Read Close To Home (Westen Series) Online

Authors: Suzanne Ferrell

Tags: #Contemporary Romance Novel

Close To Home (Westen Series) (7 page)

She compared him to Cleetus? She couldn’t be seriously thinking he’d be a good influence on her sons. The town’s deputy resembled Barney Fife on steroids. About as smart, too. And she could forget about letting the deputy take on the job of keeping an eye on those boys. The man was putty in her mother’s hands, and the boys would manipulate him into letting them go skydiving. Maybe the answer lay in her paying for proper day care.

He turned on his heel and marched to the front door. He counted to ten then rapped loudly on the screen door’s frame.

Chapter Five


I
know everyone in town has been so understanding...” A loud knock on her front door stopped Emma, mid-sentence. She peeked up the hall to see Clint’s silhouette filling the doorway.
Great. Just what I need now, another confrontation with him.

He rapped on the door again. Louder.

A heavy sigh escaped her. “Suzie, I have to go. No, someone is at the door. Yes, Doctor Preston. No, I’ll be fine. He really doesn’t scare me.”

She hung up the phone, then pressed her hands against the soft faded denim on her thighs, taking a deep calming breath. Whatever the bothersome doctor wanted now, she didn’t intend to let him get the upper hand, again. Marching down the hall, she felt like Daniel inviting the lion inside the den.

She paused at the stairs and listened for any noise coming from the boys’ room above. They must still be asleep. Good. Between the doctor and Mama, she had enough to worry about right now.

At the door, she stopped herself from opening it in a polite fashion like she would for any other visitor. Somehow she needed to break this connection with the man and keep him at a distance. If not to protect her from her own fantasies, then at least to keep her sons and mother safe.

“Yes?” The ice in her voice pleased her.

“I want to talk to you.” The heat in his worried her.

“The boys are spending the afternoon grounded in their room to impress on them the trouble they caused today. I gave you my word the boys won’t bother you again, so I don’t see how we have anything more to say to each other.”

“You and I need to talk and I have some questions I want answered.”

A movement from the neighbor’s lawn drew Emma’s attention. For the first time this week, Mr. Higgins decided to do yard work. Emma scanned the houses on both sides of the street. Great! All her neighbors seemed suddenly interested in pruning trees and raking leaves this afternoon.

The heat of embarrassment mixed with anger flooded her face. Since the day she returned home to live with her parents as a single mother, she’d worked very hard to build a respectable reputation. She’d be damned if she’d have an argument with the good doctor on her front porch for all the town gossips to feed on for the next year.

“Come inside.” She thrust the screen door open, almost hitting him in the face, then turned on her barefoot heel, marching toward her kitchen. “Whatever questions you have, I prefer not to discuss it in front of the entire population of Weston. You may be here temporarily, Doctor, but I and my family live here on a permanent basis.”

She leaned against the countertop, arms crossed in front of her. Just because she wouldn’t feed the gossips her business for lunch didn’t mean she had to be hospitable to the man causing all her current problems. “Now, what did you want to ask me?”

“It’s not going to work.”

His statement startled her. “Excuse me? What isn’t going to work?”

“Having your mother watch the boys. Today proves they’re already too much for her to handle.”

“Today was a fluke. Mama is quite capable of watching the boys for the rest of their summer vacation.” That sounded ridiculous even to her own ears, but she wasn’t about to give in to him now. She dug her fingernails into her arms. She didn’t want to discuss this afternoon’s incident with anyone, but especially not the man threatening her family’s well-being.

“You don’t seriously believe that.” His lips pressed into a thin line and a muscle ticked along his jaw line.

“What do you mean? Of course I believe it.”

“If you truly believe your mother capable of actually watching the twins, why have them spending the day with the Miller twins?"

Emma pushed herself away from the counter. “You have it all figured out, don’t you?”

With a smug tilt to his chin, he leaned against her kitchen table. “You bet I have. After I threatened to call Children’s Services you realized having your mother babysit the boys wouldn’t work. So you called together a few old friends and begged them to invite your mother and the boys over for the day. You figured you could placate me with your plan, and keep from paying to put your sons in proper day care.”

“I’m cheap, as well as neglectful?” The nerve of the man!

“If the shoe fits, lady.”

“Well, let me set you straight on a few things, Mr. High-and-Mighty Preston.” With her hands clenched in fists, she took a step toward him. “I had a babysitter, a very good one. My father. But he died last April and Mama hasn’t been the same since. Then when school was ready to let out, I found myself facing the dilemma of paying for day care or quitting working my two jobs for the summer. But friends came to my rescue.”

“The Millers?”

She really hated the sardonic twist of his lips. “No. Your uncle and aunt.”

Surprise registered on his face.

Emma fought hard not to laugh. “That’s right, you sanctimonious jerk. Your uncle and aunt took over babysitting the boys for me. It’s why Mama and the boys feel so comfortable hanging out there. Until a week ago, they spent mornings with Doc Ray, Caroline and Harriett. When they decided to go on this tour of the world, your uncle devised this plan for people in the community he thought would be willing to watch the boys and spend time with Mama, so I could continue working.”

Either the knowledge that she wasn’t a neglectful mother or that he wasn’t infallible shocked him so much he grabbed a chair and sat down hard. His stunned expression didn’t last long. His eyes narrowed with suspicion, and the line of his mouth flattened. “Uncle Ray knew Isabelle was having spells of confusion before he went out of town?”

She shrugged. “He told me it might be stress related, since the spells seemed to become more frequent after Daddy died.”

“Did he run any tests on her?”

“Other than blood tests, which were all normal, no. He thought it a waste of money, that it would eventually run its course.”

Clint rubbed his neck and stared at the floor a moment. When he looked at her again he had a puzzled expression. “Why was it so important to Uncle Ray that you keep working?”

“It just was.” This time Emma turned away. Few people knew her dreams, the tentative plans she’d made for her future. She damn well didn’t plan to share them with someone who thought so little of her. With a fortifying breath, she opened the refrigerator. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get dinner started.”

“Actually, I do mind.” The words came from right behind her.

She jumped and backed up against the door of the refrigerator.

“You expect me to believe that my uncle set up this
watch
for you while they were gone, just so you could keep working, without further explanation? You know they’re on a boat for the rest of this week and don’t use cell phones. I can’t check out your story until after the time limit I gave you has passed. Don’t take me for a fool, lady.”

“If the shoe fits.” It felt really good to throw his words back in his face.

He leaned in, trapping her against the refrigerator. “How about I just call Children’s Protection right now?”

Emma swallowed hard.

He leaned in closer. Only a breath separated them. “Between you and Harriett, I am very tired of being jerked around. I want some straight answers, or I make the call. Which is it to be?”

Not trusting her voice to hide how intimidating his tactics were, Emma simply nodded.

“Good.”

He grabbed a chair, and straddled it. Leaning into it, he fixed her with a gaze so intense it reminded her of a police interrogator she’d seen in a recent movie.

Well, she refused to act like some sort of criminal. She turned her back on him, opened the fridge and grabbed the carton of juice. He would get his answers, but only at her pleasure. She poured herself a tall glass, then returned the juice without offering him any. To prolong his wait she treated herself to a long, slow drink, before leaning against her counter once more.

“All right.” She paused to take another, shorter drink. “You may begin the inquisition, Doctor.”

“Look, I’m just trying to understand the situation here. I’ve seen too many neglected kids end up in the emergency room. Tell me something that will reassure me that I won’t be patching more than a broken wrist on your sons.”

Emma studied him for a moment. The interrogator had vanished. He seemed genuinely concerned with the welfare of her sons. “Your uncle and aunt were kind to me when I came home, divorced, with two babies and no job. Caroline and Harriett took turns helping Mama and me to care for them. Many of the other women in town were not so kind. For months my family was the center of gossip and speculation. But slowly, and I suspect it had a lot to do with your aunt’s influence in town, the gossip died down.”

“What gossip?”

Emma let out an exasperated sigh. The man seemed oblivious as to how small towns functioned. Everyone’s business was fodder for the “well-meaning” gossips.

She peeked out the back window. Mama still sat on the porch swing at the far end of the porch, crocheting. Still, she lowered her voice when she spoke. “Gossip that always follows a divorced woman who comes home with no alimony or child support.”

“You got nothing?”

When he continued to appear confused, she rolled her eyes, then pulled out a chair and sat across the table from him. This wasn’t a topic she cherished thinking about, much less discussing with a near stranger. Apparently he wasn’t leaving until she filled him in on all the embarrassing details of her life.

“Oh, I got something from the divorce. In fact, I got many things.”

He lifted a brow in question.

“I got a few lessons on life. First, no matter how hard you work, bad things will still happen to you. Secondly, no matter how honest you are, there are people you think love you who will use you and toss you aside. And thirdly, no matter how much justice should be on your side, if someone has enough money, they can buy the law.”

“You’re a little bitter, aren’t you?” He rested his chin on his curved fist.

She so wanted to knock it off. “I don’t know, Doctor, you tell me. Suppose you fell in love, and the person you thought loved you above all else, let you work sixty to eighty hours a week to put them through medical school, then help support them through their residency. All the while they assure you that as soon as they are finished, it would be your turn to go to medical school. Only it never comes true.”

“What happened?”

Emma studied him for a moment, searching for some sign of condemnation or ridicule, but found none. For some strange reason, he seemed honestly interested in her past. Okay, he wanted all the sordid details. He should learn to be careful what he asked for.

“The age-old story. While I slaved to save enough money for a house, he was out dining with the medical elite. Meeting people more worthy of his new status as a doctor.”

Clint nodded as if he’d heard the story before. “Before you knew what hit you, he’d met someone else.”

“Loreene.” Emma ground the name out. It seemed to slither through the air, just like the woman who married her ex-husband.

Clint chuckled. “She sounds particularly vile.”

“Loreene’s daddy is a bigwig in Columbus’ political scene. She oozes money.” Emma set her glass on the table, resting her elbow beside it and her chin in the palm of her hand. “They met at some medical charity fund-raiser while I was working a double shift. Lorene took a liking to my slimeball ex-husband, who wasn’t my ex then. And whatever Lorene wants, her daddy finds a way to get it for her.”

“So tell me about the divorce.” He voiced this question more of a request and less like the orders he’d given earlier.

“It was ugly from the word go.” Emma stared off into space remembering. For the first time she could think back on her divorce without feeling sick to her stomach.

“Dwayne came home early one night. That should have been my first clue that something was wrong. He hadn’t been home early in the past three years, even on his nights off. But I was so excited with my own news.”

“What news was that?” He prodded her gently.

“Two months before, we’d gone to a friend’s wedding. We both had a little too much to drink. One thing led to another when we got home, and we made love in the backseat of our car.” A brittle laugh escaped her. “The night Dwayne came home early, I couldn’t wait to tell him, so I blurted out that we were going to have a baby.”

“Damn.”

Emma shook her head. “That’s putting it mildly, doctor. He countered with the news that we were getting divorced.” She swallowed hard and stared at the speckled linoleum pattern on the kitchen table. “Then he coldly told me to get an abortion.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No. At first I couldn’t believe he meant it. To this day I swear I hung in a state of shock for nearly four months. By the time I realized we truly were getting divorced, even if I had wanted an abortion, it was too far into the pregnancy to terminate it.”

“If he had the affair, how did he win the final settlement?”

“Now that’s where he really showed his creativity. He postponed the hearing until after the birth of the babies. Do you know he didn’t even come to the hospital to see them?”

“Not once?”

Shaking her head, she bit her lip to stop her anger before it could intensify. All this was water under the bridge, even if she hadn’t told another soul any of it before. “His lawyer got a court order for a paternity suit. It shocked me, because I knew I would be vindicated. My lawyer demanded it be the new DNA testing. His lawyer didn’t protest it.”

He leaned in closer. “Why? He had to know he’d lose.”

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