Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
WEBB
It had been nearly a week since I’d fucked things up royally. A week of regretting, of wanting to apologize and not knowing how.
Of missing him.
Luke had been busy with his mom, and I’d been busy feeling sorry for myself. So, when my attorney had suggested an update meeting Friday afternoon, I’d agreed immediately, desperate for anything to distract me.
It hadn’t worked quite the way I’d intended.
“Hey, Katey. Jack around?” I asked as I walked into Panini Jack’s. The lunch rush had ended, but the after-school rush hadn’t quite begun, which I knew from experience was Jack’s favorite time to concoct new recipes.
Coincidentally, it was also my favorite time to visit him.
“Webb, honey! I haven’t seen you in weeks.” Katey gave me a flirtatious little smile, tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, and leaned her forearms against the hostess stand. “How’re things?”
I had no idea how to answer that. “Good, I guess. Busy.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“Not really. It’s mostly, um…” I pondered the things that had occupied my time for the past month. Figuring out I was bisexual, getting accidentally handfasted, sorting out Aiden’s custody situation. “Muriel’s getting ready to calve,” I said out loud.
“Ah.” She gave me a bewildered look. “Well, I don’t know much about cows, but if I can help with anything—”
“That’s sweet,” I began, moving toward the swinging door that led to the kitchen. “But I don’t—” I stopped short and turned back to her as a thought occurred to me. “Oh! Actually, you know what? There is one thing.”
“Name it!”
“Maybe you could listen a little more closely when Luke orders breakfast from now on.”
“Huh?”
“I know, he’s really tough to understand with his North Carolina accent,” I said sympathetically, lying through my teeth since the only time I’d ever heard Luke speak with any discernible accent had been the morning he’d defended Aiden…
and that had been so freakin’ hot, I’d’ve loved for him to “y’all” me all day long.
“He’s real sensitive about it,” I continued.
“About being an outsider. And I know you’re such a sweet person, you’d hate to think he was feeling that way. ”
“I… I would,” she agreed. “Does he really feel that way?”
I nodded sadly. “Sometimes, I’m afraid. But anyway, now I know you’ll help, at least.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “I’ll… I’ll do that, Webb. And I hope I haven’t made him feel bad in the past when I, uh… didn’t understand him. I’ve always sorta really liked Luke.”
I grinned. “I bet you have. He’s a great guy, Katey.”
One who deserved to be treated well… especially since his fake betrothed kept trampling all over his feelings.
I pushed through the double door into the kitchen area and found Jack standing alone by the gleaming metal prep table, chopping something green, with a black cap pulled over his fair hair.
“Hey,” I called softly. I grabbed the backless stool he kept in the corner so I could sit and watch him cook—the stool he unofficially called “the Sunday stool,” since as far as I knew, Hawk and I were the only ones he allowed back here while he was experimenting—and carried it closer to the table.
Jack didn’t look up, and the blade of his knife continued to rock through a pile of herbs, turning them to… well, mush.
“Uh. Jack?” I demanded.
“Huh?” He sucked in a startled breath and set down his knife. “Oh, shit. Hey. I didn’t hear you.”
I looked from the herbs to Jack, then from Jack to the herbs. I imagined I’d just discovered Jack’s version of my ax and chopping block.
I thought about what made me chop furiously and wondered if it were possible…
“Did you, um…” I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “Were you having any… Do you want to… talk? About… Fuck, I don’t know.” I felt my face go hot. “Relationships or anything?”
“A relationship?” Jack scoffed. “Me? Pfft. With who? For what?” He shuddered. “A mutual distrust of relationships is the cornerstone of our friendship, Webb Sunday. That’s why you and I have never become the Hollow’s most scorching power couple.”
I laughed. “That… and the fact that I thought I was straight until like five minutes ago,” I reminded him. “Oh, and that we’re not attracted to each other in any way.”
“Well, okay, yes, all those things, too,” he conceded with a smirk. “But Jesus. Friends don’t accuse friends of having relationship drama out of a clear blue sky. That’s cold.”
“Alright, alright.” I held up a hand for peace. “I’m just starting to recognize uncontrolled chopping as a sign of distress, that’s all. I thought I’d see if I could, you know… listen. As a friend.”
Jack pressed his lips together. “Wow. That’s a sign of true friendship, right there, because you’d rather give me a kidney than talk feelings, wouldn’t you?”
His wall oven beeped, and he grabbed a kitchen towel to remove a pan of something delicious-smelling.
“No! I’m not the Sunday who hates talking about feelings,” I argued. “That’s Knox.”
“Ah, right. Silly me. In that case… how are things between you and Luke?” Jack set his dish on a counter.
“That’s… We…” I cleared my throat and fell silent.
“Mmm. Obviously. Well said,” Jack teased.
He grabbed a plate and began filling it with mashed potatoes and a portion of something from the pan, then garnished it with some of the herbs he’d chopped and slid it in front of me, along with a fork.
“Taste this for me. If you die, I won’t put it on the menu next week. ”
I snorted. It smelled even better up close, and I hadn’t had lunch yet. But instead of taking a bite, I pushed my fork through the potatoes distractedly. “I talked to Curt just now.”
Jack folded his arms over his chest and leaned a hip back against the counter. “And?”
“And…” I blew out a breath. “I asked him to look into some shit about Amanda. She had Luke convinced that she’d turned over a new leaf, you know?
That she was trying. She kept showing up late to things because her boss supposedly kept her after hours or canceling at the last minute, claiming she had car trouble.
It was the same shit she pulled back in the day, when she had one foot out the door. ”
“Mmhmm. And now you don’t know how to tell Aiden his mom’s been lying.”
I winced. “Actually, no. It all checks out. She just got a promotion at work. And the auto shop halfway between here and Keltyville says she’s a regular there—they’ve towed her car twice.
And… she voluntarily submitted her financial records to the court, including a fucking retirement account and a pre-approval letter from her bank for a mortgage.
It’s like they’re talking about a whole different person than the one I know… knew.”
This information was so inconsistent with the woman who’d run off several years ago—heck, even with the woman I’d been married to, for the last few years of our marriage—I couldn’t even wrap my head around it.
“I dunno, Webb,” he said dubiously. “People don’t just become responsible overnight.”
“My thought exactly, but…” I heaved a sigh.
“Then he told me she actually has a confirmed employment history for almost the entire time she was away. He was all, ‘Is it possible she wasn’t quite as flighty as you thought, Webb?’ And now…
shit. I don’t know what to think. I can’t deny it when the evidence is right there. ”
“Where was she, then, for the past couple of years? What was she doing?”
“Investing in a cosmetics company in Arizona, at least part of the time. Curt’s exact words were ‘It failed spectacularly.’ But…
then she started working two jobs to stay on her feet.
And she didn’t do very well at any of them.
She moved around from job to job with the seasons.
She kept going, though. Curt said, ‘I imagine she learned a lot from that experience. Maybe she’s grown and changed. ’”
“Damn.”
“Yeah. The judge is almost definitely going to allow her to take him on unsupervised visits.”
Jack watched me carefully. “And are you good with that?”
“No… but also yes. Aiden really wants it. And Luke…” I trailed off and shook my head.
“Luke,” he prompted.
“Last night at bedtime, Aiden told me he finally understood why Amanda hadn’t stayed. That it wasn’t because she didn’t love him.” I looked up at Jack bleakly. “I had no idea he’d been struggling with that.”
“Webb,” he said gently. “You’re one person. And you’re a great dad—”
“Luke knew, though,” I interrupted. “And he explained to Aiden that Amanda is like a butterfly. She can’t stay put because it’s not in her nature. ‘But that doesn’t make her bad, Dad. She’s just not like you.’”
“Ohhh, fuck,” Jack groaned. “That’s seriously deep, and…”
“Special?” I supplied. “Yeah, I know.” I dragged my fork through the potatoes again.
“And, as if that weren’t enough to make my mind explode, Curt also told me that the Pond Orchard isn’t actually in dispute.
He got a clean title for me. Which I guess means Luke gets a title for his land also.
” I struggled to make this not sound like a sign of the apocalypse.
“Those are good things, right? Best outcome for both of you.”
I hesitated. “Yes. Except Curt said something like, ‘Possession is nine-tenths of the law,’ and ‘If his lawyer had wanted to fight it, he might have been able to get some kind of settlement, but the man’s incompetent,’ and now…”
“Now you’re thinking that you’ve treated Luke unfairly? That his attorney should have fought and made you pay after all?” Jack surmised, laughing a little. “Dude, weren’t you the one who told me Luke invited you to have the orchard? To take as much land as you wanted?”
My mouth tilted up at one corner. “Yeah.” He was generous that way.
I still needed to tell him about this development, though. I wanted him to hear the news from me and not because he got a formal letter from Curt.
I felt like I owed him that.
In fact, I owed him a whole lot more than that.
“And aren’t you the guy who just paid for the roof on his house with the sale of your tractor? I think you’re probably even.”