A Second Chance At First Love Ch. 09-12

I need time away right now from the life I've built here. I'm safe, please don't worry about me. I'm sorry for bailing on you three and forcing you to hire the kids a nanny for the remainder of the summer. I never wanted to see that happen, but right now, it's unavoidable.

Kiss my babies for me, and know that I love you all.

Mom

Bree Ann agonized over whether to send Sadie a message saying goodbye. Ultimately, she shut her phone off and put it in her bag before pulling out her Kindle and beginning to read. Perhaps a half-hour later, they started calling passengers to board the plane. Bree Ann was amongst the second group to be allowed onto the airliner. She went quietly to her spot and stored her small bag overhead before taking her assigned seat and buckling herself in snuggly.

As full of angst and pain as she was, Bree Ann had slipped into a deep sleep by the time the plane took off, the day's trials and tribulations finally overtaking her...

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

"I don't have anything left to give, Rita," Bree Ann said listlessly as she stared out the side window at the passing landscape.

"Give it time, Bree Ann," Rita declared, reaching over the console to take her sister's hand. "It's raw right now, but give it time, and it will heal."

"Are you really sure of that?" Bree Ann replied as she watched the hills covered with kudzu lining the roadway pass by.

"Are you sure of what you saw?"

"I have no doubt," Bree Ann replied with a bitter titter of laughter. "What else am I supposed to infer from a naked young blonde stepping out of her bedroom?"

Rita drove on, not answering her sister's question because she was afraid that trying to offer Bree Ann hope would only push her further away. Rita knew that her sister had always been a strong woman. Bree Ann had never been the type of woman to hide in the background. She'd always stood front and center beside Jon and taken an active role in helping him lead his congregation. So to say it was disheartening to see such a broken shell of a woman sitting beside her would be an understatement. Rita had at first had her doubts when her older sister informed her that she'd fallen in love with another woman. After all, Bree Ann had always struck her as being slightly repressed in the world's ways. But seeing her now, the anguish and pain emanating from her in waves, Rita was sure now that Bree Ann's love for this other woman had been genuine and potent.

"So, what's your plan?" Rita asked. "Are you just intending to run away forever and hide from your problems?"

"I'm not hiding," Bree Ann replied almost petulantly. "I just need time to think, and I'd never have that if I'd stayed home. The girls would constantly be in my ears and Sadie too."

They pulled into the driveway of Rita's tiny two-bedroom home. In the divorce, she'd gained the house from her second husband and promptly decided that she'd prefer growing old alone than becoming a three-time loser in the game of marriage.

When they were safely in the house, Rita led her sister to the small bedroom she'd use while in town. Bree Ann set her bag down on the full mattress that dominated the room and turned to face Rita, who stood leaning against the doorframe.

"What went wrong? Why do you think she did it?" Rita asked, laying her head over on the doorframe.

Flopping down on the bed with an exasperated sigh, Bree Ann shrugged and said, "I guess I should have seen it coming. The entire time I've known Sadie, she was always dating younger women. Some were as young as their early twenties. There was this sexy young barista who couldn't have been much older than her late twenties, a beautiful redheaded yoga instructor who was a single mom, a doe-eyed and bubbleheaded sex-crazy brunette who was in her mid-twenties, and lastly, a sexy little dark-headed college student who I swear didn't look out of her teens. Sadie claimed she was of legal drinking age, but I'm still not sure I bought it. There was always this little voice inside me that kept questioning why she'd want to be with an old woman like me. I guess I should have listened to it."

"You're hardly an old woman, Bree Ann," Rita declared. "And I still think you should have talked to her before you hopped on the first airplane back to Georgia."

"Why? So that she could hurl those same tired lies at me that all cheaters use? She owed me her fidelity, Rita! And without it, I don't owe her anything!"

"Do Skyler and the girls have any idea of where you are?" Rita asked.

"I sent them a text before I got on the plane to let them know that I was okay," Bree Ann responded, sounding tired and sullen.

"Well, get some sleep. I'll let you rest as much as you need. I have to run a few errands tomorrow. So if you wake up and find me gone, I likely won't be long in returning," Rita said.

"Okay, Rita," Bree Ann replied, offering her sister a wan smile. "Thanks for everything."

"Don't mention it," Rita replied before closing the door and leaving Bree Ann to her own devices.

She quickly undressed and crawled under the covers without bothering to remove her makeup. Bree Ann realized two things: laying there in that strange room, the first light of an early Georgia dawn beginning to peek in through the windows. Sleep was going to be hard to come by with the morass of thoughts clogging her mind.

And she'd never felt so alone...

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

"Thank you, Aunt Rita," Skyler said with a relieved smile as she sat snuggled against Kaia's sturdy frame; Lisa nestled in against her other side. "We kind of figured she was with you. Mom never changed her banking password after Lisa set her account up for her. So we took a look and saw that she'd purchased an airline ticket."

"I picked her up off of the redeye. We haven't been back long. I think she's sleeping right now," Rita replied. "She doesn't know I'm calling you. I just didn't want you girls worrying."

"This is such a mess!" Skyler stated. "Mom really needs to talk to Sadie!"

"I don't think that's likely to happen soon, Skyler," Rita confirmed. "Your Mom is really hurt and doesn't seem to be in any mood for hearing excuses. And having been cheated on in my last marriage, I can't blame her."

"And what if Mom misinterpreted what she saw?" Skyler asked.

"Did she?"

"It's not really my story to tell, Aunt Rita," Skyler answered after a moment's hesitation. "Mom needs to hear the truth straight from Sadie herself."

"I told your mother she should have talked to her before getting on that damn plane. But Bree Ann was so sure of what she saw that she didn't see sense in it," Rita said with exasperation. "The question is, what do we do now? Your mother can be awfully pigheaded when she wants to be."

"Rita, this is Kaia. Just leave that to us, okay?"

"I'll trust you three," Bree Ann replied. "But whatever you're going to do, you need to do it pretty fast before your mom sinks any lower than she already has..."

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

Bree Ann awakened with a sudden uncertainty about where she was, the long shadows in the room further casting her location in momentary mystery.

But then it all came rushing back to her, the perky, pretty, young blonde prancing practically naked from Sadie's bedroom. Her driving around aimlessly before the need to get out of town had seized her mind like a band of marauding pirates overtaking a cruise ship. How she'd passed out while still on the runway in San Diego, only to awaken early the following morning at the gate in Atlanta.

Bree Ann knew she was in her sister's house, the sound of a television somewhere outside the guestroom door telling her that her sister Rita was home. She'd struggled to fall asleep initially, lying there beneath the covers while hugging the bed's spare pillow, tears streaming down her face. And when her sleep had come, it had been filled with anxious dreams that Bree Ann couldn't quite remember.

Sitting up in the bed, Bree Ann felt a sudden pain behind her eyes, almost as if she'd drunk too much wine the night before. It was undoubtedly an emotional headache resulting from all the crying she'd done before dozing off. Nothing that a bottle of water and a couple of Tylenol wouldn't cure. She quickly dressed and grabbed her toiletry bag before exiting the room and finding her sister curled up on the couch with a glass of wine in her hand.

"You must have been really tired." Rita declared, studying her carefully.

"I guess I was emotionally drained," Bree Ann replied, pinching the bridge of her nose in an attempt to stave off the pounding behind her eyelids. "Do you have any Tylenol?"

"It's in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom," Rita answered. "I talked to your daughter after you went to sleep. She knows that you're here."

"Why did you do that?" Bree Ann asked, sounding a little aggravated with her younger sibling.

"I, didn't do anything," Rita fired back. "Those girls aren't stupid. They knew the password to your banking app and saw where you purchased an airline ticket. It didn't take them too long after that to narrow down the possibilities of where you went."

"And you just had to confirm it for them," Bree Ann stated.

"Well, I certainly wasn't going to lie to my favorite niece!"

"Okay," Bree Ann replied as if finally accepting the realization that her sister hadn't had any other choice once they'd made the connection.

"Go take care of your headache and make yourself presentable," Rita said. "I'll have you a glass of wine waiting when you return."

Bree Ann found the bathroom and closed the door behind herself. The sight in the mirror wasn't a pretty one. The skin around her eyes was puffy and swollen, her green orbs themselves bloodshot and lined with broken blood vessels. And she'd gone to sleep after her flight without removing the makeup she'd put on before heading over to Sadie's place to surprise her.

'Some surprise that had turned out to be for us all,' Bree Ann thought. 'It had turned out to be the gift that just went right on giving since the minute Sadie had opened the door to her condo.'

Bree Ann spent the next thirty minutes doing her best to repair all the damage she'd done to her face and eyes over the last eighteen hours. She then brushed out her hair before twisting it up in an updo and clipping it in place atop her head. Studying herself in the mirror, what Bree Ann saw appeared a good bit better than the sorry sight her reflection had been just a half-hour earlier. And while she hardly looked glamorous, Bree Ann thought she looked more than good enough for an evening of lying around the house with her younger sister.

"Here you go," Rita said to Bree Ann, holding out a glass of wine to her older sister once she joined her in the small living area. "You know, I was just reflecting that it was thanks to you that I had my first drink of wine."

"I don't recall that," Bree Ann said, taking the glass and joining her sister on the couch.

"Oh, yeah," Rita said, "you were home from your freshman year of college and supposed to be watching me while mom and dad went out of town for the weekend. Instead, you snuck some longhaired college boy into the house, and the two of you disappeared up into your room for a couple of hours and left two bottles of Boonesfarm apple wine sitting out for an impressionable nine-year-old."

"Oh, gosh!" Bree Ann said with embarrassment as she covered her mouth. "I do remember that!"

"I drank a half a glass and then puked my guts out into the toilet just fifteen minutes later. I swore I'd never touch the stuff again," Rita declared with a laugh while holding her glass up.

Bree Ann joined her in laughing at the memory as she brushed her glass against her sisters. And while the bottle they were drinking wasn't up to par compared to the California vintages she was used to, Bree Ann enjoyed it nonetheless.

"You've got to call Skyler," Rita said after the pair had sat there quietly for several minutes staring at the television. "She's called three times today to check on you. You can't let her go on worrying. It's cruel."

"I know," Bree Ann replied with a sigh.

"There's a screened-in porch off the kitchen if you want some privacy. You'll only have to compete with the crickets and tree frogs out there."

The two women sat in silence for the next few minutes listening to the television drone on. When Bree Ann had finished her wine, she set the glass aside and stood, going in search of her purse.

In the guestroom, she dug her cell out of her bag and then headed back through the kitchen and found the back door leading out onto the back porch. The screened-in space was roughly a roughly twenty by eight-foot area and held an outdoor loveseat and two chairs. Bree Ann situated herself in one of the chairs and looked out over the small backyard where her sister grew a small vegetable garden. And for just the briefest of moments, Bree Ann envied the simplicity of her sister's solitary existence. Though it might be lonely, at least Rita didn't have to worry about anyone being taken from her or breaking her heart.

Turning on her phone, Bree Ann listened as it beeped and chirped countless times as all her missed calls and texts registered. Ignoring them all and bringing up her daughter's contact information, Bree Ann pressed send...

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

"Mom!" Skyler announced excitedly into the phone receiver as she answered her mother's call. She was sitting at the bar watching as Kaia fed the twins in the handcrafted highchairs the former Marine had built. Lisa leaned over the bar, frantically signaling her wife to put the call on speakerphone so that they could all hear what Bree Ann had to say. "I'm putting you on speakerphone, Mom! The three of us have been worried sick over you!"

"I'm fine," Bree Ann replied. "I just needed to getaway so that I could think. I'm sorry that I scared you girls."

"We were scared, but more than anything, we just needed to know that you were okay!" Lisa explained.

"I guess you've heard Sadie's version of what happened by now," Bree Ann said, the defensive tone in her words apparent.

"Sadie is heartsick and suffering, Mom," Skyler replied. "She was shaking and in tears when she showed up here looking for you last night! You have to talk to her!"

"What is there to say?" Bree Ann asked, her voice full of hurt. "She cheated on me with some young slut the minute I had my back turned! What can she possibly say to justify that?"

"Are you sure of that, Mom?" Kaia chimed in. "Did you actually catch Sadie cheating on you?"

"I caught a naked bimbo coming out of her bedroom!" Bree Ann replied, sounding utterly exasperated. "What else could have been happening? Why? What excuse did Sadie give you girls for what happened?"

"A pretty good one," Skyler answered. "One that will leave you feeling awfully silly when you finally hear it."

"And what's that?" Bree Ann responded, sounding skeptical.

"You need to hear that answer from her," Lisa replied. "It's not our story to tell."

The other end of the line went silent, the trio staring at one another as they waited on Bree Ann to respond. Skyler started to speak, but Kaia signaled her to give her mother more time. The seconds seemed to stretch on forever, the silence seeming to swell between the two parties.

"I just can't do that right now. I'm not ready," Bree Ann finally replied, sounding resolved. "I might never be; she hurt me too badly."

The three lovers looked at each other, none of them seeming to know the magic words that would make things better without spilling Sadie's secret. The frustration was evident on all their faces. The answers to solving this entire mess were so close, yet still so far away.

"I need to get off the phone," Bree Ann finally said, the sadness in her tone apparent to them all. "But I love you all."

"We love you too, Mom," Skyler replied, feeling helpless as her mother ended the call.

"What are we going to do?" Lisa asked. "We can't let things hang like this!"

"What can we do? Sadie wants to be the one to explain things, and that's not likely to happen as long as mom is on the other side of the country," Skyler said dejectedly, knowing how set in her ways her mother could be once Bree Ann had made up her mind.

"I can think of one thing, but it won't be cheap," Kaia replied with a twinkle in her eyes as she rescued Jonathan from his highchair.

"Well? Are you gonna share it with us?" Lisa asked.

Skyler and Lisa listened intently as the former Marine outlined her simple plan. When Kaia was done, the pair couldn't help but agree that it would be the best chance they had of mending the rift between Bree Ann and Sadie.

"Good, I'll call Sadie. And Skyler, you can text your Aunt Rita..."

CHAPTER TWELVE

"Thanks for this," Bree Ann said to Rita as they ascended the mountain, the rocky trail winding through the wooded path, a sharp ravine descending to their right. "I needed to get out of your house but didn't really want to be around people."

"I do this every Sunday morning," Rita replied. "I know Noellele would still consider me a lowly heathen sinner, but being out in nature always gives me time to reflect on life and leaves me feeling closer to God."

"I've got news for you, Rita. I've likely replaced you at the bottom of her list of lost siblings. After all, me being gay trumps you eschewing organized religion."

"Is that how you label yourself?" Rita asked as the pair reached a split in the trail, the younger woman leading them up the path that led up a sharp embankment to the left.

"I guess," Bree Ann replied. "Since discovering my feelings for Sadie, I've finally opened myself up to noticing other women for the first time in my life. Lisa says I'm most likely pansexual, which means I fall for a person regardless of gender."

"All those different categories confuse me," Rita said with a shrug. "It seemed a lot simpler to me when a person was either gay, straight, or bisexual."

"Me, too," Bree Ann replied with a laugh. "And to be honest, I don't really think of men sexually or romantically anymore. Not since that first night with Sadie."

"You really love her, don't you."

"I do," Bree Ann responded with a heavy sigh. "That's why what she did hurts me so badly."

"What you believe she did," Rita added.

"Not you too," Bree Ann said with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm just saying that until you talk to her and get some context to what you saw, you'll never know for sure."

"But how am I supposed to trust what she tells me?" Bree Ann asked. "How am I ever supposed to believe that she can be faithful to me when I know the type of women she's dated in the past?"

"I can't answer those questions for you, Sis," Rita replied. "But I firmly believe that if you don't face her and hear her explanation, wondering what might have been will always eat at you. It will be a thorn in your side that will eventually fester and become so sore that you will be miserable."

Bree Ann thought about her sister's logic as the pair climbed the trail and suspected that what Rita was saying held a lot of truth. She was desperately in love with Sadie, and her apparent betrayal had done little to lessen those feelings. Bree Ann craved to be in her presence and have Sadie's arms wrapped around her. She ached to hear the sexy blonde whisper how much she loved her just seconds before claiming her lips in one of those kisses that typically wrecked any resolve Bree Ann had to deny her.

But how could she justify denying what her own eyes had seen? Was there logically any explanation that Sadie could provide that would allow Bree Ann the peace of mind her soul hungered for to once again be able to trust the woman she loved? Sadie had obviously convinced her daughters that there was a reasonable rationale for the scene Bree Ann had witnessed.