by Rye Hart
“That’s my cell in case you need anything. Text me so I’ve got your number,” I said.
“Sounds good to me,” Amanda said casually.
“Amanda.”
She panned her head over to me as Lanie sat down to eat her breakfast.
“Call me if you need anything.”
Her head cocked slightly to the right as she studied me. Her eyes raked down my body, making no attempt to conceal what she was doing. I stood there and let her take in whatever it was she felt she needed to, then she nodded and gave me a slight grin.
“I will. Promise. We’ll be okay. You go on to your meeting,” she said.
“Thank you for watching her. I’ll let you know when I’m headed home.”
“I’ll text you soon,” she said.
I got into my truck and looked through the window one last time. Amanda was drinking her coffee at the table while Lanie ate her breakfast. The two were smiling and giggling, and I watched as Lanie moved her food so she could sit next to Amanda. The two snuggled up next to one another, and the scene unfolding before my eyes warmed the pit of my gut.
“Focus Brian,” I said, sighing. “Get it together.”
I rode on into town and stopped at a few places. I needed wipes and snacks from the grocery store, medicine from the pharmacy, and a few random things from the hardware store. Then, I rode into the middle of town to meet my PI for lunch. When I walked in, my lawyer, Luther, was there with him.
And the news was only slightly better than what I was dreading.
“Well, there’s good news and bad news,” my lawyer said.
“Give it to me straight. What can I expect?” I asked.
“If her father can prove he’s got a stable household, that he’s sober, and that he’s married, it’ll look better than you being single and attempting to raise her.”
“Wait. This bastard’s married?” I asked.
“In the official court documents, Lanie’s father’s states that he’s sober, married, and has a clean home for Lanie to come home to. There are drug tests proving he’s clean-—”
“That’s the biggest crock of bull I’ve ever heard. He appeared on my doorstep reeking of alcohol and high as a kite.”
“Just listen, okay?” Luther asked. “He has paperwork proving he’s clean. He has a marriage license proving he’s married. And he has pictures of his home that line up with the address he’s given on his official paperwork. Now, it’s possible most—if not, all—of this is forged. But it’s going to take some digging to figure it out. But even with your PI hot on his tail, we won’t be able to gather all that information before your paperwork is due in.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying not to swear.
“If you want custody of Lanie, you’ll have to counter-sue. Which means you have to have paperwork outlining why you’re the better guardian and caretaker for her. And, the burden of proof lies on your shoulders. You’ll also have to prove why Lanie’s father is unfit.”
“Damn,” I said.
“And right now, you look like the lesser parent on paper.”
“Is this asshole really married? And what does being single have to do with anything?” I asked.
“Courts in North Carolina, and around the rest of the world, like to see two parents in a home.”
“How the hell am I supposed to remedy that before the court date?”
“I’m giving it to you straight like you asked,” he said.
Our food was in front of us, but I felt sick to my stomach. I had been raising Lanie for the past year, and now this asshole was popping out of nowhere .
“We both know he’s not fit to be a parent. I have faith in your PIhere. He’ll get you the proof you need to prove he’s an unfit father. But you still have to prove that your home is a good place for Lanie. If you can prove her father is unfit, but you can’t prove that your home is stable for her, she goes to the state.”
I was ready to flip the fucking table we were both sitting at.
“What do I need to do?” I asked.
My lawyer sat back in his chair and laughed.
“Find a wife,” he said pointedly. “Brian, this looks bad. It’s a shit situation.”
“I’m her uncle,” I said.
“Yes, but father trumps uncle almost 100% of the time.”
I sat back in my chair and sighed.
“You say he’s already filed paperwork?” I asked.
“Yes. And we’ll have to file something soon. Otherwise, people are going to come looking for Lanie.”
“Over my dead body,” I said on the verge of losing it.
“The only thing I can tell you is to make your life as spotless as possible. Take pictures of your home. Of where you live. Of the places you frequent that Lanie enjoys. Paint your life as cheerfully as possible. Prove that she’s safe with you. Then, we go from there and try to swat at the grenades this man throws at us.”
“That's really all you have for me?” I asked.
“Until we can get proof that this man’s an unfit human being? Yes.”
I pulled out my wallet and threw some money onto the table. I wasn’t hungry, and I didn’t feel like staying to chat. I was angry, and I was frustrated, but more than that I was scared. By the way my lawyer was talking, this man actually stood a chance of taking Lanie away from me. And then what? If he was willing to go all that way to try and get money from me and I refused to pay, what would he do? Would he actually raise Lanie once he was stuck with her, or would he simply abandon her again, like he’d done her whole damn life?”
I started back up the mountain, and my mind was blank. I was at a loss for what to do. I was a sitting duck, and for the first time in a very long time, I didn’t know how to protect us. I had built an empire in the security business, and I had no idea how to protect Lanie from this. I had no idea how to keep her safe from the shitshow her asshole of a father was trying to start.
The only thing I could think of doing was so preposterous even I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I walked through the door of the cabin and found Lanie and Amanda in front of a movie. Lanie was asleep on Amanda’s shoulder, and Amanda was holding her close. She turned to look at me and could tell something was wrong. I watched her face fall. She got up, tucking Lanie in on the couch before she walked toward me.
“Brian?” she asked. “What happened?”
“Could we talk?” I asked.
She nodded, then I held out my hand for hers. I led her back into my room before I shut the door, then proceeded to sit on the bed next to her. I still couldn’t believe I was about to ask her what I was, but I was desperate. I was willing to do anything to keep Lanie with me. To keep her from being given to a man who had an ulterior motive that had nothing to do with that beautiful little girl. I could feel Amanda’s eyes on the side of my face as I sat down next to her, and she took my hand and squeezed it comfortingly.
“Brian, you’re scaring me. What happened at the meeting?”
“It’s bad,” I said.
“How is that possible?” she asked.
“He’s filed paperwork painting himself as the perfect father. A clean home. Sober. Married.”
“He’s married?” she asked.
“Yeah. And apparently, judges don’t like ruling in favor of single parents when it comes to stuff like this.”
“But you’re her uncle. You’ve been raising her, and he’s never been involved, right?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter. He’s still her biological father.”
“That’s bullshit,” she said.
I could hear the frustration in her voice as I panned my head over to her.
“There has to be something your lawyer can do,” she said.
“He’s trying his best, and the PI is digging into Bob’s life to expose the truth. But until I can find something to use against him in court, I have to paint myself and my home as the perfect place for Lanie to be.”
“Is there anything I can do t
o help with that?” she asked.
That was the phrase I was hoping she would ask.
“There is. But it’s a hefty favor,” I said.
“From what you’ve told me about her biological father, if there’s anything I can do to keep her out of his hands, I’ll do it.”
There was a sternness to her features that caught me off guard. Her eyes were fiery and lit with anger, but they were glazed over. Almost like some sort of memory had temporarily taken over her body.
“Anything,” she said breathlessly. “Just name it.”
“I need you to pretend to be my wife.”
I watched her mouth drop open as her hand went limp within mine.
“We’d have to make it legal, but we could file for an annulment later on. It would only be until I’ve blocked this man out of Lanie’s life for good. But if a married man is better than a single one, then that’s how you can help.”
Her eyes danced between mine as she pulled away from me. I knew I was asking a lot, but I was hoping that the protective fire that had reared its head moments before, was still in her gut.
“That’s—wow,” she said.
“I know. I know it’s insane, and if you don’t want to do it… if you can’t… I get it. One hundred percent.”
“I didn’t say that,” she said. “Can you give me some time to think about it?”
“Whatever you need.”
That answer was better than the slap in the face I thought I would get, and hope started to blossom in the back of my mind.
“Lanie fell asleep right before you came in, so she’ll be out for a little while,” Amanda said.
“Thank you again for watching her. How much do I owe you?” I asked.
“Nothing. I’m sorry I forgot to text you. Lanie had me running around right after breakfast.”
“Don’t worry about it. Take my number with you. Give me a call once you’ve taken the time you need to think,” I said.
I watched her get up from the bed and walk out of my room. I followed her, watching her wander aimlessly throughout my home. She grabbed my number off the fridge and stuffed it into her pocket, then she walked back over to the couch. Her eyes descended onto a sleeping Lanie, and I swore I saw them glisten with tears.
She bent over and kissed Lanie on the top of the head, then she made quick work of getting out my front door.
CHAPTER 15
AMANDA
I knew I needed to take his offer. Lanie’s father sounded like a grade-A douchebag. Brian told me all about the encounter with him. How he reeked of alcohol and was hazed over with drugs. I knew what that was like. I watched that shit with my own mother. I listened as my mother stumbled in at two o’clock in the morning. I remembered watching her car drive off from my grandmother’s, so she could go party. I remembered dance recitals and piano lessons falling into the background, her drugs and her parties being prioritized over me.
I could also remember the nasty custody battle my grandmother went through to prove she was fit as an elderly woman to care for a child.
It ran me through the ringer. As a child, it almost broke me. My mother got nasty, and my grandmother was beaten to the ground. And the only person that paid the price, in the end, was me. My grandmother might’ve won custody of me, but not before it destroyed me—heart, mind, and soul.
If I could keep Lanie from experiencing that, I would.
But I was nervous. Fake or not, marriage was a significant thing. It was obvious that we were already attracted to each other. But faking a marriage meant moving in with him. It meant lying to Lanie. It meant thrusting her into another situation that would eventually crumble once Brian accomplished what he needed. I knew Brian was trying to keep Lanie out from underneath all of this, and I admired him for it, but bringing a woman into the home and then her leaving a short time later would do a different sort of damage to Lanie.
I needed Sarah’s advice. And I needed it now.
I grabbed my purse and my keys and started for my car. I sent Sarah a text, telling her I was coming over. I picked us up some food before I arrived at her hotel room, and the moment she opened the door I launched myself into the tirade I’d rehearsed in my head.
“Wait, wait, wait. He wants to marry you?” she asked.
“Not actually marry me. A fake marriage in order to paint his home to be a better one for Lanie.”
“Is that smart?” Sarah asked.
“It’s better than handing Lanie over to a druggie father,” I said.
Sarah’s eyes raked over me before she drew in a deep breath.
“You want to protect Lanie from what you went through growing up.” She understood.
“I’d do anything to keep her from it,” I said breathlessly.
“And you like Brian. That much is obvious,” she said. “So it’s not like you’d be miserable.”
“Brian said we could file for an annulment once he’d blocked Lanie’s father out of her life forever,” I said.
“Here’s what I think,” Sarah said. “If you think you could stand living with him and it’s for the good of Lanie, then go for it. You are both going in under the assumption that this isn’t a permanent thing, so you have that going for you.”
“I’m concerned about what that might to do Lanie, though. She already likes me, and if I go live with them, and then leave, that would do damage as well,” I said.
“Why would you have to permanently live with them?”
“Because we’d be married?”
“Look, your cabin is right down the road. You have paperwork that says you inherited it when your grandmother passed. Keep some clothes and shit at his place, stay there two or three nights a week, and tell them you’re hopping between fixing the cabin and staying there.”
“I’d have to bring that up with Brian, but it could work,” I said.
“It sounds like you’ve made up your mind.”
I turned my head and saw Sarah grinning at me over her burger.
“I guess I have,” I said, grinning.
“Oh, my little Amanda’s growing up.”
“Shut up,” I said.
“Look, I understand your hesitation. This is a tricky situation. What you have to keep in mind is that you have to pick and choose your battles. Dancing around Lanie and making her believe is easy, but if Brian loses this court battle and she goes off with her bullshit father because you didn’t do this, you’re going to feel guilty about it. I know you. I know you’ll beat yourself up over it. Every damn day.”
“I know,” I said.
“Plus, you could probably cut a deal with him.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Your cabin needs some repairs. Is he handy? Maybe you could trade this marriage for him doing work on the cabin himself. You know, to lessen the monetary blow you’ll take later.”
“Huh. That would actually be a good arrangement. I’m not sure if he’s good at repairing things, but he’s been isolated for a long time. If shit broke, he strikes me as the type of person who would fix it rather than calling someone to have it fixed.”
“Talk to him about it. Make this a mutually beneficial arrangement,” she said.
“What would I do without you?” I asked as I took a bite of my burger.
“Flounder around on dry land until you died.”
“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?”
The two of us talked well into the evening, and by the time I was ready to leave, it was almost midnight. My eyes were fluttering closed as Sarah and I watched another movie on television, and I figured spending another night with Sarah wouldn’t hurt.
“Coffee in the morning?” I asked as I slipped underneath the covers.
“I promise not to knock it over this time,” Sarah said.
“Deal.”
CHAPTER 16
BRIAN
Even though I knew I needed to keep my nose out of Amanda’s business, I couldn’t help but keep an eye out for her. She was a single w
oman living alone on a mountainside, and Lanie had taken a liking to her. She was a warm presence whenever she was around, and I was hoping she would show up this morning. I knew she needed time to think, but I figured with the way she looked at Lanie yesterday she would’ve made up her mind already.
But instead, I watched her drive away from her home yesterday, and she hadn’t returned yet.
I was getting very nervous. Was she okay? Had my request scared her off for good? I told her to take my number, but she still hadn’t texted me. I had no way to get in contact with her, and short of sitting on her porch until she came home, there was nothing I could do. I cooked breakfast for Lanie and tried to keep my mind at bay. I needed something to distract me. Something that would keep my racing mind still that would also forward my plan to fight for Lanie.
So, I got my phone and started taking pictures of the house.
I took pictures of her room and all the food in the fridge. Pictures of all the land I lived on and all the places we took hikes. I took shots of the clean living room and the rest of my spotless house. I also included pictures of her own bathroom and all the toys she had.
But while I was taking all these pictures, Amanda kept slipping to the forefront of my mind.
Had I asked too much of her? The answer was obvious. I had. And I was worried that I’d pushed her away. If Amanda had left town, then I would have to explain what happened to Lanie.
The thought broke my heart as sat on the edge of my bed.
Maybe Amanda didn’t trust me. Maybe I was reading all of her signals wrong. I could’ve sworn she would’ve been okay with a plan like this. Between the tension growing between us, the bond she was forming with Lanie, and the fire in her eyes when we talked yesterday, I knew she would say yes. I knew she would be on board for something like this, especially since there was an easy way out of it in the end.
But instead, she had gone somewhere, and she hadn’t come back yet. Maybe what I thought we had, had simply been amazing sex. Deep in my gut though, I knew that wasn’t it. I knew we were more.
A marriage was a lot, though. There was explaining to Lanie what was going on and trying to get around her. There was all of the “getting to know you” bullshit that would have to occur. Moving Amanda in and trying to figure out how to live with another adult again. I hadn’t lived with anyone since my ex-wife. We would have to sleep in the same bed together, in case someone came around to do random checks.
