“Okay, I’ll see you at three at Owen’s when I pick up Frankie. I hope you guys will have a good talk. If you ever need someone to talk to, you know where to find me,” Caitlin said before hugging her goodbye.
“Thanks again for everything,” Tara said before letting go of Caitlin.
Caitlin shrugged. “Anything to help. My gut tells me that you would do the same thing for us and my gut is always right. We’ll talk later.”
“Later, Cait,” Jenny said.
Tara watched Caitlin walk up the path leading to the big house. How many times hadn’t she walked that same path to hang out with Owen? Or just to go see his mother Lauren and help her out in the kitchen with whatever meal she was preparing for their guests at that time.
Tara had never experienced the kind of love the Mills family had for each other and she had come around as much as possible to soak it all up. She smiled as she remembered how Owen much rather stayed at her apartment for some privacy.
Jenny nudged her head towards the town in the valley below. “You can see your house all the way up from here.”
Tara huffed a breath. “You mean Owen’s house.”
Jenny laughed and the hard sound scared away a bird on a nearby tree.
“Keep saying that shit. It’s funny as hell.”
“You swear more than you used to.”
Jenny shrugged. “I feel like since you’re an adult now, I don’t need to watch my potty mouth all the time.”
“Oh, please. I was eighteen when I left town.”
Jenny pulled a face and said, “Yeah… about that… I may have mentioned your father to Owen this morning.”
Tara sat up straight on the hard wooden bench. “You did what?!”
“I’m sorry, but it kinda slipped my mouth.”
Tara narrowed her eyes. “How does that even happen?”
“We talked about Frankie’s curls and I remembered your father’s hair and—“
Tara got up from the bench, suddenly cold from the inside out. “It’s late, I’m heading back.”
“I figured it out, Tara.”
Tara stopped mid-stride and turned on her heels. “There’s nothing to figure out.”
“No?”
“I don’t know what you’re hinting at but it’s not cool.”
Jenny got up from the bench and walked towards her as she said, “Do you know what’s not cool? A mother who leaves her seventeen-year-old daughter alone for weeks on end in a town they just moved to.”
Tara already knew how much Jenny had disliked her mother and she got where she was coming from. Most of the time, Tara actually hated her mother, but she figured she didn’t need to speak ill of the dead.
“My mom had her reasons…”
Jenny pulled one of her immaculate plucked eyebrows, obviously not buying what Tara was selling.
“I don’t care what those reasons were. You probably didn’t had it easy, raising Frankie on your own, but I don’t think you would ever leave her to fend for herself.”
Tears pricked Tara’s eyes. She quickly pushed them away. Coming back to this place brought back memories and emotions she’d hoped to bury somewhere deep down.
“I know that he was looking for your mother. And that he threatened you that night.”