Close To Home (Westen Series) (28 page)

* * *

The low-to-the-ground, shiny black sports car sped down the street and turned into the driveway. Emma watched through the large front bay window that she and Clint installed a month earlier. Her ex-husband climbed out and stood surveying her neighborhood. She didn’t have to look hard to know he’d weighed and measured her town and her home as beneath his standards.

Six years had passed since she’d last seen Dwayne Hazard. His thinning dark hair was slicked back and he’d dressed in the expensive but casual style of a wannabe
GQ
model. Too bad he didn’t have the body to go with it. Anger bubbled inside her. He’d destroyed her life once, and now that it was convenient he’d decided to take one more thing from her.

“Nice car.” Clint’s arms came around her and he pulled her against his chest in a comforting hug.

“You know what they say about men with expensive sports cars, Doc.” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

“No, what do they say?” His lips curved up in a half grin.

“They need a powerful car to compensate for having a small...” Mama said from beside them, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Clint laughed. “And just who’re the ‘theys’ that say this, Miss Isabelle?”

“Women, of course.” Mama winked at Clint then nodded out the door at Dwayne. “In this case it’s definitely true. Just ask Emma. If anyone should know, she should.”

“Mama!” She couldn’t believe her mother.

Clint laughed harder, then squeezed Emma tighter and whispered in her ear. “Are you telling me your ex needs to compensate?”

She grinned up at him. “Big time.”

Clint sobered as Dwayne walked up the driveway. “Here he comes. Remember. He wants something from you. You don’t owe him anything besides what the court ordered.”

When he stepped away from her, she missed his warm strength.

“Emma.” Dwayne stalked into the house when she opened the door. “Where’s the boy?”

“Hello to you, too, Dwayne.” She did little to hide her sarcasm. She slightly turned toward Clint. “This is Doctor Preston. Clint, this is Dwayne Hazard, my ex-husband.”

Slimeball extraordinaire
. Her eyes met Clint’s for the briefest of looks, knowing the same thought ran through his mind.

Duane gave Clint a dismissing nod. “Emma, I didn’t come here to meet the country doctor. I want to see the boy.”

“Boys.” Emma fought the urge to shove him out of her house. “There are two of them.”

“Well, I only need to see the one that will belong to me.”

White-hot anger surged through her. “Belong to you?”

A warm hand settled on her shoulder. “Remember the hand, Em,” Clint whispered in her ear. “The boys are outside, I’ll go get them.”

Emma glanced at Clint. The quiet tension in his face told her he resented Dwayne acting like Brian was a possession as much as she did. She watched him leave the room before turning on her ex.

“Why are you doing this, Dwayne?” Even though she knew, she still had to ask. Maybe she could convince him to leave before the boys had to find out about him and his plans.

“You’ve had our sons long enough. Once the lab error was discovered, I decided I should get one boy. It’s only fair.”

“Fair? That’s why you’re here? To get your fair share?” She clenched her fingers into tight fists to keep from grabbing him and shaking some humanity into him. “They aren’t communal property. You can’t divide them up—you get one, I get one.”

“But I can, Emma. I’m their father. You’ve denied me my rights long enough.” He studied his nails in a dismissive fashion. His condescending tone reminded her that he never thought her intelligence equal to his.

Emma narrowed her eyes and fought the urge to strangle the jerk. “I know you only want Brian to get the money from your uncle’s estate.”

“I’ll admit Uncle Roger’s death has affected me, but not in such an altruistic fashion as you’re suggesting.” Duane parked himself on her sofa, crossing one linen-clad leg over the other. “One’s own mortality is a difficult thing to face. I realized I could live on through my son.”

“Sons. Like I said before, there are two of them.”

Before she could comment further the back door banged open, followed by the running footsteps of her sons and Hoppy.

“Mommy, we taught Hoppy to play fetch!” Ben announced.

“And he likes it!” Brian added.

They came to a quick stop just inside the front room. Both stared wide-eyed at the stranger in their home. Instinctively they moved together. Two against the world.

“Boys, this is Mr. Hazard.”

“Hi,” mumbled both boys.

“Come here.” Dwayne commanded them.

Emma started to get between the boys and their sperm donor—she refused to call him their father even in her own mind—when Clint’s hands once again settled on her shoulders, stopping her in her tracks.

“Easy, Mom,” he whispered in her ear. “Remember the court order. We have to let him talk to them.” Tension radiated from his hands. He wasn’t any happier about the situation.

“Which one of you is...Brian?” Dwayne asked, obviously trying to remember the child’s name.

Emma’s temper turned up a notch. The court had ordered her to let Dwayne meet the boys, but she didn’t have to like it or the way he was treating them.

Silently, she watched her sons exchange looks.

“I am.” It wasn’t Brian who stepped forward, but Ben.

She knew her boys so well. It had always been like this. If Ben thought something would hurt his little brother, he tried to protect him. They were good judges of character, even at the ripe old age of six. They’d taken to Clint like baby ducks to water. Dwayne, however, would never get past their invisible wall of mutual protection.

“Well, son, you’re going to come live with me soon.” Dwayne turned all his attention on the boy in front of him.

“No, he’s not.” Brian ran up to stand beside his brother.

Dwayne sneered at Brian whom he thought was Ben. “Yes he is. Brian will be coming to live with me in Columbus.”

“No, I’m not. And you can’t make me.” Brian turned and ran out the back door.

“I thought you were Brian.” Dwayne reached out to grab Ben’s arm.

Ben kicked him in the shin then backed away. “You’re a stupid mean man. You don’t even know who’s who!” Then he too, ran out of the house.

“Brian! Ben!” Emma ran to the door, with Clint right behind her.

“I’ll go after them. You deal with
him
.” He bit the word out with such force, that she knew he wanted to deck her ex-husband. The problem was, so did she.

For a moment she watched Clint dart around the house after the boys. She knew where they were going—to the tree fort their grandfather built for them a few years back.

“They’re mannerless hooligans, Emma.” Dwayne remarked with unveiled contempt when she returned to the room. “I’ll just have to teach mine to behave better than you have.”

Clenching her fists at her side, she slowly counted to ten before speaking. “My sons are six-year-old little boys, Dwayne.” She took a step toward him. “What’s your excuse?”

Dwayne stood. “My excuse?”

“Yes. Your excuse for coming into my home, scaring my sons with news that you’re planning to split them up and destroy the only family they’ve ever known?” She took another step closer. “You don’t care one iota about those boys.”

He stepped backward toward the door. “Now that’s not true, Emma. They’re my sons. Of course I care about them.”

She poked him square in the chest with her finger. “They’re
my
sons, you sanctimonious, self-inflated, pompous ass! I gave birth to them alone in a clinic bed because, thanks to you, I couldn’t afford a regular doctor. I scrimped and saved to provide a home for them without one cent of support from you. I’ve nursed them through cutting teeth, bouts with the flu, broken arms, and losing their beloved grandfather—the man who helped me raise them.”

Emma prowled closer, a mother lion in defense of her young. He bolted out the door onto the porch. She pursued him.

“
You
don’t deserve the term father. That man that ran out of here after them is more a father to them than you’ll ever be. You’ll get custody of one of them over my dead body!”

She took another predatory step toward the weasel. He stumbled down a few porch steps. “You touch me again, Emma and I’ll have you arrested.”

“You get the hell off my property and don’t ever come back.”

“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer,” Dwayne yelled as he climbed back into his over-priced, ego-boosting sports car.

“Bring them on, jerk. I’m not scared of you anymore.”

The car’s engine roared to life. Dwayne peeled out of her driveway like demons from hell were on his heels. She hoped he wrapped that thing’s fiberglass body around a telephone pole.

“I guess he isn’t staying for dessert?” Mama’s voice startled her.

“No, Mama, he isn’t.”

“Good. I never liked that boy. And I’d hate to see you waste your best lemon meringue pie on him.” She slipped her arm around Emma’s waist and squeezed her close. “Now that new beau of yours, he’s a keeper.”

“I think so, too, Mama,” she whispered and leaned her head against her mother’s. It felt so good to have Mama lucid and giving her comfort. For the moment she’d enjoy it. Pretty soon, Mama wouldn’t even know who she was.

After a few minutes, Mama kissed her cheek, patted her shoulder and turned to go inside. “Don’t worry, Em. It will all be okay.”

Emma nodded and swallowed the lump in her throat as she stared down the road. Everyone kept telling her things would turn out fine, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe them. All she could see was a future of heartache.

“Emma? You okay?” Clint’s voice sounded like a warm caress from behind her.

She turned and studied him as he leaned against the side of the house. “How much did you hear?”

“Not much before you told him he wasn’t a father.”

Heat filled her cheeks. “He made me so angry, the arrogant son-of-a-bitch.”

“Good. It’s about time you stood up to him. I wanted to belt him, but figured if anyone deserved to do it, it was you.”

She walked over to stand beside him. “Where are the boys?”

“In the fort. I heard them making plans to ‘make the bad man go away and never come back’.” He pulled her against him. “Why haven’t you told them about their father?”

“Because I was hoping this whole mess would just go away.” She leaned into his strength. The confrontation with Dwayne had zapped all of hers. Clint’s hands felt wonderful on her back.

“After today, they’re going to have questions.”

“I know. And as much as I want to avoid it, I can’t take the risk that the judge will rule in my favor. I can’t let Brian think I just let some stranger take him away, even though that is exactly what will happen.”

Clint cupped her face in both of his hands, tilting her face to his. Then he kissed her slowly. She clung to him, letting him infuse her with his energy and heat, gathering the courage to face her sons.

Releasing her, Clint took her hand in his. “C’mon we’ll breach the fort together.”

* * *

In the end it took the promise of pizza at the local pizza parlor and video games before bedtime to coax them out of the fort.

Emma sat on the faded wicker loveseat on the back porch, with her arms around her sons. Clint sat nearby on the porch’s top step.

“Do you guys remember all the times you asked me about your father?”
God, this was going to be so hard.

“Yep,” both boys said, nodding their heads, their expression serious and innocent.

She took a deep breath. “Well, a long time ago, before you were born, I was married. In fact, the man that was just here was my husband back then.”

“Was he mean then?” Ben asked.

“I didn’t think so when I married him, but I learned a lot later that he was.” Her gaze met Clint’s for a moment. She wished she didn’t have to do this. He nodded at her, and she found the courage to continue. “Anyway, we decided to get a divorce, but at the same time, I found out I was going to have two babies.”

“Us,” Brian said.

Emma smiled at her youngest son. “That’s right, sweetheart. I was going to have you two guys. Only because Mr. Hazard and I decided not to be married anymore, you guys had to have a blood test to show who your father was.”

“Like the ones we had the other day?” Ben asked.

“That’s right. Just like the ones you had the other day. Only there was a problem with the test. A court found out not long ago about the mistake, and Mr. Hazard wants the court to say he’s your father.” She swallowed hard. “In two weeks, I have to go to court, and a judge will tell us what the new blood tests showed. Mr. Hazard wants the court to use the tests to make Brian come live with him.”

“I don’t wanna live with him. He’s mean.”

This is breaking my heart.
“I don’t want you to go live with him, either, sweetie. And I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it from happening. But if the court says he’s your father, none of us may have a choice.”

“But we don’t want him to be our dad.” Brian hugged her hard.

“I know guys, believe me, I don’t want him to be your father either. But we can’t always choose who our moms and dads are.”

“We want Doc Clint to be our dad.” Ben hugged her on the other side. “That’s why we jumped outta the tree.”

Surprised, Emma’s gaze snapped to Clint’s once more. He shrugged, as confused as she. She leaned back so she could see both her sons’ faces. “You mean you jumped out of Old Man Thompson’s tree and broke your arms on purpose?”

They both nodded.

“Why?”

“Because Petey said his mom said, that Cleetus said, that Miz Harriett said, what you and Doc Clint needed was a reason to meet...” Ben began.

“...and we thought if Doc Clint had to fix us, then you could meet.” Brian continued. “And he could be our dad.”

* * *

“They’re something, aren’t they?” Emma lay curled beside Clint later that night.

“Yes they are.” He kissed the top of her head. “I was impressed when Ben stepped up to protect his brother. That took courage.”

“Ben has always done that. I think it’s the oldest child in him. But I was talking about why they were misbehaving so much back before school started. They just wanted to get you and me together.”