Take 2 on Love

by Torrie Robles

  “I’m not freaking out. Freaking out? No, I’m pissed off because I can’t imagine what he did.” Jenna didn’t have much to say. All she knew was that the police showed up and Trevor was in the back of their car.

  I’m not sure when this all started, but I have a feeling it might be the same time that Heath and I split. That detail has so much guilt bubbling within my veins. What if he did something to act out? To try to get us to see that he’s struggling? Is he taking this split harder than I thought? When we pull up to the condo, I see a cruiser sitting in front. I can only imagine what the neighbors are thinking. Pushing open the door to Ruby’s car, the cool air hits me.

  “I’m Whitney James, Trevor’s mother,” I say as Ruby and I approach the two officers who are standing outside the car that’s holding Trevor. Giving the car a once over, I see that Trevor has a blank stare on his face as he looks forward, ignoring me.

  “Mrs. James, I’m Officer Kaplan, and this is my partner, Officer Musk. Trevor was found, alone, defacing the local library.”

  “Do you mean like tagging?” I ask as the feel of a hand on my shoulder has me turning around to find Liam at my side. When I turn back towards the officers, they’re each eyeing Liam.

  “Commander Prescott,” Liam introduces himself as he reaches his hand out to each officer. “I’m a friend of Whitney’s.”

  “Yes, tagging. He stated that he was with a group of kids and was only witnessing the incident, but we weren’t able to find any other accomplices. He wasn’t forthcoming with any names. If he isn’t being truthful, and it was, in fact, him, it seems that your boy has a signature which means that he’s responsible for more than what we caught him doing tonight.”

  “I’m sorry, officer, and I’m sure you hear this all the time from parents when they’re defending their children, but I’m certain Trevor didn’t do anything. He might be guilty of hanging out with the wrong crowd and not telling me where he was when he should have, but spray painting a public building? No way. He’s never even been in trouble at school. There’s no way he would deface a building, let alone multiple times.”

  “And that’s why we’re bringing him home to you tonight and not taking him down to the station. We ran his name, and he’s clean, no priors. Plus we didn’t see him in the act, only at the location.”

  “So this is all a scare tactic then?”

  “This is a good thing, Whitney,” Liam tries to explain as he wraps his fingers around my arm, pulling me away from the officers and placing me next to Ruby. She takes my hand in hers and gives me a squeeze.

  “Thank you, officers. I think Whitney is in shock, and I know once her head is clear, she’ll agree with the way you’ve handled it.”

  They step toward the car, pulling the door open. “Mr. James, you’re free to go,” one of the officers tells Trevor as he eyes each of them.

  “I can go home?”

  “Yes, but this doesn’t end here. You’re expected to be at the precinct, Saturday Morning, for the next three months in order to do voluntary community service. If you miss one Saturday, we will charge you with destruction of both private and public property.”

  “I promise you he’ll be there,” I confirm.

  “Get inside, Trevor,” Liam instructs as I stand there fuming.

  Liam takes total control of the situation. He talks to the officers, nodding his head in agreement with whatever they’re saying. Each officer gives him their card. They shake hands, slapping each other on the shoulder before he backs up, watching the cruiser as they pull out of our complex.

  “It’s all right,” Rudy whispers in my ear knowing that I’m having an internal battle between screaming my head off and crying.

  “Hey, sorry. I happened to peek outside when I saw flashing lights and saw you standing outside with the police. I wanted to make sure everything was okay. How are you holding up?” Liam asks as he approaches us.

  “I’m pretty confused and upset at the moment.”

  “Whitney, it could have been worse. The officers didn’t need to give Trevor the benefit of the doubt. They could have hauled him to the station and let him stew before releasing him or worse, they could have booked him. Them telling him to do community service is a good thing.”

  “I need to call Heath.”

  “Whitney, wait.” He takes a step forward. “Is it all right if I speak with Trevor while you’re talking to Heath?”

  Liam and Trevor have no type of relationship, especially not one where Liam plays friend and tries to reason with him. Whenever Liam comes over, either Trevor stays in his room, or he’s not home. Trevor doesn’t seem to have his defenses up around him, but I still don’t see Trevor seeing Liam in any type of ‘friend’ light.

  “Maybe Trevor needs a guy to talk to,” Ruby says.

  “He has a guy to talk to. His father.”

  “I’m not trying to take Heath’s place. I know he can easily talk with his dad, but I think that maybe Trevor needs someone to talk to that’s not a parent or his father. Let me try. Go call Heath and tell him what happened while I try to talk to Trevor, please.”

  “All right.” He squeezes my shoulder before heading into my house. When I turn to Ruby, she’s smiling.

  “Don’t even,” I say before turning on my heel, following Liam inside.

  The conversation I had with Heath lasted all of five minutes. He was understandably upset. One, because he was more than seven hours away and couldn’t be here to handle it, and two, because Trevor put himself in the position to be accused of such a thing. We both agreed that maybe it’s time that Trevor re-evaluates his friends.

  With Harper at my feet, I’m biting my nails waiting for Liam to leave Trevor’s room. My gaze drifts to the clock above the fireplace, signaling that they’ve been in there for forty-five minutes. When Liam finally comes from Trevor’s room, I let out a sigh of relief. Pulling my finger from my mouth, I sit up on the couch.

  “Is Heath okay?” Liam asks as he sits down next to me, placing Trevor’s phone on the table in front of me. Harper moves her head from my feet into Liam’s lap.

  “As okay as can be expected. Being so far away when your child needs you isn’t the best feeling.” I internally cringe. “But I’m sure you know that.”

  “Yeah,” he pats my leg, “I know a little bit about it.”

  “Is he doing this because of our split?”

  “Being a kid? Hanging out with the wrong kids? No. He told me that he didn’t even know his friends were doing things like that. When he wanted to leave, they started to taunt him, telling him that he didn’t have the ‘balls’ to stick around. He didn’t run because he knew he wasn’t doing anything wrong but he also knew that he wasn’t going to throw his friends under the bus.”

  “You promise that it’s not because of the split.”

  “Whitney, even if you and Heath would have stayed together, chances are this would have happened at some point. Why? Because he’s a kid.”

  “I don’t agree with that. I didn’t have to deal with anything like this with Charlie.”

  “That’s because Trevor is not Charlie, and he’s not Jenna. He’s Trevor. Each of your kids will bring you individual joys and heartaches. Just because you didn’t catch Charlie doesn’t mean he never did anything. He might have been better at not getting caught.” He shrugs like it’s nothing.

  “That’s not very reassuring, Liam.”

  He smiles. “I know I’m not going to ease your mind. I’m just trying to make you see that you have three kids who are going to live three completely different lives. You can’t compare Trevor to Charlie. It’s like comparing apples to oranges, and that’s not fair.”

  “What am I supposed to do with this? How am I supposed to handle it?”

  “Well, I’m not his parent, but I figured first things first, so that’s why I took his phone.” He hands me Trevor’s phone, “I didn’t know if you wanted to remove his television or video games from his room, so I didn’t touch those, but I can go
back in there and pull them if you need me to.”

  “No, that’s okay.”

  “He needs to be held accountable for his poor decision making by going there in the first place. I agree one hundred percent with community service. It might not be his mess, but he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. He needs to help clean up his mess, and he needs to be on a short leash for a while because he’s going to push you if he thinks he can get away with it.”

  I regard him for a bit. “Did Dillon do something similar to Trevor?”

  “No,” he shakes his head, “I did. But much worse. Before I got serious about life, I was on a downward spiral. Nothing in life was making me happy. I had a good home life. Loving and supporting parents, but that didn’t matter to me. I was angry at life, and I took it out in every way I thought I could. I stole, and not just small stuff. I stole a couple of cars. Boy, I was lucky too, because the people who I took from never pressed charges. If they had, I wouldn’t have been able to fly jets.” He shakes his head, staring off into the distance. “My parents stood by the police and not by my side. They weren’t wrong, and their tough love shined a light on a new direction in life.”

  “So you were a troublemaker?”

  “No, not really. I was just a kid making stupid choices. Trevor’s a good kid. He’s a bit off the right path right now, but I have no doubt he’ll get back on it and soon. You need to have faith in him, even when he stumbles.”

  “It’s hard to have faith when I now know he’s so easily swayed. What if those kids were doing something far worse and Trevor wasn’t able to convince the cops?”

  “You can’t live your life with so many what-ifs. That’s way too much uncertainty. It will drive you crazy. Listen to your gut, Whitney. As parents, that’s all we can do.”

  “That’s always easier said than done.”

  The knocking on my front door pulls me from my current read. The soft thump of base coming from the kids’ rooms tells me that they won’t be answering the door anytime soon, which is fine since I know who it is.

  Striding over to the door, I swing it open to find Heath. “Hey,” I say as I step back, allowing him to enter. He looks a little flushed, which is strange since it’s still winter and cold outside. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” he says as he passes me. “Is Trevor in his room?”

  I close the door. “Yes, they’re both in their rooms, and I think Harper is in with Jenna. How was the trip? I thought you said you wouldn’t be back for at least four more days. That was two days ago.”

  “I finished up sooner than I thought,” he says as he continues his way into the living room, stopping in the middle. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t here to deal with what Trevor got himself into. I hate taking on these out of town jobs, but it’s work, and it keeps the door open, especially when things tend to slow down in this area.”

  “I know that. It’s not the first out of town job you’ve taken, and I know it’s not going to be the last. Things happen and when they do we handle them.”

  “Yeah, we do. I wanted to tell you that after talking to Trevor this morning, you did a great job handling the situation.”

  “Well, actually, Liam took him down to the police station to get him set up with his community service. He didn’t want me to go.”

  Heath twists his head in my direction. “Why in the hell would you allow a stranger to be a part of something like that, Whitney?”

  “He’s not a stranger. I wish you’d stop saying that.”

  He grabs his shoulder and squeezes. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen him do this. “You told me that you would handle everything while I was away. You reassured me that you would.” He starts to pace back and forth in my living room. “That’s the only reason why I didn’t come home straight home–”

  “Everything is handled.”

  He ignores me. “You told me that I needed to learn that I’m not always going to be around and that you’re going to need to handle the big stuff from time to time–”

  “I’ve always handled the big stuff. Where is this coming from?”

  “But you didn’t handle it, did you? You let your neighbor or whatever the hell he is, handle a situation with my kid. He had no right. You had no right!”

  “Heath, you need–”

  “I don’t need to do shit!” he roars. “You lost that privilege when you decided that what I was giving you wasn’t good enough.”

  My body jerks back. I feel as though he’s just punched me in the gut. I have no idea who to respond to his outburst. He’s so angry.

  “Dad?” Trevor comes out of his room with a concerned look on his face. “What’s–”

  “Get your stuff. You’re coming home with me.”

  Jenna walks out of her room, looking just as upset as Trevor does. I take a step, putting my hand up signaling Trevor to stay where he is. “Now stop it, Heath. I’m not sure what’s got you all riled up, but neither of the kids is going home with you tonight. Neither is the dog for that matter.”

  “This is bullshit, Whitney. I can’t trust you to do any of the actual parenting. You’re letting a man I don’t know guide my kids when I’m not around.”

  “And you’re jumping to conclusions again.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jenna texting on her phone. She gives Trevor a nod signaling him to walk towards the front door. When he opens it, I see Liam standing there. “Just fucking perfect,” Heath growls. “This is the last thing I need right now.”

  “Heath,” Liam approaches him. “I know you’re upset about everything having to do with Trevor. I get it, man.”

  “You don’t get shit,” Heath spits back.

  “Who are you right now?” I groan. “What happened to the man who kissed me two weeks ago before leaving to work out of town? Where is the man who was freaked out because I didn’t talk to him for three days? I can’t see that man at all right now. You’re a stranger, and I have no idea why.”

  “Dad,” Trevor says, “look, I get that you’re upset at me, and I know you don’t like that you had to hear about it over the phone and that there wasn’t really anything you could do about it. I get that I messed up, I didn’t make the best decisions, and I understand that now. I know that I have a lot to make up for and that I have to earn your and Mom’s trust back.”

  “He has no business here.” He points his finger at Liam. “This is a family matter.”

  “Well, he’s a friend, Dad.” Jenna defends Liam.

  “And he happened to see the cops here the other night.” Trevor adds. “That’s all it was. He helped us out with the police. So we talked.”

  “I’d rather Trevor talk to Liam than one of his teenaged brained friends, Heath.”

  “It doesn’t matter who you have in your corner, son. It doesn’t change that you made poor decisions on more than one account.”

  Trevor nods. “I agree with you one hundred percent.” When Trevor looks at me, I give him a small smile, telling him to go back to his room. Once Jenna sees her brother retreating to his room, she does the same.

  When Liam hears the double clicking for the doors, he gives his complete attention to Heath. “Listen, Trevor is your son. I have two boys of my own. I know how difficult raising kids can be, and I know that sometimes it takes more than just the parents to help. That’s all I was doing.”

  “He’s an open mind, Heath. That’s all he is.”

  Heath runs his hand through his hair before dropping it and taking a deep breath. “Fuck, Whit,” he sounds exasperated, “I’m so sorry.” He shakes his head, “You’re right, that wasn’t me. That’s not even me on my worst day. It was uncalled for. It’s just–” he stops himself. “Working out of town, then finding out about Trev, it all just built up. I exploded, and I’m sorry.” His eyes flick to Liam then back to me. “I hate that I wasn’t here. I want to be the one to guide my son.”

  “I understand the frustrations.”

  “The seven-hour drive didn’t
help.”

  “I get that too.”

  He turns to Liam and sticks out his hand. “Thank you, Liam,” he chokes.

  With a swift shake, they both drop hands. “No problem.”

  “I’ll be by in the morning to grab Trevor and take him down to the station. Once we’re done, I’ll swing by and grab Harper. Unless you want to keep her.”

  “No, you can take her. She has more room with you than with me. But I’d like to visit her more if that’s all right.”

  “It’s always all right,” he says with a faint smile on his lips.

  “Your editor gave you a thirty-day extension?” Liam asks while he sits next to me. He’s on his iPad while I’m on my laptop. We’re outside in the backyard, a space I haven’t been able to use because Harper claimed it as hers. But she’s been back with Heath for the past three weeks, so I unstacked the patio furniture and brought out the cushions.

  Tonight, you can hear the slight roaring of the jets as they do their night flights. Off to the right of my condo, the dark sky brightens slightly with the lights of the base. The air is crisp with a hint of fire from the neighboring units’ fireplaces. I love the smell of a fire burning. I’m envious of the few condos that have real wood burning fireplaces instead of the electric one that I have.

  “Yes. She wasn’t happy about it, but since I had one book done and to her, she gave it to me.” He tries to look at my screen, but I pull it back, almost closing it.

  “What are you working on now?”

  “You’re not reading it.”

  He laughs. “Do you really think I haven’t read your books?”

  I purse my lips. “Well, I was hoping.”

  “Well, you’d be wrong.” He gives me a wink.

  Placing my laptop on the table, I lean back. “Well, what did you think?”

  “To be honest, they’re not my normal cup of tea. I’m more of a military read type of guy, but they were entertaining.”

  I rotate so I’m facing him. “What do you mean entertaining?”