by Alison Bliss
But the gentleman didn’t answer me. He just climbed into the cab of his pickup and drove away.
With gut-wrenching dread, I peeled the envelope open and slid out the papers inside. In one glance, my heart skidded to a dead stop. “I’m going to boil that sonofabitch alive!” I blurted out before my mouth erupted in an extremely colorful display of profanity. I used every curse word I knew and even some I’d made up on the spot that made absolutely no sense.
“What is it?” Seth asked, his urgent voice filled with concern.
“It’s my son’s biological father, Jeremy. The asshole lawyered up. He’s exercising his rights to unsupervised visitations and suing me for custody of Austin.”
“What? Why now?”
“I don’t know. He’s had very little to do with Austin since he was born, doesn’t pay his child support payments like he should, and has been a sorry excuse for a father for the past four years. I have no clue why he would suddenly want to thrust himself into Austin’s life this way.” I ran a shaky hand through my hair. “God, but maybe I should’ve known he would do something like this. It’s just like him to try and pull a fast—” I snapped my mouth shut and quickly glanced around. Shit. “Uh, where’s Austin?”
“He’s playing on the swing set in the backyard. It’s okay. We’re downwind from him and that swing set squeaks loud because I haven’t greased it yet. He can’t hear anything you’re telling me.”
I gazed across the yard and sure enough, my little boy was swinging contently on the old swing set without a care in the world. “Thank God. I wasn’t thinking when I spewed all of that out. I just reacted without thinking.”
He shrugged. “It’s understandable. You were in shock.”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “I can’t believe this is happening. I’ve spent the past four years raising Austin by myself while actively trying to get Jeremy to take an interest in his son. But it never worked. He hasn’t wanted anything to do with him.”
“Sounds like a real stand-up guy.”
“Tell me about it. I’d throw myself on top of a live grenade for my son, but I can’t even get Jeremy to take him out for an ice cream cone.” I gazed at the documents in my hand again. “Yet he wants the same parental rights to Austin. How is that fair?”
“It’s not. So this is where you advocate for your child. Stand up in court and tell them what you’ve gone through with Jeremy. Just because he wants to exercise his parental rights doesn’t mean the court will side with him on it. You have been the only constant parent in Austin’s life. The odds are in your favor.”
I sighed. “Maybe. But now I have to find a good lawyer and those aren’t cheap. And who knows what else Jeremy has up his sleeves. He could decide to tell the court that I kept him away from his son all this time. Then what do I do?”
Seth shook his head. “Bobbie, if you don’t want to be the victim, then don’t. Stand up and fight for your son.”
His words were the equivalent of a hammer shattering the “break in case of an emergency” glass surrounding the pent-up will and determination that I had stored somewhere inside of me. Though I would always fight for my son, Jeremy had a way of sucking the energy out of me. But those few words from Seth gave me an extra boost of courage that I desperately needed for the custody battle looming on the horizon.
Jeremy may have been on the receiving end of my affections at one time, and since then, he’d done nothing but try to steal my confidence and self-worth. But I’d be damned if I let him take my son away from me.
…
I twisted my hair into a bun on the back of my head and slid a pencil through the strands to hold them into place. I counted all of the money I had in the cash box and added it up on the calculator. Then I smiled.
“How’d you do?” Seth asked, as he walked up. The man was once again baring his chest, and I shifted my eyes downward to keep from staring at his masculine figure.
“Not bad. Almost two hundred dollars.”
“Pretty good for only four hours of work.”
“Well, even though the yard sale is over, the work isn’t done yet. I still have to box up the leftover junk and drop it off at the local thrift store.”
“Need some boxes? I think there’s a few in one of the rooms upstairs. I could go get them for you.”
I nodded. “Sure, thanks.”
As he walked into the house, I sighed. It was hard to believe that Seth had been living with us for a month already. Where had the time gone? The days of summer had been flying by without me even realizing it, and the bed and breakfast was really starting to come together. All thanks to Seth and the work he was doing. The man was a godsend.
Ever since he had arrived, I hadn’t needed to hire any outside resources to do the work, which had saved me a lot of money already. And that was a huge help, since I needed to save every dime I could after the stunt Jeremy pulled on me a few days ago. If he wanted a custody battle, then he was about to get one. But first I needed to come up with enough money to hire a good lawyer.
Seth came out of the house with the empty boxes. “Here ya go.”
“Thanks,” I told him as I placed some old mismatched glasses inside of one. “Once I get this stuff gathered up, I’m going to need your help with running it over to Penny at the thrift store. She’s the friend of mine I told you about earlier.”
“The one who owns The Penny Pincher?”
“Yep. She always donates a portion of their sales to local charities so anytime I have stuff leftover from a yard sale, I donate it to them to sell.”
“All right. Just point out what you want me to load in the back of your truck.”
“Everything you see here is going. I’m not carrying any of this back inside that house. I’d only have to have another yard sale to get rid of it later, and I hate doing them.”
“How come?”
“Because I always have these little old ladies show up who think they can quarter everything to death. I get that they probably live on a fixed income and they want a bargain, but not everything can be sold for only a quarter.”
“Guess that depends on how badly you want to get rid of something.”
“Well, I didn’t necessarily want to get rid of anything. But I thought having a yard sale would be a good way to declutter the house while making some extra money. Two birds, one stone. Ya know?”
Seth started boxing up some of Austin’s old clothes that were left on the table. “Are you having money issues?”
I froze. Damn it. Why did I say anything to him? Knowing how perceptive he was, I probably should’ve guessed he would figure it out eventually. “Um, things are a little tight right now.”
He lifted his head, his bold gaze meeting mine. “Oh yeah? How tight?”
I had a feeling we were no longer talking about my finances, so I rolled my eyes. “I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer.”
He chuckled. “I was being serious.”
The fuck he was. “Let’s just say that I’m up to my ears in debt. And now, with me needing to hire a lawyer, I really need the extra money.”
“Have you thought about taking out a loan to consolidate your debt? That way you only have one lump sum payment versus several individual ones. With the right interest rate, you might be better off doing something like that.”
“I thought about that already. But no bank will loan me money when they see my debt to credit ratio.”
“Then you need to raise your income or lower your spending.”
I shook my head. “I don’t have any disposable income, and I already live on a budget. The mortgage on this place eats up a lot of my monthly income. I just need a miracle to happen so I can significantly lower the rest of my debt.”
“A miracle, huh? Okay. What if I gave you five thousand dollars? What would you take off?”
“Everything except my heels,” I said with a laugh.
Seth sucked in a breath. “Jesus, Bobbie. That’s the wrong thing to say to a man.” He g
rinned with devilish intent. “Would you take a check?”
I giggled. “Whatever. You know I was kidding.”
“Yeah, I do. But you can’t say shit like that to me whenever the mood strikes you. Do you know what a comment like that does to a guy like me?”
My gaze lowered to his crotch. “Causes exponential growth of your, uh…”
“Yeah. And trust me, when I see an opportunity, I’m going to jump on it.” His eyes darkened, and I had an inkling that he wasn’t playing anymore.
“Oh, I, um…”
Austin shoved open the screen door. “Hey, Seth. Guess what? I made five dollars.”
“Awesome,” Seth said, giving him a high five. “What did you sell?”
“My old wooden puzzles. They’re for babies, and I’m not a baby.”
“Well, that’s good to know. Especially since I have a surprise for you…and it’s not for babies either.” Seth glanced over at me. “I’ve got one for you, too,” he said with a sexy smirk.”
“Seth.”
He held up his hands. “No, seriously. I do have something for both of you. Just a couple of things I’ve been working on in my spare time. Break off your relationship with that chair and I’ll show you.”
“Where to?”
He grinned. “You’ll see. In fact, I’ll show you the one I have for you first.”
Austin and I followed him to the far side of the barn where a long structure that hadn’t been there before sat. My eyes widened. “Seth, y-you built me a chicken coop?”
He nodded. “I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t consult you about the design. I worked with an Amish farmer once who had a similar setup for his birds and thought it would work great for yours. It’ll allow you to lock the hens up at night and keep the predators out.”
“Cool,” Austin said, running over to check it out.
“Are you kidding? I don’t mind at all,” I said, moving closer to get a good look myself.
A small enclosed wooden building had been painted red to match the barn and was attached to a large outside pen covered in chicken wire. A tiny ramp made for short legs would allow the girls to enter the building at night so that the pop door—raised and lowered by a pulley system—would effectively seal them inside for their own safety.
“I love it. It’s perfect.”
Seth smiled. “I’m glad you like it. There are built-in nesting boxes inside to make gathering the eggs faster for you. Now all you have to do is go in with a bucket or basket and get your eggs from one place rather than searching the entire yard for them.”
“Thanks. That’ll definitely make things easier,” I told him, gazing back at the new chicken coop. “I can’t believe you did this without me knowing.”
“It actually didn’t take me all that long. These are pretty basic and easy to build. Besides, with all the hours you’ve been working lately, I’m not surprised you didn’t know what I’ve been working on.”
“Yeah, but…where did you get the materials from? I didn’t have any chicken wire lying around here.”
“Junior picked it up for me yesterday. He dropped it off after you left for work and helped me get started on it.”
“That was nice of him. I’ll be sure to thank him the next time I see him. But honestly, Seth, you didn’t have to do this.”
“I didn’t mind. You said you wanted to offer the guests of your bed and breakfast farm fresh eggs, so you needed a place for your chickens to lay them.”
“Yeah, but this wasn’t part of our original agreement. You were here to repair the list of things I’ve already given you. You didn’t have to add more work onto yourself. At least let me pay you for it.”
He gazed down at me and shook his head. “No, it was my pleasure. I enjoy working on projects like this. Besides, I’m here for whatever you need,” he said, giving me a quick wink.
A hot wave of sensation moved through my lower abdomen, and my thighs clenched together. “Oh, I…uh…thanks,” I said awkwardly.
Austin abandoned the chicken coop and rejoined us. “Where’s my present?” he asked excitedly, jumping up and down at Seth’s feet. “Can we see it now? Huh? Can we?”
Seth’s eyes were still on me, and he was grinning. “Sure, sport. Come on,” he said, moving past me. “It’s in the backyard.”
I grasped Austin’s hand to keep him from running ahead of us, since I wasn’t sure what Seth had for him. All I knew was that if it was a puppy, I was going to kill him. One dog was all I could handle right now.
As we came around the side of the house and into the backyard, I caught my first glimpse of Austin’s surprise, and my feet stalled beneath me. Between the two large live oaks in my backyard sat a tree house about five feet off the ground. But it wasn’t any ordinary house. This one had been styled after the Old West frontier forts, complete with a log cabin command post, a lookout tower with railings, and a vertical log fence erected around all of it with notches carved out of the tops of each beam.
Austin’s eyes lit up like firecrackers. “Is it mine?”
“Well,” Seth said, glancing over it. “It does seem like this old Army post has been abandoned. I guess it could use a new Major General.”
My son let out a whoop and started to climb up the ladder.
Seth put a hand up. “Hold on right there, little man. If you want to take over this Army post, then you have to make me a deal first. You can only play on it when your momma says it’s okay. Got it?”
Austin nodded adamantly and then glanced back at me. “Momma, can I?”
I smiled at my little monkey who was ready to start climbing. “Just be careful.”
“Okay,” he said and then scurried up the ladder to explore.
Seth stepped over to me. “You’re okay with this, right?”
“Well, it wasn’t like you gave me much of a choice, since he’s already seen it.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to overstep. I probably should’ve asked your permission first. If you don’t want him to have it or think it’s too dangerous for him at this age, I can wait until the next rainstorm and then loosen some boards to make it collapse. We’ll tell him a tornado hit it.”
I laughed. “Don’t you dare. I can tell how much work you put into it. It would be such a waste to ruin it like that. Besides, you built it pretty low to the ground. It’s really not any higher than the monkey bars he climbs on at the park.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “It’s fine, really. I appreciate you doing that for him. He’s always wanted one.”
“I know. The kid’s mentioned it almost every day since I moved in. I don’t think he was hinting to me or anything, at least not on purpose. But I got the message loud and clear.”
“Oh. I’m sorry if he put you on the spot.”
“No, don’t apologize. It was a fun project to tackle. I’m just glad he likes it so much. Then again, I probably could’ve put a cardboard box in the tree and he would’ve loved that, too.”
I shook my head. “No, I saw the way he looked at you when he realized what you did for him. This is special. He’s going to remember it fondly for many years to come.” Almost instantly, my eyes misted over and my throat tightened.
Damn it. I didn’t mean to get emotional, but knowing that Jeremy would never have done something so thoughtful for his own son, I couldn’t help myself. Seth’s sweet gesture had touched me on a deeply personal level. I blinked away the tears and cleared my throat to keep from sounding like I was strangling a frog. “I’m pretty sure you just made hero status in Austin’s book.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Seth agreed with a grin. “But wait until he gets old enough to grasp the irony of his frontier settlement being built by a Comanche.”
Chapter Seven
Two nights later, I put Austin to bed and returned to the kitchen to find Seth leaning his hip against the counter as if he was waiting there for me.
“I have something for you,” he said, pulling a thick envelope ou
t of his back pocket and handing it to me.
Warily, I peeked inside only to find a large wad of crisp one-hundred-dollar bills. “What the hell is this?”
“It’s five grand.”
“That’s what I thought.” Anger simmered inside of me, but I closed the envelope and calmly pushed it back into his hand. It was more mature than smacking him across the face with it. “You can go to hell.”
Confusion creased his forehead. “What’s your problem?”
I gasped, and my hand flew to my chest. “My problem? You have the audacity to insult me by making me an indecent proposal, and I’m the one with the issue? Think again, buddy. I’m not whoring myself out to you…or any other man for that matter. You can take your money and shove it.”
His eyes narrowed slightly as they roamed over my face. “That’s seriously what you think this is?”
“Are you saying it’s not? I mean, what else would it be? A couple of days ago, I jokingly say that I would take off my clothes for five thousand dollars and you suddenly offer me a wad of cash. If it looks like a duck and walk likes a duck, then…”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “You honestly believe I’m the type of guy who has to pay a woman for sex? Get real.”
I rolled my eyes. “What? Did I bruise your precious ego?”
“Apparently as much as I bruised yours,” he said, taking my hand and placing the envelope back in it. “This isn’t a proposal, bribe, or any other kind of licentious offer your mind has concocted. It’s a loan. An interest-free one. I know you’re good for it and that you’ll pay me back once your business takes off.”
I tried to pull my hand away. “What? No, I can’t—”
“Take it,” he said, not releasing me. “Whether you use it to hire a lawyer for your custody hearing or pay your bills with it, I don’t care. Either way, it’ll help you.” He let go of me, leaving the envelope in my palm.
Blinking, I glanced down at it and then back up to him. “Seth.”
His mouth pursed as he shook his head. “And just for the record, me helping you has nothing to do with whether or not you’re willing to spread your legs for me.” He walked past me and headed out onto the porch, letting the screen door slam shut behind him.