Tiptoe Kisses

Chapter 45

Thanks @rowlandsmith for your passionate narration of the chapters in the comments field and your encouragement.  You came along just at the right time to give me inspiration. 

Chapter 45 

Taylor makes a final turn off the interstate.  She’s driven a few miles when she realizes she doesn’t see very many people or cars on the road.  There are a lot of bordered up empty factories on each side of the streets.  She’s unable to tell if other buildings she sees are operational or open.   She can see smoke peering out of a building just ahead of her.   Maybe that’s it.  She brought some of her shoe sketches with her.  She’s already formed a partial plan. 

She has to know if this place is creating shoes from her designs.  She started putting the pieces together months ago but tried to shut out what she was thinking until Santo brought her that jewelry box forcing her to face the truth.  Now she needs answers, she needs to know why and she’s sure the answers are in this shoemaking factory.  

She hasn’t figured out what she’s going to say to them yet.  She doesn’t have a cease and desist order if they are illegally making her shoes.  She hasn’t worked out how she’s going to get them to show the shoes to her.  She’s always been spontaneous and winged it in tight situations.  Sometimes it gets her into trouble, sometimes she gets the most wonderful surprises but it’s the only way she knows to live her life.  She’s not going to change anything, it’s how she ended up with a virile gorgeous six-two Italian boyfriend getting her pregnant and she’s okay with how her life has turned out.  

She wishes her mother was here.  Part of the reason she has to come here is to ask questions she needs answered about her.  Her mother gave her every stone she had in that jewelry box.  The circumstances behind her death always bothered Taylor.  They never caught the person driving the other car.  She knows that Julian hired a private investigator to try to find out what happened and although there was suspicious evidence it never amounted to an arrest of anyone.   

She ponders what she should do next.  She’s come this far, she’s about to enter a new chapter of her life.  Whether it’s the right decision or the wrong one she can no longer have this hanging over her head.  

These people will probably call the police on her or if they have something to hide they could contact Nathan wherever he is.  This is not one of her brighter ideas to get answers it looks like trouble.  She needs to let somebody know where she is.  Santo will definitely yell at her she’s not calling him yet.  

Maybe she can call Darcy back and get her and Wilton to meet her here.  She should have told Santo the truth of what she is feeling about her mother and father but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.  He’s already too involved in all of this.  She has to be sure before she involves him any further. 

Making a right turn into a parking lot she pulls into the first empty parking space across from a black jaguar.   

Either she’s got gas or baby Donati is kicking her.   She didn’t want to know the sex of the baby but Rhea and Celine keep telling her it’s a boy and she has been collecting and looking at pictures of nurseries.  Now she wants to know for sure.  She’s anxious to buy things for the baby.  She finally agreed with Santo to go find out, they have an appointment on Tuesday with her doctor.     

She will sit here and wait for Darcy and Wilton to get here.   Yeah, that’s the plan.  Reaching for her cellphone she knocks it accidently on the floor.  She can’t reach it with her growing belly.  She’s twenty weeks now.  She opens the car door getting out.  While standing in the parking lot she looks around at the side of the building there’s a small sign near a side door, she can’t read it.