Fair Chances (Fairshore Series Book 3)

by Christina Butrum

  “What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” His voice was full of panic.

  “I’m fine, I think,” Amelia said. “There’s someone here for you.”

  Without any more questions, Zach said, “I’ll be right there. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I think so,” she said and hung up the phone. It would take him only a few minutes to get home. She peeked out the window behind the curtain. Isaac sat on the railing in the same spot he had been in when she walked into the house. She stood up and composed herself. Her nerves had gotten the best of her. These were the times she wanted a dog in the house. Her parents still had her Australian Shepherd, but it was decided they would keep her for Amelia. Amelia came to the conclusion she had been too busy for a dog. Every time she thought about going to her parents’ house to pick the dog up, something came up and caused her to abandon the idea.

  She unlocked the door and opened it. She walked onto the porch and smiled at Isaac. “Zach will be here in a minute or two,” she stated.

  Isaac nodded. “Was he at work?”

  Amelia nodded. Zach’s car came into sight and pulled into the driveway. Amelia let out a sigh of relief. She watched as Zach approached the porch. He had no warning from her who was here to see him.

  Amelia watched Zach walk up the steps. Isaac turned to face Zach. Zach swallowed hard. “What are you doing here?” he asked. The tone in his voice edged with irritation.

  Isaac stood and straightened. “I came to see you.”

  Zach grunted. He grumbled, “Why now? You never wanted to see me before.”

  Isaac looked down at the floor of the porch. Hurt crossed his face. When he looked back at Zach he said, “I’ve always wanted to see you. I’ve been trying to find you. Your grandma did a good job with keeping you from me.”

  Zach balled his hand into a fist and lunged at Isaac. Isaac held his hands up in front of him in defense.

  “Zach, don’t!” Amelia shrieked. She covered her mouth with her hand.

  Zach glared at Isaac and dropped his fist. “You leave my grandma out of this!” he hollered at Isaac.

  Amelia could see the anger in Zach’s red face. He breathed hard and his nostrils flared. She wondered if there was more history to Isaac and Zach’s relationship than Zach had told her. She was sure she would find out soon enough. She sat on the porch swing and watched their confrontation.

  “Your grandma kept you from me,” Isaac explained. “Did she ever tell you that?”

  “She never kept me from anyone,” Zach said with a grunt. “She would’ve allowed you to see me if you would’ve tried.”

  Isaac sat still against the railing of the porch. Zach had him backed into a corner of the porch. His face was beet red and appeared sweaty. Amelia focused her attention on them. Zach tapped his foot on the porch and clenched his fists.

  “If you’ve been looking for me, then why has it taken you until now to find me?” Zach asked as he poked a finger into his chest. “It isn’t too hard to look in the phone book and find my business.”

  “Your grandma isn’t listed in the phone book,” Isaac confirmed. “And I didn’t know about you and your damn business.”

  “Exactly. There’s a reason for that too,” Zach said.

  “Because your grandma took you from me and raised you,” Isaac said. “She left me with no choice and no information about you.”

  The color of Zach’s face shaded to a deeper red. “So you blame her?!” he asked as he threw his arms in the air. “You’re the one who didn’t want me! You’re the one who gave me up for those stupid drugs!”

  Isaac shook his head. “That’s not true.”

  It amazed Amelia how calm Isaac was. His posture had not changed. His body language was relaxed. She kept a close eye on Zach.

  Zach tilted his head and balled his fists. With his jaw clenched with anger, he said through gritted teeth, “You’re a liar.”

  Isaac stood up. He stumbled a step toward Zach and Zach backed up. Amelia watched them on the edge of the swing. She knew Zach would make no effort to catch this man if he were to fall. His father slurred his words as he said, “Your mother was a cheap whore who didn’t want you. She’s the one who made the decision to give you to your grandma. Her parents didn’t want you and neither did she, but I did.”

  Amelia could see the hurt in Zach’s face as it twisted with emotion. Isaac stepped an inch closer to Zach. Zach pointed to the man’s feet and said, “Stay there. Don’t come any closer.”

  The warning that was meant to keep Isaac in place was ignored. Isaac stepped closer to Zach. His arms stretched out from his sides. “Come on, is this how you’re going to treat your old man?”

  Zach backed up. Anger crossed his face. Amelia could see the glare Zach had given his father. Zach’s irritated gaze was focused on his father. Neither of them moved while Amelia sat silently as she watched them.

  Isaac swayed to his right. He pulled a small bottle from his pocket and took a drink. He wiped his mouth on the back of his shirt sleeve. He grinned at Zach. “You have no idea what happened that day, do you?” he asked. He tormented Zach with the question. “You only know what your grandma told you. You don’t know the truth.”

  Zach closed the distance between the two of them and pressed his face against Isaac’s. “It doesn’t matter what she told me,” he said through gritted teeth. “All that matters is that I know you’re a dead beat, piece of shit man who claims to be my father.”

  Zach shoved the man backward. Amelia hopped to her feet and rushed to grab Zach’s arm. Zach pointed at her and said, “Go inside.”

  Isaac straightened against the pole and eyed Zach. Zach pointed a finger at him and said, “You’re the scum of the earth as far as I’m concerned. You had no right coming here.”

  Isaac shrugged a shoulder and pulled his bottle back out of his pocket. Before he could take a drink, Zach knocked the bottle out of his hand. Isaac watched the bottle fly across the yard. “What’d you do that for?” he asked as he attempted to walk down the stairs to retrieve the bottle of booze. He stumbled down the first two steps and grabbed the rail to catch himself. Amelia watched in horror behind the screen door.

  Zach put his hand on the man’s chest and pushed him lightly back away from him. “You want to talk? Have a seat,” he said as he pointed to a chair on the porch. “We’ll talk.”

  Amelia could not believe the anger and rage she had witnessed. She did not blame Zach one bit, but she was in shock he had this much anger toward his father. She continued to watch from inside the screen door.

  Zach had calmed down a bit. He sat in the chair across from his father, who sat slumped to the side in the swing. Amelia wondered how drunk his father was and why she had not picked up on any signs that he had been drinking.

  “You and Mom left me with grandma,” Zach said. “You and her wanted nothing to do with me. You chased drugs and wanted the fast life without me around.”

  His father shook his head. His speech slurred as he tried to tell Zach his side of the story. Amelia watched in shock. She had never seen someone so drunk in her entire life. But then again, she realized her parents did keep her sheltered from most things.

  “That’s not true,” his father slurred. “I had no choice.”

  “You had a choice,” Zach raised his voice. “Don’t feed me your bullshit excuses.”

  His father shook his head again. He pointed a finger into his chest and said, “I never had a choice. Your mother and grandmother made the choice without me.”

  Zach turned around and looked at Amelia who stood in the doorway. She shrugged her shoulders. His face was pained with torment. She knew he was being tormented by the painful memories.

  He turned and faced his father. “When did you start drinking?”

  His father looked down at his hands, which were now dirty from the dirt on his bottle of booze. “I don’t drink.”

  Amelia held back a laugh. She could not help but find amusement in this drunk man’s words. Zach
turned and glared at her. He raised his eyebrows and blew out a breath through pursed lips. Amelia knew this man had tested Zach’s patience. She prayed for Zach to tolerate him a little while longer. They would have to call him a taxi for a ride home, wherever home may be for him.

  “So you normally don’t drink?” Zach asked his father.

  His father shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Then why are you drinking today?” Zach asked when he pointed to the bottle in his father’s hands.

  His father looked down at his hands and the small bottle he held onto. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I knew coming here would be hard, so I grabbed this to ease my nerves and the pain.”

  Amelia’s heart sank. She looked at Zach who slumped forward with his arms rested on his knees. Zach hung his head.

  After a few minutes of silence, Zach stood and helped his father up. “You want us to call a ride for you?”

  His father leaned against him and mumbled something incoherent. Zach walked beside his father and guided him into their house. Amelia raised an eyebrow and wondered what Zach had in mind. She wondered if Zach had forgiven his father. Without too much hesitation, she opened the door and grabbed ahold of Isaac’s other arm and helped Zach guide him to the couch in the living room.

  “You lay down here,” Zach said to his father as he laid him down. “You can sleep some of that alcohol off and we’ll talk when you wake up.”

  Zach looked up at Amelia as she covered Isaac with a blanket. He shrugged his shoulders and straightened up. “I have no clue what to do,” Zach said as they walked into the kitchen.

  Amelia shook her head. She had no idea either. She wondered if his father even had a place in Fairshore to stay, or if he even lived here.

  Chapter Six

  An hour later, Zach’s father sat up on their couch. Amelia handed him a glass of water and folded the blanket neatly. She set the blanket on the back of the couch. “This couch is really comfortable,” Amelia said. “I hope you slept well.”

  “I did. Thank you,” Isaac said. He placed his glass down on the coaster and leaned back into the couch. He glanced around the living room. “This is a nice little house you have here.”

  Amelia nodded. “Yes, it is.”

  “Where’d my son take off to?” Isaac asked. “This isn’t what I had in mind.”

  Amelia wondered how he had imagined the visit would go. She was sure the alcohol had not done him any favors. Zach had emptied the remaining alcohol down the drain in the kitchen sink and had tossed the bottle in the recycle bin out back.

  “I thought he’d be more open-minded,” Isaac stated. “I didn’t think he hated me so much.”

  Amelia hesitated to respond. She was unsure if she should say anything or leave it all to Zach. She cleared her throat and attempted to clear the fog. “I would say you two have a lot to figure out. Zach’s an easy going person. He just has a lot of anger from all of those years without you.”

  Amelia looked at Isaac. He leaned forward with tears in his eyes. She decided to sit at the other end of the couch. She could see the pain in Isaac’s face. The same pain she had witnessed in Bailey’s mother’s face the day they had went to her house. She could not imagine the pain and anger Zach had felt all these years. She wondered if it was the same for a man to live without a father as it was a woman to live without a mother.

  “I came to the funeral,” Isaac said. His voice hushed almost to a raspy whisper.

  Amelia nodded. “I saw you.”

  Isaac nodded. “I know you did.”

  “I know it’s none of my business, but why’d you wait so long to come to Fairshore?” Amelia asked.

  Isaac shook his head. He opened his mouth to answer her question, but Zach interrupted.

  “Do you feel better?” Zach asked as he walked into the living room from the stairs. His damp towel-dried hair was tousled.

  Amelia looked up at Zach and stood up. She allowed him to sit where she had been sitting.

  “I feel better, thank you,” his father answered.

  Zach nodded. He clasped his hands together in front of him on his lap. “I was hoping the alcohol would wear off.”

  His father nodded. “I’m sorry about that.”

  Zach looked at his father. Amelia sat quietly in the chair on the side of the couch. “There’s a lot you should be sorry about, not just the booze.” His tone was a bit harsh.

  His father ran a hand through his hair, the same way Amelia had seen Zach do it. “You’re right.”

  Zach leaned back into the couch and waited for his father to say what he needed to say. Within a couple of minutes, his father said, “Look, I didn’t want to bring alcohol with me. I normally don’t drink.” When Zach didn’t say anything, his father continued on. “I guess I knew how mad you would be and I needed something to keep me calm.”

  “Did it help?” Zach asked. Amelia could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

  “A little too much,” Isaac answered. “I came to your grandma’s funeral, you know?”

  “A little late for a visit wasn’t it?” Zach snipped. Amelia hoped he would stay calm and hear what his father had to say. She reached for his arm and rested her hand on it.

  His father nodded and said, “Yes, it was.”

  Zach nodded. Anger twisted his face as he sat forward. He wrung his hands and waited for his father to continue on.

  “I want to make things right, son,” his father said.

  “Don’t call me that,” Zach snipped again. “You have no right to call me that.”

  His father held up his hands in defense against Zach’s tone. “Alright, sorry, I won’t call you that.”

  “It would make no difference to me what you called me, but don’t call me son,” Zach demanded. “You lost that chance when you left me with grandma.”

  Amelia watched as Isaac shook his head in disagreement. She sat patiently as she waited to hear Isaac’s sober side of the story. She did not have to wait long, because his father told him within a few minutes.

  “You know what really happened?” Isaac asked Zach.

  Zach attempted to explain what his grandma had told him, but Isaac interrupted before he could get more than two words out of his mouth.

  “When I said last night that your grandma gave me no choice, I meant it,” his father explained. “She had it all planned out before I could even argue against the idea. She fought with me tooth and nail to raise you. I ignored the idea clear up until I no longer had a choice.”

  “Why would Grandma want to raise me?” Zach asked with furrowed eyebrows. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Zach sat with his arms crossed and a look of disbelief on his face. Amelia sat on the edge of the chair and listened to his father explain what had happened.

  “Your mother cheated on me and left me for some doped out drug dealer,” his father explained. “Back then, I wasn’t smart enough or mature enough to let things go. I loved your mother and I was going to fight to keep her.”

  Zach listened intently.

  “So, I went after him, which in turn got me thrown in jail,” his father continued to explain. “I did some bad things to others when you were younger. Your grandma did me a favor by raising you.”

  “Where’s my mom at now?” Zach asked. His voice trembled with emotion. He quickly swallowed it down and asked, “Do you have any idea where she went?”

  His father shook his head. “As far as I know, she could be dead.”

  Zach winced at his father’s words. Amelia watched as Zach looked away. She wondered what Zach had thought. She knew he wondered where his parents were, but he always played it like he didn’t care much. She knew better now.

  “Last I knew, before I got locked up, she was still sleazing around with the drug dealer.”

  Zach looked at his father. “Why’d you come to Fairshore?”

  His father leaned back and looked at Zach with confusion. “I wanted to make things right with you.”

  Zach shook h
is head. “I don’t believe you. It sounds like you want to make yourself look good and make my so-called mother sound horrible.”

  “That’s not true at all,” his father said. “I’m just telling you how it is.”

  “And let me guess, you’re a changed man now?” Zach stood up from the couch and reached for his father’s arm. “I don’t need you in my life. I lived this long without you,” he said as he grabbed his father’s arm and pulled him off the couch. “You don’t need to be in Fairshore. You can leave.”

  Amelia stood, horrified, and watched as Zach opened the door for his father. Isaac stopped by the door and pleaded, “Don’t do this, Zach.”

  Zach opened the screen door and said, “I don’t know what you came here for, but I don’t care. You seem to be up to something not so good. I don’t need you around here.”

  His father tried to plead with him again. “I came to make amends and make things right. I want my son back. I came to apologize.”

  Zach held the screen door open and said, “It’s too late for that. Don’t come back here.”

  Isaac turned to Amelia and said, “It was nice meeting you. When are you due?”

  Zach gave him a light push out the door and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

  Isaac hollered back, “I’m not going anywhere. If that’s my grandbaby, I’ll be in its life.”

  “Not when you couldn’t handle being in mine,” Zach hollered back and slammed the door. He watched his father walk down the street.

  He turned to Amelia. Amelia felt mixed emotions. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

  She shrugged her shoulders and walked into the kitchen. She reached for a glass and filled it with ice water. Zach walked up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Don’t worry about him, okay?”

  “I’m not worried about him,” Amelia snipped.

  Zach turned her around to face him. “Wait, are you mad at me?”

  Amelia looked down at her glass and traced the rim with her finger. She shrugged a shoulder.

  “He’s bad news,” Zach insisted. “He isn’t good for us. I did the right thing.”

  Amelia looked into his eyes. “Are you sure about that?”