Nicole Edwards - Zane

Based on the brilliant flowers that were blooming – in December mind you – V would say that her mother had a knack for it. Considering the weather was a lot warmer than recent years, gardening probably wasn’t such a bad idea. Not that V was going to attempt it. She didn’t even have house plants for fear that they wouldn’t live past their first watering.

A rustle at the front screen door caught V’s attention, and she glanced up onto the porch to see a small, yellow head peering up over the bottom part of the storm door.

“A dog?” V questioned, wondering whether she was actually at the right house.

“Isn’t he precious? His name is Buttercup. I adopted him from the animal shelter two weeks ago.”

Him? Buttercup?

V looked up at the animal, then back to her mother. When V didn’t say anything, Regina stunned her by taking her hand and pulling her up the steps and into the house where a very excited Buttercup started jumping up onto her leg, barking a mellifluous puppy yap until V leaned down and rubbed his head. He was cute, she’d give him that. Although, it surprised the hell out of V that her mother had gone and gotten a dog.

The smell of cinnamon and cloves teased V’s nose as the front door closed behind her and she noticed a couple of candles lit on the kitchen counter. Candles? The only time V had ever seen her mother light candles was when she was expecting a man to come over. “Expecting someone?”

“No, why?” Regina looked confused as she glanced around, apparently trying to see what V was looking at.

“No reason.”

“Come, sit down. It’s so good to see you, baby,” Regina grabbed her hand once more, pulling her into the living room while Buttercup pounced along at her feet, still yapping away.

“Buttercup, hush,” Regina said sternly and the dog did as she asked. “We’re going to puppy classes, and he’s doing really well.”

“What made you get a dog, Mom?” V really wanted to know. All through her childhood she had begged for a dog, but her mother had always insisted they didn’t have time to take care of one. V had begged to differ, considering they were always home, but she figured her mother had more important things on her mind than taking care of an animal. Namely trying to bed a husband.

“I don’t know. Lonely I guess.” Regina kept her eyes on Buttercup and V felt a sudden sadness at the longing expression in those familiar dark brown eyes.

No, Regina Carmichael had never found a husband, despite her many, many attempts. She’d found some decent men over the years, and it pained V to know that her mother had been more interested in their net worth than who they actually were. Although V had learned a valuable lesson, thanks to her mother’s promiscuity. Money didn’t make the man, that was for damned sure. There’d been a handful of decent ones, but more not so decent ones. Speaking of...

“Where’s Patrick?” That was the name of the most recent one of her mother’s boy toys.

“He’s...” Regina glanced down at her hands. “We’re not seeing each other anymore.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Regina replied, still not looking up at V. “It just wasn’t working out.”

V wondered whether that was because Regina had actually gotten a good look at his bank statement or for some other reason.

For the last twenty five or so years, Regina had been on a long and steady path to finding a husband. From what V knew, her mother had fallen head over heels in love with V’s father, whom V still didn’t know. The only thing she knew about him was that he was happily married – although V didn’t understand why a man would be out messing around if he were happily married, but whatever. Once he found out that Regina was pregnant, he informed her that he wasn’t interested. So, Regina being Regina, she never looked back.

Not that she ever had time because the woman always seemed to be looking forward. Even when she was dating one guy, she was always looking for the next, trying to find the one who would treat her like a princess and shower her with money. V never understood her mother and her reasons, and over time, she’d stopped trying to. The only thing her constant thinking had done was to put a riff between the two of them. As a teenager, V hated her mother and her antics. Hated that she was dubbed the town whore and had bedded half the town by the time V was twenty.

Buttercup began yapping once more, pawing at V’s legs until she reached down and started scratching his head.

“I’m so glad you stopped by,” Regina said, pulling V’s attention to her.

“Me too,” V replied amicably. It might not be the whole truth, but V always did feel better when she saw her mother. Their relationship was strained at best, but despite her mother’s many flaws, V still loved her.

“How’s Zoey?”

“She’s great.” The last time V had visited, she’d informed Regina that Zoey was getting married. She hadn’t bothered to mention her own relationship with Kaleb’s youngest brother though.

As a point, V tried not to delve into her own relationships when speaking to her mother. She’d heard enough warnings about ensuring the man had enough money to take care of her, a nice house, a stable job, blah, blah, blah. That seemed to be Regina's only concern, and V found it almost humorous how that had all backfired on her over the years, being left completely alone to raise her daughter.

Not that Regina did much in raising V. She spent most of her time on the prowl while V spent more than her fair share of time over at Zoey’s. She’d come to love Zoey’s mother just like her own, and even her ornery father. Not that she ever told Regina that. For some reason, her mother was blind to most anything except for her main goal and V had been left to raise herself.

Not that she complained. Regina had done the best she knew how, and V accepted her for who she was. It had just taken a long time to get to that point. In the end, V felt as though she were a better person because of her mother’s insecurities and her many indiscretions. At least she knew what not to do when it came to relationships.

Although, she feared she was beginning to blur those lines where Zane was concerned.

“Are you hungry?”

“No.” Funny how her mother always tried to feed her. “Tell me more about Buttercup.”

Two hours later, after V had learned all there was to learn about Labrador puppies, and after her mother fed her a grilled cheese sandwich, V was on her way home. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she actually didn’t look forward to leaving her mother.

Something had certainly changed in Regina since the last time she was there. To her surprise, there hadn’t been any discussions of a new man in her life. Her mother hadn’t even shared anything more about Patrick, the last man V had known her to be with. From what it looked like, Regina was looking to be single for a while. Buttercup had somehow managed to fill a void in Regina’s life that even V hadn’t been able to fill. The thought was bittersweet.

Having grown up without a father, V knew she had her own issues with men. She didn’t have a father figure who’d spent any time with her, aside from perhaps one of the men from her mother’s past. For the most part, V had learned what she didn’t want to end up like. And now, she saw how much of a toll that life had taken on her mother as well.

V hadn’t brought up Zane, and she didn’t intend to. She didn’t want to hear any of the warnings, not to mention, she honestly didn’t know what was going on between her and Zane. She knew what she felt, but she also didn’t trust her own feelings at the moment. Being with Zane was way too comfortable, and she knew she was falling fast and hard for him. Something she’d promised herself she wouldn’t do.

V focused on the road, trying to eradicate all of those pesky emotions from her brain. She didn’t need to relive the what ifs, and she damn sure didn’t need to walk down the path of what might be anytime soon.

♂♀

By the time Saturday evening rolled around, Zane was feeling a little more relaxed, if not a tad out of sorts. The week had gone better than expected, and there hadn’t been any more speed bumps; nothing more from the sheriff, nothing about Jake being seen in town, and no awkward moments with V or Beau either. Zane had resigned himself to talking to Beau about their incident; he just hadn’t had the opportunity yet – not for lack of trying.

All that behind him, he looked forward to spending a little time with his brothers at Moonshiners, and if he were lucky, V would be there. She’d managed to keep her distance on Friday, using the excuse that she and Zoey needed to play catch up on the houses they missed on Thursday, and she also needed to make an impromptu visit to her mother. She didn’t say why. Zane didn’t get the impression she was avoiding him, but he hadn’t pushed her when she insisted she was going to go home by herself that Thursday night either.

Thanks to Travis, Zane knew there was someone watching her house, so he felt mildly better about leaving her alone. If it hadn’t been for his fear of pushing her away after what happened with Beau, Zane wouldn’t have thought twice about insisting he stay with her.

That didn’t stop him from calling her Thursday night though, and surprisingly, he and V had had one of those teenage conversations where they both laid in their respective beds and talked to each other for hours. It didn’t even contain phone sex, and quite frankly, talking to V had been better than sex in any form. Ok, maybe not any form, but still, it helped ease the fact that he couldn’t be with her.