If I had remembered, I would have done so much differently. I would have made sure he knew how much I loved him and appreciated him. Four years ago, when things started to deteriorate between Max and me, Gramps moved to Florida and bought a place close to the beach. He told me he was tired of the cold and snow in Alaska, but I know he did it so I would have a place to go when I finally put an end to the lie he and I knew I was living.
It was a month before he passed away that I talked to him and told him that I asked Max for a divorce, and that as soon as the divorce was final, Hunter and I were going to move to Florida into the same building he lived in. He was sad for Hunter, but knew the situation well enough to understand that Max and I were doing more harm than good staying together for the sake of staying together. Three days after the last time I spoke to him, I got a call from one of his neighbors telling me that there were newspapers piling up outside his door and that he wasn’t answering. I knew then that he was gone. I knew I was too late.
I remember trying to call him over and over, but he never answered. Eventually, I called the police and explained I was in Seattle and had no way of checking on him myself. The officer I was connected with told me that he would look into it. It wasn’t until four hours later that I got the call I had been dreading, the call letting me know the only man who had never let me down, never left me, was gone. He had a heart attack and died in his sleep.
“Bad day?” I don’t jump when Zach’s voice breaks into my reprieve. My body is completely relaxed from the alcohol I’ve consumed, but I do tilt my eyes toward him.
“Pretty much.” I lift the bottle to my mouth and take another mouthful, swallowing it down.
“Wanna talk about it?” he asks.
I lift my head and try to focus on him. “Do you happen to know of a cheap, like, really, really, really, really cheap lawyer?”
His eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “Why do you need a lawyer?” he growls, and my eyes focus on his, as I correct, “A cheap lawyer.”
“Okay, why do you need a cheap lawyer?”
“The usual. My ex is trying to get custody of Hunter, because there was a bear in the house, like I invited the stupid bear in to be with us.” I pause, then drunkenly mumble to myself, “What kind of idiot does he think I am? I would never invite a bear into the house.”
“What the fuck?”
“Right?” I sigh, leaning my head back to take another swig of wine.
“Where’s Hunter?”
“At a sleepover,” I murmur, focusing on the sky once more.
“Right. Go in and open the front door.”
“What?” I frown.
“Go in and open the front door,” he repeats, and my eyes move to him.
“For what?”
“I’m coming over.”
“You’re not coming over.” I sit up quickly, and almost fall out of my chair in the process.
“Go open the door, Shelby,” he commands, and my eyes narrow as I hiss back, “No.”
“Fine,” he mutters, and I start to relax back into my seat then tense when he takes a step back from the railing, puts his hands to the top, and swings his body over, landing on my deck feet first almost silently. I thought the decks between our houses were pretty close, but until then I didn’t realize just how close they were.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” I mumble, in complete shock.
“Now, let’s talk.”
“Zach.”
“Talk to me,” he demands, pulling one of the other chairs up in front of mine, and takes a seat facing forward with his elbows to his knees.
“You’re annoying.”
“Shelby.”
“Where are the kids? Shouldn’t you be home with them?”
“I’m ten feet away from where I was when I came out on my deck. If they need me, they can come out and get me. Now talk to me.”
Taking a drink from the bottle in my hand, I sit back and sigh. “Fine. When the bear broke into the house, Hunter sent pictures to Max then told him about helping you release the bear. Max flipped out and told me that he was going to take Hunter from me for putting him in danger,” I say softly, shaking my head at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.
“Do you guys have a custody agreement?” he asks, taking the bottle from my hand, putting it to his lips, and tipping it back. My stomach flips from the mere intimacy of the act, and it takes a lot of concentration to answer his question.
“N-no, we just agreed verbally that Hunter would live with me.”
“Custody wasn’t discussed during your divorce?” He frowns, and I shake my head then nod.
“It was, but the judge agreed that since we already had an agreement in place that was working for us, we didn’t need to change it.”
“Then you moved here.”
“Then I moved here,” I agree.
“My lawyer’s good. She’s out of Anchorage, but comes into town to meet with clients. I’ll see if she’s available to talk. If not, I’ll help you find someone who is.”
“Zach.” I swallow hard and close my eyes, wishing he would stop being nice. I can’t deal with him being nice to me.
“Baby, he’s not going to take Hunter from you,” he says gently, reading me wrong, and I feel his hand rest on my thigh and tears prickle the back of my eyes.
“You don’t know him. He will do everything he can to make it impossible for me to keep him. He has money and knows a lot of people.”