A Love of Her Own

by Bettye Griffin

  Hilton chuckled. If Janelle thought her marriage was in trouble now, wait until the court ordered the support payments stopped. Her fortune hunting Romeo would really have something to fuss about.

  In the meantime he could look forward to spending quality time with his son, and even, with Ava and Marcus along, show him how family life was supposed to be.

  He loaded the finished wood planks in the back of his truck, as well as the hardware needed to install them. With Max safely in the back seat, he headed for Ava’s.

  “This is a pretty house. Who lives here, Daddy?” Max asked when Hilton pulled up behind Ava’s parked car.

  “A client of mine. You’ll like her.”

  It was the always curious Marcus who came to the door. “Aunt Ava, it’s Mr. Hilton!” he yelled as he opened the door.

  Max brightened visibly at the site of another boy, as well as the butterscotch-coated dog beside him. He squealed and hid behind Hilton when Khufu began to sniff him.

  It occurred to Hilton that Max’s cousins on Janelle’s side were too old to be much company for him, and that he probably had little or no contact with other kids outside of school.

  He introduced the two, and Marcus was telling Max there was no need to fear Khufu and even guided his hand to pet the top of the dog’s head when Ava appeared, dish towel in hand.

  She moved slowly, determined to present a calm facade in spite of her rapidly beating heart. Her eye immediately picked up on the presence of a second youngster in her living room. “Oh! This must be Maxwell.”

  “It is. Max, this is Miss Ava.”

  “Hi, Miss Ava,” he said shyly.

  She looked into eyes shaped like Hilton’s. “Hi, Max. Your daddy’s told me a lot about you.”

  Max giggled.

  “I thought this would be a good time to install those shelves,” Hilton said. “That all right with you?”

  “Sure.” Her reply was casual, but her head was spinning with turbulence. How could he sound so matter-of-fact after staying away for four days and after that happy scene of domestic tranquility she’d just witnessed last night?

  “I’ll help,” Marcus said in a confident voice.

  “Me, too,” Max added.

  Ava shrugged. “I guess I’ll just relax while you men work.”

  “I’m your daddy’s helper,” she heard Marcus brag to Max as they followed Hilton to the foyer.

  “How do you help him?”

  Ava caught her breath in her throat. She wondered if Marcus’s employment with Hilton would end now that Max was on the scene. Perhaps Hilton was still so giddy from having his son with him he hadn’t thought of it himself. Marcus would be so disappointed. She knew he loved being paid every week, but she also could tell that he enjoyed his work and was proud of it; for his voice rang with pride whenever he talked about it.

  She was also curious about the whereabouts of Janelle. After that sickening scene she witnessed in the parking lot of the supermarket, she hadn’t expected to see Hilton until after Janelle had left, but that wouldn’t be until tomorrow. Ava had never met the woman and only seen her from behind, but from what Hilton had told her she had already formed a dislike for her. Ava never liked it when women used their children as pawns, and that seemed to be precisely what Janelle was doing. It was blatant misuse of life’s most precious gift, as far as she was concerned.

  She was pleased to see the resemblance between Hilton and Max. It was funny. Women usually carried photos of their offspring in their wallets, but men tended not to. She’d had no idea what Max looked like before now.

  When she finished in the kitchen she went back to the foyer to see how things were shaping up. Hilton had both boys handing him various items, like his tape measure, marking pen and drill. He had already drilled a number of holes in the wall.

  Excitement filled her at the thought of her planned work space becoming a reality. She’d get one of those cordless phone sets—maybe even one that announced the identity of the caller—that didn’t require a phone jack so she would have phone access from her new work area. Other than that, she’d be ready to set up shop once she moved her computer in here…all thanks to Hilton, who was lighting up her professional life as well as the personal one.

  “Aw, shucks,” Hilton said with a groan when his cell phone began to ring as he was in the process of measuring a height. “Grab that, will you, Max?” he said, gesturing toward the phone on the floor.

  Max was only too happy to comply. “Hello,” he said eagerly into the receiver. “Hi, Mommy!”

  A muscle in Ava’s eye twitched and her mouth set in a hard line.

  “Yes, he’s here.” Max held the phone out toward Hilton. “Daddy, Mommy wants to talk to you.”

  On wooden legs she turned and left the room, not interested in hearing domestic chit-chat between Hilton and Janelle.

  Hilton made no effort to conceal his conversation, and Ava found herself stopping to listen, despite her resolve not to. At least he couldn’t see her eavesdropping on him from the sun porch; a wall separated them.

  “At a client’s,” she heard him say. “I’m finishing up a job.” He paused and said, “I know it’s an unusual time to be working, but this is also a personal friend of mine, and it was convenient.”

  “Aunt Ava is your daddy’s girlfriend,” Marcus said in a loud whisper to Max.

  “She is?”

  “I saw them kissing.”

  Ava’s mouth dropped open. When had that happened? She and Hilton had tried not to show too much affection for each other in front of Marcus.

  “Well, I don’t know. There’s plenty of food in the fridge. You should have everything you need to be comfortable. We’ll be back when we’re done,” Hilton said.

  Ava rubbed her temples to ease the throbbing that had suddenly formed there. How dare Janelle question him! Doggone it, she didn’t care if the woman had given Hilton a dozen babies, she had no right to expect him to answer to her about his comings and goings.

  Hilton seemed to be in no rush to finish the job. The boys quickly got bored, and he finally told them he could manage alone. They came to Ava, who sat reading a book in the living room. “Can Max and me go upstairs and watch TV?” Marcus asked.

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  Hilton emerged from the sun porch in time to see them running up the stairs, Khufu included. “I guess Marcus knows Saturday isn’t supposed to be a work day. He made a quick enough exit.”

  “I guess he does,” she said evenly.

  He frowned. “You all right?”

  “Of course.”

  “You seem a little on edge to me. I hope you’re not upset that it took me so long to get over here. Janelle tends to be a little overprotective of Max, and of course I’ve always been the bad guy in the picture.”

  “I figured I’d hear from you eventually.”

  The cool tone of her voice told Hilton that she was still upset about Janelle’s staying with him. He glanced upstairs, then came and sat beside her on the sofa, taking her hand in his. “Hey. I know it’s been difficult, but starting tomorrow it’ll be back to you and me…and Max, of course.”

  “And Marcus. He’s going to be staying here with me full time.”

  “He is?”

  She felt an odd sense of triumph at his obvious surprise. “Unless he doesn’t want to. I spoke to his grandparents this afternoon and got their permission, but I haven’t talked to him about it yet.”

  “What made you decide to do that?”

  “He’s here just about all the time he’s not in school anyway. And he hates it at that hotel.”

  “Hotel?”

  “Shoot,” she said, realizing her mistake. “I wasn’t supposed to say that. Oh, well. No point in keeping it a secret now.” She breathed in and said, “Marcus’s grandparents were burned out of their apartment a couple of months ago. They’re on the waiting list for senior citizen housing, but in the meantime the only place the town could put them was at that old hotel on Dailey St
reet. The whole family’s living in a single room, including four grandchildren. That was when Marcus started running with T-Bone and all those people, because he couldn’t stand being cooped up like that.”

  “And because he realized that lack of money is what put his family in that environment,” Hilton added.

  “Yes. It’s not a healthy situation. The whole family’s living in a single room, three adults and four kids, or at least two adults. The Hudson’s daughter doesn’t seem to be around much.”

  “I can’t blame him for being unhappy, but I’m kind of surprised you didn’t mention it to me before you went ahead. I mean, I’m just as involved with Marcus as you are.”

  “Normally I would have discussed it with you, but there was…a development, to borrow your phrasing.”

  He still held her hand, but she felt him tense, his easy affection visibly turning to caution. “Oh? And what was that?”

  “I saw you at the supermarket last night. You, Janelle and Max. You made quite an attractive family. Looked like a picture in a magazine.”

  He released her hand and stood up. “So that’s it. I knew it had something to do with Janelle.”

  “You have a life, Hilton, a whole other life that doesn’t concern me. You need to take care of what’s going on in your life, and I need to take care of what’s going on in mine. It would be a mistake for either of us to put our respective agendas on hold for the sake of the other.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to punish me because I have a child and you don’t?”

  “I’m not trying to punish you, Hilton. It’s just that I feel I have to make my own way in life, just like you have to make yours.” She had seen him do precisely that with her own eyes in that parking lot last night, and the image was indelibly burned into her brain.

  “And I want to see if you and I can make a way together. That’s what it’s all about, Ava. Neither you nor anyone else can do anything to change whatever’s happened in the past. The thing to do is build from there. Shutting me out isn’t the answer.”

  At that moment his cell phone began to ring again. Ava knew who it was. She lowered her chin and stared at Hilton unsmilingly through widened eyes, not saying a word, but managing to speak volumes.

  “Damn it!” he exclaimed. He jerked the phone out of his hip pocket and slid the earpiece into a raised position. “Hello,” he said abruptly. “Not yet. Anything else?”

  I guess not, Ava thought as he slid the earpiece back and depressed the ‘end’ button without saying goodbye. “Trouble at home?” she asked sweetly.

  “You don’t know how glad I am that she’s leaving tomorrow. She’s really getting on my last nerve.”

  “She wants you to come home, doesn’t she?”

  “I think she’s bothered by not knowing where I am with Max.”

  “If that’s a problem now, I don’t know what she’s going to do when she goes back home, unless she plans on calling you every hour.”

  “Then it’ll be different. She’ll be with her husband. But enough about her. I’m going to finish up.”

  “You can always do it tomorrow. I’m not in a hurry.”

  “Neither am I,” he shot back.

  Chapter 16

  It was after nine when Hilton and Max returned. He could tell just by looking at Janelle’s body language that she was annoyed. She sat on the sofa with her arms folded across her chest.

  She relaxed her stance a little in order to return Max’s hug. “I missed you, Maxie,” she told him.

  “I had fun.”

  “Well…good.” She looked at Hilton expectantly.

  “There was another boy over there, a friend of my client’s family,” Hilton explained. He suppressed a smile. Janelle looked a little taken aback, probably because Max hadn’t said he missed her, too.

  “His name’s Marcus. He’s Daddy’s helper,” Max added. “And we’re gonna go bowling tomorrow.”

  “But I leave tomorrow. You guys have to bring me to the airport.” Janelle shot Hilton a questioning look.

  “Your flight’s at one-thirty. We’re going bowling later,” Hilton said. This time he didn’t bother to conceal his smile. Thinking about her being out of the picture and it just being he and Max made him smile, and the stricken look on her face at learning they planned to go out and have a good time instead of mourning her departure didn’t hurt, either.

  “Max, you go on up to bed now,” she said. “It’s late. You can have your bath in the morning. I’ll be up to tuck you in.”

  “Okay.” Max kissed both his parents, then ran up the stairs.

  “I think he’s going to be just fine,” Hilton said confidently. “He’s spent enough time with me to feel comfortable.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure of that. He might have a problem or two getting adjusted once it’s just the two of you.”

  “If that’s the case I’ll let him call you.”

  “So what’s this about a boy who’s your helper?”

  Hilton had wondered when she would bring the conversation around to where he and Max had spent the afternoon. “Marcus is his name. He’s a kid who used to hang around downtown. We got him off the streets, and between us we manage to keep him busy. He comes with me on jobs afternoons after he gets out of school.” He noticed her brows shoot up, and too late he realized it stemmed from his unconscious use of the plural, ‘we’ and ‘us.’ He knew Janelle would want to know the identity of the other person, and while he certainly wasn’t trying to keep Ava’s existence or their relationship a secret, he didn’t want Janelle in his business. He decided not to offer any explanations unless she came out and asked, at which time he’d politely tell her it wasn’t her concern.

  “So what is this kid, homeless or something?” she asked.

  “No, but he lives with an extended family and their place is very small, so he started doing petty crime for a drug dealer just to get away from all the people at home. I know it sounds He’s really a good kid. He was looking forward to meeting Max.”

  Janelle made a disapproving face. “A petty criminal, Hilton? What are you thinking? He’s probably going to be a bad influence on Max! It’s bad enough Max will be going to public school.”

  Hilton bristled. “You saw how well the school was equipped. It has an excellent reputation. He’ll be there for just one semester. And Marcus is a sweet-natured kid, even if he’s been around the streets. Personally, I think everyone should have a degree of street smarts, even children. It can help prevent them from becoming victims one day. I’m not about to let Max associate with kids who are bad influences.”

  “All right. So is your job from this afternoon is all done?”

  “All done. Looks pretty good, too, if I say so myself.”

  “I have to say I thought the three of us would have done something special this evening, maybe go out to dinner, since it’s my last night.”

  He did nothing to hide his amusement. “Did you really? It seems to me that’s the type of thing happy families do when they’re about to be separated. I’m sure neither one of us thinks our relationship is on that level, Janelle, even though we’ve done pretty well, considering we’ve been staying in the same house for five days.”

  “In other words, you’ve been counting the days until I leave.”

  “Those are your words, not mine.”

  “I’m going up to see Max,” she said, abruptly getting to her feet.

  *****

  The next morning Hilton suggested they go to a restaurant in Nile Beach well known for its breakfast buffet. It was the least he could do, he reasoned. Technically, Janelle was his guest, regardless of the friction between them that would probably continue as long as they had reason to be in contact with each other. He even found himself wishing he could have been a bit more diplomatic last night instead of so brutally honest. She’d hurt him, yes, but that was a long time ago. It was really inexcusable for him to be deliberately cruel to her. He vowed to apologize to her before
she left and to make this last half day together pleasant. It should be easy enough. A few more hours and she’d be out of his hair, leaving him to finally get to know the son he loved so much.

  *****

  The three of them had sat down with their plates after visiting the buffet and were eating when Max exclaimed, “Daddy, there’s Marcus!”

  Hilton was startled, so much that he forgot to tell Max not to point. It was indeed Marcus on the buffet line, helping himself to bacon, and plenty of it. Hilton watched as he carried his plate toward the seating area in the rear corner of the restaurant.

  “Can I go say hi?”

  “Relax, Max. He’ll have to pass this way when he leaves. We’ll say hello then.” Hilton felt a bit uneasy. Surely Marcus was here with Ava, who would be less than thrilled with seeing him having breakfast with Janelle, even in the presence of Max. She’d looked so unhappy last night when she told him about seeing them at the supermarket Friday night. He remembered how it had been as they went inside, with he and Janelle flanking Max, each of them holding one of his hands. They’d been swinging his hands playfully and laughing at something he’d said. A perfectly innocent scene, but one he suspected had torn at Ava’s heart and left her with that left-out feeling, like a child with empty pockets standing with their nose pressed against the window of a candy store.