Keeping You (3 page)

His latest, terrifying, panic-inducing stunt.

“
Liam is suing me for custody of Felicity,” Aria said, voice trembling as she held up the papers. “Full, legal and physical custody.”

“
What!” Lark’s eyes went wide with anger and fear. “That’s insane!”

“
Insane or not, he might have a chance,” Aria said. “Since I’m living with a man who has recently been
arrested
for disturbing the peace and
indecent exposure
.”

Daddy’s eyebrows un-bunched as he threw his head back and laughed.

“
This isn’t funny, Daddy!” Aria shouted.

“
It is funny. It’s bull-dooky.” He laughed again, and turned back to hurl his last horseshoe. “That fool doesn’t have a chance.”

“
He might! You were
arrested
, Dad! This is serious!” She fought the urge to stomp her foot, or start to cry.

She was twenty-eight years old, by God. She wasn’t going to act like a child, and she wasn’t going to cry. If she started, she might never stop, and Felicity got scared when her mama was upset. She was already starting to chant “No, no, no,” again simply from hearing Aria raise her voice.

“
Here, let me take her,” Melody said, appearing at her side. “I’m done cooking and the ribs are resting on the grill. We can go play with toys while y’all talk.”

For a moment, Aria held back, not wanting to let Felicity go, some primal part of her determined to hold onto her child so tight that no one could take her away. But finally she forced herself to relax, and hand the baby over to her sister. If her father kept laughing, she was going to get more upset, which would only upset Felicity. The baby was better off with Aunt Melody.

“
Let’s see exactly what it says, honey, before we all get upset.” Aria’s Mom crossed the grass to take the papers, giving Aria a comforting pat on the back. “You’re such a good mama, I can’t believe Liam has a case. I’m sure everything is going to be fine.”

She flipped through the documents, her pleasant, hopeful expression slowly replaced by a worried frown. Aria’s mom was not a worrier. She always looked on the sunny side. She saw the silver lining, not the cloud. If she was worried, then this was as bad as Aria had feared.

Maybe even worse.

“
It’s bad, isn’t it?” Aria asked, nibbling on a fingernail, an old, anxious habit she hadn’t indulged in years.

“
It doesn’t look good, thanks to your father.” Mom turned to glare at Dad. “They’re calling you a sexual deviant, Bob.”

Daddy laughed again, like it was the most hysterical thing he’d heard in years.

Mom propped her hands on her hips, papers flapping. “Stop it! They make it sound like Felicity isn’t safe here with us. Why in hell did you think it was a good idea to go streaking down Main Street with all your stupid, old friends?”

Oh, no. Mom had used the words “hell” and “stupid.” Her mother never cussed. She never said anything the least bit derogatory if she could help it. The fact that she was cussing mad at Daddy was a terrible sign.

Of course, Mom had been mortified ever since the police report hit the paper last week. Daddy and ten of his buddies from high school getting drunk at their fortieth reunion and deciding to streak down the busiest street in town to relive their glory days, getting arrested, and held in lockup overnight, was bad enough. Knowing the entire town of Summerville was reading about it in the local paper was enough to make Mom take to her bed for the day, locking the door and refusing to let Daddy in, even when he came bearing her favorite ice-cream by way of apology.

“
It was a reunion prank,” Daddy said, shaking his head like
Mom
was the crazy one. “We had a few beers, and decided to go streaking the way we did on graduation night. It was a joke, Sue, and everybody in town knows it. Just like they know I’m not a deviant or a danger to my granddaughter or anyone else.”

“
You were still arrested, Bob,” Mom said, tears rising in her eyes. “And we don’t know which judge will hear the case. If it’s someone who doesn’t know you, they might decide that your arrest, combined with all these things Liam is claiming he can give Felicity that Aria can’t provide right now, is enough to grant Liam custody. Or at least shared custody.”

“
He hasn’t even seen Felicity since she was three months old! Or spent a dime to help Aria cover expenses!” Lark shouted, pacing back and forth across the grass. “He doesn’t deserve any custody. At all. Ever!”

“
Let me call my friend, Chris. He’s a family lawyer in Atlanta,” Mason said, catching Aria’s eye even as he put a soothing hand on Lark’s shoulder, calming her almost instantly.

He could do that, with just a touch, because they were that much in love, that connected, body and soul. If Aria weren’t so happy for her sister, she would be jealous.

All right, maybe she was a
little
jealous. Not of Mason, but that Lark had someone who completely understood her, who loved her, warts and all, and considered marriage an honor and a privilege, not a fate to be avoided at all costs.

“
It’s after hours,” Mason continued. “But I bet he’ll answer for me. We had lunch last week, and he’s going to be moving his twins over to my practice. Maybe he can give us some advice.”

Aria nodded. “Thanks,” she said, grateful for Mason’s encouraging smile as he pulled out his cell phone.

He really was a good guy, and she was so glad he and Lark had patched things up. If they hadn’t, she might never have forgiven herself for the role she played in their second breakup. Liam had poisoned her in so many ways, but one of the worst was that she had a hard time believing in love anymore, a hard time trusting that any man was really who he claimed to be.

But she trusted Mason, and when he got his friend on the phone and then handed her his cell, Aria took it gratefully.

“
Hi, Chris, this is Aria March,” she said, nerves humming with anxiety.

“
Come on, let’s give Aria some privacy,” Lark said, taking Mom’s hand and leading her across the lawn. With one last encouraging look, Mason followed.

“
Hi, Aria,” Chris said. “Excuse the background noise, my twins haven’t gone to sleep yet.”

“
Oh, no worries,” Aria said. “I’m just so glad to have someone to talk to right away. This is so upsetting.”

“
I completely get it, and I’m happy to give you an opinion as a friend of a friend, but I wouldn’t recommend taking any action on my advice until you talk to your own attorney,” Chris said. “This is just some off the clock advice from a person who has experience with family law.”

Aria said she understood and then proceeded to fill Chris in on the details of the suit. Liam was suing her for full custody. He claimed that he was more financially stable than the baby’s mother, who lived with her parents and didn’t even own a car of her own. He claimed he could provide Felicity with a house to grow up in, a room of her own, a college fund, and anything else money could buy, as well as a complete nuclear family.

Apparently he and Char had said their “I dos” a month ago, and were now ready to settle down and raise a baby.
Aria’s
baby.

The gall of that alone was enough to make steam come out of Aria’s ears.

Liam also claimed that he and his new wife could offer Felicity a more wholesome environment, in a single-family home, without a sexual deviant who had been arrested and charged with indecent exposure living in the house. There were some other slurs in there—questioning Aria’s mental stability and mothering skills for moving the baby so far away from her father, and claiming Aria was deliberately attempting to alienate Liam from his daughter—which Aria read in a wooden voice, grateful to get it all out and done with.

“
So?” she said when she was finished. “What do you think?”

Chris made a thoughtful noise. “How long ago was your divorce final?”

Aria hesitated. “Is this call completely confidential?”

“
Of course,” Chris said. “I wouldn’t discuss any of this with Mason or anyone else.”

Aria nodded though he obviously couldn’t see her. “Liam and I were never married,” she whispered. “But I haven’t told my parents. They would flip out if they knew I had Felicity out of wedlock.”

“
But that’s great,” Chris said in an upbeat voice. “He’ll have a harder time establishing his parental rights if you two weren’t married.”

“
But his name is on her birth certificate,” Aria said, wishing she hadn’t been so adamant that Liam claim paternity. At the time, she’d thought it would push him a step closer to marriage. Now, she wanted to kick herself for being such a fool. “And we signed some other paperwork when Felicity was born. We both acknowledged that he’s the father.”

The enthusiasm in Chris’s voice lessened slightly. “Well…that will make things less complicated for him, then. Paternity is already established, so that’s one less thing he’ll have to prove. He’s got a decent case. Not a great case, but, depending on the judge, there’s a chance he could get shared custody.”

“
But my work and my family are here,” Aria said, panicking all over again. “I don’t want to leave Felicity alone with Liam, and I can’t afford to drive to Nashville every other week. I couldn’t even afford childcare if my mom didn’t help out. A lot.”

“
The father will have to pay some support. He’s paying already isn’t he?”

Aria shook her head, barely resisting the urge to start chewing her nail again. “No, he hasn’t paid anything since we left.”

“
All right, that will look bad for his case, but—” Chris’s voice was muffled for a moment before he came back on the line. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to go in a second. Time for the twins’ bath, and that’s been a two parent job these days.”

Two parents.

What would it be like to have a helpmate? Someone who wasn’t Aria’s mom or dad or one of her sisters? Someone to get up in the night once in a while so Aria could get a full night’s sleep, someone to run grab more diapers at the store while Aria put the baby down for her nap and grabbed a few minutes of peace with a glass of sweet tea and a good book?

It sounded like heaven, especially after the nightmare of learning Liam was going to try to take Felicity away. She would give anything for a stable home and marriage, to have a true partner and freedom from this kind of stress.

“
Well, thank you so much for your time,” Aria said. “I really appreciate it.”

“
No problem, and if you want some recommendations for someone to represent you, just let me know. I know a few people in Summerville who are affordable, but great at what they do.”

“
Thanks,” Aria said, then rushed to add, “Can I ask you one more thing?”

“
Sure,” Chris said.

“
Is there anything I could do to make this go away? Without a big legal battle or going to court?”

“
You’ll have to go to court, at least for that hearing at the end of August listed on the documents, but…” Chris covered the phone again, murmuring he’d “be right there” before coming back on the line. “Moving into your own place with a separate bedroom for the baby would be a start. Then your ex couldn’t complain you were living with a bad influence, or that your child didn’t have her own space. And you know, just anything else you can do to even the playing field and make his objections seem unfounded.”

“
Okay,” Aria said, trying not to let her disappointment creep into her voice. “Thanks so much.”

She hung up and took a deep breath, steeling herself as her family wandered back across the lawn.

“
So? What did he say?” Aria’s mom asked, running a nervous hand over her perfectly smooth blond bob.

“
He said Liam has a case,” Aria said, giving Mason his phone. “Not a great case, but he has a chance of winning shared custody.”

“
What? But that’s crazy!” Lark said, her outrage clear in her voice.

“
Crazy or not…Chris sounded like he knew what he was talking about.” Aria sighed and pressed a firm finger to her eyebrow where a migraine was quickly beginning to gather its forces to unleash fury upon her skull. “Chris said it would help if I moved out and got my own place, but I can’t afford that right now.”

“
Yes, you can,” Daddy said, his grim expression revealing he had finally caught on to the fact that this wasn’t funny. “Mom and I will cover the first and last month’s rent on a two bedroom apartment.”

“
No, Daddy.” Aria shook her head. “I know you’re strapped for cash right now.” Her parents had just opened two new
Bob and Sue’s Smoke Shack
locations and were in debt until the new restaurants started paying off.

“
It doesn’t matter,” Mom said. “We’ll find the money.”

“
No, you won’t. I won’t accept that kind of help from you, so just forget it,” Aria said firmly. “Besides, Liam has a huge house in Nashville, a two bedroom apartment would hardly compare, and the lawyer said I’d need to even the playing field.”

“
We’ll figure something out,” Lark said, putting her arm around Aria’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, okay? There has to be a way we can make this better.”

Aside from meeting Prince Charming, marrying him, and moving her and Felicity both into his castle, Aria couldn’t imagine what that “way” might be, and she knew better than to think Prince Charming was a viable option.

Liam had taught her better than to believe in happy endings.

“
Come on, let’s eat and then get going to the fair,” Lark said as Melody emerged from the house with Felicity in her arms.

“
I don’t really feel like going to the fair anymore,” Aria said, reaching to take Felicity from her sister and hugging her a little too tight, until Felicity squirmed to be put down to play in the grass.