Kindred Souls

Chapter 1-2

Love lies asleep against my chest, her sweaty cheek touching my skin. I swipe a lock of her dark hair away from her face.

All of our neighborhood friends with young children left the party a while ago. Just our family—for all intents and purposes—is left.

Leo’s mother stands and faces me. “Thanks for the invitation, Alma. I truly appreciate being able to see my granddaughter.”

“Your welcome,” I say with a forced smile.

It’s hard for me to welcome Leo’s mom into my home. She wasn’t technically Leo’s abuser, but she definitely holds a lot of the blame. Even before I was a mother myself, I couldn’t wrap my head around how any parent could harm their child. Now that I have Love, it makes me even sicker to think about it, which I try not to do. A part of me will always hold hatred in my heart for Mrs. Harding. I can’t help it.

She’s tried so hard to be in my daughter’s life, and I have empathy for her because I know she means well. She loved Leo in her own way, and maybe she was just weak, but what she did—or better yet, didn’t do—when it came to protecting Leo is unforgivable. She’ll never have the type of relationship that she wants with Love. She won’t be able to take her for sleepovers or have unsupervised visits. Where my little girl is concerned, I’ll never leave her safety up to chance. I’ll always protect her.

Cat gets up from the couch. “Boo. I guess that means I have to go, too.” Bending down, she kisses my cheek and softly kisses Love’s head. “Let’s get together this week. Lunch or dinner, okay? I hardly got to see you today.” She smiles.

“Sounds good. Love you.”

Cat has become one of my favorite people. She is like a sister to me and an amazing aunt to Love. Her husband, Leo’s brother Stephen, doesn’t come around, and I’m perfectly fine with that. Of course, Mr. Harding has never met Love, and he never will.

“I should probably go, too.” Ollie, my dear friend and Leo’s old NA sponsor, stands to leave.

“Aw, man,” I protest.

“I’m sorry. I’m meeting up with someone tonight. But I’ll swing by again, soon,” Ollie says.

“Promise?” I raise an eyebrow.

“I promise.” He winks to me, says goodbye to the others, then follows Mrs. Harding and Cat out the door.

“And then there were three,” I say to Quinn and Amos. “Oh, I mean four. Sorry, Lee-Anne,” I say to my mom.

Lee-Anne gets up from the couch, “Almalee Hannelda,” her voice chastising. “I told you to call me Mom.”

“I’m sorry, Mom, but a twenty-seven-year habit isn’t easy to break.”

“More like twenty-five.” She turns to address Quinn and Amos. “She didn’t say her first word until she was at least two. She was a little slow.”

“I was not.” I scoff.

Quinn and Amos exchange amused looks.

“Anyway”—she holds out her arms toward Love—“let me go lay her down, and you kids can hang out.”

I press my lips against Love’s head, giving her a kiss, and I breathe her in. She smells of sugar, vanilla, and sweat—all evidence of a day well spent. “I love you, my little love,” I whisper to her before my mom lifts her from me.

Quinn pops up from the lounge chair. “I’ll go get us some wine.”

“There’s some Riesling in the fridge,” I tell her.

“Oh, perfect. My favorite. Does that work for you?” she asks Amos.

“Yeah, anything is fine,” he says.

Quinn hurries off to the kitchen.

Amos looks around. “It’s so strange to see Lee-Anne like this.”

“I know.” I nod, eyes wide.

“Like who is this woman? Call me Mom? She would’ve whipped your butt if you had dared to call her mom when you were a kid. She’s like a real human now, you know? A completely different person.” He shakes his head.

“Tell me about it,” I chuckle under my breath. “It’s like I’m learning who she is for the first time. And you’re right. She never resembled a real human when we were growing up. She and my dad lived in their own world that only had room for the two of them. And please,” I grumble. “Like she remembers when my first word was. I wasn’t slow.”

Amos laughs. “Come on, Mutt. You were valedictorian of our high school and graduated from college with honors. No one thinks you’re lacking intelligence.”

Quinn returns with three glasses of wine and hands them out. She plops down beside me, pulling her legs up onto the sofa. “Oh my gosh. When is the last time the three of us have hung out like this alone together?” she asks. “It’s been way too long. Tell me. What’s going on in your dating life, Amos?”

“It’s pretty boring, I’m afraid. No news to report.” He takes a sip of wine.

Quinn scrunches her face in disappointment. “Bummer.” She looks at me. “What about you?”

“Me?” I half shriek, almost inhaling wine into my lungs. “You know I’m not dating anyone.”

She sighs. “It will be four years this August, Alma. You’re only twenty-seven. Leo would want you to be happy, you know that.”

My eyes fill with tears, but I refuse to let them fall. I want to yell at my friend and tell her that she’s being insensitive, but I know she means well, and she’s right. Leo told me that he wanted me to find love again in the letter he left. Of course he would want me to be happy. I simply don’t know how to move on from him.

I swallow down the pain. “It’s not that easy, Quinn,” I manage to say.

She places her hand on my knee and squeezes gently. “Okay.” She nods.

“I promise I’ll come to you when and if anything happens with my love life. Deal?”

Her smile widens. “Deal!”

“What’s going on with you and Beau? I meant to ask you earlier why he didn’t come, but with the chaos of three-year-olds running around, I forgot,” I inquire, swirling the white wine in my glass.

“Well, Beau and I are old news.” She twirls a strand of her long blond hair around her fingers and shrugs.

“You broke up?”

She nods. “We broke up.”

“What happened?” I ask.

“He just wasn’t the one, you know? I don’t want to settle. I want to ache when I’m away from my man. I want storybook love. I want the happily ever after.” She looks around at all the party decorations in the room. A yellow balloon floats near her, and she smacks it. “I want a freaking beast to turn into a prince and buy me a library but with shoes instead of books. Is that too much to ask?”

Amos and I laugh. “No, that’s not too much to ask,” I say with a grin.

She hits another balloon bobbing toward her. “When did you get these balloons? They’re all falling already.”

“This morning.” I scan the room, taking in all the balloons coming off from their helium high. “The guy at the store offered to put this gel in them that would make them stay on the ceiling for up to three days, but it was another fifty cents per balloon, so I said no.”

“It would’ve been worth the fifty cents.” Quinn shakes her head.

“Fifty cents per balloon, and I ordered sixty balloons,” I offer in my defense.

“You’re a millionaire, Alma. You can swing an additional thirty bucks,” Quinn scoffs

“Well, I grew up saving pennies. Being frugal is in my nature. I hate wasting money.”

Quinn tips her head back and finishes her glass of wine. “Well, when I find my Prince Charming, he will not be frugal.”

“Right. Because he’s going to buy you a library of shoes,” Amos states, the side of his mouth tilting up.

“Exactly!” Quinn points her empty glass toward Amos. “I’m going to go get more wine. Does anyone want a refill? You know what? Never mind. I’ll just bring out the bottle.”