Tiny blessings, p.24
Tiny Blessings, page 24
“Tell me what happened today.”
He gave her a nonchalant shrug and said, “Nothing,” then went in his room.
Jace was still at work, but as soon as he got home, Charlie would get him to pry it out of Grady.
Of everyone, Grady was the happy-go-lucky one of the Dalton bunch, always smiling and cracking jokes. But occasionally he’d become sullen at something that happened at school. A bully who was picking on one of the smaller kids or some other infraction. He was a sensitive boy and, not unlike his father, felt the need to protect people from the injustices of the world. Travis was like that too.
She’d just nodded off to sleep in front of the TV on the couch when Jace came through the door with a huge bouquet of flowers, awakening her. He leaned over the back of the sofa and kissed her on the cheek.
“How was your first day of bed rest?”
“Busy,” she said. “I’ve had an endless stream of visitors, including Mitch’s fiancée.”
“Yeah, he told me they were coming by.”
Charlie sat upright. “You two are talking now?”
“No. But he ambushed me in the sheriff’s parking lot and told me Cheryl wanted to bring you a casserole.”
Charlie laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’m picturing how that conversation went.” She got to her feet and took Jace’s flowers. “These are lovely. I’ll put them in water and figure out dinner.”
“Oh no,” Jace said and took back the flowers that Charlie was sure he bought in the floral shop in Dry Creek Village. “I’ll put them in water and make us dinner. You stay there.” He pointed at the couch.
“Jace, I can do light duty, you know? And you need to talk to Grady. He’s been locked in his room ever since he got home from school. Something upset him today and he won’t talk about it. Go coax it out of him.” She took the flowers out of his hand, shooed him toward Grady’s room, and went into the kitchen.
After arranging the bouquet in a vase, she slid Gina’s famous lasagna into the oven and had just started on a salad when a cramp gripped her. She grabbed onto the edge of the counter to hold herself up and waited for the pain to subside.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Travis came up behind her.
She hadn’t heard him come in. “Nothing. Just a small cramp.”
He helped her to a chair. “I’m getting Dad.”
“No, don’t. I just need to sit here for a few minutes. You finish the salad.”
She could see Travis vacillating, but ultimately he relented and took over in the kitchen, first bringing her a glass of water, then putting Gina’s garlic bread in the oven.
“This is much better,” she said. The cramp hadn’t been like the others, not like a contraction but more like a sharp pain. But it hadn’t lasted long, and she vowed to stay off her feet.
Travis’s cell phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and took one look at the caller ID and grimaced, letting out a soft curse.
“What’s that about?”
“Mary Ann. She won’t stop calling me.” In an act of defiance he’d started calling his mother “Mary Ann.” Or maybe it was out of deference to Charlie.
“Have you thought of just taking the call and listening to what she has to say? Maybe it’s something you need to hear.”
“Damn it, Charlie!” Jace came into the kitchen, furious. “Travis doesn’t want to talk to her. Leave it alone.”
She could feel her face heat. Once again Jace had made it clear that she wasn’t part of this. That her opinion didn’t count.
She walked out, making a beeline for the bedroom. Jace came in behind her and shut the door.
“I shouldn’t have done that.” He held up his hand in the classic surrender gesture. “I’m sorry. I let my emotions get the best of me and flew off the handle. I’m sorry, Charlie, it was the wrong way to handle it.”
He moved in to hold her, but she pulled away. “Corbin used to do that. Right after he hit me, right after I lay bleeding on the floor, he would start in with the apologies. ‘Oh, Charlotte, I’m so sorry. I just love you so much. No one loves you like I do.’ ”
Jace backed away as if she’d burned him with a blowtorch. Stunned. Hurt. “How can you compare me to him? I was angry and I said things I shouldn’t have said, which I regret. But husbands and wives argue, Charlie. Sometimes they yell at each other. Sometimes they say things in the heat of the moment they can never take back. If you don’t like what I say, tell me to go to hell, tell me I’m full of crap. I can take it. What I can’t take is you comparing me to that piece of garbage. I’m not him, Charlie.”
“You embarrassed me out there. You made me feel like I’m not part of this family, that my opinion doesn’t count.”
“Look, there’s no excuse for what I did. It was wrong. I should’ve waited until you and I could have a private conversation. I screwed up. I let my emotions on the issue override the proper way to handle it. I’ll do better. But that woman is pushing me over the brink. Today she threatened to go to court over Grady.”
“You talked to Mary Ann today?” She’d sensed it all along. “When? And why didn’t you tell me?”
He gently led her toward the bed and told her to sit. “Let’s both take a deep breath.”
“Don’t you dare patronize me! When did you talk to Mary Ann?”
“I went over there today before lunch. Travis was upset that she was calling him on his cell. I told her to leave him alone. We had words and that’s when she told me she would go to court over visitation with Grady. I told her until she had a judge’s order to back off.”
“When were you going to tell me this? Or were you?”
“Of course I was. I just got home. You told me to find out what was bugging Grady. When was there time, Charlie? It’s not like I’m keeping stuff from you.”
She wondered. “Why did you find the need to go over there? Travis is nineteen years old. He’s perfectly capable of telling her that he doesn’t want any contact with her. Why are you obsessed with her, Jace? Ever since she got here you’ve been consumed.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He threw up his hands in the air. “Yeah, Charlie, I’m obsessed with my ex-wife. Give me a break. You know what I’m obsessed with? I’m obsessed with protecting my family. You ought to try it sometime.”
He walked out, slamming the door behind him.
Chapter Twelve
A week went by in a silent truce, but Jace felt a shift in Charlie. He told himself it was stress over the baby. They were all tense, counting the days until the thirty-seven-week mark of Charlie’s pregnancy when, for all intents and purposes, the baby would be out of the woods.
Mary Ann had gone radio silent, giving Jace hope that she’d skipped town. Once a quitter, always a quitter.
Or worse. Perhaps it was the calm before the storm.
Travis’s poison oak was all but gone and Grady was preparing for summer break. Next week there were finals and then, according to Grady, it was lazy days hanging out at the creek or the Dry Creek public pool.
Whatever had been eating him seemed to disappear along with Mary Ann’s relentless phone calls.
“Shake a leg.” Jace banged on Grady’s door. “Pancakes in five. If you miss the bus today, it’s a long walk to school.” Jace’s way of saying he wasn’t driving him.
He had a cattlemen’s meeting in the opposite direction of the high school and his schedule was tight today. He was trying to clear the decks before the baby came so he could take time off.
Charlie wandered into the kitchen just as Jace was serving up Travis and Grady’s pancakes.
“Morning, sunshine. You want pancakes?” She was hardly eating these days and it worried him.
“I’ll have one or two.”
“Coming right up.” He made them extra thick and passed her the syrup.
“What’s on your plate today?” he asked her and she rolled her eyes.
“Same old. ER reruns, followed up with sleep, and then more sleep.”
He grinned. “It’s almost over. And when it is, you’ll pray for sleep.”
“I suspect that’s true.” She smiled back.
It was the first one he’d gotten out of her in a while and it lit him up.
Travis excused himself to do chores and Grady took off to meet the bus, leaving Jace alone with Charlie.
“I’ll try to get home early today,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it. Between the boys and the cousins, I’m waited on hand and foot.”
“You ever think I might just want to spend time with you?”
She didn’t say anything and he shook his head.
“You’re still pissed that I went to Mary Ann’s house? Jeez, Charlie, let it go already.”
“When you let her go I’ll stop being pissed. How’s that?”
“What do you want from me? You want me to tell her she can see Grady whenever she wants or that she can keep on harassing Travis until he relents? Would that make you feel better?”
“All I’m saying is that the boys should be able to make their own decision. First, though, they should hear what she has to say. But as long as you go around bullying everyone, that’s not going to happen.”
“Bullying everyone?” He snorted. “I’m tired of talking about this. We haven’t heard from her in a week. She’s probably gone. She probably went back to France or whatever place she saw last on the Travel Channel. Can’t we just give it a rest? I’m tired of talking about her.”
“Are you, though?”
“Okay, I’m leaving to go to work now before this turns into a fight, which for the sake of our baby neither one of us needs.” He swiped his hat off the hook in the mudroom on his way out and got as far as the ranch gate before he pulled over to the shoulder of the road and dialed Charlie on his phone. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
This would pass, he told himself as he caught the highway to the Auburn Cattleman’s Hall, then sat through a boring meeting on beef prices. Cash, Sawyer, and Tuff usually joined him for the biannual meetings, but today his cousins were MIA. He’d give them hell for it later.
When he got back to his office he found Brett waiting.
“Annabeth let me in. I have something for you in my truck.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“Come on out and see.”
He followed Brett to the Civic Center parking lot. Brett’s truck had been modified with all kinds of nifty hand controls so he could drive it, and even had a lift for his wheelchair. A veteran’s group had paid for it and Jace made sure to donate to the nonprofit every year.
Inside the bed was a cradle made of pink ivory wood. Jace only recognized the wood because he’d seen it in Brett’s shop and had commented on how beautiful it was.
“Take it out,” Brett said.
Jace hoisted it out of the bed of the truck and ran his hands over the fine workmanship. It was as much a piece of art as it was furniture. “This is freaking amazing. I don’t know what to say, man. This is just . . . you’re an artist.”
Brett’s grin spread across his face. “It swings.” He pushed the cradle to show Jace how it worked.
“Charlie’s going to go nuts. Wow, I can’t believe you did this for us. This is like an heirloom . . . something to cherish.” Jace was too blown away to put into proper words how much the gift meant to him. Not just because it was a thing of beauty but because Brett had gone through so much and had come out the other side.
“Enjoy it, amigo. I’ve got to motor, but I’ll see you around.”
Jace stashed the cradle in his office for safekeeping. As usual, his inbox was clogged with dozens of emails. Most of them junk. But there was one that stood out from the rest, making him curse under his breath.
Jace: Attached is the original court filing for custody. Note that I get visitation rights one day a week, every other weekend, and half of all calendar holidays. I would like to spend the day with Grady Friday, after he gets out of school. Then we’ll take it from there. Please let me know if that works with everyone’s schedule. If not, I’m willing to choose another day next week.
Thanks,
Mary Ann
He clicked on the attachment, even though he remembered exactly what it said. He was the one who’d initiated the custody arrangement, with no pushback from her. In the beginning, for the sake of the boys, he’d wanted joint custody. But she wasn’t interested. Hell, most of the time she didn’t even show up for her weekends, let alone the weekday visits. And then she left the country.
Jace forwarded the message, then called his lawyer and told him to check his inbox.
“Is the agreement still valid after all this time?” Jace asked. “Can she disappear for six years without exercising her visitations and then just like that demand them? Tell me this is BS, Jerry.”
“Let’s calm down and give me a second to read everything.”
Jace hung on while Jerry read the court order.
“It looks pretty clear-cut as far as Grady, Jace. As I told you before, Travis is aged out. It’s up to him whether he wants to see his mother.”
“Even after all this time? Even after she disappeared on the boys? Isn’t there something in the law that says if you don’t use your visitations, you lose them?”
“Maybe, but that would require going back to court, making a case against her. I’m not going to lead you down the garden path, Jace. It’s a difficult case to make unless there is evidence of abuse. The judge would likely want to hear from Grady. If you want to fight, we’ll fight. But take some time to think about it.”
Jace couldn’t believe that a woman who had all but thrown her children away could actually have rights.
He caged his fury and asked, “What do I do in the meantime? Force my kid to spend the day with her?”
“If you don’t want to be in contempt of court, you do. You could try stalling. Tell her Friday won’t work and schedule something for the end of next week. Then if you want me to seek an emergency change in visitation, I could try. But the chance of getting one is slim to none given that this isn’t considered an urgent situation. And Jace, it’s only temporary. You’d still have to go through the regular hearing process, which could take more than a year.”
Jace got it. Mary Ann was an absent mother, not a violent one. He’d seen the ravages of abuse in a home and he’d never compare that to his situation with Mary Ann.
“Okay, let me think about it,” he told Jerry.
“Let me know what you decide. And I’m sorry, Jace.”
After he hung up he considered paying Mary Ann another visit, but what was the point? It was now clear that his ex-wife was here to stay. And to fight for the children she should’ve cared for six years ago.
* * *
That evening he called a family meeting and explained to Grady about the original custody agreement and how Mary Ann got to see him once a week, every other weekend, and on alternate holidays.
“So, I couldn’t be with you guys on Christmas, I’d have to be with her?”
“We’re going to try to change that,” Jace said. “I don’t want you to worry. And as far as this Friday, I’ll send her a message that you’re not available. Sound good?”
“What about Travis?” Grady wanted to know.
“Travis is nineteen, so none of this applies to him,” Jace said.
“But he can see her if he wants to, right?” Grady turned to his older brother.
“I’m not seeing her. She can go to hell for all I care.”
“Travis, please don’t talk like that,” Charlie said.
“Sorry.”
Jace reached over and squeezed Grady’s arm. “Hey, buddy, I don’t want you to worry about this. No one is going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do, comprendes?”
Grady worried his bottom lip. “Yeah, I guess. Can I go do my homework now?”
Jace and Charlie exchanged glances. Grady asking to do homework was as common as Jace winning the lottery, which was to say never.
“Go for it, kiddo.”
“If the meeting is adjourned, I’m going over to Ruben’s to see his new car.” Travis got to his feet. “I’ll be home in a few hours.”
“Be careful,” Charlie said. “It’s foggy at night.”
“I always am.” He kissed her on the top of her head and left through the back door.
“I thought he was on the outs with Ruben.” Jace couldn’t stand the kid. He was a spoiled brat and a bully, but he made it a policy to let his kids pick their own friends.
“My guess is he’s more interested in the car than hanging out with Ruben,” Charlie said. “What are you planning to do about Friday?”
“Tell her Grady already has plans, which isn’t a lie. Last I looked his dance card was packed with end-of-the-school-year activities.”
“And then what? You can only come up with so many excuses.”
Jace leaned back his head. “Go back to court.”
“I thought the lawyer said it was a long shot, that judges tend to favor the mother in situations like this?”
“I don’t know, Charlie. What do you want me to do? You saw Grady. He wants no part of her.”
“Or he thinks you want him to want no part of her.”
They were back to this again. He’d had a long day and was exhausted.
“Could we table this for now?”
“Sure. But we’re going to have to deal with it eventually,” she said, her voice terse.
Chapter Thirteen
Charlie was alone when the pain started. It began with pressure in her back and slowly moved down to her abdomen, the pain radiating from back to front. The nausea had come on so fast that she hadn’t even realized it was happening until she had a heavy urge to vomit.
At first she tried to ignore the symptoms, telling herself it was probably more Braxton-Hicks contractions. But she could no longer deny the reality of the situation. She was experiencing preterm labor.
She should’ve called Jace, but lately it felt like there were three people in their marriage and the delivery room wasn’t large enough for Mary Ann too. So instead she dialed Aubrey.
