He shrugged, then confirmed her earlier thought. “A man can’t stand by and let some stranger talk bad about his family. Leanne tells me you’re all but part of us.”
“Actually, no. Chase broke up with me Sunday.”
Earl snorted derisively. “I said he wasn’t a thief. I didn’t say he showed good sense. Why didn’t you tell the old battleax that? It’s obviously what she wants.”
“Tell her she’s right? That a man like Chase couldn’t possibly care about a woman like me?” she asked, hating the wistful note to her voice. “No, thanks.”
He patted her back in a reassuring manner. “She’s not right. Any man with eyes in his head can see that.” The friendly tone of his voice not changing one bit, he went on. “Though, if I were you, I’d probably be talking with my lawyer about this.”
Chills danced down her spine. Do you think your in-laws would do something rash? Chase had asked. Like trying to get custody of Micahlyn. Oh, no, she’d confidently, foolishly, replied. No, no, no.
Dear God, please don’t prove me wrong.
CHASE LAY IN THE HAMMOCK, A BOX OF STALE CEREAL in one hand, a can of beer on the floor beside him. He wore the same jeans he’d worn the day before, and the past couple days before that, and his T-shirt was wadded up and stuffed under his head for a pillow.
He needed to get out of Bethlehem, though he didn’t know where he could go—someplace west or maybe south. Someplace where he didn’t know a soul and could keep it that way. Someplace away from Nolie, and hell and gone from Marlene.
But that wasn’t part of Marlene’s plan. If he left Bethlehem, then there was no reason for Nolie to leave. He was supposed to stay right there and make it impossible for her to do the same, so she would run home and Marlene could be happy while everyone else in her world was miserable.
Damnation.
When a car started up the hill, he set the cereal down next to the beer, sat up, and swung his feet to the floor, prepared to disappear inside if it was Nolie—not likely in the middle of the afternoon. But, hey, unlikelier things had happened. He’d dumped her, hadn’t he?
The car wasn’t her old station wagon, though, or the Harpers’ rental or Leanne’s SUV. It was a Lincoln Town Car that drove right past Nolie’s cabin and came to a stop in front of his. As the driver got out, Chase slowly got to his feet, his muscles taut.
It was his father.
Without a word, Earl walked around the car, climbed the steps, and faced him from ten feet away. His eyes hidden behind sunglasses, he swept his gaze slowly— insolently—over Chase before finally speaking. “You look like hell.”
Chase couldn’t argue that with him. He’d hadn’t been sleeping, or eating regularly, and he hadn’t shaved since Saturday. He was a far cry from Micahlyn’s bogeyman, but give him a little time and he would get there again.
“I heard you’d come back.” Earl’s voice was carefully blank of emotion. “Seems like everybody in town’s seen or talked to you, except for your mother and me.”
“Yeah, well, I stay away from places where I’m not welcome.”
“Your mother would be happy to see you.”
But not you, old man. Some things never change. “I doubt that. She had plenty of chances to see me. College graduation. Law school graduation. My wedding.”
Finally, when Earl removed the dark glasses, an emotion—just a flicker of guilt. “It would mean a lot to her to see you.”
“What does it matter to you? I never could figure out why the two of you even got married in the first place, much less stayed together. The best I could figure was misery loves company.”
Earl opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, then the muscles in his jaw clenched. “It doesn’t matter to me. It matters to her. ”
“Yeah, right.”
A long silence passed, then Earl gestured. “Where’d you get the scar?”
Chase automatically lifted his hand to the line across his ribs. When the laceration was healing and for a long time afterward, he’d been sharply aware of it—a physical reminder of an important lesson learned. In recent months he’d more or less forgotten about it, though the lesson was even more important now. “I got in someone’s way and he didn’t like it.”
“In prison?”
The blunt question made him stiffen before he consciously forced himself to relax and return to the hammock. “Yeah. In prison.” Then . . . “How’d you know about that?”
Earl shrugged. Keeping tabs on his wayward son? Chase wouldn’t put it past him.
His father leaned against the post next to him and gazed toward Nolie’s cabin. “Leanne told me you were probably gonna marry your neighbor, but the girl in question said you dumped her. Because of that hateful old mother-in-law of hers?”
Chase glared at him. “What do you know about Marlene Harper?”
“Marlene? Is that her name?” Earl rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I would’ve pegged her for a Cruella or Vampira. Talk about misery loving company . . . that woman’s not happy and she’s not gonna be satisfied till no one’s happy.”
The apprehension twitching inside brought Chase to his feet again. “Answer my question, damn it. What do you know about Marlene?”
“I stopped by the feed store looking for you—I heard you’ve been spending your days there. This Marlene and her husband were there, and the old witch was telling Nolie all about your being in prison.”
“Aw, hell.” With the chill spreading through him, the best Chase could manage was a whisper. He’d thought Marlene’s was an either/or proposition. Either he broke up with Nolie or Marlene would use his past against her in a custody battle. He’d thought if he broke up with her, the whole prison bit would stay between him and the Harpers. He’d hoped . . .
Of course Marlene wouldn’t have kept his secret. She hated him for nothing more than being the man to take her son’s place in Nolie’s life, and she would use anything she could to boot him out of it. She’d coerced him into breaking up with Nolie, and now she’d done her best to turn Nolie against him.
“Damn it!” He kicked the beer can, sending it flying off the porch, trailing a stream of beer behind it. It hit the log at the edge of the yard with a solid thunk. “I should have known . . .” Forcing him to hurt Nolie hadn’t been enough for her. Nothing would be, until she had Micahlyn back home in Arkansas with her, and to hell with anyone who got in her way.
Earl glanced at him before gazing out into the woods again. “She said you were innocent. Nolie, I mean. She read the newspaper articles, listened to that old woman, then insisted you were innocent. Not a doubt in her mind. She’s got a lot of faith in you.”
Faith he didn’t deserve. Look how he’d repaid her—by telling her she’d been nothing more than a convenience. That he didn’t want her anymore. By diminishing everything she felt for him and denying everything he felt for her. By bringing more heartache into a life that had already had far more than its share.
His father walked down the steps, then turned back. “You don’t run into someone you love who loves you back every day. Don’t give that up in some misguided effort to protect her.” That said, Earl went to the car and opened the door, then called, “Think about going to see your mother.”
Long after he’d driven out of sight, Chase remained unmoving, staring into the distance. Was his effort misguided? Probably. So damn much about his life was. But what choice did he have? He couldn’t risk being the reason Nolie lost custody of Micahlyn.
But what if she didn’t lose custody? What if, for once, justice was served? If Obie’s dear old friend, the judge, recognized Marlene for the manipulative, domineering woman she was? If he agreed, as any rational person would, that Micahlyn was far better off with her mother than her scheming grandmother?
And what if he didn’t?
What if, what if . . . Everything was a crapshoot. Life didn’t come with guarantees, and justice sure as hell didn’t. The risk in this particular instance was too big to take.
A soft sound from behind him—the rubbing of the hammock against the hooks that supported it—filtered into his mind an instant before a voice broke the silence. “I’d ask where you are, but I think I already know.”
He spun around to find Sophy kicked back in the hammock, one foot on the floor to keep it swaying. She smiled brightly as if his scowl hadn’t intimidated people bigger and meaner than her and waggled her fingers in greeting.
“You always go around sneaking up on people?” he asked sourly.
“I didn’t sneak. You were preoccupied.”
He couldn’t argue with her. He had been a bit distracted the past few days. “What do you want?”
“Help.”
“I’m out of the help-giving business.”
“So you say. Actually, I meant to o fer help.”
He sat down on the step and leaned back until his head connected with the post. “Can you remake Marlene Harper into something resembling a human being?”
“I can’t remake anyone. Everyone has to do that for themselves.”
Not true. Nolie had remade him. When he’d come here, he’d been angry, bitter, and hostile, without much reason for going on. She’d eased all that, and given him plenty of reasons for going on . . . and Marlene had taken them away.
“You did that for yourself,” Sophy said, and he wondered whether she was just continuing the thread of conversation she’d started or if, like before, she’d somehow read his thoughts. “You had to deal with the anger and the bitterness. Nolie helped by offering you things you need— friendship, affection, trust, faith—but you had to make the changes yourself.”
“Yeah, well, Marlene doesn’t want to change.” And he had wanted to. Those things Nolie had offered had healed him and healing had made him want and wanting had led to . . . to exactly where he was now.
“Mrs. Harper is terrified.”
He snorted. “Terrifying is more like it.”
“Remember how you felt when you were arrested and you found out your wife was having an affair and she divorced you and you were convicted and got sent to prison? Angry, betrayed, cheated . . . and helpless. So very helpless. That’s how Marlene feels. No parent should have to bury her own child, but Marlene had to. And no grandmother wants to watch her only grandbaby—her only link to her dead son—move halfway across the country, but Marlene did. And now there’s another man in Nolie’s life, one who’s taking her son’s place, who will soon be filling Jeff’s place in Micahlyn’s life, too. But what about her place?”
“It’s back home in Arkansas,” he retorted. “Where she belongs.”
She gave him a chiding look. “Once Nolie remarries, she’ll have a new husband and his family, and Micahlyn will have a new father and new grandparents. There won’t be much left for the Harpers. Most courts don’t place much value on grandparents.”
He knew that was true—knew that many grandparents, following their child’s divorce or death, were denied access to their grandchildren. He could only imagine how tough that would be . . . but it never would have happened with Nolie. Yes, she’d moved Micahlyn hundreds of miles away, but she’d been determined to keep the Harpers involved in their granddaughter’s life. She never would have cut them off, and he never would have expected it.
“But they don’t know that,” Sophy said. Before he could consider the fact that he was positive he hadn’t spoken aloud, she went on. “They were at the hospital when Micahlyn was born. They saw her every single day of her life for more than five years, and then suddenly she was gone. All they had were phone calls, and you can’t get a hug or a kiss goodnight over the phone. Then you came into the picture with a sister, parents, and a nephew of your own, and you’re right here, and your family’s right here, where you can all be a regular part of Nolie’s and Micahlyn’s lives. Micahlyn’s such a little girl. Who could blame her if she forgot the grandparents back in Arkansas in favor of the ones who live a few miles down the road?”
Scowling, Chase turned his back on her. “If they were afraid, they should have said something, damn it—not come in making demands and threats.”
“The way you said something to Nolie about having been in prison? Or the way you said something to your father about all the years the two of you wasted? Or maybe the way you’ve said something to Nolie about how much you love her and want to marry her?” Then she smacked herself on the forehead. “Oh, wait, I forgot. You gave her the you’re-not-my-type-you’re-just-a-convenience speech instead.”
Ashamed, he bowed his head. That speech, as she called it, had been the hardest words he’d ever said in his life. Seeing the hurt in Nolie’s eyes, hearing it in her voice, and the tears . . . He’d hated Marlene, but even more, he’d hated himself.
“The Harpers need reassurance,” Sophy went on. “They need to know they’ll always have a place in Nolie’s and Micahlyn’s lives. Something binding, like a court decree. But if they have to take Nolie to court to get it, it’s going to destroy their little family.”
Something binding . . . like a contract. But it was a sorry thing when a family needed a contract in order to remain a family.
He shrugged as carelessly as he could manage. “You’re talking to the wrong person. I’m out of this now. Marlene made sure of that.”
Again with the chiding look. “She didn’t force you out. She offered you a choice, and you made it. It was for the best of reasons, but it was still your choice.”
“And what else could I have done?”
“You could have stood up to her, you and Nolie together. You could have had faith—in Nolie, in God, in the courts, in yourself. You could have found a compromise. You’re a lawyer. Negotiating is one of your specialties.” She eased to her feet, jumped from the porch to the ground, then walked backward to the road. “Think about it, Chase. You can give in and lose everything, or you can fight for what’s right.”
She waggled her fingers in another wave, twirled around, then called over her shoulder, “It’s your only real choice.”
THE PHONE WAS RINGING WHEN THEY WALKED INTO the house that evening. Nolie’s jaw tightened as she crossed the living room right on Micahlyn’s heels, then reached over her daughter’s head to answer.
It was Obie, sounding subdued and tired. “I hope it’s not too soon to call.”
“No, not at all,” she said, making a face at the lie.
“I was wondering if I could take Mikey fishing tomorrow like I promised. I thought maybe in the morning, if that’s all right with you, and then we could have a picnic lunch at the lake before we bring her back.”
There was a plaintive note in his voice that made Nolie want to hide in a corner. This was the first time in Micahlyn’s entire life that he’d been put in a position of having to ask anything. When they’d lived together, they’d just done things. If she’d had plans for Micahlyn, she had let them know, and everyone had worked around them, and vice versa. But he’d never had to humbly ask permission to spend a few hours with his grandbaby.
It wasn’t her fault, she silently insisted—or, at least, if it was, it was only partly her fault. Marlene had threatened her. If Nolie hadn’t stood up to her then, who knew when she would have found any backbone again?
“That’s fine, Obie. What time do you want to pick her up?”
“How about eight? We can get her at the store, if that’s okay.”
“I’ll have her dressed for wading.”
He chuckled. “The little stinker still isn’t convinced that fishing’s best done from the bank, is she?” Then his humor faded. “Nolie, I’m really sorry about all this. I regret like hell— Well, I’ll let you go. We’ll see you in the morning.”
Marlene must have come into the room, Nolie thought as she hung up. What a shame that he didn’t feel he could have a casual conversation with his daughter-in-law when his wife was around.
And what a shame that she didn’t want to have a casual conversation with either of them, unless it included the word good-bye.
She was s
till standing next to the wall when the phone rang again, startling her. This time it was Leanne. “I know it’s last minute, but how about dinner at Chez Wilson? The service is excellent, the ambiance lovely, and the food has been awarded four stars by kids everywhere. Whaddya say?”
She should say no. The way she was feeling, she wasn’t fit company this evening. But who would understand better than Leanne, and she really needed a few sympathetic words and a hug from someone who understood. “What time and what should I bring?”
“Seven, your child, my brother, and yourself. See you.”
Leanne hung up before Nolie had a chance to tell her that she wouldn’t be bringing Chase. Oh, well, some news was better broken in person . . . she guessed.
She hustled Micahlyn upstairs to change clothes, then went into her own room to do the same. Once they were both presentable, they headed back out to the car. “Where are we goin’?” Micahlyn asked as Nolie leaned across to buckle her seat belt.
“To Leanne’s for dinner.”
“Why isn’t Chase goin’?”
Nolie straightened again and glanced toward the other cabin. The back end of his truck was just visible around the corner. For someone who’d been so eager to dump her and start a new life, he seemed to be spending even more time at home than he had before.
Maybe he wasn’t spending it alone.
The pain that thought stirred was real, making her press one hand flat against her stomach to contain it. When she could take a breath, she did, and smiled vaguely at her daughter. “He’s busy.”
“Doing what?”
“I don’t know, babe.”
“Did you ask him?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know—”
“Hey, Grandpa’s taking you fishing tomorrow. Won’t that be fun?”
Fortunately, Micahlyn rose to the bait and was off and running—or talking—about all the fish she’d caught in the past and might catch in the morning. Her chatter didn’t wind down until they reached Leanne’s.
Cabin Fever Page 33
