“Hey, Beths. Kids said you called. Sorry to return it so late.”
“How’d your date go?” He fell silent, surprised she’d asked, because he hadn’t mentioned the date. He should have known one of the kids might, though. He couldn’t tell if Bethany was happy he’d started seeing other people or not, though like Clint, she thought it was about time after three years.
His only response was to groan good naturedly, attempting to keep the mood light.
Bethany laughed her familiar, tinkling laugh that made Jay smile. He was happy they’d stayed close. Their divorce had been extremely amicable, she’d been his best friend practically his whole life, after all.
“She spent the whole night trying to talk me into bringing the kids to her church.”
Now it was Bethany’s turn to groan. They’d been a fairly liberal couple for being born-and-bred country kids from Montgomery County, Mississippi. But the town—or unincorporated community if you wanted to be all official—they’d grown up in didn’t even appear on a map and shared both a zip code and phone prefix with a nearby one-stop-sign town. With a population of just a little over four-hundred, their hometown still boasted around eight rural protestant churches, and more than thirty in the county itself, so it’d been part of every resident’s Sunday growing up. So the fact that Jay and Beth had moved to a larger town and had not forced their kids into Sunday school, vacation bible school, and at least one youth group, had been a bone of contention with Bethany’s parents.
“She even said she could ‘look past’ the divorce issue.”
“Oh, good lord. Where’d you find this woman?”
“You know Stewart,” he sighed, referring to their hometown. “Near as soon as I moved in, they asked when we’d work our issues out. And when I said there were no issues to work out, they started pushing girls from their churches on me.”
“Good grief. Good to know some things never change.”
“No kidding.”
“I had a date tonight too, but that was about as unsuccessful. When I said I was from Mississippi, he acted like he was surprised I knew how to use silverware and wear shoes.”
Jay snorted. “Nice.”
“How’s the new job?”
Jay had no complaints there. Over the last three weeks, he’d grown to enjoy his new job. The work was hard, but that was nothing new to him. He didn’t like how much time he spent over a desk doing bullshit payroll and logging mileage, but the boss seemed to like him and Landon was a competent trainer. He was still impressed that a man as young as Landon was so responsible, seeing how he had taken care of things for his dad at the expense of his own time and social life. The guy had admitted to not getting out much himself.
“It’s good. Ricky’s a good man to work for. The crew works hard and has been pretty accepting of me as their new boss since I’m a local boy. Most of ‘em know your dad, so I’m sure that helps.”
“That’s real good. I talked to the kids. They said they’re liking school.”
“They’ve been great. They can’t wait to see you, though.”
“Oh right, I meant to tell you, my fall break is the same week as theirs, so if you don’t mind them coming up that week, I’d love to have them.”
“Of course.” Jay loved his kids, but a week to kick back at home with just himself and the crickets would be nice. Since the kids came back from staying with Bethany for the summer, it had been chaos between moving, the new job, and typical teenage dramas. They missed their mom as much as he missed his best friend, but he knew they’d made the best decision.
“Great, well, I ought to get off the phone. I have work early. You have a good night, Jay. Sorry your date didn’t go well.”