He slid off his stool and stood up. “It’s the best teacher in the world,” he said, a weak smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He threw a couple of bills on the counter. “The ice cream’s on me. Welcome back, Monique.” He turned and walked toward the outdoor playground.
“So Monique’s back,” Dillon’s younger brother, Donald, said to nobody in particular. The Bell family had just finished Sunday dinner and Donald, Dillon and their mother sat in the family room of the house where Dillon had grown up. Donald flipped TV channels using the remote while Dillon read the Sunday paper and his mother clipped coupons.
“Melissa Williams’s mother saw you two in the ice-cream shop with Calvin,” his mother added, not looking up from her coupons. “Do you think that was wise, son?” Her tone said she didn’t think it was.
“What’s wrong with Dillon having some ice cream with his old girlfriend?” Donald asked after another click of the remote. He gave Dillon a wink and a grin. “Unless he’s planning on making her his new girlfriend. Calvin sure seemed taken with her. He couldn’t talk about anything but his ‘Moni’ at dinner.”
Dillon wished Calvin were here right now, instead of out with his grandfather on their usual Sunday after-dinner walk around the block.
“You have to watch that, Dillon.” His mother rested her scissors on the stack of coupons in her lap. “You can’t afford to let Calvin get attached to people who aren’t going to be permanent in his life.”
Dillon had firsthand experience with getting attached to the wrong people. He thought he’d played it safe after Monique, but Teena, his ex-wife, had gotten to him through Calvin. How could a mother desert her son the way Teena had? he asked himself for the thousandth time. But he had no answer. Women were a mystery to him. He’d long given up trying to understand them. All he wanted was to keep his son safe and happy. So even if he’d rather stay away from Monique, Calvin’s happiness took priority. And, right now, it seemed Monique made him happy. “Look, Ma, like I told you already, Calvin and I ran into Monique over at the school. Calvin liked her, so I invited her to have ice cream with us.”
“You invited her?” his mother interrupted. She pulled off her glasses and let them hang from the gold chain around her neck. Dillon knew this meant the subject had her full attention. “You never told us that. You made it sound like she just tagged along. Why did you invite her?”
Dillon looked at his watch. Why was it taking his father and Calvin so long to walk around the block?
“He invited her because he wanted her company, Ma,” Donald answered for his brother. “I, for one, am glad he did. I always liked Monique.”
“You were the only one,” his mother said. She lifted her right hand and wagged her index finger in the air. “I knew that girl was trouble the first day I met her. And she broke your brother’s heart just like I thought she would.”
Dillon stood up, tired of listening to his mother and brother talk about him as if he weren’t in the room. “I’m going to meet Dad and Calvin. I need to get Calvin home and to bed.”
His mother stood and followed him to the door. “There’s no need for you to leave now. You never leave this soon after we eat.”
“Well, I have to get up early in the morning,” Dillon said, not slowing down. He knew that if he stayed, he’d be subject to more discussion about him and Monique. Not exactly the way he wanted to spend the evening.
“Are you sure?” his mother asked.
“I’m sure, Ma.” He turned and kissed her on the cheek. “Good night, Ma. I love you.”
“I know you do, son,” his mother said in response. “You’re a good boy, Dillon. Now be careful driving home. And tell your father to give Calvin a big hug for me.”
“Okay,” he said, stepping out of the screen door and onto the porch. “I’ll tell him.”
Dillon hopped off the porch into the now cool August evening. When he reached the sidewalk, he took the reverse of the route that his father and Calvin had taken, hoping he’d run into them on their way back to the house.
As he walked down the street that had been his childhood playground, thoughts of Monique rushed to the surface. Thoughts that had been long suppressed. God, how he’d loved that girl.
She’d been everything he thought he could ever want in a woman, a wife. And, in his youthful innocence, he’d thought they would spend the rest of their lives together. How quickly that dream had turned into a nightmare.
Monique had been talking about the senior prom all year. She’d said that she wanted it to be a night they’d always remember. He sighed the sigh of the weary. Well, she’d gotten her wish. That night was etched in his brain and he’d never forget it.
He could still feel the panic he’d felt when he’d gone to her house to pick her up and her aunt had answered the door.
“She’s gone,” her aunt had said. “Took her suitcases and just left.”
At first he’d thought he’d heard wrong, but the woman repeated her words.
“But she can’t be gone,” he’d tried to explain. “Tonight is Prom Night.”
“She didn’t care about any prom,” the aunt had said with a shake of her head. “That dress of hers is still in her room.”
Those words had sent Dillon rushing past the older woman and up the stairs to Monique’s bedroom. Just as the aunt had said, Monique’s blue-and-white gown was on the bed. He hadn’t known what to think, so he’d rushed back downstairs and questioned her aunt some more.
“Where’d she go?” he’d asked, all the while feeling panic rise in his throat. She couldn’t have gone and left him. She would never do that to him, he’d naively thought.
Monique’s aunt had just shrugged her shoulders, making him want to shake her. “She couldn’t have just left,” he said aloud. “What did she say?”
“Didn’t say nothing,” the old woman had said. “But she did leave you a note on the table over there.”
Dillon had rushed to the end table next to the couch. When he’d seen the flat envelope with his name on it, he ripped open the pale beige envelope and snatched out the letter.
As he read the terse words from the girl he’d loved more than his own life, the bottom dropped out of his world.
Chapter Two
“I gotta go, Mom.” The words rushed out of young Glenn’s mouth. “Jonathan’s dad’s taking us to see Michael Jordan. We’re gonna get autographs and everything.”
“All right, then, go on,” Monique said, hoping her disappointment didn’t reflect in her voice and carry through the phone line. Her nine-year-old was growing up. She didn’t know if she liked that. “But Glenn—”
“Aw, Mom…”
“Don’t ‘Aw, Mom,’ me. You listen to Jonathan’s dad and don’t give him any trouble. Do you hear me?”
She imagined him tapping the heel of his sneaker against the floor, his trademark motion of impatience. “I hear you, Mom. Can I go now?”
“May I go,” she automatically corrected.
“Okay, may I go now?”
She sighed. “Yes, you may. I love you, Glenn, and I’ll see you soon.”
“I love you, too, Mom.” Glenn parroted her words without much thought. “Here’s Aunt Sue. I gotta go.”
Monique heard Sue’s last-minute instructions for Glenn’s behavior. She knew she had nothing to worry about when Glenn was with her sister-in-law, but that didn’t keep Monique from worrying. Recently, Glenn had been having problems that she knew were related to his missing his father. It had been three years since Charles’s death, but the doctors had said Glenn’s delayed reaction was normal. They’d said he was at the age when he needed a father most, and it was only natural that he act out.
“Whew,” came Sue’s tired voice. “Sorry about that, Monique.”
“Did he have a bad day today?” she asked, wishing she weren’t three hundred miles away from her baby. “He’s not giving you any trouble, is he?”
“Not really, but then you know Glenn can be a handful even on his
good days.”
The affection in Sue’s voice helped Monique to relax because she knew it meant Glenn was having a good day. “Right now, Sue, he could be Attila the Hun and I wouldn’t complain. I miss my baby.”
Sue laughed and the clear, happy sound made Monique smile. Sue’s happiness had that effect on people. “You’d better not let Glenn hear you call him a baby. Somebody must have told him he was a little man because that’s exactly the way he’s acting.”
Sue’s words made Monique miss her son even more. “I need him with me, Sue. We’ve never been apart before.”
Sue seemed to sober quickly. “I know that, but I also know that you have to do some heavy-duty preparation work before you can bring Glenn to Elberton. Have you made any progress?”
Monique’s fingers traced the buttons on the telephone keypad. “I saw Dillon today.”
“Well, that was quick. What happened?”
“Nothing much. We went for ice cream. I met his son.”
“His other son, you mean,” Sue corrected.
“Whatever,” Monique retorted. “His name’s. Calvin and he’s a wonderful four-year-old, a lot like Glenn was at his age. He even let me hold his hand. I can’t remember the last time Glenn voluntarily let me hold his hand.”
Sue’s silence spoke volumes. Monique knew her sister-in-law was waiting for her to talk about Dillon, not his son. Unfortunately, Monique found talking about Calvin pleasurable, while talking about Dillon made her sad.
“Dillon’s still angry,” Monique said after a few more moments of silence. “I don’t blame him, but it hurts to know that I’m responsible for his anger. He couldn’t get away from me fast enough at the icecream shop. I don’t know how he’s going to take my news.”
“He’ll be surprised. Probably angry at first, but he’ll come around.”
Leave it to Sue to respond to a rhetorical statement with reason. It was another trait that Monique admired in her. “I wish I could be as confident as you are.”
“You’ll be fine, Monique. Don’t worry so.”
Monique smiled. “What did I do to deserve a wonderful sister like you?”
“You married my brother and you took care of him,” Sue responded. “I’ll always owe you for that. You and Glenn made the last few years of Charles’s life worth living.”
Tears formed in Monique’s eyes. “Charles was good to me, too, Sue. It wasn’t all one-sided.”
“I know the sacrifice you made for my brother, Monique, and I don’t know if I could have made that same sacrifice had I been in your position. You’re a good woman, a good person, and because of all the good you’ve done, you’re due to reap more goodness. Trust me.”
Monique wished she could, but she didn’t have Sue’s optimism. She’d grown up knowing that if she stood a fifty-fifty chance of having good luck, she’d definitely have bad luck. She could have been the poster child for Murphy’s Law. If something bad could happen, it definitely would happen to her.
Though she’d married Charles to save Dillon from the disaster she was so sure she would ultimately bring to his life, she’d come to care deeply for the older man. He’d encouraged her to become a person she could be proud of.
She’d gotten her advanced degree in education and found a career that she thought was perfect for her. And, most importantly, she’d learned to be a good mother to her son. She’d been afraid a lot at first, but over time she’d come to accept that she could love and care for a baby. And that she could do it well. She had Charles to thank for that, too.
But when Charles had gotten ill, some of her newly found optimism about life and what it had to offer her had wavered. Though she knew she hadn’t been the cause of Charles’s illness or his death, she felt that the Fates had played a horrible trick on her. They’d allowed her to hope and then they’d tried to take her to the depths of despair, but her love for Glenn and the knowledge that he needed her had kept her sane and steady. It was because of Glenn that she was back in Elberton.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Sue,” Monique said after a long pause. “You’re the sister I never had.”
“The same goes for me, Monique. We’re family and we’ll always be. Don’t you ever forget that.”
“I won’t,” Monique said, close to tears again. “Look, I’d better get off this phone. I’m going to need all of my energy for my talk with Dillon.”
“Well, I’ll let you go so you can get some sleep. And don’t worry so much. Things will work out for you and Dillon. Just keep believing that.”
“I’m not looking for things to work out between me and Dillon,” Monique corrected. “I’ve told you that. I just want him and Glenn to have a relationship. I owe my son that much.”
“If you say so, but I know you better than that. I’ve watched you turn away man after man for some flimsy reason or another—”
“That’s not true,” Monique interrupted. “I just haven’t met the right man.”
“And you won’t until you get over Dillon. You still love him, Monique.”
Monique sighed. There was no use arguing with Sue. They’d had this conversation many times before, and she knew she couldn’t win. “I guess we’re at a stalemate on this topic. Again.”
Sue chuckled. “That’s all right. You’ll come around.”
“Sue!”
“Good night, Monique. Keep me posted.”
Monique said good-night with a grim smile on her face. She couldn’t afford to be swayed by Sue’s optimism. The fact was that she and Dillon had a past, but only Dillon and Glenn had a future. She’d have to remember that, because she knew if she forgot it, the Fates would find some cruel way of reminding her.
Monique dropped down on a weather-beaten bench at the park around the block from the last rental she’d visited. Though it was only noon, she’d already viewed six houses and one apartment. Nothing she’d seen compared to the house she was leaving behind, but the house she’d just seen, a sprawling colonial, did have potential for a short-term stay. It was within walking distance of the park and the elementary school where Glenn would be enrolled. It could work.
She rubbed her hands down her denim-encased legs and hunched her shoulders together, working the kinks out of her back. She’d been in Elberton two days and already she was stressed out. At the rate she was going, she’d be a basket case before she got around to giving Dillon her news.
“Moni! Moni!”
Monique looked up in the direction of the familiar voice. She smiled and opened her arms when she saw Calvin and Dillon coming her way. Again the twosome were dressed in matching shorts. Calvin’s short legs pumped furiously as he rushed toward her, obviously glad to see her. When he was about three feet from her, he launched himself into her arms.
“Hold on there, slugger,” Dillon called, leaning forward to pull Calvin off Monique. “You’re going to hurt somebody.”
“It’s Moni,” Calvin said with a grin. “Hi, Moni. We’re going to the lake. Wanna come? We’re gonna catch some fish.”
Monique turned up her nose. “I don’t think I want to go fishing.”
Calvin’s lips turned down in disappointment. “’Cuz you’re a girl?”
Monique fought back a smile. She knew an affirmative answer to that question would definitely lower her stock in the young boy’s eyes. She tweaked his nose. “No. Because I don’t have a fishing pole.”
“Oh,” Calvin said, his brows bunched together as if he were thinking of a solution to her problem. When his eyes widened and his broad grin returned, Monique knew he’d found one. “You can use my pole. I can show you.”
Monique smiled at the little boy. A part of her wanted to go fishing with Dillon and him, but another part of her didn’t feel comfortable spending time with them when she held a secret that would drastically affect their lives. She looked down at Calvin’s smiling face then back up at Dillon’s.
Dillon saw the question in her eyes and the hope in Calvin’s. “Come with us,” he said. “Calvin
’s a good fisherman. He’ll teach you well.”
“You’re sure?” she asked, undecided on which action to take.
He nodded. “I’m sure. You’ve woven your spell around another Bell man, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
His anger was still there, she knew. Though she didn’t hear it in the tone of his voice, it was there in those dark, hooded eyes of his. What was he thinking? she wondered. Did he hate her? Would he hate her more when he found out her secret?
“So what’s it going to be?” Dillon asked.
She smiled down at Calvin and the hope in the little boy’s eyes decided for her. “Are you ready to give me my first fishing lesson?”
After about two hours on the lake with Calvin, Dillon and the mosquitoes, Monique was ready to admit she’d made the wrong decision. Fishing was definitely not the sport for her. She preferred professional basketball. Held indoors in an air-conditioned building. She looked back over her shoulder at her fishing teacher, now asleep in the shade directly behind the bank where she and Dillon sat. She wanted more than anything to join him, as much to get away from the strained silence between her and Dillon as to get away from the mosquitoes. She turned away from the sleeping Calvin and focused her attention on trying to kill at least one of the thousands of mosquitoes that had decided she made for good eating.
“You should use some more of the spray.” Dillon’s flat voice broke the silence between them. “Those mosquitoes seem to like you.”
She batted at another one of the beasts and missed. “I know now why I never fished before. When did you start?” What she wanted to ask was why the bothersome insects spared him their attention. The man looked too comfortable for words sitting there in his plaid knee-length shorts and red T-shirt as if he didn’t have a care in the world. If they had a relationship that was anywhere in shaking distance of a friendship, she’d push him in the lake.
“The summer after high school graduation,” he said in answer to her question. “I spent a lot of time out here thinking. Fishing is a solitary sport even when you’re with people. I needed time alone.”
Second Chance Dad Page 2
