Without Doubt (25 page)

I still need that air.

“
Dec—”

“
Right, you need a
minute.” He steps back and holds the door open for me. Everyone
stands up as we walk out to the hall and I keep walking straight to
the lobby and out the front doors. I can hear footsteps behind me
and I assume they belong to Jax.

I walk down the steps and out to the grassy
area in front. I stop in front of a tree and lean my back against
it as I look up at the sky through the branches. I was right; Jax
followed me out. He’s now standing just a couple of feet from me,
facing the same direction so I don’t have to feel scrutinized under
his gaze, which I’m grateful for.

“
He thinks what he’s doing
is the right thing for everyone, ya know. I don’t believe he’s
being malicious, Ava.”

“
I know.”

“
He’s being kind by going
through this mediation process, but he won’t stop. He’s determined
to keep her from Farrah.”

“
I know this too,
Jax.”

“
I’m just wondering at
what point are
you
going to stop?”

I think about his words for a minute or two;
we’re both doing this to each other. We’re both hurting one another
off of possibilities and in reality his possibility is much greater
than mine, really. I know he’s it for me, he’s just admitted to me
being his forever; apparently I’m it for him too. If I could just
find a way to not feel like I’m giving up on Harper, I could give
him what he wants, but as of right now I do feel that way and
that’s just not something that I can live with.

I clear my throat, wipe my eyes, and begin
walking back towards the front steps of the court house before
responding to Jax. “It’s not going to be today.” I’m back to
feeling a little more strong and confident. I’m still on the losing
end with the instructions to be cordial, though.

Declan

Another two hours in that musty room in
those ancient, wood rolling chairs and we’re basically where we
started. She’s not getting it; she’s not understanding how serious
I am about keeping her and Harper together. This has very little to
do with me and she doesn’t see that. I’m her father. I can fight
until I’m blue in the face and even then I won’t stop to keep
Harper with Ava and me and away from Farrah. Ava, on the other
hand, won’t be able to say two words if Farrah comes back in here
and fights for Harper. If Ava even has joint legal custody, Farrah
can argue that she wants those rights and she will get them. Ava’s
concerned about some imaginary future woman in my life, but she
doesn’t know that she’s right; I am going to get married some day,
but it’s going to be to her, not some random woman that she’s
creating in her head.

“
Well, I suggest that
since you both have them, you consult your attorneys about how to
move forward so we can remove ourselves from these stagnant waters.
Please make another mediation appointment at the front window on
your way out,” Sally says as she rubs her tired eyes. She’s too old
to be doing this shit; she should have retired ten years
ago.

It’s like we’re sitting at Aunt Bee’s
kitchen table; I keep waiting for her to whip out the wooden spoon
and fling it around as she talks this out with us. I help her out
of her chair and hand her briefcase to her before she smiles and
walks out the back door leaving Ava and I alone again.

“
Save it, Declan. You’re
not going to get me thinking all of those sexy thoughts about you
again and distract me. I need to get out to Jax and Mr. Andrews
before it gets any later.” Ava has her small hand held up like it’s
going to physically stop me. She looks so fucking hot in her
professional skirt and jacket; she’s been driving me crazy all day.
I’ve seen her dressed like this a few times when she’s come to pick
up Harper after work and it takes all my inner Superman powers to
refrain from hauling her ass up the stairs to our bedroom and tying
her to the bed, locking the door and not letting her out until she
agrees to stay of her free will.
Shit.
I need to stop that thought
right there in its tracks.

“
Damn it, Declan, stop
looking at me like that,” is what she says, but I can tell by the
tone of her voice and the heat in her eyes that that isn’t what she
wants at all.

Instead of pressing her on it, I decide to
let her sit with the thought for a while. She promised to ride home
with me and I need to make sure I can make her keep that promise. I
open the door and nod with my head, gesturing for her to walk
through and I’m pretty certain I see a flicker of disappointment
cross her face. Typically I avoid disappointing her at all costs,
but this one was intentional and it worked, hopefully in my favor
and not against me.

Ava walks directly to Jax and his dad and
the three of them walk out towards the lobby. I decide to text her
to remind her of her promise before she gets in their car and
leaves my ass behind.

Declan-
Remember your promise Sunshine. Meet you out
front in a few

She doesn’t respond, but that’s okay, I’ve
never known her to break a promise or go back on her word, so I
trust that she’ll be out there when I get there. I walk over to my
family, my family that insisted on being here even though I
practically begged them not to. I didn’t want Ava to feel like she
was at a disadvantage or anything because she doesn’t have the
immediate family like I do, but my family is overbearing and God
himself couldn’t have stopped them from being here today to
“support” me.

Danielle and Deven Macabee are sisters and
partners at the Macabee and Macabee law firm; Bailey set them up as
my attorneys as soon as she became my publicist. I argued after I
met them that it wasn’t going to fly since I was, at the time,
trying to get Ava to see me seriously, but Bailey refused to budge,
telling me they were the best and I quote, “you would be an idiot
not to hire them.” So I hired them and they haven’t disappointed me
yet. I reach the ladies just as my family surrounds us with hopeful
looks on their faces, probably assuming I got what I wanted after
seeing Ava walk straight out of here not looking too happy.

“
Were you finally able to
convince your girlfriend that we’re right and she’s wrong?”
Danielle asks smugly.

I completely ignore her and turn to face my
parents instead. “We have to come back and try again. She’s not
understanding what I’m trying to do and I can’t make her see it in
a room of old oak and Miss Sally.” I remove my jacket and hand it
over to Macie, whose hopeful face drops in sadness and frustration.
I roll my sleeves up to my elbows and scrub my weary face with my
hands before grabbing my jacket back.

“
Oh, honey,” my mom says
in her loving tone as she rubs my back just like she has since I
was a baby.

“
No, we don’t come back
and try again,” Danielle says firmly as she reads emails from her
phone looking particularly irritated that we’re bothering her with
this. “This is a waste of our time and your money. We take it to
litigation and finish it in ten minutes.”

I take a deep breath,
something I’ve been doing since I was probably four years old to
try and control the fury brewing inside of me. “This is the final
time I will say this, we are
not
going to litigation. You might as well remove
that from word your vocabulary,” I say in a deadly calm voice, but
I’m sure my whole demeanor is giving me away.

Danielle tucks her phone inside the purse
dangling from her forearm and squares her shoulders. “Declan,
you’re fighting an already won battle. You’re the child’s father
and Ms. Sterling is not her mother…”

“
Deven,” I say loudly and
firmly, because Danielle has tested every last nerve remaining and
I am about to lose any semblance of patience I’ve been holding on
to.

Macie surprises me when she steps in front
of me and slightly pushes on my chest with her small hands. I step
back willingly, not because she’s applying enough force to budge me
but because she probably has the right idea of gaining space
between Danielle and I right now. “Dec, take a walk. I’ve got
this.”

I have no idea what she has, but I know my
sister and no matter what, we have always had each other’s backs so
I trust that if she could, she would scratch Danielle’s eyes out
for me right now, or bitch slap her at least. Greyden tugs on my
arm and we walk towards the lobby with my dad following us. Macie
and my mom stay behind with the inept attorney and her civil
sister.

I can’t walk all the way to the lobby; I
need to hear what Mace has to say, I need to make sure that she
makes them understand our situation and what I’m trying to
accomplish because apparently the damn lawyers didn’t get it when I
explained it to them the first time. I thought they did get it;
they’re the ones that suggested mediation, after all, I hadn’t ever
even heard of it. Well, Deven suggested it, I guess. I stop within
hearing distance and glance over at the women. My body is on fire,
I need to hit something and even air will work at this point. Just
going through the motions would release this pent up aggression but
that would be inappropriate in a court house so I focus on my damn
breathing.

“
You don’t have kids, do
you?” I hear Macie ask in the polite socialite voice she was raised
with.

“
Obviously not. I’m a
successful attorney with my own firm at an unheard of young age, I
don’t have time for children of my own,” Danielle replies with
complete disgust towards my sister and it only fuels my
fire.

“
Well, Ms. Macabee,
congratulations on that, but I am assuming that you didn’t get to
where you are by being a complete and utter insensitive bitch
towards your clients’ cases.” Macie doesn’t make a fuss over
anything, never has. She has always been the easygoing child, the
well-behaved and well-mannered daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James, and
she sure as hell doesn’t cuss.

My eyebrows rise to my hairline like some
cartoon character as I wait for my mom to reprimand her, but she
doesn’t. Instead, my mom takes a firmer stance alongside Mace,
creating a united front, and I’m shocked. So is Greyden; his head
snaps over to me in disbelief and amusement. My dad quietly
chuckles from behind us. Danielle looks taken back by her words but
doesn’t say anything in response.

“
Ms. Sterling is ‘the
child’s’ mother,” Macie repeats Danielle’s term for Harper while
air quoting her, “and it’ll do you wonders to remember that. It’ll
also keep my brother, who is quickly becoming quite famous, which
I’m sure you are aware of or you wouldn’t be ‘wasting’ your time
here, as your client if you remember that Ms. Sterling is the love
of his life and he is not fighting
against
her but
for
her, you arrogant, spiteful
woman. I highly suggest you hand this case over to your civilized,
completely competent partner while you still have Declan as a
client and walk your devious ass out of here.
Right now.”
Macie emphasizes that
last tidbit with a huff of air before she and my mother turn on
their high heels and walk over to where us guys are standing in
astonishment.

My mother has an angelic air about her at
all times. Even when she was yelling at us as kids, she always
presented herself as a precious stone not to be tampered with. The
mother standing before me? Not recognizable. I’ve always described
her as an angry elf when she gets mad, but she is so far beyond mad
that as Danielle breezes past us with her head held too high, I
swear I hear my sweet, never-does-anything-wrong Mom cuss her out
like a sailor. My mouth is still hanging open and I can’t respond
before Grey and Macie bust out laughing. They make it sound like
we’re on a playground, not in a court house where I’m fighting for
my family, but I can’t really blame them now, can I? The good
Catholic Angry Elf just cussed out my now fired attorney—I’ll admit
this is probably the funniest shit I’ve come across since Ava
left.

“
Mr. James,” I hear from
behind me in a quiet timid voice. Deven was always the quiet one of
the two, the paper pusher. All of my communication with the firm
has been by phone or email from Danielle or her assistant. I have
only ever seen Deven when I went into their offices, but she was
always the one to make the calls, her sister just voiced them and
then took credit for it.

I pull myself together to address her
because I am sure this has to be all kinds of awkward for her. I
turn to face her and see her nervous energy written all over her
face. “Hey, Deven, I apologize for the unprofessionalism of how
that just went down. I assume you just learned that nobody messes
with my family, even if outsiders don’t consider certain members to
be legit.”

“
Duly noted,” she says
with half a smile and I admire her courage and obvious sense of
humor even though I’m not being funny. “No need to apologize, sir,
Danielle was way out of line and I apologize for her. It is, of
course, my pleasure to assist you in any way I can to obtain the
custody you desire for little Harper, that is if you agree with
your sister’s wishes and will allow me to remain as your attorney.”
Deven releases a breath as if she’s not sure she should even be
hoping for a shot at keeping me as her client.

“
I’d like that, Deven, but
Danielle’s termination stands as is. I won’t be working with her
again.” My bad mood is back and I can tell that Deven senses it
because she straightens herself a little and avoids eye contact
with me until she’s prepared to reply.