Finding Love Again

Chapter 10

We turned down a dirt road, where I could see the houses were all on quite large blocks of land. Some with large hedges as fences to keep people out. Cody turned the indicator on and we headed down a long windy driveway, opening up to a beautiful two story traditional farm house, tennis courts to the left and I could see a pool beside them. My mouth dropped open, “wow! You didn’t tell me your parents home was like this!!” 

“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty good. But it makes my mum worse, all she cares about is what everyone else thinks” he said, rolling his eyes. As we pulled up I saw a girl around 18 and a boy, early 20’s who I assumed must be Cody’s siblings. They smiled and got up walking towards us as Cody parked the car. 

“Bro! Good to see you actually home. This must be Sophia, you said she was a looker, but wow you underplayed that hard! Hey!! I’m Ash.” He said, stretching out his hand towards me so I could shake it. “Hey! Nice to meet you Ash!” I turned towards the girl, “you must be Hayley?” 

“Yup that’s me! Number one sister!”

“Your my only sister, you dork!” Cody said ruffling her hair. She shrugged him off “yeah well that clearly makes me number one, duh! It’s nice to meet you Sophia! Cody has told me all about you. You’ve made an impression on my big brother, plus I already like you wayyyy better than Kali and I don’t even know you yet!” At the mention of Kali, we all stood around a little awkwardly. “Oh Cody, that reminds me, I think mum is up to something. Sophia, whatever she says or does, just know she is crazy. Cody likes you, that’s what matters to us.” Oh god, how bad can this be? I looked at Cody worried, he snaked his hand around my waist, kissed me on the head, saying to me, “it will be ok”. 

We headed inside, I took a deep breath getting ready to face the music. We walked through to the kitchen, Cody holding my hand. His Dad was seated at the kitchen bench reading the paper and his mum cooking. “Mum, dad, we’re here!” Cody announced, Ash and Hayley followed behind us. Cody’s dad folded up his paper, turned to us and a great big smile formed. “Why hello! You must be Sophia!” He got up to greet me, kissing me on the cheek, I noticed him look at Cody, raising his eyebrows and smiling in some sort of approval. “It’s great to meet the girl who keeps this boy away from home so much!” “Haha, sorry about that! But it’s lovely to meet you too.” I smiled as I spoke, I liked him already. We turned to Cody’s mum, “Mum, this is Sophia, Soph, my mum Jill”. She turned around and looked me up and down quite obviously, she slowly nodded, but didn’t smile. I could feel Cody stiffen beside me. “Welcome to our home Sophia. Would you like a drink?” She offered, still not smiling, not really giving anything away. 

“I’ll get drinks, then we’ll go sit outside till dinner is ready.” Cody answered, whisking me away. He was clearly not happy with his mum at all. Everyone except Jill went outside. 

Cody’s Dad, Grant, came outside with us to preparing the barbecue. We took a seat around the outdoor setting, I took in the beautifully landscaped gardens around us. Jill walked outside carrying the tray of meat, and as she was about to turn back inside a bleach blonde girl in tiny bootie shorts and a crop that looked BBC a size too small came bouncing around the corner. Jill’s face lit up as she saw her, Cody tensed up and reached his hand over time, taking mine and squeezing it, as his mum exclaimed “Kali!! It’s so lovely to see you! I’m so glad you could make it!!”

“What are you doing here?” Hayley spat out. 

“Jill invited me! She said you were having a family dinner and that she missed me!” Kali replies, super bubbly and for the moment oblivious to me sitting here. She slowly turned and looked at Cody, her eyes following his hand that was gripping mine tightly. He didn’t smile, he didn’t talk, I could just feel the anger building. I too, was getting annoyed. What on earth was Jill playing at. She could at least give me a chance. I decided I wasn’t going to let anyone walk over me. 

“Kali? You must be the EX?” I said, making sure to put emphasis on the word ex. “I’m Sophia, Cody’s girlfriend. Did Jill not mention that this dinner was for Cody and I?” I asked sweetly. 

“Ah.. no. She didn’t. I’m just going to head inside to speak to her.” 

Kali walked inside and Cody exploded. “Dad! What the hell? Mum knows we were over months ago! Why is she playing games like this? She could at least give Sophia a chance! She invited that cow before we even got here!” “Babe, it’s ok. Calm down. I can handle it. I won’t be scared away that easy!” 

“Now you know why I didn’t tell them” he huffed. Grant and Ash didn’t know what to say, but Hayley sat there ranting about the entire situation. I grinned at her, grateful that she had our backs. After 10 minutes, we all calmed down a bit as Jill and Kali brought salads outside. When the meat was ready we all sat down to eat, to say awkward was a total understatement. 

“So Cody, when does football training go back?” Grant asked, attempting small talk. 

“Um, a couple of weeks I think.” Cody replied. His dad and him went on to talk about the upcoming season. 

Jill decided she would start to ask me questions, “Sophia, what do you do for work?” 

“Currently I work in a coffee shop, it’s where we met actually. I’m still figuring out my next move.” Kali smirked at me, while Jill’s lips thinned. “Yes, well a coffee shop isn’t really a future is it. You don’t want to have someone else supporting you forever.” I was taken aback at her reply, I glanced at Cody, unable to fully read his face. I’m not letting anyone walk over me like that.

“You’re right Jill, it’s not a future unless I own my own cafe. However I’m still getting my life back on track after it was tipped upside down. See a little over a year ago I had a knock at the door that no one ever wants, one you can’t even comprehend till it happens to you. My fiancé had been killed in a car accident. My life as I knew it changed in an instant. I was broken for a long time. However I’ve built my life back up, I’ve finally been able to see happiness again thanks to your son. Cody has shown me that I have a right to be happy again. As for money, 4 months ago I purchased my own home. My job is enough to cover my expenses and when I feel ready I’m going to make my next career move.” I just blurted it all out, a fair amount of bitterness because this woman was judging me without knowing me. Everyone at the table was in shock, Jill had her head down, unable to look up at me or her son. Grant cleared his throat, “sorry you have had to deal with such heartache Sophia. I’m proud of Cody though, for bringing you happiness.” 

“He has been amazing” I said, looking at him smiling. He returned my smile. Jill didn’t ask me anymore questions during dinner. She actually didn’t say much at all, nor did Kali. We finished up dinner and Jill started clearing the table. I decided I would help her, give her a chance to talk to me inside. I grabbed some plates and walked in, as I did I could hear Hayley say to Cody “wow! She’s amazing, just stood up to mum like that.” 

I walked in to the kitchen placing the dishes by the sink as Jill was loading the dishwasher. 

“Jill, I’m sorry if I disrespected you or was out of line. That wasn’t my intention.” 

“It’s ok. I deserved it. I’m sorry, I should have given you a chance. It wasn’t very kind of me to invite Kali.” 

“Maybe we can start over, now you know a bit more about me. Think about it anyway.” I said, leaving Jill to think about it. At least she apologised. 

When I came back out, Ash had turned music up and everyone was laughing, singing and dancing except for Kali who sat with her arms crossed. I walked over to Cody, he pulled me down into his lap. “Everything ok baby?” “Yeah, she apologised, sort of anyway. I think things will be ok. Sorry for my outburst, I just needed to stand up for myself.” “Don’t apologise to me, it was hot” he winked at me. I reached down, kissing him gently. 

“Eww, keep that for bedroom!” Ash called out. We pulled apart laughing, I glanced over to Kali who got up, stating she had to leave and just walked out without really saying goodbye to anyone. “Don’t come back!!!” Hayley called out and we all laughed. I hoped that would be the last I see of her. 

For the rest of the night Jill stayed inside mostly, Grant joined her later leaving us to all enjoy hanging out. We played a bit of 2 on 2 basketball, danced around and even a bit of Karaoke. Around 10pm Cody and I left, he was staying at my house for the night seeing he drove me here and we all had work the next day. I thanked Grant and Jill for their hospitality, hoping to see them again soon.