Page 3 of Moore to Love
“C’mon,” I muttered as the mom in the BMW ahead of me put her car into park and popped her trunk. The number one rule of drop-off was that the parents didn’t get out of their vehicle. If you needed more time, you were supposed to do the considerate thing and park in the lot before walking your child inside.
When she pulled a pink backpack out and handed it to her daughter, I rolled my eyes. “You have to be kidding me.”
“What’s wrong?” Benjamin asked, leaning forward in an attempt to see what I was complaining about.
Looking over my shoulder, I shot my seven-year-old son a reassuring smile. “Nothing important. Just someone not following the rules.”
“Again?” His eyes widened as he shook his head, bending over so far that he was almost sliding off his booster seat.
“Kinda like you’re doing now.”
I let the kids undo their seat belts when we were within a couple of cars of the drop-off zone, but they had to stay in their seats until the teacher opened the door to help them out. This gave them just enough time to put on their backpacks, which helped keep the line moving for the parents behind me.
He got the hint and scrambled back while his sister sing-songed, “I in my seat.”
“Sorry, Mommy,” he grumbled, sending her a dirty look. Benjamin was two years older than Madison, and he was a great big brother. But no matter how good he was with his little sister, sibling rivalry was alive and well in my household, especially when she pushed his buttons.
“It’s okay, kiddo. I just want you to be safe.” I shifted my focus to Madison. “You forgot the ‘am’ in your sentence, sweetie.”
“Iamin my seat,” she muttered, jutting her chin out. My little girl had no problem pointing out when she did something better than her brother, but she hated when anyone corrected her. Especially in front of Benjamin.
Turning forward so she couldn’t see that I was biting my lip to stop myself from laughing at her irritation, I sighed in relief when the mom climbed into the driver’s seat of the BMW again. Even knowing that there were child-free hours ahead of me didn’t help tame my impatience as I waited one measly car length outside of the safety zone where the kids could climb out of the car.
“Bye, Mommy!” Madison scrambled out of her car seat to follow her brother out the door being held open by one of the teachers.
“Have a good day, sweetie! I’ll see you soon,” I called back with a smile.
Unlike the mom who’d been ahead of me, as soon as the teacher shut the door behind my daughter, I pulled forward so the parents behind me didn’t have to wait any longer than necessary. The drive home was short, and it went by fast without the kids in the car with me. Benjamin and Madison were the best part of my life, but I appreciated getting time to myself now that my daughter had started kindergarten.
I’d raised them mostly on my own, even before the divorce. Thad was two years older than me and had been in his first year of dental school when I got pregnant with Benjamin. We had Madison when he still had another year to go, and then once he graduated and we moved back to Indiana, he was busy learning the ropes from his dad. I’d thought we would get more time with him once school was done, especially with him working at his dad’s practice, but he spent even less time at home during the two years before our marriage ended. He told me it was because he didn’t want to let his dad down and needed to build up his half of the business, but I eventually discovered it was just one of the many lies he’d told me.
Refusing to dwell on the past, I turned my thoughts to everything I wanted to accomplish before I returned to the school to pick up the kids. First, I took care of the chores that needed doing. I tossed a load of laundry into the washing machine, cleaned the breakfast dishes, and vacuumed the entire house. Once that was all done, I set myself up at the kitchen table with my laptop to study.
When I dropped out of college during my junior year, I figured that maybe I’d go back one day when the children were older. But I never expected that I’d be a single mom while doing it. I had thought that Thad would be there to help with the kids so I would have more time to focus on my studies, at least on the weekends when he wasn’t busy with patients. Instead, I was entirely on my own.
It wasn’t unusual for him to bail on his weekends with Benjamin and Madison, which drove me up the wall because I hated to see the disappointment on their beautiful faces. It had gotten to the point where I didn’t mention he was supposed to have visitation with them and just let it be a surprise if he actually showed up.
Since I couldn’t count on my ex to have our children on his weekends, I tried to get all of my studying done during the week. With Madison in full-day kindergarten, I had five hours to myself each day. It was just enough time for me to manage nine credit hours this semester as I adjusted to going back to school. Luckily, I only needed eighteen more to finish my degree after this semester.
The timing was perfect because I had another year and a half of alimony payments, so I should have my degree in hand a few months before my monthly budget took a serious dive. Hopefully, that would be long enough for me to find a job that would pay well enough to support the kids on my own. Although Thad still had to pay child support until Benjamin and Madison were older, he’d proven that I couldn’t depend on that with how often he’d taken me to court over the past year and a half to try to get his payments reduced.
The only reason he hadn’t been successful was because my lawyer refused to back down from him. I thanked my lucky stars for the day that Franklin Moore talked his grandson into taking my case. Ryland had done a great job when my ex-husband had blindsided me almost two years ago.
My cell phone rang, and it was as if my thoughts had conjured him up because Ryland’s name flashed on the screen. I really liked my lawyer, but it had gotten to the point about a year or so ago where I got an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever he called.
Since I hadn’t been expecting to hear from him anytime soon, my entire body tensed as I accepted the call.
“Hey, Eloise. It’s Ryland Moore.”
Not wanting him to ever think I wasn’t happy to hear from him, I forced a smile into my voice as I replied, “Good morning, Ryland. How are you?”
“Fantastic. You?”
My eyes widened at his response. Unless he’d just squashed one of Thad’s ridiculous requests, Ryland usually sounded like he was spitting mad when he called. Not that I blamed him since he had to put up with my ex’s crap almost as often as I did. “Not nearly as good as you, but I don’t have too many complaints.”
“You never do, Eloise. That’s one of the things I respect the most about you. How you’ve never really griped about everything your ex has put you through.”
My breath caught in my throat at his compliment. My parents had told me they were proud of how I’d kept a brave face on for the kids, but it meant more coming from someone who I wasn’t related to and who had a front-row seat to the mess that had been my divorce. “Thank you, but I didn’t have a choice. Benjamin and Madison were counting on me to muddle through.”
