Chapter 24
Knox
Saturday evening, I pulled up in front of the address Max had sent me for Chance Cordova and parked. As I got out of my SUV, nerves fired up in my gut as they always did before social events, particularly ones where I barely knew anyone.
Who was I kidding? I didn’t normally go to events where I barely knew anyone. Home was my happy place.
Back in Texas, most of my socializing had been with business associates: other writers, financial bigwigs, clients. I hadn’t had a close group of friends since my twenties, when I was still in touch with my college buddies.
Though it was out of my comfort zone, I was ready to make connections here in Dragonfly Lake.
More than ready. I’d hit a point in my life when I longed to settle in every way, like I hadn’t before.
Previously I’d been focused on my career.
Now that I was branching out, the freelancing was still important, but it was only half my career, and my career was only a sliver of my life.
I was working on connecting with my new family, making progress, but that came with expectations and pressure. I found myself, for the first time in a lot of years, longing for a group of guys I could call friends.
But damn did it suck walking into someplace I’d never been into a situation I had very little info about. The geeky researcher in me would’ve been content to have biographies and backgrounds of everyone who’d be present.
After checking one more time to be sure I had the right house number, I knocked.
A lot of seconds passed before I heard anything from inside, and I started to doubt myself yet again. Finally there were heavy footsteps and then the door opened.
“Hey, Knox.” Chance opened the screen door and extended a hand, friendly as could be.
“Chance. It’s good to see you. I was told to bring snack food.” I held out a donut box from Sugar.
“You brought the good stuff. Come on in. Welcome.”
“Thanks for including me,” I said. “Nice place you have.”
His house was in a neighborhood on the other side of downtown, away from the lake. The houses appeared to be twenty or thirty years old, family-oriented, like a slice of small-town America. Chance’s was two stories with a connected garage and a well-kept yard.
“Thanks,” he said, his tone suddenly less jovial. “I bought it with my late wife a couple of years after we got married.”
Though I’d met him at Henry’s and chatted with him a couple of times at Rusty Anchor, where he was the marketing manager, I didn’t really know him.
Hadn’t realized he had any kids until Max had brought up this gathering tonight.
Since their group was single dads, it followed that he wasn’t married, but I hadn’t known his wife had died.
“It suits my daughter and me well,” he continued.
“Max said she’s thirteen?”
“That’s right.”
“Teenagers scare the shit out of me,” I said.
“You and me both. She thinks she knows everything.”
“I suppose I did too at that age. Parents are stupid, right?”
“I always thought so until I became one,” he said with a laugh.
The basement was a walkout and had one big L-shaped room with some doorways off it. On the bigger side of the L was a bar, a pool table, a dart board, and a poker table. On the other, a big-screen played a football game, and a couch and a couple of recliners were situated in front of it.
Max and another guy sat on the couch, a coffee table in front of them laden with bowls of chips, peanuts in the shell, dips, and two Humble’s pizza boxes that were wafting out an aroma that made my stomach growl.
“There’s beer in the fridge,” Chance said, pointing behind the bar. “Water and soft drinks too. Help yourself.”
I went over and shouldn’t have been the least bit surprised to find a full stock of Rusty Anchor. I picked up an IPA. “Nice setup down here.”
“Thanks,” he said. “It started as a place for my daughter to hang out with her friends, but she couldn’t care less about it.
She’d rather hole up in her bedroom with them and giggle.
” He shook his head, and there was an air of concern in it.
I didn’t know much about parenting, but I could guess that having a teenager was cause for concern in itself.
Beers in hand, we went to the TV area.
“Hey, Knox,” Max said, standing. “Glad you could make it.”
I shook his offered hand, then nodded at the other guy, who also stood.
“This is Luke Durham. The others couldn’t make it tonight. You’ll meet them later.”
“Knox Breckenridge,” I said as Luke and I shook.
With a reserved smile, Luke said, “I read about your situation. Life is crazy, huh?”
“Batshit,” I verified. “Nice to meet you.”
“Imagine running into a fellow insta-dad in the square,” Max said. “I gotta think we’re few and far between.”
“I hope so,” I said. “Particularly in a situation like what happened to your cousin.”
“No shit,” Luke said. “It’s hard enough to just be a dad on a regular day. Throw in a tragedy or some other odd situation…” He shook his head. “I’m thankful nothing bad has happened to Addie’s mom.”
“Are you divorced then?” I asked.
Luke nodded. “Jess’s career Army. We split up when my daughter was nine months old. I have full-time custody, but when Jess’s stateside, I give her all the access to Addie she wants. We weren’t a good couple, but we’re pretty good at co-parenting.”
“How old’s your daughter?” I asked.
“She’s four.”
“Is that age easier than a baby or harder?” I dared to ask, hoping for an encouraging answer.
All three men replied with a roar of laughter.
“We have a saying here,” Chance said. “We borrowed it straight from the Navy SEALs.”
“‘The only easy day was yesterday,’” Luke said.
I laughed with them even though, after only two weeks, I sensed it was a thousand percent true, and that worried the ever-loving shit out of me.
We settled in front of the TV with pizza. We watched the game, but the volume was low, no one too engrossed. There was a thirty-point difference in score that explained it.
“What’s the story with your daughter’s mother, if you don’t mind me asking?” Chance said to me. “Is she still in the picture? Coming back?”
I picked up my beer. “I don’t mind you asking, but I’ll need a long drink first.” I took a long swig while the others raised their bottles in support and drank too. Maybe it was corny, but I appreciated that.
“My ex has some mental health issues,” I said frankly. “I mean, who doesn’t, but she’s bipolar.”
“Shit,” Max said. “That’s not an easy situation.”
“No.” I filled my hand with peanuts, leaned back again without cracking any.
“Finding the right balance of meds is a challenge, but she’d gotten to a pretty good place with hers.
We had a good couple of months where she was stablizing.
” I shook my head. “It was becoming clear that we weren’t a good match on a good day.
Then she decided she didn’t want to mess with her meds anymore. Insisted she didn’t need them.”
“Oh, hell no,” Chance said.
“Yep.” I nodded. I set the peanuts on my plate and picked my pizza back up, took another bite, chewed. “I tried to stick it out to be supportive, see if I could help her get help again. I didn’t want to desert her when she wasn’t okay.”
Luke made a face like he didn’t figure it ended well. Max growled and shook his head.
“I’ll take a stab in the dark and guess that didn’t work out?” Chance asked.
I shook my head. “She did everything she could to push me away. I finally let her have her way. If she’d wanted help, it would’ve been different.”
“Hell yes,” Chance said, then shoved the last of a slice into his mouth.
“We broke up in October last year. I don’t think she knew she was pregnant then.
If she did, she didn’t tell me.” I took one of the peanuts, crushed the shell with my fingers, and tossed the bits into a bowl.
With a look at each of the other three, I said something out loud that I’d thought multiple times to myself but never dared to utter.
“This sounds awful, but part of me’s relieved Gina wasn’t on a bunch of psychotropic drugs while she was pregnant.
I have no doubt she needed them, but I don’t like thinking about what that might’ve done to the baby. ”
“Your daughter’s health is your top concern now,” Max said.
I nodded, letting out a breath, relieved he seemed to understand.
“Right. I tried repeatedly to help Gina get the help she needed. If she’d gone back on the right meds during the pregnancy out of necessity, with a doctor’s supervision, I would’ve supported that too, had I known.
But hindsight… I’m glad Juniper doesn’t have a history with those. ”
“Absolutely,” Chance said.
“We get it,” Luke added.
“So does your ex want to share custody?” Max asked.
“My ex ‘never signed up for this,’ which makes me pretty sure she’s still not on the right medications. I’m meeting with a lawyer to make sure she can’t pop up whenever she wants.”
“You need to go for full-time custody,” Luke said.
“Agreed,” Max said.
“That’s the plan,” I told them. “If I could track Gina down, I’d see if she’d sign away her rights. I think she would.”
“You can’t find her?”
With a head shake, I said, “I haven’t heard from her since the note she left with Juniper.”
I’d looked up the mentions on the Tattler and knew the drop-off had been detailed for everyone, so I didn’t need to explain.
“That baby girl is where she’s meant to be now,” Max said. “I just hate what she’s been through so young.”
“Lucky thing is she won’t remember any of it,” Chance said.
“Damn straight.” Max stood and tossed back the rest of his beer. “It’s great you have Quincy’s help for a couple of months.”
“I don’t know what I would’ve done without her. She has a magic way with June.” I did my best not to think about her magic ways with me.
“With kids of every age,” Chance said. “She babysat Sam a few times back in the day. She’s gonna make a fantastic early ed teacher.”
“Agreed,” Max said. “The world needs more people like her to go into teaching.”
“I don’t know Quincy well,” Luke said, “but her dad does my insurance. I was in a couple of weeks ago to see him. He’s happy as hell she’s finally figured out what to do with her life.
He said the same thing as you: she was born to be a teacher.
He just wishes it hadn’t taken her so long to figure it out. ”
“Better late than never. Waiting tables was never her strong point,” Chance said. “She’s a great girl, but…”
“Clumsy as hell,” Max said, which was no exaggeration. “Who’s up for some darts?”
“This game isn’t keeping my attention,” Chance said, gesturing toward the TV. “Let’s do it.”
Relieved to not be the center of attention anymore, I stood eagerly, taking an extra pizza slice toward the dartboard.
“I’m in,” Luke said.
As we played 501, we made a hell of a dent in the food.
Over the next couple of hours, I learned that Luke and Addie lived with his dad on his family’s farm outside of town, where they grew strawberries and apples.
Max was the high-school football coach as well as a math teacher.
He’d had an active social life until the day his cousin had died in a car accident.
Chance’s wife had died when their daughter was four.
He hadn’t dated anyone since. Had some flings apparently, but he was dead set against getting involved with anyone else, at least until his daughter was grown and out of the house.
I also learned that Max was as good at darts as anyone I’d seen. I razzed him for being a typical jock, good at all things physical. He beat us all, multiple times, but it didn’t matter.
When the football game ended, SportsCenter continued to play in the background while we went for round two of food and switched to pool.
Somehow, deep into the third game of pool, we got onto the topic of college funds for our kids.
“Shit,” Max said. “Something else I haven’t had a chance to think about.”
“I’ve thought about it,” Luke said. “Jess has a small fund started but I’m trying to figure out how to contribute to one regularly. It’s been a tight year at the farm.”
“I’ve got nothing,” Chance said. “Raising a kid isn’t cheap. I’ve been meaning to look into it, but I don’t even know who to go to for advice.”
It was my turn, and I took aim at the cue ball, shaking my head as I nicked the ten ball at not quite the right angle and it rolled and bounced off the side.
“I could give you some tips,” I said, straightening.
“I’m not a financial advisor, but I’ve written dozens of articles on that topic alone.
I’d be happy to help you sort things out. ”
“Hell yes. Please. Do you have a financial planner?” Chance asked.
“I do, and I can get you his contact info. Any of you.”
All three of them shot questions at me, questions I was able to answer.
Eventually conversation turned to other topics, beer changed to water, the food was nearly gone, and it was going on midnight.
Luke needed to get home to relieve his father of childcare duty.
Max had told his babysitter he’d be home by twelve too.
While I had Quincy working tonight, I was ready to get home and check on my daughter and—I only admitted it to myself—I wouldn’t be upset if Quincy found her way into my bed.
Just the thought got my blood pumping.
As the three of us helped Chance with the mess, mostly empty food bowls and boxes, I said, “This was a good night. Thanks for including me.”
“Hey, we’re glad to have you,” Chance said. “We meet just about every Saturday night. I hope you’ll come next time.”
“I will,” I said without hesitation as we headed upstairs.
I might not be an avid football fan, I might suck at pool and be not much better at darts, but none of that mattered. Single fatherhood formed a bond between us the second I’d come in the door.
While my relationships with the Henry family were tentative, on the stressful side, and works in progress, and Quincy tied my thoughts up in goddamn knots, these guys were chill. This was good.
For possibly the first time since I’d come to Dragonfly Lake, these guys made me feel like I might belong here.