And that was when Audrey lost it.
She planted her hands on her hips, leaned forward and snapped, “She does exist for me, Mike. I can’t get away from her,” she unplanted one hand and threw it out to me before continuing. “Rees talks about her all the time. Jonas even talks about her all the time. Dusty has horses. Dusty rode one into the backyard. Dusty has a pretty laugh. Dusty has a pretty voice. Dusty always wears cool clothes. Dusty all the time. They see Dusty more than they see me. And they obviously talk to Dusty more than they do me since they have a lot more opportunity seeing as now she’s living with you and, incidentally, them. So when I want to do something special for my son for his birthday, I have to go to Dusty to find out what that is.”
Mike froze, I froze and Audrey stood there, her chest rising and falling visibly.
I suspected Mike was frozen for the same reason I was. I was surprised. Shocked, actually. This was not what I was expecting. Not at all. And what it was, was sad in the variety of ways that word could be used.
When no one spoke, Audrey broke the silence.
“So, as you can see, this isn’t easy for me. I’m trying to be a good mother and I have to go to my ex-husband’s girlfriend to find out what I should do for my son for his birthday since the thing I thought he would like, having his family all together for dinner, I’m not allowed to do.”
This was the wrong thing to say. She’d gained some amount of high ground but with that, she lost it instantly.
And Mike jumped right on it.
“Oh no, do not hand me that shit,” he growled.
“Is it not true?” she asked.
“You bought that,” he reminded her.
“And I’m paying,” she fired back. “Boy, Mike, am I paying.”
Mike opened his mouth to speak but I butted in and I did it quickly.
“He doesn’t care.”
Both Mike and Audrey looked at me but my eyes were on Audrey.
“No,” I started to explain. “He doesn’t care. Take him to Frank’s. Take him to The Station. Order in Reggie’s and rent movies. You live in Indy now, take him somewhere new and fun. He doesn’t care. He loves you. He believes you’re a good Mom deep down already. Anything you do to prove that belief right, he’ll love. So bake him one of your great cakes that even Mike says are the bomb, do something out of the ordinary but fun and spend time with him. That’s all you have to do.”
Audrey held my eyes. Then I watched her take in a deep breath.
Then she stated, “But it needs to be special.”
“Special is always the people you do stuff with, it’s never actually the stuff you do,” I replied. “But if you want to make an effort, the person to ask is not me, not Mike but Rees. She knows her brother better than any of us do. And she’ll be happy he has something he wants so she’ll also be happy to tell you.”
She continued to hold my eyes, I watched her take in another deep breath, this one deeper and I would know why when she admitted, “Rees and I don’t get along all that great.”
“A good way to rectify that is to communicate with her,” I stated. “And a good thing to communicate about is doing something nice for her brother. You follow that through, she sees she can trust you, you’re one step closer.”
She again held my eyes. Then she nodded and looked to her feet.
“You got what you need?” Mike asked derisively and her eyes shot to him.
“Yes,” she whispered then looked at me, took in another deep breath and forced out a, “Thank you.”
“Good,” Mike stated instantly. “Now you’re done and this shit is never gonna happen again. We clear?”
Her eyes were back to Mike, she took him in for long moments then she nodded.
He jerked his head to the farm doors and told her something she knew.
“Your Mercedes is fifty feet away and your ass needs to be in it.”
She closed her eyes and turned her head to me before she opened them. I saw she was conflicted. I saw she was angry. And I saw she was hurt.
Shit.
“I’m sorry I disturbed you,” she said quietly.
“You did. It’s done. Now go,” Mike stated and I bit back words to tell him to give her a break.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to tell her it was okay because it wasn’t. Yet it was, since it was for No and not to cause trouble.
Shit!
She pulled in yet another breath. Then she nodded once to me, her eyes skimmed through Mike and then she walked on her high-heeled pumps toward the barn doors.
I watched as Mike shifted so he’d have a better view. Then I watched as Mike stood, long legs planted, arms crossed on his chest, as he watched out the barn doors what I figured was Audrey getting into her car and driving away. This took a while then he turned and prowled to me.
“You okay?” he asked when he got close.
“Better than you,” I said softly.