All the Waters of the Earth (Giving You ... #3) (19 page)

“Ha.  You’re not gonna do anything about it, pretty boy.”

Jake rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

Carlos shook his head, his eyes narrowed and mouth pinched.  “Take that nasty cunt and go,” and he lunged, fist raised to hit Jake’s face, but Jake was too tall and Carlos hit him in the chest.  As I cried “Stop, stop, stop,” Jake reared his fist back and landed a solid punch right in Carlos’s face.

Damn if Carlos didn’t deserve it.

Carlos bent down, shoved Jake in the stomach with his shoulder, and tried to push him across the hall, but Jake was taller and more muscular, and didn’t move. Then Carlos took a step back.

Blood beginning to pool out of his nose, Carlos started laughing. He jutted up his chin and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.  “You just made a mistake. Go take Rob now, and do whatever you want. I’m gonna call my lawyer after I take a few pictures of my face and ask security for a copy of the tape of this hallway.  I’ll tell him that your pretty boyfriend is violent and shouldn’t be around kids.”

I felt like I was going to faint and Jake looked horror-struck.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I said. “You asked for it. You totally provoked him.”

Carlos raised his eyebrows. “Don’t know about that. Get your son, bitch.” And then he sauntered down the hall away from us.

What the fuck do we do now?

Jake walked over to the side of the hall, leaned his forehead against the wall, and stayed there a moment. When he pulled back to gaze at me, the look of pain on his face physically hurt me.

“Lucy—” he started, but I interrupted him, shaking my head.

“Give me a minute.”

I moved next to him, my back to the wall, and then collapsed to sit down on the floor, my knees to my chest, my arms hugging my legs. I needed to regroup, to analyze, to think. So many thoughts and feelings at once.  In this position, I looked defeated but I didn’t feel that way. I just needed to pause.

The most important thing to me in the world was Roberto. This family law proceeding had turned Carlos, with whom I’d never had a good relationship, into a total dick and a total idiot. Well, he’d always been a selfish idiot, just now he showed it.  But Jake hit him, which he deserved, but I still didn’t like. I figured I’d start there.

“I thought you were the artsy type,” I whispered.

“What?”

“What were you doing hitting him? Do you have anger issues? I didn’t think you had that in you.”

“Neither did I,” he replied, bitterly. “I haven’t been in a fight since high school.”

Silence. Then Jake crouched down next to me, put his hands on my knees, and looked at me, sincerity radiating from him. “The last thing I want is to hurt you. I keep trying to protect you, and I keep fucking it up.”

I reached over and touched his cheek.  “Maybe I don’t need protection.  Maybe I’m fine the way I am.”

He crinkled his eyes when he smiled. “You are more than fine the way you are. It’s a lawyer thing. At work, I’ll do anything to protect my clients. I want to protect you just as fiercely.  Anything for you.  I’ll do anything to protect you.  Even go away if I have to.  I care about you, and I fucked it up again.”

“You were protecting me,” I said slowly, as I thought about his words. I loved that he cared about me.

“It was too much to take.  I tried to stay out of it but it went too far.” He paused and then looked analytical. “I don’t know how this is going to play out. He clearly violated a court order by taking Rob across state lines. He also threatened you. His lawyer will spin it that I’m violent. The thing is, I’m not really. I can still testify, and so can you.”

“There’s the footage too, likely,” I said, and he nodded and let out a breath.  He sat down next to me, his back against the wall.

“Let’s hope it shows Carlos in his glory.”

“I don’t know what to do with you right now,” I admitted. “I’m grateful to you for coming here with me and having my back. And yeah, I was scared of Carlos. I’m both pissed and happy that you hit him. I don’t ever want you to go.  I’m a mess right now.”

“I wasn’t going to put up with that shit, Lucy, I’m sorry, but maybe I fucked up. Fuck.” He looked so remorseful that I felt bad for him.  But I needed to think about this from the perspective of what was best for
Rob
, not what was best for me or Jake.

Then I did think about it. And what would be better for Rob than someone like Jake, who was willing to stick up for his mom?

I leaned my head on his shoulder and reached for his hand.

“I’m glad you were here tonight.  I’m not happy you got in a fight, and it scared me.  I’m freaked about what’s going to happen. But I’m just . . . I’m glad that you were here.”

And we sat in the hallway, not talking.

“No judge will take Rob away from me,” I said after a moment, willing myself to believe it as I said it. “Carlos is an idiot. He was neglecting Rob here, leaving him in a hotel room while he gambled away his child support money.” Then I smiled a rueful smile. “Good thing for the case that Carlos has made some mistakes, but bad for Rob. Fuck, I wish his dad were different. But he isn’t.”

“Should we get Rob?” Jake asked after a moment.

I nodded. I opened the door with the key I’d grabbed.

Rob sat in front of the television. He hadn’t moved.

“You okay, mijo?”

He nodded, and I let out a breath. Time to talk to my kid about what had just happened. I sat down next to him and looked him in the eyes.

“Look.  Me and your dad, we don’t get along. This has nothing to do with you.” I reached over and stroked his face. “You are the most precious thing to me. Your dad and I fought just now, and I’m sorry you had to hear it. I can’t promise you that it will all be perfect in the future, but I can promise you that I love you, I always will love you, and I always will fight to make sure that you have the best life you can.  Do you have any questions? Do you need to talk about it?”

“No, Mom.”  He seemed quiet, but he was always quiet.

“You ready to come find our room?”

“I get to stay with you now?”

“Yeah,” I said. “And we’ll do something fun tomorrow.”

Rob’s eyes lit up. “Cool. I wanted to go to the Luxor.  They have Titanic artifacts.  I read it in the hotel guide.”

“Then we shall, mijo.”

We grabbed Rob’s bag and left for the Bellagio.  Much better.

Despite the sumptuous surroundings, I knew it was going to be awkward to share a room with Rob and Jake, but I didn’t want to make Jake get his own room. I couldn’t say why. I just didn’t.

Perhaps it was because he was becoming part of my family.

We entered the room, which had two beds. Making an executive decision, I said, “Rob, you and I sleep here, Mister Jake on the other one. Are you hungry?”

He shook his head no.

“It’s been a long day. Let’s go to bed.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t awkward having Jake with us. We took turns getting ready for bed, and then I crawled into bed with Rob, cuddling him.

Jake came over to both of us, ruffled Rob’s hair, and kissed my forehead, saying “Goodnight.” And then he crawled into his own bed and turned out the light.

Sunday morning, I woke up early in the hotel room, squished into about six inches of bed, Rob curled up against me, pressed into my back. A vast expanse of bed lay undiscovered on his other side. I had forgotten how my kid took over the bed. One night of cramped sleep wasn’t the end of the world, but I preferred to actually have space in bed. But when children are asleep, they are the most perfect angels and can do no wrong. His little nose was upturned and he made a soft, whiffling noise as he slept.

I felt kind of crappy, like there was too much air conditioning in the room.  I hoped it was just allergies.

Glancing over at Jake, asleep in the other bed, my eyes widened. Damn. Now he looked fine.

When he was awake, he looked like the romance heroes that I wrote about—tall, dark, and chiseled. Asleep, he was all of those things, but there was a softness to him.  His lips pursed when he breathed and his eyelids flickered slightly, his black hair sleep-messy. He was so tall, he reached the end of the bed. Resting on his front, his hands under the pillow, I admired his muscular shoulders. He’d worn modest clothes to bed, a dark blue t-shirt and striped pajama pants, and there was something both comforting and arousing about his presence. 

Perhaps sensing me staring at him, he blinked and opened his eyes, the color startling in the morning light.

“Hey,” he whispered, across the way from me, in his separate bed, just out of reach.

“Morning,” I whispered back. And I realized that I could really, very easily, get used to waking up to Jake.

“You and Rob sleep okay?”

“Yeah, though he takes up as much room as a baby elephant.”

He gave me a glorious, sleepy, morning smile. “Let’s make it a good day for him.”

We spent the rest of the morning visiting the Strip, going through the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor, and eating lunch where Rob wanted. Spoiled? Maybe. But he didn’t get to leave the hotel room yesterday, so I wanted to give him what Carlos should have given him (if he’d had permission to take Rob out of state). Then we drove home to Santa Barbara.

I called Amelia first thing Monday morning and told her everything.  Carlos’s kidnapping, Jake’s punch, all of it.  She told me that she would subpoena the surveillance tape, take Carlos’s deposition, and get a statement from me and Jake.  She also said that because I had custody, she didn’t see this as being something that needed to be brought to the court on an emergency basis, but that we could bring it up at the next hearing, which took a ridiculously long time to get before a judge.  It would be months before I had to deal with Carlos in a courtroom.  But she made me email her the whole story so that she had notes of everything that happened.  It was the best we could do for now.

A few days later, it was three days before Christmas. Despite my planning, it had still snuck up on me. House? Decorated. Presents? Wrapped. Rob? Excited. Me? That slight cold that I’d hoped was allergies back in the hotel room had bloomed into full-blown illness.  I woke up with a fever, chilled, sweating, and coughing. I felt horrible. Really, death sounded better. Well, not really, but I was very sick. Rob came in my bedroom, worried when mom didn’t get out of bed, bringing me water and saltine crackers.

I needed to see a doctor. I didn’t have time to be sick.  It was Christmas! After going to Urgent Care, where they gave me a prescription and diagnosed me with a form of pneumonia—which I’d probably caught in Vegas—I filled it and went home to bed.

When Jake called me from work, as he often did, I must have sounded dreadful, because he said, “Lucy, honey, give me your mom’s number, and I’ll have her bring you over some soup.”

Since Jake and I had gotten back together after the hearing, I’d continued to feed him dinner, although he had nevertheless been working a lot. He took the time to come over and see me, but still, he worked way beyond a nine to five schedule. Well beyond. That man needed to learn that he just did not have to do that anymore. But he’d taken to texting or calling me throughout his busy work day, which I loved. My man thought about me, he was taking the time for me, and he communicated with me.