We Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

The door to the house opened before Jaclyn ever reached the porch, and Terry emerged, wearing his usual Wrangler jeans, T-shirt and cowboy hat.

“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded, taking one look at her dress, and the high heels she carried in her left hand.

“At work,” she said.

“Like hell. We went by Joanna’s. They said you don’t work there anymore. They said you were fired.”

Jaclyn would rather Terry not know about the firing, but now that the truth was out…“I was,” she admitted. “There was a misunderstanding. But I’ve got a new job now.”

He glanced beyond her to Cole’s truck, and his lips twisted into a sneer. “Looks like it pays a whole lot better than waitressing.”

Jaclyn’s stomach started to hurt. Maybe she’d eaten too fast. Or too much. Or maybe she felt another argument coming on. “It does. But the Navigator’s not mine.”

“Whose is it?”

Remembering his reaction the last time she mentioned Cole, Jaclyn decided to keep him out of it. “A friend’s. What are you doing here today, anyway? You weren’t supposed to come until tomorrow.”

“What’s the matter? Now that the kids are back, you afraid you’re not going to be able to run around anymore?”

“Why are you acting as though you’re doing me some kind of favor taking the children?” she asked. “You’re the one who sued for custody!”

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to let you use me to baby-sit while you go out on the town looking for another meal ticket.”

Anger made Jaclyn’s hands shake. “I’m not looking for a meal ticket,” she said. “The children are welcome to stay with me all the time. You just say the word and sign them over.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you. To cut me completely out of the picture?”

“You can’t have it both ways, Terry. Either you take them, which means I’ll have some free time, or you don’t, which means you won’t see them. It’s your decision.”

“You don’t care either way.”

“I care. I wouldn’t want them to miss their father, but you don’t seem to be too concerned about their welfare.”

“Oh yeah? Who was watching them tonight while you were out doing God knows what with the man who owns that truck?”

Jaclyn clenched her jaw against the desire to tell him to go to hell. It had already been a long day. But the last thing she needed was to poison the neighborhood against her by having a knock-down drag-out with her ex. “Keep your voice down,” she hissed. “I don’t want to wake the children or the neighbors, especially because I wasn’t doing anything with the man who owns that truck. I work for him.”

“As what? His personal call girl?”

“I do his filing, answer his phones, that sort of thing.”

“Right,” Terry scoffed. “You expect me to believe you were doing office work? This late?”

“It’s true.”

Brushing past her, he strode to Cole’s Navigator and tried to open the driver’s door, but Jaclyn had locked it. When he couldn’t get in, he whirled to face her. “Give me the keys.”

Jaclyn was holding them in her right hand. Instinctively she made a fist around them and tucked it behind her back. “No.”

“I want to know who owns this truck, dammit.”

“It’s none of your business, Terry. I’m home now. You can leave.”

“I said, give me the keys.” Grabbing her arm, he twisted, forcing her to let go of them. Then he unlocked the Navigator and checked the registration.

“I’ll be a son of a bitch. It’s Cole Perrini’s,” he said. “You’re screwing that trailer trash we went to high school with.”

“I’m not screwing anyone. And he’s not trailer trash,” she said.

Terry shoved his cowboy hat back to smirk at her. “Coulda fooled me. As I remember it, most days he didn’t even show up for school. Ran around in that beater truck of his drinkin’ and fightin’ and causin’ trouble—at least, until he knocked up Rochelle.”

The way Jaclyn remembered it, Terry and his friends had done less fighting, but they’d certainly done more drinking. “I don’t care what Cole was like in high school. It’s in the past. It doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter? It doesn’t matter that he left Rochelle only a few months after she lost their baby? That she was so broken up by how he’d treated her that she tried to commit suicide? What kinda man would leave his wife on the heels of a tragedy like that?”

“We don’t know what happened. It’s none of our business, anyway.”

Terry acted as though she hadn’t spoken. “And you think he was true to her while they were married?” he went on. “Hell, no. That boy don’t know what it’s like to be true to anyone, except maybe those no-good brothers he was always fighting for.”

“You’re one to talk about fidelity,” Jaclyn said, so disgusted she couldn’t hold back any longer.

“At least I always loved you, took care of you. Cole didn’t give a shit about Rochelle.”

“You’re repeating small-town gossip,” she said. “That’s all.”

“You can think that if you want, but there ain’t no secrets in Feld.”

God, didn’t she know! Every time Terry had stepped out on her, the whole town knew—usually before she did. She’d walked through the grocery store or post office in the wake of whispers and nods, even chuckling, more times than she could count. It had been downright humiliating.

“Regardless, Cole’s cleaned up his act,” she said. “You should see him now. He got out of Feld and he’s made something of himself.”

“He has?” Terry spat on the Navigator. “Anyone can finance a damn car. Don’t let this baby fool you.”

“At least he owns something that doesn’t belong to his daddy,” she replied.

He stared at her, his jaw sagging, and for a moment Jaclyn thought she’d pushed him too far. Her nails dug into her palms as she waited for his shouted response, but when he spoke, his voice was soft, almost pained.

“I know where you’re comin’ from, Jackie. I should have fought my father, got us our own place, like you said. He’s just so…” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I love the crusty old bastard, but I hate him, too. And I want you to know that the divorce stuff and all that, well, that was more him than me. You know I’m not a bad guy. I’ve made my mistakes, but I’ve loved you since high school, and I’ll love you for the rest of our lives, if you’ll let me. That’s really why I brought the kids home early. I wanted to talk to you about putting all this behind us and starting fresh, somewhere far away from my father. That’s what you always wanted, isn’t it?”