Page 33 of Forever Endeavor

He rolled off his side to lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Billie curled up and nestled her head against the crook of his neck and he draped his arm around her. “Please Sonny?” she asked softly, stroking the dark hair on his chest as it rose and fell.

“Things haven’t been good between me and Cal for a long time now. And not just me, it’s really him and the rest of the family.”

“But you live together.”

“No, we live separate lives under the same roof. It’s not the same.”

“Oh, I see,” she said, feeling a sad tug at her heart. A rift in the Hayes clan could explain why the only photo of Cal was in a box kept in a closet and not inside the family album.

“Calvin Hayes has a habit of disappearing when the chips are down. When he’s needed, he always finds a way of escaping his responsibilities. He just gets on his boat and motors out into the middle of the lake any time he wants.”

“He also has to make a living, you know.”

“I never knew my bio-dad, he took off long before I was born, so Mom had to go it alone. For years, she begged Cal to come home from Chicago to help out, but he had nothing for her but excuses. She literally worked herself to death trying to do everything alone.”

“I’m sorry about that. But Cal’s not the same person he was back then. People change.”

“Stop making excuses for him. You can’t put a flower in an asshole and call it a vase,” he said. “It’s a pattern with Cal. My mom, his partner, hell, even his own wife. If he’d only listened to Aunt Meg’s doctors and followed the course of chemotherapy they wanted for her, maybe she could’ve beat the cancer.”

Billie’s blood pumped faster. “I know you think he let you down, but there has got to be more to the story. What about Uncle Stan and the rest of the family? Why not blame them for what happened to your mom?”

“Because Cal and Mom were the closest. She counted on him the most.”

“Look, even if he’s guilty of doing all these things that you say, it doesn’t change the fact that he lets you live here in his house. I mean, he can’t be all bad.”

“Hishouse?” Sonny snorted. “No, you’ve got it backwards, princess.I’mthe one who lets Cal live here.”

“Oh. I didn’t know…I just assumed—”

“It’s purely by circumstance, not by choice, but even that won’t be for much longer.”

“Why? What does that mean?”

“Never mind. All I’m saying is that I know what I know, and I’ve seen what I’ve seen. And right now, I see you getting suckered by him.”

Sonny

There were only two law firms in Janus Lake, making it convenient for contentious parties to choose a side, such as in the acrimonious case of Hayes v. Hayes filed in the court of Yours, Mine and Ours. Sonny’s lawyer worked on the south side of town. The office was a converted laundromat, and the faint scent of laundry detergent still lingered in the drywall hidden behind the faux wood paneling. It made him itchy to be back in that cramped, two-chair waiting room. They already knew far too many ugly details of his personal life, from the horror of walking in and finding his best friend balls deep in his wife to the degradation of dividing every earthly possession down to the numbered fork and spoon. He’d done nothing to deserve being the grand marshal of an endless parade of humiliation but marry the wrong person and choose the very wrong day to come home early from work three years ago.

“Mr. Hayes? Mr. Heinrichs can see you now.” The receptionist pointed down the hall.

Before Sonny could cross the floor, his lawyer, Donald Heinrichs, came out to greet him. “Sonny, it’s nice to see you again,” Don said, extending his hand. “How’s business?”

“Good, good. Garage is busy as always,” Sonny said, firmly gripping his hand as they shook. “How’s the Beamer? Brakes still okay?”

“Never better. She still stops on a dime, thanks to you,” he said, inviting Sonny into his office and gesturing for him to pull up a chair. “So, I understand that you’d like to discuss a property dispute.” Don closed the door and walked around his desk. He sat down and opened a file, shuffling its contents. “What seems to be the issue?”

“My former wife agreed to let me live in the house as long as I wanted. Her family legally owns it but after we split, she wanted to move out so we made an agreement that I’d be able to stay.”

“I see,” Don said, looking over top his glasses. “I assume that’s no longer the case?”

“Melissa recently informed me through a third party that she now wants me to vacate the premises as she would like to reside there with her new husband. I’d like to find out if I have any rights in this matter.”

“Absolutely, Sonny. Do you have a lease agreement with her?”

He shook his head, no.

“If there’s no lease, then you have a month-to-month tenancy, which means she can ask you to leave with only one month’s notice. At the same time, there’s something called adverse possession or what most people know as squatter’s rights. A person who doesn’t have legal title to a piece of property may be entitled to ownership based on continuous occupation of it. In your case, it would be the house you’ve been living in for the past, what…eight or nine years? It’s your matrimonial home, correct?”

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