I turned to Tate. “The judge talked to me for five seconds. I told him about the snag in Jonas’s carpet and how I was going to fix it and he just said, ‘Good thinking, Miss Grahame, those can be dangerous, send the hotel people in here on your way out, would you?’ That’s it!” I ended on cry.

“Laurie –”

I crossed my arms on my chest and interrupted him. “I don’t think he’s a very good judge. How does he know if I’m a good person to have around Jonas?”

“Lauren –”

“He had Ned and Betty in there for fifteen whole minutes. I timed it and I heard them laughing. Fifteen minutes and they don’t even live with Jonas. He just goes to their pool. He had me in there less than five and he sent me out and I live with Jonas! I could be anyone. I could be a crazy woman who feeds him only cat food!”

“Honey –”

“I think you should ask for another judge,” I declared and Tate emitted a startled bark of laughter so I turned to him. “What?”

“Babe, I got full custody. I’m not asking for another judge just so you can convince him you’ll be a good stepmom and knock him out with your sex kitten school marm getup.”

He was, of course, right and I was acting like a lunatic.

I took in a deep breath and looked out the side window.

“I got wound up for nothing,” I whispered. “Stupid.”

“What’s stupid is showin’ trashed out of your f**kin’ brain to a custody hearing. That’s stupid. Givin’ a shit enough to buy a new outfit, do your hair, look presentable and responsible even though you’re nervous as all hell and knowin’ there’s a snag in your kid’s carpet and worryin’ about it ain’t stupid. It’s the kind of person a judge can trust around a ten year old kid. You think he doesn’t see that?”

Tate was, again, right.

I turned to him and asked quietly, “Do you think she was nervous too?”

“Scared outta her brain,” Tate answered.

“But nervous to lose Jonas?”

“Don’t know about that but scared, f**k yeah. Scared of losin’ child support which is pretty much all they got. Scared of lookin’ bad because everyone in Carnal’s gonna know the outcome and she knew it wasn’t lookin’ good. And scared because she knew you’d come in there lookin’ like you look and makin’ her look even worse. Neeta’s the master of self-fulfilled prophesies and today she topped even her best efforts and there’ve been some really f**kin’ good ones.”

“But not scared of losing Jonas,” I whispered.

“Don’t know but if she was, she fulfilled that prophesy too.”

I looked out the windshield and murmured, “She’s beginning to make me sad.”

His hand reached out and took mine. “Yeah, baby, you spent time with Jonas. A mom losin’ that? It’s sad.”

I turned my hand in his and held tight.

Then I said, “She doesn’t get anything but supervised visits for a day every two weeks so you don’t have to worry anymore.”

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t have to pay child support anymore.”

“Nope.”

“We should celebrate,” I decided and his hand squeezed mine.

“We are. We got reservations at The Rooster.”

I turned to him.

I’d heard of The Rooster. It was a fancy steak place in the mountains about half an hour away. It was supposed to be fabulous.

“We do?” I asked.

“Yeah, babe, we do.”

He’d made those reservations while on the road, thinking about his son and hoping there would be something to celebrate.

I leaned across the seat and kissed his bearded jaw.

Then, in his ear I whispered, “I’m so happy for you, Tate.”

His hand tightened in mine. Mine tightened in his.

Then I sat back and looked out the windshield.

“At least, going to The Rooster, I have a decent reason to have spent money on my outfit,” I noted.

Tate chuckled and I listened contentedly while I watched the landscape roll by and Tate took us home to Jonas.

* * * * *

After the judge’s decision, Tate and I kept a close watch on Jonas.

He tried to hide it but he struggled with conflicting emotions of relief, guilt and worry about his mother.

In an attempt to counteract that and create a new routine for his son, Tate encouraged him to call her frequently.

Jonas didn’t call her frequently but he called her.

The conversations were brief, clearly confusing and equally clearly hurtful.

Therefore Tate stopped encouraging his son to call his mother.

* * * * *

It was four days after Tate got Jonas, I was on day shift, Tate was behind the bar and it was around three o’clock when Krystal and Bubba walked in.

I hadn’t seen him in ages and, in that time, I didn’t bring him up to either Krys or Tate because I knew both of them were feeling intensely unhappy feelings about Bubba. So intense, I steered clear from unleashing those feelings – not for Bubba’s sake, or my own, but for theirs.

Bubba looked rough, straggly hair, eyes red rimmed and bloodshot, face hangdog.

Krystal looked far more than her usual angry at the world. She looked fit to be tied.

My eyes moved to Tate to see his were on Bubba and his face was granite.

“Got it at home, Tate, don’t need it here,” Bubba muttered, his hand lifted, palm out, toward Tate and I pressed my lips together as I felt my belly start to burn.

“Laurie, darlin’, keep cool,” Jim-Billy whispered to me, sitting beside where I was standing at the bar.

Krystal didn’t say a word, she just disappeared down the back hall.

Tate headed down the bar our way as Bubba slid onto a stool beside Jim-Billy opposite from where I was standing.

“Hey gorgeous,” Bubba called quietly to me, avoiding my eyes.

I opened my mouth to speak but Tate had arrived.

“I want out,” Tate declared without preamble and Bubba looked up at him.

“What?” Bubba asked Tate.

“Out,” Tate replied. “You and Krys need to get it together and buy me out. You also need to put up the sign in the window. Laurie’s givin’ notice. She’s gonna work for me.”

My wide eyes moved to Tate.