Accidentally Perfect (13 page)

“Um, the one where my last name was changed.”

“Mama, you changed your last name?” 

“What did you do that for mama?” 

“Did you not like Richards anymore?” 

“Did you change our last names too?” 

“Does daddy have to change his last name?”  I guess the girls were paying more attention than what I thought.  They were both full of questions.

“Give mommy and daddy a minute, lovelies.”

“Lane, what are you talking about?”  I walk to the window and look down
at the parking lot. I nod my head for Brad to follow.

“So the story broke that Nathan is married, to me, or what the papers called me, Ms. Nobody.  I guess Nathan is in higher demand than I knew.”  My voice is low so the girls couldn’t hear.

“What the fuck, Laney?  How is that even news?  Don’t get me wrong I was shocked as hell when you came in here earlier and he started spouting off about you being his wife, and then with me when he was pounding on his chest being all ‘me Tarzan, Laney my Jane’.  I figured something screwed up happened in Vegas, something that is fixable, a mistake or something.  Not front page news that you are married.  Not with reporters swarming the hospital that our girls are in. 

You know, I’ve had one hell of a past twenty-four
hours.  I was hit by a drunk driver, Laney.  My daughters were in the car with me when I got hit.  One of them had to undergo surgery to fix a completely smashed leg.  Look at
me,
look at the blood stains on my clothes.  Did you notice the stitches in my hair line?  Then when my children’s mother finally makes it to the
hospital,
she isn’t alone.  She left the state alone, but then she comes back with a new ring on her finger and a fucking husband. 
A new father for my girls, but not just any father, Nathan fucking Whitmore, Laney.
  How did you not see any of this as a problem?  There are paparazzi outside, Laney
and,
by the way, where is this husband of yours?”  His voice grows louder and looks directly at the girls to see if they noticed.

“The story is a fact, Brad.  Nathan is who he
is,
and now he’s attached, out of commission, off the market.  I guess. I’m not sure, it’s ridiculous to me, but not to all the gossips rags throughout the city.  I never paid attention to them before
Brad;
I don’t know how they work.  I didn’t even know Nathan’s last name until my mother pointed it out.”

“What?”

“You heard me, Brad.  I did not know.  Okay.  I screwed up.  Jesus, what did you think happened?  I left here with you knowing that Michael screwed his
neighbor,
and I needed a break after walking in on them.  I was drunk and Nathan walked up to me and S.  I guess Stella saw a match made in
heaven, and I woke up married, with a ring on my finger and a legitimate marriage license to back it all up.”

“Christ Lane, how on earth did you leave here being the responsible parent?
  The one with her head attached to her shoulders with her feet securely on the ground to the one coming back as Mrs. Nathan Whitmore.”

“I don’t know Brad, it just happened.”

“Well make it unhappen
Laney.  Fix it. You know I don’t get involved in your love life.  As long as the girls are fine, then I’m fine. But those vultures down there are not okay for the girls.”  

“Nathan Whitmore.” I know it’s my father, but I can’t help it. I live to get a rise out of him.  I see it as payback for the years he was a complete flunky as a father.

“Don’t you mean Riley-Whitmore?”

“I don’t think I do, Father.  Do I need to send you the papers again, stating that my legal last name is Whitmore?  I can have them framed for
you if need be.”

“It’s too damn late for you to give me your normal amount of shit.  What’s this I hear that you’re
married but more importantly, why do you think you have the right to dismiss a man that has worked for me for years?”

“I have that right because he is employed by Whitmore Assets. 
A company that I own; a company that I gave you the liberty to use because you feel that you are important enough to need the extra guarding.
  Truth
be told father, the only people you should be afraid of, are the husbands of the women you tend to sleep with.”

“Nathan, I don’t need your crap.  Kirk has been a trusted employee of mine.”

“Of mine.”

“He has been my guard since you opened the company.  He has never done anything
wrong; he has been a model employee,
and now he’s out of work.  He has a family to support, Nathan.”

“Then he shouldn’t have spoken to my wife the way he did.  He was the one who dug his own grave with such blatant disregard to whom he owes his livelihood.”

“Seriously, son.
  You expect for Kirk not to act that way after hearing such ridiculous news.  It was a
knee-jerk reaction;
he was stunned; shocked really.  I know I was when he phoned me to let me know he wouldn’t be at the house in the morning.” 

“I could care less what he thought or what your reaction was.  He disrespected the one person who is most important in my life.”

“The most important person, come on Nathan, you are smarter than that.  You can’t seriously let go of a trusted employee because he may have
spoken rudely to your latest piece of ass.”

“Father, there
will be consequences to you, to him and whoever else has the audacity to speak of Laney that way.  If you want him around, then you flip the bill for him.  And don’t you think I won’t be checking your expenses to make sure that Whitmore Holdings isn’t paying to have Kirk follow you around like a little puppy dog.”

“She must have a golden cunt for you to be acting like this Nathan.  Not
even,
Diane got this much of a rise out of you.  She must be angelic in the sheets, or is it the fact that she’s a dirty whore.”

“Father, this is my last warning.  So help me God, I am only tolerating you because I am trying to be a better man. 
A man that I can be happy with; someone that my new wife and step-daughters can be proud of.”

“Step-daughters?
  Christ Nathan.  I never took you for a fool.  You are as dense as your lame ass sister.  This girl has got you totally snowed. 
All your
mother’s money is at risk.  Do you know that?  Did you even think about that before you stuck your dick into her pussy?  She is just after your money.”

“No father, she isn’t.”

“I highly doubt that she isn’t.”

“I know for a fact father.  She doesn’t need my
money; she has her own.”

“That may be, but I’m sure it’s nowhere
near as much as the Whitmore name holds.  Our family’s money,
it’s
legacy is in jeopardy because of you.  Why can’t-”

“Her maiden name is Jacobs, father.”

“Jacobs?  You mean Lane Jacobs from Oklahoma?”

“Yes, Lane Jacobs, from Jacobs Cattle and more recently Jacobs Oil.  So you see father, she doesn’t see me as dollar signs, or her next free meal.  My last name means nothing to her.  She is set up for life.  Her children, our
children, are set up for life.”

“It may not mean anything to her, but it means a whole hell of a lot to that viper she calls a mother.  She has been spouting the importance of her name around town for as long as I can remember.”

“Kinda like you have always ridden on the coat tails of my mother’s name, father.
  You would be nothing without the Whitmore name.  I’m surprised you never tried to change your name to Whitmore so you can feel more apt.”

“I have earned what the Whitmore name brings me. Don’t you forget who created you, Nathan?
  I have brought you into this world, and I can take you out.”

“Just like you took out my grandparents.
  Kinda sucks that it backfired, doesn’t it father?  Listen, I have given you more time than you deserve.  I have a family to get to.  I have a wife who needs me and girls who have been through more than any
four-year-olds
should have to.  Kirk is
gone
period.  He is no longer an employee of my company, none of them because the fact is
father
, I allow you to be who you are.  My mother knew what kind of a snake you were, and I will never forget.  It would suit you well if you remembered that.  Good night.”

I didn’t allow him to take up any more
of my time.  I’ve been in the waiting room for far too long.  Laney and the girls shouldn’t be dealing with this without me.  It doesn’t matter that Brad is
there;
they are my responsibility, my family. My father will never take my time away from them again.  I walk down the hall towards their room.  I can hear Laney and Brad discussing our current situation.  Their voices are not quiet by any means.  I open the door and see Laney and Brad standing near the window.  Amanda is in Addie’s bed playing with their stuffed horses.  “Nathan.”  They yell in unison. 

“Are youf our newf
daddy?”  Amanda asks in her precious voice. 

I look over at Laney, and her hand is covering her mouth while Brad looks like he’s about to come undone. “Yes, I guess I am.”

“Wef
got two daddies Bug.  Did you hear that? 
Nafin said he’s our newf
daddy.”  Amanda’s eyes were huge, and she had the biggest smile on her face.

“Cuz
you married our mommy.  Is that
cuz
?”  Addie asks Nathan.  He looks at me to see how to
respond, but Amanda continues to talk.

“It’s like hows Emelee was gonna be our newf mommy, but then daddy said she wasn’t gonna come to his house anysmore
.  I think it’s
cuz she didn’t want to be our newf
mommy.  Do you think
Bug, do you think that’s whyf
? 

“Girls, that’s not why,” Brad
speaks up.  “Emily loved you girls, but she and I didn’t work out.  It’s a
grown-up thing, Bear; it had nothing to do with you.”

“Oh.”  She looks down at her blanket, twisting her fingers within the fabric.   “
Well, then hows long is Nafin gonna be our daddy thenf
. 
Until the grown up stuff happens?”

“The grown up stuff isn’t going to happen,
Amanda.  I don’t plan on going anywhere.”  Nathan gave her a reassuring smile. 

“How do you know?  How do you know the
grown-up stuff isn’t gonna happen.
  We used to hear mama and ugly Michael -”

“Adele!”

“Sorry momma but me
and Bug didn’t like him.  He was a
meany to us,
and he wasn’t a good sitter when you were working.  He never played with us, he never read to
us, and he only let us watch grown-up
TV.  We never got to watch the
princesses cuz
he wanted to watch gross boy TV.”  

“Yeah, that Michael was the ewiest of ewies
.”  Amanda huffed and crossed her arms.