Any Way You Spin It Read online

  It was a strange thing to be looking for forgiveness while struggling to give it.

  The room was also filled with lots of people she didn’t know, people from the town and friends of Chase’s and his mother, who was charming. In fact, she turned to see CeCe wheeling out to join her. The older woman was in a wheelchair, though Minnie had no idea why. The list of things she didn’t know was growing longer by the minute.

  “How are you holding up, darling?” CeCe asked as she rolled to a stop beside her.

  “Good. Just admiring the view.”

  “It is spectacular, isn’t it? I love it most when the seas are wild and stormy. So much drama and excitement, and then it all calms down again.”

  Was that a thinly veiled metaphor she wondered?

  “You have a beautiful home.”

  “Well, it’s not mine. This is Chase’s place. I’m just the guest who won’t leave.” She laughed. “So, you survived rehab and seeing Lucy and the kids. That’s a good start.”

  “I don’t know. It all feels so surreal.”

  “I can only imagine. You’re doing fine. This is a rather overwhelming return to reality by anyone’s standard. For what it’s worth, I’ve spent a lot of time with those kids and they do miss you and they do need you. They’re doing fine, sure, but kids need their mom.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Definitely.” CeCe gave her arm a squeeze. “Now come on in, I think the present opening is about to start.”

  She couldn’t quite imagine what they might need, but Minnie dutifully went in to find out and saw Marissa beckoning her over to sit beside her. She’d always been a sweet soul as teen. It appeared that Mike had finally noticed that she’d been in love with him forever. Smart guy.

  “Here, sit by me.” She patted the cushion beside her.

  “Thanks.”

  “It’s nice to see you. It’s been a while.”

  “It has.”

  “This is so exciting. They’re such a great couple.”

  Looking across at her beaming sister, she couldn’t help but agree. Chase was beside her looking at her with such devotion. Minnie wasn’t quite sure why the men were here at the party, but it was hardly her place to ask.

  “They look it.” What Minnie had come to know of Chase told her he was one of the good guys, and if anyone deserved that, it was her sister.

  “So, are you heading back to town after this?” Cherie pulled her back to the moment.

  The truth was she wasn’t a hundred percent what her plan was. She needed to be near the kids but not live with them right now. “I hope to.”

  “Well, I have an idea, then.”

  Minnie wasn’t sure how many new thoughts and ideas she could process today, but she gave Marissa her full attention regardless and it turned out it was lucky she did.

  Min sat in the backseat of Marissa and Mike’s car, grateful for the time to collect herself. That had been a rollercoaster ride of a day. So much had happened she wasn’t quite sure how to process it all.

  It was safe to say that her children wished she’d stayed wherever she had come from. It was funny how she’d thought she was well prepared for a good shunning, and yet when it happened, she really hadn’t been. They hadn’t embraced her but neither had they yelled or screamed. When she’d spoken, they’d looked bored. Katie could have entered the Olympics and gotten a gold medal in eye-rolling, if that were a sport, and the other two were so excited about the party, which to be fair was spectacular, that her existence had merely been a small inconvenience to them. Their focus was on presents and food and music and the people they knew, which she was not one of.

  For a brief moment, she’d been alone with Katie and she’d tried to apologize, but her daughter had shut her down with the standard teenage “whatever.”

  “I just want you to know I’m not here to cause trouble or mess up your life . . .”

  “Again. You left the word ‘again’ off that sentence. Whatever. You just do you. Isn’t that the new age approach to these things?”

  She hadn’t quite had a response ready for “you do you.” Who said that? Her daughter obviously. Her daughter who had no intention of engaging with her and who thought she should go back under whatever rock she’d crawled out from.

  “How are you doing back there?” Marissa swiveled in her seat to look at Min, her sweet face full of concern and compassion. Min wasn’t sure she deserved the latter, but she was grateful. Marissa and Mike were giving her a ride back to her hometown, the town where her kids now lived with her mother and partner and where Minnie herself expected to be sleeping on a sofa at least for tonight until she found a motel room.

  “I’m doing as well as I should be I guess.” She gave a shrug.

  “It’s only day one, right? These things take time.”

  Minnie gave a nod. “I’m not expecting a miracle. I just don’t want to make it worse for the kids, you know?”

  “Those kids are awesome,” Marissa assured her. “They just need time to adjust to you being back, and some confidence that their lives won’t be uprooted again. I mean, do you remember being a kid? So much stress that adults don’t even get and it’s just worse now.”

  “I know.” She did know. She knew what it was like to want your mother to sober up and fly straight. It had taken her own mother until Min and Lucy were adults to get herself together. That had been one of the surprises of the day, how well her mother looked and how happy she was. It was also amazing to see her with the kids; she was nothing like Min remembered her. She’d changed, which meant change was possible, and that was inspiring. And Lucy had forgiven their mother it seemed, so surely she’d forgive Min, too, in time.

  So, Minnie definitely knew the pitfalls of the awkward teen years where your parents were nothing but an embarrassment. And yet here she was, walking in her mother’s footsteps. She cringed at how easily she had fallen into the same traps and hoped she would avoid them now forever more.

  “So, my apartment is empty because Mike and I have moved to my folks’ old place. I thought maybe you’d like to stay there. It’s not opulently furnished right now, but the basics are there.”

  Min blinked back tears. “You’re offering me a place to stay?”

  “Sure, why not?” Marissa gave a shrug as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

  “I can’t . . . I mean . . .”

  Marissa leaned over and squeezed her knee. “I’m a big believer in paying it forward, down the track there’ll be someone you can help and you’ll do it. It makes no sense to leave that apartment empty when you need somewhere to stay.”

  “Okay, thank you, I was planning to check into a motel.”

  “Yeah well, you know what our town’s like, the motel options are pretty limited. Moose, Chloe’s boyfriend, you met her today, she runs the ice-cream parlor where your Katie now works and where Lucy did as a kid, anyway Moose is restoring the old Post Office to make a nice B and B, but it’s only about half done so far.” That was a lot to take in. “There are quite a few new things happening in town, there’s even a new bar . . . oh, oops.”

  “It’s okay, you’re allowed to mention a bar, I won’t break out in hives.” Minnie gave her a reassuring smile. The woman was giving her a place to live; she owed her a lot.

  “Okay, well, this former triathlete, Mitch Roberts has opened a bar, which is also a restaurant, and Sarah, Todd’s girlfriend, is opening a dance studio, you met her today, too. Her son is Oliver’s best friend; they play baseball together.”

  “They do everything together,” Mike corrected her, breaking his silence. He’s had a difficult relationship with his own mother, so he was a little less forgiving, it felt to Minnie, than Marissa.

  “Yeah, it’s a bromance.” Marissa laughed. “Anyway, your girls dance there at the studio, too. Anyway, there’s some good stuff happening in town, but motel options are still pretty bad.”

  It was weird to be talking to Marissa and Mike, whom she hadn’t seen since Lucy was a t
een, about her own children and have them know more about them than she did. On the other hand, it seemed like there were a lot of people who’d been keeping an eye on her kids in her absence. There was so much detail to take in, it was overwhelming.

  She’d think about it all later when she was settled in the apartment, and she suddenly felt better knowing she would have her own space.

  “Thank you. If you really don’t mind, I would love to take you up on your extremely generous offer.”

  She could hardly believe the apartment when she saw it. The place was in a renovated warehouse building and had a very urban feel for a small town. It was decorated in an eclectic collection of Marissa’s belongings, though it was obvious she’d already taken out a lot of things.

  “This is gorgeous,” she said, taking it all in.

  “I know. The rent is paid for another month, five weeks to be exact. It was going to cost almost as much to break the lease as keep paying it.”

  “I’ll pay you back,” Minnie assured her, though she had no real idea how.

  “Don’t worry about that. Just get settled and find your feet. Having a decent place to stay might make it an easier adjustment.”

  It was all a bit overwhelming. It had been a long time since she’d experienced kindness and she wasn’t sure she deserved it, but she hugged Marissa and thanked her before she left. She would find a way to repay her, that was for certain.

  Late that night, Minnie sat on the windowsill of Marissa’s condo gazing at the twinkling lights of her hometown below. If she followed the street lights, she could make out the house where her mother lived and where her children now slept, or so she hoped. It seemed unlikely that Katie, whose face had hardened at the sight of her mother and who hadn’t yet spoken to her, would be sleeping. Of all the kids, she knew Katie had borne the brunt of the bad behavior before Min left and the sting of abandonment. She was old enough to truly understand and to remember what life had been like before her father died.

  She pulled a throw around her shoulders tight. She couldn’t sleep. She was overstimulated, her brain reliving the day over and over. The flight from the south, Chase’s house, seeing the kids and their mixed reactions, the warm embrace of her mother, and the kindness she knew she didn’t deserve from people she barely knew.

  She wondered what Nick would think of all this. She’d met him at college, and he’d kept her life in order until his early death with cancer had seen it all unravel. She’d let him down, she knew that. She’d let everyone down. Still, this was her time to make amends; however long it took, she would show her family she was worthy of this second chance.

  Chapter 2

  Mitch had done his usual morning 10k road cycle—some days he kayaked and some he swam as well, today he’d just cycled. It was Sunday morning, and now that he ran a bar, his Saturday nights ran late. It wasn’t just getting people to leave at last drinks, but there was the cleanup and the lock up to do, too. He didn’t mind, in fact he was loving the new challenges the business brought him.

  You didn’t get to be a champion triathlete without liking a challenge. Still, six months after opening he was feeling restless. Mitch liked life in this small New Hampshire town, he’d made new friends, and his condo looked good, but there was something or maybe someone missing.

  It didn’t help that his ex had called yesterday, begging him to take her back. He missed Cheryl, that much was true, she’d been fun and they’d been together three years when he’d finally ended it. Still, leopards in his experience didn’t change their spots and Cheryl was a leopard of the cheating variety. When he was on the road, she got lonely apparently, and when she got lonely she made new friends, of the male variety. Mitch had always suspected this was true, but even when he’d given the circuit away and returned to New Jersey for good, Cheryl still needed more than just him, which he’d discovered in a rather confronting manner.

  “I promise you this time,” she’d said on the phone. He’d almost said yes. He was kind of lonely, and the female company would be nice. He missed being a part of a couple. Oh yeah, and he missed the sex. “I promise, baby.”

  She’s promised before, though. More than once. So, he’d hung up the phone and stayed strong. He’d made a no fraternization with the customers at work rule and the only place he met women was at the bar so he was going to have to find an alternative soon. That didn’t mean he couldn’t flirt, and he’d flirted his ass off last night, just to prove he still had it. It was ridiculous really, but it was also good for business.

  He had his back to the condo door as he pushed his bike through into the foyer and heard a yelp.

  He looked over his shoulder to see the pretty woman he’d just slammed his bike into.

  “I’m so sorry.” He turned to face her and apologize.

  “It’s fine. Neither of us was looking.” Her long blonde hair fell over one eye, she wore jeans and a simple long-sleeved gray T-shirt. She reminded him of someone but he couldn’t think who.

  “Are you hurt?”

  She shook her head. “No, I was surprised, that’s all. I’m fine. I shouldn’t have squealed.”

  “Apologies, I should have been looking, my bad, usually everyone is asleep in this building until they head to church a little later on. I’m used to coming and going without seeing a soul.”

  “Yeah, I’m crashing at Marissa’s place—Two B—for a while.”

  “Mitch, Two F.” He held out his hand and she took it.

  “I’m Minnie. Nice to meet you.” Her hand was small and soft in his, and he felt a jolt of something familiar there. She dropped his hand as quickly as she’d taken it, maybe she had felt it, too. “I have to run, have a good day.”

  She practically ran away from him. He couldn’t imagine where she’d be running to at seven on a Sunday morning, but it was none of his business. She was just his neighbor. Albeit, one with a very cute butt, he thought as she walked away. Maybe his new neighbor would be a nice distraction. There was something in his head, though, telling him he should know who she was and another little flash telling him whoever she was he should stay away. Either way, right now he was alone and heading for a cold shower and cup of coffee.

  Minnie was not allowed to be having lustful thoughts about her neighbor during her first AA meeting. That was not the sort of focus she needed today. She was in a room at the community center for the meeting her mother’s boyfriend Kevin was running. There were only four other people at the meeting and they were welcoming. She recognized at least one from growing up in this town, but the others were new and younger. Apart from polite greetings, she didn’t speak. She tried to keep her mind of the proceedings, to be present, but her mind kept returning to her handsome neighbor. That was not good. It was only her first meeting out. It was a relatively short meeting, and she stayed behind to help stack the few chairs that needed to be put away.

  “I was glad you came,” Kevin said as her turned off the urn in the corner. “Good for you.”

  “One day at a time.”

  “Exactly.” He loaded the cups and instant coffee and tea bags into a plastic tub that was obviously here for the group. “That’s all you can do, honey. Still, yesterday was a big day, you did well.”

  Her laugh was rueful. “I’m not sure everyone would agree.”

  “Actually, I think everyone except Katie would. It was really brave of you to come back and to own your behavior. People see that.”

  “Maybe.” She wasn’t so sure of anything right now. She was glad to be sober and healthy again, but she really doubted whether coming back was the best idea.

  “You think Chase would have backed you if he didn’t think so? You think Lucy would have had you stay or Marissa would have given you a place to stay? Lots of people have your back, Minnie.”

  “Thanks. I guess it’s been a while since anyone has been in my corner, and for the record, I do realize that is largely my own fault.”

  “Honey, one thing you’re going to learn about me is I’m not one
to lay blame. Anyone who has made as many mistakes as I have has no right. I just get up every day and try to do better.”

  Minnie looked over at him. He would have been handsome when he was young; she couldn’t help but wonder what path his own life might have taken without the mistakes. From all she’d been told about him, it was a lucky thing his path had intersected with her mother’s and that he was helping to support her kids.

  “Thank you for taking such diligent care of my kids.” She blinked back a tear or two.

  He shook his head at her. “No need for that. What have you got on today, then?”

  “I’m going to take a walk around town, get my bearings, get some groceries, make a plan, I guess. Maybe get coffee first.”

  “You can come by the house, you know, if you want,” Kevin offered.

  “I think I’ll give the kids today to adjust. They’ve had a big weekend,” she said as they headed out the door onto Main Street together.

  “Okay, but don’t leave it too long. They need to see you to get used to you and to believe you’re really here for them.”

  She headed down Main Street and wondered why else anyone would think that she’d be here. She couldn’t get out of town fast enough when she’d left for college, and she certainly wasn’t back by choice.

  By lunchtime, Minnie was back home and bored. Her fridge was full of groceries; her meager bag of belongings was unpacked. Marissa’s house had sat empty so she’d even given it a proper clean, but now there was nothing to do. Marissa had told her to use anything she wanted so Minnie decided to take the retro bike in the corner of the room out for a ride. It was too nice a day to be inside, and being bored gave her too much thinking time and that was not good. She’d need to find a hobby, something to do with her hands. This was the first day in a long time she’d been under her own charge and she should make the most of it.

  She rolled her bike into the hallway and glanced toward 2F. Her new neighbor Mitch was cute. She gave her head a shake. No eyeballing the neighbors.