“Alright, sweetheart, I’m going out to the truck really quick. I’ll be right back, okay?”
Delilah answered in the only way she knew how, with a loud squeal. “Da!”
Ridge got his daughter situated with the baby gate as quickly as possible and then went to work on her crib so that he could get her down for a nap. He didn’t consider himself an expert, but he was pretty impressed with himself and his ability to set up the crib by himself in fifteen minutes flat.
Delilah must have known that he was in a hurry because she zonked out the moment her head hit the crib. Ridge stared down at his brown-haired beauty as her lips puckered while in dream-state. She was his now. His to love and care for full-time, and somehow he was going to have to figure out how to manage a job with her care.
His uncle had readily accepted his offer to work at the Carson Fire Department, but they needed to iron out a schedule. Ridge knew that it was a pipe dream to shoot for a typical nine to five shift. Those just didn’t exist for first responders. But he hoped that he would be able to be home for his daughter more than he had been in Sunnyville.
Thinking of his old turf, Ridge wondered what his friend Grady was up to and if he had officially taken his girlfriend Dylan off the market. Ridge knew that he could have asked any of the Malone’s for help with his ex-wife’s situation, but her problems weren’t common knowledge. And, truthfully, he may have been a bit embarrassed. He still had no leads from the detective he had been working with on her whereabouts and Ridge had begun losing hope. Maybe it was time to bring in a private detective, someone that didn’t have to answer to the law necessarily.
Sighing, Ridge stepped out onto the porch and wondered how he was going to lift all of the heavy items, like his couch and the beds, into the house. But his question was quickly answered when the clouds opened up and a torrential downpour fell onto the town of Carson. Thank goodness he had the forethought to cover everything in tarps before he left California.
He stood for a moment admiring the sway of the trees from the wind and the musical spatter of the rain on the porch roof. He absolutely planned to go into town and find a set of rocking chairs so that he could sit back and enjoy the showers with Delilah snoozing on his lap in the future.
Across the street, he watched a small car maneuver into the driveway of the house that matched his own. He laughed to himself as the car idled in its spot, the driver most likely wondering how to avoid the thunderstorm. Ridge squinted to get a better view through the rain and surprise overtook him as the trunk popped open, drenching whatever was nestled inside.
A small woman with an even smaller umbrella emerged from the car just as the wind picked up. As expected, the flimsy material couldn’t hold its own against the wind gusts and flipped inside out just as the driver shut the door to her car. Ridge could feel her frustration snaking through her body as she threw her umbrella aside and stomped toward the trunk of her car. Paper bags. The first bag she pulled free was a measly paper bag.
Ridge barely hesitated, only enough to double-check the baby monitor attached at his hip and grab his gray hooded sweatshirt from just inside the front door. The rain was coming down at a torrential pace as he lifted the hood over his head and dashed across the street to help his neighbor. Just as he reached her, the now soaked bags held tightly in her arms gave way and the contents spilled out on the driveway.
“Shit!” the woman shouted as she bent down and began to gather the produce that had scattered about.
“Here, let me help you.” Ridge could hardly hear his own voice over the pounding of the storm, but in the way the woman stiffened as he knelt beside her, she’d absolutely heard his shout.
Using the lower half of his sweatshirt, Ridge began piling the items into the makeshift holder as the woman gathered as much as she could into her arms. Together they scrambled in the rain to collect as many items as possible before rushing up to the covered porch. He watched as the small woman struggled to unlock the front door with a shivering hand before finally jabbing the key into the lock.
Just as the door swung open, a cackling noise sounded from his hip, barely loud enough to hear over the pounding rain, but Ridge’s instincts were on high alert. In a manner his aunt Amy would call him out on, Ridge stormed into the house, not even taking a moment to look at the sparse décor, and walking into the adjacent kitchen. The contents in his hoodie poured out into the kitchen sink with a flourish and Ridge didn’t waste any time turning around and heading back toward the door. He brushed against the woman that stood stock-still just inside her house, watching his every move. Ridge couldn’t deny the hint of awareness as his arm brushed against hers, but he didn’t have time to question or savor that feeling. He hardly had the chance to gaze into the haunted and confused blue eyes that stared at him. Instead, he stalked back out into the rain storm and hurried across the street to his daughter, who was waking herself up with small cries. Ridge knew that those toddler tears would escalate to a full out tantrum if he didn’t get to her soon.
He had been learning Delilah’s patterns over the last couple of days and recognized the combination of hunger and unfamiliarity in her whimper.
“Hey, sweet girl,” he cooed as he stepped into the empty house, knowing he should spend the next few hours bringing his things into the home despite the torturous rain. But as his daughter stood with her arms stretched out toward him, Ridge knew the next few hours would be spent keeping an eye on his precious girl. Thank goodness he had the forethought to pack a few books and toys into the diaper bag that sat on the floor by the door.
“It’s just you and me, kiddo,” he told her as she snuggled her soft cheek against his. And wasn’t that the truth in this entire situation. The daughter his ex had tried so painstakingly hard to keep from him was now completely his responsibility. He only hoped that he didn’t screw it up.
***
The ground was saturated from the rain that hadn’t let up the day before. Showers had fallen through the night, which had only kept River awake, and she was now paying dearly for it. Despite her few years of living on her own, she had never felt as if she was truly by herself. There was always a neighbor and thin wall of an apartment, a boyfriend that mooched off her living arrangement, or the small house she shared with her grandmother. But the house in Carson was new and she was seriously going to need to adjust to the changes.
Asheville was a big city compared to the tiny town
in which she now resided, made especially clear when, even with the sound of the rainwater, River couldn’t make out the noises of traffic or neighbors. She was certain that if she kept the windows open on a clear evening, she would hear crickets chirping.
The buzzer on her state-of-the-art oven went off and River jumped up from her couch where she had been watching mindless reality show drivel on the television. The mystery man from the day before had plagued her throughout the night. He had quickly come to her aid as the paper bags from the store had torn apart the moment water had met the material, but he left just as quickly, not even giving her the chance to thank him.
His face has been covered in shadows from his soaked hoodie, but she was confident that he was a good-looking guy and well muscled. The sleeves of his hoodie had been pulled tight against his arms, a feature that was made evident when he brushed up against her in his haste to leave her house.
At first, River had been confused and almost hurt that he had dashed away so quickly. It took only depositing the contents she had carried in her arms into the sink that she saw a quick glimpse of herself in the glass of the window. Appalled wasn’t strong enough of a word to describe how she felt at her appearance. Her dark hair was matted against her face, strands covering most of her cheeks and eyes. She wasn’t at all surprised he had run once she took a better glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror in her oversized clothes and the outward appearance of a drowned rat. Hell, she’d run from herself too.
But she needed to thank him. River’s grandmother always expressed that manners mattered, even if the recipient didn’t earn them.
The smell of freshly baked cookies filled the kitchen as she opened the oven door, the familiar scent wafting across River’s nose as she carefully pulled the pan free and placed it on the cooling rack. The smell made her homesick. She missed her life in Asheville. The private school she had worked so tirelessly to earn a spot teaching at. The crazy neighbors that never looked down their noses at her grandmother when she began to have episodes. The afternoons spent relaxing on the back porch of their small house with a glass of lemonade while her grandmother tended the garden. These were all now just distant memories. The chocolate chip cookie recipe was one her grandmother had taught her from the moment River was strong enough to stir the batter. By now, she knew it by heart and knew that people went crazy for them. It was award-winning in the city of Asheville, after all.
While River waited for the cookies to cool down before plating them, she headed back toward the bedroom that she desperately needed to add some color and life too. That was on her agenda after she delivered the delicious morsels. But first, she wanted to change into something more appealing than oversized sweatpants and a ripped concert T-shirt, even if two of the band members of Exoneration resided in the small town. River would deny to her grave that her favorite band factored into her move to Carson.
Sifting through her closet, a pale blue sundress caught River’s eyes. It was one of her favorites. She usually wore it on casual dates, but the day was looking to be spectacular after the rainstorm from the night before and River didn’t see any reason why she couldn’t wear it around town.
The dress slid over her body like a second skin and River instantly felt her body stand straighter than before. The dress's material hugged all of her curves in the right places as she spent far too long analyzing herself in the mirror. Yanking down the makeshift bun from the top of her head, River’s mass of loose curls fell down her back like the waves of the ocean. She took a moment debating on whether to put on a few swipes of mascara but knew that she had procrastinated long enough.