Page 10 of Kissed by Her Ex

Charity gestured in the direction of the outlet mall. “I can go meet her.”

Why was his approach making her so nervous? He slowed to a stop, seeming to notice she was staring at something behind him. When he glanced back over his shoulder, people turned around, pretending they were minding their own business.

“It’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving,” he said. “And church is out now.”

Church didn’t affect it all that much. Not this time of year, anyway. Vacationers flocked to Misty Mountain’s outlet mall as a Christmas shopping alternative to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, which were jam packed with shoppers the weekend after Thanksgiving. They’d come to town, get a cabin up in the mountains, and spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shopping and enjoying the growing list of attractions on the strip. Anyone who’d lived here their entire lives like she had should know the mall was nowhere to go on Thanksgiving weekend.

“We’ll just swing through and meet her outside the knife store,” he said.

Her eyebrows arched at those words. There was a knife store in the outlet mall?

And besides, where had his mom gotten hot cocoa cups? Were they sold at the outlet mall?

“Let’s go,” she blurted.

Not until they were seat belted in and she’d shifted into park did something hit her. His truck was parked in this very lot.

“Couldn’t you go meet your mom yourself?” she asked. Her hands were trembling as she pulled out of the spot she’d chosen near the float designed to look like a giant tooth.

“I’m blocked in,” he said, gesturing to his left. “We were just discussing how we could get everyone out of the way so I could squeeze out. I didn’t want to send a stranger over to meet my mom.”

She pulled to a stop at the church exit, looking left and right. There was no traffic heading toward town, but there was a long line going in the direction of the interstate on-ramp. Sunday was the big day for visitors to go home.

“It’s still a small town.” She pulled onto the main road. “You could trust just about any of them to run over there. But yeah, I get what you mean.”

Something else hit her as the sign for the outlet mall came into view. She hadn’t seen his mom since high school. She wasn’t sure how that was possible, aside from the fact that the Winters family had never been very active in the Misty Mountain community. His mom wasn’t a fan of tourist attractions. She preferred franchise restaurants and shops.

“Is your sister with your mom?” she asked, her heart starting to race again.

She wasn’t just facing time with her ex, but seeing his family again, too. What did they think of her? He’d been the one to dump her, so it wasn’t like they could be mad at her for hurting their son. If anything, they should sympathize with her.

“Yeah…”

That one word was all he said, but it was packed with emotion. Frustration, exasperation, words he wasn’t quite going to say but was definitely thinking. She didn’t want to pry.

“My sister wanted to get all of her Christmas shopping done in one day,” he said. “Oneafternoon, actually. She does most of it online, but she’s kind of involved in her work. She moves at triple speed.”

That didn’t surprise Charity one bit. Natalia Winters had been an overachiever from the time she’d come out of the womb, practically. She was four years older than Nic, so she’d been away at college by the time he and Charity started dating. But she’d moved away like most of the kids did after high school graduation.

“What is it your sister does now?” she asked.

“Attorney in D.C.,” he said. “She loves it, but she seems to always have her nose buried in her laptop. Take a right here.”

They’d turned into the outlet mall and were approaching the point where they had to choose to go straight or hang a left. Charity slowed and flipped on her left turn signal.

“I guess that kind of stinks when you’re all supposed to be spending time together,” she said.

She could certainly sympathize. Her sisters hadn’t even come home for Thanksgiving. Faith was in Europe and Ana was starting some big project Monday in Hawaii. Her mom was disappointed, even if she didn’t show it.

“There she is,” Nic suddenly said.

Charity expected to see Nic’s mom and sister standing there, but instead, it was just his mom. She had a big smile on her face and a Santa hat on her head. Charity would bet there was a Christmas sweater under that beige down coat.

Ignoring the hammering of her heart, Charity pulled to a stop near the curb. Why was she so nervous about seeing her ex-boyfriend’s mom again? It was just weird.

Nic had the window down before she’d even come to a full stop. “Hey Mom,” he said.

She walked toward the car. A smile covered her face, but her head was tilted like she wasn’t sure what she was seeing.