” Mrs. Sandy says as she looks at me over her
shoulder.

My
head drops with my hair falling around my face as a shield. I have never been
so embarrassed in all my life. I nod, trying my best not to make eye contact
with her. With steady movements, I make my way around the table, Wes pulls out
my chair, and I sit. Underneath the table, his hand finds mine. I peek up at
him, and he nods at me while squeezing my hand, offering me the reassurance
that I need that everything will be fine.

“So,
how long has this been going on?” Mrs. Sandy starts, waving her hand between
Wes and me.

Before
I have a chance to speak, Wes answers for the both of us. “Since the first
night, at the bonfire.”

“What?
Y’all have been sleeping together since the first night?” she screeches, her
eyes bulging.

“No,
Mom. God, no.”

“Oh.
Thank you, Jesus. For a second there, I thought… Never mind, I don’t wanna
know. We’ll just leave it at I know what the two of you were doing in the
bathroom.” She gives us both a pointed look.

Heat
rushes to my face. My eyes slide to the corners, looking at Wes. How can he
just sit there completely calm and collected? I turn my attention back to Mrs.
Sandy.

“Look.
I’m not dumb. I know that you both are adults, and are going to do what you’re
going to do. All I ask is, please, don’t do it under my roof. And if you do,
you better not get caught.” A slow smile spreads across her face, and I feel a fraction
of my embarrassment begin to slip. “I was young once, too. Your father and I
were pretty hot and heavy,” she adds.

“Mom.
I don’t wanna hear about you and Dad,” Wes groans, dropping his head to the
table.

A
small laugh escapes me at his discomfort. He rolls his head on the wooden table
and looks at me with a smile playing on his face. “You think that’s funny?”

That
makes me laugh harder. “I do,” I say between breaths. The muscles in my cheeks
hurt. My eyes water, and I’m starting to get a stitch in my side. Suddenly, I
look over to Mrs. Sandy who is laughing with me.

“Great.
Now you’re both laughing at me.” Wes pushes his chair away from the table. As
he stands, he leans down and kisses me on my forehead. “Come and get me when
you and my mom are done,” he says as my bellyaching laughter starts to subside.

I
take deep breaths, trying to compose myself as I nod. “I will,” I reply
breathlessly. When I turn back to Mrs. Sandy, her eyes are wide, and her mouth
is in the shape of an ‘o’. Curious as to why she’s looking at me like that, I
ask, “What’s wrong?”

“I
just can’t believe it,” she breathes out, as a smile spreads across her face.

My
eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Can’t believe what, Mrs. Sandy?”

She
reaches across the table for my hand. Grasping it, she says through a smile,
“My son is in love with you.”

Now
it’s my eyes that bulge, and my mouth that’s forming an ‘o’. No. No? He can’t
be in love with me. It’s too soon. This is a joke. I get it now; Mrs. Sandy’s
making a joke.

“And
you’re in love with him, too,” she adds with a twinkle in her eye.

Slowly,
I pull my hand out of her grasp. “I like him… a lot, but love…” I’m at a loss
for words.  

“Honey,
I know love when I see it. You two can deny it all you want, but I know these
things.” She leans back in her chair and winks at me. “Tell me, Kenleigh, do
you like him as a person?”

“From
what I know so far… yes.”

“Do
you like being around him?”

“I
do. We have fun together. I feel like I can be me. I don’t feel like there are
any false pretenses when it comes to me and him,” I answer truthfully.

She
nods at my answer. “Most importantly, how does he make you feel?”

I
lean back in my chair and stare at her. There’s no contemplating that answer,
so I lay it all out there. “Alive. More alive than I have ever felt. When he
looks at me, he makes me feel like the only person in the room. Like no one
else can compete with me. For a long time, it felt like there was this weight
on my chest, crushing me, and it hurt to breathe. But not with him. He makes me
feel like I can finally breathe again, no restraints, no constrictions, just a
welcoming deep breath.” Tears well up in my eyes and threaten to spill over as
I continue. “It’s more than that though. What we have, it’s seems exactly what
my parents had. And I never want that feeling to go away,” I say, fading that
last part out.

“See.
Love.” She says it likes it’s so obvious as she grabs my hand again from across
the table.

The
tears spill over while I shrug my shoulders. “It’s too soon to be love, isn’t
it?” I ask, sniffling back tears.

“No,
it’s not. Who says love has a time restraint? Who says it takes six months to a
year to fall in love? Love is love. When you know, you know. People fall in and
out of it all the time. I fell in love with Will one month after we met, and
the next month we were married. I knew when I met him that there would never be
anyone else out there for me. And look at us; we’ve been married ever since. We
have gone through a lot of hard times, but we’ve also had a lot of good ones. But
no matter what happens, love always wins.” She squeezes my hand. “I have loved
you like a daughter since the moment you pulled up on our ranch. You’re such a
beautiful person, Kenleigh, inside and out. I knew once my son met you, he
would see it too, and I’m so glad that he did.”

“I
didn’t come here looking for love, Mrs. Sandy,” I say quietly.

“I
know you didn’t. Sometimes love just finds you, especially when you’re not
looking for it.”

There’s
no way I can argue with that. I’ve been fighting it the past few days, trying
to delude myself to the fact that I was only starting to fall for Wes, not that
I had already fallen for him. “What if he doesn’t love me back?”

“I
don’t think you have anything to worry about. Wesley had a high school
girlfriend for a while, Leslie, but she was no good for him. Will and I both
saw it. We heard the rumors of her cheating on him, but I think he just wanted
somebody to fill the hole in his heart that Colt left. When he graduated high
school and left for Dallas, he left her behind, too. Thank the Lord for that.”
She shakes her head and chuckles. “But the way he looked at her, and the way he
looks at you are completely different. I don’t doubt that, at one point, he
loved that girl, but he was never
in
love with her.”

“How
do you know?” I ask, my eyes diverting from hers, as I begin to feel a little
insecure.

“His
smile didn’t reach his eyes. His touches never went beyond holding hands and
the occasional hug, at least that I know of. Above all else, Wes was never
tender with her the way he is with you. And that little kiss on the forehead
proves it.”

I
nod my head, and accept that what she’s told me is more than enough proof that
maybe Wes loves me, too. My hands grasp the edge of the table as I scoot my
chair back. I stand up and walk around the table, enveloping her in a hug. My
heart swells as she wraps her arms around me. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Sandy,”
I whisper next to her ear.

She
pulls back, cups my face in her hands, and smiles at me. “I love you, Kenleigh.
You’re good for my son, and he knows it, too.”

My
vision of her blurs as tears build up in my eyes. They fall freely as I nod my
head and smile at her.

“Why
are you crying?”

A
burst of laughter escapes me before I answer. “Because I love you, too. I love
your family very much, your son included.”

Mrs.
Sandy drops her hands from my face as she leans across the table and plucks a
tissue out of its box. Instead of handing it to me, she wipes away my tears and
whispers, “I’m very glad to hear that, but no more crying, okay?”

Another
laugh escapes me. “Yes ma’am,” I mumble, nodding my head. I pull back and add,
“I’m gonna go and clean myself up. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I’ll
see you tomorrow.” She leans back in her chair with an easy smile.

I
feel lighter than I’ve felt in a long time as I make my way upstairs and into
the bathroom. A wave of nausea hits me as I think of how to tell Wes. I stare
at myself in the mirror, realizing that I know now that I’m in love with him,
and his mother knows too, but he doesn’t. I want to tell him, but not until I
explain what I went through as a child with my depression. I don’t feel that
it’s right to give such a huge piece of myself to him and not trust him with my
past. My head drops, and my hands squeeze the edge of the vanity as Jackie’s
words filter back in about how I’m too nice for Wes. I shake my head, pushing
those thoughts far, far away. As long as I continue to believe in what Mrs.
Sandy told me, then I’m sure everything will be just fine.

With
my face free of all the tear stains, I go to my room, open the door, and gasp
in surprise. Wes is lying there on my bed, his arms tucked behind his head,
waiting for me. “What are you doing in here?” I ask, whispering loudly.

“I
was waiting for you.” He pats the empty side of the bed next to him. “Come lay
with me.”

I
have to give it to him. Even after what his mother said, he’s still as
tenacious as ever.

I
shake my head, smiling as I crawl onto the bed next to him. “Do you not
remember what your mom just said?”

“What?”
he asks, innocently. “I’m just laying in bed with my beautiful girlfriend.
What’s wrong with that? We’re not doing anything,” he says as he pulls me into
him.

“Girlfriend,
huh?” I tease.

He
nuzzles my neck and whispers, “Exactly. My girlfriend. I told you I won’t be
sharing, and I meant it.” Gently, he bites into the tender flesh of my neck,
and instead of pain, a bolt of desire shoots through me.

“You
better stop that,” I whisper as I grind my ass against him. “Because I would
hate for you to start something you can’t finish.”

He
growls into my neck, making my whole body flare to life. Wes pushes back
against me as he mumbles, “You know I finish everything I start.”

Yes,
you do.
I groan from the sensations
of his mouth on my neck, but I have to be strong and force the desire down. “I wanna
tell you something.”

“Anything,”
he whispers against my neck.

I
roll over in his arms, sliding mine around his neck. For a minute, I just stare
at this sexy ass man that I can call mine. I take a deep breath, preparing
myself for the emotions that I know are about to come. “For a long time, I was
lost. I stayed in bed as much as possible, wallowed in a grief that was so
thick that it was suffocating at times. I lost weight and my skin became pale.
I checked out.”

“When
your parents died?”

I
nod. “When I had to go to school, I was withdrawn from everyone and everything,
which was a big deal for me. Before their deaths, I was a part of the
volleyball team, the cheerleading team. I played the clarinet in the band, and
I participated in some of the clubs. When they died, I quit it all. All my
interests seemed to evaporate into thin air.” I duck my head to avert his gaze.

Thoughtlessly,
I begin to trace patterns on his shirt with the tips of my fingers. “At first,
my friends and teachers were understanding and supportive of what I was going
through. But the more withdrawn I became, the further I slipped out of their
reach. They eventually realized there just wasn’t much they could do for me.
And believe me they tried. My teachers attempted to get me to open up to them.
They called my aunt and suggested I go into counseling. My coaches talked the
principal into making me attend mandatory therapy sessions with the school
counselor. Nothing worked.”