by C. C. Wood
“I should get inside,” I said. “I doubt Coop will get custody, but I do want to talk to Tanya. She’s a lawyer and she’ll be able to tell me what to expect.” I hesitated. “While I would love to meet the rest of your family, maybe now isn’t the best time.”
His face seemed to tighten slightly, but Charles nodded without saying anything and straightened, stepping back so I could get out of the car. I grabbed my stuff and he took my laptop bag, carrying it to the front door for me.
“Hi, beautiful,” he said to Carolena. She grinned at him. He looked at Kathy. “Hey, Kathy. How are you?”
She didn’t smile, but her eyes warmed. “I’m fine.” She turned her gaze to me. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s a long story. Let me get inside and out of my work clothes and I’ll explain.”
Kathy nodded and stepped into the house. Charles brought in my bag and set it on the floor.
“I’ll call you later,” he said, leaning in to kiss me.
“Kiss! Kiss!” Carolena demanded.
I grinned as Charles leaned over and gave my daughter a loud smacking kiss on her cheek. She loved it and let loose a huge belly laugh. I couldn’t believe how quickly she’d warmed up to Charles. Then again, she’d never had a man, other than my father and her uncles, take an interest in her. Seeing him with my daughter, I yearned to see Charles with his niece and nephew or maybe even with his own children.
He came back, curved his hand around the back of my neck, and leaned down so our faces were a few inches apart. “Look, I’m going to call my mom and tell her I’m not gonna make it. You need me and I can deal with her foaming at the mouth over the idea that I’m getting serious with a woman and keep her off your back.”
At his offer, my chest felt tight, as though it couldn’t contain my heart. “No, I’ll be okay,” I murmured. “I’ll probably spend half the night on the phone anyway. I need to make calls to Tanya for legal advice and I’ll also have to contact my parents and let them know that Coop’s back. I’m not looking forward to that.”
“Yancy.” His voice was low, warning me that he didn’t want an argument.
“Seriously, Charles. You have a life and a family. Spend time with them and I’ll see you tomorrow.” I stared into his eyes, my jaw set.
Charles must have understood that I was digging in my heels, because he nodded. “I’ll call after dinner. If I can get out of there early enough, I’ll swing by.”
“That sounds wonderful.”
He gave my neck a squeeze. “Okay. If you need me or your ex turns up, call me.”
I nodded and watched as he left. When I turned, Kathy stood in the foyer, Carolena perched on her hip, and her eyes worried.
“So tell me what’s going on.”
“Give me a couple of minutes to get into something more comfortable and I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” I said. Even I could hear that my voice sounded tired.
She nodded and headed toward the back of the house. I realized I still had my purse over my shoulder and I dumped it on the bench by my laptop bag. I kicked off my shoes, scooped them up, and headed up the stairs.
Once I had changed into a pair of black yoga pants and a loose t-shirt, I made my way back downstairs and into the kitchen. Carolena was in her high chair, snacking on some fruit, while Kathy appeared to be making dinner.
“You didn’t have to make dinner, Kath.”
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Hon, when you came up to the porch, you looked like you were about to fall over. Now, you get yourself a glass of wine and sit down and tell me what’s going on.”
I did as she directed, settling in a chair at the kitchen table. By the time I finished repeating the story, her eyes were bright with anger and her mouth was thin.
“Cooper Stevens is a jackass,” she muttered. “I should have smacked him when I had the chance.”
Since Kathy had been babysitting Carolena since she was six weeks old, she’d met Cooper. He’d left almost a month after she started working for me, so she had seen the entire divorce and the toll that suddenly becoming a single parent had taken on me.
“I won’t argue with you, especially since I think you’re right,” I said, sipping my wine.
Kathy asked me more questions, none of which I could answer since I didn’t know what had caused Cooper to show up out of the blue or what I would do in response. She also wouldn’t let me help make dinner, so I simply sat and watched as she put together a taco salad for me and a little plate of beans, meat, and some veggies for Carolena.
“You’re not going to stay and eat?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, I have to get home. I called my husband when you told me you would be late and told him I expected dinner on the table when I got back.” She grinned. “After all my years as a housewife, it’s his turn to cook while I work.”
I chuckled and thanked her for making dinner and for listening. She gave me a hug and told me to eat all of my dinner or she would know. After she left, Carolena and I ate together while I tried to talk to her about my day, forcing myself to keep my voice light. She babbled and clapped and then smashed all of her food into a big pile.
We ran through our normal evening routine, which helped take my mind off Cooper. We played in the living room for an hour, then I bathed her and gave her a breathing treatment. By eight, she could barely hold her eyes open. I relished our quiet time before bed, rocking in her glider while I sang lullabies.
Even though I was almost certain he stood no chance of gaining even joint custody, there was still a small part of me that worried. Fathers had rights, I wouldn’t deny that, but Cooper’s actions hadn’t been those of a father. They had been the choices of a selfish coward. My daughter deserved better. She deserved someone like Charles.
When I realized where my thoughts had turned, I shut my eyes and silently reprimanded myself. While I had no urge to start buying bridal magazines, thinking of Charles Faulkner as a good father for my baby girl was just as bad. It was also frightening. We’d only been dating for about a month. It wasn’t smart to invest so much in our relationship. I knew that, yet, in my mind, I could see Charles playing with Carolena after our picnic in the park and I wanted that for her. And myself.
I glanced down at my little girl and saw that her eyes were closed, her lips pursed in a sweet pout. I stood and carried her to the crib. After she was settled, I carried my phone and the baby monitor downstairs.
I needed to call Tanya and my parents. I should have done it earlier, but I didn’t want Carolena to see me upset. Talking about Cooper and the things he said today would definitely get me worked up again.
I poured myself another glass of wine and took all my stuff to my reading nook. Once I settled in the chair, I took a deep drink of the wine and called Tanya.
“Lo?”
“Hey. Do you have a minute?” I asked.
“For you, I always have time.”
I heard a few papers rustling and realized that I was interrupting her while she was working. “You know what, you’re busy. I’ll talk to you tomorrow at lunch.”
“Yancy, shut up and tell me what’s going on.”
“Well, I can’t do both.”
Her huff in response told me that my sarcasm was not appreciated.
I drank more wine. “Okay, I have some questions about legal stuff.”
There was a long pause. “You aren’t in jail, are you?”
Though I wasn’t in the best of moods, I had to smile. “No, but I might need you to come bail me out in the future.”
“Tell me what’s going on.”
I knew I had her full attention because she sounded exactly like she did when she was on the phone with a client or an associate. “Cooper showed up at the house.”
“Excuse me?”
“Coop came here last week, and, today, I met him for coffee and he said he’s going to try to take Carolena away from me.”
“That pencil-dicked fucker.” She stopped abruptly and I heard her
take a deep breath. “Okay, walk me through what happened.”
I went over the whole story, telling her about how Cooper interrupted my great evening with Charles and insisted on seeing me in person. During my explanation, she inserted appropriate ‘oh’s’ and ‘ah’s’ and ‘that piece of shit’s’.
Once I finished telling her everything that happened, she didn’t say anything for so long, I thought we had been disconnected.
“Tanya?”
“Sorry, I was thinking. First of all, don’t speak to him again in any capacity unless you get your lawyer involved. My caseload is insane right now and I don’t want to risk even a hint of a conflict of interest, so I’m not going to represent you. I know just who to set you up with though; Delinda Malone. She is a shark in stilettos and she will make Cooper Stevens wish he’d never crawled out from the rock he’s been living under the past year.”
“Okay. So, what’s next?”
She explained that she would set me up with her friend, we would meet and I would give her all the information she needed. Then, it would become a waiting game to see when he filed and, if so, a brief interim until I was served the papers. After that, court.
My palms felt sweaty at the thought. When Cooper and I divorced, he hadn’t fought me for anything, though he did seem to expect half of all our joint accounts, which I had obliged. I made slightly more money than he did, so I didn’t quibble. At the time, I was exhausted from dealing with a newborn alone and working full-time. The entire process remained a blur in my memory.
Tanya did her best to reassure me before we hung up, but I was still stressed. I decided to wait until Cooper filed for custody before telling my parents that he was back in town. I didn’t even know if Coop had the money for an attorney. His tantrum today could have been complete bullshit, said to hurt me. There was no use getting my mom and dad worked up if he only wanted to upset me.
It was almost nine when I finished my call to Tanya and, almost immediately, my phone rang. It was Charles.
“Hey, how was dinner?” I asked as I answered the phone.
“Good. How are you doing?”
“I’m better than I was when you left.”
“Did you eat something?”
I felt something warm and sweet spread through my chest. “Yes. Kathy made me dinner.”
“Are you going to bed soon?”
The warmth in my torso spread to another part of my anatomy. “No.”
“I just left dinner at my parents. Can I stop by?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he said.
A few minutes later, I got a text from him.
Charles: I’m here.
I went to the front door and opened it as he came up the steps to the front porch. “I thought you said ten minutes.”
He chuckled as he walked through the door. “I drove fast.”
“Do you want a beer or something?”
“No, thanks. Let’s go sit on the couch and you can tell me what Tanya said.”
He grabbed my hand and led me to the sofa. When he sat, he pulled me down so that my back leaned against the arm and my legs draped over his lap.
The intimacy of the position surprised me. Charles was affectionate, but I was practically sitting on his lap and I hadn’t expected it.
“Are your feet ticklish?” he asked.
“What?” What was he talking about?
“Are your feet ticklish? Will it bother you if I rub your feet?”
My eyes widened. “No, it won’t bother me.”
His big hands cupped my right foot and he began to rub the arch in slow steady strokes. “Now, tell me what Tanya said.”
I repeated everything that I discussed with Tanya while he rubbed my feet. It felt incredibly nice. Almost exactly like I imagined my marriage with Cooper would be when he proposed, except maybe without the foot rub. That was a bonus.
By the time I was done, I felt utterly relaxed. With each word I’d spoken and each stroke of Charles’ hands, the tension within me eased.
“So now you just have to wait until he makes the first move?” Charles asked incredulously.
I sighed. “Pretty much. I will be contacting the Attorney General’s office again to see what steps they’ve taken recently to find him because, when I mentioned it this afternoon, I could see it on his face that his sudden remorse has something to do with that.”
Charles’ arms came around me and he shifted us so that we were lying side by side on the couch with our legs tangled together. His hand slipped under my t-shirt to my lower back and his fingers began to trace shapes on the sensitive skin. I rested one hand high on his chest so that my fingers were beneath the open neck of his shirt, splayed over his collarbone and neck.
“Feeling better?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. Thanks for the foot rub. It helped a lot,” I whispered.
His face suddenly seemed much closer. “Well, are you gonna kiss me or not?” he teased.
What else could I do? My hand moved to cup the back of his neck so I could pull his face closer to mine and I kissed him.
Chapter Nineteen
BY THURSDAY NIGHT, I was beginning to think that Cooper had been bluffing when he threatened to sue for custody. I hadn’t received papers or any other indication that he was moving forward with his plans. I met with Tanya’s friend, Delinda, on Wednesday and she seemed capable, frighteningly intelligent, and blunt. The very fact that she didn’t sugarcoat anything made me feel much better because I knew I could believe her when she said Coop’s chances of winning a full custody suit were nil. However, she did say that the judge might agree to some visitation or partial custody. The thought made my blood run cold.
Based on Coop’s past behavior, I knew I would spend any days apart from Carolena worried sick about whether or not she was getting her breathing treatments or a bath every day. There was always the possibility that he intended to dump her with his parents but, considering they weren’t much better than Coop, I didn’t like that scenario much.
I went to lunch with Charles on Wednesday and he could tell the stress was getting to me. He wanted to come by that night, but I made up an excuse. Faced with my past, I was beginning to rethink my burgeoning relationship with Charles. While I understood that it was ridiculous, I was terrified that I was well on my way down the same path of impulsiveness. I felt myself pulling away and couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do a damn thing to stop it. The instinct of self-preservation demanded that I step back and think about what I was doing.
Charles noticed. I know he did, because he called me Wednesday night and insisted on taking me out to dinner Friday. When I told him I didn’t think I could get a sitter, he said his mother or sister would probably be happy to babysit. I told him I didn’t know if I was up to going out and he said he would cook for me. I sensed that he would not hesitate to call me out on my bullshit if I made another excuse, so I agreed.
Now it was Thursday and I was working from home. Well, I was supposed to be working. Instead, I sat in my home office and stewed most of the day. Thank God most of my projects were almost complete, because I wouldn’t have gotten a single thing done.
My cell rang and I saw my sister, Leslie’s, name on the display.
“Hey, Sis,” I said, trying to sound cheerful.
“So, Mom tells me you’re dating a guy. Actually, I believe she said, ‘a tall, handsome, well-educated man’.” She paused and, when I didn’t respond, said, “Well?”
I sighed. I should have known my mother wouldn’t keep quiet about Charles. In fact, I was surprised I hadn’t heard from my sisters on Sunday, the day after Mom met Charles.
“Yes, I’m dating someone.”
“Oh, no, Yancy. You don’t need to be so free with details. TMI and all that,” she muttered sarcastically.
I found myself chuckling against my will. “It’s early days. I don’t know where this is headed and I wanted to wait before I mentioned him to y’all.”
; “How early?”
I cleared my throat. “About a month.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely too early for meeting the parents. What about sex? You jumped his bones yet?”
“Leslie!”
“Oh, don’t act like such a prude. You’ve been dating a month, most red-blooded women would have taken a tall, handsome, well-educated man for a test drive by now. C’mon, I’ve been married for at least a century, give me a cheap thrill.”
Again, I laughed in spite of myself. How was it that my older sister could make me feel better in a two minute conversation?
“No, I haven’t jumped his bones, as you so delicately put it,” I said.
“Why not?” She sounded incredulous.
“It’s not that simple, Leslie. I have a daughter to think about now. I can’t just start bed-hopping.”
“Um, dearest sister, when was the last time you got some?”
I felt my face heat. “A while.”
“Before you were divorced?” she asked.
I didn’t answer.
“Thought so. That being said, your daughter shouldn’t factor into your sex life. I mean, you don’t want to introduce every prospective partner to her, but she’s too damn young to have an opinion on whether or not Mommy gets laid, not that it would be any of her business even if she was old enough. You’ve been divorced almost a year, haven’t dated at all and now you’re putting off sex with Mr. Wonderful why?”
When she put it like that, I could see her point.
Finally, I admitted the poisonous little thought that had kept me from dating before now. “I’m just scared, Les. I’m terrified that I’ll end up making the same mistakes again. My damned hormones short-circuited my brain with Coop and I can’t go through that again.”
My sister’s voice was softer, compassionate, when she spoke. “You won’t, Yancy. Did you make a mistake marrying Coop? Maybe. People will lie and manipulate. Unfortunately, some of them are very, very good at hiding who they really are. From what Mom told me, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to be an issue with Mr. Wonderful.”