Chaos, who’d been asleep on one of the chair cushions, awoke with a yawn and a stretch, which clearly signified to Rufus that it was playtime. He let loose a bark and began to bounce around the chair, clearly wanting the kitten to come and play.
The girls giggled and Zach set Maddie on her feet. He saw the wary look Jessie gave the judge and he noted the judge did not seem pleased with the animals’ presence.
“Mr. Caine, Jessie and I were in the middle of a discussion,” Judge Connelly said. “Now is not the best time for a visit.”
Well, that was blunt. Zach lifted one eyebrow and looked at Jessie. She gave him a small smile that was supposed to reassure him, he guessed. It probably would have helped if she didn’t look like she was about to cry.
Whatever was going on, Jessie didn’t look very happy about it and Zach was not leaving until he knew that both she and the girls were okay. If what the girls had told him was true and the judge was trying to get custody, Zach would do everything in his power to stop him.
“No problem,” Zach said. He raised his hands as if to show he had no intention of interrupting. “Tell you what, I’ll just visit with the girls in the living room and keep them occupied so you two can talk.”
“That’s not—” the judge began but Jessie interrupted.
“That’d be nice, thanks.”
“All right, girls, let’s work on our next song,” Zach said. “How about ‘Tonight, You Belong to Me’?”
He didn’t mean to stare at Jessie when he said the name of the song, really, he didn’t. She put her hand to her throat and turned her head. Zach hoped she got the message. He’d been without her for two days and now that he was here with her, he didn’t think he could stand to be away from her again. Not one more night, not ever, and her stodgy former father-in-law was welcome to take note of that.
Gracie grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the living room where both of their ukuleles sat propped up by the cold hearth. Maddie started to sing the tune, doing a little shimmy shake thing as she sang that made Zach laugh. Oh, he had missed these girls.
“We’ll just be in the back room,” Jessie said. She took her coffee as she led the judge down the hall. He did not bring his water but strode down the hall with the purposeful step of someone who was used to getting his way.
Obviously, they wanted to speak in private. Yeah, not on Zach’s watch.
Chapter 27
Zach got the girls started and then excused himself to get a drink in the kitchen. Distraction came when Chaos rolled right into the middle of them with Rufus hot on his orange tabby tail. The girls laughed and then love was given as the dog and kitten stretched out to receive their pets from the kids.
Excellent. Zach used the distraction to beat feet down the hall and listen in on Jessie and the judge. He pondered whether he should feel guilty about it. Nope. He didn’t. Then he remembered that people who eavesdropped usually heard bad things about themselves. Zach had a hide like a rhinoceros; he could live with it if it meant the judge wasn’t bullying Jessie.
He pressed his ear to the edge of the door. Their voices were muffled but he could hear anger in Jessie’s voice and his hand was reaching for the doorknob before he caught himself and forced his fingers into a fist.
It was a better strategy to wait and not storm in there no matter how much he wanted otherwise. He let his breath out slowly and strained to hear.
“It is in the best interest of the girls,” Judge Connelly said.
“How do you figure that?” Jessie snapped. Zach was impressed with her tone. She wasn’t taking any guff. “They adore Zach and he adores them.”
“He is not their father,” Judge Connelly barked.
“Yes, well, their father isn’t here now, is he?”
“I am working on that—”
“I don’t care,” Jessie cut him off. “He walked away. He left us and there’s nothing you can do to make that right. Denying the girls any other role model in their life is just petty and mean. I won’t stand for it.”
“You say that as if you have a choice,” Judge Connelly said. “I didn’t want to resort to this but I need to inform you that I’ve been having you watched.”
“What?” Jessie gasped.
“You’ve been seen around town with Mr. Caine quite a lot, and I have to tell you that his reputation with women and the fact that he is always out in bars is not one that any judge would be in favor of as a role model to young girls.”
Zach felt his temper flare. The urge to go in there and throttle that nasty old man was almost more than he could resist. But he waited. Even knowing it might crush him, he wanted to hear what Jessie had to say.
“He owns a brewery,” she snapped. “A very successful one at that, and most of the women he is seen with are the field marketers that work for Bluff Point Ale. There is nothing sordid about being a good businessman whose business happens to boost the economy of our very own town.”
The judge made a scoffing sound and said, “I’m sure that’s what he’s led you to believe.”
“No, it isn’t,” Jessie said. “It’s what I’ve seen with my own two eyes. And you have no right to assassinate his character for working with bars and restaurants when your own son was a notorious barfly.”
“Interesting,” Judge Connelly said. “Both men you’ve been involved with in the time I’ve known you spent a lot of time in establishments that sell liquor. Huh, you seem to have a type, and clearly are not a very good judge of character.”
“Don’t you dare,” Jessie snapped. “Zachary Caine is nothing like your son. Seth was a lecherous, womanizing alcoholic, and Zach is a kind, good-hearted, hardworking man. They are absolutely nothing alike and I won’t have you insult Zach by comparing him to your son.”
Zach pressed his hand against the door. More than anything in the world, he wanted to go in there, wrap his arms about Jessie, and kiss her senseless and he didn’t care if the judge watched him or not.
“Do not disparage my son,” the judge said. “He is not a part of this conversation. I warned you the night of the talent show, Jessica, not to engage in a relationship with that man. If you ignore my warning, I will use all of the power of my office to prove that you are an unfit mother and gain full custody of my granddaughters.”
Jessie gasped. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, yes, I would,” he said. “End your relationship with him or lose your girls, the choice is yours.”
Zach felt his stomach turn. The girls were Jessie’s life, her everything. How this man could threaten her when she was such a great mom made his vision turn hazy with unreleased rage. What pissed him off even more was that Jessie was alone. She had no parents, no spouse, no siblings, no one to help her fight this guy.
It hit him then. That was their connection. That was why he and Jessie clicked like two cogs in a clockwork. They were both alone and had been for most of their lives. It was also the reason he couldn’t let her go.
“I can’t imagine Audrey is okay with you threatening me,” Jessie said.
“Leave my wife out of it,” he said. “I’ll be in touch.”
Zach knew the judge was coming his way. A decision had to be made. He could dash back to the living room and pretend he hadn’t heard this conversation. He could wait until the judge opened the door and punch the crotchety ass in the mouth—definitely the most tempting option—or he could take control of the situation. Zach went for door number three.
He banged through the door, acting as if he had just come down the hallway to find them.
“Hey, there, so sorry to interrupt, but I need to get the girls to their ice-skating lessons,” he said. It was a lie. The girls’ lesson wasn’t until later. He didn’t care. He threw a none-too-gentle arm around the judge’s shoulders and halfpushed, half dragged him to the front door.
“You? You’re taking them to lessons?�
� Judge Connelly gaped at him.
“Sure, we do lots of stuff together, don’t we, girls?” Zach asked as he hurried the judge through the living room.
“We bake cookies,” Gracie said.
“We go sledding,” Maddie added.
“We learn how to box,” Gracie said. She put up her dukes and Zach grinned at her.
“And Zach reads the best bedtime stories,” Maddie added.
“Bedtime stories?” Judge Connelly whipped his head in Jessie’s direction.
She was shaking her head at Zach and the girls, trying to get them to stop, but it was no use. The girls kept listing activities and Zach was busy grabbing the judge’s coat and hat off the rack.
As if sensing Zach’s need to get rid of the man, Chaos, who’d been playing a game of catch me if you can with Rufus, chose that moment to dart out from under the coffee table and latch onto Judge Connelly’s neatly pressed pants. With his razorlike kitten claws he dug into the fleshy part of the judge’s leg right above his knee.
“Yeow!” Judge Connelly yelped and kicked his leg, trying to dislodge the kitten.
“Careful, Grandpa, you’ll hurt him,” Gracie yelled.
“He’s just a kitten,” Maddie said. “He doesn’t know better.”
Judge Connelly managed to grab the kitten by the scruff of the neck and rip it off of his pants. He thrust Chaos at Jessie, who grabbed for him, holding him close to her chest to calm the poor little fellow. Zach had to fight the urge to grab the judge by the back of his collar and toss him out into the snow.
“Feral beasts are an endangerment to small children,” he roared. “I will have someone come out here to take that flea-bitten ball of disease and put it down.”
“No!” Gracie and Maddie yelled together. “Don’t hurt him. He didn’t mean it.”
“Of course not,” Zach said. “Nothing is going to happen to Chaos.” He looked at the girls so that they could see he meant it. “And on that note, it is time for you to go, Judge. See ya.”
He shoved the judge’s coat and hat into his arms and opened the front doors, then he gave him a hearty shove onto the porch and let the storm door swing shut in his face. Zach then slammed the large wooden door with more force than was necessary but, man, that felt good.
He brushed his hands together as if he’d just tossed something rotten out of the house—not completely off base—and then he strode back into the living room. Jessie was staring at him, her eyes wide with horror, as she held Chaos to her. The kitten was rubbing the top of his head against her chin but Jessie looked frozen in place.
“Oh, that’s not good,” she said. “Not good at all.”
She put Chaos down on the ground and turned and bolted up the stairs. Maddie and Gracie hurried to Zach’s side and hugged him hard. They looked up at him with worried eyes.
“You promise nothing will happen to Chaos?” Gracie said.
Zach gave them both a fierce squeeze. “I promise.”
While he held them close, he made a mental vow. Nothing was going to break up this family. No matter what happened between him and Jessie, he would make damn sure no one took her girls away. Not now. Not ever.
“Thank you, Zach,” Maddie said. “Oh, thank you.”
“Can you girls play down here?” he asked. “I need to talk to your mom.”
The two girls nodded and Zach hurried upstairs to talk to Jessie. She had to be rattled. Having someone threaten to take away the most important people in her life had to have shaken her to her core.
When he got upstairs, he went right to her bedroom but it was empty. He heard a thump and a bang and followed the noise into the girls’ room. Jessie was standing on her tiptoes in front of the closet pulling something off of the top shelf. He heard a slide and another bang and a wheeled carry-on hit the ground by her feet.
She hefted it up and plopped it onto Gracie’s bed. She unzipped it and then began to dash around the room, throwing in clothes and books and toys. He glanced at the other bed and saw that there was already a half-packed carry-on on Maddie’s bed.
“Jessie, what are you doing?”
She didn’t answer him but threw in two more items before she hurried across the hall into her own room. A suitcase was on her bed, too, and judging by the contents that were being vomited out of its interior, she was doing the same well-thought packing over there that she was doing in the girls’ room.
“Jessie, stop.”
He stepped in front of her when she tried to dart to the closet. She dashed around him and began grabbing sweaters off of the top shelf. She looked at the three in her hands as if she couldn’t decide which to pack then she threw all three of them onto the floor and ran to her dresser.
This time Zach grabbed her before she could get past him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight even as she tried to squirm out of his embrace.
“Zach, you have to let me go,” she said. “I need to get us out of here right now.”
“Jessie, shh, it’s all right,” he said.
“No, it’s not all right,” she said. She was trembling so hard, Zach was surprised her teeth weren’t clacking together when she spoke. “Judge Connelly is one of the most powerful men in the state. If he says he’s going to take the girls, he will and there’ll be nothing I can do to stop him.”
“Jessie,” he said, “I know he’s got you scared—”
“Zach, you have no idea,” she said. She pulled back and looked at him and the panic in her blue eyes about broke his heart. “Part of the problem with my ex was that every time he screwed up, the judge bailed him out. He never had to face any consequences for what he did because his father could call in a million favors and get him out of it.”
“That doesn’t mean he can take your girls,” Zach said.
“Yes, it does,” Jessie argued. “He’s that well connected. I can’t fight him. He’ll take this whatever-it-is between us and he’ll twist it and warp it and make me look like I’m some sort of slut-whore, proving that I’m an unfit mother. Then he’ll swoop in and take the only thing that matters to me—my family. The only way I can beat him is to run as fast and as far as I can.”
“Jessie, listen to me.” Zach shook her gently. “That isn’t going to happen. I won’t let it.”
She gave him a look that said she wanted to believe him but didn’t. He understood. After all these years of being under the judge’s thumb, she probably had some sort of former in-law post-traumatic stress happening. Being on her own for so long with no backup clearly had her at her breaking point.
He cupped her face. “Listen, I know this is hard for you to believe but you’re not alone anymore.”
“Oh, Zach, I know you mean well, I do—”
“I don’t just mean well,” he said. “I plan to do well.”
She stared at him, and the look in her eyes was one of such longing, he felt his heart trip over itself.
“I’m sorry about the other night,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to say that for two days.”
“Me, too,” he said. “But I didn’t know how.”
“Me either,” she said. She pressed her forehead to his. “I know you mean—”
“Jessie, do you trust me?”
He knew she was about to say that she knew he meant well, but he didn’t want to hear it. He wanted to convince her that she wasn’t alone and he knew just what to do to prove it.
“Yes,” she said with no hesitation. Zach grinned.
“Then give me one hour,” he said. He kissed her quick on the lips, breaking it off before he got distracted by the soft feel of her mouth beneath his and forgot that he had an errand. Then he pulled her out the door and down the stairs. “Girls, I feel some Frozen coming on!”
“Yay!”
Gracie and Maddie dropped the toys they’d been playing with and found their preferred spots
on the couch. Zach pushed Jessie down in between them and fired up the television. As the opening credits came on to their favorite Disney film, Zach leaned over the back of the couch and whispered in Jessie’s ear.
“One hour,” he said. “Just give me one hour and I’ll fix everything.”
She glanced at him like he was crazy but she looped an arm around each of her daughters and pulled them close. Zach watched as she kissed each of their heads and settled in to watch the movie with her girls.
Rufus and Chaos settled in on the opposite couch, and Zach took a second to appreciate that the beings he cared most about in the world were all safe and sound and he was going to figure out how to make sure they stayed that way.
The movie was at its high point when Zach returned. He took Jessie’s hand and pulled her off the couch. The two girls were so entranced by the film they didn’t notice Zach’s return or their mom’s departure from the huddle on the couch.
Zach was stoked. He hadn’t been sure when he left that what he’d thought to do as a solution to Jessie’s problem was even possible, but not only was it possible, it was brilliant, at least as far as he was concerned. He dragged her upstairs to her bedroom where they could talk in private. Also, there was a bed there and he liked to be prepared.
“Okay, Zach, you look like you’re going to explode,” Jessie said. She was smiling at him and she seemed calmer than she had when he left. “What’s going on?”
“I think the best way to handle this situation is like this,” he said. Then he took out the paper he had tucked into the inside pocket of his coat and handed it to her.
Jessie glanced at it and unfolded it. She stared at it. She didn’t move. Zach waited. He was trying to get a read on her face but her features didn’t shift in any discernable way. He couldn’t tell if she was happy or sad, furious or elated.
Hmm. When he had pictured this moment, it had ended with her jumping into his arms and kissing him, passionately. Then they would fall to the bed and he would make love to her just like he had a few nights ago. This did not seem to be the response he was getting.
Every Dog Has His Day Page 24
