Old Flames

Old Flames: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Lainie could not believe her ears...or her eyes.  She just stared at her mother.  This woman raised two children of her own.  Surely, she knew to keep her eyes on a four-year-old.  "What happened?" Lainie asked through clenched teeth.

"We were sitting inside the pen," Genna Moon explained, wringing her fingers together, "and Chloe put a rabbit in my lap, and then went back to get another that was hiding in the straw.  When I looked up, she was gone.  That man over there at the gate said he let a little girl out not too long ago."

Relieved that her mother was innocent of any wrong doing and feeling guilty that she immediately accused her, Lainie glared at the man by the gate.  He was only in his early twenties and had that look of incompetence about him.  "You let a four-year-old girl out of the pen without an adult?" she hissed at him.  "What the hell were you thinking?"

Beside her, Chris' jaw flapped open at her minor use of a cuss word, and Aaron put a comforting hand on her shoulder.  The man just pointed to a sign that said, We are not responsible for the welfare of you children.  "Sorry, ma'am," he said, "the little girl said she needed to go get something.  She couldn't have gone far anyway."

Lainie took a threatening step forward, but Aaron restrained her with firm pressure to her shoulder.  "Hang on there, Lainie, let's not do anything stupid."

She slowly turned to him.  "I was only going to put him out of his misery.  It's humane."

Aaron smiled at her.  "Let's concentrate on finding Chloe right now.  I'll call into the security booth and give them her description.  Then we'll split up and search the different areas."  Lainie could only stand there and let him take control of the situation.  Of course, she needed to concentrate on finding her daughter.  But it was just so difficult to ignore the temptation of blaming someone and beating the ever-loving breath out of him.  Mainly the smirking jack-hole at the petting zoo gate.

Right now, at that very instant, she just couldn't get over the fact that her life was an utter mess...and she wanted to blame someone -- anyone -- for what had become of her family.  Her husband was dead, she lived in a two-bedroom house, alone, with her young children, she hated her job right now, her mother needed more looking-after than the twins, and her neighbor/ex-boyfriend was confusing her heart and mind up into a jumbled pile of total...confusion.

But who was at fault for the way things had become?  Surely, it wasn't any of them.  And as much as she wanted to cast blame to her deceased husband, it wouldn't do any good since she'd have to dig up his body before she could smack him one.

Gary.  It always seemed to circle back to Gary.  Lainie knew that things changed in their marriage, but she didn't know if she changed, or if he did.  In college, when she was dreaming big dreams of becoming a world-renowned author and editor, Gary seemed like the perfect choice for a husband.  He was smart, computer-savvy, and just good-looking enough to make her smile without worrying if they were too mismatched.

Glancing at Aaron as he talked into a portable radio to the security booth, she noticed the differences between the men.  Aaron, with his charming grin, mesmerizing sea-green eyes, and easy-going nature, was the epitome of Lainie's life before her mother's affair with Mr. Dozier.  After that sordid episode, Lainie became distant, more reckless, and quite a bit bitter.  Then in walked Gary.  Everything that Aaron wasn't, and vice versa. 

Lainie remembered that she started dating Gary to spite Aaron, even going so far as bringing Gary back home during holiday breaks and showing him off through the small functions that both the Moons and Doziers frequented.  Somewhere along the way, she fell in love with Gary, but whether she made herself fall in love, or it happened all on its own, she refused to dissect that far into her marriage.  She loved him, once upon a time, and that was all there was to it.