Chapter 5 #4
That sobering thought brought Grumpy back to his reality and the fact that Mads had been in Mount Grove. He also owed Kelly some answers.
“Maddie isn’t mine biologically.” Kelly shifted to face Grumpy again as he started to speak.
“She was three years old when Tanya and I met, and just shy of six when we married. Her dad was this piece of shit. He never hurt her or yelled at her—he wouldn’t be alive today if he had.
” Grimm grunted his agreement around the food Ruth had given him.
She’d also refilled Grumpy’s bowl of soup, but he wasn’t in the mood to eat any more.
“He was just a disappointment, always promising her things and then backing out. She learned that she couldn’t rely on him, but slowly, she learned that she could rely on me.
By the time Tanya and I got married, I was Dad.
Not legally, but in our hearts, we belonged to each other. ”
Kelly’s expression showed the joy at his words, and slowly fell when she realized what was coming. “What happened?”
“The divorce. We were trying to figure out how we could terminate Erwin’s parental rights so I could legally adopt Mads when everything went to shit.
The pictures I told you Tanya had of me?
I finally got to see them during the proceedings.
They looked professional, like a private investigator had taken them from a distance or something, and they were all of me in various hotel rooms with different women.
But it wasn’t me—because I was never in those rooms or with those women. ”
“You think they were doctored?” Grimm asked.
“Oh, my nephew is good at that,” Ruth added, sitting back down across from Kelly and Grumpy. “He does shirts and things, and sells them online. He helped me create my own store online for my candles.” She pointed to one on the counter.
Grumpy shrugged. “It was ten years ago and technology has changed a lot. I’m also a gearhead, not a computer nerd. Couldn’t tell you how that stuff even works. But the pictures were good enough that they fooled Tanya, our lawyers, and the judge.”
He did not add that he didn’t look into the pictures more because, to him, they didn’t matter.
Tanya hadn’t believed him, hadn’t trusted him.
After a year as friends, two years dating, and six years married, she hadn’t believed in him.
The evidence was damning, he couldn’t argue that, but she hadn’t paused to question anything.
That knowledge hurt, and mattered more to him than proving his innocence.
“And Maddie wasn’t legally yours,” Kelly concluded, following his story.
Grumpy nodded. He did fight for Maddie, even though he wasn’t her legal father.
“Tanya took out a restraining order against me. Like I was a danger to my wife and daughter.” Even he heard the venom in his own voice.
“All this was going on around the same time that I took my retirement. Left Tanya everything but my bike, packed up my things and took the scenic route north. My intention was Maine, my hometown is just north of Bar Harbor, but I ended up stopping here for a meal.”
Kelly smiled widely. “I remember.”
So did he. He’d thought her beautiful from the start, a ray of sunshine too pure for his dark cloud. “You pointed me in the direction of Steel and the clubhouse,” he added, sharing in the memory.
Kelly leaned forward and kissed him gently. “I keep forgetting I get to do that now.”
“Never stop,” he begged, not caring in the slightest about their audience.
Kelly’s smile promised she wouldn’t. She gently touched his face, and he wondered if she’d ever know how much it meant that she didn’t shy away from his scars and damaged skin.
“I know the ending of your story. You decided to stay here, to join the club, but what happened back in Texas? Did they ever reach out?”
Grumpy shook his head. “Due to the restraining order covering all communication, I couldn’t call or email or anything to check in on Maddie.
But not a day went by where I didn’t think about her, wonder about her.
Once I got the garage set up and I started making a decent income again, I built a trust in Maddie’s name.
The order didn’t prohibit that. It wasn’t much, but she was able to pay for college or her first car or whatever she needed to with it. ”
Kelly nodded slowly. “The explosion was national news. She must have heard about you being hurt and came to see you.” Kelly wiped under her own eyes. “I’m so sorry I didn’t stop her or try harder to get who she was out of your mom.”
Anger coursed through him again. “It wasn’t your fault. Mom only met her twice when she was ten or eleven, but I highly doubt she didn’t know exactly who Mads was when she came to the hospital.”
“I don’t understand why it would even matter to Margery that Maddie showed up.” Kelly looked to Grimm and her mom over her shoulder as if they might have a suggestion. “Why tell me that she was someone he was sleeping with?”
“To drive a wedge between you two,” Ruth answered simply. “Beshert.”
The way she said the word made Grumpy suspect it was meaningful, like proclaiming “I do” at an altar. And from Kelly’s smile, it was something good.
Kelly turned back to Grumpy. “What do you want to do now?”
Grumpy studied her for a long moment, because for the first time in his life, he felt pulled in two different directions. Normally, he was extremely decisive. Then again, Kelly seemed to be the continued exception to many of his rules in the structured life he’d built for himself.
Before he could even say anything, though, Kelly gave him a nod like he’d already spoken. She cocked her head. “Think my mom could stay with your club while we head down to Texas?”
Grumpy’s surprise was visceral. “You’d come with me?”
She glanced back at him. “Were you planning on hitchhiking your way down? You can’t drive yet.
I have no idea if you could fly, and even if medically you could, I can’t imagine you being very comfortable in a tight, metal tube full of strangers.
And I’m pretty sure you’d jump in front of a train before you got on one for a cross country trip down to Austin, Texas.
So…driving it is. That is, if you can handle being a passenger princess. ”
Grumpy snorted. “Don’t mention that in front of Scotty. He’d put a fucking crown on me.” Kelly beamed, no doubt picturing it. Shaking his head, he growled, “I love you. Thank you for coming with me.”
As he leaned in to kiss her again, he caught Ruth poke Grimm’s upper arm and then point at Grumpy and Kelly across the table. “See, beshert.”