Page 88 of Hand Picked
“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 wastrying. 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 tohavethe 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.
