Ch88 Bitchin Groupie

Wes stood up, grabbed Janet’s hand and frowned at his father. “Dad, you…uh... staying here long?”

“I don’t know. I’ll leave whenever Wendy kicks me out, I guess,” he replied, laughing when she playfully punched him.

“You can camp out on the couch for all I care,” she retorted.

“Wow, a sleep over. Cool!” Donny said.

“I should be back around nine, I hope, but it depends what they did to the computer,” Wes said, not at all happy with what he considered inappropriate banter.

“Well, I may see you then. Drive careful,” Donny said, then he turned back to talk to Wendy, completely ignoring them. "Hey, have you called your sister yet?"

"Oh, thanks for reminding me!" Wendy said.

Reluctantly Wes and Janet said their goodbyes, left the dinner table and went out into the foyer. Jasmine followed them with Troy close behind her.

Ch87 Time Well Wasted

“Oh, just perfect!” Wes snarled, as he was forced to stop for the long line of school buses cutting in front of his car. “Now we’ll never get home!”

“Never, Wes?” Janet said. “Being a bit melodramatic, aren’t you?”

“It sure will seem like it,” he retorted.

“It’s your own fault. If you hadn’t wasted ten minutes kissing me, we would have been out of here way ahead of them.”

“I hadn’t seen you all day and you know I need my Janet time. Kissing you is time well wasted,” he replied, and for good measure he pulled her toward him—as much as the seat-belt around her would permit—and kissed her again. “God, I love you.”

Ch86 Growing up

“I really think May will like this,” Wendy said walking around the empty apartment.

“The kitchen and bath have been remodeled not very long ago,” Donny said, looking at the information he had on this property. “And freshly painted. It’s small, but…”

“But not for May and Tristan. It’s nice and cozy. Besides, they don't have to stay here forever. It's just for right now. I’ll take it!”

Donny laughed and shook his head. “I told you, that’s not how it works. Call your sister and see what she says first. It only just came on the market and I can hold it for a bit.”

Wendy poked around a little more, opening cabinets and closets. “I like it. I’ll call her and…” She stopped at the ringing of her cell phone and she retrieved it from her small pocketbook. “Huh…it’s Stevie. Oh, that can’t be good,” she anxiously said. ”Stevie, you okay?”

Ch85 Huge Score

In quick order the kitchen was once again spotless and Wendy had only to put the cooled bread in bags and store them away while Donny looked through his mail.

“Anything in there for me?” Wendy asked, hanging up the damp kitchen towel.

“Pretty sure there isn’t. Sorry,” he said, smirking. 

“Better take a second look. According to Janet I’m Occupant. So….”

He laughed. “That so? Wish I had known that years ago. I’ve tossed away tons of your mail then. My bad. Here, you can have that and this, and heck, you can even have that,” he said tossing her a circular for a craft store, a card offering a free first visit from a new dentists’ office and a thick envelope with calligraphy-type writing on it.

Ch84 To New Friends

“I can’t believe you actually got me cooking,” Donny said, as he put foil wrap on a small baking dish. “You really are a great new friend, Wendy, and the best teacher.  I might be able to do this on my own thanks to you…I hope.”

“You will. It’s all written down and it’s super easy and if you have any questions, I’m only a phone call away,” she said as she placed two other baking dishes, labeled and covered in foil, into the freezer.

“But what am I going to do with all this food?”

“Eat it with your kids, you goof. Have family meals like you used to,” Wendy replied, as she labeled another baking dish and placed it in the fridge. “Now you have several nights’ worth of meals. You just have to pop them in the microwave, make a salad, warm up some crusty bread and there ya go!”

Ch83 Odd How it Works Out

“Hey, kids, homework done yet?” Wendy said, before getting to Cindy’s bedroom door. 

Good thing she did, too, because Stevie had been kissing Cindy. As it was, he had to let go of her hand and move slightly away from her.

“Yeah, I think she’s got it now,” he said, looking adorably guilty as he stood up.

“Really good of you, Stevie, to help Cindy as much as you do,” Donny said, completely oblivious to the potent undertone in the room.

“He is a very good boy. I am allowed to say it even if I am his mother, right?” Wendy said.

Ch 82: Looking Forward

“Thanks for coming to my game, Dad,” Stevie said, giving his father a huge hug. “Come to the next one, okay?”

“Looking forward to it, Buddy. Love you,” Jeffery said, holding on a bit longer than Stevie might have wished, especially in front of his friend.

“Love you, too,” Stevie said and he quickly jumped into the car beside Cindy.

Jeffery stared at the two kids in the backseat for a minute, his fists stuffed into his front pockets.  How he longed to be going home with them. He then shifted his gaze to Wendy.  How he wished he could go home to her bed!

“Jeffery, may I have a word before we go?” Wendy asked.

 “Yes,” he said on automatic.

Wendy moved toward Jeffery’s pickup and he followed. He stood on pins and needles waiting for her to say something, but all she did for about a minute was look at her shoes and kick at the gravel.

“Wendy, what is it?” he said, anxiously. How much worse could this situation be anyway? Would she now ask for a divorce?

Ch81: Biggest Mistake of Your Life

Wendy’s first instinct was to push Jeffery away, shocked as she was to being kissed most ardently and held so closely, right there on the bleachers in front of the Skylerton middle school’s soccer field. The shock wore off quickly, however. How could it not? This was right, this was how it should be.

Oh, how Wendy missed being held like this, kissed like this, loved like this. She clung to Jeffery fervently kissing him back. Her fingers tangled in his hair drawing him closer until she thought she would melt right into him…a part of her did. 

She forgot all else. They both did. The crowd moved about them, alternately cheering the winners of the game and lamenting the losers, but Wendy and Jeffery noticed none of this. They were in their own world.

“Um…I’ll go find Stevie,” Cindy said, slipping past the kissing couple and weaving through slow moving parents and lingering kids to get down off the bleachers and onto the field.

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. and Mrs…oh, wait, isn’t that Wendy Meadows now? But this is strange. Aren’t you supposed to be separated? I’m all confused.”

Ch80: Pivotal Point

Jeffery had been watching the game—okay, only some of it. Mostly he stole glances at his beloved wife.  Just like Wendy and unknown to him, his mind had drifted back in time—to the exact same time, in fact. It was, to Jeffery—and to Wendy if you bothered to ask her-- the pivotal point in their lives—the point at which they fell irrecoverably in love. 

For a solid month before that day, however, Jeffery had begged and pleaded, needled and bugged Dawn to please, please, please introduce him to her new best friend, the sassy southern belle who everyone was talking about and wanted to get to know--some more ardently than others, but none so much so as Jeffery. Finally, after the spectacular win over Skylerton’s junior varsity football team, Dawn gave him the best gift any friend could.  That was the day he first met and spoke to the love of his life, Wendy Meadows.

Ch79 Something Bittersweet

“Cindy, would you mind taking this to Stevie. He hates plain water and I know he’s dying of thirst,” Jeffery said, holding out a bright blue sports drink bottle.

“Okay,” she eagerly said. She then ran down the bleacher steps and sprinted to the goal post where Stevie and his team were resting and listening to the coach at half time.

“She’s quick to please,” he said handing Wendy a box of Cracker Jacks.

She stared at the box and an unaccountably bittersweet feeling swept over her. “You didn’t have to get this for me, Jeffery.”

“Sure I did. It’s tradition. Since Stevie was this high on the U-6 team, “ he said holding his hand three feet off the floor, “We’ve shared a box while he played.”

“Perhaps it’s time for new traditions,” she replied, giving back the unopened box.