by Emmy Eugene
“All right,” Kelly said. “Kade, you better climb up and get ready. I’ll start getting everything out.”
Russ caught the ghost of a smile on Janelle’s face, and he sat down at the bar to watch the women work. No one invited him to help, and he rather liked simply basking in their presence. He couldn’t help thinking about Henry, and where he’d sat. What conversations they’d had. Had Kelly run to him when he’d arrived?
He banished the thoughts as far as he could, but they kept creeping back. Steadily, until they’d infiltrated his mind again. By the time Kelly melted the chocolate glaze to pour over the cooled peanut butter bars, Russ could no longer ignore the questions in his mind.
“How was the movie with your daddy?” he asked her.
Kelly barely glanced up. “Uh, it was okay.”
“Just okay?” He looked at Janelle and back to her daughter. “Your mom said you were excited to see it.”
Kelly looked at Janelle too, and Russ would have to learn how to communicate with children the way she did. Maybe it was a mother-daughter thing he’d never know how to do.
“We got there late,” she finally said. “So we missed the first little bit.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It was okay.”
“You got there late?” Janelle asked. “Daddy said it didn’t start until three-thirty, and he picked you up at just after one.” She wore alarm on her face when she looked at Russ. But what was he supposed to say?
Kelly kept her eyes on the glaze as it poured over the peanut butter bars. “The movie was all the way down in San Antonio.”
Janelle sucked in a breath. “What? You drove almost two hours to go to a movie?”
“Don’t be mad, Momma.”
“I’m not mad,” she said, though Russ probably would’ve classified her that way too. He couldn’t imagine driving that far for a movie when there were probably fifty theaters between Chestnut Springs and San Antonio. “I’m just surprised. Why did you go all the way down there?”
“We met someone at the theater,” she said, finally looking up. Pure fear lived in her expression. “A lady.”
Horror washed across Janelle’s face, and Russ got up to go stand next to her. “You met one of your father’s girlfriends.” She wasn’t asking, and Russ really didn’t like how she’d phrased it as “one of” his girlfriends. If Kelly or Kadence noticed, they didn’t say anything.
“She wasn’t his girlfriend,” Kelly said. “I think he said she was a therapist.”
Even Russ didn’t believe that, and he swept his arm around Janelle as she sagged into him. Apparently, she and Henry had different views about nearly everything, including when it was appropriate to introduce their children to their new significant others.
“What else happened last night?” Janelle asked, her voice the slightest bit hysterical. She backed away from Russ and Kelly. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
Kelly ignored the question just fine and turned to open the fridge. “These just need to set up.” She’d already cleared a spot in the fridge, and she slid the tray of treats inside. With that done, she looked at Russ. “Do you want to go see the dogs? We’ve been taking really good care of them.”
“Absolutely.” Russ shot a look at Janelle, but she just shook her head. So he went out into the garage with Kelly, and then into the backyard behind her. All of the dogs bounded toward him, a couple of them barking as they came.
“Hey, guys,” he said, chuckling. “Hey. How are you?” He scratched and patted all of them, letting them sniff his jeans, where they could probably smell Winner, Thunder, and Cloudy.
“So Kelly,” he said. “What do you guys do for Christmas?”
“Do?”
“Yeah, do you go see your grandparents? Stay here? Decorate?”
“We’ll go see Granny and Gramps in Johnson City.” Kelly bent and picked up a ball, tossing it as far as she could. Three dogs took off after it, and she picked up a bucket and a scooper. “It’s pretty fun. They have two treehouses in their backyard.”
“Wow,” Russ said. “Did your grandpa build them?”
“His grandpa,” Kelly said. “So they’re old.”
“Sounds like it.”
She set about cleaning up the backyard with the pooper scooper, and Russ followed along beside her. “What do you want for Christmas?” he asked next.
“I was just going to ask you that.” She smiled at the ground. “I want a stand mixer, but Momma says they’re really expensive.”
Russ did a little bit of cooking, but he didn’t pay attention to prices. “Does your momma pay you for chores?”
“Yeah,” she said. “That’s why I’m out here cleaning up.”
“Maybe you can get one then.”
“Even Daddy says it’s too big of a gift for Christmas.” Kelly sighed. “But he’ll probably pay a ton of money to take us to Florida or something.”
“Does he travel a lot?”
“Sometimes,” she said. “He took us to Disneyworld last year.”
“I bet that was fun.” It sure didn’t sound fun to Russ. Crowds. Noise. Lines. Heat.
“It was. I got a light saber, and Kade got like, a hundred water bottles. She loves water bottles.” Kelly smiled and kept cleaning up.
Russ liked talking to her, and he wondered if he could figure out a Christmas present for her beautiful mother during this conversation.
“What do you get your mom for Christmas?”
“Kadence usually paints her something at the Girls Club we go to after school sometimes. I make her breakfast in bed, and then my aunt or someone helps me buy her something.”
“Like what?” he pressed.
Kelly looked up at him, but he couldn’t read her expression fast enough to know if she was onto him or not. “Nail polish one year. She loves notebooks and planners. I got her that last year. A picture frame with a picture of me and Kadence. Stuff like that.”
Nothing Russ could get her, unless he wanted to take a picture of himself and stick it in a frame for her desk at work. He almost snorted out loud at the very idea of doing that.
No, he needed something meaningful and romantic. Something that showed he cared about her, knew her, and wanted her, all at the same time.
He couldn’t go with clothes. Slippers were out, obviously. He wasn’t going to buy her nail polish or something for the house or kitchen. So what could he get?
“If you have any ideas about what I could get for her for Christmas,” Russ said. “Let me know, okay? She’s hard to shop for.”
Kelly giggled and nodded. “That’s what Daddy always says too.”
Russ suddenly found it very hard to swallow, and thankfully, Kadence came skipping outside with a request to play jump rope, which both Kelly and Russ readily agreed to do.
The next morning, Russ had just gotten out of the shower when his phone rang. He couldn’t get to it fast enough without falling on the tiles in wet feet, so he let it go to voicemail. Not two seconds later, it rang again.
“Momma,” he answered. “What’s goin’ on?”
“The house flooded,” she said. “We’ve tried Griffin and Rex, and neither of them are answering their phones.”
Russ’s pulse shrieked through his body. “Are you guys okay? Are you inside?”
“We’re inside,” she said. “As near as we can tell, a pipe burst in the night and has been gushing ever since.”
“I’ll come right now,” he said. “Hang tight, Momma.” He hung up and dressed quickly, hurrying downstairs, where he heard Travis doing something in the kitchen. “Trav?”
“Right here,” he said, stepping around the corner still wearing a pair of gym shorts and yesterday’s T-shirt. “What’s wrong?”
Russ finished tucking his shirt in and entered the kitchen to get his keys. “Momma called. She said the kitchen is flooded, and she can’t get ahold of Rex or Griffin.”
“They’re probably still asleep.”
“Yeah.” Russ swiped his keys from the drawer a
nd looked at Travis. “Want me to go alone?”
“No,” Travis said. “Give me two minutes. I’ll meet you in the truck.”
Russ nodded and headed outside, ready to be going already. He had a ton of work to do that day, and no time for house floods. Not only that but getting his father to leave the house would be tricky. And getting him and his momma to stay in the homestead while they cleaned everything up?
Russ wasn’t even sure that was possible. But he would try, just like he’d decided to keep trying with Janelle.
Chapter Sixteen
Janelle put herself together on Monday morning the same way she did every other weekday. Makeup in muted tones. Lip gloss in the perfect shade of pink for her complexion. Professional hoops for earrings. Her mother’s necklace. Conservative, dark clothes, with her bunion-approved flats.
She got her kids ready for school and dropped them off exactly on time. She drove through Perky For Another Day and ordered her favorite coffee blend with cream and caramel. She walked through the door at the firm at precisely nine o’clock, her briefcase bag swinging at her side.
No one would’ve thought anything in her life was wrong, or even slightly off.
But Janelle knew. She knew that so many things had been blown wide open that weekend, starting with Henry.
He’d called as she was getting out of the shower, and she’d put him off with, “You can’t call me in the morning. We’re busy getting everything ready for the day. I’ll call you when I get to work.”
She’d hung up before he could say another word, and he hadn’t called back. So the message had been delivered and received.
“Morning, Libby,” she said, pausing at her friend’s desk. “I need you to hold all my calls for the next twenty minutes. Then interrupt me no matter what and say I have an important client waiting for me.”
Janelle never scheduled important clients on Monday morning, because she needed to ease into her week.
“You’re due in court at eleven,” Libby said, handing her a file.
“Yes, I reviewed this last night,” she said.
Libby stood up. “Henry?”
“Unfortunately.” Janelle gave Libby her best smile, but it must not have come off very well, because Libby didn’t return it.
“Good luck,” she said instead. “And we still need to talk about how things went on Saturday with Russ and the girls.”
“Yes, we do.”
“I’ll block out time after your hearing.”
Janelle felt like she never had enough time in the day, but now wasn’t the time for that lamentation. She entered her office and closed the door behind her. She didn’t need to lock it, as she’d just given Libby instructions.
She’d barely set down her bag and her coffee before she called Henry. He answered on the first ring with, “Morning, Janelle.” He sounded like he was relaxing in his back garden as he watched the sun rise over the Hill Country.
She really disliked that picturesque vision of him, not when she’d been up since before dawn to make sure the three of them got up, brushed, bathed, fed, and had everything they needed for the day in just a couple of hours.
“You called?” she asked, keeping the phone on speaker. Then, when Libby came in, Henry would be able to hear her.
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you for letting me keep Kelly overnight on Saturday.”
Janelle pressed her lips together, trying to decide if she wanted to bring up San Antonio with him or not. “She’s your daughter, Henry.”
“And I wanted to let you know that I’m in town until the New Year.”
Surprise filled her, rendering her mute for a moment. “All month?”
“Yes.”
“You’re living here, in Chestnut Springs?”
“Yes.”
The town that smothers you? She bit back those words, as she really didn’t need to fight with him. But he’d told her this small town “smothered” him and that was why he constantly needed to drive to the city.
Turned out, that was only one reason, and Henry had left the moment Janelle had told him she was going to file for divorce. Her firm had handled all the legal proceedings, and she still relied on Regina Hessler if there were any legal considerations when it came to the girls and Henry.
“Why?” she asked instead.
“I’m on a leave of absence from my firm, and I thought it would be a good to spend time with the girls. Take them Christmas shopping, help them decorate their trees, all of that.”
“A leave of absence?” Janelle was a very good lawyer, because she could pick up on the little things people said. Henry had said something big though. Janelle ran a law firm, and she didn’t just grant leaves of absences for no reason.
Usually people only requested one if they had a loved one going through a terrible heatlh crisis, in the case of a birth or death, or if they were in some sort of legal trouble themselves.
A lightbulb went off in Janelle’s head, and she said, “What’s going on, Henry? For real. Tell me the truth.”
For once.
She didn’t say that last part, because she wanted Henry to keep talking.
He sighed, but Janelle wasn’t going to let him off the hook. She could out-wait him, and they both knew it. She sat down behind her desk and reached for her coffee. Taking a sip, she could practically hear the wheels in his head start turning.
He was going to lie to her.
“I’ve been accused of something I didn’t do,” he said. “I have a friend at my firm representing me, and until it blows over, I’m on administrative leave.”
“What’s the accusation?” she asked, already reaching for her laptop. If there was a formal charge, she’d be able to find it in the state’s system.
“It’s nothing, honey,” he said smoothly. “The allegations are completely false, and I just have to get through the hearing, which isn’t until December twenty-seventh.”
She opened the Internet and started logging into the lawyer side of the court document system.
“So anyway,” he said. “I got an apartment here, and I’d love to pick the girls up from school. Take them to a gingerbread-making class I found at the community center. Take them ice skating up at Marble Falls. All that stuff we used to do as a family.”
Janelle leaned away from her computer, needing every brain cell to focus on the man’s words. “You want to pick them up from school?” He wasn’t even on the emergency contact paper, as he lived over an hour away and had literally never picked up one of his children from school. Ever.
“Sure,” he said. “I’m just sitting here right now. In fact…I also found a stocking sewing class at Buttons and Bobs, and I know Kelly would love that.”
“She would,” Janelle said, somewhat numbly. She didn’t have time to take the girls to very many after-school or weekend activities and classes. Certainly nothing where she’d need to go sit with them or supervise the use of a sewing machine or the oven. Just baking their three items each week had been a huge challenge for her. One they’d knocked out of the park, sure. But still a challenge.
“So what do you think?” Henry asked. “They go to River Springs Elementary, right?”
Her blood boiled, but Janelle couldn’t say no to him when he wanted to be a father. She could say no to him when he wanted to come back into her life. But for Kelly and Kadence…
“All right,” she said. “They get done at three-fifteen. The pick-up line is a bear, so I usually get there about fifteen minutes early. You’ll need to go into the school and ask about getting an emergency contact paper. I don’t think you’re on either of the girls’ forms.”
If Henry found that odd, he didn’t say so. “Sounds good,” he said, perfectly at ease. “I’ll get it all taken care of. Thanks, honey.”
With that, the call ended, and Janelle watched as her ex-husband’s face faded into blackness on her phone’s screen.
“What is going on?” she asked herself. Then, sha
king off the numbness, she leaned forward and finished logging in. She quickly typed in Henry Stokes to the search box, and sure enough, one case popped up.
It was a protective order case, filed almost two weeks ago by a woman named Marissa Gillmore from Austin. She claimed he’d been stalking her after their break-up and had shown up at her work, demanding she go outside with him so they could talk in private.
Janelle read the order quickly, and if she’d been hired to represent Henry, she’d bet good money she could get the order dismissed. Number one, he’d never touched Marissa in a negative way. At least, she hadn’t claimed any of that in the order.
She had filed a police report when he’d shown up on her doorstep one night, “clearly drunk” and wanting to spend the night with her. She admitted to having sex with him previously, but they’d broken up, and she’d turned him away that night.
She alleged he banged on her door for fifteen minutes and only left when the police showed up.
Janelle quickly navigated to the associated police report, and sure enough, he had been escorted off her property.
But Henry wasn’t dangerous. Was he?
Janelle reasoned he’d probably just been stressed. The next week, she’d dropped the girls off at his house northwest of Austin, and he’d seemed fine. She knew how emotionally tumultuous it was to break-up with a boyfriend. He’d just been upset about the ending of his relationship with Marissa.
Her throat felt unusually dry, and Libby poked her head into the office. “Miss Stokes. You have—oh. You’re off the phone.” She ducked into the office and strode toward Janelle’s desk. “And you’re white as a ghost. What’s going on?”
Instead of answering, she turned the computer toward Libby, whose mouth dropped open as she read the report. “Oh, my.” She looked at Janelle. “What are you going to do?”
“He’s here through the New Year,” she said. “As in, he rented an apartment here and wants to do all kinds of Christmas things with the girls.”
Libby wore concern in her eyes, but all Janelle felt was misery. She didn’t want to share the girls with Henry on a day-to-day basis. Having him live farther away and not really be interested in their lives was so much easier—for everyone.
