Temporary Father (Welcome To Honesty 1) (6 page)

“H
OW LONG
?”
she’d asked as if she had any right, as if it weren’t one of the scariest questions anyone could ask. And the man had only kissed her.

Had she lost her cotton-picking mind? Campbell always said she wanted to be in charge. She’d have loved feeling as if he were taking care of her, but he’d never been capable.

Now she had to wonder if he was right.
How long?
Still shivering with the memory of Aidan’s potent caresses, she buried her head in the papers that had become her talisman. She might be losing her business, but those figures would turn into her lifeline when she found the perfect combination of numbers to suit a banker.

Eli and the numbers. She had to keep them foremost in her mind.

Upstairs, something tumbled across the floor of Eli’s room. Lucy barked her playful yap, and Beth sighed in relief. No doubt they were playing catch with Lucy’s chunky football.

Beth stared at the ceiling. She’d half considered
not bothering to tell Campbell about the trouble with Eli. He’d think she was imagining things. But if Campbell was with Eli when something like this happened and didn’t tell her, she might just kill him.

She climbed the stairs to her bedroom and dialed his number from her cell phone. It took her three calls before he picked up, though he always swore he didn’t ignore her.

“What is it, Beth?”

“Eli.” She told him everything. Campbell said nothing when she finished.

“Are you still there?”

“What are you doing to my son?”

Naturally. “I’m trying to take care of him.”

“You’re determined to make him need you. Leave him alone and let him have a life. You don’t want him to grow up and be a man.”

“That’s exactly what I do want.” She turned her head toward the door. Could Eli hear her through it? “What is the matter with you, Campbell?”

“I’m not paying for this. It’s a figment of your imagination. He’s perfectly all right.”

“I didn’t ask you to pay for anything. Don’t worry. I don’t expect you to help with your own child anymore. Were you ever the man I thought you were?”

“What about you? Did you ever hear of having fun? Eli would be fine if you’d let him have a little.”

“Fun for me is seeing him clothed with a roof over his head. Fun is knowing he’s safe.”

“Let’s not start this again. I think Eli’s okay. You think he’s a nut, fine. I won’t have anything to do with it.”

“Campbell, if you say anything like that to him, I’ll… I don’t know what I’ll do, but you leave him alone.”

She pushed the End button. Had she been blind at sixteen?

She thought of Aidan, kissing her senseless, making her feel more than Campbell ever had. It meant nothing, compared to her feelings for Eli. She had her eyes wide open now.

O
N WEDNESDAY
, Beth woke early and started breakfast. She called Eli only once before he clattered down the stairs, an anxious Lucy at his side.

“You okay?” Beth asked as they sped past her to get outside.

“Mom.”

She took that as a yes, but she stayed at the door as he and Lucy ran toward the woods. She’d planned a full schedule for the lodge today.

Work, to occupy his thoughts and his hands. That had been her grandmother’s philosophy. Beth had been seven when her grandma had taught her to embroider. She’d learned knitting at eight, and by then, she could clean a house to her grandmother’s exacting standards. Mope or misbehave at Grandma’s and you’d find yourself manning a mop.

She’d died about a month before the car crash
that had taken Beth and Van’s parents. Back then, it had seemed like the worst thing Beth would ever have to endure.

Lucy and Eli emerged from the woods and raced back to the house. Beth jumped out of Lucy’s way.

“I think she’s hungry,” Eli said. “She only ate those biscuits yesterday.”

The dog was already lapping water when Beth ladled beaten eggs for omelets into her favorite pan. “I have to clean up in here before Mrs. Carleton shows up.” She consulted the clock. “We don’t have much time.”

“She’s scary.” Eli buzzed out of the room. “I’d better check the hall. Lucy ran through some mud.”

Was he as happy as he sounded? Would she ever accept anything he did without a second thought again? “I thought we’d work at the lodge today,” she said.

He didn’t answer until he came back to the kitchen, his face knotted. “Mom, it’s my spring break.” He went into the pantry and came out bearing the bag of Lucy’s expensive, but very good-for-her kibble. “I’ll go along, though.”

He’d better believe he would. “For?” She added sautéed onions and mushrooms and a few green peppers for Eli.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll go with me, but you don’t want to help me clean?”

“That place stinks, and I’m supposed to be on
vacation. Harrison Damon’s family went to Tuscany for spring break.”

“Tuscany? Wow—you think the Damons would adopt us?” Eli wasn’t lazy. No saint—she didn’t fool herself—but he’d never ducked a messy job before.

“Ben Leitner’s going to Disney World.”

“Along with sports stars everywhere.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t they show those commercials anymore?”

“You’re not listening.” Lucy, in front of him, whined and shuffled her feet, clattering her nails.

Beth peeked at the bottom of the omelet. “What do you want to do?”

“Find out if the other guys are skating. You’re the one who always says I don’t get to see the kids from my old school.”

God knew cleaning knocked-down walls and waterlogged Sheetrock and their ruined belongings depressed her enough, and he’d already run away once. “I’ve had all the big stuff taken out. We can hand carry everything else that’s left.”

“Are you afraid to leave me alone?”

Lucy scratched his leg with a paw and he scooped a tin cup full of kibble into her bowl.

“I could lie, but I am afraid. I don’t want to leave you alone until we understand what’s making you sad.”

“I’m not going to hurt myself, Mom.”

“Last night, I read some stuff online. You may
not want to do anything like that, but sometimes children feel so desperate, they do things they can’t ever take back.”

“So you’re going to sit on me until you’re sure I’m not desperate?”

“Not sit on you exactly. Let’s call this work therapy because I love you so much I can hardly think about anything else.” She didn’t mean to add to the pressure, but what if he needed to hear she loved him?

He gave Lucy another scoop and then wrestled the kibble back into the pantry. “Mom, you’re making me mad.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“Like with that. Pretending to be reasonable.” He looked plenty mad, with his hair on end and his eyes crinkled in a scowl that was starting to look familiar. Who knew how long his pain had festered?

“I’m fighting for you, Eli.”

“Fighting for me? Don’t be a drama queen.” He softened as she backed up a step. “I just want to see my friends. I hate going into the lodge the way it is now.” He scooped his thick hair off his forehead. “Maybe I should go live with Dad.”

Fat chance of that. What had once been her worst fear didn’t seem so frightening now. “You could ask, but you won’t get free rein at his house, either.” If she was lucky, Campbell would just ignore Eli’s calls and not spread his version of the truth about her worries. The last thing Eli needed was Campbell’s treatment plan.

“I’m not hungry,” her son said.

He slammed the pristine white pantry door on his way down the hall. She opened her mouth to call him, but waited, the spatula in her hand. Didn’t he deserve the right to fight back?

Only his own strength would save him in the end. Chewing on the inside of her jaw to keep her mouth shut, she picked up the omelet pan and dumped breakfast down the garbage disposal.

Why couldn’t she run the world and make everything right for her family? Was it so much to ask?

“D
AD
, I’ve got a problem.”

“What’s that, son?”

Score.
An excellent start. Sometimes when Eli called, his father didn’t have time to talk. He’d ask if he could call back, but then forget. Eli jumped into the opening. “Mom took me to the doctor.”

“You have sniffles? You know your mom—she panics over every little thing. Just buck up and be a man. Put up with her crazy ideas a little longer, and soon you’ll be on your own.”

Uh-oh—the “out on your own” speech. Eli switched phone hands and rubbed his palm down the side of his leg. “Dr. Brent did all kinds of tests.” Maybe that would get his dad’s attention.

“Doctors must panic, too. You’re not really sick?”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Mom says I’m depressed, but my only problem is, I don’t want to live here anymore. I don’t like Uncle Van’s house.”

“Is he mean to you? He never liked me, either, buddy. It’s just a little while until your mom gets some money to fix up the old place.”

“What if she doesn’t? The bank didn’t want to help her.” He’d looked into that file she kept in the kitchen desk after she’d started lying to him about money stuff.

“Van will help her. He has plenty in the bank.”

His father sounded a little jealous. Eli shrugged to get the creepy feeling off his neck. “Dad, can I come live with you?”

No answer. Something ran into the wall in the hall, and Eli jumped. He came out of his room, hiding the portable phone behind his back, but Lucy, who’d apparently felt she had an appointment with him, scrambled to her feet and ran through the door. Even the floors around here were too ritzy for him and his dog. She always slid on the wax. He’d bumped into Mrs. Carleton more than once on her hands and knees trying to polish out the scratches from Lucy’s paws.

Lucy ran to her pillow and nosed around until she found one of yesterday’s biscuits. Eli lifted the phone to his ear again and shut the door.

His father still wasn’t talking. Eli’s stomach flipped like he’d driven off the track on a video car game.

“Dad, are you there?”

“We tried living together right after the fire. Your mom didn’t like it. I can’t help it if she doesn’t want
you to live with me full-time. Like I say, we have to put up with her craziness.” He whistled, to imply birds circling around her head.

Eli tried not to get mad. “We can fix it. She doesn’t like you leaving me alone most of the night, and she says you never fix me anything except popcorn and TV dinners.” He pushed his hand across his chest. His heart was going so fast it scared him. He’d never said anything like that to his dad. He might never let him visit now. “If you’d try a little harder, I could stay with you more.”

“She doesn’t understand us men, does she?” His father didn’t seem to be mad. Eli stared at the phone. Was it cutting out? Hadn’t he heard what Eli had said?

“I can make her let me stay with you, Dad. Just come get me and promise you’ll make the kind of food she does.”

“I’d like to, but the timing sucks. You know how much I want you with me, but I’ve got a line on a job over in Maryland, and I’m not sure how often I’ll be home. Like I say, son, suck it up. Be a man.”

All right. This time Eli was mad. His mom on one side, questioning him like a cop, and his dad on the other, never hearing a word he said.

“Dad, I
am
a man. You don’t have to keep telling me to be one, but I don’t like to live here. Mom’s on me like I stole her car or something. I don’t like the kids at my school, and I’m sick of the lodge. Let me come stay with you.”

“Can’t do it, son. Wish I could, but you call me whenever you want to talk, and we’ll have another nice get-together like this on the phone. I have to go now, but I love you, Eli.”

He felt sick as his chance to escape slid away. “I love you, too, Dad, but I wish you’d let me come.”

Eli sat in the floor and leaned on Lucy. Why couldn’t his mom be friends with his father? Naturally he didn’t want Eli visiting for more than a weekend when his mom always had to act like she was in charge of both of them. Like his father didn’t know anything about kids. His dad was used to pretending nothing was wrong.

He stared at the phone in his hand and then threw it across the room. It marked the wall with a black scrape.

Eli grinned.

B
ETH TIPTOED
down the stairs. She eased the front door open and slipped through, closing it behind her without making the slightest whisper. She ran off the porch and around to the back—out of Eli’s view from his windows. She’d been afraid he’d catch her listening after he threw the phone against his wall.

That bastard. She shouldn’t have eavesdropped, wouldn’t have if she could be sure her son were okay, but Eli, saying “Dad” again and again had stopped her.

What was the matter with Campbell? Couldn’t he tell Eli wasn’t himself? His idiot “be a man” mantra.
Funny coming from a guy with a barely passing acquaintance with the concepts of manhood.

She wanted to hit something. To shake sense into her ex-husband, to hug her son until he realized he could count on her no matter what.

She squeezed her temples between her hands and then let go with a groan. She’d do Eli no good hanging around the back of her brother’s house, wringing her hands like some soap opera diva.

She marched inside to make a new omelet, which she took upstairs with a glass of chocolate milk and a chewy bone for Lucy.

“Hey, you two. Look what I have.”

“Mom, did you listen when I was on the phone?”

Lying came like second nature. “Did you call someone?”

He’d picked up the phone and was eyeing it as if it might bite him.

“You always tell me not to eavesdrop.”

“I was cooking. See?” She set the tray in front of him and then fished the bone for Lucy out of her back pocket, wounding herself in the process. “Here, girl.” She flipped the bone onto the sleeping bag cum dog bed, and Lucy pounced on it. Beth rubbed her ears.

“I’m not hungry,” Eli said in a reflex response, but he smiled as Lucy growled around her bone.

“Try a bite. After you finish, we’ll head over to the lodge.” She shook her head as he started to argue. “No, wait. Maybe you should call and see if
any of your friends can play.” She leaned down and kissed the top of his head. For once she thought he leaned toward her. “I love you.”