A Sweetbrook Family (You, Me & the Kids)

by DeStefano, Anna

  The boy shook his head in silence.

  Josh would have preferred a good old-fashioned temper tantrum. He laid a hand on his nephew’s knee, hoping the physical contact wasn’t a mistake. He’d broken the news as soon as they’d gotten home from school, and in a way he was relieved that Dr. Rhodes hadn’t been able to fit them in again today. The man was right. This was all up to Josh.

  What he and his nephew had to do right now, no one could help them with. A memory of Amy’s smiling face challenged the notion, but Amy couldn’t be here for them this time.

  “This is your home, Daniel,” he said, grasping for the right words. “Ms. Thomas offered to have us meet your dad at her office in town, but I wanted you to feel as safe as possible. So he’s coming here. We’re going to show him that this is where you belong. We’re going to get through this together, son.”

  Son.

  Daniel’s head snapped up, tears misting his eyes. Josh had no idea where the word had come from, and even less of an idea why it had taken him so long to say it.

  “That’s right,” he said. “You’re my son now. You don’t belong to that man anymore. Your mother asked me to take care of you for the rest of your life, and that’s what I’m going to do. You’ve got to find a way to believe that, Daniel, before your dad gets here. If you never trust anyone else in this world…” Josh’s own eyes watered. His chest tightened. He longed for a real place in Daniel’s life. A father’s place. “…you’ve got to find a way to trust me.”

  Daniel slid his leg away from Josh’s touch. “I don’t want to see him,” he said. “You can’t make me see him.”

  “Unless we can give Ms. Thomas and the judge a reason for not letting your father near you, we don’t have a choice.” Josh curbed the urge to lean closer, wary of his nephew’s unraveling nerves. “I don’t want that man in our home, either.”

  “This isn’t our home,” Daniel retorted, the quivering of his bottom lip demanding that Josh tell him he was wrong. “It’s not my home.”

  “But it could be,” Josh pressed, desperate to make Daniel understand. “We can make this your home. And we can make sure your dad never has a place in your life again.”

  Daniel shot to his feet, his chair bumping into the wall.

  “He… I…” Looking anywhere but at Josh, the boy grew silent, the building storm within evident in the way he squeezed his eyes shut and balled his fists. “When he got mad at me or my mom, he…”

  Folding his hands together, Josh waited. The psychologist had said when this moment came, it would be an explosion.

  The boy’s sprint from the kitchen shouldn’t have caught Josh by surprise, but it did.

  “Daniel!” He bounded after his nephew, his pursuit no doubt terrifying the kid even more. “Daniel, don’t—”

  His nephew was already at the front of the house by the time Josh skidded into the hallway. The boy threw open the door, cast a defeated glance over his shoulder and stumbled outside.

  Josh stopped short, his adrenaline-spiked heartbeat freezing at the sight of Daniel barreling straight into Amy Loar’s outstretched arms.

  * * *

  AMY KNELT AND HELD the struggling little boy close, her eyes locked on Josh’s shocked, hopeful expression as the man’s long strides obliterated the distance between them.

  “Shh…” she soothed, rubbing circles down Daniel’s back while he kept up a halfhearted attempt to escape her grasp. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Josh’s hand came to rest on his nephew’s shoulder, the touch instinctive and proprietary. A parent’s touch. And at that moment she knew without a doubt that things were going to be okay for Josh and Daniel.

  “You’re here?” Josh said in a dazed voice. “But what about your work, your presentation?”

  “I delegated the rest of the prep stuff to a colleague. I’ll head back tomorrow for the presentation with Kramer Industries, but I couldn’t just sit in Atlanta tonight. Not while you’re dealing with all of this alone.”

  Not when her heart belonged here with them, she stopped herself from staying.

  She’d most likely ended her shot at a promotion by passing on Hutchinson’s dinner with Westing and ditching the last of her Kramer work on Thomas, but she couldn’t worry about that. Other things were far more important to her now, such as the child she held in her arms and the one waiting for her at Gwen’s. And the man looking at her with so much love and adoration, she’d be content never to move from this spot.

  If only she could be sure it could last. That she could find happiness here. Real happiness. The kind that didn’t dissolve as soon as she started to trust it.

  “What happened?” She placed her palms on Daniel’s wet cheeks and raised his head until she could see his face. “Are you okay?”

  “No.” In a motion that shocked her and broke her heart at the same time, Daniel buried his head against her chest and held on for dear life.

  “My dad—” he choked out over a sob “—My dad…hit my mom and made her…made her cry. Then he’d laugh….” More sobs escaped. Daniel was shaking from head to toe. “And then I’d run and hide…but he’d come after me, anyway. And when he found me…”

  Daniel’s weight dropped fully onto Amy as she cradled him against her. All she herself had endured replayed in her mind as she held him. She’d barely survived her own taste of hell on earth, and it had messed her up to the point that she might never be able to trust in love again. How on earth did she help a child work through something so terrible?

  Suddenly Josh was there beside her, holding her as she and his nephew clung to each other. And the healing warmth of his touch was exactly what both she and Daniel needed.

  “It’s okay,” he murmured into her hair. Then he kissed her temple. Palming his nephew’s head, he released a sigh.

  “It’s going to be okay now.”

  * * *

  “MAY I SPEAK WITH Ms. Thomas?” Amy asked the receptionist at Family Services, keeping her voice low as she used the Whites’ kitchen phone.

  Josh and Daniel were still in the little boy’s room, curled around each other, Josh on the floor, Daniel huddled in his lap. Both were spent, both drained of the tears they hadn’t been able to hold in. Now that they’d let themselves hold each other, both of them looked as if they might never let go.

  Daniel’s memories had trickled out slowly at first, each more horrifying than the last. Then the images of ugliness and darkness that had held him hostage for years began retching up in an escalating flood that had been as cathartic for him to admit as it was excruciating for her and Josh to hear.

  “Call Barbara,” was all Josh had managed to say, his eyes flashing rage at what his nephew had been through. “Try to get Jenkins’s visitation postponed.”

  “This is Barbara Thomas,” said a semi-familiar voice on the other end of the line. “May I help you?”

  “Yes.” Amy clung to her tattered wits. “Ms. Thomas, this is Amy Loar. I’m a friend of Josh and Daniel White.”

  “Yes, Ms. Loar,” the other woman said with slow recognition. “We met at Mr. White’s home, a few weeks ago, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes. Well…” Amy swallowed her mortification at the scene she’d caused that day. “I’m at the White home now, and Josh asked me to give you a call—”

  “Is there a problem?” There was a brief pause. “I’m meeting the boy’s father there for a visit in a little over an hour.”

  “That’s why I’m calling. Daniel
’s had a breakthrough that Josh is hoping will change the judge’s decision about visitation.”

  “What kind of breakthrough? Is Daniel finally talking about his father?”

  “Yes, and it…it was terrible.” The queasiness in Amy’s stomach flared. “And I’m sure if you and the judge could hear just part of it—”

  “You don’t have to convince me, Ms. Loar. I’ve been on Daniel and Josh’s side from the start. But Judge Hardy is going to need to see the boy himself.”

  “Please, can’t we do that tomorrow? Daniel’s so upset.” Amy couldn’t imagine making him go through everything a second time in front of a stranger. “I’m not sure how much more he can take today. Can’t you speak to the judge for us?”

  “I understand,” Ms. Thomas assured her in a voice that didn’t sound encouraging. “But there’s no other way. Jenkins’s lawyer has the judge convinced that Josh is coaching Daniel to say things that will interfere with his father’s custody petition. The sooner we get Daniel in to see the judge, the better. How quickly can you have them here?”

  “I…I don’t know. I’ll have to check with Josh.”

  “Tell him he’s got an hour.” Ms. Thomas forged onward. “I’m calling Mr. Jenkins’s lawyer and asking for an emergency hearing in the judge’s chambers. Whatever you have to do, get Josh and Daniel in a car and get them over here.”

  “I’ll…I’ll do the best I can.” Amy had never felt more powerless.

  “Do whatever you have to, Ms. Loar. You seem like a good friend, and I’m not sure the Whites will be able to do this on their own. That family needs you now.”

  Family. Josh’s family. The family he’d said he might want to share with her. A family for her and Becky, as well as for Daniel. And they needed her.

  A familiar urge tingled through her, the compulsion to run from the temptation to belong to something that real again. But equally as strong was the determination not to fail Daniel and Josh. Or her daughter. The determination to fight. Not because she was afraid of the past this time, but because maybe, just maybe, she was finally ready to fight for the future.

  “We’ll be there within the hour,” she said, punching the phone’s off button.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “I HAVE A RIGHT TO BE IN there,” Curtis Jenkins bellowed as he paced up and down the hall outside Judge Hardy’s chambers.

  “Keep it down.” The man’s lawyer looked as if he was trying not to do some yelling himself. His client was being an absolute jerk.

  Amy was trying not to look at them. Her nerves couldn’t take much more of being so close to the abusive man who’d done those horrible things to Daniel and Melanie.

  By the time she had driven Josh and a disturbingly quiet Daniel to the courthouse, Jenkins and his lawyer were there waiting, ready to pounce. Jenkins’s blustering, his demands to talk with his son, had started the moment they’d stepped off the second-floor elevator.

  Josh had hustled Daniel toward the judge’s door, too preoccupied with protecting his cowering nephew to respond. Jenkins had, of course, followed them into the office, making a scene out of defending himself against charges he was supposed to be innocent of.

  Thankfully, Ms. Thomas had assessed the situation and immediately recommended that, for Daniel’s sake, he be allowed to talk with the judge with only his uncle present. So there they were, Amy and Daniel’s social worker sitting side by side on the straight-backed bench outside the judge’s door, enduring Curtis Jenkins’s antics as it became clearer by the minute he was about to lose any chance of permanent custody of his son.

  And each minute that went by hammered away at Amy’s resolve to stick this out and fight for the life she and Josh and their kids could have together. Every ugly word that Jenkins muttered, each a bit louder than the last, reminded her of why she’d been so determined to be alone. Of the excruciating pain she’d endured when she’d been naive enough to give Richard Reese her heart and her future, only to watch him rip them to shreds.

  “If you don’t keep it down, man,” the lawyer warned again, “you’re going to finish ruining what’s left of your chance here.”

  “What chance?” Jenkins stomped over to Amy, who shrank away, despite her best efforts not to show her fear.

  Familiar territory. Too familiar.

  Had she really thought the past was gone, just because Josh said he loved her? Just because she wanted the ridiculously happy life together he’d tempted her with?

  “You’ve got your little finger in this, don’t you, honey?” Jenkins asked, leaning closer. “You’ve found a man with money. Are you enjoying taking my boy away from me, you little—”

  “Step away, Mr. Jenkins.” Barbara stood, all five feet of her, and stared the man down. “If you don’t, I’ll have an officer physically remove you from the building.”

  The man sneered, looking more the bully than ever as he edged closer to the diminutive woman who’d dared to point a finger in his face.

  “Nobody shows me the door, you hear me?” He moved to raise a hand in the air, but it was suddenly yanked behind his back by a guard, who’d appeared from nowhere.

  “Get your hands off me!” Jenkins’s struggles increased as the burly cop locked the man’s wrists behind his back. “I haven’t done anything. You’ve got no right.”

  “Take him downstairs, if he insists on staying until the judge makes a decision,” Barbara instructed. “If he continues to be abusive and refuses to leave the building, find something to charge him with until I’m done here.”

  “Sure thing, ma’am.” The officer turned the still-cursing man away and half dragged him down the hall.

  “You’re on your own, man,” the lawyer said as Jenkins and the officer passed. “You’re nuts.”

  “Are you okay?” Barbara sat beside Amy again and placed a hand on her shoulder.

  Amy flinched, horrified by her rudeness and, worst of all, by her inability to pull herself together.

  Curtis Jenkins hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t even come close to hurting her, thanks to Barbara. But that didn’t stop Amy from feeling attacked. Violated. Threatened. Lost to the memories of another angry man blaming her for things beyond her control, yelling at her and telling her she was worth nothing and never would be.

  She pressed her hands to her ears, but the voices wouldn’t stop. She should be over Richard. Over all she’d lost and how weak she’d been. But it wasn’t over. It would never be. Jenkins’s taunts, joined now by Richard’s, grew louder in her head until they drowned out everything else, including Josh’s declaration of love and his dream of a new beginning for their families.

  But it was her own little voice that chanted loudest, reminding her that she’d never have the courage to believe in that kind of life with him.

  Struggling to her feet, she headed for the elevator. She couldn’t be here anymore. Not in the courthouse with Curtis Jenkins. Not in Sweetbrook with Josh.

  “Where are you going?” Barbara asked. “Josh and Daniel will be out any minute.”

  Amy forced herself to keep walking.

  She had to try three times to press the elevator button before the light came on. She owed Ms. Thomas an explanation. Only there was none. All she could do was run.

  * * *

  “YOU’RE A VERY BRAVE young man,” Judge Hardy said. “Not many kids your age would be able to talk about these things with me.”

  Josh had watched the man’s frown deepen throughout the inter
view. First as they’d listened to Curtis Jenkins’s explosion in the hallway. Then even more as Daniel had hesitantly repeated everything he’d already shared with Josh. The judge’s sympathetic anger would have relieved Josh, were it not for the toll the situation must be taking on his nephew. And Amy. He hated having to leave her in the hallway to deal with Jenkins. He hated having to leave her at all.

  She had come back. For Daniel, and maybe for him. Josh wasn’t certain, but once he and his nephew got out of here, he was going to find out. And if she still wasn’t convinced they had a future together, he’d find some way to get through to her. This time, she wasn’t going back to Atlanta thinking he and Daniel didn’t really need her, or that she could live the rest of her life without letting herself need them.

  He squeezed his nephew’s knee. Daniel had talked himself into silence several minutes ago. Nothing else to say.

  How could there be?

  He’d been terrorized. Bullied and threatened, and punished for things that couldn’t possibly have been his fault. Or Josh’s sister’s, for that matter. And he’d witnessed his mother being beaten by the man who was supposed to have loved them both.

  “Tell me you’ve heard enough,” Josh demanded of the judge.

  If Judge Hardy minded the anger amplifying Josh’s words, he didn’t show it. Instead, he directed a smile of encouragement at Daniel.

  “Well, Daniel. It’s obvious how much your uncle wants you to stay with him. And if that hubbub in the hall was any indication, your dad seems to want you back, for what reason I’m not exactly sure.”

  “Money,” Josh replied. “He wants Daniel, because he knows I’ll make sure my nephew has everything he needs for the rest of his life, whether he stays with me or not. And to Curtis Jenkins, that means money.”

  “Well, that certainly adds a wrinkle to things.” The judge nodded to Josh, then returned his attention to the ten-year-old. “But you see, Daniel, none of that really matters to me right now. Because with everything I’ve heard, you still haven’t told me the most important thing I need to know.”