All the Waters of the Earth (Giving You ... #3) (18 page)

“Hey,” he said, holding me to him. Then the other student took off.

“Hey.”

He tilted his head. “Do you want to go out to dinner with me tonight?”

“I’d love to.”

“Great.  I need to go into the office for a while but we’ll go after.”

Engrossed by my guy, I think I registered that the professor was leaving, but I was mostly paying attention to Jake. “
Yay
,” I whispered. And then he kissed me, a soft kiss that explored and lingered, ignoring the fact that we were in a classroom.

This kiss got out of hand.

With such a gentle start, it ended fiery, with both of us moaning into each other’s mouths, tongues tangling, hands exploring. We had to break apart, or we would end up naked on the floor in a few moments.

He put his forehead to mine, breathing heavy. “I got tested the other day.  I’m clean.”

“Me too. All clean.”

“Good.  Then tonight—”

“Yeah.”

He kissed me again, lightly this time, and then kissed my nose, like he always did. “Good.”

Walking me out to the car, we kissed and parted ways. I was headed to Target to get Rob some clothes.

When I got there, I saw a Minecraft shirt that I knew he would love and a pair of shoes that he needed. But I couldn’t remember his shoe size. I thought I knew it, but I wanted to call just to be sure.

I called Carlos’s cell.

When he answered, loud music blared in the background, along with a strange ringing noise, and the noise of tons of people. “What do you want, Lucy?”

“Can I talk to Roberto? I’m shopping and need his shoe size.”

“Figure it out yourself.”

“Carlos. Don’t be like that. Just put him on.”

“I can’t.”

Argh!  My temper flared. “What do you mean you can’t?”

“He’s in the hotel room, he’s not with me.”

What did that mean?  His words made my blood boil. “
What hotel room
?”

“He’s in Vegas with me.”

I shrieked, and all of Target turned to look at me. I tried to lower my voice. “You know that you are not to take him across state lines,” I hissed.  “That’s kidnapping. It’s illegal.”

“Your boyfriend lied on the stand.  That’s illegal.”

“He didn’t lie, Carlos.”

“I know what I saw.  I told my attorney.”

“Why are you in Vegas with my son?”  I tried to control my breathing and say it calmly.  I didn’t succeed.

“I had to come here this weekend, and my mom couldn’t watch him, so he came with at the last minute. He’s fine, he’s in the room, playing on the tablet.”

“You left my child alone? In Las Vegas?” I shouted.

“Calm down. He’s old enough to watch himself.”

“No he is not!  He’s twelve!”  I’d completely lost all sense of my surroundings.  I didn’t care that I was having an argument in Target.  My son could not be treated like this.  “I’m coming to get him. Where are you?”

“Jesus fucking Christ, calm down.”

“I will not calm down. I am coming to get my son. Where are you?”

“Downtown. Fremont Street.”

“Where, exactly?”

He sighed as if it was boring him to talk to me. “I’m only telling you this because there’s a huge game on tonight, and I have a lot riding on it, so you can take him. Just for this weekend, though.  I want him the rest of the time.” WTF? Did Carlos have a gambling problem? Was that why he needed to modify child support? “I expect to get him back after Christmas and then weekends as normal you hear? This doesn’t change anything. This will just work out better this weekend. We’re at the Golden Nugget.”

“I will be there in six hours. I am going to take Roberto back with me. And we will be talking about how this does change everything, or I will see you in court. Do you hear me?”

“Yeah, I hear you.” He hung up.

I called Jake as I hurried out of Target, not buying anything. “Change of plans.  Carlos took Roberto to Vegas.”

“Across state lines? That’s against the child custody order.”

“I know.  I’m getting him. I’m canceling tonight. Sorry my ex is such an asshole.”

“It takes hours to get to Vegas. Even if we fly.”

“He’s left my son in a hotel room by himself so that he can gamble on some football game.”

“I’m coming too. Come home, pack, and we’ll leave immediately.” 

I raced home, packed quickly, and ran out the door into Jake, who held a duffle bag and his keys.

“Let’s go,” he said, without preamble.

We slid into his BMW and it purred into life. We raced to the desert.

Vegas was the playground for Southern California.  I’d certainly partied many a weekend there. But it is not a place for kids.  What was Carlos thinking? Was he just so arrogant that he thought he could get away with this?

“This isn’t the vacation I meant to give you,” I told Jake.

“No,” he said, seriously. “But I’ve never been. How is Rob doing?”

When I’d talked with Rob, he sounded annoyed that I was coming.  “Mom, I’m playing Minecraft. I’m fine.”  But he was not.

Turning to Jake, I said, “Just drive faster, please. Please.”

“Vegas is everything that’s right with America. You can do whatever you want, twenty-four hours a day. They’ve effectively legalized everything there.”—Drew Carey

“I mean, what do you do in Las Vegas? You gamble—and you go to strip clubs.”—Scott Caan 

“Man, I really like Vegas.”—Elvis Presley

As many times as I’d been to Las Vegas, because I loved the clubs, the dancing, and the fun, it still struck me as odd that a city like this existed. It just shouldn’t. You drove for hours in the mostly barren desert, with basically nothing to look at, except for the periodic billboards advertising casinos in Vegas.  When you approached the city, the buildings and the lights arose out of the ground, ringed by dusty mountains. The ultimate oasis. 

My idea of a trip to Vegas was to get dressed up, go out with the girls, have fancy drinks on the Strip, ogle cute guys, and go dancing. But I only did this when Rob stayed with my parents.  I’d never taken Rob here.

Instead of staying at a nice hotel on the Strip, however, Carlos stayed downtown. It figured.

Downtown meant old Las Vegas. It embodied everything that was right with Las Vegas, but also everything that was wrong—older, smaller, seedier.  Dingier casinos, cheaper slots. While much of it had been redone and during the summers there were free concerts on Fremont Street, it was no place for a child to be left alone.

We arrived around eight o’clock, so when Jake and I pulled into the parking lot of the Golden Nugget, the massive amount of lights on the hotel shocked my system. Focused on my son, I sprang from the car immediately, impatient.  All I wanted was my child.  I ran into the casino, Jake hot on my heels, and went up the elevators to the room.

Could the elevators take any longer?

Finally, we reached the floor, I found the room number, and pounded on the door.

Carlos opened the door, smelling like cologne and wearing pressed pants and a button-down shirt. Dressed up to go out.

I put my hand on my hip and glared at him, all attitude. “Is Roberto here?”

He backed away from the door with a grandiose, “Come right in” gesture, and I barged in. Jake stayed in the doorway. Rob sat on the floor, playing videogames. 

“Hey, mijo,” I said quietly, crouching down next to him. “How are you?”

“Fine, Mom,” he said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He looked subdued but safe.

“You’re overreacting,” muttered Carlos in my ear.

“Outside,” I hiss-hurled at him, with as much contempt as I could pack into two syllables. As always, I didn’t want to argue in front of Rob.  I grabbed a room key that was sitting on the dresser and opened the door.  “We’ll be right back, Rob.”

Jake went out, and Carlos grabbed the other hotel key and followed me and Jake into the hallway.

The second the door was closed, I hissed, “What were you thinking?”

Carlos got in my face. “He’s my son. This is my weekend.  I had plans.  We came here.” Jake stepped forward, but I waved him back with my hand.

Oh, my baby daddy was an arrogant idiot. “Do you know what it means to really be a father? It means you don’t make plans the weekend you have your son. It means you spend time with him. It does not mean that you take him to Vegas to sit in a hotel room.”

Carlos made a disgusted, impatient noise.  “He’s fine. He’s having a good time. He just likes to play on the tablet anyway.”

It was all I could do to keep from screaming. “First, you took him across state lines. You don’t have the right to do it. It’s in the court order.”

Carlos rolled his eyes. “Whatever.  That’s a technicality.”

“Second, this is no place for a child.” A group of college kids stumbled by loudly, clearly celebrating someone’s twenty-first birthday with open bottles of alcohol.  Illustrating my point.

“I have the right to have him on week—” Carlos started, but I interrupted.

“No you don’t. You don’t have the right to do this. You have the right to have him overnight, in Santa Barbara.  You have the right to take care of him and to show him what it means to have a father who is interested in him. But you don’t have the right to—” I stopped and started whispering fast. “I figured it out, you know. You’re gambling all the time, right? That’s it, isn’t it? That’s why you’re running out of money. That’s why you want to change the child support.”

Carlos shifted his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets but he didn’t deny it.

So he did have something to lose.

I continued, “Well, you know what? You’re never going to win any money gambling. You don’t need to see Rob any more than you already do. You need to drop the case, Carlos. Keep everything the way it is.”

“No,” he said firmly.

“No?”

He stepped forward toward me, getting in my face.  Jake hovered in the background, totally pissed.  Carlos’s voice lowered to a nasty whisper.  “I’m not dropping the case. I pay too much in child support. My lawyer thinks I can win. I told him how your lawyer boyfriend lied on the stand and I saw you tongue-fucking him in the courthouse hallway.  My god, Lucy, have some respect.  First me in the car and him in the fucking courthouse?”  

Jake stepped closer to us and I waved him back.

Carlos kept going.  “The next time around?  When we have the hearing in a few months?  My lawyer thinks I’m going to win because it’s a father’s rights case.”

“Then you better act like a father,” I hurled back. Jake stepped closer, eyes blazing, and I waved him back, again. Then I got in Carlos’s face. “What did you promise him? What did you tell Rob that he could do in Vegas? What promise have you broken?”

Carlos spat out the words right back at me.  “God you talk too much. Just fucking shut up. You have no idea what is going on. There’s a big game.  It’s important, and I’m gonna win. I always do. I have a lot riding on it.”  He looked around.  “So I took my son to Vegas? Big fucking deal. You’re totally overreacting. Typical. Fucking bitch. Were you always this much of a bitch when we were together?” Carlos got closer to me, spit coming out the side of his mouth, his nostrils flaring, eyes full of hatred.

“Knock it off, Carlos,” I muttered, taking a step back.  “This is about Rob, not me.”

“Yeah, you were this much of a bitch.  Dry fucking pussy got me into all this shit—” he started, but Jake grabbed Carlos by the neck and slammed him against the wall.

“Don’t fucking talk to her like that,” he snarled.

Carlos jutted his chin out and spat in Jake’s face. Jake wiped his cheek and stepped back.  “I can talk to her however I like, pretty boy. What are you going to do about it?”

“Show some respect to your son’s mother,” said Jake with disgust.

“Her?” jeered Carlos.  “She’s a mistake I made, and she wasn’t worth it.”

“Don’t talk to her that way,” Jake repeated dangerously.