frame. “I’ll head back as soon as I can. Can you stay with him until I get there?”
“We’re headed into Gatlinburg right now.” Christina cursed as the truck slipped its gears with a loud groan. “If this rust bucket makes it that far. I can’t believe the situations I get myself in.”
Brett understood her completely.
He’d never imagined he’d be a single dad, either.
“Yeah, I get that. Please, take him to the doctor, and then straight back home. If I hear that Leanne gets a visit or finds her way back into my house because of this, I will—”
“I don’t know where she is, Brett. Save your breath and your threats for some other woman who isn’t doing her best to get a sick boy some medication all the while driving a truck that should have been turned into scrap metal ten years ago.” Christina cursed under her breath as the truck groaned again. “Sorry, Parks. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Since the truck provoked the same reaction from him until he worked the kinks out, it was impossible to be mad about her language. The fact that she felt it necessary to apologize to his son and explain why convinced Brett she had enough love for the kid to pull it off.
“Can you stay with him?” Brett repeated as he tried to calculate how long he’d be. “I’ll be home by ten.” He thought he could do that without breaking the law too much.
“Listen,” Christina said before she paused, “don’t do anything crazy. I hear your panic. Until I picked him up, I shared it. He’s okay. I solemnly vow to do nothing other than what you’ve asked me to do. Do the right thing for you, Brett. I can handle this. Here, talk to Parker while I make this right turn.”
Brett could see the crowded intersection in his mind. In that truck, she’d have to concentrate.
“Hi, Dad, sorry I’m sick.” Parker’s voice was husky, as if a cough or congestion had roughened it, but otherwise he sounded fine. “Diane thought it was allergies.”
Yeah, she’d thought the same thing every time he’d had a cold himself. “No problem, bud. Aunt Chris is going to get you some cough medicine, some other stuff to help if you have an infection.”
“I should be all better by the time you get home and we can go fishing.” Parker’s voice perked up, and Brett relaxed. His son wasn’t dealing with the end of his career or the panic over finding reliable help or even the anger of his mother walking out. He was focused on one of his favorite things: fishing at Otter Lake with Brett. No matter what else happened in this world, his son was okay. He wasn’t broken by being left in a school office all alone. He was okay.
“We’ll see. Let me talk to Aunt Chris again. I love you, Parker.” Brett dodged the crowd that poured out the doors of the classroom and eased back in to pick up his stuff. By the time their break was over, he could be on the road to Sweetwater.
“Everything is under control, Officer. I’ll hang with Parker and Riley when the bus comes until your mother makes it home. There’s no need to drop everything.” Christina sighed. “That’s what you’re planning, right? To come back now because nothing and no one will be okay until you’re back in control?”
The sting of her words might have hurt, but it was impossible to argue with them.
“If he was your son, you’d do the same thing.” Brett wasn’t sure he’d ever considered the question about what kind of mother Christina would be, but at this point, it was front and center. He’d watched her with Parker and Riley ever since they were born. She’d always been as fiercely proud of the kids and protective against any slights as Leanne had, but she’d never once walked away from them. She was saving him, even though he’d made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her.
Christina’s loyalty to his kids was beyond reproach.
“I’ll lose my job if I bail on this training session.” As soon as the admission slipped out of his mouth, he regretted it. Giving her any sense of his weakness meant she’d have an opportunity to exploit it.
The silence on the other end of the call almost had him convinced it had dropped as she’d moved through the hills of East Tennessee.
He was prepared to end the call when she said, “Stay, Brett. Your mother and I have this handled.”
He wanted to argue.
Nothing he could come up with would have sounded sincere.
“I’ll pay you for babysitting them, Christina.” Twice what she deserved, obviously. “You can name your price.”
Her disgusted huff of breath prepared him. “I’m not going to charge you for getting to spend time with my niece and nephew, you stiff-necked, pompous...” Whatever she saw, hopefully his son’s inquisitive face, stopped Christina in her tracks. “But I’m keeping the truck and the keys for...a week. It’s the least you can do.”
Brett blinked slowly. She was right. It was the least he could do. In fact, if he’d been a more generous person, he’d have already offered her that when he heard about Leanne taking her car.
She could have asked for the world in return for her help. At the very least, she could have bargained hard for Leanne. Instead, she was only asking for the one thing a good neighbor would easily loan to another.
What was wrong with him? When had he become so hard?
“Definitely. You drive the truck as long as you need it, but I’m going to help you with...something.” He wasn’t sure what she needed most, a car or money, and he didn’t have much extra lying around the house, but he wanted her to understand how much he appreciated her stepping up.
“Can’t stand owing me a favor, can you?”
Brett hoped Parker didn’t hear the bitter tone of her laugh. They had so much history, all of it tangled and angry at this point. But she’d still come through when he needed her. How long would it take for the bad taste in his mouth over his complete lack of choices and the slight pinch of shame over how he’d cut her from his life in a self-righteous act labeled “protecting his children” to disappear?”
“You know me pretty well.” Of course she did. They’d grown up together. She could exploit so many of his weaknesses if she wanted, anytime, but she’d had that power all along and never used it. “Guess that’s something we have in common, the stubborn refusal to accept help.”
It wasn’t much in the way of a return volley, but he could live with it.
“Be prepared for payback. It won’t mean writing a check, either. I don’t want to sneak around to check up on Parker and Riley, not anymore.” Christina ended the call before he could say anything else or give her orders on what to do at the doctor’s office or when to call him. The rest of the class filed back into the room before he could hit the return button.
Then he realized what she’d said. She’d been sneaking around, visiting his kids behind his back? He would have sworn he knew everything happening with Parker and Riley.
He couldn’t investigate that now. Brett had a choice. Either he could gamble his career and race back to Sweetwater to take care of the most important thing in his life, his family.
Or...
