Choosing You

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

TarynAfter the romance of the trip, I landed with a thud back into my non-wedding life as soon as I got back from California.

I missed the rare time completely alone with Jeff, but real life awaited. With the spring trade show season right around the corner, work once again dominated my days. I spent my evenings talking with Jeff and my soon-to-be mother-in-law about another family party in the works: one for Olivia’s birthday.

At nearly seven, Olivia now had classmates and friends, as well as expectations. My new family life threw me into the competitive world of children’s birthday parties. Jeff’s mother, Nora, refused to succumb to the nonsense of getting wound up over a children’s party.

“Can’t we keep it simple? We’ll go to the party store and get some balloons. I can bake a cake. We can order pizza or something. What’s all this other stuff on the list?” Nora asked on our thousandth phone call. I had provided Nora a list of potential activities with contact numbers and prices. Bounce houses, ponies, jugglers, magicians, clowns—the exhaustive list put everything on the table for consideration.

“We wouldn’t do everything. Jeff and I talked yesterday, and we’re thinking of setting up the bounce house in his back yard and hiring a magician and a face painter. Little girls will love face painting.”

“Is he sure about a bounce house? That sounds like a broken neck waiting to happen,” Nora cautioned.

I laughed. “It’ll be fine. Kids go nuts over bounce houses. It’s the one thing Olivia keeps asking about. ‘Can we have a bounce house? Remember the bounce house at Bella’s party?’”

I paused before bringing up the main sticking point—Olivia’s cake. Nora made lovely cakes, but one of the other mother’s explained that the kids in Olivia’s class coveted the fancy, custom-decorated cupcakes from a high-toned local bakery. Homemade cakes were out.

Jeff had given the okay, but we didn’t want to hurt his mother’s feelings. While Jeff had volunteered to be the one to break it to his mom, I decided I could be more diplomatic.

“So about the cake, there’s this little bakery down the street from Olivia’s school, and it’s always a big treat for the kids to stop there after school. They have these crazy cupcake flavors that Olivia just loves. I’m not even sure how you go about making a banana pudding cupcake or cupcakes with candy bars. There’s a Snickers cupcake and one with Reese’s peanut butter cups. The kids love them. We were wondering—”

“You want to buy cupcakes instead of having me make a cake,” Nora interjected with bluntness I saw mirrored in Jeff. “Things certainly have gotten fancier since I was raising my kids, but it’s fine. If that’s what you want.”

The twist of irritation in the older woman’s voice said it wasn’t entirely “fine,” but I took my victory with grace. “This whole thing is new to me, too. I didn’t realize the politics of a first grader’s birthday until Olivia’s friend’s mother—you know her friend Eva—gave me the scoop. Part of me thinks we shouldn’t indulge all this, but then at the same time, we want to have a nice party. It’s a tough balance.”

“It is. I’m just glad Jeff has you to help him. He’d be totally clueless. And honestly, it takes some of the pressure off me. I mean, I adore Olivia. Adore, adore, adore! But I’m pleased as punch that she’ll have a stepmom around to take care of things. Jeff isn’t much for fitting in. It’s nice to know that you’re there to look out for Olivia.”

Pride surged in my chest. “Thank you so much, Mrs. McConnell. I try.”

“You know, I don’t talk much about Shannon. I try not to focus on the negative. With the wedding coming up, I’ve been thinking back to the last time Jeff got married. Frank and I weren’t happy at all. We were so upset to find out Shannon was pregnant. That wasn’t how we raised Jeff. And Shannon wasn’t who we pictured for a daughter-in-law. Too unpredictable. No goals. It’s not her fault, but having no family, she had no sense of what that meant. It was real tough. Frank and I couldn’t be more thrilled that you and Jeff are getting married. You’re exactly the kind of girl we wanted for Jeff. You two have such a future ahead of you.” Nora’s voice caught on her words.

“Well, Jeff is exactly the man that I always knew I’d marry. You raised a wonderful, sweet man. I love him to death. I love Olivia to death.” I found myself choking up as well. “No tears, though, Mrs. McConnell. If I get started, I’ll be boohooing the rest of the day.”

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I’m getting sentimental in my old age. You get going on those fancy-pants cupcakes. Let me know if you need anything from me, okay?”

I hung up the phone and turned my thoughts to my predecessor. Shannon McConnell—or whatever name she used these days—existed mostly in old photos and the occasional unpleasant story.

On some level, I knew there had to have been something good about the woman or Jeff wouldn’t have been with her. Jeff told me he’d been attracted to Shannon because she was different. Everyone in his life was the same. They all marched to the same beat—classes, football, worrying about who was going to be homecoming king and queen. He hadn’t cared much about any of that, and neither had Shannon.

They’d both been outsiders. Jeff had been too young to see how far outside Shannon was. He knew about the drinking and pot smoking, and while he didn’t partake, he figured they were harmless. They broke up only because Jeff left for Rice University in Houston, and the young romance couldn’t survive distance.

While he finished college and started grad school in computer science at the University of Texas, Shannon knocked around Kauffman County, waiting tables, slinging cocktails, and experimenting with more varied and dangerous drugs.

One summer, a year into his master’s program, Jeff moved back to the Dallas area, and they reconnected through old friends from high school. Shannon’s foster parents had just kicked her out of the rental home they owned. Her desperation triggered Jeff’s protective instincts, and they reconnected while Jeff interned at a Dallas consulting firm writing software.

The revived relationship lasted only a few weeks before Jeff uncovered Shannon’s dark secret. Her need to numb moved past m*******a and tequila to h****n and pain pills. He managed to talk her into a detox program, which she completed.

His skill at persuasion proved lucky for Olivia, because soon, Shannon found out she was pregnant. Not wanting to abandon Shannon—who’d been abandoned plenty of times in her life—or to leave his unborn child, Jeff did what his upbringing told him to do. He asked Shannon to marry him.

The failure of his first marriage hadn’t been a surprise to anyone from what I could tell—from Jeff’s parents, his friend Paul, Paul’s wife, or anyone else who’d known them. But it was no less disappointing to a young man who’d thought he was building a family.

The specter of Jeff’s ex-wife hovered over our happiness. I hoped Jeff’s attorney could help us resolve the issue of Shannon once and for all. We had another meeting next week to get the final report from the private investigator and plan our next steps, which would likely be approaching her to relinquish custody.

Then, I could adopt Olivia and be her proper legal guardian. Moving forward would be best for everyone.