Faith Gilmore- 25 year old widow, broke and penniless, moves to her deceased fathers hometown to start over, takes a waitressing job to support herself and her twins.
Noah Gilmore- Three year old son twin to Isabel
Isabel Gilmore- Three year old daughter twin to Noah
Mark Callaway- Retired wrestler- Owns "Deadman's noose" the local bar in Sandflats, Texas.
I don't own WWE or any wrestler depicted in this work of fiction. Sandflats is a fictional town.
This is a fictional story so the personal details of any wrestler mentioned may or may not be the same as in real life, it is fiction after all.
Faith Gilmore laid her head on the steering wheel of the car. "Why me?" She muttered.
Her ink black curls fell around her face blocking out the light of the midday Texas sun.
Why did her car have to pick today to die, after all it had taken the long drive from Mt. Airy North Carolina, but the little red Chevrolet Geo had seen better days.
She remembered a time when she a nice car, but it along with her home and her husbands expedition had been sold to pay off his many business debts that she hadn't even known about, they had been in debt up to their ass, and she hadn't even known.
Faith liked to think her life had been fairly normal. She had been raised by two wonderful religious parents in a nice middle class home, they weren't rich, but not poor.
Faith's parents had passed away when she was eighteen, in a car wreak,the house they had lived in wasn't paid for so it went back, she got a job as a waitress and got a small apartment. Her life had been all to normal, work, home, hanging out with friends once in a while.
Then Tyler Gilmore had walked in to her life. He came in her diner, ordered coffee and asked her on a date. She was twenty when they met. He impressed her with his expensive suits and fancy car.
Tyler owned restaurants, several of them, he seemed successful. They dated for a year, it wasn't some passionate romance, but he seemed like husband material and Tyler said she would make a good wife.
So when at twenty- one she found herself pregnant, Tyler insisted they get married and they did.
Life quickly changed after they married. He had his showcase wife and kids on the way, she found she was pregnant with twins.
Tyler lost interest in her sexually. She caught him in several affairs, at first she was hurt, but she found he was different man than what he had portrayed while he was dating her.
Faith concentrated on getting ready for her babies and tried to make the best out of her life, after all he was wealthy or so she thought, she could give her children anything.
When the twins were born, she was happy, she fell in love with Noah and Isabel. Tyler however only had a interest in his son, he acted like Isabel did not exist.
Faith over the years became sadder and sadder at her life, she tried to make things good for the kids. Tyler stayed away more and more, only coming home to visit his son.
Isabel as a result was a shy quite girl, who didn't know anything about having a father. Her father never even looked at her, unless he was scolding her for being less than perfect ,like his son.
Faith started to be relieved that he stayed away so much. Without to much interference from Tyler she managed to raise two sweet kids. They weren't perfect, but she wanted her children to have values.
Then six months ago, Tyler had died when one of his restaurants burned down, she was in for a rude awakening, they were hundreds of thousands dollars in debt, Tyler had lived off credit. Faith had to sell everything to pay off all their debt.
She had went back to waitressing and moved them all into a small cramped one bed room apartment, all they could afford.
She got to the point where she couldn't make it, daycare was eating most of her paycheck.
The only thing she owned was the house that had belonged to her daddy, in Sandflats Texas.
She did some research, found the local diner needed a waitress and the owner one Lucille Tisdale remembered her daddy, she got the job over the phone.
So here she was after driving for three days straight with two cranky three year olds and her car breaks down, outside a bar called Deadman's noose. Her luck just kept getting worse and worse.
"Mommmy." she heard the high pitch whine and knew her son was on his way to melt down.
"Gotta potty." He said
Faith looked back at her son. He had straight brown hair and green eyes. He was a real sweetheart and a very friendly and out going child, however three days in a car was wearing on him. She didn't blame him.
"Okay Noah, I'm going to find you a bathroom." She said getting out. She took him out of his safety seat and then reached over and unlatched her sleepy daughter. "Come on baby."
Her daughter looked just like her, curly black hair, that hung in ringlets and big green eyes, Isabel was shy and quite and reserved the exact opposite of her brother.
She hoisted each child in one arm and headed for the only thing around on this small street she broke down on, the bar. She didn't like going in here, but she had no choice, Noah had to go to the bathroom and she had to call a tow truck and use what little precious money she had on that.
Faith used her body to push open the bar door since her hands were full of the kids. The cool air was welcome and all three breathed a sigh of relief at the cool air. The bar was done in a light wood paneling and didn't look as disreputable as the name made it sound.
There were real wood tables and chairs scattered around the place, plus bar seating on the bar that ran along one wall. There was a nice size dance floor on the right side of the bar. It was actually very nice as bars went and didn't look like a dive.
"Lady we're closed, we don't open for hours yet and besides you cant bring kids in here."
Faith looked over to the bar and caught her breath, here was the man every mama warned there daughter about. He was tall, very tall. He had auburn hair long enough to be braided down his back.
He had on a sleeveless Harley shirt and his arms were covered with tattoos. He had mustache and a goatee which just added to his bad boy biker look.
Her first thought was he was some kind of deranged biker and her and the kids were in danger, because they were alone in here with him.
Even her kids, especially Noah who usually would say hi to anyone, was struck speechless and just stared with his mouth open.
Mark looked at the woman, she was a looker for sure. Black shoulder length curls and big green eyes. She was short, looked to be around 5'4 and her body was filling out her jeans and tank top nicely.
But she had those two ankle biters attached to her like leaches, too bad, she was married, and even if she wasn't , the rug rats meant hands off, he didn't want any woman getting ideas about him playing daddy.
Sure he liked to toss her in the bed for a couple of hours, but that was as far as he went with any woman.
"Umm I just need to use the pay phone, my car broke down outside, I need to call a tow truck." She said nervously.
Mark sighed and jerked his thumb toward the back of the bar. "Back there but hurry up."
Faith wanted to hurry, the man was scaring her, she was beginning to think he was some serial killer or something.
Faith tried to fumble in her purse for change while she still held the twins, and it wasn't easy, they weren't exactly light after carrying them for a while. Finally she fished two quarters out. "Great she muttered, no phone book."
She walked back toward the bar where the big man was setting liquor out. "Um excuse me, do you have a phone book?
Mark sighed again. "Theres only one tow company in Sandflats, why don't I call them?"
"Mommmmmmy, gotta potty." Noah said and started wiggling.
"Oh Noah, I'm sorry, mommy forgot." Faith said looking at the man. He rolled his eyes and pointed her to the bathroom.
Faith rushed off with both kids to the bathroom, she got Isabel to go too, she didn't want her to have to go in the next two minutes.
She washed the kids hands and dried them and pulled then up in her arms again.
When she went back into the bar area, the man was still standing there. "Where's your husband, why don't you call him?"
Faith looked down and then back at the man. "I'm a widow."
He looked at her again. She was awful young to be a widow. "You new in town?"
"Yes, I just arrived in town, I own the old McAllister house, it was my dad's old home." Faith said and then could have bit her tongue off, she just told this weirdo where she lived.
Mark looked up sharply. "That old place, you realize it hasn't been lived in for years and years?"
"Umm yea." she said.
Mark just shook his head, boy was she in for a surprise that place was a wreak.
"Mommy I want home." Noah demanded.
"Honey I know." She said looking down at her tired cranky son. She needed to get to the house and get it cleaned up, so the kids would be able to get settled in.
Faith felt like she was going to pass out, she hadn't ate since last night, she had just fed the kids snacks she had brought in the car and her arms felt like lead from carrying the kids.
Mark noticed she didn't look so good and she had gotten pale, great thats all he need was her to pass out in his bar.
"Sit them down on the barstools." He snapped.
Faith sat them down gratefully. Noah seemed fascinated by the spinning barstool, but Isabel started crying.
Faith figured she was scared of Mr. Tattoo. "Shh baby, its okay."
Noah grabbed a empty bowl and started banging on the bar and Mark gave him a glare. "Quit it boy." He snapped and took the bowl away from him.
Noah didn't cry, but it made Isabel cry even harder.
Mark sighed in disgust. "I'll go look at your car." He said holding out his hands for the keys.
Faith handed him the keys and blushed when there hands touched briefly. Mark just shook his head, the woman was seriously repressed if she blushed over their hands touching.
"Thanks." She said picking up Isabel.
Mark just growled and walked out of the bar.
Faith let out a breath and sat down at the bar. The man was in a very bad mood, or maybe he just didn't like kids.
She rocked Isabel till she stopped crying and turned to look at Noah who was spinning on the bar stool. This had been the day from hell, she just hoped her car wasn't to badly broke.
"Hwungry." Noah said looking up at her.
"I know you are baby and as soon as I get the car towed, we'll get you something." Wondering how she was going to do anything without a car, she needed to go to the grocery story too, how was she going to get to the house?
She rummaged in her purse and pulled out the last few crackers and handed one to Noah and the other to Isabel. She felt like the worst mother in the world, she had no back up plan if her car broke down, she should have, now what was she going to do?
She heard the door open and the big guy walked back in and handed her the keys. "The battery cable is broke, you need a new one, wont take but two minutes to fix, I'll run down to the auto parts store get one and fix it, then you can be on your way." Mark said, he knew from looking at the car and the place she was going to live, this woman probably had no money, he just wanted to get her and her spawn out of here as quick as possible, so the easiest way was to fix it himself.
Gratitude flooded her eyes. "Thank you so much Mr..."
"Names Mark." He snapped and headed back out the door.
"Wait let me give you the money for the cable!" she called out.
He just ignored that, but he did turn around. "There are pretzels and peanuts behind the bar, if those ankle biters are hungry."
Then he left. Faith blinked, did he just call her kids ankle biter? Then she surprised her self by laughing. The man was strange. It was obvious he didn't think to much of kids, but at least he was helping her. She would be able to get to the house, and of course stop at the grocery store.
Faith walked around the bar and grabbed some of the pretzels and placed them on napkins in front of the kids, hopefully that would hold them over until she could feed them a real meal.
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When Mark got back forty five minutes later he walked in to find her serving beers to several early customers.
She was smiling and chatting with them and it was obvious they liked her.
It was two of his regulars Burton and Jacob and they were regulars, both in there late sixties and retired. They spent every day at the bar drinking a few beers and playing poker , pool or darts.
Mark walked over to her wondering where the spawn were at.
He found them on the floor behind the bar drawing with crayons and paper as soon as the girl saw him, she started bawling.
He rolled his eyes and looked at Faith who bent to pick up her daughter. "Its okay Isabel." She crooned to her daughter.
Noah just looked at him in fascination.
"Your car is fixed, you can be on you way." He said wanting her out of here.
Faith was assaulted by his smell, he smelled of leather, soap and whiskey and she was affected. He was so close to her she could feel the heat coming off his skin.
Faith didn't know what was wrong with her, this man was not her type, hell she didn't think she had a type, but he wasn't it.
"Thank you, let me pay you for the cable and your time." She said grabbing her purse.
Mark held up his hand. "Don't worry about it, but you do need to get the kids out of here."
Faith flushed. Of course he just wanted them out of here. "Well thank you again." She bent and grabbed her son in her free arm and started for the door. Mark watched them leaving, thankful he had got rid of her.
The little boy watched him from over his mothers shoulder, suddenly he grinned. "Bye." he said waving at Mark.
Mark just turned away and was happy when he heard the door shut behind her.
"No wonder you never get laid." Burton said laughing.
Mark leaned on the bar. "I get laid plenty, but that girl has got the plague, its called kids."
Jacob grabbed a handful of peanuts. "Mark, this kid phobia you have is silly, she's a nice girl, those kids are delightful, and you been looking for help in the bar, its just you running things, she would be perfect."
Mark snorted. "No way..I have this bar, because I need something to do, Yea I need some help, things have picked up, but I'll find someone else, not her."
Burton just shook his head. Mark was stubborn. "She's moving into the old McAllister place, thats on your way home, maybe you should check on her on the way home, you know that place is a wreak."
"Burton, I don't leave here till two or three in the morning, I'm sure she'll be tucked in the bed by then,besides she's not my problem.
Mark didn't need that complication in his life. He had married once when he was young, that was over a long time ago. No he liked being single and he sure didn't want kids fouling things up. That woman was a plague, he would stay away from.