Moving back home had been the last thing that Mackenzie Hollifield, now Mackenzie Fogle for the second time in her life, had wanted to do.
You would have thought that the judge would have taken pity on her—a poor momma, workin’ as a waitress in podunk Boiling Springs, who was cheated on by her no-good rotten husband at just barely twenty—but at the end of the day, the house that she and Ryan had lived in for the past two years was just up and gone.
It wasn’t like she needed the extra room, but the thought of him and that tramp foolin’ around in their bedroom was enough to make her blood boil.
“How in the hell did I ever sleep on a twin-sized mattress?”
Life after high school had brought a lot of changes in Mackenzie. Not just in the form of her daughter Tiffany, but also in an abdication of the strict track athlete’s physique that had helped to keep her slim, trim, and in running shape during her time as a Boiling Springs Bulldog. After she’d gone and gotten pregnant, she couldn’t exactly make time to jog around the neighborhood while she was raisin’ a child. And then, y’know, everyone puts on some comfort weight when they get married… especially once he started to make jokes about her size—she was a comfort eater, okay? Was it really her fault that she’d blown up so much after high school?
No! That was…
Genetics! It was genetics’ fault! A-And her mama and Aunt Sharon’s for not teachin’ her how to cook better food. Maybe a little bit of Tiffy’s too, on account’a how much weight Mack put on when she was pregnant… what kind of child makes her mama crave spaghetti with gravy morning noon and night?!
In more ways than one, Mackenzie Hollifield was returning to a room that she had outgrown. From the pictures of her and her friends on the dresser to the uniform on the wall to the very furniture that she used to plop down on after an especially long track meet, the Mackenzie that was coming home again was far from the one who had left straight out of high school…
“Mackenzie, breakfast's ready!”
…but for every change that seemed to face her around every corner, her mama’s cookin’ was just the same as it had always been.
How Mackenzie hadn’t blown up before she met Ryan was a mystery. She’d always had an appetite on her, it was just Track and going out with her youth group back in high school that kept her skinny. Now that it had all caught up with her, she was, in no uncertain terms, a nearly three-hundred-pound heifer. Her face had gotten so round, swaddled in a thick ring of chin that fused into chunky dimpled cheeks. Her legs thick as tires and her arms heavy and flabby. And that stomach of hers… she could hardly believe how that somewhere deep underneath that belly of hers there used to be a flat little runner’s tummy! These days it entered her bedroom a full step or two before she did, sloshing thickly with her every labored step, was it any wonder why she was always out of breath? She was getting huge, and this divorce combined with havin’ to move back in with her mama hadn’t done any favors for her weight problem!
She had come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t a slim runner anymore—given the hell that Ryan gave her about letting herself go, and the sheer size of her these days, denial just simply wasn’t an option for her. But coming back to her old bedroom had made it hard to forget just how much weight she’d gained since she'd graduated high school.
“Mack baby, you hear? Breakfast is ready!”
“I’m comin’ momma!” Mackenzie huffed and puffed as she pushed herself off of the bed, “Just… gimme a minute!”
Mackenzie waddled out into the kitchen, floorboards creaking throughout the old country house until she reached the dining room, where her mama and daddy had yet another spread of southern comfort food that they’d been treating their daughter to since she’d moved back home. To say both of them were big people was something of an understatement—her momma was frequently guilty of smuggling snacks away in her purse for the occasional moment of boredom, and her daddy was just as fond of his beer as his wife was of his beer belly—but only her daddy came within the same sort of size that Mackenzie had blown up to after all of the dust had settled.
“There she is!” her momma greeted her warmly as she plopped a heaping helping bacon and eggs on her daughter's plate, “I was just about to come an’ get you!”
“Lemme pull out a chair for ya.” Her daddy’s gut pressed against the spindles of the wide bench seat set for her at the dinner table, “Therrrrre ya go.”
Mackenzie sighed as she sank into the chair, feeling a wave of comfort wash over her. Her mama and daddy hadn’t changed much since she moved away—they still made all the same southern classics that they used to—but it was still nice to have them around when things got tough.
She looked down at her plate, groaning with pleasure as soon as she saw what was on it: fluffy scrambled eggs cooked with cheese melted inside; fried potatoes sizzling in butter; golden-brown toast slathered in jam; crispy strips bacon laid out like spokes on a wheel…
Mackenzie smiled and thanked them both, before taking a seat. The fabric of her jersey pajama dress stretched tautly across her stomach as she did so, the elasticity of it slowly giving way after years of wear and tear.
The conversation quickly faded away into the background as Mackenzie began to chow down—a habit that was quickly becoming second nature to her since moving back home with Mom and Dad. All of her emotions came out in food these days; whether it be happiness for seeing Tiffany on weekends or sadness about Ryan leaving—it all demanded fuel, and Mackenzie wasn't one to deny herself a good meal when she needed one!
It didn't take long for heaping platefuls of eggs, bacon, toast slathered in jam, hashbrowns covered in melted cheese (her mama had always known how much she loved those) to disappear off the table until there was nothing left but crumbs. Before either parent could so much as refill their coffee cups, Mackenzie was already snatching up seconds!
It had been almost five months since Ryan had cheated on her with his skinny little redhead secretary and a full two weeks since she’d moved back in with her parents. And every emotion good or bad that came along since then demanded food; for every longing for companionship there seemed to be another helping of macaroni and cheese waiting for her in the refrigerator, just as sure as picking up Tiffany from Ryan’s house meant a stop at McDonald's for a large McFlurry and two Happy Meals. She might have been too young to enjoy them, but she could eat the apples and stuff...
Mackenzie knew that if this kept up her weight wouldn’t go anywhere. And it wasn’t like she was getting any matches on Bumble. Everyone on Ryan's side of the divorce wasn't talking to her. Everyone at church was makin' a stink about it...
There was just so much to worry about right now.
"So what's the plan today, hun?" her daddy asked from behind his creamed and sugared coffee, "I know you were talkin' about—"
"More coffee, honey?" her momma interjected
"Yes, please. And can I have a knife? I wanna butter my biscuit..."
Mackenzie had answered that question far more eagerly than she did her father's.
"Well, I guess...
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