When October Goes

Chapter 11

"Hey, Mom," I called as I entered the front door.

"I'm in the kitchen making coffee," she replied.

"You read my mind!"

I took a seat at the table.  I couldn't believe the kitchen looked almost the same as it did twenty years ago.  Luke had built a few more shelves, but he ran out of usable wall space.  He moved onto building them in the garage along with several cabinets.  I don't remember if that was before or after he'd filled up his old apartment above the diner.  He still slept there occasionally when he had early morning deliveries.  He said it was to keep from disturbing my mom that early, but we all knew it was so he didn't have to deal with the ramifications of said pre-dawn awakening.  She was not a morning person, and before the sun comes up she's even less.

"Ok, spill, please," Mom said anxiously.

Mom certainly dove right into it, which irritated me sometimes because I liked to work up to things a little bit more.

"What?  No small talk?  How are you doing?  How's Richard?" I retorted.

"How's Richard?" she paused for a split second. "Now, spill!"

"Richard is doing just fine, and I'm doing well, also, thanks for asking," I replied with a bit of a smirk.  She gave me a look.  It was one I knew well.  "So, a few days ago, I explained everything to Richard," I began, knowing exactly how to push my mom's buttons when she wanted information.

"I already know that part.  Get to the juicy details," she said sounding slightly irritated.

"How do you know the details are juicy?"

"Because Logan is the guy you just can't quit, and everything involving him seems to fall into that category.  I mean, you were the other woman, were you not?"

I couldn't believe she went there.  It wasn't fair, but it wasn't a lie.  I hadn't ever thought about it like that until Logan's dad gave her a name and a title.  She was his fiancé, and I wasn't.  It made me look at things very differently.  That's ancient history, I thought.  "Fine, I'll tell you the story now," I replied.  For all of the button-pushing I was doing, she pushed right back.

The coffee pot beeped, and I watched Mom move towards our life's blood.  She poured us each a cup as I began to recount telling Richard about his father.  Once I'd satisfied that requirement, I moved onto my initial meeting with Logan at the coffee shop.  I stopped every few minutes for some coffee.  My mouth seemed to get dry quickly.  I attributed it partially to my hangover, but most of it was nerves.  I had no idea how mom would react to all of this.  I guess I had been completely zoned in on my story because I didn't even hear Luke came in with bags of food from the diner.

"You know I hate to be the one to say 'I told you so', but I do believe all this could have been avoided had you listened to my advice," he said calmly.

"I know," I admitted.  "I just felt like I was doomed either way.  You don't understand how important male heirs are in the Huntzberger family."

"That doesn't matter.  Plain and simple - he had a right to know!" he asserted.

I sat in silence, knowing full well Luke was right.  Logan did have the right to know.

"Didn't you learn anything from my situation with Anna and April?"

"I thought I knew best, and it was very different circumstances!" I said defending myself.  He had no idea how very different things were in that world.  Richard definitely wouldn't be the person he is today.  I can't say for certain he'd be less amazing, but I'm sure we would have been dragged through the mud.