Derailed

by Gina Watson

  “Well, hello there.”

  Everett’s sister had answered the door. “Hi, I’m Ryder. We brought pancakes for Everett.” Fiona felt her face heat as Courtney glanced at her.

  “I’m sure he will be ecstatic! He loves pancakes.”

  She moved aside to let them in. “Ryder and Fiona, right?” She gazed at Fiona waiting for confirmation, and so she nodded.

  “I’m Courtney,” she said to Ryder. “What happened to your arm?”

  She led them through the house.

  “I broke it on a fishing trip—fell out of the boat.”

  “Oh, my.” Courtney grasped at her chest. Looking back at Fiona she said, “You must have been scared.”

  “I was terrified.”

  “It was an accident,” Ryder added matter-of-factly.

  “Here’s the kitchen if you want to get set up. I’ll go get Everett. I happen to know he hasn’t yet had breakfast.” She smiled and walked out leaving them alone.

  “Wow, it’s the biggest kitchen I’ve ever seen!”

  Ryder loved to cook and so she knew he’d be impressed by their gourmet kitchen.

  “I bet they have a chef.”

  “Let’s take the food out of the basket.”

  Fiona helped Ryder lay out the breakfast for Everett and she hoped it would be a welcomed peace offering to counteract her behavior last night when he’d been so nice to her and her son.

  ***

  Keiser of Keiser, Brown, and Doyle, was currently spewing a volcanic eruption of expletives into Everett’s ear.

  “Yes, I realize that Mr. Keiser, but the client is crazy. He threw a ten-pound ashtray across the room, breaking the large window, not me.”

  “Still, he wants the window paid for, so that’s coming out of your bonus. We at KB&D, pride ourselves on confidential and professional treatment of our clients. You just tarnished our image. You better be glad you already made partner—this little fiasco would have kept your name off the candidate list.”

  Everett bit hard on the inside of his lip to keep from telling Keiser exactly what he could do with the partner candidate list.

  “We want you to take a week of vacation and come back with a new vision. You’re a good lawyer. We all believe this is a minor setback.”

  “Yes, Mr. Keiser.”

  “Take care of yourself.”

  Everett sat on his bed, gripping fistfuls of his hair. It was just as well he’d been made to quit the assignment. The sooner he could leave Baton Rouge, the better off he’d be. He’d had enough of the town’s man-eating, overreacting women and its brutish, half-crazed land dwellers.

  A knock at his door preceded Courtney’s entrance. “Hey, there’s something in the kitchen I think you’ll want to see.”

  “What now?”

  “Just go to the kitchen.”

  Still dressed in shorts and a T-shirt from slumber, Everett huffed, but stood and slid his feet into flip-flops by the door. He followed Courtney out, but when she went toward her room he asked, “Where are you going?”

  “To shower. Just go to the kitchen. You won’t regret it.”

  Everett made his way down the stairs while he pondered the reason behind Courtney’s secrecy.

  When he turned the corner into the kitchen, he had his answers. Ryder was decorating a plate with whipped cream from a can and having a blast doing it.

  “That looks great, baby. Everett’s going to love it.”

  He cleared his throat and they both turned to stare with wide eyes. To break the ice he smiled. “Morning, what do we have here?” He took the plate in his hands, pulling it up to get a better look.”

  “Smiley face chocolate chip pancakes,” Ryder answered proudly.

  “Mmm. Looks awesome.” Everett took the stool next to Ryder at the bar while Fiona continued to stand at her son’s side. He took a large bite that demolished one of the eyes. “Just as I expected—best—pancakes—ever!” Everett laughed.

  “We’re sorry for being mean. I mean Mom is.” Everett looked to Fiona.

  “Yes, I’m sorry I overreacted. Given the events of the day I was emotional, but that is still no excuse. You were very kind yesterday.” She wrung her hands. “I hope you will accept my apology.” She bit into her lip and looked down at the floor.

  It was a little too little, a little too late, wasn’t it? He was headed back to Boston, thankful to be done with Baton Rouge. At least he could respond to her kind gesture.

  “This is great, Fiona. Thank you.”

  Both Fiona and Ryder continued to stare at him wide-eyed and he realized his reaction hadn’t been grand enough. He took his phone from his pocket and handed it to them. “I’d like a selfie with pancake man if you don’t mind.” He held a dry pancake up next to his face and smiled cheerily. Fiona took the shot. “And one more for good measure.” Everett stuck his tongue through the mouth on the cake while Ryder laughed. Then Fiona took a selfie of the four of them with their heads together—pancake man taking up one of the middle positions.

  While he was finishing off cake number three, Harmony walked into the kitchen.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware you had company.”

  “Please come, I’ll introduce you. Harmony, this if Fiona and her son Ryder.”

  They exchanged greetings.

  “You have a broken arm.” Harmony pointed.

  “I fell out of a boat,” Ryder boasted.

  “Whoa. I broke my arm in the same place when I was eleven.”

  “I’m ten. How did you break your arm?”

  “I fell off a horse.”

  Ryder’s face became highly animated as he sucked in a huge breath. “Do you have a horse?”

  “I do.”

  “Harmony has a bunch of horses.” Everett smiled proudly.

  “Wow! Do you ride them?”

  “Every day.”

  “I wish I could see them.”

  Harmony turned to Fiona, “You’re welcome to bring him around. I could actually use help feeding them.”

  “Oh Mommy, please can we help feed them?”

  Fiona dazedly asked, “When do you feed them?”

  “A horse will eat whenever you put out a pail of oats, so why don’t you guys just come on over when you get done here? Everett can tell you how to get there.”

  She placed her hand on Everett’s shoulder, “Thank you for letting me stay here last night.”

  “No problem.”

  “See you guys soon.”

  Fiona’s eyes followed her out of the room. For the duration of breakfast and the cleanup following, she refused to look in Everett’s direction and partook little in the conversation.

  “Can I see your pool?”

  “Yeah buddy, let’s go take a look at it.” Everett clasped Fiona’s hand to force her gaze to his eyes.

  “If you’re busy we can leave.”

  “I’m not busy. I’m glad you’re here.”

  She looked away, but nodded. He led them out to the backyard. As soon as he opened the door Ryder ran through it and out to the edge of the pool.

  “Can I sit on the steps?”

  “Is that okay?” Everett asked Fiona.

  “Sure, he just has to keep his arm dry.”

  “Make sure you don’t get your cast wet, buddy.”

  He sat on the porch and she followed his lead, sitting on the chair next to his. She cleared her throat and nervously fidgeted.

  “Listen Everett, I want to formally apologize about last night after you were so nice. I guess I already said that in the kitchen, so to bring it up again is pretty pathetic. I uh just wanted to say thank you for being so patient with Ryder. I know his personality is quite large, so thanks.” She looked around anxiously.

  What could he do to make her relax? He liked the relaxed Fiona much better. “I think maybe I should be the one apologizing again. I never intended to suggest you weren’t doing a good job raising Ryder.”

  “I know that, Everett. Anyway, what you said is right. He�
�s completely starved for male attention. Maybe it was selfishness, or I was scared. I don’t know, but for some reason I thought it would be better to just not see anyone while I raised him.”

  The sadness and regret in her voice tugged at the veins in his heart. “It’s not too late, you know.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Not at all. And he’s starting to get more exposure. He went fishing.”

  “Yeah, and look how well that turned out.”

  “As a rule, all little boys will break a bone during their childhood. You came out of it lucky with an arm. Parker broke his ankle and was casted for so long we just wanted to bury him in a hole out back because he never stopped whining about it.”

  She finally smiled. “You’re right. I’m lucky he wasn’t hurt worse.”

  Her demeanor turned serious and her eyes blinked rapidly. Great, now he was about to make her cry. “Little boys are durable. When I was ten I went on a rafting trip. I slipped from the raft, fell and hit my head on a rock, and was trapped beneath the boat for several minutes.”

  Her hands cupped her face, shielding her from view.

  “Um, Fiona?”

  He placed his hand on her back and realized she was shaking.

  “Fiona?” He whispered. He stood and pulled her to the couch beneath the fan.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t usually cry. I just realized how close I came to losing him.” She sniffled.

  “Ow.” Something solid hit Everett in the back of the head. Looking to the ground he saw a square box of Kleenex. Turning he saw Courtney standing in the doorway. With her hands on her hips she scowled at Everett while Fiona cried into her hands. Everett shrugged at Courtney, and then he passed Fiona a tissue.

  “Mommy?”

  “Yeah, baby.” Fiona blew her nose into the tissue.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, I was just thinking about how much I love you.” His little fingers found her neck as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”

  Ryder shot Everett a suspicious glare.

  Damn, he was in over his head on this.

  “You probably had something way better planned for your Sunday. If you’ll just point the way to Harmony’s horses, we’ll get out of your hair.”

  Fiona stood while Ryder frowned beside her. “I’d like to come, if you and Ryder don’t mind.”

  “I want you to come too,” Ryder added.

  “So I guess the vote is up to you, Fiona.”

  “Okay.”

  “We can take the mule. It’s fun.”

  Ryder perked up at that bit of information. “Can I drive it?”

  “Do you have a license?”

  “No, I’m only ten. You can’t get a license until you’re sixteen. Right, Mom?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I think you have just answered your own inquiry,” Everett said.

  “Oh, man.” Ryder kicked a rock when he realized he wouldn’t be driving just yet.

  “That’s a nifty trick,” Fiona said.

  “What’s that?”

  “You just lawyered him.”

  He winked at her. Leaning into her side so only she could hear he said, “Beats having to always say no.”

  Feeding and brushing the horses with his non-dominant arm proved tedious and Ryder became a tad frustrated with the task. To his credit he gave it a fair shot before he decided it just wasn’t a task for a boy with one arm. He seemed to enjoy watching Harmony care for the animals and, as was Ryder fashion, he asked many questions that she seemed happy to answer. Harmony had always loved horses and kids.

  After a disappointing visit with the horses Ryder’s vision zoomed in on the putting green on David land so they made a pit stop on the way back, but putting with his left hand proved just as frustrating as attempting to brush and feed the horses. While he was attempting to figure out how to sink the ball, Everett was making plans with Fiona about how best to cheer him up.

  As he hopped onto the mule his pout was obvious, but he sucked it up like a champ.

  “How many acres of land do you have?”

  “You’d have to ask my father.”

  “What’s your father’s name?”

  “Britton David.”

  “Britton David.” He echoed. “That’s a fancy name.”

  “You’re right, kid—I never thought about it before.”

  “Do you live with your dad?”

  “When I come home I stay in my childhood room. So I do live with him when I’m visiting.”

  “How many days do you come to visit?”

  “Do you mean in one year?”

  “Yeah.”

  As he drove over the valleys and peaks of the estate, he thought about Ryder’s question. He was saddened when the answer came to him. “I’m afraid it’s not very many.”

  “Are you visiting at Thanksgiving?”

  “Ryder loves Thanksgiving,” Fiona added with a smile.

  “I always come home for Thanksgiving.”

  “Did you know the pilgrims ate deer and goose, not turkey? And did you know that turkeys can have heart attacks? That’s how a bunch of turkeys dropped dead in a field one time when the Air Force was doing tests on the sound barrier. And did you know that Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the turkey the official bird of America, but other people wanted the bald eagle? And Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October.

  “That’s a lot of history that you know.”

  “Thanksgiving combines the two things that Ryder loves—food and history.”

  “Mom said this year I could make cake balls, but what I really want to make is a turducken.”

  “Oh yeah, my brother made one of those last year.”

  “Was it gross?”

  “No, actually it was good, but I didn’t think it was going to be.”

  “See Mom, it’s not gross.”

  “My issue isn’t that it’s gross. My issue is that it’s a lot of fowl and we would need to find a dozen people to invite over to ensure it gets eaten.”

  “All this fowl talk is making me hungry, what about you, Ryder?”

  “Not really,” he answered on a sigh.

  “Could you get hungry if your mother and I were to take you to Later Gator’s?”

  “Later Gator’s!” He shouted.

  Fiona laughed at his exuberance. “We thought it might cheer you up.”

  “Yes! My friend Jonathan went there last weekend and he said you get to feed the alligators!”

  Everett pulled the mule into the garage. “Let me grab my wallet and keys and we’ll get out of here.”

  Chapter 6

  Driving to the restaurant Ryder kept Everett occupied with incessant questions regarding Boston and his job as an attorney. This gave Fiona time to focus on Harmony. There were several questions she’d like answered. For instance, why had Harmony stayed over at the David home when her own home was close by?

  She’d thanked Everett for letting her stay over the night before. The look she gave him was one of thoughtfulness, but Fiona couldn’t say if she were a woman whose look of satisfaction stemmed from sexual gratification or fulfillment of some other need like comfort or escape. Perhaps he merely offered a place to go when she needed to get away from her daily routine.

  Pulling into the lot of Later Gator’s drew Fiona’s attention from her own musings and to the enormous weathered building on piers before them. The restaurant was made to look as if it sat in a swamp, surrounded by murky water that stagnated beneath the gray and weathered decking.

  “Whoa!” Ryder shrieked.

  Whoa indeed. There was an alligator mascot on the roof whose mouth extended down to the floor and was carved into an entryway, giving one the illusion of walking through the mouth of the beast upon entry.

  As they walked up to the front Fiona spotted several attendants in bright yellow shirts and cargo shorts. They carried buckets and stamped diner’s hands as they passed.

  “Have you been here
before?” Ryder asked Everett.

  “I have. When I was a kid we’d come at least once per month.”

  At the entrance a greeter welcomed them and beside her, Ryder hummed with energy.

  “Is everybody going to be feeding gators today?” Greeter, nametag Sarah, asked.

  “Totally,” answered Ryder while Fiona and Everett nodded in agreement.

  “Wonderful.” She readied a hand stamper and the trio followed her lead, presenting her with the backs of their hands. Then, she proceeded to place a small paper cup in their hands similar in size to the cups Fiona had in her bathroom for mouthwash. “Each visitor gets five cubes of chicken for feeding the alligators. We ask that you don’t dump it all in one spot, but do spread it around. We closely monitor our alligators’ diets so please refrain from feeding them any additional food.” She scooped five cubes of meat from the pail she carried and deposited a cluster in each of their cups. “I hope you enjoy your lunch at Later Gator’s. Before you leave please consider taking a complimentary souvenir picture with our mascot, Gustave Gator.”

  The trio walked to the deck railing, careful to avoid dropping any bits of precious gator feed they were given.

  “Okay Ryder, you’ve got fifteen pieces of meat to throw at the hungry gators swimming beneath our feet.”

  “Look! You can see them swimming through the slats.”

  Fiona looked down at her feet, her skin chilling at the thought of the evenly spaced boards between her and the pool of hungry alligators.

  She hugged her arms about her body. “I hope this porch is built to code,” she mumbled.

  Everett’s comforting arm pulled her into his side. “Don’t like gators?”

  “Not really.”

  “Hey look at that! As soon as I dropped the meat in the water three gators fought over it!” Ryder pointed to the skirmish in the pond.

  In one hand Everett held the cubed chicken for Ryder. His other hand was busy rubbing circles into Fiona’s palm.

  “That one’s a baby!”

  “This is a huge hit with him.” Fiona nodded in Ryder’s direction.

  “I would suspect it is with most ten-year-old boys.” Looking around confirmed his statement.