Operation Get Rid of Mom's New Boyfriend (6 page)

“
A love like the love Daddy
had in his heart for Mommy before he died?” Joy asked in an
understanding tone.

“
Si. Yes, sweetie,” Rachel
said, rubbing Joy’s cheek gently with the backside of her hand.
“You girls mean so much to your mother and she loves you back so
very mucho. Wouldn’t trade you for the world, trust me; I’ve tried
to barter with her for you guys before. ‘Give ‘em to me just one
weekend,’ I told her, ‘and I’ll swap you my BMW.”

The girls halfheartedly
laughed.

“
So, Miss Rachel,” Kennedy
cut to the chase, “are you trying to tell us that our mother has
met a…” Kennedy could barely get the word out. She took a deep
gulp. “A…our mother has met a… a man?” she almost gagged, grabbing
at her throat.

“
Not just any man,” Rachel
said, “but a really nice and kind man.” Rachel examined the girls’
faces in order to try to get a feel of what emotions they were
going through. They weren’t overly excited for their mother’s
newfound love, that was for sure. “But it’s not going to change the
love she has for you girls. Nothing can take away from
that.”

“
Not even a really nice and
kind man?” Joy said, needing confirmation.

“
No, not
even a really nice, kind
and
handsome man,” Rachel smiled as she began fanning
herself. “Because let me tell you, he’s one hot tamale.” Once
Rachel realized the company she was keeping was young girls, she
got her hormones back under control.

“
Look, Miss Rachel,”
Kennedy sighed. “We stay at home by ourselves everyday after
school, so I know you weren’t here to just sit with us. Looks like
your job is done, so you can go now.”

Rachel sighed. She really
did feel for the girls. She wanted them to be happy, but at the
same time she wanted the same for her best friend. “You sure,
‘cause I don’t mind staying?” Rachel said.

“
We’re sure,” Kennedy
announced verbally. “Besides, I think me and my sisters need some
girl time just to ourselves.”

“
Alright then.” Rachel
stood up from the table and placed her bowl into the sink. “Call me
if you girls ever need anything.” Rachel gave each girl a kiss on
the head and then made her way out of the kitchen, down the foyer,
and out of the front door. The girls heard the door close behind
her.

There was a full minute of
silence before either girl spoke. Then finally, Kennedy broke the
silence. “That explains all those plans and why we’ve been eating
frozen pizza twice a week for the last three months.”

“
It explains everything,”
Daryn said before running down a brief list. “The short hellos when
she comes in from work, the off-key humming.”

“
And forgetting to buy
ice-cream!” Joy exclaimed as if that was the most important of
their mother’s, what they saw as, shortcomings.

“
Well, I know one thing
it’s time for this so-called nice and kind man to forget about,”
Kennedy proclaimed.

“
What?” Daryn
asked.

“
Our mother!”

Chapter Seven

Soul Mates

Although Sammi had gone out
with her new admirer several times, she was still jittery about
their date tonight. She stood outside the restaurant while her date
sat inside waiting for her. Being the prompt man that he was, she
knew he was already inside. He had never been late to any of their
dates; always showing up first. In addition to that, she had seen
his midnight blue Excursion parked in the parking lot.

Sammi took a deep breath
and then nervously began twisting her wedding ring ‘round and
‘round. It was a habit of hers that she did subconsciously whenever
she was tense or nervous. It went unnoticed by most, but not by
Kennedy, Daryn and Joy. They always knew when their mother was on
edge about something because of her tale-tell sign.

Next, Sammi started
straightening out the invisible wrinkles that she had thought
sitting in the car with her seatbelt on might have created in her
dark, navy blue dress. She then fidgeted with the doily like
pattern that trimmed the neck and the sleeves of the dress. After
letting out a deep breath, Sammi lifted her head up high and
strutted into the restaurant.

“
Welcome to the Olive
Garden,” the hostess said upon Sammi walking through the
door.

Sammi loved the atmosphere
of the Italian eatery. Although she hadn’t been there in years, she
still remembered its romantic ambiance. It just so happened that
the Olive Garden was the place where the girls’ father had proposed
to her, and the place where they had enjoyed almost every wedding
anniversary dinner together thereafter up until his
death.

That is where her
nervousness had derived. Until tonight, this had been just “their
place”; hers and the man she had been married to for almost fifteen
years. Now, here she was entertaining another fellow on sacred
ground. Sammi almost felt as if she was being disloyal to her
deceased husband. So if she felt this way, she could only imagine
how her daughters might feel about the situation. Let Rachel tell
it, the girls would not be too thrilled. At least that’s what she
had determined from their girl time the other day.

At that moment, as she
stood in the restaurant, Sammi wished she had just been open and
honest with her date when he suggested that they have dinner there.
She wished she’d just told him the truth and suggested another
location for them to dine at. Maybe she should have even lied and
told him that she didn’t like Italian food. But the last thing she
wanted to do was to start off a relationship with a lie. A little
lie it may have been, but a lie nonetheless. Besides, what Italian
didn’t like Italian food whether they were born in Italy or not?
And the truth, well Sammi felt that telling her date the truth
might have scared him off.

She didn‘t want him to
think that she was just some widow holding onto her past. Her
intentions were not to have the new man in her life feel as though
he had to compete with anyone; and that meant from her past or
present. On top of that, she didn’t want the new man in her life to
feel as though she was so consumed with thoughts of the girls’
father, that there wouldn’t be any room in her heart to ever love
another man. That would be the furthest thing from the
truth.

Sammi had plenty of room in
her heart. From the moment Bo Hart ran into Sammi, she knew there
was something special about him. Run into her is what he did,
literally. In the process of not watching where he was going and
running into her, he’d smashed his tuna croissant sandwich from
downtown Columbus Ohio’s newest eatery against her
blouse.

When he’d asked Sammi how
he could repay her for the ruined blouse, Rachel had jumped in and
suggested he take her out to dinner. At first, Sammi could have
strangled Rachel for putting her on the spot like that. And now,
six dates after their first one, not only was she grateful for her
best friend setting them up, but she was excited and ready for date
number seven.

“
How many will be in your
party tonight?” the young man standing behind the wooden podium
that read Olive Garden said to Sammi.

“
Well, actually, I’m
meeting someone,” Sammi replied.

“
A gentleman? Mr. Hart?” a
girl wearing her work attire walked up and asked Sammi.

“
Yes,” Sammi
replied.

“
I’ve seated Mr. Hart
already. He told me he was waiting on his girlfriend,” the girl
relayed. “You can follow me.”

Girlfriend?
Sammi thought as she followed the hostess. She
wasn’t really sure how many times a girl had to go out with a guy
before she became his girlfriend. She had to admit, though, she
liked the sound of it. And if she were going to be anybody’s
girlfriend, she’d want it to be Bo’s.

The girl led Sammi through
the restaurant until they came upon a nice little table for two,
which is where Bo was seated, waiting on his lovely
date.

“
Good evening, darling,” Bo
said, standing to go pull out Sammi’s chair. “You look lovely.” He
kissed her on the cheek as she sat down.

“
Thank you,” Sammi blushed.
“You’re looking quite charming as well.” Sammi admired Bo’s dark,
creamy skin that looked as though he had never had to fight off a
pimple a day in his life.

“
I ordered you a Shirley
Temple,” Bo told her as he returned to his seat.

For a moment there, Sammi
froze up. Whenever she and her late husband would dine out, for
some reason she’d always go to the bathroom before getting
comfortably seated. And that always seemed to be when the waiter
would come to take their drink orders. When she’d return, her
husband would inform her that he had ordered her a Shirley Temple,
which was her favorite drink when dining out.

“
What’s wrong?” Bo
inquired, noticing the chilled look on Sammi’s face. “Did you want
something different?”

“
Oh, no, a Shirley Temple
is fine,” Sammi assured him.

“
Good,” Bo said, as he
relaxed in his chair and looked at her with his hazel eyes. “I
noticed that on all of our other dates, that’s what you ordered. So
I took the liberty. I hope you don’t mind.”

“
Not at all,” Sammi
smiled.

Just then, the waitress
came over to the table with their drink orders.

“
Here you are, sir.” The
waitress sat Bo’s Coke down in front of him. “And for your wife,
the Shirley Temple.”

“
Oh, I’m not his wife.”
Sammi smiled as she accepted her glass from the
waitress.

The waitress looked down at
Sammi’s wedding finger only to notice the sparkling wedding ring.
She then looked over to Bo’s wedding finger, which remained
ringless. “Oh,” she said, giving them both a disapproving look.
With a slight attitude she told them, “I’ll be back to take your
orders in a little bit,” and then walked away with her nose so far
up in the air, it’s a wonder how she managed not to run into
something.

Sammi and Bo waded in a
pool of uncomfortable silence for a moment. It was obvious Bo was a
little uncomfortable by the way he first rubbed his hands over his
bald head, then played around with his perfectly trimmed
goat-tee.

Sammi finally broke the
silence. “What was her problem?” Sammi asked, knowing darn well
what the problem was. She was wearing a wedding ring and her date
wasn’t. On the outside looking in, it appeared as though somebody
was a cheat; her being that somebody.

Bo sighed, and then placed
his hand on top of Sammi’s hand, the one with the wedding ring on
it. “Sammi, sweetheart, I was thinking; maybe we should uh, you
know, take our relationship to the next level,” Bo told
her.

Sammi slid her hand from
underneath Bo’s and instantly began twisting her wedding ring
around. “The next level?” Sammi asked with a huge gulp. “What do
you mean by that?”

She figured that since he’d
told the hostess that she was his girlfriend, then that’s probably
what he meant by the next level. He wanted to make it official. He
wanted to ask Sammi to be his girlfriend.

Bo paused as if he had some
nervousness of his own to tend to and then he said, “We’ve been out
on several dates. We’ve talked on the phone at night until the wee
hours in the morning; just like teenagers. We write each other cute
little letters…and neither of us thinks it’s corny.” He chuckled
nervously.

Sammi chuckled as well,
thinking about all the letters the two had written each other. They
were like kids in a classroom who couldn’t wait until after class
to talk, so they wrote letters and passed them behind the teacher’s
back.

“
I haven’t really dated
since my ex-wife and I divorced three years ago,” Bo stated. “And I
know you said that you haven’t dated since your husband passed.
Maybe we just never dated because we never met that person that
truly interests us; that soul mate.” He paused. “I can only speak
for myself, but I feel all that has changed. It changed that day in
the deli when I smashed my Tuna sandwich all over your blouse.” Bo
let out another nervous laugh as he held onto the courage to
continue speaking.

Sammi’s heart melted inside
with Bo’s kind and sincere words.

“
So, like I said, I feel
it’s time for us to go to the next level.”

“
The next level?” is all
Sammi could reply as she tried to force a smile on her face to hide
her own nervousness.

“
Yes,” Bo said, staring
into Sammi’s eyes and then taking both her hands into his. “Sammi
Soul, I think you are a very special woman. You are someone I could
see myself enjoying all of my days with. I only hope you are
getting as serious about me as I am about you. And with that being
said…” Bo exhaled and then finally said it. “I think it’s time I
meet your daughters.”

Chapter Eight

Guess Who’s Coming to
Dinner?

“
Turn back!” Joy shouted.
She had been in the den sitting on the couch watching television
peacefully; that was until Kennedy entered the room.

Kennedy had just picked up
the remote and turned the channel as if no one else was even in the
room.