Chapter 1
I was ready to hang up with my daughter when she interrupted the goodbyes. �Um�mom? I�ve got something I�ve been meaning to tell
you.�
�What is that honey?�
�Well, I�ve met someone. His name is Brandon and we�ve been going out now for a couple months. Mom, I really like him.�
�That�s great dear! Why didn�t you tell me this before?�
�You know exactly why I didn�t tell you before. Whenever I tell you I�ve got a new boyfriend, you want to meet him and then you
proceed to pick him apart. I wanted to make sure he wasn�t just a couple of date kind of guy before I told you about him.�
I laughed at what she said. She was right. In her 22 years, she had been through numerous boyfriends and I was always the one that
pointed out the bad points about them � too pushy, too conceded, too narrow-minded, too loud, too ugly�the list goes on and on.
�You�ve got a point Jessica. So, when are you going to bring him around so your old mom can meet him and pick him apart?�
�I don�t know. I was thinking this weekend. Are you doing anything on Saturday afternoon?�
�Um�don�t think so. I�ll pencil you in.�
�Gee, thanks mom. How about 1:00, does that sound okay?�
�Sure hun. Mark was going to come over with Stephanie and Jason, but he had to go out of town on business. At least I�ll be able to
see one of my kids that day.�
�Okay, well we�ll see you on Saturday then. Love you.�
�Love you too. Bye.�
I hung up the phone and smiled as I petted Jazzy, one of my huskies. I was glad to know that Jessica has met someone. After the
fiasco with Stephen, her last boyfriend, she had stayed out of the dating scene for a while and it was good for her to get back into it
again. It wasn�t like she couldn�t have gotten into the scene much sooner, Jessica was a beautiful girl with her medium length auburn
red hair and gorgeous green eyes. And it will be good to see her again. Since she moved out at 18 to go to college, she and I seem to
constantly have conflicting schedules and it was hard for us to get together as much as we�d like to have our mother/daughter time. We
had always been close � sometimes more like best friends than mother and daughter. When she would come home from college, we would
sit up all night and just talk�I really miss those times. Now that she had her dream job of a nurse, there seemed to be even less time
for that.
Kent, Mark and Jessica�s father, and I got divorced when Mark was 16 and Jessica was 13. It really put a strain on the relationship I
had with Mark for a long time, but seemed to bring Jessica and I closer together. At that time, Mark felt the divorce was my fault.
It really wasn�t either mine nor Kent�s fault�we just fell out of love. Unfortunately, it happens. We both still love each other and
keep in contact, but being married to one another just wasn�t working for either of us anymore. After the divorce, Kent moved into a
house only about a mile away so that he was able to keep in close contact with the kids. I believe that made everything easier for all
of us. This happened almost nine years ago, but yet it seems as though it was yesterday. Kent has since gotten remarried to Terri, a
long-time friend of both of ours, and she is now five months pregnant with their first child. I, on the other hand, have pretty much
kept myself out of serious relationships. It�s not that I never want to be in one, it�s just that since opening the animal sanctuary, there
just hasn�t been any time.
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