Saving Simone (Florida Veterans Book 3)

by Tiffani Lynn

  “No whining. Homework first, you know this.”

  “Ugh!” he groans louder than is necessary and stomps over to get his backpack. Then he slams his books on the table and makes a big fussy production of working on his homework. As the food is finishing, his homework is done so I make him help me set the table. We sit down to eat and before he takes his first bite, I ask, “So where is the note from your teacher?”

  He plays stupid. “What note?”

  “The note she called and told me she sent home. Go get it and bring it here so I can read it and we can talk about it.”

  “It’s no bi—” he starts.

  “Don’t finish that sentence. Go get the note and bring it to me or I’ll call her at home to ask what it said.” I’m angry and he can tell.

  He slides out of his chair, retrieves the note and passes it to me. Then as I read the note he picks at his spaghetti with his fork.

  Slapping the paper on the table I count to ten in my head. “You were calling another kid names today? Have you lost your mind?”

  “He was calling me names too!” He sits back and crosses his arms over his chest defiantly.

  “Yeah, it says here he finally starting calling you names after you trapped him in the bathroom and were yelling mean things at him. What is wrong with you? The son I raised would never be mean to other kids like this!”

  We’re in the middle of a deadlock staredown when my cell phone sitting between us on the table dings with a message. Of course, because things are already tense between Gavin and me, it’s a message from Thomas. Bad timing. Before I can grab it and tuck it away for later, Gavin snatches it and reads the text. He slams my phone on the table and yells, “I thought he was gone!”

  “Gavin, don’t you take that tone with me and don’t ever slam my phone down again. It’s expensive.”

  He stands abruptly, scraping the chair across the floor violently, and screams, “I don’t care if it breaks. Then he can’t call you anymore!” I freeze at his outburst while he runs to his room and slams the door so hard one of the pictures on the wall in the hallway falls off. I can hear the crash as the glass shatters.

  What the hell just happened?

  I take a few minutes to settle down and clear the table, even though neither of us really ate. I’m furious and afraid of how I’ll handle this situation if I don’t give myself a few minutes to cool off. Once the dishes are by the sink, I slip on my flip-flops and grab a dustpan and broom to clean up the broken picture frame. When that’s taken care of I enter his room. His sobs are still pretty loud even though he’s lying face down and it’s been 10 or 15 minutes since he came in here.

  “Gav, roll over and sit up. It’s time to talk.”

  Surprisingly, he does what I ask without being sassy, but he won’t look me in the eyes.

  “There are a lot of things to cover, but let’s start with why you were mean to that boy today at school.

  He shrugs and looks away.

  “Come on, Gavin, start talking. You’re already in trouble, but if I don’t get some answers out of you soon, your punishment will be worse.”

  “He wouldn’t shut up about all the places his family goes. He’s always bragging about it and I got sick of it. I don’t care what his stupid mom and stupid dad do.”

  “Why would you say that?” I can’t figure out what that has to do with anything.

  “He’s just rubbing it in because he’s got a mom and dad.”

  “So do you, so that shouldn’t matter.”

  “No, I don’t. I have a dad and a Jennifer, and now there’s you and Thomas.” He says Thomas’s name in that annoying sing-song way again. “We never go on vacation together. We never do anything together. Pretty soon I won’t even count. You’ll probably all want to get rid of me for someone new.”

  “That’s not true, Buddy. Your dad and I both love you and so does Jennifer. Our family is just different. You get two vacations because you get one with me and one with your dad. There are lots of things you get that the other kid doesn’t because we live in separate places. Can’t you see that? Besides, there is no Thomas and me. I told him I couldn’t date him anymore. He must have sent that text because he was thinking of me. I haven’t spoken to him since we came back from Crystal River. But that doesn’t mean that one day there won’t be someone else that I date and if I’m lucky, marry, but they won’t ever take your place. You have your own special spot in my heart. No one can fit in that place but you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Gently, I run my hand up and down his back, hoping to soothe him as we talk.

  “Dad doesn’t love me anymore. He only loves Jennifer and the baby. That’s all they talk about. He wouldn’t even take me on the boat or Jet Skis the last couple of times I was there. Every day we had to do something for this baby or for Jenifer and it’s not even here yet.”

  It felt like someone socked me hard in the gut. “Did you say baby?” I ask on a whisper. That son of a bitch didn’t tell me they were having a baby, and by the sounds of it, they’ve known for a while.

  “Yeah. A baby.” Now he’s looking away and I can feel his little body shake under my hand. Damn it! This explains so much. I’m going to kill Gerald for not telling me! This is a huge change for Gavin after being the only child for eight years. Lack of communication was a huge problem during our marriage and that obviously hasn’t changed.

  “Scoot over closer to me. I need to hug you.” I wrap my arms around him. “I don’t have to live with your dad or talk to him every day to know that he loves you. He won’t ever stop loving you, even when a new baby comes along. He’ll have to help take care of the baby like he did you and he’ll do things with the baby like he did with you, but that won’t change how he feels about you. I think if you help them get ready for the baby, then your dad will have more time to do things with you. Things will change, but you can change with them. But it has to be in a good way. Throwing temper tantrums and acting up in school is not a good way to go about this. You are going to make a great big brother so I want you to stop acting so terribly and start acting like the awesome kid I know you are. There are a lot of things you can do to help.”

  “You really think I’ll be a good big brother?”

  I pull back a little, still holding him in my arms, and push a little hair back from his forehead. “I think you’ll be the best big brother there ever has been. Babies need a lot of attention so your dad and Jennifer will need your help to give it. Okay?”

  He nods and hugs me again.

  “Tomorrow I want you to apologize to your teacher and the other boy. Being the class bully is not acceptable.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You have until 6:30 to watch television and then it’s bath time and reading time. Lights out early tonight as punishment for getting a note home from school.” He starts to protest and my eyebrows rise. Luckily, he takes my expression as the warning it is and snaps his mouth closed. Then he releases me and trots out of the room to turn on the television.

  I sigh, relieved that I finally understand what’s been causing his change in attitude. Do I think this one conversation is going to fix it? Nope, but it should get better. Tomorrow I will have to call Gerald and chew him out. He’s going to have to communicate better with me and Gavin if he doesn’t want a little tyrant on his hands.

  16

  Thomas

  I’ve sent Simone three texts now and spaced them out the best I could so I wouldn’t freak her out. The last thing I need her thinking is that I’m a stalker. She hasn’t replied at all until an hour ago. The text came in at four this afternoon saying, “Come to my apartment at six and don’t be late.” To go from not responding at all to telling me to come over in two hours is odd, but I want to see her badly enough that I’ll make sure I’m there as instructed.

  The sky is overcast and the air is muggy so I expect it to rain at any moment. I pull on a polo shirt and a nice pair of khaki shorts and slip on my boat shoes. My instinct is
to stop and buy flowers, but something about this feels off still, so I skip those and drive straight to her place. At six o’clock sharp I knock on her door.

  “I got it!” I hear Gavin yell from the other side and then the locks start flipping. She has three of them so it takes a second, and as the door is opening I hear Simone scold him. “Don’t open that door! You don’t know who—” She stops abruptly and her mouth drops open when she sees me standing there.

  “Yeah, I do, Mom. It’s Thomas.” He grins up at her and I realize at that moment it’s not her who texted me…it’s him. Now I’m really curious. Gavin grabs my hand and tugs me inside. We both stare at him, waiting for an explanation. Instead he scoots behind me and locks the door. “I made you guys dinner! Now have a seat,” he commands.

  “What in the world…” Simone starts to ask but doesn’t finish when she turns toward the table. In the middle is a scented household candle and two plates situated across the table from each other.

  “Sit, sit, sit!” he urges us.

  We take our seats and watch him silently. He climbs up on a stool and pulls a plate with chicken nuggets out of the microwave and brings it to us. Then he divvies them up evenly between us. Next he goes to the fridge and grabs the ketchup and two single-serving apple sauce cups and sets them in front of us. After that he grabs a Diet Coke can from the fridge, pops the top and gives it to his mom and brings me a bottle of beer with the cap still on it and places it in front of me. The he beams at us both. “Now, enjoy your dinner. This is a date. Pretend I’m not here. I’ll be in your room watching TV, Mom.” He kisses her cheek and hauls butt out of the room.

  I stare at her for a moment. “What just happened?”

  She shakes her head and begins to laugh. Not a little chuckle, but a full-on belly laugh until tears are streaming from her eyes. I laugh along with her, but not as hard and only out of bewilderment.

  “He’s trying to put us back together,” she says as she finally settles down a little. “I’m guessing since he ran for the door when you knocked that he invited you and then he ‘fixed us dinner’ for our ‘date.’ Now he’s in my room hiding so we can pretend he’s not here.”

  Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. “Why? I thought he hated me.”

  She sighs and takes the napkin next to her plate and places it in her lap like she’s actually going to eat this meal. “We had a bit of a come-to-Jesus meeting yesterday and worked some things out. We didn’t talk about you very much, though, so I’m thinking he’s straightened things out in his head a little bit. Of course, after you leave tonight, we will discuss this further, but I’m taking this as a good sign.” She forks a chicken nugget and asks, “What did he say to get you here?”

  I place my napkin in my lap. “I got a text that said, ‘Come to my apartment at six and don’t be late.’”

  “That’s it? That’s all it took?”

  “Yeah.” I take a bite of my half-warmed chicken nugget and force myself to chew on it as she busts up laughing again. Once I swallow, I set my fork down and reach across the table for her hand. She doesn’t get the hint right away so I wiggle my fingers at her until she grabs it. “I missed your laugh.”

  “We weren’t together long enough for you to miss anything about me,” she informs me as she glances away.

  “You’re wrong. When you find something important, something that fits so perfectly to you that you feel like it was always there somewhere, just hiding, you miss it. For me, that’s you.”

  Her eyes fill with tears and she whispers, “Thomas.”

  I release her hand and push my chair back. “Come over here, Simone.”

  Slowly, she rises and walks around the table and I pull her into my lap. “Did you miss me?”

  She nods. “More than I should have.” Her knuckles brush along my jaw and the feel of her light touch against my skin brings out a longing for her I’ve tried to hide. She brushes her lips against mine and I ask, “How long do you think we have before he comes back out to check on us?”

  She grins through watery eyes. “Maybe five minutes.”

  “I can work with that,” I tell her before pulling her in tight and taking her mouth with mine. We keep the reunion PG with some light kissing for several minutes. I don’t want to push my luck with Gavin. Even though he initiated this date scenario I’m not sure he’s ready to walk in on us doing more than talking, so I end the kissing. “Alright, let’s eat this delicious meal for now. We can resume when your son goes to bed.”

  After dinner, Simone sends me to the couch so she can clean up. The dishes clink in the sink as she washes the dishes. Gavin comes out in his pajamas and sits on the couch next to me but not too close.

  Although he doesn’t look at me, he says, “I’m sorry I was so mean to you. I really did have fun and I want to go again if you’ll take me. I hope you still want to date my mom. She was really sad when she didn’t see you anymore.”

  His cheeks are red from embarrassment, probably thinking about his tantrums while he was at my brother’s house. I let him off the hook easy since in the end he did the right thing. “Only good guys admit their mistakes and say they’re sorry. I like that about you. I had fun too, but it will be more fun without you being grumpy. I’ll be glad to take you back there again sometime. Thanks for inviting me over for such a good meal, it means a lot to me.” I wait a second before I continue and I wiggle my finger for him to come a little closer. “I’ll tell you a little secret while we’re sitting here. I missed your mom more than she missed me. I hope that you and I can be friends and we can all three do some things together.”

  He nods his head. “Well, we can hang out and stuff but I might be a little busy. I’m gonna be a big brother and apparently that means I’ll be helping my dad a lot.”

  “Wow! A big brother, huh? That’s cool. At my house I was the little brother. Mike was the big brother. If you need any pointers on how to be a good one, you can call him because he’s the best.”

  Simone comes out of the kitchen holding a dishrag and eyeing us cautiously. “Everything okay in here?”

  “Great,” I assure her.

  Simone looks at him. “Okay, Buddy. It’s time for bed. Say good night.”

  He raises his hand for a high five and I slap it lightly. “Thanks for inviting me over,” I say before he skips past his mom to his room.

  She gives me the big eyes before she leaves the room to put him to bed and I sit back and relax and wait.

  17

  Simone

  No one would ever believe it unless they saw it, but here we all are, eight months after I met Thomas, and six months after we found out that Jennifer is going to have a baby. Thomas, Gavin, my ex-in-laws, Jennifer’s parents, and I are in the waiting room at Florida Hospital passing time until Baby Jeffrey is born. Gavin was at his dad’s house last night so I was staying with Thomas at his apartment when my phone rang at three in the morning.

  It was Gerald saying that Jennifer was bleeding and in pain so they were sending her to the hospital in an ambulance. He asked if we could meet him at Florida Hospital to be with Gavin. When we arrived, Gavin was sitting with a stressed-out Gerald in the waiting room of the ER so we sent Gerald to be with Jennifer. Then I called Gerald’s parents, who called Jennifer’s parents, and now here we all are together. Gerald hasn’t come back out since we sent him to be with Jennifer over an hour ago, but a nurse came in to say they prepped her for an emergency C-section.

  Half an hour later, Gerald comes out with tears in his eyes. “They’re both okay. Jennifer’s in recovery and they are cleaning Jeffery up. He’s seven pounds, four ounces, and he’s perfect!”

  Gavin glances at me and Thomas nervously and then back at his dad like he’s not sure what he should do. Everyone else rushes over to Gerald to hug him. Finally, thank God, Gerald gets a clue and makes his way over to Gavin. “Your baby brother is ready to meet you. Are you ready?”

  Gavin glances at Thomas, who gives him a slight nod, then back to his d
ad. “Yeah, I’m ready!”

  Finally, I stand and reach out to hug Gerald. “Congratulations. I’m glad they’re both okay. Thomas and I will hang out here until you’re ready for us to take Gavin home. Take your time.” We already arranged ahead of time for Gavin to stay with us for the first couple of weeks after the baby is born so they can adjust, and then Gavin will resume his usual schedule of every other week.

  “It means a lot. Thanks for everything,” he says, which is probably the most genuine sentence I’ve heard from him in years.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Thomas stands and shakes his hand, giving his own congratulations, and then with an arm around our son’s shoulders, Gerald leads Gavin back to the nursery to see his baby brother.

  The next weekend, I pull into the driveway at Thomas’s grandparents’ house and Gavin jumps out of the car as soon as I stop and runs to the front door. As I’m getting out, I see him press the doorbell button.

  “Gavin! I need you to help me carry some of this food in!” I yell at him. Thomas’s grandmother opens the door and engulfs Gavin in a big hug. I can see her mouth moving as she says something to him but I don’t know what it is. He grins up at her before they both head to my car.

  “Sorry, Mom, I promised Gran I’d give her a hug as soon as I got here. I couldn’t break a promise.” I smile at him and glance over at her.

  “He’s right, he did promise,” she admits. I can’t fault him for that.

  “Okay, Buddy. Grab that pudding dish and take it inside. Be careful with it though. Grandpa will be super unhappy if we drop it. It’s his favorite.”