As she let herself into her apartment and got ready for bed, she wondered about the woman Dillon had married. Had his heart been broken when she’d left him and Calvin? Did he still miss her? Did he want her back? So many questions she had, but no answers. And no right to ask for any. Not that the answers would matter. Calvin deserved better than the treatment his mother had given him, and Monique was going to see that he got it.
After she’d undressed and put on her nightclothes, she brushed her teeth and climbed into bed though it was only eight-thirty. She picked up her phone and dialed Sue’s number.
Glenn answered.
“How’s my boy?” she asked.
“When are you coming home, Mom?” Glenn asked.
Monique’s heart quickened. She hadn’t really thought he was going to miss her. Sometimes she felt so useless to him. “I’ll be home this weekend. Guess what?”
“What?”
“I found us a house. You’re going to love it, Glenn. It has a big yard and a big tree with a tree house.”
“I don’t want to move,” Glenn said. “I want to stay with Aunt Sue. I don’t want to move.”
“Glenn,” Monique said patiently. “We’ve talked about this.”
“I don’t care. I’m not moving. I’m not moving.”
“Glenn,” Monique said in a raised voice, but it was no use. Glenn had left the phone.. She heard mumbled words, which she assumed were coming from Sue and Glenn.
“He didn’t mean that, Monique,” Sue’s exasperated voice said when she came on the line. “He had a rough day today.”
Monique sat up straight in the bed. “What happened?”
Sue sighed. “Nothing really. Jonathan’s father had promised to take Jonathan and Glenn out for pizza tonight, but he had to cancel because of work. Glenn didn’t understand.”
Monique heard Sue’s words, but she also heard what Sue wasn’t saying and she felt her son’s pain. She thought about Calvin and how alike he and Glenn were. Two young boys in so much pain. “What am I going to do with him, Sue? What can I do?”
“You’re doing what you can right now. You’re making it possible for Glenn to know his father and the other half of his family. That’s what he needs.”
Monique knew Sue was right. She sighed. “I told Dillon last night.”
“Last night? Why didn’t you call me? How was it?”
“It was tough. He was angry. He still is. But he wants to meet Glenn. We’re coming up this weekend, if that’s all right.”
“You know it’s all right. This is what we wanted, remember? How are you doing, Monique? I know this has to be hard on you.”
“I’m hanging in there.” Barely, she added to herself.
“Stop being brave. This is me you’re talking to. How are you really doing?”
How did she feel? Monique didn’t really know. While she hated the anger that she felt coming from Dillon, she understood it and she accepted that she was going to have to live with it until he decided to let it go. “I’m happy, but anxious about his meeting Glenn. What if they don’t get along?”
“So what if they don’t? They will in time. Now, don’t go looking for bad news.”
Monique wondered if she were being naive about the entire situation. Could she really expect Glenn and Dillon to meet each other and immediately become friends as well as father and son? No, she knew she couldn’t. They had a long road ahead of them. In time, she hoped they’d develop a father-son relationship or something pretty close.
“Dillon’s wife left him and his son.”
“Oh” was Sue’s only response.
“It’s been hard on Calvin. I don’t think he’s gotten over it yet. I don’t know if he will. I didn’t.”
“You’re wrong, Monique. You did get over it. You found out that you were loved and that you could love. You found out that your parents and your aunt were the ones who were wrong, not you. Calvin will do the same. You and Glenn will help him.”
Monique pictured Calvin’s sweet face in her mind. “How do they do it? How do parents desert their children?”
“I don’t know, Monique. At least Calvin was left with a loving father.”
Monique knew that put the boy leagues ahead of her as a young child. Not only did Calvin have Dillon, he also had his grandparents and his uncles. All she’d had at his age was a spiteful and unloving aunt who never ceased to tell her how much of a burden she was. “Dillon is good with Calvin,” she said. “They’re really close.”
“From what you’ve told me about Dillon, I know he has a big heart. A heart that can take in a couple more people to love.”
“It doesn’t matter about me, Sue,” Monique said, refusing to entertain thoughts of being on the receiving end of Dillon’s love again. “I just want him to have room for Glenn. Did he go to bed?”
“He’s in his room, but I doubt he’s asleep. Do you want me to try and get him on the phone?”
What Monique wanted was to be able to go into Glenn’s room and hold him in her arms until he fell asleep. “Please do,” she said. “I want to say goodnight to him.”
While Monique waited for Sue to get Glenn to the phone, she thought about her aunt. The woman had moved out of Elberton a few years after Monique had left, and gone to live in a retirement community in Florida. She’d often talked about leaving Elberton, but Monique had been surprised to learn she’d actually done it.
She’d gotten in touch with the older woman once and tried to build a bridge for Glenn’s sake, but her aunt was still as bitter as she’d been when Monique had left town. So Monique accepted that neither she nor her son were going to have a relationship with their only blood relative. That was sad, but for them it was also a fact of life.
“No, Darnell,” Dillon said to his older brother. He’d called him and told him about Monique and Glenn right after he’d put Calvin to bed. After Darnell had expressed his opinion of Monique—which Dillon couldn’t dispute—he offered to take the next plane to Elberton. “You don’t have to come all the way home just because of this,” Dillon said.
Darnell offered stiff resistance but Dillon was finally able to convince him not to make the trip. “Thanks, man,” Dillon said. “You’re not bad for a big brother.”
Dillon hung up the phone with a much lighter load on his shoulders. He could always rely on his family’s support. Sometimes they offered too much of it, but he didn’t mind, because he’d come to count on them over the years. Even when they didn’t agree with him, they stood with him.
And this would make the second time they’d had to stand with him as he fought his way through Monique’s fallout. The first time he’d been a heartbroken boy, refusing to believe that she’d left him of her own free will. Sure, they tried to convince him that she’d gone just as her letter had said. But when they’d seen that he wasn’t able to accept her letter as the end, they’d helped him find her. And when he’d come face-to-face with a married and pregnant Monique, they’d taken him back home and never murmured the words I told you so. They would never know how much he’d appreciated that consideration. Of course, as the years passed and he’d matured, they’d felt free to express their opinions vocally. But by then, he was emotionally able to handle it, so their words hadn’t bothered him. Much.
He needed their support again tonight and he was sure he was going to get it. They were family, and he could count on them. Sure, his mother would fuss, his father might cuss and Donald would joke, but when it was over, they’d ask what he needed from them and when he told them, they would give it to him.
He had another son. Though he knew it was true because he had the pictures to prove it, he still couldn’t believe it. Not really. And he wouldn’t until he saw Glenn face-to-face, until he held him in his arms. This child born of the love he’d shared with the girl he’d thought he would grow old with. He’d been so young then. And so cocky. Maybe too cocky. He’d said he would love her forever and he’d meant it with everything that was in him. He’d loved Monique m
ore than he could have imagined loving anybody. His love had made him go against his family. If she’d asked him to choose between them, there would have been no doubt that he would have chosen her. She’d been his heart.
And his heart had been ripped out when she’d left him. Now she was back, and she still had his heart in her hands.
A son. She’d given him a son. Somehow it seemed right that something tangible should have come from a love that was, for him, so powerful.
When he looked back on it now, he knew he and Monique had been too young to feel the emotions they’d felt for each other. He wondered how things would have turned out for them if they had met in college instead of in high school.
But they hadn’t met in college. They met in high school, fell in love and separated. And now they were back together. Not in the way they had been, but back together just the same. Their son was the bond that would connect them forever.
He thought he heard a noise and went to check on his sleeping son. The night-light illuminated Calvin’s face and showed that he was sleeping soundly. The love he felt for the boy in the bed was immeasurable. He hadn’t known such a love could exist until he’d held the newborn Calvin in his arms. At that moment, his life had irrevocably changed. Every step he took, every decision he made, was made with Calvin in mind.
He’d been concerned about how Calvin would respond to the news that he had an older brother. Not surprisingly, when Dillon had given his son the news and told him about making the trip with Monique to see him, Calvin had expressed more concern about when and if his father was coming back than he had at the news that he had a big brother. Dillon understood fully the cause of his son’s insecurity and he again cursed Teena.
Now he had a second son to consider. He eased Calvin’s door shut and went back to the living room to await his parents and Donald. They knocked at the door before he was seated.
“What’s wrong, Dillon?” his mother asked, leading the trio into the house. “Why couldn’t you tell us over the phone? You aren’t getting married to that girl, are you?”
Dillon raised his brows, causing his father and brother to shrug their shoulders. “Who knows where she gets her ideas, boy,” his father said, taking a seat on the couch next to his mother. Daniel and Katherine Bell were the perfect couple. Daniel, the stereotypical gruff and rough patriarch on the surface but a pushover underneath, was the perfect foil for the maternal and protective instincts of his wife.
“They’re always together,” his mother continued. “Harriet Jones told me they were at the Dinner Plate last night. Do you have to take her everywhere you go, Dillon? What are people going to think?”
Dillon shook his head, dropped down on the coffee table and faced his family. “I’m not getting married, Ma. You’d be the first to know if I were.”
“Well, I would hope so,” his mother said.
His father leaned forward and clasped his hands together. “Well, what did you want to talk to us about, son?”
“Yeah,” Donald added. “Why’d you call us over here? I had to cut my date short. And the evening was just getting interesting.”
“Donald!” his mother admonished.
“Aw, Ma,” Donald said with a smile that Dillon knew had seduced many an unsuspecting woman. “I’m just teasing.”
“Well, you can just stop teasing until we find out what your brother wants.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Donald said with fake contrition.
“Go on, Dillon,” his mother said. “Tell us what it is you want to talk about.”
Though he had considered many ways to break the news to his parents, right now direct seemed to be the best option. He took a deep breath. “Monique and I have a son. Together.”
“What?” was his mother’s response.
“A son?” was his father’s.
“That was fast work!” was Donald’s.
“What are you talking about, Dillon?” his mother asked. “How can you and Monique have a son? She’s only been here a few days.”
“Our son is nine years old. She was pregnant when she left town ten years ago.”
“But I thought she was married.”
“She was married,” Dillon explained. “She got married after she found out she was pregnant. The boy is mine.”
His father cleared his throat. “I hate to ask this, son, but how do you know for sure that the boy is yours?”
Dillon reached behind him and picked up the pictures he’d taken from Monique. He handed one to his mother and the other to his father.
“Well, I’ll be,” said his father.
“How could she?” asked his mother.
“I always knew you had it in you,” said Donald.
Chapter Six
Dillon was glad he’d suggested they drive to Charleston. He felt it gave him some control in a situation that was, by the minute, proving itself to be totally out of control. Monique had suggested taking the short commuter flight, but he’d preferred the five-hour drive, thinking it would give him time to prepare himself. He was more nervous about meeting his son than he had been about going on his first date with Monique.
He glanced over at Monique. Her eyes were closed and her head lay against the headrest. He would have thought she was calm but for the constant thrumming of her fingers against the door handle. She was as nervous as he was. No matter his feelings about what she had done to him, he didn’t doubt her love for her son. Their son. And that knowledge was beginning to make it difficult for him to keep his emotional distance. He and Monique had too much history. Too many good memories fought against the bad memories for space in his mind.
“Tell me some more about Glenn,” Dillon asked, needing to direct his thoughts back to his son and away from Monique.
She stirred next to him and sat up straighter. “You don’t want to get me started again. I can talk about him all day.”
He gave her a small smile. “And I could listen all day. I’m his father, remember?”
She looked out the passenger window. “Of course I remember.”
He knew she’d taken his remark as an attack, but he hadn’t meant it that way. He’d only wanted her to know that he was as hungry for news about his son as she was eager to talk about him. “So tell me something,” he encouraged.
She turned back to him with uncertain eyes. “He’s a great boy, Dillon. He’s just going through a rough time right now.”
“Since your husband died, you mean?” The word husband was hard on his lips. He didn’t like thinking of her as another man’s wife.
“Since then, yes. He’s become so needy, but it’s not me he needs.”
She made her last statement with such sadness that he wanted to reach out and touch her. “Let’s hope it’s me, then.”
“I hope so, but he may be a hard case.”
“I know,” he said. “You’ve told me that already.” And she had. She’d told him about Glenn’s erratic behavior. His outbursts. The disconcerting way he handled disappointment. Again, Dillon thought that what was going on with Glenn was not much different than what was going on with Calvin. Both boys felt deserted. “He’ll come around.”
“What makes you so sure?” she asked.
“He’s my son, isn’t he?”
She laughed. The sound was a balm to his anxious heart. “He is that. When he’s not being a holy terror, he’s as sweet and even-tempered as I’ve always known you to be.”
Her words made him remember the time when they’d been as close as any two people could be. She’d called him her sweet, sweet Dillon. He’d been embarrassed and a little bit insulted the first time she’d done so. But he’d soon come to cherish the words on her lips. They were her special endearment for him, and they never ceased to make his heart fill with love for her. He’d been so young back then. So young that her words could bring him to his knees with gratitude that she was his. That they were one.
Monique knew from Dillon’s silence that he was remembering. Her words had triggered her memorie
s, as well. “Sweet Dillon” she’d called him back then. The sweet boy who’d come into her dreary life like a knight on horseback. Her own personal savior.
She’d known what she was risking when they made love, but to her young mind the risk had been worth it. She’d been so needy for love, for companionship, that she would have done anything for Dillon. Not that he pressured her in any way. No, Dillon had always been the perfect gentleman. The first and only time they’d made love had been at her insistence. She’d had a terrible argument with her aunt and the older woman had said horrible things to her. When Dillon had picked her up for their date that night and she’d seen the love and caring in his eyes, she’d decided then that she needed him. She’d needed his love to wash away the hate that her aunt had poured over her.
Afterward Dillon had told her again how much he loved her and how he felt as though they were now married. But they hadn’t been married. They’d been high school students in way above their heads. Way, way above their heads. That one time had been the only time they’d made love. But it had been enough.
“You know, Monique,” Dillon said, interrupting her thoughts, “I love him even though I’ve never met him. And I have to believe that he’s going to feel how much I love him and that’ll make a difference.”
She remembered how safe and secure she’d felt in Dillon’s love. When he loved, he gave his all and it was a heady experience to be on the receiving end of his love. “It’s made a difference with Calvin, hasn’t it?”
He sighed. “I like to think so. Calvin’s had a rough time, but together we’re making it.”
Monique wanted to ask why his wife had left him and Calvin, but she knew she didn’t have the right. “He’s a sweet boy. He reminds me a lot of Glenn at his age.”
“Calvin’s doing better, but I don’t know if he’ll ever get over his mother’s desertion.”
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