Free Russell's Return by J.J. Ellis

they did grow up
together so maybe that counted as knowing her well?
    Emily finished chewing
before she said anything. “First, you aren’t boring me.” She wished he would
stop thinking like that. She actually found his life quite interesting. 
“And second, I take it Vivienne is your wife.”
    Russell smirked. “Ex-wife.
And yeah that’s who I was talking about.”
    Emily laughed at his
expression. “She doesn’t sound like a very agreeable person. She doesn’t like
Miranda’s difficulties, she doesn’t like your favorite pizza even to look
at.”  Emily shook her head. “Was there anything the woman did like?”
    Russell paused staring at
Emily and then burst into laughter. He laughed so hard he almost choked on his
iced tea. It took him a moment to compose himself before he could speak again.
“You know, now that I think of it, there wasn’t much that Vivienne Deveraux
Harper liked. She hated Wyoming, she hated nature, she hated any pizza that
didn’t have some weird gourmet cheese on it, she didn’t like houses that were
under 3,000 square feet, she didn’t like getting wet in the rain, and she
didn’t like eating ice cream on a hot day…”  He shook his head and took a
bite of his pizza.
    “I’m so sorry,” she
murmured.  “Your life with her sounds like it was, well I don’t know, rough I guess?  How on earth did you manage?” Emily
took a sip of her soda and continued. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer that
if you don’t want to.”  She often had to remind herself that she wasn’t in
counselor mode.
    “It’s okay, I’ve never
really felt comfortable talking about her, but right now, it’s kind of…kind of
a relief.” Russell paused and toyed with his napkin. It took him a moment to
figure out where to begin. “You asked how I managed?” he questioned and Emily
quickly nodded. “Well at first it was great.  She was everything I wanted,
rich, powerful, only wanted the best of everything, but then after a while I
guess it wore thin. My country roots started to show through.” He laughed and
pointed at his hair as if he were talking about hair dye. “I don’t think she really
liked me that much. She kept trying to change me and erase all signs of the
Harper’s Rock Russell that I had left.” He paused and pushed his plate away.
“Then when Miranda was born, I guess she kind of blamed me for the way she was.
After all, I had grown up a country hick and therefore it was my fault that our
daughter wasn’t ‘normal’.” He made quote signs in the air.
    Emily sat silent with her
hands in her lap. She really didn’t know what to say.  People like
Russell’s ex-wife made her so angry.  She had seen similar adults
completely mess up the lives of some really good kids. Thank goodness this
woman was no longer in Miranda’s life. It would have killed her to watch
Vivienne Deveraux Harper continue to wreck the lives of two such wonderful
people. But then again, if she was still in their lives, Emily probably
wouldn’t have become reacquainted with Russell and never would have met
Miranda. Wow, there was a reason to be grateful to the other woman, even
if she wasn’t ready to fully admit it yet. “You know Russell, about what might
be wrong with Miranda, I have some…”
    “Daddy Daddy …
can we go home? I’m getting really tired.” Miranda came running up to the
table.
    “Ah, yeah sweetie. 
That’s probably a good idea. Let me go take care of the check and then we’ll
go.”
    “Come on Miranda, let’s you
and I go out to the car to wait.” Emily put a protective arm around the little
girl that she was becoming so fond of, as they walked to the car
together.  It was only mere moments after Miranda was hooked in that she
fell fast asleep.
    “I might not have to pay for
the food, but I left the server a good tip.”
    “ Shh Miranda’s asleep,” Emily cautioned him. “She looks so peaceful, doesn’t she?”
    “Sorry,” Russell looked into
the