“I really like her,” she sighs. “I just don’t know if I can afford her. Even her monthly payments would be a little steep for me right now, and I just started my job.”
“Are you getting help from Hunter’s dad?” I question, pulling out onto the main road that will lead us back into town.
“Yeah, some. But we also worked that out ourselves,” she says quietly, and I know that can’t be good.
“How much is he giving you?”
She fiddles with her purse not looking at me. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Shel, how much is he giving you a month?”
“Five hundred,” she whispers, and my hands clench into fists.
“What?” I growl, while swinging my head to look at her.
“It’s always been okay,” she says quickly. “He pays for anything extra Hunter needs, and until now, I didn’t want or need his money.”
“Five hundred dollars a month is nothing. Shit, Steven could spend that on one trip to the grocery store.”
“It was working for us,” she cries, and I shake my head.
“What does he do?”
“Who?”
“Your ex. What does he do? How does he make a living?”
“He’s a lawyer,” she mutters, and I nod. It’s not a surprising piece of information. The clothes she has on now—even though they’re somewhat casual—look expensive, and I know the bag in her lap cost her at least a grand, if not more, just from the monogram print covering it.
“Does he work for free?”
“No,” she snaps.
“I’m sorry to say this, baby, but your ex is a dick. Even if you agreed to five hundred a month from him, he should have given you more without you even having to ask for it.”
“I didn’t want more,” she whispers.
“Did you mess around on him?” I question, and her angry response is immediate.
“No, of course not.”
“Then what?” I growl, and she hisses, “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something,” I mutter back instantly.
“We just wanted different things.” She says, and my hands fist on the steering wheel. I hate the pain I hear in her voice when she talks about him. “I don’t want him to be right. I don’t want him to know I can’t make it on my own, or that I do need him to help me.”
“There is nothing wrong with asking him to help take care of his son.” I say resting my hand over hers on her lap.
“I know,” she mumbles.
“So, what else did Mandy say?”
“She said that mothers are usually granted custody, but since I moved Hunter so far away from his dad, the judge may not grant it to me.”
“Fuck.” I grit my teeth, knowing she’s right. Normally, mothers are granted custody, but a lot of times, if the child is a boy and the mother is in another state, the judge may think it’s healthier for a boy to grow up with his father.
“I’m going to work out something with Mandy, and in the meantime, I’ll try to talk to Max.”
“You don’t need to talk to him,” I grit out.
“He loves Hunter. If I can make him see that what he’s doing is hurting him—”
“He won’t care. He’s trying to hurt you,” I say, cutting her off.
Pulling her hand from under mine, she sits up, and asks, “Can you drop me off at the bank?”
“Shel—”
“I don’t want to be late,” she interrupts.
“Do you want me to get your van to you?”
“I’ll just walk home,” she says quietly, and I take a chance to look over at her and can see the progress we made this morning is long gone and she’s back to being pissed off at me.
“I’ll pick you up. Tonight, you and Hunter are coming to dinner with us.”
“No, we’re not,” she replies evenly.
“I already told Aubrey and Steven you guys were,” I lie, and can see her back go straight out of the corner of my eye at my words.
“Fine,” she hisses, and I have to fight back my smile as I pull up in front of the bank. Before I even have the truck in park, she’s out the door and rounding the hood. Rolling down the window, I yell out, “Have a good day, baby.” My words gain a glare from her and a few looks from people on the street as they look between us making me smile.
“Bre, Steven,” I call, walking into the house, with Penny following slowly behind me. The medication she’s on for the infection has made her a little sluggish, but when I picked her up, she was definitely happy to see me. Either that, or she was happy to be out of the cage she’s been in while shes healed.
“Yeah, Dad,” Aubrey says, stopping at the top of the stairs leaning over the banister.
“Come on down.” I drop the bag of Penny’s bowls and food on the table near the door.
“Oh, my God! You got us a dog!” She squeals when she notices penny at my feet then bounds down the last flight of stairs toward us, causing Penny to move behind me and whimper.
“Calm, gorgeous,” I say gently, and she stops mid-run and looks up at my face.
“You got us a dog?” Steven asks, and I glance back up the stairs to him.
“Come down. I want to talk to you and your sister.”
“Sure, let me just hang up with Mom,” he mutters, disappearing from sight.