Page 9 of Letting Go
And she had to show you? What a bitch. Good riddance.
My brothers initially liked Gretchen, but once everything came to light, their feelings changed immediately. I would be the same way if roles were reversed. We’re protective of each other. Thankfully Sam married a wonderful woman that would never pull that kind of shit on him. Sam’s wife Carrie never liked Gretchen—she never had a reason other than she had a bad feeling about her. I’ll be sure to listen to her if I ever date again. Charlie’s love life is even worse off than my own, but I know Sam and Carrie keep a close eye on him.
Me
It was fine. Ring was huge and gaudy, but don’t care. I won’t miss seeing her. I’m swinging by my condo to grab Ghost. I can call y’all when I’m en route to Nashville, should be within the hour.
Charlie
Sounds good. We’ll be at Mama’s for family dinner then so you can say hey to everyone if you want.
Sam
How long’s the drive?
Me
4 hours or so. Easy. I’ll talk to you guys later.
Charlie
Be safe, Walker.
Sam
Sounds good. Drive safe.
Me
Always.
My brothers always remind me to be safe at the end of our conversations. They know I can be in dangerous situations with my job, but I think they would say that even if I had a boring job like an accountant. In their eyes, I’ll always be their baby brother. Their concern feels like home though, and I don’t hate it. I could have joined the family business full-time like my brothers, but ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to go into law enforcement. Just ask my mama about how I refused to entertain any costume ideas other than a police officer for three Halloweens in a row.
I pull into the underground lot of my building before I head up to my condo for the last time. It will be listed in a few days and should sell quickly. My realtor is married to a colleague of mine inthe bureau and she made the entire listing process seamless. She already has the extra key and told me to leave the other copies on the counter before I leave.
Ghost is sleeping in his dog bed when I arrive but quickly bounds to greet me at the door. “Hey buddy, how’s it going? Ready for a road trip? Huh?” I give him some scratches, both of us happy to see each other. Ghost was part of a litter from one of Charlie’s dogs and is a gorgeous English cream golden retriever with the best personality. He can be super lazy but also likes to play a solid game of catch. Gretchen convinced me we weren’t home enough to keep him in Atlanta when he was a puppy so for just over a year, Ghost stayed in Texas with Charlie’s family. Within two weeks of our breakup, I had Ghost back home with me in Atlanta. “Let’s go buddy. Quick walk and then let’s hit the road, huh? We’re going on an adventure. You wanna be my copilot? Are you ready? Yeah? Me too, bud, me too.”
I grab Ghost’s bed and the last few items remaining in my condo. The movers came this morning to take the furniture and most of the boxes. My new assistant in Nashville, Christine, will meet them at my new house, which has been so helpful to not worry about finding someone to meet the movers in a city where I don’t know many people yet. I don’t need to take a last look around my condo, I’m ready to close this door forever. Down the hall in the guest room is where I caught Gretchen and Adam when I came home early from a work trip. They had the decency to not be in our bedroom or in our bed. How kind of them. I still replaced every mattress and all bedding when she moved out. Shaking my head, we head back down to my truck to drop off our stuff before taking Ghost on a quick walk around the block. We load up and Ghost commandeers shotgun, where he will be asleep within fifteen minutes.
“Adios, Atlanta.” I pull out of my building’s lot for the last time without a second glance. Nashville is more than a promotion. It’s a fresh start, and it’s overdue. My same realtor in Atlanta helped me find a completely remodeled bungalow not too far from my new office. It’s a three-bedroom house with two and a half baths and a fenced-in backyard with a covered patio. The location and backyard size sold me on the place because I know Ghost will love having his own space to run around. I appreciated not having to deal with looking at a bunch of houses and my realtor appreciated the healthy budget I had, another perk of the family business. Charlie and Sam may have larger ownership percentages, but they still consider me an owner in our family’s business, which includes profit sharing. I know they would do that even if our parents didn’t require it, that’s just how we were raised. I may not be on the ranch working it, but I’m still a Bennett brother.
Smiling to myself as Atlanta fades in my rearview mirror, I am ready to get to Nashville. I’m ready for a new adventure, and according to Ghost’s obnoxiously loud snoring, he is too excited to contain himself.
Chapter five
Vivian
I open the dryer door and pull the towels out, adding them to the basket to be folded. It never ceases to amaze me how much laundry a four-year-old girl can create, even though I do laundry almost daily. Towels are the easiest to fold, at least I don’t need to match little socks that each have a different pattern and color combination. I grab the laundry basket and carry it back downstairs where another basket waits for me.
It’s taken a few weeks to settle in, but my sister’s guest house is slowly starting to feel more like our own space. The only piece of furniture in the guest house before we moved in was a custom sectional for the living room, and I only wanted to move Eloise’s bedroom set from Chicago, so Daddy quickly solved that problem. Savannah and Shane were planning on furnishing the space once the remodel was complete, but Daddy wanted to do something to help and if buying me some new furniture makes him feel helpful, then so be it. It was nice to have a blank space to make our own; sometimes it’s the little things in life like having new furniture without wondering if Bianca Bishop ever sat or fucked my husband on it.
I sit on the sectional and start folding the laundry. Menial tasks are almost comforting to do because I don’t have to think, I can accomplish something without any emotion or thought. When my hands are busy, my mind can find a moment of peace. I really didn’t see myself ever returning to my hometown. It’s a great communityto raise a family and build a life, but it would have required Trent to accept a job in Nashville, and he had no interest in living anywhere in the south.
To be fair, I never considered the possibility of being a widowed single mother at thirty-two years old either. I never imagined this would be my life but here we are—four hundred miles away from Chicago and living back in Forrest Falls, Tennessee.
It’ll be nice to have genuine friends around again, unlike the women I knew in Chicago. After college, MK and Lauren moved back home, but over the years life has brought all five of us childhood best friends back to our hometown. It was so nice they all came to Trent’s funeral; I forgot how good friends will just instinctively show up for you. Even MK’s husband, Drew, and Brittany’s husband, Zander, kindly made the trip to support us. I know Drew and Zander never clicked with Trent, but they showed up for me because that’s just what friends do.
I can’t think of a single friend from my former social life with Trent that I miss other than our neighbors. A handful of my so-called friends in Chicago reached out initially after the funeral, but even less since we moved. I didn’t realize how much of a guard I had up with them until I was back around my hometown friends. Even calling those women from Chicago friends feels like a stretch now, they really were more like acquaintances my husband and I socialized with on a regular basis. I don’t think I want to know the answer, but I’ve wondered more than once if any of them knew about Bianca, especially their husbands. Was I the laughing joke of our social circle? Was I the only one left in the dark?
