She got a photo album from the built-in bookcase, and brought it to the recliner. She paged through it until she found a good clear picture of Joel as a six-year-old. Cold, nauseating reality stared back from the photo album pages.
Jackson Ravenna was Joel’s mirror image, right down to the same bangs-over-the-forehead, little boy haircut. She raised a hand to her mouth. They could be twins. The boy has to be Chuck’s. Dear Lord, what are we going to do?
Chuck rounded the corner onto a well-used bike and jogging path, and soon his breathing and footsteps fell into a regular rhythm. Clear your head, Bobbi said, as if the pounding would knock everything swirling around his brain into some coherent order. Not likely. Too much to process.
Blind fury at Tracy tore at every fiber of him while shame burned through his core. He was disgusted with himself for being so stupid, and sick for causing Bobbi such fresh heartache. Tracy said not to worry and he just believed her. Why? He never “just believed” anybody. And he remembered Bobbi’s cold stare when she asked if Tracy was pregnant. “No,” he’d said. “She told me she used a patch.” She told me. Pathetic.
How could she keep the pregnancy a secret? Why didn’t some county agency notify him as soon as the boy was born? Unless ... unless the boy really wasn’t his. So the boy resembled Joel. Bobbi latched onto a worst-case scenario. He couldn’t blame her, but they were all overreacting.
Tracy didn’t deserve this much control over him, over his emotions. He was not the same man she seduced. He had to face her, and then she’d see she couldn’t play games with him. If she persisted in this harassment, then he’d get a restraining order and keep her and her son from getting anywhere near his wife or his children.
He looped back around to Danbury Court, and slowed to a walk, and then he saw Bobbi sitting on the front step holding a bottle of water. He trotted into his yard. “Toss me the bottle. You don’t want me any closer.”
“I’ll be all right.” She stood and stretched her arm over to him.
He uncapped the bottle and poured water in his mouth and over his head. “Thank you.”
“So, clear head?”
“He’s not mine.”
“But Chuck, I saw him.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. If that were the criteria, no one would believe I was Brad and Shannon’s dad. Besides, the county would have notified me if I was the boy’s father.”
“What if she told them she didn’t know who it was?”
“She has to name the father.” He gulped the last of the water. “So tonight, I’ll tell her to stay away from you and the kids, and I’ll get a restraining order.”
“And that will be enough?”
“That’s all I can do. She hasn’t committed a crime or anything.”
“Yet.”
“Bobbi ...”
“All right, so I assume the worst about her. You, however, assume the best, but you don’t grasp that neither one of us is right about her.”
“I have to believe I’m right, or I can’t function.”
“But I can’t trust your decisions if you’re not being objective. Do you see what this is doing to us? It is setting us against each other in a completely different way.”
“We’re on the same side this time.”
“But we’re being forced into isolation, insulating ourselves against each other. It hurts too much when we reach out, so we’re both retreating.”
“You told me to go run.”
“I did. And it helped, didn’t it?”
He took her hand. “This will all be over after tonight.”
“I wish I could believe that.”
At twenty after eight, Chuck and Gavin drove down a narrow street in an upscale neighborhood, trying to find the house listed on the student information sheet. “It’s that one,” Gavin said, pointing to a two-story brick, two houses down on the left. “The one with the Lexus in the driveway.”
“A Lexus,” Chuck muttered. “It figures.” He parked in front of the house, and got out of his car. “This is a lot more domestic than I would have pictured for Tracy.”
“Maybe she’s changed.”
“Doubt it.” He strode onto her porch, and rang the doorbell. After an uncomfortably long pause, the porch light came on. Chuck hoped Gavin didn’t see him flinch when the door opened.
Tracy looked at Chuck as if it were the most natural thing in the world to see him at her door. She wore shorts and a tank top, just like the night Chuck stopped at her house to fix a ceiling fan seven years ago. He knew that was no coincidence, and he willed himself not to stare.
“Chuck, that didn’t take long.” She smiled and opened the door to let them in. “I’ll be right with you,” she said, and then walked back through the house.
The sofa, coffee table and easy chair hardly filled the immaculate living room, and a small rectangular table seemed lost in the spacious kitchen. The light oak flooring in the entryway gave way to new carpet in the living room and tile in the kitchen. Everything was fresh, but neutral shades. There was nothing personal anywhere, no knick-knacks, nothing indicative of any outside interests. Except for the pictures.
Dozens of pictures hung in clusters on the walls, all of her son - as an infant, a preschooler, casual, formal, and everything in between. Bobbi hadn’t exaggerated. It was like looking through the photo albums at Joel. Both boys had the same dimples, and the same crooked grin. Just like his.
He glanced over, and Gavin scowled, and then adjusted his glasses. “Doesn’t prove anything,” Chuck whispered. And it didn’t. That quickening of his pulse was nothing more than anticipating unloading his anger at Tracy.
“Jack! Bedtime!” she called.
“Who was at the door, Mommy?” Chuck stretched forward to see the boy.
“Someone I used to work with,” Tracy answered. “Did you brush your teeth?”
“Yes,” he huffed, and then quick as a flash he ran from the back of the house, pausing for a moment at the stairs just a few feet from Chuck. “Hi!” he said with a wave. Then he called “Bye!” and scampered up the stairs.
“G’nite, buddy,” Chuck called before he realized what was happening. It was an easy, natural reflex. Gavin raised an eyebrow and Chuck felt a flush of heat. What if? What if the boy really was?
He eased his hands into the back pockets of his jeans so Gavin couldn’t see them shake. A son. He didn’t want to believe it, refused to allow the thoughts to form, but that squeezing crush in his chest forced him to face reality. That boy ... Tracy’s son ... could be ...
“Now then, gentlemen,” Tracy said when she came back downstairs. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting, but Jack comes first.” She walked past them and into the living room. “Who’s your friend, Chuck?” she asked, without bothering to turn around.
He glanced at Gavin and nodded. They weren’t dealing with abstracts anymore, but he didn’t have the luxury of thinking this through. “What? Oh, this is Gavin Heatley.”
“Mr. Heatley, I’m pleased to meet you,” she said. “I hope you haven’t believed the things Chuck has said about me. Please, come and sit down, gentlemen.” Tracy motioned them to the sofa, while she curled up in the easy chair across from them. She glanced at Gavin, and with a bit of a smirk she asked, “Are you afraid to be alone with me, Chuck?”
Seeing Tracy again brought every detail of every moment they were together to the front of his mind. Images of her flashed through his memory. He knew his face was flushing and he was furious with himself, ashamed that she still caught his eye, and disappointed that she could get a reaction out of him. “After what I did to my wife, yes,” Chuck answered firmly.
“Speaking of your wife, isn’t it against the law for her to give out her students’ personal information?”
She had a lot of nerve, accusing Bobbi. “You knew this would happen when you put him in her class.”
“Oh, I expected you.”
“Then you know why I’m here.” Chuck’s jaw tensed. Now the fight began.
“Of course. This is the part where you demand to know if Jack is your son.”
“Is he?”
“No.”
“You’re lying.” Wasn’t she?
“Am I?” She smiled and crossed her arms across her chest.
“His birth date is nine months after we were together.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“He looks like me.”
“He is much cuter, much more handsome than you are.”
Chuck rolled his eyes at her uncharacteristically juvenile jab. “You named him Charles. I don’t believe that’s a coincidence.”
“What if he is your son?” She dropped her arms and leaned forward. Her charm evaporated, and her eyes narrowed. “What are you going to do about it?”
He didn’t have an answer. He came over here denying that the boy was his, but if —since — he was, what was his plan? He glanced at Gavin and before he knew what was happening, words were spilling out. “I’m going to be his dad.”
“His dad?” Tracy mocked. “Two days ago, you didn’t know he existed, and suddenly you have all these paternal instincts?”
“He needs a dad.”
“No, he doesn’t!” Tracy pointed at Chuck. “He doesn’t need you, and I don’t need you!”
“Why did you put him in Bobbi’s class if you didn’t want me to find out? You’re not making any sense.”
Tracy walked toward the front door. “You know, Chuck, you made it very clear you didn’t want anything to do with me when you blew me off.”
“Blew you off?” Chuck exploded off the sofa, catching up with her in two strides. “I ended an extramarital affair with you! Then you sued me!” He felt Gavin’s hand on his shoulder, pulling him back.
“I think you’re through here,” Gavin said with quiet strength.
Chuck twisted away from him. “Wait a minute. If you’d followed through with the suit, I would have found out you were pregnant. That’s why you dropped the lawsuit, isn’t it?”
Tracy jerked the front door open. “Go home, Chuck. Go back home to your perfect wife, your perfect sons and your perfect little girl, and leave me and Jack alone.”
“This isn’t over. I’ll find out the truth about Jack.”
“You do that,” she replied. “Mr. Heatley, goodnight.”
“Ms. Ravenna,” Gavin said with a slight nod as he shepherded Chuck through the door.
“This is not over!” Chuck called as Tracy slammed the door behind him. He clenched his fists and half moaned, half yelled, “How could she do this to me?”
“She had no compunction about committing adultery. It’s no stretch that she would lie to you about something this big.”
“But why? Nearly destroying my marriage wasn’t enough! She had to get pregnant and then use that against me.” He jerked his car door open and dropped in the driver’s seat. His pulse pounded in his neck, and Gavin had barely closed his door before Chuck pulled away from the curb. “She set me up.”
“How do you know she did this on purpose?”
“Because that’s how she is!”
“Maybe she is, but every kind of birth control can fail. This may have been an unplanned pregnancy.”
“Nothing that woman does is unplanned.”
“All right, so she intended to get pregnant. She obviously doesn’t want anything from you.”
“It’s not about what she wants! It’s about what this is going to do to my wife!” That crushing squeeze returned to his chest. “I have to walk in my house, look Bobbi in the eye ...”
His vision blurred as tears welled up in his eyes. He paid for this sin already - six long months of separation from his wife, counseling and more counseling. “I gotta, I gotta pull over,” he murmured, and drove his car into a parking lot. Resting his head on the steering wheel, he choked back tears. “That boy is mine. I know he is, but ...”
“You said you wanted to be his dad.”
“Yeah, I mean I have to, right? I have an obligation to him.” He ran a hand back through his hair. “But Bobbi? How can I ask her to ...” He shook his head and let a long breath escape. “I can’t. I can’t ask her to have anything to do with this. Then there’s Brad, Joel, and Shannon. How do you think the boys are going to take this?”
“They’re young men now. They’ll be much more concerned with how it affects Bobbi and Shannon.”
“I’m gonna have to take her to court.” He laid his head against the headrest and sighed. “So what do you think?”
“About?”
“Tracy and Jack. You think he’s my son?”
“Without question.”
“So what does she want? What is she doing?”
“She’s a scorned woman who has come back to prove she’s a better mother than Bobbi.”
“That’s crazy! Bobbi ... Being a mother is who she is! Teaching is just an extension of mothering. Tracy could never be! So does she think I’m gonna leave Bobbi now? When I see what a great mother she is? That’s delusional.”
“I don’t think she wants you. She just wants to show you what you walked away from.”
He shook his head. “No. There’s something else going on.”
“Then it might be best to slow down.”
“But what’s Jack gonna think if I don’t try to get to know him?”
“You’re going to try to build a relationship with him? Bring him into your family?”
“You don’t think that’s the right thing?”
“You just said you couldn’t ask Bobbi to be part of this. Now you’re talking about being his dad. You’re not making any sense.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” He blew out a deep breath. “She makes me nuts.”
“Yeah, and the less contact you have with her the better. Better for you, and better for Bobbi.”
“I know that, but I don’t see what other choice I have. You make it sound like I have to choose between Jack and Bobbi. I don’t want this to come between us, but I can’t pretend that Jack doesn’t exist. He’s my son.”
“And Bobbi is your wife. You can’t decide this unilaterally.”
“What if she doesn’t want anything to do with Jack?”
Gavin took a long slow breath. “Then I think you should honor that.”
CHAPTER 3
DUPLICITY
Rita paced between her kitchen and the front door. With each pass, she recalculated how much longer she should wait before slipping into full-fledged worrying. Fifteen minutes driving, fifteen minutes - or less - in confrontation and fifteen minutes driving back. Gavin should have been home twenty or thirty minutes ago.
Maybe he stopped in at Bobbi’s. Maybe that’s what was taking so long. No. He’d leave them to discuss things privately. She took the cell phone from her pocket one more time, and ran her thumb across the back as if she could massage a ring from it.
She opened her phone and stared at the keypad. What about a text message? Gavin kept his phone set to vibrate, so it wouldn’t interrupt. He could ignore it if it was a bad time, right? She quickly punched in “so?” and send. No reply.
She stuffed the phone back in her jeans pocket and strode to the window, peering up the empty street. Then she saw headlights. “Please,” she whispered. The car slowed as it approached the house, turning in their driveway at the last minute. “Finally.”
She backed away from the window and counted what should have been enough steps for Gavin to get to the porch, and then she swung the front door open. “What happened?”
“Not much. She’s a very evasive woman.”
Rita pulled Gavin to the living room so they could sit. “Is the boy Chuck’s?”
“She wouldn’t say,” he answered, dropping onto the small sofa. “Chuck’s going to have to take her to court, and make her give proof.”
“But you think he is Chuck’s son?”
Gavin slowly lifted his head and looked in her eyes. “She wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t.”
Ri
ta slumped against the back of the sofa. An illegitimate son. Now what? “If Chuck takes her to court, is he going to try to get joint custody?”
“That’s the plan.” Gavin slipped his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “I just don’t know.”
“What?”
“I don’t know if that’s the best thing, especially for Bobbi.”
“Does he understand what this will do to her? He promised he would never hurt her again. He has to stand by that.”
“He thinks he is.”
“But?”
“Tracy doesn’t want any money from him, and she certainly doesn’t want any help raising her son. It might be better for everybody if Chuck just left her alone.”
Rita’s eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped. “Gavin, I’m stunned. We agree for a change.”
“You’ll make me second-guess myself,” he said with a smile, but then he looked away and that smile faded. “I knew something was up with him when he was cheating on Bobbi, and I didn’t say anything.”
“You can’t blame yourself for that.”
“Maybe not, but I owe it to Bobbi to talk some sense into him before this goes much further.”
“That clock couldn’t move any slower without going backwards,” Bobbi muttered as she looked out the front window again. The last time Chuck saw Tracy was the last night he was with her maybe the night this boy was conceived. What if he was still attracted to her?
That woman had the perfect set-up now. She could call their house, call Chuck’s office, or call his cell phone for ostensibly legitimate reasons. How long would it be before she wore him down this time? Chuck. He couldn’t withstand her tactics indefinitely.
Then what? How much more humiliating would it be the second time around? Their marriage would not recover from adultery again.
“Be sensible,” she chided. “Chuck loves you. You trust him. He is not going to cheat on you with that woman ever again, no matter how many kids she turns up with.”
She checked the clock again. Why didn’t he call? What if Tracy was the unstable type Ann warned them about? What if her plan was to get rid of Chuck in some psychotic murder-suicide? And she sent Gavin right into the middle of that.
Indemnity: Book Two: Covenant of Trust Series Page 3