Extensive (A Single Dad Box Set)

by Claire Adams

  “Too much space, apparently,” Remy muttered, as she backed away from Nina and shot me a murderous look.

  “Don’t blame everything on Dad like you always do,” Nina warned. I remained silent, knowing that anything I could say might tip the balance in either direction, and I didn’t want to alienate my daughter before I understood what was at stake. “You’re constantly on my case about everything, Mom. You nag me about my room, about my grades, about my weight, about every little thing! I’m sick and tired of it! I can’t breathe when I’m with you!”

  “What on earth are you talking about?” Remy said. The look of shock on her face told me that she had no idea that Nina had been gathering evidence against her for so long. “I just want you to be the best person you can be. I want you to be a responsible adult. I want people to like you.”

  “No, those are your hang-ups, Mom!” Nina cried. “You always push things on me when it’s you that’s worried about how everything looks! You’re such a bitch!”

  “Nina!” Remy and I both said at the same time.

  “Don’t talk to your mother that way, young lady,” I warned.

  “Or what? You’ll cut me out of your life just like you did Emily?” Nina dared me. “You’re no better than she is, Dad. You just pretend like you’re the good guy, but you never stand up to her! You’re weak, and you know it!”

  “NINA!” Remy yelled. “Knock it off, young lady! I’ve had about enough of your smart mouth and your disrespectful attitude.”

  “Whatever,” Nina said, rolling her eyes as she slumped against the wall. I was still stinging from the accusation she’d leveled at me, and stayed silent as Remy moved toward Nina and began speaking.

  “See?” Remy said, turning toward me. “This is what happens when you let a teenager run wild. I’ve had enough of this, Blake. She cannot behave like this and every time she comes back from spending time at your house her attitude is worse than the time before.”

  “And you’re blaming all of this on me?” I said, looking at her in disbelief.

  “I am,” she said coolly. “And this afternoon, I’m going to have my lawyer draw up the paperwork to file for sole custody.”

  “MOM!” Nina shouted. “You can’t do that!”

  “Nina, your father left you here alone while he went out on a date with your teacher,” Remy said. “He’s a bad role model and a worse parent, and I think any judge worth their degree will agree with me.”

  “Remy, don’t do this,” I warned. “This is wrong, and you know it.”

  “Do I, Blake?” she asked, cocking her head and giving me a hard stare. “Is it really wrong when our daughter’s safety is at stake?”

  “Mom! Dad didn’t do anything wrong!” Nina protested. “I got mad because he didn’t let me have my way when I asked if I could come live with him!”

  “And no one thought it might be a good idea to involve me in this conversation?” Remy asked, looking back and forth between Nina and I. “Nina, get your things. You’re coming home tonight, and we’ll see about what happens after the judge rules on my petition.”

  “Remy, don’t do this,” I pleaded. “Please. Just don’t.”

  “You should have thought of that before you chose your girlfriend over your daughter,” Remy said coldly. She turned and snapped her fingers at Nina and said, “C’mon, get your things! Let’s go!”

  “Mom!” Nina protested.

  “Do not argue with me, Nina Marie,” Remy warned. Nina’s shoulders dropped as she gave in and slunk off to get her things.

  “Remy—” I began.

  “Blake, I don’t want to hear another word from you,” she hissed. “You didn’t know where she was last night and we still have no idea where she went. And you work a job that keeps you away from home for 24 hours at a time. It is more than obvious that you do not take your responsibility as a parent seriously enough to warrant shared custody of our daughter.”

  “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I protested.

  “And you have no idea what you’re doing to Nina,” she spat back.

  “God, you really are a bitch,” I said, regretting the words as soon as they left my mouth.

  “I’m sure the judge will be interested to hear how you really feel about the mother of your child,” she said, in a voice that was chillingly calm.

  “Do whatever you have to do to make yourself feel better,” I said as my frustration rose. “But Nina is going to hate you more than she already does if you go through with this.”

  “Yes, well, that might be true,” Remy said. “But at least if she’s living with me, I know she’ll be alive to do it.”

  Having delivered the last blow, Remy grabbed her purse and walked to the front door. Over her shoulder, she said, “Tell Nina I’m waiting in the car.”

  I watched as she walked down the driveway and slid into the driver’s seat of her expensive sedan. I knew she wasn’t making an idle threat, but I also knew that her anger at me was clouding her judgment of the situation. I’d fight for Nina, of that there was no doubt.

  “Dad, I’m sorry,” Nina said, as she emerged from the bedroom carrying her bags. “I didn’t know that this would happen.”

  “Oh, Punkin, I know you didn’t,” I said, as she dropped her bags and threw herself into my arms, weeping like she had when she was small. “Don’t worry, your mom is just upset and scared over what happened. I’ll find a way to calm her down.”

  “But she’s going to take me away from you!” Nina wailed.

  “No, she’s definitely not going to do that, kiddo,” I reassured her, as I kissed the top of her head. “No one can take you away from me. Not even your mom.”

  I held my daughter as she cried and thought about how I was going to counter Remy’s charge that I was an unfit parent. I thought about Emily and how she’d betrayed my trust. If she had only told me that Nina had returned! I was furious with her, but I also knew it wasn’t entirely her fault, it was just easier to blame her — for now.

  I had no idea how I’d do it, but I knew I wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

  Chapter Forty

  Emily

  I waited a few days to give Blake some time to cool down, and to give myself time to think about the situation with Nina. I knew that waiting to tell Blake that Nina was safe had been a mistake, but I also felt he’d overreacted. I texted him on Friday afternoon, and by Sunday morning I still hadn’t heard from him.

  I made Howard and I a huge Sunday breakfast as I thought about the week’s events. All week, I wondered how Nina was doing. She’d been transferred out of my History class while the school investigated Remy’s complaint against me. I’d explained the situation to my principal, and she’d assured me that while I’d made a questionable decision about informing Nina’s parents, she was fairly sure I’d be given a formal reprimand by the school board. Meanwhile, Blake was obviously avoiding me, and I felt hurt.

  “What should I do, buddy?” I asked Howard as he crunched his breakfast on the counter next to me. “Should I keep calling or should I just let it go?”

  Howard raised his head and stared at me for a moment before returning to his breakfast. I set my coffee cup down and rested my head in my hands as I fought back the sadness that threatened to engulf me. If Blake was gone for good, then that meant everything associated with him was gone, as well. No more dinners with his family or movie nights with him and Nina. The thought of losing the little family I’d begun to build knocked the wind out of me, and I began to cry.

  Howard head butted me and mewed as I dropped my head to the counter and cried.

  “Em? Are you home?” a voice called from the front entry. “Hello?”

  “KO?” I said hopefully. “Is that you?”

  “Hey, girlfriend, what’s going —” KO cheerfully said as she entered the kitchen. Her tone quickly shifted to concern as she saw my tear-stained face. “Girl, what’s going on?”

  “Oh, KO!” I cried. “He’s gone! I did somethi
ng stupid, and now he’s gone!”

  “He’s gone? Who’s gone?” she said, dropping her bags and wrapping her arms around me. “What the hell is going on around here?”

  “I was with him the other night when Nina disappeared and then she came back, and I didn’t tell him right away now he’s mad at me, and he won’t answer my calls!” I sobbed, in one continuous sentence.

  “Girl, I have no idea what you just said,” KO chuckled softly. “So why don’t you start from the beginning and tell me what happened while I was gone.”

  “Hey, fat man!” she said, as she reached out to pat Howard and was rewarded with a swipe of his claws. “Ouch! Damn, that hurts!”

  “I don’t think he likes being called fat man,” I said quietly.

  “Well, if the shoe fits…” KO laughed, as she moved to the sink and rinsed her hand. She poured herself a cup of coffee and then sat down next to me and listened. For the next hour, I told her everything that had happened since she left, ending with the debacle that was our Valentine’s Day date.

  “I don’t know what to do now, KO,” I said, starting to cry again. “I miss him! And I want to work things out, but I don’t know how to get him to talk to me. He’s just too angry.”

  “Hmm, it sounds like he’s angry about things that have nothing to do with you,” she said, as she drank the last of her coffee and began picking at the leftover waffle on my plate. “I’d give him a little space before you start to do the hard-court press.”

  “I’m not going to act like I’m desperate,” I said grumpily.

  “But you want him back, don’t you?” she asked, as she popped a piece of waffle dipped in syrup into her mouth and chewed.

  “Yeah, but he doesn’t need to know how much,” I said, folding my arms across my chest like a stubborn child.

  “I’d argue otherwise, but I see your point,” she nodded. She chewed thoughtfully for a bit before she spoke again saying, “Don’t worry, Em. We’ll figure this out.”

  “Are you back for good?” I asked, realizing I had no idea why she’d returned. “What made you come back?”

  “Eh, family stuff,” she said, waving me off. “I don’t know how long I’m back for, but while I’m here, I’m going to try and help you get your man back!”

  “You make it sound like a Wild West caper,” I giggled, despite the tears still flowing down my cheeks.

  “Maybe that’s just what we need,” KO said brightly. “We need a plan, my friend!”

  I wanted to push KO as to why she was back and how long she’d be staying, but I knew from past experience that if she didn’t want to talk about it, no amount of questioning was going to get the information out of her. I decided to let it go and focus on her plan to help me find a way to get Blake to talk to me.

  We spent the rest of the day talking about how to solve the problem. Around 5, KO got up to get ready to head to The Lucky Clover for her shift.

  “You’re already going back to work?” I said, surprised that she was slipping right back into her regular schedule despite having been gone for several months.

  “Yeah, I need to make some bank this week,” she sighed, as she walked into the bedroom and dug through her closet. She came back to the kitchen pulling on a shirt that said “I’m Not Yelling. I’m Speaking with Authority.”

  “What do your customers think of your T-shirts?” I laughed.

  “They love it!” she said, grabbing a hoodie from the back coat rack and pulling it on. “Hell, some of them come to the bar just to find out what I’m wearing on any given night!”

  “You’re one in a million, KO,” I said, shaking my head.

  “So are you, Em,” she said, pulling me into a bear hug before she kissed the top of my head and slapped my ass. “Now, we just need to get that man of yours to remember that fact!”

  “I don’t know, KO,” I sighed. “I’m not convinced he’s coming back.

  “Of course he is,” she said, as she stuffed her wallet into her back pocket and grabbed her keys off the front hall table. “We just have to remind him a little.”

  She took off out the door, waving goodbye as she pulled out of the drive. I went back inside and cleaned up the kitchen before I took a shower and got back to grading 10th grade History papers.

  I hoped KO was right.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Blake

  On Thursday morning, a county sheriff showed up at work and served me with the papers that Remy’s high-powered lawyer had filed. I was to show up in court the following week and present my side of the case to the judge in Family Court. I wasn’t surprised that Remy had moved so quickly, but I was surprised that the court had agreed to hear the evidence so fast. It made me wonder what strings Remy had pulled with the people in power and whether I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting a fair hearing.

  I spent the next several days mulling over my options and talking with my lawyer. I missed Nina terribly, but for now, I could only chat with her in text or on the phone.

  On Friday night, my phone rang, and when I picked it up, I saw Nina was FaceTiming me.

  “Hey, Punkin, what’s up?” I said, flipping on the video and watching as my daughter’s face appeared on the screen.

  “I hate it here, Dad,” she said glumly. I could see that she was in her bedroom and that Remy had done some redecorating.

  “I know, kiddo, but you’re going to have to hang tough and wait for the hearing,” I said, reminding myself not to do anything to fan the flames of resentment between Nina and her mother.

  “Dad, she thinks I’m perpetually 12,” Nina said, rolling her eyes. “She treats me like I can’t do anything myself, and when I do, she yells at me for doing it wrong.”

  “Patience, kiddo. Have patience,” I reminded her. It killed me to see my daughter so miserable and not be able to do a damn thing about it.

  “Have you talked to Emily yet?” she asked.

  “No, you know how I feel about what she did,” I said flatly.

  “Dad, it wasn’t her fault!” Nina cried. “I asked her not to say anything, and she respected my wishes. You can’t be mad at her because of what I did!”

  “Nina, we’ve been over this numerous times,” I reminded her. “Emily was the adult in the situation, and she should have called me to let me know you were safe. End of discussion.”

  “You’re so hardheaded,” she said in an exasperated voice. “You need to forgive her, Dad. She’s the best thing that ever happened to you.”

  “Besides you,” I said, without missing a beat.

  “Yes, me, whatever,” she sighed. “You need to call Emily and talk to her. Forgive her, Dad.”

  “First we need to get through the hearing,” I said, ignoring my daughter’s advice. “Once that’s over I’ll think about talking with Emily.”

  “What did your lawyer say?” Nina asked.

  “She said it wasn’t going to be a total loss, but that we’d better be prepared to suffer the consequences of your mother’s rage,” I said honestly. “I don’t know if you’re going to be allowed to come live with me full-time, Nina.”

  “This sucks,” she protested. “I don’t want to live with Mom!”

  “I know you don’t, kiddo,” I said sympathetically. “But you’re going to have to make the best of the situation. Once the court decides on the petition, we’ll figure out our game plan.”

  Nina sighed loudly and then went on to tell me how school had been and that she’d gotten an A on her last History exam. We wrapped up the conversation when Remy called Nina to come join her in the kitchen for homework time. Nina rolled her eyes dramatically and then said, “Love you, Dad,” before signing off.

  I sat at the kitchen table staring at the screen where my daughter had been, wondering how I’d ended up in this situation. I wanted to blame Emily for being irresponsible, but I knew I was to blame for ignoring Nina’s distress over having to move back to her mother’s. I’d been selfish and thought about what I’d wanted without st
opping to think what Nina needed. Maybe Remy was right. Maybe I was a lousy parent and Nina would be better off with a mother who set limits and paid attention to things.

  On Saturday, I spent the day cleaning house in case someone from the courts wanted to come see the environment Nina had been living in. I knew it was a long shot, but at this point, I was willing to do anything to make sure she could continue to spend time with me. As the hours passed, I felt more and more anxious about losing Nina, and by Sunday afternoon, I’d not only cleaned the inside of the house, I’d done yard maintenance and fixed the loose gutter on the side of the house.

  By dinner time, I was feeling restless and was dreading spending the night alone, so I showered, pulled on jeans and a T-shirt, and headed over to The Lucky Clover for a drink. I turned on my phone to call Tony and saw the text that Emily had sent me the day before. I’d ignored it when it first showed up, and now I hesitated for a moment, then deleted the message before I texted Tony and asked him to meet me for a drink.

  The bar was pretty empty when I arrived, and I was surprised to see KO back behind the bar.

  “Where you been, lady?” I asked, as I shed my coat and sat down on a stool.

  “Away,” she replied with a smile. “What’ll it be, big guy?”

  “Give me a whiskey and a draft,” I said, pulling out my wallet and tossing a 20 onto the bar.

  “Going straight to the hard stuff, eh?” she laughed, as she took the bill and set it on the register before she poured my shot.

  “Just need to relax a little,” I said, as I pulled the glass of amber liquid toward me and stared into it as she drew me a beer.

  “I heard about your daughter,” she nodded, setting the foaming glass in front of me. “I’m glad she got home safely.”

  “Yeah, well, that might not be the end of it,” I said glumly. I knew Emily was living at KO’s house, and that if the bartender was back, then she had surely heard about what had happened.