Chapter 4 #2
It had always been important that she maintain her independence and not let her prominent father’s connections make life easier for her. But this was no time for foolish pride. She needed to be free of Justin, and her dad could help.
Swallowing the knot of emotion that formed in her throat, Laura pressed send on the first number on her list of favorites.
“Hi, honey,” he said. “I was just thinking about you.”
Laura smiled, and her nerves melted away. Here was the one man who’d never let her down. She had no reason to ever be nervous about asking him for anything. He’d give her the world on a silver platter if he could. She heard the worry in his voice and hated being the cause of it. “Is that right?”
“I think about you all the time. After what Justin did . . .”
“I know, Daddy. I’m sorry you’re worried about me.”
“My brother tells me you’re working hard and enjoying the hotel project.”
“I love what I’m doing here. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had.” Of course Owen was a big part of why it was so fun, not that she was ready to tell her dad that part.
“Mac says you’ve made a new friend, too. The grandson of the hotel owners?”
Laura laughed. Leave it to her uncle Big Mac to zero in on her burgeoning relationship with Owen. “Yes, his name is Owen Lawry.”
“Do you need me to run a check on him? I can get one of my state police friends to—”
“No, Dad!” she said, laughing again. “Uncle Big Mac and Aunt Linda have known him since he was a kid. He’s Evan’s best friend.”
“Well, I suppose that’s as good an endorsement as we could hope to get.” Her father paused, cleared his throat. “So, you like this boy, huh?” The question was posed in the same awkward fashion he’d used to extract information about her first teenage boyfriend.
“Yes,” Laura said, amused by him as always. “I like him. He’s been a very good friend to me through all of this.”
“I’m glad to hear you’re making new friends and putting the pieces back together.”
“I’m trying.”
“I wish I could say the same for your brother. He seems to have totally given up.”
Laura sighed, thinking of Shane’s terrible heartache over his wife’s addiction to prescription pain medication. “What’s the latest?”
“Courtney asked for a divorce.”
Laura winced. “That might be for the best, no?”
“Try telling him that. He’s waited all this time for her to get through rehab and now she wants out.”
“Did she say why?”
“He says she’s so ashamed of what she put him through that she can barely bring herself to look at him.”
Laura’s heart ached for her poor, sweet brother. He’d fallen so hard and so fast for Courtney, who’d hidden a raging addiction from him for more than a year before it blew up in her face—and his. “What will he do?”
“Once he finishes the job he’s working on now, he’s going out there to be with you for the winter. I think it’ll be good for him to get some space from everything here and clear his head.”
“We’ll take good care of him. Don’t worry.”
“All I do these days is worry about both of you.”
“I’m okay, Dad. I promise. But I do need a favor.”
“Name it, honey.”
“I have to tell Justin about the baby.” It hurt to say the words.
She was so utterly unprepared to see her philandering ex-husband again, but Owen was right.
Justin deserved to know about the baby. “I expect he’s going to give me a hard time.
The more I think about everything that happened, it’s clear to me that he was far more interested in forming a connection to you than he was in me. ”
Frank gasped. “That’s not true! He was crazy about you. I saw that with my own eyes, which is why this is so hard to believe.”
“You saw what he wanted you to see. He played us both.”
“Why would he do such a thing?”
“Why else? To further his career, which is his first love. Being Judge Frank McCarthy’s son-in-law furthers his career. That’s the only reason he’s fighting the divorce.”
“That makes me sick. You don’t think he’ll want the baby?”
“I don’t know what to expect there.” The uncertainty terrified her, not that she would admit that to her dad and give him one more thing to fret about. Since her mother died when Laura was nine and Shane was seven, her dad had been both mother and father to them.
“What can I do, honey?”
“I’m coming over this week to speak to Justin. Would you mind terribly if I threw your name around a bit if it comes to that?”
“Of course not. Do whatever it takes to get that pond scum out of your life for good.”
“He’s going to be in my life for as long as we share a child.” The thought of that was a hundred-pound weight on Laura’s chest.
“I don’t want you to see him alone.”
“Owen will be with me.” Laura knew without even asking that Owen would go with her.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Won’t it throw gas on Justin’s fire if he sees you with someone else?”
“Owen will keep his distance unless I need him.”
“If that son of a bitch has the nerve to get physical with you, I’ll kill him myself.”
“It won’t come to that. I’ll meet him in public. He’s far too concerned about what people think of him to risk a scene.”
“Will you come see me while you’re here?”
“Absolutely.”
“I want to meet your Owen, too.”
Laura’s face heated with embarrassment. “He’s hardly my Owen.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Laura laughed at his pun. “You’d better behave, do you hear me?”
“So I can’t ask his intentions?”
“Dad!”
Frank’s guffaw brought a smile to Laura’s face.
“I’ll be on my best behavior,” he said.
“Love you, Dad,” Laura said, her throat squeezing with emotion.
“Love you, too, sweetheart. Everything will be okay. I promise.”
Since her dad had never once let her down, Laura chose to believe him.