by SJ McCoy
Reid felt bad for her. She was almost done with the book she was editing, but the author had rewritten a couple of chapters, and it was making things drag on. She was hoping to get finished today. All he wanted was for them to be done here. To pack her and Owen up and head to Montana. But he didn’t want to be selfish. He’d been going out every morning and leaving them to their usual routine. Apparently, Owen was ready for his routine to change.
“Reid can be good. Play quietly,” Owen said hopefully.
Tara’s shoulders sagged, and she smiled. “Do you want to stay and play quietly?”
He winked at her. “I promise I’ll be good.”
She chuckled. “Okay, then. I hate sending you out every morning anyway.”
He went to her and slid his arms around her waist. “And I hate going. We’re going to have to learn to work together in the same house soon.”
“I know. I’ve been worrying about you taking so much time off.”
“There’s no need. I’m ahead of schedule with the books. I have the next two written and edited, and the release dates aren’t until November and January.”
Tara laughed. “I wish you could train some of my clients. They tend to be last minute miracles.”
He smiled. “We’re all different. We work in different ways.”
“We do. I’m just glad that the three of us work so well together.”
“Me, too.” Owen was smiling up at them. He tugged on Reid’s hand. “Come play now. Let Mommy work.”
Reid brushed his thumb over Tara’s cheek. He couldn’t wait until they were set up in Montana.
He and Owen had a great morning. They played the getting it wrong game and did some drawing and writing. Then they played a numbers game, and Owen surprised him with just how much he understood. But then when he thought about it, he shouldn’t be surprised—he’d been the same at that age. Math had fascinated him. It still did.
He and Owen gave each other a puzzled look when they heard the doorbell ring. Owen got up and went and closed his bedroom door, making Reid smile—that was another thing they had in common.
“I’ll get it,” called Tara.
Reid was surprised to hear a man’s voice. He got up and went to Owen’s door. As he opened it, he heard Tara say, “No. Mark! You can’t see him. I want you to leave.”
He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway and found himself face to face with Mark.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Reid met his gaze coldly. “I’m Reid Davenport. What do you want?”
“So, it is true?” Mark ignored him and swung back around to look at Tara. “You found yourself a rich guy to fuck? That’s why you don’t want to get back with me?”
Tara looked furious. “Get out, Mark! You can’t use language like that in my home. Owen’s in there.”
“I don’t give a fuck. The kid doesn’t understand anything I say anyway. He’s not right. He’s soft in the head.”
Reid’s fists balled at his sides. His blood felt as if it were boiling in his veins. Mark’s words brought back all the taunts he’d heard as a kid. He’d thought he was over all that, but to hear those same names directed at Owen made him angrier than he’d ever felt. “Get out.” His voice sounded like someone else’s. Mark and Tara both looked at him. He breathed slowly through his nose, trying to calm himself. “Get out, now.”
“This isn’t your fucking place. You can’t tell me what to do. You should get out. You shouldn’t be doing her while my son’s here.”
The laugh Reid let out sounded more like a bark. “All of a sudden you care about your son?”
“What does it matter to you? He’s not your son.”
Reid shook his head. “I wish for his sake he was.”
Mark’s upper lip curled into a sneer. “So, you want my kid as well as my ex, do you?”
“Yes. I do. I want to give them a good life.”
Mark looked around the apartment. “Looks like you’re doing a great job of it.”
“This is where you left her. We’re leaving here and moving to Montana.”
“You’re what?”
Tara stepped forward. “I was going to call you and tell you. If you want to see Owen, I’ll work with you. We'll figure it out.”
Mark ignored her and glared at Reid. “You’re not taking them anywhere.”
“I am.”
“No, you’re fucking not. He’s my kid. She can’t take him away.”
Reid frowned. He might be right. Reid didn’t know. Grace had said something about not taking a child out of state, but he hadn’t checked. Why hadn’t he checked?
Mark smiled, sensing he had the upper hand. “That’s right. You’re going to have to file a court order before you can take him anywhere, and I’m going to fight it and drag it out.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t get to just come in and flash your money around and take them away. Why should I stay here with nothing?”
Reid shook his head. He didn’t understand people at the best of times, and this wasn’t the best of times. How could a man want to make life difficult for his own child and for a woman he’d presumably once loved?
“You need to leave.” Tara’s voice was shaky.
Mark shrugged. “Okay. I’ll go. But I’ll see you in court.” He slammed the door behind him on the way out.
Reid and Tara stood there staring at each other for a few moments. When Reid gathered his wits, he went to her and held her to his chest. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. I don’t know if he’s right. He might just be bluffing. I never thought of him having any legal rights. I have sole custody.”
“We’ll figure it out. I can’t believe a judge would make you stay here because of him.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I need to speak to an attorney.”
“Don’t worry. We will.”
He led her by the hand into Owen’s room. To his relief, the little guy was sitting on his bed clutching the iPod, holding one of the earbuds to his ear.
“Are you okay?”
He didn’t respond, just kept staring straight ahead, moving slightly to the music.
Tara went to sit on the bed beside him.
Eventually, he turned to look at her. “Don’t like him.”
Reid didn’t either.
~ ~ ~
Tara sat back and rubbed her neck. That was it; the book was finally done. She didn’t know how she’d managed to concentrate this afternoon after Mark’s visit, but she had. And now she was free to focus on everything else.
At least, she should be. She needed to start packing … or did she? Mark couldn’t be right, could he? He couldn’t make them stay. Reid had gone out when Owen went down for his nap. He’d said he was going to talk to Oscar and get him to help find a good attorney.
She got up from her desk and went into her bedroom to get the shoebox where she kept all her important papers. She pulled it down from the top shelf in the closet and rifled through, looking for the divorce papers. They were all there. The custody agreement awarded her sole custody. Mark had visitation rights—rights which he hadn’t exercised for a couple of years. There was also a child support schedule, which he’d ignored. She couldn’t believe that a judge would stop her from moving with Owen—especially when she was moving him to a much better environment. She could and did, however, believe that Mark could tie them up in court proceedings for months and stop them from going anywhere until it was all settled.
She rushed to the phone when it rang, hoping it would be Reid, and also hoping that it wouldn’t wake Owen.
It was her sister.
“Oh, hey, Nic. What’s up?”
“Nothing’s up with me. What about you? I thought you’d be all happy and busy packing. You sound down. What’s going on?”
Tara told her all about Mark’s visit.
“I told you, he’s an asshole!”
“Yeah. I agree.” Tara blew out a sigh. “I just hope he can’t do it, but the way the courts work, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“You need to play him at his own game. If he wants to go anywhere near court over all this, then you need to get real about child support and everything he owes you.”
Tara sighed. “That’d all get so ugly, Nic.”
“He’s the one who’s turning it ugly. You just need to toughen up. What does Reid think?”
“He didn’t say much. He went to see his brother, to see what attorneys he knows.”
“Good. The kind of attorney he can pay for is the kind you need.”
Tara nodded. She knew that much.
“It’ll be okay, sis. It’ll work out. I can’t believe your Reid will let that asshole stand in his way. I meant to tell you when I met him the other day I had to agree with you—with what you said the first time you met him, that he was like maybe a spy or something. He’s not a big muscle-bound, in-your-face action man type, but there’s something about him. He might be a secret ninja or something.” She laughed. “Sorry. I’m getting carried away, but my point is that I think Reid is the kind to make problems go away—whatever it takes.”
“I hope he can.”
“You just wait and see. And in the meantime, don’t worry about it. Keep packing. I mean, what else are you going to do?”
“I guess. Thanks, Nic.”
After she’d hung up, she went back into her bedroom. Her sister was right. She might as well get on with packing. Even if she was going to be here a while longer, she had plenty of things that could live in boxes in the meantime.
Reid seemed edgy when he got back. He came to her and kissed her, but there was an air of tension to him.
“What is it?”
He gave her a half smile. “I found a lawyer.”
“And …?”
“And he said he’d need to see your custody agreement and the terms laid out in that. He needs to talk to you if we want to go that route.”
“That route? As opposed to what other route?”
He cocked his head to one side and held her gaze for a long moment. “He suggested another route, one that would potentially be much faster and more straightforward.”
Tara couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. The stress must be getting to her.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. It’s just that Nic called this afternoon, and she thought you might somehow make Mark disappear. You’re not talking about a route like that, are you?”
The corners of his lips tugged up in a smile, but he shook his head. “No. It’s tempting, but that’s not how I operate.” He went and sat on the sofa and patted the space beside him.
She gladly sat and leaned against him. She felt like she needed his support in every sense. “So, what did this attorney suggest? I’m guessing it can’t be completely aboveboard if it’s so fast and straightforward, and yet you aren’t thrilled about it.”
He nodded. “It’s perfectly legitimate. I like the idea. My hesitation is because I don’t know if you will.”
“So, run it by me. There’s only one way to find out.”
~ ~ ~
Reid took hold of her hand. He wanted her to love the idea as much as he did, but he wasn’t sure that she would.
“This attorney, his name is Jeff. He’s a good friend of Oscar’s. Has been for years, that’s why he spoke so frankly with me and laid out our realistic options. Basically, unless your custody agreement explicitly states that you can move away from California—and I’m guessing it doesn’t because you never imagined that you would—then the agreement needs to be renegotiated. And that could take a while.”
“How long’s a while?”
“Months.”
“And this other route?”
Reid adjusted his collar. He could only hope. “Jeff suggested that since Mark’s motivation seems to be pure bloody-mindedness, that he might also be motivated by money.”
Tara frowned. “I already don’t like this.”
“Hear me out?”
She nodded.
“Mark doesn’t really want to see Owen—he made that clear this morning. He hasn’t shown any interest in being his parent. Yet he still has parental rights.”
Tara nodded and waited for him to continue.
He was getting to the important part, but he was nervous about how she’d react. “Jeff told me that it’s possible for someone to give up their parental rights—to sign them away if they choose.”
“He’s hardly going to do that.”
“He might.”
“Why?”
“If he thought it was worth his while.”
Tara frowned and met his gaze. “Worth his while? What do you mean?”
Reid swallowed. He’d danced around it long enough; it was time to say it and see how she reacted. “If we were to offer him money in exchange for his word that he’d leave Owen and you alone in the future. I wouldn’t trust his word. But we could pay him to sign consent papers relinquishing his rights.”
She stared at him for a long moment.
“If he were to do that, it’d mean, at some point, when you’re ready, I’d be able to legally adopt Owen.”
Her eyes shone with tears, but she didn’t say anything.
His heart was racing. He had no frame of reference to know if her tears were happy, sad, or angry. This wasn’t something he could compare to previous experience to make an estimation of how she might feel. He was all the way out on a limb—and afraid it was about to break.
“What do you think?” he asked when he couldn’t wait any longer.
“I don’t know what to think. I’m conflicted, to say the least. I hate that he can have any power over us—but he does. I don’t want him to get a penny, and I don’t want you to have to pay. Most of all, I don’t want him to have any right to come near Owen—or us—ever again …” She took hold of his ears in the way Owen did and stared into his eyes. “I love you so much for wanting to do this for us.”
“I love you, Tara. I want to make him go away. With people like that, money works. And I’ll be honest, I love the idea that if we did this, Mark would be out of the picture for good and one day, down the line, I could adopt Owen and really be his dad.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek, and she smiled. “You might even love that idea as much as I do.”
He cocked his head to one side, trying to make sure she was saying what he thought. “You want to do it?”
She nodded. “I wish we didn’t have to, but I think you’re right. This is the way to clear our path to the future, isn’t it?”
“I believe it is.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Chapter Twenty
Tara opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling and smiled. She was already used to waking up here. They’d been in Montana for three weeks now, and it just got better every day. She turned her head to look out the window at the amazing view. The sun was just peeking over the mountains on the other side of the valley.
Reid’s arm tightened around her waist, then he nuzzled his face into her hair. “Good morning.”
She turned over and kissed him. “Good morning.”
He propped himself up on one elbow and smiled down at her. “I love you, Tara Wilder.”
“And I love you, Reid Davenport.”
“Do you love me enough?”
She raised an eyebrow, wondering if he meant enough to have sex with him before they got up. She did love him that much, but she was still wary of Owen coming in and catching them. She didn’t like to lock the bedroom door here. He’d settled in better than she could have hoped—and she didn’t want anything to set him off and set him back. “Enough for what?”
He held her gaze for a long moment. His eyes were a deeper green than usual, but it didn’t look like lust. He shook his head. “I’ll ask you again later.”
She smiled. He
was as wary as she was about upsetting Owen.
“I love you enough to make you coffee before I check on Owen. He’ll come out when he hears me if he’s awake.”
“I’ll make the coffee. You see if you can get your shower in peace before he’s up.”
“Okay.”
He still had an odd look on his face, and she wondered if he had been talking about a quickie when he asked if she loved him enough. She loved him enough to spend the rest of her life with him.
As she took her shower, she wondered if she’d ever be able to let him know just how much she loved him. She loved him more than she’d believed it was possible to ever love someone other than Owen. Once upon a time, she’d believed she loved Mark. She’d known that wasn’t love for years, but since she’d met Reid, she understood that what she’d had with Mark hadn’t even been a pale imitation of love. It had been a young girl looking to be loved and a young man who … she let the warm water run down over her face and shrugged. She didn’t know what Mark had ever wanted. They’d had fun for a while, but when Owen arrived, the fun had ended. She couldn’t be happier that he was out of their lives for good now.
Reid had taken care of all of it. He wouldn’t tell her how much he’d given Mark. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She wished it hadn’t been a penny. Reid had convinced her it was the right thing to do when he’d explained how he felt about it. He’d said he didn’t see it as giving Mark money; he saw it as investing in their future. She smiled as she remembered the look on his face when he’d told her. “If someone asked me to give them every penny I have in exchange for the chance to build a life with you and Owen, I’d give it to them gladly. That’s what this is about. We’re not buying him off. We’re buying peace of mind for our little family.”
Tears mixed with the warm water rolling down her face. He thought of them as family. So did she. It had all happened so fast, but that didn’t make it any less real. She was happy. Owen was happier than he’d ever been. He was making so much progress. He loved Reid, and now he loved Johnny and Jean, too. They came over every now and then, and she’d even taken Owen up to their house a few times. He’d been nervous the first time, but after that, he’d been right at home. His world was expanding.
