“I’m cheap, as well as neglectful?” The nerve of the man!
“If the shoe fits, lady.”
“Well, let me set you straight on a few things, Mr. High-and-Mighty Preston.” With her hands clenched in fists, she took a step toward him. “I had a babysitter, a very good one. My father. But he died last April and Mama hasn’t been the same since. Then when school was ready to let out, I found myself facing the dilemma of paying for day care or quitting working my two jobs for the summer. But friends came to my rescue.”
“The Millers?”
She really hated the sardonic twist of his lips. “No. Your uncle and aunt.”
Surprise registered on his face.
Emma fought hard not to laugh. “That’s right, you sanctimonious jerk. Your uncle and aunt took over babysitting the boys for me. It’s why Mama and the boys feel so comfortable hanging out there. Until a week ago, they spent mornings with Doc Ray, Caroline and Harriett. When they decided to go on this tour of the world, your uncle devised this plan for people in the community he thought would be willing to watch the boys and spend time with Mama, so I could continue working.”
Either the knowledge that she wasn’t a neglectful mother or that he wasn’t infallible shocked him so much he grabbed a chair and sat down hard. His stunned expression didn’t last long. His eyes narrowed with suspicion, and the line of his mouth flattened. “Uncle Ray knew Isabelle was having spells of confusion before he went out of town?”
She shrugged. “He told me it might be stress related, since the spells seemed to become more frequent after Daddy died.”
“Did he run any tests on her?”
“Other than blood tests, which were all normal, no. He thought it a waste of money, that it would eventually run its course.”
Clint rubbed his neck and stared at the floor a moment. When he looked at her again he had a puzzled expression. “Why was it so important to Uncle Ray that you keep working?”
“It just was.” This time Emma turned away. Few people knew her dreams, the tentative plans she’d made for her future. She damn well didn’t plan to share them with someone who thought so little of her. With a fortifying breath, she opened the refrigerator. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get dinner started.”
“Actually, I do mind.” The words came from right behind her.
She jumped and backed up against the door of the refrigerator.
“You expect me to believe that my uncle set up this watch for you while they were gone, just so you could keep working, without further explanation? You know they’re on a boat for the rest of this week and don’t use cell phones. I can’t check out your story until after the time limit I gave you has passed. Don’t take me for a fool, lady.”
“If the shoe fits.” It felt really good to throw his words back in his face.
He leaned in, trapping her against the refrigerator. “How about I just call Children’s Protection right now?”
Emma swallowed hard.
He leaned in closer. Only a breath separated them. “Between you and Harriett, I am very tired of being jerked around. I want some straight answers, or I make the call. Which is it to be?”
Not trusting her voice to hide how intimidating his tactics were, Emma simply nodded.
“Good.”
He grabbed a chair, and straddled it. Leaning into it, he fixed her with a gaze so intense it reminded her of a police interrogator she’d seen in a recent movie.
Well, she refused to act like some sort of criminal. She turned her back on him, opened the fridge and grabbed the carton of juice. He would get his answers, but only at her pleasure. She poured herself a tall glass, then returned the juice without offering him any. To prolong his wait she treated herself to a long, slow drink, before leaning against her counter once more.
“All right.” She paused to take another, shorter drink. “You may begin the inquisition, Doctor.”
“Look, I’m just trying to understand the situation here. I’ve seen too many neglected kids end up in the emergency room. Tell me something that will reassure me that I won’t be patching more than a broken wrist on your sons.”
Emma studied him for a moment. The interrogator had vanished. He seemed genuinely concerned with the welfare of her sons. “Your uncle and aunt were kind to me when I came home, divorced, with two babies and no job. Caroline and Harriett took turns helping Mama and me to care for them. Many of the other women in town were not so kind. For months my family was the center of gossip and speculation. But slowly, and I suspect it had a lot to do with your aunt’s influence in town, the gossip died down.”
“What gossip?”
Emma let out an exasperated sigh. The man seemed oblivious as to how small towns functioned. Everyone’s business was fodder for the “well-meaning” gossips.
She peeked out the back window. Mama still sat on the porch swing at the far end of the porch, crocheting. Still, she lowered her voice when she spoke. “Gossip that always follows a divorced woman who comes home with no alimony or child support.”
“You got nothing?”
When he continued to appear confused, she rolled her eyes, then pulled out a chair and sat across the table from him. This wasn’t a topic she cherished thinking about, much less discussing with a near stranger. Apparently he wasn’t leaving until she filled him in on all the embarrassing details of her life.
“Oh, I got something from the divorce. In fact, I got many things.”
He lifted a brow in question.
“I got a few lessons on life. First, no matter how hard you work, bad things will still happen to you. Secondly, no matter how honest you are, there are people you think love you who will use you and toss you aside. And thirdly, no matter how much justice should be on your side, if someone has enough money, they can buy the law.”
“You’re a little bitter, aren’t you?” He rested his chin on his curved fist.
She so wanted to knock it off. “I don’t know, Doctor, you tell me. Suppose you fell in love, and the person you thought loved you above all else, let you work sixty to eighty hours a week to put them through medical school, then help support them through their residency. All the while they assure you that as soon as they are finished, it would be your turn to go to medical school. Only it never comes true.”
“What happened?”
Emma studied him for a moment, searching for some sign of condemnation or ridicule, but found none. For some strange reason, he seemed honestly interested in her past. Okay, he wanted all the sordid details. He should learn to be careful what he asked for.
“The age-old story. While I slaved to save enough money for a house, he was out dining with the medical elite. Meeting people more worthy of his new status as a doctor.”
Clint nodded as if he’d heard the story before. “Before you knew what hit you, he’d met someone else.”
“Loreene.” Emma ground the name out. It seemed to slither through the air, just like the woman who married her ex-husband.
Clint chuckled. “She sounds particularly vile.”
“Loreene’s daddy is a bigwig in Columbus’ political scene. She oozes money.” Emma set her glass on the table, resting her elbow beside it and her chin in the palm of her hand. “They met at some medical charity fund-raiser while I was working a double shift. Lorene took a liking to my slimeball ex-husband, who wasn’t my ex then. And whatever Lorene wants, her daddy finds a way to get it for her.”
“So tell me about the divorce.” He voiced this question more of a request and less like the orders he’d given earlier.
“It was ugly from the word go.” Emma stared off into space remembering. For the first time she could think back on her divorce without feeling sick to her stomach.
“Dwayne came home early one night. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong. He hadn’t been home early in the past three years, even on his nights off. But I was so excited with my own news.”
“What news was that?” He prodded he
r gently.
“Two months before, we’d gone to a friend’s wedding. We both had a little too much to drink. One thing led to another when we got home, and we made love in the backseat of our car.” A brittle laugh escaped her. “The night Dwayne came home early, I couldn’t wait to tell him, so I blurted out that we were going to have a baby.”
“Damn.”
Emma shook her head. “That’s putting it mildly, doctor. He countered with the news that we were getting divorced.” She swallowed hard and stared at the speckled linoleum pattern on the kitchen table. “Then he coldly told me to get an abortion.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. At first I couldn’t believe he meant it. To this day I swear I hung in a state of shock for nearly four months. By the time I realized we truly were getting divorced, even if I had wanted an abortion, it was too far into the pregnancy to terminate it.”
“If he had the affair, how did he win the final settlement?”
“Now that’s where he really showed his creativity. He postponed the hearing until after the birth of the babies. Do you know he didn’t even come to the hospital to see them?”
“Not once?”
Shaking her head, she bit her lip to stop her anger before it could intensify. All this was water under the bridge, even if she hadn’t told another soul any of it before. “His lawyer got a court order for a paternity suit. It shocked me, because I knew I would be vindicated. My lawyer demanded it be the new DNA testing. His lawyer didn’t protest it.”
He leaned in closer. “Why? He had to know he’d lose.”
Emma snorted. “Doc, you’re as naive as I was. The DNA tests came back unmatched.”
“How?”
His incredulous tone pleased her sense of outrage. He sounded exactly as she had that day in court when her world fell apart. Then the dawning light of understanding filled his face.
“He rigged the results.”
“Exactly.” Emma nodded. “Only by this time I was out of money. I couldn’t afford to fight him and raise my sons. So I came home to Weston worse than just a divorced single mother.”
“What do you mean? Your life, future and livelihood had been stolen from you. What could have been worse than that?”
She swallowed hard then stared straight into his eyes when she answered. “I came home labeled an adulterer.”
Chapter Six
“An adulterer. He has the affair and you come away with the bad reputation?”
Such pain crossed her beautiful features at his words that it tore at his gut. It wasn’t right for her to feel so badly. He suddenly wanted to hit something, preferably her ex-husband’s face. With great determination he reined in his temper. “So he got everything out of the divorce. No alimony, no child support.”
“He didn’t get everything.”
Something in her voice caught his attention. Hope? No. Satisfaction. “What didn’t he get?”
“He didn’t get my boys.” Her lips lifted in a victorious smile. “So in the end, I won what truly mattered.”
Clint reached out, laying his hand on hers. The heat between them surprised him. “Yes, you did. They’re great kids.”
She studied him for a moment. “Then why are you trying to take them away from me?”
“I’m not trying to take them away from you, Emma. I just want to be sure they’re safe.” He knew she couldn’t understand how much he needed her boys to grow up safe and happy. Or how he woke up in the middle of the night sweaty with panic from the nightmare of losing Johnny Wilson over and over again.
“They’re safe, Clint. I promise you that.”
He stroked his thumb gently across the top of her knuckles, feeling the tender skin from where she washed her hands so frequently. “Tell me about the town watch. Why did my uncle set it up for you? Why not just take the boys to a day care?”
As if she suddenly realized they were holding hands, she tugged her hand from beneath his then laced the fingers of both her hands together.
There wasn’t any hesitancy in her words, no sign he should doubt her story.
“The Watch has actually been in action for five months since my father died. We didn’t expect his heart to give out so suddenly. He hadn’t complained of chest pain or anything.”
“If he’d had chest pain, he might’ve been hiding it from you. Especially if he’d known how much stress you were already under.”
She nodded and gave him a small smile. “That’s what Doc Ray said. Daddy knew how much we all depended on his strength that he was in denial about his own health.”
“So that’s when my uncle came up with this plan?” He nudged her back to his original question.
“Yes. Mama was too devastated at the time to really care for the boys, who’d just lost the only man in their lives. So Doc Ray and Caroline stepped into the void.”
He nodded, remembering all the things he learned at his uncle’s side throughout the years. “They never had kids of their own, but they loved helping anyone with kids who needed it. Just like they did for my mom with all of us when we were small.”
“Exactly. I think they got as much from the boys as we did from them.” She pulled a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. “At first it was mostly your Aunt Caroline and Harriett taking care of the boys before their afternoon kindergarten class the last two months of school, then on the mornings after I worked all night at the hospital.”
“I thought you worked at the café.” How many jobs did this woman have?
“I do. I also work at the county hospital four nights a week as a scrub tech in the obstetrics department.”
She took another drink of her juice. The muscles of her neck extended as she swallowed. Suddenly, he wanted to swallow, too.
“This was to be the hardest summer, and hopefully next year the boys would be old enough to be in a day camp. The watch is a group of friends of Mama’s who agreed to help babysit the boys so I can sleep. It was only supposed to be for one week, so I thought it would work out.”
“Couldn’t you sign them into a day care for one week? I mean, would that expense really have cost you that much?”
“All the local day cares were one hundred and twenty-five dollars a week per child. And they wanted a minimum commitment of a month.”
Clint let out a low whistle. He had no idea childcare could cost so much. “That’s a thousand dollars.”
“I could have afforded it, although it would have been a tight squeeze for me, but Doc Ray insisted I try this.”
“Why?”
She inhaled deeply. “The extra money for the day care would set back my plans by at least six months. Doc Ray wanted me to stick to my goal.”
Curiosity nipped at him. “What plans? To go back to med school?”
“No.” She gave a harsh laugh. “So, you’ve heard of that fiasco in my past, huh? I don’t have the resources or the time to pursue that any more. In fact, after my last experience with medical students and doctors, I am pretty much cured of that particular dream.”
“Then what are you saving for?”
“I want to go back to school to be a nurse.”
She lifted her chin a bit, as if she expected him to belittle her dreams. He planned to disappoint her. Her desire to finish her education after putting it on hold for so long deserved his admiration. And right now the world needed more good nurses.
“Good for you.” His praise surprised her. He wanted to laugh, but resisted.
“You aren’t going to condemn me for putting my dreams before the safety of the boys?” Her eyes widened, then narrowed as if she waited for the other shoe to drop.
He wondered how many people had criticized her through the years.
“Despite the impression you have of me, I admire you for wanting to finish your education. My goal here is to simply see that the boys don’t end up seriously injured while you do.”
She relaxed a bit. “The worst time of the day seems to be just about lunch time. I think once they’re
back in school full days, the problem will solve itself.”
“That leaves three days.”
“Four. School starts the Tuesday after Labor Day here.”
“How many days do you have to work in that time?”
“I work tonight at the café, and the weekend at the hospital. So three more days.” She tilted her head to the side, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth in a gentle nibble. Mesmerized by the sight, heat surged through Clint.
“Who watches the boys while you’re at the hospital?” Even to his own ears the roughness of his voice made him sound like an inquisitor again. He swallowed hard then rephrased his question. “I mean, if you work all night, who stays with the boys?”
“Oh, I just leave them locked in the house alone with Mama and pray they’re all here in the morning.”
“Excuse me?” Clint’s eyes snapped up from her lips to her eyes, which sparkled with amusement.
“You really do think the worst of me, don’t you?” Laughter burst from her. Then she studied him for a moment. “You don’t have any idea, do you?”
“Any idea of what?” Somehow he’d lost the thread of the conversation.
“Who is the one person most people in this town are afraid to rile?”
Clint racked his brain. The sheriff was a strict law enforcement man, but no one really feared him. The mayor was nothing more than a sugarcoated politician. His uncle, as the town doctor, had the respect of the town, not their fear. Dawning shot over him. “Harriett.”
Emma grinned at him, then lifted her glass to drink the last of her juice. “Yep. Even my boys wouldn’t dare give her trouble.”
“You’re right. Neither one of us will have to worry about them at night.”
Laughter sounded from upstairs. With a scoot of her chair, she stood. “The boys are awake. Now, if we’re agreed there is no real conspiracy here to try and fool you, Doctor, I need to check on them and get ready for my shift at the café before Rachel gets here to take her shift with Mama and the boys.”
He knew a dismissal when he heard one. Standing, he returned his chair back to the table, then followed her out. On their way through the house, he noticed the further demolition of the front parlor. “Who’s doing the work on your house?” he asked, stopping on the first step off the porch.
Close To Home (Westen Series) Page 6
