The Art of Starting Over

Hayden pulled in behind the last car in the school pickup line, and within seconds other moms—not parents—were out of their cars and coming toward him. This was his personal brand of hell, and he wished Oyster Bay had a busing service.

“Shit,” he muttered as a mom approached the driver’s side of his truck. He didn’t have enough time to determine if he knew her from way back when or not. Thankfully, the rain had stopped. He pushed the button, and his window went down.

“Hayden McKenna, I heard you were back in town.”

Any news traveled fast in Oyster Bay.

He made eye contact with the woman and then briefly looked around. Other moms lingered, some in pairs and others in groups. Were they all waiting to talk to him? Did he need to hold court or something?

“Yep, I’m back.” He cringed at his wording and the inflection his voice did at the end. It was as if he thought he was the Terminator, who promised to always return. This wasn’t Hayden’s first time back to his hometown, but it was his first as a single man. That made a difference.

“You don’t remember me, do you?”

He shook his head slowly while he studied her face. She seemed familiar, but he had a hard time placing where he’d know her from, other than school.

“Sapphire Fleming.”

As soon as she said her name, he remembered both her and her sisters. They all had gemstone names, which stood out among their classmates. If he recalled correctly, she was one of four sisters, along with Ruby, Opal, and Amethyst. Amethyst was in his class and was memorable because she had worked in his father’s office as an aide.

“How’s it going?” he asked, even though engaging in a conversation in the school dismissal line didn’t seem like the right time. The car in front of him inched forward, which confused him since the bell hadn’t rung yet. He didn’t know what the etiquette was—did he move up as well, or wait?

“Things are well, just picking up the kiddos. You know,” Sapphire said in the same bubbly tone he remembered her having back in school. “You’re back for good?”

He nodded.

“That’s fantastic.” She placed her hand on the door, her fingers grazing his arm. “We’ll have to get together for a beer and catch up.”

They had nothing to catch up on, but he agreed anyway because he didn’t want to be rude. The bell rang, saving the day. He caught a glimpse of the others as they looked at him talking with Sapphire, then slumped their shoulders and turned toward the double doors and their cars. Something told him he’d experience this again tomorrow.

Sapphire made her way back to her car, pausing to turn and give him a wave. Someone honked and she scowled. Hayden watched the double doors he’d gone into and come out of when he was in elementary school. His mom would pick him and Allie up, and then they’d go sit in the back room of their father’s practice until their mom had wrapped up work for the day. Darcy McKenna never let her children stay home longer than an hour by themselves. Small town or not, things happened when adults weren’t around. By the time Hayden was in high school and playing sports after school, Allie went with him, choosing to sit and watch, then being treated like she wasn’t responsible for his well-being.

Kids filed out in small groups. Girls talked animatedly, with their little arms and hands flying in every which direction, and boys laughed at something their friends had said. Hayden wanted this for his son. He wanted him to find a good, solid group of friends he could grow up with. Hayden had, until they all went away to college and lost touch over the years. Most of his friends wanted to get the hell out of Dodge and never return. Move to the city and live. Hayden had done the same thing until he’d met Sofia and followed her back to Wyoming. He’d intended to go to law school, but that never seemed to pan out. He ended up putting his criminal justice degree to work by becoming a deputy in the county sheriff’s department. He’d never truly found his way once he left Oyster Bay.

But Sofia had made him happy, and that was enough.

Hayden spotted Conor before his son saw the truck. He studied his son as he stood there under the awning with his backpack slung over his shoulder and his sweatshirt tied around his waist. Conor looked left and then right, spotted the truck, and gave his dad a little wave. The gesture brought a much-needed smile to Hayden’s face.

He saw Conor wave to a classmate. A girl, with a long brunette ponytail. She reminded him of someone else he knew, someone who had recently spent time in his truck. Hayden would ask Conor later, if only to appease his own curiosity.

Conor walked toward the truck with his head held high, which brought another smile to Hayden’s face—he assumed his son’s first day went well. Of course, he could’ve been happy that his day was over. Hayden often hated school as a kid. One Monday in particular always stood out in his mind—the Monday after some Saturday-night party in the eighth grade, where he and Devorah Crowley had made out in the closet for seven glorious minutes. He thought he’d done a pretty damn good job of expressing himself and confidently walked right up to Miss Devorah Crowley and tried to ask her out—only for her to turn ten shades of red and run from him.

“Hey, Devorah.” Hayden said her name with such confidence—he felt like he was on top of the world. Laila looked at him first. He avoided all eye contact with her because he was pretty certain she had a crush on him. But Hayden was also confident Dev liked him more.

“Oh, hi, Hayden.”

The air left his sail. He’d hoped for a little more exuberance from her.

“Can I speak with you in the hall?” As soon as he’d asked, he regretted it. Their classmates lingered, staring, and some looked at them questioningly. He should’ve waited until they were doing homework later, when they’d be alone in the dining room of her house, and while Colt was on the phone with his current girlfriend.

The other girls around the table giggled. Hayden smiled, even though he wanted to run away. Devorah stood, and he motioned for her to walk ahead of him. Like his father often did with his mom.

When they got to the hall, Hayden pointed to the alcove where a lot of the high schoolers went to make out. Dev’s footsteps faltered a bit, but she continued.

Once they were safely behind the wall, Hayden mustered all the courage he could. “Would you like to go out with me?”

Her eyes widened, her cheeks turned a fiery red, and she covered her mouth. Before he could ask her if she was okay, she ran away, leaving him there in utter embarrassment.

Later, Colt said that some older dude had asked his sister out. “If I find out which one of my friends did this, I’m going to pummel him.”

Dev apologized weeks later, and while Hayden wasn’t afraid of Colt, he was afraid of Crow, and he didn’t want to do anything to damage his friendship with Colt. Devorah liked Hayden, though, and she flirted.

He flirted back.

Two months after they’d had seven minutes in heaven, he kissed her again, this time under the old oak tree, where no one could see.

Hayden sighed and cleared his thoughts as Conor approached the truck. Hayden leaned over and pulled the handle to help Conor open the door. His son tossed his backpack onto the floorboard and climbed in.

“Well, how was it?”

“It’s school,” Conor said pointedly and shrugged. “But Mr. Raze is nice. He’s very funny.”

“Did you make any new friends?”

Another shrug. “I met some kids. They invited me to play kickball with them.”

“That’s fun.” Hayden inched his way out and drove slowly around the crescent-shaped roadway, watching for any youngsters who might dart out in front of him, but also trying to see where the girl Conor had spoken to had gone. Hayden told himself he wanted to confirm the girl was Devy’s, but what he really wanted to do was see Devy again. She’d left him in the parking lot, and at first, he was okay with her leaving, until he remembered what she’d said about her husband and how he hadn’t chased after her. By then, it was too late. He’d looked around for her, but it was like she had vanished into thin air.

“Yeah, just the guys, though.”

“Girls don’t want to play?”

“I don’t think they’re invited. They sit on the bleachers and cheer. Some even have those hand things they shake.”

“Pom-poms?”

“Yeah, those things. One girl did some leg thing and had her arms doing funny things. The guys seemed to like it.”

“That’s called cheer or cheerleading,” Hayden said as he made his way down Main Street. “It’s actually a popular sport for kids your age and through high school. Some go on to college and cheer for college teams.”

“You mean girls?”

“No,” Hayden said as he turned onto his parents’ street. “Boys can join if they want. Cheerleading is serious business, especially in high school and college. They’re responsible for hyping up the crowd.”

“Oh, like the announcer at the basketball games?”

Hayden pulled into his parents’ driveway and put his beastly truck into park. “Exactly.” He turned the truck off and got out, meeting Conor around the front. He placed his hand on his son’s shoulder and guided him to the back door.

“Did you start on the house today?” Conor asked as they climbed the back steps.

“No, it rained most of the day. I might head over now, though, and place the flags down, so the contractor knows where we want the foundation.”

“Don’t forget the pool,” Conor said as he went into the house.

“Yeah, yeah.” His other grandparents had an indoor pool at their house in Wyoming, and one of the things Hayden said he would consider when building their new house was a pool. As soon as he had said it, he knew it was the wrong thing to do. He’d used it as a crutch or some sort of enticement to get Conor on the same page when it came to moving.

Staying in Wyoming wasn’t an option, even though he’d had a good relationship with his in-laws. As much as Hayden needed Conor to be okay, Hayden needed his parents. There was a certain level of emotional support only a parent could give. Sofia’s parents would visit, and once Conor settled in Oyster Bay, he’d go back to Wyoming for breaks. Hayden had no intentions of keeping them away from each other.

Hayden walked in after his son and kicked his shoes off onto the wet mat by the door. As he did, he inhaled deeply, and his stomach growled. He smelled marinara, freshly baked bread, and cake. He wasn’t sure what type of cake, but he knew they were having cake for dessert.

Darcy was in the kitchen, standing at the island; Conor was across from her, perched on one of the barstools. Hayden kissed her cheek and dipped his finger into the bowl of frosting on the countertop. Homemade chocolate frosting was his favorite. Everything homemade was his favorite. She slapped his hand.

“Knock it off.”

“I can’t help it.”noveldrama

“Neither can I,” Conor said as he reached across the counter and dipped his finger into the bowl as well.

“That’s it, no dessert for either of you.”

Hayden placed his hand over his heart and pretended to cry. Conor did the same and started wailing. Darcy wasn’t buying their act. She did, however, give them two spoons and told them to have at it because she needed to make a fresh batch.

“Only a couple spoonfuls,” Hayden told Conor. “You don’t want to spoil your dinner.”

“Heed your own advice,” Darcy said from the pantry. When she returned, she had a container of powdered sugar, but no chocolate.

“Aren’t you making more chocolate?” Hayden asked.

“I am not,” she told him as she pushed the other bowl toward him. “You couldn’t keep your grubby mitts off my frosting—you’re not getting any more.”

Hayden stood there, stunned. Conor giggled. He looked at his son and failed to keep a straight face when he saw frosting smeared on Conor’s cheeks. Hayden shook his head and pulled a sheet of paper towel off the roll, wetted it, and handed it to his son.

“Conor, how was school?” Darcy asked as she put the other batch of frosting contents into her mixer. “Did you make any new friends?”

“Some,” he said. “There’s another new kid in my class.”

“Maren Campbell?” Darcy asked.

Hayden assumed Maren was Devorah’s daughter, but he couldn’t be sure, even though Chad’s last name was Campbell. He hadn’t gotten around to asking about her daughter earlier.

“Yeah, she has a funny name. Some of the kids were making fun of her.”

“I saw you wave at her,” Hayden said to Conor.

“She’s nice,” Conor said. “Mr. Raze said we had to be reading partners.”

“What were the other kids saying to her?” Darcy asked.

Conor shrugged. “Something about her mom being on a video. I don’t know. I wasn’t listening because I don’t know her, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m a mean kid.”

Hayden happened to glace at his mom, who eyed him warningly; she then looked to Conor. Hayden understood.

“Hey, bud, why don’t you run upstairs and do your homework. Grandma is going to need the counter to make dinner.”

“Okay,” he said as he climbed down and grabbed his backpack. Hayden waited until he heard stomping overhead before saying anything to his mom.

“You know?”

She nodded. “Everyone knows.”

“How?”

“According to the gals at the coffee shop, the video went viral. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

“But she doesn’t even live here.”

Darcy shrugged. “How do you know about it?”

“I ran into Devorah outside the kids’ school this morning. It was raining, so I offered her a ride. We chatted for a bit, and she told me.”

“You haven’t seen it?”

Hayden shook his head. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see it.

“Probably for the best,” his mom said. “It’s not good, and there’s a follow-up. This woman . . .” Darcy paused and turned the mixer off. “I don’t know what on earth possesses a woman to be as catty as this one on the video. Her parents should be ashamed. Just horrible what they’ve done to our Devy.”

“Your Devy?”

Darcy held a spatula in her hand, covered with vanilla frosting. “Oyster Bay takes care of their own.”

“Right,” he said, shaking his head. “Spreading rumors and gossip like wildfire in the ‘He said, she said’ narrative isn’t considered taking care of its own, Mom.”

“That woman on the video will get hers. You just wait and see.”

Hayden scrubbed his hand over his face and groaned. “Devorah is a grown woman. Let her take care of her home, while you take care of yours. She doesn’t need a group of Crafty Cathys coming to her rescue,” he said, referring to the town’s long-standing social group to which his mother belonged.

“She might.”

“Believe me, what Devy needs is support. She’s going through a tough time. If you want to help, give her a shoulder to cry on. It’s not like Crow is the type of guy to lend an ear.”

“You can say that again.”

Hayden opened his mouth and then thought better of it. “I’m going to go check on Conor, then I’ll be back down, and you’ll have a list of things for me to do.” He kissed his mom on her cheek and went upstairs.

He paused when he came to Conor’s door and smiled as he heard his son reading to himself. This move would be good for them. Hayden would make sure of it.