Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-seven
Caleb
I woke with a start, disoriented at first. Then the sweet woman next to me moved, and I came back to myself.
Alice was sound asleep, her head tucked on my shoulder, breathing even. I looked around the room in the dark, remembering we were at her house. We didn’t spend a lot of time here. We both preferred the ranch, but her house was a lot more convenient to town.
Plans were coming together in my mind. How I wanted us to be.
A timeline of when that would happen. Jesse’d be on board.
I knew that, but we’d have a discussion anyway.
By the end of the summer, Alice would be a permanent fixture at my house.
No more missing nights together. I’d wasted enough time.
She belonged with me, and I was better when she was at my side.
I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, wondering why I was awake when it was pitch dark outside and Alice had worn me out. By any stretch, I should have been as fast asleep as she was.
Turning, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand to check the time. Just as I registered it was a few minutes past midnight, it vibrated with an incoming call from Jesse.
I knifed upright, bringing the phone to my ear. “Jesse? You okay?”
“Dad?” The tremble in his voice put me on red alert. “Uh…sorry, I don’t know if I should have called you…”
I did my level best to stay calm, even though my insides were screaming. “What’s going on, bud?”
“Something weird is happening. Kent’s here, and I think something’s wrong.”
I shot to my feet, my fingers shoved in my hair. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” I could almost hear him shaking his head. Probably pacing around his room too. “He…I was sleeping, and something loud outside woke me up. Then I heard him and Mom talking. I think she was crying. I went to check, and Kent was kind of all…bloody.”
Shit. What the hell was going on?
“Okay. Stay in your room. I’m in town at Alice’s. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He made a choked sound, and it was a shot to my gut. “You don’t have to come,” he whispered.
I had to clear the panic from my throat before I could speak again. “You need me?”
After a short pause, he answered, “Yeah.”
“I’m coming. Hold tight, bud.”
I threw down my phone and searched for my clothes in the dark. I was coming up empty, about ready to head over in my briefs, when a light flicked on. Alice was already skirting the bed, a bundle of clothes in her arms.
“Here.” She thrust my jeans and T-shirt at me. “Give me two minutes, and I’ll be ready.”
“No, darlin’, go back to sleep.” I yanked my shirt over my head. “I can handle this.”
She shook her head as she darted around the room, slipping on her discarded sundress and shoving her feet into a pair of flip-flops. She was fully dressed, her phone in her hand, before I’d gotten my jeans zipped up.
“Is Jesse okay?”
“Think so, but something’s going on in that house he doesn’t need to be a part of.” I took her by the waist and rolled my forehead along hers. “I’m going to pick him up and take him home.”
“Okay. I’m coming too.” She said it so firmly there was no room for argument. There was no time either. I needed to get to my boy and see with my own two eyes he was okay.
“All right.” I held the back of her head, making sure she was hearing me. “But no matter what, you’re staying in the truck.”
“I’ll do what you need me to.”
It wasn’t an agreement, but it was as good as I was going to get right now.
It took exactly three minutes to drive from Alice’s house to Shelby’s. As much as I liked living out on the ranch, I was thanking my lucky stars I’d been in town. I didn’t know if I could have handled a thirty-minute drive to get to Jesse. As it was, my heart was damn near ready to explode.
I had my phone to my ear as I strode up the walk to the front door. Jesse answered on the first ring.
“Dad?”
“I’m here, buddy. If it’s safe to come out of your room, open the front door for me.”
“Okay,” he whispered. “I’m coming right now. But…I think Mom’s pretty upset. Be prepared.”
My shoulders locked tight around my ears, but I did my best to keep the tension out of my voice. The last thing he needed was both his parents going haywire. I’d be his rock, even if it killed me.
“I’m good, bud. Now come let me in. I’ll take care of the rest.”
It was a point in Shelby’s favor I couldn’t hear any yelling or crashing coming from inside. As I peered through the sidelights beside the door, all I could see was her neat-as-a-pin living room, illuminated only by a hall and kitchen light.
Jesse opened the door slowly, peeking his head out. “Dad?”
“I’m here.” I pressed the door the rest of the way open and grabbed the side of his face, checking him over in the moonlight. “You okay?”
He nodded, his mouth flattened into a thin line. “Kinda freaked out, but I’m not hurt or anything. Mom wouldn’t let that happen.”
There were different kinds of hurt. And I already knew Jesse would carry tonight with him. Shelby should never have allowed him to be exposed to Kent’s problems. There was no excuse I’d ever accept.
I slid my hand down to his shoulder, not missing the slight tremble in his tight muscles. “All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. I want you to go to your room and grab what you need for the week. I’m going to go talk to your mom and Kent.”
He sniffled and wiped the back of his hand across his cheek. “But your week doesn’t start until tomorrow.”
“Let me worry about that, bud. You go grab your stuff.”
He gave me another doubtful look before letting out a shuddering breath and trudging toward his room. I stepped into the house, following the low voices coming from the kitchen.
“Shelby, Kent, I’m coming in,” I warned right before stepping into the room.
They both whipped around to face me, competing looks of horror and confusion on their faces.
Shelby was in her nightgown, a spot of blood on the front.
Her mouth hung open as her eyes darted over me, like she couldn’t believe I was standing there.
Kent, on the other hand, flinched dramatically.
From the bruise blooming on his cheek, two swollen eyelids, and cut lip, I understood why.
The man had been through the wringer tonight, but I felt no sympathy.
Not when he’d brought it home to Jesse.
“Cay? What are you doing here?” Shelby smoothed her hand over her hair, but it didn’t do anything to right the situation. “It’s the middle of the night.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Exactly. When our son calls me in the middle of the night, telling me he’s scared because his mother’s boyfriend showed up at his house, covered in blood, there’s not a chance I’m not going to be here.”
All the color drained from her face. “Jesse called you? But…” She turned toward the hallway leading to his room. “He’s asleep. I didn’t think he’d se—”
“Did you think about him at all?” Fury edged my vision with black, but I didn’t let it show.
I swallowed it down like a ball of barbed wire, feeling every jagged inch as it made its way to my gut.
“When you allowed this man into your house, where our son was sleeping, did you think of him at all?” I swung my gaze to Kent.
“What kind of danger did you bring here?”
He held up his hands. One of his fingers had been broken. It was angry and turning black, twisted at a forty-five-degree angle. A sick kind of satisfaction pumped through my veins. I hoped like hell he was in a lot of pain and that finger never healed quite right.
“There’s no danger,” Kent claimed unconvincingly. “I had an accident, and Shelby’s helping me clean up. Jesse is fine. He doesn’t need to worry about anything.”
“Where’s Jesse? I have to explain…” Shelby took a step toward his room, and I shifted in front of her. She frowned up at me, bringing a shaky hand to her chest. “What are you doing?”
I inhaled a steadying breath. More anger wasn’t needed in this situation. “Jesse’s coming home with me tonight. He’s in his room packing his things.”
Her jaw dropped once again. “What? No.” She shook her head hard. “It’s still my week. You can’t take him.”
“He called me,” I intoned. “Do you get that? He saw your boyfriend covered in blood, and he called me, Shelby. He didn’t go to you. He called his dad—because he knew I would provide him a safe place.”
She started to defend herself. “Safe…? I’d never do anything to harm him—”
I jerked my chin toward the bloody man sitting at her table. “You let that in here. There are no words that will convince me he got that way from an accident—not when he was at my house a couple weeks ago begging for a loan. I’m not stupid, Shel. I can put two and two together.”
She whipped around to face Kent. “You begged him for a loan? Why in the world would you do that?”
She had no idea. Just as I’d suspected. That didn’t make it better, though.
She still brought this piece of shit into our son’s life when anyone with half a brain could see he was less than pond scum.
He might not have been violent, and he may have cared about Shelby and Jesse, but that was the bare minimum.
Kent tried to explain, but I wasn’t listening. His excuses didn’t matter to me. Nothing he could say would be good enough.
Jesse emerged with a backpack and his duffel bag. Shelby tried to go to him again, but I stood in her way. Taking the duffel from Jesse, I put a hand on his nape and steered him toward the door, Shelby on my heels.
“Wait, Caleb…please—wait,” she pleaded, following us out on the porch. “Let me talk to Jesse.”
I gave Jesse’s shoulder a pat. “Go get in the truck. Alice is waiting for you. I’m going to talk to your mom for a second.”
He peered around me, sadness tugging at his mouth as he looked at Shelby. “I’m sorry, Mom. I was scared. Don’t be mad at me.”
Shelby sucked in a ragged gasp. “I’m not mad, baby. Never. You don’t have to leave—”
I gave Jesse a gentle push. “Go, bud. I’ll take care of this.”