This story has been written in several parts. While you hopefully can enjoy this portion on its own, you may want to read the previous portions in order to get the flow of the whole thing. The bottom line is, this is the story of a young daughter who has come of age, a wife who has been left alone for too long and a husband who begins to clue in to the fact that he has spent way too much time over the past several years working...Enjoy!
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"So," said Lynette between bites of her Chinese food "what were you saying about my boyfriend, Mom?" a knowing grin on her young face.
My wife Carrie looked back and laughed. "Oh, nothing much. Terri was asking me if you had one and I told her you had at least one!"
"You can say that again!" Lynette's friend Alison chimed in, eliciting a swat across the arm from my daughter. "What? You know you do!" she laughed.
"Well...so what?" Lynette rejoined. "I'm allowed to have a little fun aren't I? The more the merrier!" she smirked.
"Yeah, right! Not even Santa Clause is that merry!" her friend snickered.
"Shut Up!" Lynette laughed. "You should talk. You're only seeing Ryan because of the size of his wiener!" she countered, drawing a gasp and a punch from a wide eyed Alison.
"You little bitch!" Alison yelped, her jaw thrust forward, eyes flying around the table at my wife and her friend Terri before returning to glare at my daughter. "You...you're bad! You're not supposed to tell anyone I said that."
Terri cut in. "So...that's what it is huh? He's cute, dark and well-formed?" she teased.
Alison looked back at Terri a little dismayed. She'd only just met this woman a couple of hours ago. How dare she make that kind of comment? But then she saw the warm, friendly expression in Terri's deep brown eyes and her sudden anger drained from her like sand through a funnel. "Who told you he was cute?" she replied, evading the main question.
Terri smiled back easily. "Your friend's mom clued me in." she offered, her eyes flicking over to Carrie, then back again as she took a sip from her drink.
"Mrs. Connell!" Alison chided in mock horror.
"What?" Carrie laughed, shrugging her shoulders and throwing up her hands in front of her. "All I said was he was tall, dark, big and handsome!" she continued, defending herself.
"And then I asked how big and if he was big everywhere...and now we know!" Terri snickered her eyes alight.
Alison's jaw hung open and a blush slowly crept up her face as she looked back and forth among the other women. She stammered a few times before she finally blurted "You guys are terrible. I'm not talking about this!" With that, she formed a determined line with her pretty mouth, her jaw set, arms crossed over her pert, young breasts. She tossed her long auburn hair backwards, her steel grey eyes brimming with determination.
"Oh c'mon, Allie," Lynette teased, "you told me you couldn't even get your hand around it! You said..." as Alison whirled around and tried to clamp her hands over my daughter's mouth, causing Lynette to laugh and grab her friend's hands in an attempt to ward the other girl off. "You said you could put both hands together one in front of the other and he still stuck..." More fighting and laughter. "...out two inches!" Lynette howled with her friend practically climbing on her now as bemused shoppers started to stare from other nearby tables.
"SHUT UP!" Alison squealed, finally getting her left hand on her friend's mouth, which was pointless anyway since my daughter was now laughing so hard she couldn't continue. Girls.
Terri and my wife looked on in amusement, shaking their heads and smiling. Terri looked over at Carrie and raised her eyebrows conspiratorially, smiling an evil little smile. Alison plopped back down in her chair with a thud, grabbed her drink and thrust the straw into her mouth, pouting as she did. Lynette leaned back in her own chair and continued to giggle, her arms wrapped around her, hugging herself as she shook silently.
"You're mean!" Alison shot at her, her eyes squinting, shooting darts.
"Oh c'mon Allie, I'm just teasing. You know I love you!" Lynette soothed, smiling at her friend.
"I don't care. You're mean!" Alison sniffed, looking away with a huff.
"She's faking!" Lynette explained, looking back at Terri and my wife. "She's pretending to be upset, but she loves talking about it, don't you Allie?" she grinned, leaning toward her friend and patting her knee. Alison remained resolute.
"Oh well, Alison, don't worry about it!" Terri offered. "Besides, Lynette's just jealous. She needs two or three guys just to make up your one!" she added, drawing a loud "Hey!" from my daughter.
Alison looked up quickly at Terri, a gleam of warm appreciation and self-assurance in her eyes. Terri responded with her sparkling smile.
The rest of the afternoon flew by. I had returned home from my deluded pursuit of par golf, nursing my wounds after a few beers with the boys. Manwhile my wife Carrie and my daughter Lynette were dropping off their "gal-pals" at their respective homes and making their way back home.
As they drove, Lynette broke the small silence. "That was fun, Mom!" she said, looking over at her mother as her right hand picked absently at a piece of thread on the leg of her jeans.
"Yeah, it was!" Carrie replied. "We don't go out often enough anymore." my wife added, looking over at her daughter.
"I know Mom. I'm sorry. I'm so busy with school and gymnastics and my friends and boyfriends, I never seem to have any time anymore." Lynette replied sadly.
Carrie sat in silence for a moment. That pretty much summed up the story of her life over these past few years. For a long while, taking care of Lynette filled her days and nights. But then as time passed, I got busier at work, Lynette grew up and started going out more on her own and suddenly my wife found herself entirely alone in a big, empty house.