Page 18 of Life After Levi

He opens his phone and must pull up a website because he starts chuckling. “These are genius!” he exclaims. “I can see I need to be around then, since I wanna help.”

“Be my guest,” I scowl, releasing a pent-up sigh. “Gingersnap is a total pain in my butt nine tenths of the time. She ‘helped’ fold laundry once, which Levinia thought was great. Only, she hung everything up all over the house.”

His laughter reverberates throughout my SUV as we head toward town. “Leave it to me, Em. Does she have one at Miriam and Dale’s house too?”

I grumble. “Yes, yes, she does. My folks’ house too. Thankfully, I’m only responsible for my home, but Miriam and Dale have had Tiny Sparkles doing chores such as milking cows, hanging out with the chickens, and even making a pie, while Arcadia often takes ‘road trips’ in my folks’ RV. They all take pictures and send them to me so I can show Levinia what mischief she’s up to. Of course, if she spends the night with any of them, she gets to see it up close and personal in real time.”

“Well, I’m definitely willing to help at your place,” he replies, his shoulders shaking as he checks out what some folks have posted online.

Glancing at him, I grin because I might complain a little bit, but it’s been more so since I started going to school plus working that it’s been more of a challenge. “I’m going to hold you to that,” I tease.

I manage to find a good parking spot that’s practically in front of the store. Since Main Street is pretty much where all the stores are located, we’ll be able to walk everywhere we want to go. I may not be a huge environmentalist, but I like that we can reduce our carbon footprint a little bit.

“Let’s go shop until we drop,” he says, smirking at me. Shaking my head, I get out of my SUV and meet him at the front where he holds out his hand for me to take. We walk into the store, and I see one of Miriam’s former friends, Betty.

She’s no longer friends with Betty and became past tense because that heifer was one of the ones who led the gossip train when my pregnancy was revealed. In fact, Miriam pretty much ripped Betty a new one at the Possum Creek Grocery Store one Saturday morning. She overheard her talking about me from another aisle and came around to face her. Then? Miriam endeared herself to me for the rest of my life, if not longer. Because she pretty much aired out all of Betty’s son’s dirty laundry while pulling his skeletons out of the closet for all to hear, since he got a girl from Maggie Valley pregnant when she was a senior in high school. She reminded Betty that everyone stood behind her, as well as her son, and considering that Levi was a military hero, he should get the same. Then, she told Betty to ‘lose her number’ and walked away.

Because I’m petty where my daughter is concerned, I look Betty in the eye and say, “Hello.”

As we walk further into the store, I see her pull out her phone and start stabbing at the keys. “What’s she doing?” Damien asks, his voice low.

“She’s one of the ones who was so vocal about my pregnancy. She and Miriam used to be friends, but they’re not any longer. I imagine she’s reaching out to some of her cronies, so be prepared for anything, because I willnothold back if she brings my daughter into the conversation.”

“Hmm, should I reach out to Miriam and Dale?” he questions, a smirk on his face. “Because I feel as though they’d want to know.”

“Do what you want and what feels right, Damien,” I tell him. “Just know that they won’t hold back either. Considering how many of ‘those people’ have kids who dropped out of college, or got involved with drugs, or had out-of-wedlock babies, they have zero right to talk about me.”

ChapterEleven

Damien

I senda text to Dale and smirk when I see his immediate and snippy response. “Let’s look at the Halloween stuff,” I say to Emerie in an attempt to distract her from the idiocy of this town and their rumor mill, tightening my hold on her hand.

“Works for me,” she replies, trying to sound upbeat and chipper. “Let me guess, they’re already heading to town.”

“Yep,” I say, grinning down at her because she knows them so well. “So, do you like scary movies?” Every now and then, I toss in a random question in order to get to know her better.

She recoils before answering, “Eww, nope. I mean, I’ll watch psychological thrillers and even true crime documentaries, but the blood and gore stuff makes me sick.” I can understand that because I’ve seen more than any man should during my time of service. The fact that I know those shows are fictionalized and the storylines behind them are unbelievable and humorous at times, I find that they don’t bother me. Let's face the facts, no man can come back from the dead as often as they do in the movies and being trained to the degree that I am, I know that half the things they do is next to impossible.

Wanting to switch the gears from the road my thoughts just took me down, I laugh, and ask, “So, let me understand if I can. You’re going to become a paramedic but don’t like blood and gore?”

She snickers then says, “It’s different when it’s real-life, Damien. I mean, those movies are just so silly. Girls screaming, which is totally ineffective by the way, or running back into the house, hiding in bathrooms or closets, how stupid can they be! And how many times can one person trip? Doors don’t stop bullets or sword-wielding madmen.”

“Fine, you’ve got me there, I guess. I’ll watch them, but prefer action shows or even rom coms,” I admit. “Life itself is too intense, so when I’m watching a movie, I don’t want to think, I just want to enjoy what’s happening on the screen. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, it does. Of course, most of my life revolves around kid movies and shows these days,” she teases as we walk toward a themed display.

“Man, Dena lovesThe Nightmare Before Christmas! I need to get her this for her birthday,” I say as I pick up the Lego set that has the characters as well as the houses.

“That’s really kind of cool,” she replies, leaning against my shoulder.

“She’s a bit spoiled since she’s the baby at fifteen,” I admit. “All of us do it, but despite the fact that she pretty much gets whatever she wants, she’s still a sweet kid.”

“And… that tells me that any other siblings you’ve got must be brothers,” she says. “Because in about a year, she’s gonna be all about boys, makeup, and hair.”

“Take that back. There will be no boys in her future,” I decree, which has Emerie laughing so hard she’s doubled over, slapping her thigh.

“Huh, the way some people act while out in public,” Betty sneers from a nearby display.

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