When the Heart Falls (15 page)

“
I’ll be fine once I get to say what I have to say to that piece of shit,” he took a deep breath and sighed. “I guess I’m gonna go make a pot of coffee. Your mother should be getting up soon. You planning on telling her what happened?”

Misty shrugged and said, “Hadn’t planned on telling either one of you. My life’s been such a mess here lately and I didn’t want you guys worrying about one more thing.”

Jack leaned over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He gave her a gentle hug and kissed her forehead. He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “Don’t ever be scared to tell me or your mother anything, ever. We love you and we’re here for you no matter what.” He smiled and patted her shoulder, then stood up from the couch and walked toward the kitchen.

She was just about to push the play button on the remote when Jack turned in her direction and asked, “Hey Mis, is Dylan still planning on coming over tomorrow to go horseback riding with you?”

“
I think so. Why do you ask?” she asked a little confused.

“
Good to know. Just wanted to personally thank him for what he did. He’s a good kid. Always polite, hard worker, and knows how to treat a lady. Now he’s the type of guy you should be with,” Jack said, pointing a finger in her direction and then turned to walk into the kitchen.

She sat there for a moment and absorbed the words he said. And when she was sure he was out of ear shot, she took a deep breath and sighed. “I know.”

CHAPTER 13

“
Vance!” Trent yelled as he stormed through the back door. “Vance, where the hell are you?”

He bounded up the stairs, stomping his foot on each one as he climbed them. He quickly made his way down the hallway and stopped at Vance’s bedroom door.

“
Boy, are you in there?” he yelled as he turned the knob only to find it locked.

Trent pounded on the door yelling for Vance to open it immediately. When Vance didn’t respond, Trent took a step back, lifted his foot, and kicked the door in. It swung back and forth on the hinges as Trent entered the room. A young blonde woman screamed at Trent’s forceful entry and quickly pulled the covers up around her naked body. Vance leaned over the side of the bed and grabbed his jeans from the floor.

“
You,” Trent said, pointing at the blonde. “Get out.”

She quickly got out of the bed, keeping the sheet wrapped around her and collected her articles of clothing from the floor. She ran out of the room as Vance was pulling his jeans up over his hips, fastening them but leaving the belt undone.

“
What the hell was all that about, Pop?” Vance asked heatedly.

“
What happened at the Donovan ranch?” Trent asked as he took a step toward Vance. His face and neck were so red from being furious with Vance that it almost took on a shade of purple.

“
I got fired,” Vance stated frankly.

“
Why?” Trent asked through clenched teeth.

“
I think you know why,” Vance told him as he ran his hand through his hair and stretched.

“
Boy, I asked you why! Now tell me!”

“
Okay, okay. Things didn’t go as well with the daughter as I would have liked them to. I didn’t get my way, got mad and roughed her up a little bit. Her Daddy didn’t take to kindly to that so he fired me. No big deal,” Vance explained.

“
No big deal?” Trent mocked. “It’s a very big deal. I needed you and Hank both to take care of things around there and now I have to rely on Hank alone. This puts a big dent in my plans to take over you selfish son of a bitch!” Trent yelled and backhanded Vance’s face.

Vance looked at his father with a shocked expression. His face turned to anger as he took a step toward Trent and shoved him backward. “You better watch how you treat me, old man!” Vance warned. “I’m way younger than you and in better shape. I have no problem with kicking your ass!”

“
You watch your tone, boy, or I’ll cut you out of my will so fast your head will spin,” Trent threatened. “Get dressed and get downstairs. Hank will be here in an hour and we’re going to come up with a new plan now that you’ve gone and messed up the first one.” Trent turned and walked out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Vance let out an angry huff and slammed his fist down on the mattress. Nobody was going to get away with treating him like that; not even his own father.

“
Self-centered bastard has another thing coming,” Vance mumbled under his breath and stomped off to the shower to wash the smell of that blonde’s perfume from his skin.

*** 

“
Yes, can I speak to Mr. Bruce Cox please?” Misty said into the cordless phone as she paced the living room floor.

“
One moment please,” the lady’s voice on the other end said.

Misty waited in silence and fiddled with a few of her mother’s knick knacks on a shelf as she waited for her lawyer to answer her call.

“
Bruce Cox speaking,” a gruff voice answered.

“
Mr. Cox, this is Misty Prescott. I’m returning your phone call from Friday.”

“
Ah yes, Mrs. Prescott. I was calling to let you know that I’ve completed your divorce papers,” he told her.

“
Oh, thank you very much sir.” A huge grin spread across her face. 
One step closer to being done with Brad for forever
, she thought. “What’s the next step from here?” she asked.

“
Well, we’ll need to set up a court date where you and Mr. Prescott can come and sign the papers. Once you’ve done that the judge will declare your divorce final and then you two can be on your separate ways,” he explained.

“
I see,” she said. “And when do you think the court date will be?”

“
Well, seeing as you have a pretty cut and dry divorce I would say the soonest we could get the two of you in would be the first week of July,” he said.

“
That’s two weeks from now. That seems awfully quick,” she said, a little shocked at how soon this all would actually be happening.

“
If you’re unsure we can always wait,” he added.

“
No no, two weeks is perfect,” she quickly stated.

“
Alright then. Are you still comfortable with all the terms we agreed upon when we first spoke?” he asked, sounding a little unsure.

She knew what he must have been thinking. “
This woman is crazy for not taking this man to the cleaners. Caught him red handed cheating. She could get a nice settlement and here she doesn’t want anything.”

“
Yes sir, still same agreement. All I want is my maiden name back. He can keep everything else,” she said.

“
Very well, then. I’ll be in touch with you in a few days to give you the court date.”

“
Wonderful, I’ll look forward to your call. Have a nice day, Mr. Cox.”

“
Same to you, Mrs. Prescott,” he told her and then she heard the phone go silent.

Mrs. Prescott.
 Hopefully, that would be the last time she ever heard that horrible name ever again. Two more weeks and then she’d be a free woman. The thought excited her but scared her at the same time. She wanted nothing more than for her marriage to be over. But, having to start all over again was starting to become a scary realization. She couldn’t very well live with her parents forever. She’d need to find a place of her own. That, of course, would require money and that was something she really didn’t have a whole lot of at the moment. She sighed and walked over to the table by the recliner to put the phone back on its charger. She walked into the kitchen and stood next to Maggie at the counter who was peeling potatoes.

“
Want some help?” Misty asked.

“
Sure, darlin’. There’s another peeler in the drawer over there,” Maggie said, nodding her head in the direction of the drawer.

Misty walked over, opened the drawer and sifted through the many kitchen utensils that the drawer held until she finally found the peeler. She returned to stand next to Maggie and took up peeling potatoes.

“
So what did your lawyer have to say?” Maggie asked.

“
He said that he was done with my divorce papers and that everything can be final in about two weeks. He’s gonna call back toward the end of the week with the date,” she said as she stared blankly at her hands peeling the potato.

“
Well, that’s great news,” Maggie said enthusiastically. “But somehow you don’t seem excited about it.”

“
Oh I am. It’s just that I’m nervous, that’s all,” Misty said as she started to peel another potato.

“
Nervous? About what?” her mother asked, a little confused.

“
About starting over. About being alone for the rest of my life,” Misty blurted out.

“
Oh, Misty, don’t be ridiculous. You aren’t going to be alone for the rest of your life,” Maggie said reassuringly but chidingly at the same time.

“
Oh really? And how can you be so sure?”

“
Because, Mis, you are a beautiful young woman; both on the outside and on the inside. Any man would be lucky to have you.”

“
What if I find the right man, Mom, but I end up too scared to make anything of it?” Misty asked and waited patiently for her mother to respond.

Maggie stopped peeling potatoes, wiped her hands on a dish towel and turned toward Misty.

“
Sit down, baby,” she said. She ushered Misty to the table and each of them took seats. Maggie laid her hand over Misty’s and smiled. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that your life will be like a fairytale. There are no prince charmings or knights in shining armor. Life is hard but we learn to get through it and live it the best we can. There is a wonderful ordinary man out there who is just perfect for you. You can’t let the things of the past mess with your future, sweetie. I think that when the right man comes into your life that you’ll know it, and he’ll make it very easy for you not to be scared to fall in love again.”

“
But how will I know he’s the right one? I thought Brad was the right one, and it turns out he definitely wasn’t. I thought Vance could’ve been the one, but we know where that went. What’s going to make this man stand out from all of the others?” Misty asked, hoping her mother would just give her a straight forward answer.

“
It’s hard to tell exactly how he’ll stand out from the others, but you’ll be sure to notice. Sometimes the things that are just right for us are staring us right in the face and we don’t even know it,” Maggie said and squeezed Misty’s hand before getting up and going back to the counter.

Misty sat there for a minute, soaking up the words her mother had just told her. She had a funny feeling where her mother was going with the 
staring us right in the face
 comment. As soon as the words came out of Maggie’s mouth Misty pictured Dylan’s face. She wasn’t sure why she was being so stubborn and why she just wouldn’t give him a chance. He was nothing like Vance or Brad. So why did she keep that thought in the back of her mind? What had he done to even make her think to put him in the same category as them? Nothing. There was no logical reason why she shouldn’t give him a chance. And yet, she just couldn’t bring herself to take that leap.

The endless thoughts running through her mind started to give her a headache. She needed a break from reality. She needed to get away and just be alone for a while to collect her thoughts and figure things out. She pushed her chair away from the table and walked toward the stairs.

“
Where are you going?” Maggie asked.

“
I’m gonna go take a shower and then I think I’m going to drive into town for a little bit,” Misty said as she went to take a step on the staircase.

“
What are you going to do in town?” Maggie asked curiously.

“
I don’t know really. Maybe I’ll go see a movie,” Misty said in an unsure tone.

“
By yourself?” Maggie asked confused.

“
Yea, I think I want to be alone for a while,” she explained.

“
Ok then. You going to eat dinner before you go?”

“
No I’ll grab some popcorn at the theater.”

“
Alright. You want us to wait up for you?”

“
No that’s ok. I’ll say bye to you and Dad before I leave and I’ll see you in the morning.”

“
Ok, Mis,” Maggie said and went back to making dinner.

Misty walked up the steps slowly and kept the same pace walking down the hall to her room. She went through her clothes and decided on a pair of dark jeans, a red halter top, and a new pair of red cowboy boots. Maybe once the movie was over she’d stop by the bar and have a drink or two to help her calm her thoughts. She took her bag of toiletries and headed off to the bathroom to get showered and ready for her night out alone.