Chapter 6 #4
Blue felt a little dizzy. They could take Indigo? Not while he had breath! “I’ll do my best, Ms.Parker.”
“Don’t do your best, Mr.Wallace. Just do as you’re told and everything might work out okay.” He stood in stony shock as the woman walked away, the heels of her shoes clicking on the concrete floor.
Before he could even process what had just happened, Turner came thundering up. “What the fuck, Wallace? What the hell have you done now, stolen somebody’s baby?”
“I have not stolen somebody’s baby. Why would you even ask me that?” Blue said, his voice barely more than a growl.
“Well, you’ve obviously done something for the state to come after you like this,” Turner said, his eyes almost twinkling.
“I haven’t done anything, but I’m going to have to take time off work when they call and make the appointment to come to my house. I don’t have a choice, Turner. It’s that or they take her away.”
“That would be the best thing for her, honestly,” Turner said, grinning maliciously. “You have no business with a kid.”
Working hard to rein in his temper, Blue repeated, “Doesn’t matter what you think. But I’ll have to take off work for the appointment.”
“Then I’ll make this easy for you. YOU’RE FIRED!” he barked at Blue and started to laugh. “You won’t have to take any time off. You’ll have all you need.”
“You can’t do that!” Blue yelled as Turner spun and walked away. “You need me! I’m the best mechanic you’ve got!”
“I can get other mechanics, mechanics who won’t cause trouble and break the law!” he yelled back, then flipped Blue off.
Shaking with rage, Blue went back to the oil change. In less than ten minutes, a soft, feminine voice said, “Blue?”
He scooted back out from under the car to see Judy standing there. “What’s up, Judy?”
“Here.” She held out an envelope toward Blue. “He told me to get it ready. I’m so sorry.” When Blue reached out and took it, she turned and high-tailed it back to the office.
Inside the envelope was a check, and on the subject line it plainly read Last pay . He’d done it―Turner really had fired him. Blue couldn’t believe it. He had a baby and now he didn’t have a job. What the hell was he going to do?
The tools in the chest nearest him were his, so he got a box from the back and started taking them out and going through them.
When he was satisfied he had all of them, he picked up the box and looked around.
He’d worked there for quite some time, and that was all he had to show for it.
A couple of the guys turned and watched him walk out, but no one said a word to him.
He shoved the box of tools into the bed of the truck and then climbed into the cab.
When he got home, instead of going straight to Anne’s for the baby, he went into the house.
It was just a little after eleven, so he took a quick shower, changed into clean clothes, and dragged himself across the lawn.
Tapping lightly on the door, he stuck in his key, turned it, and opened the door slightly before whispering, “Anne?”
There was a rustling sound and she appeared at the door in her nightgown. “Brent? What are you doing here this time of day?”
“My boss fired me.”
“What? WHAT? No! He can’t!”
“Yeah, he did. And I’ve Galloway to thank for that,” Blue said, plopping down on her sofa.
Anne’s brow dropped into a deep furrow. “Galloway? How’d he get you fired?”
“Apparently he called social services this morning and sicced them on me. They’re going to be investigating me, Anne. They might take Indigo away from me.” Blue dropped his face into his hands. “What the hell am I going to do?”
The sofa cushion shifted as she sat down beside him.
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out, I promise.
Don’t let it get you down. It’s going to be okay somehow,” Anne said.
He felt her arm wrap around his back and she leaned her face against his upper arm.
“I don’t know how, but we’ll find a way to make it okay. ”
“No. It’s not going to be okay. I shouldn’t have even tried this.
I should’ve just turned her over to the authorities and walked away.
I wouldn’t have gotten fired. Social services wouldn’t be dogging me.
She would’ve had someone taking care of her who actually knew something about babies, and you and your friends wouldn’t have been out all the money and time you’ve invested.
And I wouldn’t have fallen…” He stopped.
He’d started to say, And I wouldn’t have fallen in love with her . He knew the truth.
In barely a week, he’d become Indigo’s daddy.
Thinking about someone taking her away was horrifying, and he couldn’t even contemplate it, but he knew it was a very real possibility.
He felt so lost and alone, even with Anne sitting there, and he scoured his brain for an answer, but there was none.
“Maybe I could just take her in the middle of the night, disappear and…”
“You can’t do that. They’ll be looking for you. What did she say?”
Blue recounted the brief meeting as best he could. When he finished, he said, “I can’t afford a paternity test.”
“You don’t have to. You have a birth certificate. You’re her father. If they want to challenge that, they’ll have to pay for the testing.”
“I get the distinct impression they don’t have to do anything if they don’t want to, and they can do any damn thing they please.” Blue leaped up from the sofa and started pacing. “I mean, they could put me in jail, Anne. They could claim I stole her from somebody and put me in jail.”
Anne reached out to him. For reasons he didn’t even understand, he reached back, and she took both of his hands in hers. “That’s not going to happen and you know it. We won’t let that happen,” she said. “Don’t get all strung out. It’ll be fine.”
“No, it won’t be.” Fear was rising in Blue like the tide at dusk. “I wish I’d just said no and taken her to a safe drop.”
“No you don’t. You don’t mean that.”
“I do. Yes, I do. Then I wouldn’t be in all this trouble, and I wouldn’t have gotten fired, and I wouldn’t―”
“Stop, Brent. I mean it. You don’t mean any of that and you know it.”
“I do! It’s not right! I don’t know anything about babies and I don’t have anything to offer a kid!
She’d be better off with someone else, someone who could take better care of her and give her a better life, not some unemployed loser with a crappy little band and a piece of shit truck and a house that’s falling down.
Somebody nice, somebody with some money and, and, and… ”
“Stop it. I mean it.”
“Somebody who would love her,” he said, snatching his hands away from her. He went back to pacing, running his fingers into his hair and pulling it hard as he paced.
“Yeah, because you don’t love her! You don’t love her at all!” Anne almost yelled at him.
Blue spun to look at her. “But I do! I love her! God damn it, I didn’t think I would, and I didn’t mean to, but I do!
” He fell to his knees and dropped face-first to the floor.
After lying there like a rag doll for a couple of minutes, he finally rolled over to look up at Anne.
“I love her like I’ve never loved anybody in my life.
And they’re going to take her away from me. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
“We’re going to fight it, that’s what we’re going to do. I need to find you an attorney, and we need to do it fast.” Anne grabbed her phone.
“What are you doing?” Blue yelled at her, pushing himself into a sitting position in the middle of the floor.
“I’m going to find you an attorney,” she said again, punching through her contacts.
“I can’t afford a damn attorney!” he yelled back. “I’m fucking unemployed, remember?”
She was punching buttons as he bellowed at her, then put her phone to her ear. “Doesn’t matter. We’ll figure something out. Yes, hello, this is AnneBlack. I work with Shelby. Could I speak to Glen, please?”
“What are you doing?” Blue whispered. “I can’t pay an attorney.”
“Yes, thank you. Could you ask him to call me? Yes, the number I’m calling from. That’ll be fine. Thank you so much.” She ended the call and stared at him. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to bother someone while they’re on the phone?”
Blue sat up and stared at her. “I don’t. Have. Any. Money. How the hell am I going to pay an attorney?”
At that very moment, Anne’s phone rang. “Hang on. Hello? Yes! Thanks for calling me back. I’m good, thanks.
How about you?” Blue wondered who the hell she was sucking up to.
“I was calling because I have a friend who’s in a bit of a jam.
It’s kind of complicated, but let’s just say the very issues that are giving him trouble caused him to be fired today, through no fault of his own.
And he needs someone to at least advise him.
I know you do a few cases a year pro bono and I wondered…
This afternoon at four? Yes, we absolutely can. Thank you, Glen. Thanks so much. Bye.”
“What the hell have you done, gotten me in debt to some attorney?” Blue asked, his voice hoarse from all the shouting.
“No. That’s Glen. He’s Shelby’s husband.” When he just stared at her, she said, “You know, the tall nurse with the gray hair?”
Blue remembered her from the shower. “Yeah. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Well, he takes two or three pro bono cases a year as a service for the bar association. And he hasn’t done that yet this year. So you’re the first. Congratulations. You just got one of the best criminal lawyers in the region for free.” Anne pursed her lips. “What do you have to say about that?”
“Thanks?” Blue said in more of a question than a statement. “I’m supposed to thank you for making me beholden to some lawyer I’ve never met?”
“No. You’re supposed to thank me for finding you somebody who can get social services off your back. That’s what you’re supposed to do.” Blue’s phone started to ring, but he just sat there, staring at her. “Don’t you think you should get that?”