Joe sucked in a long breath, let it out slowly, and said, "Makin' love's not the issue now, darlin'. If we married, our kids would be divided between families, and before long they'd start lookin' down at our Cajun lifestyle the way your family does, and none of our sons would want to go into cattle ranchin', something my family's been doin' for generations."
"Just because Joey or any other kids we might have would spend time over there doesn't mean they'd want to live like that. When your family's together there's so much more going on than what my family has, our kids couldn't help but feel restricted over there with all the rules. I know I do, which was probably one of the reasons I was drawn to you in the first place."
"That might be, but what about Christmas and other occasions when families gather? Would you be prepared to spend half the day with me and my family, and half with yours without me?"
"Why without you? If we were married I'm sure my family would come to terms with it."
Joe laughed in irony. "I can't even be in the same room with your father without him throwin' verbal darts at me and makin' snide comments about the way my family lives, and that won't change, and after I'd spend the whole meal tryin' to figure out what utensils to use for what, he and your grandmother would have even more darts to throw."
"That's all inconsequential because I have no desire to spend any time with my family. They're strangers to me right now but I still have a brain, and what I've seen so far I don't like and would never miss."
"Sugarcoat it any way you want, but for now you need to go back and be with Joey. You never should've left like you did."
"That's easy for you to say because you weren't there. Everyone was asking questions, and like I said, I know it was because they're trying to build a solid case for gaining permanent legal guardianship, and I didn't want to give them any more fodder for their suit."
"Which you did by walkin' out. If you don't want to go back now, I'll go over there if only to show your parents I'm not only capable of lookin' after Joey when you're away, I'm responsible enough to take on the whole job."
"Are you saying I'm not responsible?" Anne asked, feeling her temper rise. "I've been taking care of Joey since he was born."
"I'm not the one you need to convince, but you just gave your parents, their attorney, and a judge the proof they need that you're impulsive and subject to walkin' out of the house at a moment's notice, and next time you could take Joey with you and disappear again. This isn't just about you, sugah. It's about me losin' my son. If your parents get guardianship I'll be cut out of Joey's life."
"Then you're saying I should never leave that place while Joey's there."
"No, I'm sayin' you should arrange things in advance to prove you are responsible, then you can leave and go wherever you want, but right now you need to get on your horse and go back. If you don't, I will, and that'll stir up a hornet's nest neither of us need."
"Okay, I'll go back, but when will I see you again?"
"I don't know. I have some serious thinkin' to do and a lot to sort through, and it works better when I'm not around you."
"I think I get the picture." Moving past Joe, Anne scurried down the steps, mounted Jolie, and headed to a place for which she felt no connection, where she'd be with people she didn't relate to, strangers who wanted to micromanage her life and change it forever.
But Joe was right. He was Catholic, which meant he'd be absolutely certain of their relationship before making vows that would last a lifetime, and between her amnesia, the multi-generational feud between their families, their cultural divide, and her parents seeking legal guardianship of his son, there were so many uncertainties even she was beginning to have doubts.
***
Joe's uncle, Pierre Broussard, a man who'd broken with the family tradition of raising cattle to go off to law school, read the Harrison's notification for petition for legal guardianship and said to Joe, "It's good you and Anne submitted an Acknowledgement of Paternity Affidavit naming you Joey's father, but since we'll be contesting and asking for sole custody, the Harrisons could allege Anne amended the birth certificate while still suffering from amnesia, raising the question of paternity, so I advise you to get a DNA test to prove you're Joey's father."
Joe eyed his uncle with concern. "What if the Harrisons refuse to let me take Joey to have the test done?"
"We'll file a Petition to Adjudicate Parentage and a Motion for Genetic Testing and Notice of Hearing. You have a legal right to prove paternity. At this point, paternity doesn't seem to be an issue, since the Harrisons acknowledged you as Joey's father by notifying you as well as Anne of their intent to seek guardianship, so I'll prepare the petition for sole custody, and we'll go from there."
"What do you think my chances of winning this are?" Joe asked.
"In contested cases, the Harrisons have the burden of proof of convincing the Judge it's in Joey's best interest to take him from you and Anne and appoint them as guardians, and the law and the court set a high bar when taking kids from a parent since parents' Constitutional rights are at stake. But the bottom line falls with the Probate Court Judge."
"What about the fact that I'm in the process of fixin' up a house? Doesn't that help my case?"
"Absolutely. It shows your intent to provide a good home. But a Probate Court also has the flexibility to grant a limited or temporary guardianship. A limited guardianship would allow the Harrisons to have Joey live with them, while you'd keep narrowly-defined specific rights like visiting him or taking part in certain decisions. And a temporary guardianship would allow the Harrisons to have Joey under their care for up to six months, which would allow time for Anne's memory to come back, at which point the guardianship would be terminated and custody would revert to Anne as she's had sole custody since Joey was born. But either of those decisions would mean a court going against your Constitutional right since there's nothing in your background to disqualify you as a caring and responsible father."
"Then, from what you've said, I have a better than likely chance of getting' custody of Joey, even when goin' up against the Harrison's with their money and high-powered attorney."
Pierre nodded. "In my opinion, yes. But one thing to keep in mind. When Anne recovers her memory, she can challenge you for sole custody since she's been Joey's caregiver from the time he was born, and the courts tend to favor the parent who's been the caregiver, but if you and Anne get married, custody would be a moot point."
Joe knew marriage was off the table at the moment, and would be until Anne recovered her memory, but for now, he needed to get his son out from under the control of the Harrisons, which would also free Anne from her involuntary confinement there. He eyed his uncle from across the big desk in his uncle's office, and said, "So, how much will this cost me?"
"The cost of filing fees," Pierre replied. "I may have gone into law, but my Cajun roots run deep, one of the reasons I went into this profession in the first place."
Joe stood. "I appreciate it. In buyin' the house, movin' it, and fixin' it up, I'm already in way over my head, but I'm determined my son won't be raised by Brits."
"So am I." Pierre walked around his desk and clapped Joe on the back. "It's a solid case."
After Joe left, he had no idea how his going for sole custody of Joey would play out with Anne. She could view him as doing exactly what her parents were doing, taking Joey away from her, but it was the only way he could legally take Joey from the Harrisons, so it had to be done. Whether he and Anne would get married afterwards was up in the air, but at least he'd have control of his son so he'd be raised among kin who'd understand and accept him as the direct descendant of his namesake, not subject him to the kind of life the Harrisons would demand, which would be to strip him of his Cajun heritage.
CHAPTER 12
Anne was startled to look up and find her grandmother standing in the doorway to her bedroom. Having purposely avoided the woman since the incident with the family doctor the week before, she felt apprehensive
about what was in store. The look on the woman's face was not one of congeniality. Anne waited silently for the reason behind this unexpected visit.
Planting her ornamental, gold-appointed walking cane inside the room, a cane Anne suspected was more about show than balance, her grandmother said, "I see you're not busy and I'm anxious for this chance at a little talk."
Realizing she had no choice but to listen to what the woman had to say, Anne motioned toward a chair for her grandmother to sit, and said, "I suppose my parents sent you to talk some sense into my head."
Her grandmother looked at her with a start, a woman unaccustomed to being challenged, but with these people who'd taken her son, she felt no need to follow any kind of social protocol.
"No one sends me to do anything," her grandmother said. She lowered herself to the chair, and placing her hands on the handle of her walking cane, started in by saying, "When you walked out of here you left things in a fine mess, so I hope you found what you were after."
"I walked out because you and my parents and that doctor were asking questions that had nothing to do with my amnesia and everything to do with making a case against me as a means of taking Joey from me and breaking up my relationship with his father."
"That is not what I am talking about. I'm talking about after you'd graduated high school, when during an argument with your father you informed him you were capable of running your own life, you would not be going to college, and you intended to get a job away from here, then you packed your bags and left."
An image came to Anne, a brief glance into the scene her grandmother described, but it was fleeting. What followed were feelings of frustration, exasperation, and defiance. "If I walked out the way you said, it would've been because my father, and probably everyone else around here, were not taking into account my feelings or respecting my wishes."
Her grandmother straightened her spine. "Absolute rubbish! Your father was trying to throw light on your infatuation with a man who is entirely wrong for you. But because of your foolish, impetuous whim, not only is your life in a dreadful state, but after you left home for that job in Lafayette, both of your sisters rebelled. Georgia quit college to go to some kind of art or film school, and Piper refuses to go to college at all because she's working to earn money so she can go to some kind of school for jockeys, something we're opposed to, which is why your father refuses to finance it. Before you defied your parents and left home the way you did, your sisters were reasonable young women, both intending to go to college."
Determined not to be intimidated by her grandmother's haughty demeanor or her derogatory comments about Joe and his family, Anne said, "Obviously you have a problem with headstrong women, which no doubt comes from your Victorian upbringing where women dutifully follow the life-course set out for them by their fathers."
"Stuff and nonsense! I have no problem with headstrong women, but if you go against your family to run off and marry a man, at least marry someone worthwhile, not a common cowboy."
Holding the woman's razor sharp gaze, Anne said with irony, "I happen to be in love with a common cowboy, and he happens to be the father of my son."
Her grandmother rapped her cane against the floor as if to drive her point home. "Love him by all means for your son's sake, but do not marry him, also for your son's sake. You're caught up in the passion for the moment, but for the long-term, feelings of passion dissipate when the reality of daily life settles in, and daily life with those Cajuns you've aligned yourself with will be drudgery, you can be sure of that."
The exasperating interaction with the old woman was interrupted when Anne's parents appeared in the doorway. Her father marched into her bedroom first, and thrusting out a hand holding a parcel of pages held together with a paper clip, he said to Anne, "Here's the man you've put all your trust and faith in. Maybe this will convince you he's exactly the man I've always warned you against getting involved with. At least you didn’t marry him."
Anne eyed her father with apprehension, took what she recognized as a legal document, and scanned it long enough to realize that Joe was petitioning the court for sole custody of Joey. He hadn't discussed it with her, nor had he given any indication he planned to do so. The thought that he'd done this without her knowledge or input had her stomach twisting in a knot.
Her father jabbed a finger at the document in her hands. "In case you don't understand what this is all about, Joe Broussard's taking your son away from you."
After filling her lungs with air in an attempt to ease the tightening in her chest and slow her thudding heart, Anne said, "Which is exactly what you and my mother are doing."
"Only temporarily," her mother offered. "After your memory returns, the decision will be up to you to do whatever you want. You always have a home here."
"I also have a home on the Broussard ranch," Anne pointed out.
"Don't be so sure," her father said. "By petitioning for sole custody, Joe Broussard obviously wants to sever all ties with this family, including with you."
Anne had no argument because she didn't understand why Joe excluded her when he knew she wasn't in danger of wandering off with Joey. But the petition did confirm what Joe believed, that she'd never be happy giving up what she had with her family to live a Cajun lifestyle while married to him.
Her father snatched the document from her hands. "The question now is what to do about this." He rattled the pages. "I'll have my attorney stall things by bringing up the question of paternity, and we could make a case that Joe Broussard hasn't been around his son and you've been the baby's sole caregiver, but if a judge decides you're unfit right now because of what was laid out in the original petition, you're in danger of losing your son."
"Which would not have happened if you hadn't butted into my affairs and served the petition in the first place," Anne spat. "You did it solely to break up my relationship with Joe."
"Which is a good thing or you might still be determined to marry him. Now you know exactly the kind of man he is."
"What I know is he's a man who doesn't want to lose his son and who's ready to take on the full responsibility of raising him when a lesser man would be more than happy to get out of his paternal obligation and be done with it. And you can forget about making an issue out of paternity because any test will prove Joe's the father."
"Then we'll look into filing sole custody for you while the boy's under our care as legal guardians so after your memory returns you'll have—"
"Custody of my son the way it was before you took that right from me!" Anne cut in. "Joey's mine, I've been caring for him since he was born and no one's going to take him from me, not even Joe. And I'm going there now so you'll have to look after Joey until I get back."
"You can't leave now," her mother said. "It's about to rain."
Anne glanced out the window and saw banks of dark menacing clouds rolling in, and she heard the distant rumble of thunder. "I can’t worry about rain when I'm about to lose my son." Turning abruptly, she left the room and marched down the stairs.
As she walked through a large mudroom off the kitchen, she saw a lineup of hooks with several rain slickers and boots, one slicker, along with the pair of boots beneath it, looking to be a woman's about her size, no doubt her sister Georgia's. Grabbing it off the hook, she shrugged into it, then kicking off her shoes, she pulled on the boots and left the house.
The sky had darkened and air that had earlier been humid felt electrified. Although she hadn't heard the rumble of thunder again, rain was unquestionably imminent, so she started across the cane field at a fast clip. The roadway was uneven, and on quickening her pace she found herself stumbling and having to catch herself as she lengthen her strides, anxious to learn why Joe had done what he had. The only explanation she could come up with was he had no intention of marrying her now and wanted control over their son.
Once at the house, and seeing Joe's truck parked outside, she rushed up the stairs to the porch, and after shedding her rain slicker and yankin
g off her boots, she swept open the front door. Finding no one in the living room, she went down the hallway, looking into each bedroom, but Joe wasn't there. What she did find among the freshly-painted rooms and recently waxed floors was a nursery, complete with a crib, a dresser that included an assortment of used but decent baby clothes, and several packages of disposable diapers, which were stacked on shelves beneath a changing table.
She'd also noted when she looked into the other bedrooms that the room where she'd stayed before was not set up. The mattress, box spring and bed frame were propped against the freshly-painted wall, and several boxes contained her belongings, evident by the writing scrawled across them. Yet, Joe's room was set up with only his belongings, making it clear he was ready to take on Joey as a single father. The kitchen, which still remained stripped of the old appliances and cabinets, was the only room yet unfinished, but once the new cabinets filling the area would be hung or set in place, the house would again be livable. More important, it would be a place any judge would consider more than adequate for a single man to raise his son.
In the distant, she heard the sound of hoofbeats accompanied by men's voices. She looked out one of the front windows to see Joe and Ace riding up to the stable and dismounting. They wore rain slickers and rubber boots with spurs so she assumed they'd been moving cattle down at the marsh. Not wanting Joe to go off again, she stepped onto the porch and waved her arms to get his attention, but he was so engrossed in what he was telling his brother Pike, who'd come out of the barn to join them, that he didn't notice her, so she waited, and looked up at the darkening sky, and heard the far-off rumble of thunder, and wondered if it really had been a good idea to be out in what was clearly a thunderstorm on its way.
Tall Dark Stranger (Cajun Cowboys Book 1) Page 14
