As he got out of his car, he looked down at his phone and stopped in his tracks. He’d missed a call from Holly. And there was a voice mail.
He hadn’t heard from her in months, and usually when she called, it wasn’t for a good reason. He hit the button to replay her message and immediately closed his eyes when he heard his ex-wife’s angry, slurred words.
“How dare you not let me see my son! I’m his mother!”
Well, hello to you too, Holly.
She must have checked herself because her tone calmed and became less aggressive. But she still couldn’t hide the way her words garbled together and caught on her tongue.
“What I meant to say was that I miss Cade. I saw some kids waiting at a bus stop the other day and wondered if he had started school yet? I was hoping maybe you could meet me for dinner one of these days. Or maybe you could just start by giving me a call or answering the phone when I call you.”
Her volume increased at the end and James sighed at the bitterness in her last sentence.
“It’s not like I bother you very often,” the message continued. “I bet it was really easy for you to just forget about me, wasn’t it? I wonder which whore you’re fucking now.”
He heard her harsh breathing on the other end, and it sounded like wind whipping through the trees. Again, she calmed herself before saying, “Please tell our son I said hello. I’ll try calling again later.”
The line went dead.
He deleted the message, knowing that if she ever did get around to calling, it wasn’t going to be any time soon.
If she were sober, he would consider meeting her. Just him, not Cade. But he’d known from the moment her voice came over his phone that she was high. She never called unless she was angling for something. James had no idea what it was this time. Holly was usually pretty straightforward with what she wanted, and most of the time it was money.
The whole situation was fucked. But he’d been trying hard to let her go.
God, he’d loved her. He remembered meeting Holly in high school at a friend’s house and thinking she was the cutest girl he’d ever seen. He’d been a senior, and she’d been a freshman. She had long brown hair and bright blue eyes that smiled and danced when she talked.
He’d known after talking with her all night long during the party that he was going to make her his wife. She was smart and so full of…just everything. They’d married the weekend after she graduated from high school. He’d been twenty-two and she was a month shy of turning nineteen.
James had gone straight to full-time at the auto garage after high school and had started earning money to put Holly through college. She’d waited a year after high school to enroll so they could save up some more money. He was so goddamn proud of her. It’d never bothered him that she’d have a college degree and he wouldn’t. James knew he was destined for the garage, and loved what he did.
Holly graduated with honors from University of Illinois at Chicago with a four-year degree in accounting. The year after she’d graduated, they got pregnant. Holly gladly put off plans of getting her MBA until after the baby had been born.
The day Cade was born had been the happiest day of their lives. But it seemed like it had been the very next day that he’d noticed a difference in Holly. She’d acted as if she was scared of the baby. Like she’d break him if she held him. He’d catch her staring off into space, like she was lost and needed to find her way back. She never had.
James had later realized that Holly had been suffering from some serious postpartum depression. At the time, he’d had no clue why his once vivacious wife was acting as if she’d had a split personality.
Within months of Cade’s birth, she’d started going out, telling James she needed time away from the baby. Time to herself so she could feel “like a normal person” again. That was when the drinking had started, followed by the drug use. To his knowledge, she’d never experimented with drugs before. She’d drunk socially, and never in excess. But this behavior was different.
Cade was the greatest thing that had ever happened to James. But the day his son was born was the day James had lost Holly. He’d blamed himself for a long time that he didn’t see the signs that she needed help. But even after he’d confronted her about her postpartum depression, she’d refused to seek counseling or get medical attention.
The Holly Foley he’d loved with his entire being was gone. She certainly wasn’t the strung-out woman on the other end of that voice mail he’d just listened to. It used to make him angry, and occasionally when he thought about Cade not having a mother around, it still did. But now, it just made him sad. Sad for her that she wouldn’t or couldn’t accept help. That she’d rather live life like that than take part in her son’s childhood and watch him grow into an amazing young man.
After pushing through the door from the garage, he made his way up the stairs to find both his father and Cade at the dining room table. His dad was working a crossword puzzle, and his son had his head down as he concentrated on writing in a notebook.
James raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Cade was doing homework.
Not wanting to say anything to break whatever spell his father had cast on his son to get him to study, James just muttered a hello and made his way into the kitchen to grab a drink.
To say Cade hated homework was putting it lightly. The number of notes sent home in the past to notify James of just how little his son turned in his homework could keep a campfire burning for an entire weekend.
Putting a bottle of water to his lips, James leaned against the kitchen counter and watched his son. Cade’s mop of light brown hair almost covered his eyes as he squinted at the textbook that lay open in front of him. He was concentrating hard, his mouth moving as he formed each word he read from the text. He’d then furiously scribble something down in his notes.
“Whatcha working on, Cade?” James finally asked.
His son looked up at him and blinked. “Oh, hey, Dad. Didn’t see you come in.”
He smiled as he walked over to the table.
Cade tapped his pencil against his notebook. “Maps class.”
James was confused at first but then realized the textbook was a geography book.
“Dad, did you know that there’s a line that goes around the entire world? It’s called the equator.” His son’s eyes were wide with amazement.
James nodded as he took another drink. “I did know that.”
“Maybe one day when you don’t have to work so much we can go on a vacation to see the equator.”
There was that goddamn guilt again, eating away at his conscience.
“I know I work a lot, bud, but it’s just so I can make sure we’re comfortable.”
“I know, Dad. I understand,” Cade said, not at all bothered. “But you didn’t say anything about visiting the equator. Can we?”
James smiled. “Sure. But you know there really isn’t a line there, right? It’s an imaginary line.”
Cade scrunched up is nose and shook his head in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why is it an imaginary line?”
“Because to have a line that wraps all the way around the world is too difficult. What happens to the line when it crosses the ocean? That’s why it has to be imaginary.”
“I don’t know.” Cade looked back at his textbook and shook his head again. “I’m gonna have to ask Ms. McKenna.”
The mention of the teacher’s name had James’s throat going a bit dry. School had started three weeks ago, and every time his son mentioned Megan, it made James pay extra-close attention.
He could picture the tall, stylish blonde in her tight pants and high heels writing on the chalkboard. Now when he thought of her, she always had her hair pulled up and dark-framed glasses on. Then his thoughts had her tossing her glasses aside and slowly pulling her hair tie from her hair. She’d take her hands and shake her golden tresses like she was in some erotic shampoo commercial. And then he’d realize he was starting to get hard, and he’d
shut down those X-rated daydreams of his son’s second-grade teacher.
Yeah, he really needed to get laid.
Shaking his head before his son or his father noticed the weird silence, he asked, “How do you like your new teacher?”
Cade shrugged. “She’s awesome. Ms. McKenna told me that I have one of the wittiest minds she’s ever seen. I didn’t know what that meant so she told me to look it up in the dictionary. So when I looked it up in the dictionary, it said I was quick and inventive in a funny way.” Cade smiled slyly. “I told her I was happy with that because chicks like funny guys.”
James had to chuckle. “And what did she say?”
“She laughed and said that was true.”
So Megan McKenna liked witty guys, did she? What the fuck had she been thinking when she married Niall Dempsey? That asshole wouldn’t know how to be witty even if it was dictated to him.
“How old do you think Ms. McKenna is?” Cade asked.
“I don’t know, maybe thirty?” James guessed.
“She’s probably too old for me, huh?”
Trying not to laugh, he replied, “Probably.”
“But she’s not too old for you, Dad.”
“I suppose not.”
She was a little younger than the women he dated, but that wasn’t the real issue. He wasn’t about to go there with his son’s teacher, no matter how hot she was or how many X-rated thoughts she gave him.
“She’s the prettiest chick I’ve ever seen,” Cade added. Abel huffed out a laugh from across the table.
“Woman. She’s the prettiest woman you’ve ever seen. You shouldn’t say chick.”
“Why not?” His son was looking at him like he was crazy.
“Because it doesn’t have a very respectful connotation to it.”
“What’s connotation?”
James laughed again at his son’s inquisitive mind. “Look it up in the dictionary.”
Chapter 7
Slinging her purse over her shoulder, Megan stood and pushed her chair under her desk. It’d been a long, tiring day. Like a double-glass-of-wine type of day.
Tomorrow was Halloween, and the kids had been distracted throughout the morning. Megan had planned a Halloween-themed lesson and a party for the afternoon. There was no way she was going to get these kids to think about commas, semi-colons, and other punctuation when all they wanted to talk about was their costumes, candy, and haunted houses.
To go along with the festivities, she’d donned a headband with cat ears and an all-black outfit. The kids had loved it.
She needed to stop at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things. Calli had to work late tonight so it was just her, her cat ears, and a bottle of chardonnay watching reruns.
Megan waved to the custodian on her way out of her classroom. Poor guy was going to be there late with all the Halloween party messes. She’d cleaned up her classroom as best she could, but there were still three bags of trash that would need to be hauled to the dumpster. Just as she pushed out the side exit of the school, her cell phone rang. After digging it out of her purse, she smiled when she saw it was her brother.
“Hi, Sean,” she said, continuing to her car.
“Megan! Meggie! Magpie! How is my beautiful, talented, and generous sister doing today?”
She couldn’t help but smile at his smooth, yet sarcastically sweet voice. He must want something badly.
“You forgot hysterical and wise,” she teased.
“Those were included in my next line!”
“Yeah, yeah,” she laughed. “What do you want?”
“What? Can’t a brother call his sister just to rain compliments on her?”
She shook her head as she smiled. Sean was the epitome of a clown. A charming and endearing clown.
They’d never truly been close while growing up, probably due to their lack of things in common and the fact that as soon as she’d left for undergrad, she’d never really looked back. But ever since she and Niall had traveled to Boston this past New Year’s and she’d stopped by Sean’s place for a surprise visit, her brother had taken up calling her every couple of weeks just to say hello.
Looking back, her marriage had been severely strained at that time, but she was so blinded by frustration over her inability to conceive that she hadn’t seen it. She’d jumped into the rental car and started driving until she’d found herself parked at Sean’s townhouse.
Megan didn’t know it at the time, but Sean had been wallowing in his own sea of self-pity that night. He’d just been thrown to the curb by his girlfriend, Darcy.
The outcome of their visit had turned out much better for Sean than it had for Megan. Her brother had experienced some epiphany and decided that Darcy was the love of his life, and he had to get her back at all costs. One day later, that’s just what had happened, and Sean and Darcy had been together ever since.
Megan had gone back to her empty hotel room and rung in the New Year alone while Niall was out “meeting” with business colleagues. Two months later, she’d walked in on her husband fucking another woman, and she’d been divorced ever since.
But the silver lining of that trip was that she and Sean had reconnected. If she was going to tell anyone about her divorce, she would undoubtedly spill everything to Sean. She just wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet.
“Seriously though,” she replied, trying to find her car keys. “I’m about to get into the car, and I shouldn’t talk on the phone while driving.”
“Right, I forgot. Multitasking is not your thing,” he joked.
“It’s illegal to use your cell phone while driving through a school zone in Illinois. And since I work at a school…”
“Ah, right. Like I said, you’re so wise. Well, listen, I’ll make this snappy. I need a favor.”
“Sure. How can I help?”
“I need to talk to Niall about a project that I want to go after here in Boston.”
Her steps slowed to a halt, a cold panic seizing the muscles in her legs.
Sean continued before she could reply. “There’s this major historical reuse project about to go out for proposal. An investment group recently purchased a former textile mill outside the city in Lowell and wants to turn it into apartments. This property is fucking amazing. It sits right on the Merrimack River. I’m so jealous of those bastards.”
“Yeah.” Megan cleared her throat. “It sounds great.”
“It is great, Megan. So great that I need to talk to Sir Dicks-a-Lot—I mean Niall—because he’s partnered with one of the owners in the past. I even tried calling him this morning, and it just rang without going to voice mail.”
Megan’s throat closed, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. “You called Niall?” she forced out.
“Yeah.” He paused. “So what do you say? Can you relay the message to Niall and ask him to call me?”
Megan bit her bottom lip. Here was her chance. She should just tell Sean. Just blurt out the fact that she and Niall were divorced. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.
“Sure, I’ll talk to him for you.”
Megan squeezed her eyes shut. She was such a coward. Not only was she a coward but she was setting her brother up to fail on this important project.
Grasping for straws she blurted out, “But he’s on an overseas business trip for the next two weeks. Communication with him has been hit-or-miss.”
“That explains why his phone kept ringing with no voice mail.”
No, that was because Niall had blessedly blocked all the members of her family on his cell phone. Not that they’d ever called him very much, but thank God for small favors.
“Well, the next time you happen to speak to him, maybe you could mention this. I’m still gonna go after this project with or without his help. I’ll just turn on the charm and possibly dangle Darcy in front of them in a short skirt as incentive.”
Megan knew Sean would do no such thing. Ever. He’d turn into a possessive crazy man like a werewolf during a fu
ll moon if he got even an inkling that some guy was putting the moves on his woman.
“I’ll talk to Niall about it the first chance I get.”
She was such a dirty little liar. And she was probably going straight to hell.
“Thanks, Meg. I’ll let you go. Get home safe!”
She said good-bye to her brother and slipped her phone into the side pocket of her Kate Spade bag. Sighing, she resumed the walk to her car, feeling utterly dejected and like the worst sister in the world.
She should have said something. Sean hated Niall and always had. And Sean would hate Niall even more once he heard he’d cheated on her. But the conversation had turned so quickly that she hadn’t had time to prepare before telling Sean.
She could still make this right. Maybe she should call her brother back and come clean. Maybe once she got to her car, she would take a few deep breaths and just get it over with.
Silently steeling herself to do the right thing, she came around the front of the building. The employee parking lot was across the street from the school, and a few buses full of kids were still waiting to exit school property to drop off their students for the afternoon.
“Stop it!”
The angry shout made Megan turn back toward the front steps of the building. A woman was gripping the arm of a student. The boy had his back to Megan, but she could tell from the wild look on the woman’s face that the confrontation was escalating.
Megan spun and practically jogged in her high heels to where the little boy was trying to jerk free of the woman’s grasp.
“Listen to me,” the woman hissed.
The little boy yanked harder, his giant backpack shaking furiously side to side as he tried to get away. He turned and pulled viciously, and it was then that Megan recognized the little boy was Cade Foley.
“Excuse me!” Megan yelled.
At the sound of her voice, Cade looked up and locked eyes with her. She could see the fear swimming in his expression, and he was trying desperately not to cry.
The woman stilled as Megan approached, but she didn’t let Cade go. Now that Megan was closer, she realized something was off. It looked like the woman hadn’t used a brush on her matted hair in weeks, and although she’d tried, her lip liner was jagged, and blue eye shadow was caked on her lids.
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