Cross Country Chaos

by Lesli Richardson

  He signed it. “Set up a hearing in six months. Mr. Alexander, I am hereby ordering you to seek treatment for alcohol abuse, anger management, and psychological counseling—all three. You will provide this court with documentation to that effect, showing that you are currently engaged in ongoing treatment at the next hearing. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And Mr. Alexander, if you even think about violating the terms of the TRO against you, I will have your ass in jail so fast you won’t have time to blink. You are allowed to call your sons to talk to them, not to harass your ex-wife or anyone else listed in the TROs. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “We’re done.”

  Michelle nodded. “Thank you, your Honor.”

  The judge gathered his papers and left. Michelle stood, took Kelly’s arm and pulled her to her feet. Michelle grabbed her papers and pushed Kelly out the door ahead of her. Mart and Patty followed. Beatrice remained sitting, looking confused.

  “Is that it?” Kelly whispered in the hall.

  Michelle nodded. “Let’s get outside. Right now. Go.”

  David appeared in the doorway behind them and called out to Kelly. “Why are you taking my boys away from me?”

  Mart tried to stop her. “Kel, don’t.”

  Kelly turned, shaking Mart’s hand loose. White-hot anger coursed through her. Her voice cut through the air. “How dare you. I spent years begging you to spend time with them. I’m not the one who had a son in the hospital and went and got drunk and couldn’t have cared less. And I’m not the one who went off my nut and attacked their stepfather.”

  She’d never yelled at him like this before, especially not in public. David was too stunned by her anger to respond. Kelly ignored the people in the hallway who stopped to watch. Michelle put a hand on Kelly’s shoulder. Kelly ignored her.

  “David, I don’t think you’re a bad guy, down deep. But you need help. I gave up trying to fix you a long time ago. You have to do it, not expect others to do it for you, not expect the women in your life to fix you without you putting effort into it. Get help, and maybe you can fix your relationship with your sons. Until then, I have to protect them.”

  David stared at her, not responding. That in itself was shocking. Finally he said, “I love the boys.”

  “Then show them you give a damn. Get sober. When you can prove you’re getting help and making changes, I’ll be more than happy to come back before the judge and tell him you should get visitation. I didn’t make the choice to take them away. When you attacked Mart, that was the last straw. Even before that, you drove them away, and they decided they didn’t want to be around you. Frankly, I don’t blame them.”

  She turned on her heel, aimed for the nearest exit. She needed air. Hopefully Mart was right behind her.

  “Kelly—” Something about David’s voice made her pause, and she turned. “I’m sorry.”

  He looked beaten, a shell of his former self. For the first time, she realized how much older he looked since their divorce, like he’d aged at least ten years. He’d put on over fifty pounds, and his brown hair was greying, receding.

  “Don’t apologize to me, David. You need to apologize to the boys.” She took a step toward him. “You can call them. But get help. Get sober.”

  She turned. Mart followed her, as did Michelle and Patty. Outside, Michelle quickly went over a few things with them and let them get on their way.

  Mart didn’t break the silence as they loaded and drove off. He looked at her. “Are you okay?”

  Kelly nodded, turning toward the window so he couldn’t see her tears.

  Chapter Forty

  David didn’t call. Kelly considered cancelling the trip to Boston with Mart and staying home with the boys over fear David might do something, but both Mart and Sharon convinced her to go.

  “Honey, you and Mart need some downtime. This will be good for you. I’ll take care of the boys, they’ll be fine. David doesn’t know where I live since I moved. He only has my cell number. I doubt he’d show up anyway.”

  Mart nodded. “Come with me, please. I don’t want to go without you.”

  “All right. I just have a bad feeling I shouldn’t.”

  Mart still had to return to L.A. to finish his interrupted business trip. He wanted to cancel, but Kelly made him go. “David isn’t that stupid,” she said. “I’ll call 911 if he shows up.”

  Kelly dropped the boys off at her mom’s Thursday night and handed her a sheet of paper with contact information, Mart’s phones, the hotel address and number.

  “Why can’t we go?” Denny whined. “I want to see Mart race, too.”

  “We won’t be getting back until really late Sunday night, and you have school Monday. You can go with us to another one.”

  Denny nodded, still obviously upset. He’d been practicing 5ks with Mart and wanted to race in one with him.

  Kelly returned home and packed. Mart was flying in late that night from L.A., and she’d meet him at his house in the morning. Her bed felt empty without him, but she knew it wouldn’t be much longer before they’d be together all the time.

  The next morning, Kelly arrived at Mart’s ten minutes early and found the front door already unlocked. His bags were in the entry, and she heard him in the bedroom.

  “It’s me,” she called out.

  “I figured.” He was zipping a small carry-on bag in the bedroom. She sat on his unmade bed and, for a moment, considered tempting him into it.

  As if reading her mind, he smiled. “We don’t have time, sweetheart.”

  “You sure?”

  He saw the look on her face and grinned. “When we check in, be prepared. But for now…” He kissed her, leaving her breathless. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”

  She moved her bags from the Element to his van and helped load his race chair and luggage. They were on the road in twenty minutes and made the airport with plenty of time to spare.

  “Benefits of being in a chair,” he said as he handed their boarding passes to the gate attendant, “is we get to board first.”

  Kelly was not a good flyer. She held his hand tightly as the plane took off.

  “We’re up. It’s okay.” He flexed his hand after she released it.

  “I’m sorry. I should have warned you. I’d rather drive than fly.”

  “Next time, we will. I wouldn’t mind spending a few nights alone in hotels with you.”

  She laughed and kissed him.

  They took a shuttle van from Logan to the hotel. When they got to their room, Kelly went to the bathroom to freshen up. She found Mart stretched out on the bed, still dressed, watching TV.

  She laid down next to him. “So. What next?”

  He glanced at his watch. “Dinner is in three hours. I can think of a few things to do until then.”

  “So can I.”

  “Oh really?” She nodded, and he grinned. “Show me, girl.”

  She did.

  * * * *

  They emerged in the lobby with ten minutes to spare. A group of about fifteen men and women in wheelchairs had gathered to one side. Kelly followed Mart. He greeted the wheelers and took Kelly’s hand.

  “My fiancée, Kelly Alexander.” She shook hands as he introduced everyone. A little self-conscious as the only person standing, she sat on a coffee table next to Mart.

  They talked for a few minutes, then moved as a group to the dining room. She listened to their war stories of races and heard a side of Mart she wasn’t familiar with, his life before her.

  A man wheeled up. “Hey, someone was asking me about Big Clem. I realized I haven’t seen him around in a few years. What happened to him?”

  Mart and Bill Parker, one of Mart’s friends, fell quiet. “He died three years ago,” Bill said.

  The guy’s jaw dropped. “No! Big Clem? What happened?”

  Mart nodded. “Renal failure. He had a bad kidney infection. By the time he got to the doctor, too much damage had been don
e.”

  “Shit.” They were all quiet for a moment.

  Bill smiled. “Man, I remember Clem popped Marty’s cherry more than once.”

  Mart, Bill, and several others laughed. Kelly wondered if this was another inside disability joke she wasn’t privileged to understand.

  Mart saw her discomfort and took her hand. “Clem was a hell of a jokester.”

  Bill grinned. “Kelly, you’ll love this. You were, what, you hadn’t graduated yet, Marty. Twenty-one, twenty-two? We’re all in Atlanta for a race. Marty smoked Clem, beat him by at least five minutes. Later, Marty was working on this little cutie in a bar. He’s talking to her all night. Clem’s just sitting back, watching—”

  Mart interrupted. “Clem was a Nebraska farm boy, hurt in an accident a few years earlier. He was a T-4 or something. Huge shoulders and chest like he’d just walked in from a corn field. Blond hair down to his shoulders, big blue eyes. Girls loved him.”

  Bill nodded. “So Marty’s about to close the deal with this girl. Clem rolls over to them without saying a word, pulls the maraschino cherry out of the girl’s drink. Looks at her, holds it up by the stem, pops the whole thing in his mouth.

  “He wiggles it around for a few seconds, pulls out the stem twisted into a knot, hands it to her, and says in this really deep, soft voice—”

  Mart struck a pose, apparently imitating Clem, “If my tongue can do that, imagine what it can do to you.”

  Everyone at the table roared with laughter.

  Kelly gasped, grinning. “No!”

  Mart nodded. “Yep. She followed him out the door without another word to me, leaving me with a serious case of blue balls. I could have killed him. It was his payback for me busting his chops after the race.”

  “Poor Marty threatened to replace his catheter lube with Super Glue,” Bill added.

  “He did that to me two more times that summer before I got even.”

  “What’d you do?” Kelly asked. Bill and a few others who already knew the story laughed.

  Mart turned to her. “He used to room with me on the road. Before our next trip together, I bought a bottle of blue dye. When he was asleep, I dumped it on him and dyed his crotch so he looked like a freaking Smurf. He couldn’t feel me do it, slept right through it. Not my fault the dumbass slept naked.” Mart took a drink, hiding his grin.

  Kelly joined the others laughing.

  Mart continued. “You should have heard him scream in the bathroom the next morning. I figured if he was going to let me go around with blue balls all summer, I’d repay the favor.”

  Bill laughed and pointed at Mart. “Kelly, this boy of yours was a wild man. He was crazy. I remember the time when you and Brenda—”

  “Bill, not tonight.” Mart’s face tightened. “Please.”

  Bill stopped in mid-sentence, apparently sensing he’d stepped over a line. “Sorry, man.”

  Kelly, still smiling, looked between them. “What? What happened?”

  Mart shook his head and patted her hand. “Ancient history. I’ll tell you later.” He met her eyes. “Really ancient history.”

  After dinner, they congregated in one of the downstairs meeting rooms. Mart introduced Kelly to more people, and she was sure she wouldn’t remember them all. There was one more meeting scheduled for nine, nearly an hour away.

  She sat in the lobby with Mart. “So, who’s Brenda?”

  The tight look returned to his face. Whatever happened, he wasn’t happy to talk about it. “She’s a closed book, seriously. Long time ago, in a galaxy far away, that sort of thing.” He looked down. “I loved her, but she wasn’t ready for a relationship. Haven’t seen or talked to her for a while.”

  “Is she here?”

  He hesitated. “I saw her name on the list of entries.”

  Kelly’s gut tightened. “Oh. Well, no big deal, right?”

  He nodded, squeezing her hand tighter. “You’re my fiancée. I love you. I’m marrying you.” He kissed her.

  The tightness eased in her stomach. Of course he was. He loved her, was with her, had fought to get to her from the other end of the country.

  And he wasn’t David.

  She looked at the time. “I need to check on the boys.”

  “I’ll be in the lounge with the gang. Come on down when you’re finished.”

  “Okay.”

  She went upstairs and called, took a few minutes to relax. Downstairs, none of the wheelers were in the lobby. Kelly made her way to the lounge and found them in the far corner. Mart sat with his back to the door. Next to him was a woman in a wheelchair. Thin, with long, blonde hair. Kelly hadn’t met her yet. Her first assumption was she must be Brenda.

  Kelly swallowed back her jealousy—and fear. She started to step forward when the woman put her arm around Mart’s shoulder and hugged him, then kept it there.

  Kelly tried to force her feet to move when the woman leaned over and kissed Mart on the cheek. He didn’t return it, but he didn’t pull away, either.

  Flashbacks from her discoveries about David flowed through her mind, unbidden, unstoppable. His voice, all his lies, all his excuses.

  Just a friend. You’re imagining things. Don’t make so much of it. Quit being paranoid.

  Kelly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She envisioned Mart standing up to David, fighting for her, then ordered her feet to move. She walked over to the table. Mart brightened when he saw her.

  “Here she is!”

  The woman looked Kelly up and down, her face a mask. She didn’t move her arm from around Mart’s shoulders.

  “Hi,” Kelly said, staring the woman down. “Kelly Alexander, Mart’s fiancée.”

  The woman blinked and finally moved her arm. “Brenda Cayce, nice to meet you.”

  But the look on her face said it was anything but.

  Mart extricated himself and grabbed a chair from a nearby table for Kelly. His face was flushed, and he looked nervous. He took Kelly’s hand and didn’t let go until it was time for the meeting. Kelly followed the conversations but watched Brenda out of the corner of her eye. The woman eyed Mart, stealing looks at him, hardly talking to others.

  If this was a reunion, it apparently wasn’t the one Brenda envisioned.

  Brenda sat through the meeting on the other side of the room. She looked lithe and in shape, obviously a serious competitor. Mart paid her no attention, and Kelly tried to ignore the nasty feeling in her gut. He was here with her, not his ex. The man fought his way back across the country to try to make it to the hearing, for crying out loud—he was the real deal.

  Mart sensed her disquiet. When the elevator door closed behind them, he turned. “Kelly, what’s wrong?”

  She shook her head, forced a smile. “Nothing. I’m okay.”

  “Kelly—”

  “I saw her kiss you in the lounge.”

  He closed his eyes and swore as the elevator door opened. Kelly stepped out, Mart close on her heels. “She was saying hello. You also saw me not kiss her back, right?”

  “I noticed you didn’t make her move her arm.” Now that her jealousy was out in the open, it came fast and furious. Kelly’s hands shook as she tried to put the key card in backwards, then got it and pushed the door open.

  “Kelly,” Mart followed her into the room. “Please, talk to me.” He tried to take her hand, but she moved away, kicking off her shoes.

  “Look, it’s okay. It’s my problem, all right?” Her tone sounded harsher than she meant, but she couldn’t help it. No, he didn’t do anything wrong. But too many years of David’s lies took their toll, on top of all the emotion of the past two weeks.

  “No, it’s not your problem, it’s my problem.” He caught her hand and made her look at him. “I love you. Only you.”

  “I watched her while we were down there. She wants another chance.”

  “What?”

  “I could tell, the way she looked at you. She may be in your past, but she’s not happy you brought me.”

  �
��Doesn’t matter.”

  She pulled on a T-shirt and threw back the covers. “Does to her. Look, you need to get up early for the race. Let’s get some sleep.”

  He looked at her for a long moment. Sleep was obviously not what he’d had in mind. He went to the bathroom. When he returned, she was on her side facing away from him, as close as she could get to the bed’s edge and still be on the mattress.

  He tried to talk to her. She pretended she was asleep. He gave up and kissed her cheek.

  “I love you, Kelly,” he whispered. “Only you.”

  She squeezed back her tears, tried not to let on she heard him. He turned off the bedside lamp and rolled over, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Kelly suffered a mostly sleepless night. When she did drift off, she was haunted by bad dreams of David and his lies, with David morphing into Mart before her eyes. This was ridiculous—Mart was not David. She knew it in her soul, but some deeply ingrained emotions and reactions were hard to erase.

  She gave up and rose before the alarm went off. She showered and dressed in the bathroom. Mart was still sound asleep when she finished.

  Might as well let him sleep.

  There were still thirty minutes before he had to get up, so Kelly went downstairs in search of coffee. They were supposed to ride a shuttle bus to the staging tent with the other wheelers, and she knew a light breakfast was set up in the meeting room. She found it, tried to calm her nerves.

  Bill rolled in. “Where’s Marty?”

  “He’s still asleep. He should be down soon.”

  “I’m sorry about last night. I hope I didn’t cause any trouble.”

  She forced a smile. “No, it’s fine, really.”

  “Brenda can come on hard sometimes. Marty’s madly in love with you. I don’t care what that crazy bitch says, don’t let her play head games with you.”

  Kelly’s gut tightened again. “Why? What did she say?”

  “I just know her. She’s regretted blowing Marty off for years now. I heard her swear she’d get him back. Hopefully she’ll back off now that he’s taken. He’s here with you. If he wanted to get back together with her, he wouldn’t have brought you, right?”