Tia was astounded that the judge wanted to sit and talk with her. “Isn’t that against some sort of law or something? Since you were the judge in my divorce case.”
“That’s over and done with, and from the paperwork that I received from the court clerk a few minutes ago, any legal ties I had to the case are now moot. I understand that your ex-husband has signed his parental rights for Shay away. I’m sorry to hear that. Every child should know both parents even if they are not together. But there are cases, and I believe that this is one of them, that a child, such as Shay, needs only one parent. One who cares for her, loves her, protects her, and would give her life for her. “
Tears flowed again, and Tia wiped them away quickly.
“Judge Kinsey…” she started.
“You can call me Simone now, Tia. I’d like to help you if I could. I know that financially and emotionally that you are more than capable of taking care of Shay, but I saw something in your ex’s eyes that scares the crap out of me. I don’t think, even though he has signed the papers, that he will let this go that easily. I’m unsure of what he will do if things don’t go his way with his new life.” As Simone sat down beside Tia in the car, she pulled a card from the leather binder she had rested on her lap and wrote her name, address, and number on it.
“I want you to meet me on Saturday at my home. There are some people that I’d like you and Shay to meet, and I want you to listen to them. Can you do that for me?”
Tia looked confused but Simone knew her stuff with regards to abusers, and patiently waited until Tia finally agreed to meet with her on Saturday.
Simone hadn’t realized that she had been holding her breath until she exhaled sharply. “Good girl.”
She smiled and opened the door to leave. Before she could swing her legs out to leave the car, Tia stopped her. “Ah, Simone…I’m a little curious as to why you are helping me.”
Simone smiled sadly and placed her hand on Tia’s. “You remind me of someone that was very close to me. She was in a very similar situation and didn’t think she had anything to worry about. Her ex-husband is spending the rest of his life in prison for her and their sons’ murders. I won’t let that happen to you, and I know how to prevent it now. We’ll talk more on Saturday.”
* * * *
Watching the judge walk back to the courthouse, Tia started feel a little better about the things that had been nagging at her regarding James’s behavior. She didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, and he scared the shit out of her. She was smart enough to know that if his relationship with Lacey didn’t go exactly as he planned, then he would do to her what he did to Tia. The social status of Lacey’s parents may afford him the ability to avoid any police charges, but if he hurt Lacey her father would crucify him financially and socially. Then he’d come back for Tia and Shay.
She needed to find a way to protect both her daughter and herself.
Hopefully, meeting with Simone’s friends would give her some knowledge as to what she had to do to at least hide from James for awhile.
* * * *
Saturday morning, Shay was up with the sun, as usual, and watching her favorite SpongeBob video. As much as Tia hated to admit it, she loved the cartoon just about as much as her daughter. As silly as it was, it always made them laugh. Shay laughed so hard one time that milk squirted out her nose, and that only made Tia laugh harder.
Around nine, Tia called Simone to make sure that everything was set for the meeting. Scooting Shay off to get dressed and heading up to the shower, Tia found herself somewhat excited about what Simone could help her with. Maybe she could suggest the name of an agency that could help her hide herself and Shay.
“Mom…” Shay quietly said as they got into the car. “This is the same judge that I spoke to when you and James got divorced, right?” Shay had taken to calling her father by his given name when having to refer to him.
“Yes it is, honey.”
“Good, I liked her. She told me, just like you always do, that I could do anything or be anything I wanted as long as I studied hard and kept my ‘ass’ out of her courtroom.” Shay giggled and looked at her mom out of the corner of her eye.
“Shay Reynolds, that just cost you, girl. No ice cream after lunch”
“That is exactly what the judge said to me, Mom. Word for word and you’ve told me that if I’m going to repeat something that someone said to me that I should always do it word for word.”
Tia smiled at her smart-mouthed daughter. “Judge Simone did not say the word ass.”
“She did too, Mom. You wait, and I’ll ask her to tell you what she said, and then I want my ice cream.”
“We’ll see, little girl.” Tia tried to hide the smile on her face, so proud of the way her daughter’s confidence had not been diminished by her screwup of a father.
They pulled up in front of the address on the card and both of their mouths dropped open.
“That’s a flipping mansion, Mom.” Shay was the first to speak.
“Well the lady is a judge, so she probably has invested her money well.” Tia stared just as hard as her daughter.
Tia pulled up to the gate, and it opened without her having to press any buttons. They must have had it monitored by video up at the house.
She pulled the car up to the garage, turned it off, took a deep breath, and opened her door. Shay was out the other side almost two steps ahead of her when the front door opened and the largest man that Tia had ever seen stepped through it.
Walking toward Tia, he stretched his hand out. “Hi, you must be Tia and Shay.” The giant smiled down at her daughter.
Shay’s mouth just hung open. Smiling and trying not to embarrass her daughter, Tia leaned over and gently closed her daughter’s mouth. “Don’t gape, Shay, it’s not polite.” She giggled.
“But, Mom, look at the size of him. He’s huge!” She gasped.
The giant burst out laughing. “Yeah, well, you should see my brothers.” His smile was warm as he looked at Shay. “I’m Ryder, and Simone is my much older sister.”
“I heard that, smart-ass.” Simone laughed as she came outside.
“See, Mom, I told you she said the word.” Shay smirked.
Simone looked between the two. “Did you get me in trouble, Shay?”
Tia interrupted, smiling as she realized that Ryder was still holding her hand.
“She’ll tell you about it later, Simone. She has ice cream on the line.”
“Ice cream?” A voice boomed from behind Simone. “Who’s getting ice cream, and why wasn’t I invited!”
* * * *
The sound of a woman’s laughter other than his sister’s brought Daniel to the doorway. Standing there holding his brother’s hand was the sexiest, most drool-worthy female he’d seen in a long time. His sister had been right when she had told them how beautiful she was. She was also right when she told them that she was frightened.
“I’m Daniel, and if my brother can let go of your hand long enough to let you into the house we can go in and meet the others.”
“Good lord, Mom, there’s two of them. They’re twins.” Shay gasped.
“Actually, there are three of us, Shay,” Ryder said, still holding onto Tia’s hand.
Tia quickly tried to pull her hand back. “Not so fast, little one, I kinda like holding your hand.”
She swallowed and tried again to pull her hand away. Ryder laughed quietly but dropped her hand.
“Triplets?” Tia swallowed hard. Why did she suddenly feel so warm?
Shay bounded up the steps as if she wasn’t afraid of anything.
* * * *
Simone just smiled and looked at her brothers and then at Tia, her grin widening further.
As they entered the front foyer of the house, the first thing they noticed was the beautiful marble staircase just across the room from where they stood. Tia assumed it must lead to the bedrooms. Ryder motioned for them to follow Simone into the study.
Once inside, Tia
was introduced to the others.
“This is our other brother Sam, Tia.” After striding across the room, Sam took her hand and brought it to his lips and said, “It is such a pleasure to finally meet you, baby girl.”
Simone cuffed him on the back of the head, and he actually blushed.
Continuing on, Ryder introduced her and Shay to Trent, Jon, and Ben…Simone’s husbands.
Tia whirled and looked at Simone. “Husbands?” She gulped. “But isn’t that illegal?”
Simone laughed, moving toward the men and hugging all of them. “I’m legally married to Trent, but I also consider Ben and Jon my husbands as well. It’s called a polyamorous relationship, Tia. Since I was a little girl I knew that this would be the type of relationship I wanted. The triplets and I were raised by our mom and two dads.”
Tia sat down on the nearest chair. “You’re a judge, though. How…I mean, oh, damn, I’m confused.”
“Mom, you’re so behind things,” Shay piped up. “Just because she’s a judge doesn’t mean she can’t have three husbands. Sheesh, she’s only married to one, and besides, I think it would be cool to have three dads. Heck, it would be great to have just one dad.” Tia could see the hurt in her little girl’s eyes.
Sam was the first one to say something. “You know, Shay, even though you don’t have a dad, you have the best mom in the world. I bet she takes real good care of you.”
Shay hugged her mom, bringing tears to her eyes. “She’s the best on the planet!” She smiled.
“And besides, you can now count me, Ryder, and Dan as your official adopted uncles.” He smiled and lifted Shay into his arms.
“All three of you, really?” Shay sounded so excited that Tia didn’t want to burst her bubble just yet by telling her that they probably wouldn’t be around much.
Simone stepped behind the desk, saying, “Since all the excitement is done with now, we should get down to the business at hand.”
Everyone found a place to sit and waited for Simone to start.
Thinking that Shay would want to sit on her lap, Tia gestured to her daughter but Shay just smiled and snuggled up on Sam’s lap. Huh…the kid’s got taste at least. She smiled to herself.
“Okay, since this is the first meeting of the Daphne’s House board, I’d like to make sure that it is in some way official. Tia, I asked you here to offer you the position of House coordinator for Daphne’s House, a home that will be opening up in Kinsey, Alberta, Canada in the next few months. It is a home for woman with children who need a place to stay that is safe before, during, and after trials for crimes against them such as spousal abuse, child abuse, and rape. We, my family and I, would like very much for you to take over the running of the whole operation.”
Tia was stunned. “Me, but, your honor…I mean, Simone, I don’t have any experience in running that type of operation.”
“Tia, since the moment you walked into my courtroom and stood up to that”—looking over at Shay, she chose her words more carefully—“stood up to your husband, I knew that I wanted you for this position. What you may lack in business skills you more than make up in kindness, strength, and just plain optimism. And you aren’t such a slouch in the business end either, are you?” Simone smiled and handed Tia a file. Opening it, she found that Simone had had her background checked.
Not sure whether to feel insulted or complimented, Tia gave the file back to her, saying, “I really don’t think that I’m the right person for the job, Simone.” Glancing over at Shay, Simone pressed a button and twin girls about Shay’s age came into the room and smiled at her.
“Hey, Shay, you want to come up to our room and hang out for awhile? I’m sure the grown-up stuff is getting pretty boring, and we can lend you a bathing suit so we can go swimming in the indoor pool.”
Shay quickly jumped off Sam’s lap, looked over at her Mom for confirmation that it was okay, and took off with the girls.
“Are they yours, Simone?” Tia asked.
“They sure are. Those two little hellions may look all sweet and innocent, but they could drive a whore to a nunnery.”
Tia laughed at all the expressions that came out of Simone.
She was the embodiment of the modern woman. Wife, mother, and career woman all rolled into one. Tia just didn’t know how she did it.
Trent smiled, kissed his wife, and left to go and make sure that the girls had an adult to watch them while they swam.
“Listen, Tia.” Ryder kneeled down in front of her. “My sister thinks that your ex isn’t through with you, and from what we’ve heard and read about the guy, neither do any of us.” Taking her hands, he stood and pulled her up to stand in front of him. Looking up into his beautiful green eyes, Tia had a hard time focusing on what he was saying.
“My brothers and I live in Kinsey. It’s a wonderful place to live and raise kids. Simone and her men will be moving up there just after the opening of Daphne’s House, so you’ll already have lots of new friends there. We all think it would be for the best if you and Shay moved up there so that we can keep an eye on you.”
Sam had come to stand behind her, and Daniel was by her side, both men looking at her as if she was their last meal.
“I don’t understand why this is so important to you all,” she said in a voice that she didn’t even recognize as her own.
Ryder lifted his hand to her cheek, swiping his thumb across her lower lip as he went. “Baby, you are more important to our family than you know.”
“Say you’ll come and at least spend a few weeks up there with us to see how you like it.” Sam exhaled against the side of her neck.
Daniel took one of her hands and brought in to his lips. “Let us show you how good it could be to be with us, Tia.”
Tia’s mind was racing as fast as her heart, “I need a little time to think about it. I’ll have to talk with Shay as well. She has all her friends here, so she probably won’t want to leave them. I don’t want to bring any more upset to her than I have to.”
Simone stepped between her brothers. “That seems fair to me, sweetheart, but I want you to remember that even if you don’t take the position, our family will always be there to help you whenever you need us.”
She kissed her cheek and smiled down at her. Tia could see the tears in her eyes and wanted, for some strange reason, to make sure that this generous woman never cried because of her.
“Give me two days and then I will let you know, all right?” She wiped at Simone’s tears and went to get Shay.
* * * *
“She’ll take the job, sis, don’t worry about it. She knows that it’s the best way to keep Shay safe and she also feels the connection with the three of us,” Ryder said, smiling down at his sister.
“Don’t screw this up, boys.” Simone looked at her brothers. “If you only want a quick fuck, then leave her the hell alone. She’s been through enough.”
Sam hugged his sister. “She’s the one, sis. You were right all along.”
Daniel also hugged his sister. “We should have listened to you when you first told us about her. You haven’t been wrong so far.”
“Damn straight, big boys.” She hugged her brothers as tears ran down her face remembering the one and only time that she had ever been wrong in her matchmaking, and it had cost her friend her life.
Trent chose that moment to come back into the room. “Brothers or not, get your hands off my woman and tell me what you did to upset her.”
“They didn’t do anything, love.” She giggled and kissed him. “I was just thinking about Daphne, that’s all.”
“Sweetheart.” Ben came and hugged her. “You know that Daphne would never blame you for what happened. She’d want you to go on with your life.”
“I know, Ben, I just want to make sure that it doesn’t happen to her baby sister, that’s all. Tia didn’t even know about Daphne. Even her father didn’t know about her before he died. Daphne’s mother didn’t tell anyone until her deathbed. Maybe if that old crone had said
something earlier, things would have turned out differently.”
* * * *
Watching Shay from the doorway, Tia smiled at how well the girls played together. Shay always got on well with other kids, but usually became bored with friends because she was so far advanced mentally. But with the twins it seemed different. They weren’t playing dolls or something so “mundane” as Shay would put it. They were piecing together a rather intricate 3-D world puzzle. They all seemed so engrossed in the process that none of them even noticed that she was there.
“Excuse me, ladies, but, Shay, it’s time for us to head home.” Tia grinned at her daughter.
“Aw, Mom, we’re in the middle of this puzzle. Can’t we stay a little longer? Uncle Ryder said he’d take us all out to see the horses in the back pasture.”
“Nope, kiddo, not today. There’s some things we need to discuss, and I thought that maybe we could do it over dinner at Chino’s. We’ll be back, sweetheart, don’t worry.”
Shay said her good-byes to the twins, exchanged e-mail addresses, and they headed off back toward the city.
Tia was having difficulty focusing on what Shay was saying when all she seemed to be able to think about were the triplets. Why did they affect her the way they did? Just being in the same room with them made her heart race and her panties wet.
“Mom…Mom…” Shay giggled as she shook her by the arm. “You were off in Never Never Land. I bet I know who you were thinking about.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Shay.” Tia could feel her face heated from her blush. Sometimes Tia wished her daughter wasn’t quite as perceptive as she was.
* * * *
They pulled into Shay’s favorite restaurant a few minutes later. Shay smiled as she watched her mom’s face out of the corner of her eye.
The twins had been right. Her mom and the triplets would be perfect for each other. She’d just have to figure out a way to make it happen.
Bailey, Debbie - For Tia's Pleasure [Men of Kinsey 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 2