and I Believe. Jodie Richard-Bohman

“Say it,” he teased.

       “No, never,” she giggled.

       “Say it or I’ll go for the pits.”

       “Fine, fine. You’re the best basketball player in the family.”

       “Say it louder,” he said, tickling her even harder.

       “YOU’RE THE . . . GREATEST . . . BASKETBALL PLAYER . . . IN THE WORLD!”

       “Thank-you,” he said with a big grin on his face.

       Exhausted from laughing so hard, Jenna lay there breathing heavy, her little chest going up and down.

       “You two,” I shook my head at them then went back to reading my book. With no warning at all, I was pulled down onto the floor. Laughter escaped my lips as I squirmed to get out of Aaron’s tight grip.

       “Who’s the bestest husband in the world?”

       “My dad,” I joked.

       “Who?” he asked as he tickled me even harder.

       “Stop, stop,” I pleaded in between my uncontrollable giggling . . .

      “Mommy, I got to pee.”

      Bringing me back to reality was Mia, who was tapping on my arm.

      “Ah, okay, sweetie. You know what? It’s actually time for you to go to bed, so why don’t you tell Jenna night-night.”

      “Night Jenna.”

      “Night Mia. See you in the morning.”

      After putting her to bed, I shut off the rest of the lights and lay at the other end of the couch that Jenna was on. She moved her legs to make room for mine as I snuggled underneath the blanket. We watched TV in silence a little while longer before I nudged her leg with my foot.

      “You okay?” I softly asked.

      She didn’t answer, but shrugged her shoulders.

      “I’m so sorry this is happening.”

      “It’s okay,” she said, looking back at the TV. It pained me to see her hurting this way. I wanted to say more, but it was obvious she didn’t, so I dropped the subject.

      It wasn’t long after our conversation that she sat up on the couch, “I’m tired and ready for bed.”

      “Okay. I’ll tuck you in.”

      We walked in her room, and she climbed into bed.

      “I love you Mom.”

      “I love you too, sweetie.”

      “Mom?”

      “Yes?”

      “Don’t be sad. We’ll get through this.”

      Her blue eyes were dark and serious.

      “Thank-you, sweetie.” I reached down and gave her a hug.

      Hopefully one day I can tell her exactly how much her words meant to me.

      Darkness and loneliness surrounded me as I lay in the living room by myself. These last couple of days had been very hard, but something that bothered me even more was the idea of facing people for the first time tomorrow. Because Versailles was a small community, everybody knew everybody. Our town was very close knit and known for pulling together in times of celebration and in times of sadness. When Gene passed away from cancer, there were nonstop visitors, cards, telephone calls and meals that poured in from everybody in town, and it was that love that helped us get through our loss.

      I loved living here and having the safe feeling of knowing everyone around me, but there was one disadvantage and that was how news traveled fast. Some of the news was true, but a lot of it was not. By now, I wouldn’t be surprised if what happened between Aaron and me was already circulating around, with only half of it being the actual truth. And even though I taught in another town, it was only ten minutes from Versailles and everybody from here also knew everybody from there. There was no doubt in my mind that it would only be a matter of time before the news would be in that community too. Just thinking about it made me want to hide away up here forever and never face or see any of them ever again.

      My head hurt and I was exhausted from all of this thinking, so I got back up from the couch and went into the bathroom. Not following the instructions on the bottle, I took three, not one, sleeping pills and prayed for just one second that all of the horrible details from the last three days would be erased.

      Chapter 12

      “Mom, Mom.”

      Disoriented and confused, I slowly opened my eyes, trying to remember where I was.

      “Mom, are you going to get up? It’s almost seven o’clock.”

      Sitting straight up on the couch, I couldn’t believe I overslept.

      “I’m so sorry Jenna. Do you mind getting Mia ready while I get in the shower?”

      “I already did. She’s playing in her room.”

      “You’re a saint.” I kissed her forehead and hurried into the bathroom.

      In the twenty minutes I had, I managed to shower, get ready and chow down on a piece of toast before whisking Jenna off to school and Mia to daycare.

      My stomach was a ball of nerves as I drove to work, and I thought I was going to throw up when I pulled into the parking lot. All I could think about was getting to my classroom as soon as possible. I did not want to face any of my co-workers right now in case they knew.

      Whew! Luckily I didn’t have to talk to anybody, I thought when I got to my classroom.

      Soon the first warning bell rang and it wasn’t long before students were piling into my room. Being around all of them made me feel better, and for a short period of time, I forgot about everything that happened over the weekend.

      The rest of the day flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to go home. Sitting in front of my computer, I finally got up the nerve to check my email. As I suspected, there were messages from some of my friends asking about Aaron.

       I have no idea what you’ve heard about Aaron and me, but if it has to do with him and his old girlfriend Angie, then you heard right. I’m not sure what I’m going to do . . . too numb to think about anything right now. Temporarily, the girls and I are staying in the room above Mom and Dad’s garage. Thanks for being great friends, and I’ll talk to you all very soon. Love, Kate.

      The next day Aaron finally called and left me a message.

       Kate—I’m sorry for avoiding you these last couple of days. It’s just that I’m so ashamed over what I did and the thought of facing the girls made me want to die. I will never forgive myself for hurting you, but I’m madder at myself for making you clean up the mess I created. It’s time I own up and tell the girls face to face why we aren’t together anymore. Please give me a call.

      My heart plummeted to the ground. While I was glad he finally decided to be “noble” and do the right thing, I was crushed that he showed no sign of wanting to work things out with me. For a second, I thought about not returning his call, but knew I couldn’t do that. I had to remember I wasn’t the only one hurting. The girls too had been through a lot, and they really needed to see their dad.

      “Hi Kate,” Aaron said when I called him.

      “Hi Aaron.”

      “I’m so sorry-.” he started to say, but I cut him off.

      “Aaron, I don’t mean this in a mean way, but I don’t want to talk about us. The girls miss you and need to