A Love of Her Own (19 page)

He thought it curious that Janelle had not once mentioned what would happen to the support money while he had custody of Max
. If she thought he wouldn’t give it a second thought she was nuts. He’d always figured he would have to use the money as an enticement if he ever wanted Max to spend some time with him, but since she had done the unthinkable and asked him to take Max that changed all the rules. He’d already instructed his attorney in Augusta to petition the court to have it stopped as long as he had custody, beginning with the first of February. His attorney had also had a simple document typed up and faxed to him for Janelle to sign, stating that she had requested that he take temporary custody of Max until June, but with a clause that she could retrieve him before that time if she wished with one week’s notice. That was his attorney’s idea as well; he wanted Hilton protected in case Janelle got into a snit over something and claimed he had kidnapped the boy or otherwise had him unlawfully. A woman who insisted he surrender his driver’s license to her before visitation was capable of anything, he pointed out.

Hilton chuckled
. If Janelle thought her marriage was in trouble now, wait until the court ordered the support payments stopped. Her fortune hunting Romeo would really have something to fuss about.

In the meantime he could look forward to spending quality time with his son, and even, with Ava and Marcus along, show him how family life was supposed to be.

He loaded the finished wood planks in the back of his truck, as well as the hardware needed to install them. With Max safely in the back seat, he headed for Ava’s.

“
This is a pretty house. Who lives here, Daddy?” Max asked when Hilton pulled up behind Ava’s parked car.

“
A client of mine. You’ll like her.”

It was the always curious Marcus who came to the door
. “Aunt Ava, it’s Mr. Hilton!” he yelled as he opened the door.

Max brightened visibly at the site of another boy, as well as the butterscotch-coated dog beside him
. He squealed and hid behind Hilton when Khufu began to sniff him.

It occurred to Hilton that Max
’s cousins on Janelle’s side were too old to be much company for him, and that he probably had little or no contact with other kids outside of school.

He introduced the two, and Marcus was telling Max there was no need to fear Khufu and
even guided his hand to pet the top of the dog’s head when Ava appeared, dish towel in hand.

She moved slowly, determined to present a calm facade in spite of her rapidly beating heart
. Her eye immediately picked up on the presence of a second youngster in her living room. “Oh! This must be Maxwell.”

“
It is. Max, this is Miss Ava.”

“
Hi, Miss Ava,” he said shyly.

She looked into eyes shaped like Hilton
’s. “Hi, Max. Your daddy’s told me a lot about you.”

Max giggled.

“I thought this would be a good time to install those shelves,” Hilton said. “That all right with you?”

“
Sure.” Her reply was casual, but her head was spinning with turbulence. How could he sound so matter-of-fact after staying away for four days and after that happy scene of domestic tranquility she’d just witnessed last night?

“
I’ll help,” Marcus said in a confident voice.

“
Me, too,” Max added.

Ava shrugged
. “I guess I’ll just relax while you men work.”

“
I’m your daddy’s helper,” she heard Marcus brag to Max as they followed Hilton to the foyer.

“
How do you help him?”

Ava caught her breath in her throat
. She wondered if Marcus’s employment with Hilton would end now that Max was on the scene. Perhaps Hilton was still so giddy from having his son with him he hadn’t thought of it himself. Marcus would be so disappointed. She knew he loved being paid every week, but she also could tell that he enjoyed his work and was proud of it; for his voice rang with pride whenever he talked about it.

She was also curious about the whereabouts of Janelle
. After that sickening scene she witnessed in the parking lot of the supermarket, she hadn’t expected to see Hilton until after Janelle had left, but that wouldn’t be until tomorrow. Ava had never met the woman and only seen her from behind, but from what Hilton had told her she had already formed a dislike for her. Ava never liked it when women used their children as pawns, and that seemed to be precisely what Janelle was doing. It was blatant misuse of life’s most precious gift, as far as she was concerned.

She was pleased to see the resemblance between Hilton and Max
. It was funny. Women usually carried photos of their offspring in their wallets, but men tended not to. She’d had no idea what Max looked like before now.

When she finished in the kitchen she went back to the foyer to see how things were shaping up
. Hilton had both boys handing him various items, like his tape measure, marking pen and drill. He had already drilled a number of holes in the wall.

Excitement filled her at the thought of her planned work space becoming a reality.
She’d get one of those cordless phone sets—maybe even one that announced the identity of the caller—that didn’t require a phone jack so she would have phone access from her new work area. Other than that, she’d be ready to set up shop once she moved her computer in here…all thanks to Hilton, who was lighting up her professional life as well as the personal one.

“
Aw, shucks,” Hilton said with a groan when his cell phone began to ring as he was in the process of measuring a height. “Grab that, will you, Max?” he said, gesturing toward the phone on the floor.

Max was only to
o happy to comply. “Hello,” he said eagerly into the receiver. “Hi, Mommy!”

A muscle in Ava
’s eye twitched and her mouth set in a hard line.

“
Yes, he’s here.” Max held the phone out toward Hilton. “Daddy, Mommy wants to talk to you.”

On wooden legs
she turned and left the room, not interested in hearing domestic chit-chat between Hilton and Janelle.

Hilton made no effort to conceal his
conversation, and Ava found herself stopping to listen, despite her resolve not to. At least he couldn’t see her eavesdropping on him from the sun porch; a wall separated them.

“
At a client’s,” she heard him say. “I’m finishing up a job.” He paused and said, “I know it’s an unusual time to be working, but this is also a personal friend of mine, and it was convenient.”

“
Aunt Ava is your daddy’s girlfriend,” Marcus said in a loud whisper to Max.

“
She is?”

“
I saw them kissing.”

Ava
’s mouth dropped open. When had that happened? She and Hilton had tried not to show too much affection for each other in front of Marcus.

“
Well, I don’t know. There’s plenty of food in the fridge. You should have everything you need to be comfortable. We’ll be back when we’re done,” Hilton said.

Ava rubbed her temples
to ease the throbbing that had suddenly formed there. How dare Janelle question him! Doggone it, she didn’t care if the woman had given Hilton a dozen babies, she had no right to expect him to answer to her about his comings and goings.

Hilton seemed to be in no rush to finish the job
. The boys quickly got bored, and he finally told them he could manage alone. They came to Ava, who sat reading a book in the living room. “Can Max and me go upstairs and watch TV?” Marcus asked.

“
Sure, go ahead.”

Hilton emerged from the
sun porch in time to see them running up the stairs, Khufu included. “I guess Marcus knows Saturday isn’t supposed to be a work day. He made a quick enough exit.”

“
I guess he does,” she said evenly.

He frowned
. “You all right?”

“
Of course.”

“
You seem a little on edge to me. I hope you’re not upset that it took me so long to get over here. Janelle tends to be a little overprotective of Max, and of course I’ve always been the bad guy in the picture.”

“
I figured I’d hear from you eventually.”

The cool tone of her voice
told Hilton that she was still upset about Janelle’s staying with him. He glanced upstairs, then came and sat beside her on the sofa, taking her hand in his. “Hey. I know it’s been difficult, but starting tomorrow it’ll be back to you and me…and Max, of course.”

“
And Marcus. He’s going to be staying here with me full time.”

“
He is?”

She felt an odd sense of triumph at his obvious surprise
. “Unless he doesn’t want to. I spoke to his grandparents this afternoon and got their permission, but I haven’t talked to him about it yet.”

“
What made you decide to do that?”

“
He’s here just about all the time he’s not in school anyway. And he hates it at that hotel.”

“
Hotel?”

“
Shoot,” she said, realizing her mistake. “I wasn’t supposed to say that. Oh, well. No point in keeping it a secret now.” She breathed in and said, “Marcus’s grandparents were burned out of their apartment a couple of months ago. They’re on the waiting list for senior citizen housing, but in the meantime the only place the town could put them was at that old hotel on Dailey Street. The whole family’s living in a single room, including four grandchildren. That was when Marcus started running with T-Bone and all those people, because he couldn’t stand being cooped up like that.”

“And because he realized that lack of money is what put his family in that environment,” Hilton added
.

“Yes.
It’s not a healthy situation. The whole family’s living in a single room, three adults and four kids, or at least two adults. The Hudson’s daughter doesn’t seem to be around much.”

“
I can’t blame him for being unhappy, but I’m kind of surprised you didn’t mention it to me before you went ahead. I mean, I’m just as involved with Marcus as you are.”

“
Normally I would have discussed it with you, but there was…a development, to borrow your phrasing.”

He still held her hand, but she felt him tense, his
easy affection visibly turning to caution. “Oh? And what was that?”

“
I saw you at the supermarket last night. You, Janelle and Max. You made quite an attractive family. Looked like a picture in a magazine.”

He released her hand and stood up
. “So that’s it. I knew it had something to do with Janelle.”

“
You have a life, Hilton, a whole other life that doesn’t concern me. You need to take care of what’s going on in your life, and I need to take care of what’s going on in mine. It would be a mistake for either of us to put our respective agendas on hold for the sake of the other.”

His eyes narrowed
. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to punish me because I have a child and you don’t?”

“
I’m not trying to punish you, Hilton. It’s just that I feel I have to make my own way in life, just like you have to make yours.” She had seen him do precisely that with her own eyes in that parking lot last night, and the image was indelibly burned into her brain.

“
And I want to see if you and I can make a way together. That’s what it’s all about, Ava. Neither you nor anyone else can do anything to change whatever’s happened in the past. The thing to do is build from there. Shutting me out isn’t the answer.”

At that moment his cell phone began to ring again
. Ava knew who it was. She lowered her chin and stared at Hilton unsmilingly through widened eyes, not saying a word, but managing to speak volumes.

“
Damn it!” he exclaimed. He jerked the phone out of his hip pocket and slid the earpiece into a raised position. “Hello,” he said abruptly. “Not yet. Anything else?”

I guess not,
Ava thought as he slid the earpiece back and depressed the ‘end’ button without saying goodbye. “Trouble at home?” she asked sweetly.

“
You don’t know how glad I am that she’s leaving tomorrow. She’s really getting on my last nerve.”

“
She wants you to come home, doesn’t she?”

“
I think she’s bothered by not knowing where I am with Max.”

“
If that’s a problem now, I don’t know what she’s going to do when she goes back home, unless she plans on calling you every hour.”

“
Then it’ll be different. She’ll be with her husband. But enough about her. I’m going to finish up.”

“
You can always do it tomorrow. I’m not in a hurry.”

“
Neither am I,” he shot back.