Saving The Single Dad

“Janet, it’s Brett Hendrix. I assume Parker’s developed a fever and needs to go home?” He crossed his arms over his chest and tried not to imagine how much stress this situation was going to cause.

“Oh yes, he’s a sick little boy. Nurse says he should go to the doctor.” Janet sighed. “Honey, I tried calling your mama, too, but I didn’t get an answer. That’s why you got the double ring.”

The thing about living in a small town like Sweetwater was that everybody was in everyone’s business. Most of the time, that irritated him to no end. Sometimes it could be a help, though.

“I’m in Nashville for training.” Brett pressed his fingers over his dry eyes and tried not to wish for a wife who would help out with things like this. That was wasting brainpower. “I’ll get her on the phone and send her over.”

“Okay, then,” Janet said. “Right now, he’s stretched out on the bed in the nurse’s office, cold compress on his forehead, but I can tell he feels awful. He didn’t even say thank you when I gave him his grape juice and that is not Parker.” Her concern was sweet and easy to hear. If he could pick a grandmother out of a catalog for his kids, she would sound like Janet Abernathy in that moment: caring, steady, ready to jump in with both feet. “Should I call Riley out of class?”

That would be a big help if his daughter could be forced to care about anything other than her own aches. Five years ago, Riley had babied her brother like her favorite toy. Now Brett had a hard time imagining Riley would do anything other than make things worse. Besides that, she was a kid. It wasn’t fair to expect her to take his place. “Not right now. Let me get my mother on the phone. If it will be any longer than fifteen minutes before she’s there, I’ll be in touch.”

As he ended the call, Brett checked the time. Almost noon. Surely his mother was out of bed for the second time by now. She got up to get the kids out the door, and then went back to bed until a “reasonable” hour.

“This better be reasonable,” Brett muttered as he punched his mother’s number. The contrast between Janet Abernathy’s sweet concern and what he expected from his mother was amazing in an awful way. Brett tried to clear his mind. When she didn’t answer the first call, his annoyance ticked up a notch. His job was important, and this was a requirement for the promotion he’d lucked into.

On the third try, his jaw was locked so tightly with tension that it was almost impossible to speak when she answered by saying, “What is it? What is so important?” It didn’t take two seconds to understand why she hadn’t answered immediately.

“Are you at the casino, Diane?” Brett asked. Not that he needed to. Someone close by hit a jackpot, and he could hear the victory music and tinny sounds of fake coins hitting metal.

“I am, but I’ll be home in time to meet the bus.” Her quick answer was evidence that she’d spent some time considering what to say if he called.

The slur on the last word immediately sent Brett’s anxiety into overdrive. “Have you been drinking?”

“Yes, but I’m done now. I’ll be sober in time to meet the kids by three.” His mother spoke carefully. She didn’t want a lecture. He had no time to give one.

“Parker needs to be picked up now. Not at three. He’s sick.” Brett pressed his hand against his forehead as he immediately searched for another option. Leanne was gone. He was hours away. His mother would have time to sober up and collect the kids before he could make it back to Sweetwater, and that was if he drove the whole distance with sirens blazing.

If he did that, he might as well turn in his badge and gun because no law enforcement agency in the country would overlook an abuse like that.

Maybe Ash? If he called his boss, Ash would step up. That was the kind of guy he was.

“Listen, just...” Brett didn’t even know what to say anymore. He hung up the phone with a click, sick with panic and the realization that whatever he did would mean he’d be facing the loss of his job.

Needing his boss to step up for babysitting duty would leave a permanent mark on his record, even if the guy was good through and through.

Brett paced closer to the door, one hand squeezing his nape. He scrolled through his phone, desperate for another solution. Janet Abernathy was so kind she’d step in to help, but could he ask an acquaintance to get his son to the doctor? Besides, she was at work with an important job to do.

When he scrolled back up and passed Christina’s name, Brett cursed under his breath.

Parker loved Christina. Out of all the choices he had, his son would choose her, even above his grandmother. Christina had her issues, mainly a bad reputation she’d earned early and a worse attitude, but she’d always been magic with his kids.

He gulped hard as he hit her number. What would it hurt to ask? He’d owe her a favor. That was easy enough.

“Hello?” Christina said, suspicion clear in her voice. “It says Brett Hendrix, but the Brett I know wouldn’t call me if he was on fire and I had the only bucket of water in town.”

There it was, the reaction he’d expected. Reaching out to her was a mistake. Brett squeezed the phone hard and battled the urge to end the call with a quick jab of his finger.

“I need your help.” His voice was gravelly, like the words were forced out around the brick wall he’d put up between the two of them. With this one call, he was weakening the protection he’d built for Parker and Riley. He hoped he wouldn’t regret it. “Parker needs you.”

“What’s going on?” she said immediately. Every bit of sarcasm was gone. All Brett heard was alert concern. That was the kind of reaction he wanted from his mother. “What does he need?”

Christina would help. Somewhere deep inside, he’d known she would. Some tiny bit of relief trickled into his brain and it was easier to think.

“Parker is sick at school. I’m in Nashville and my mother’s in Cherokee at the casino. The nurse thinks he needs to go to a doctor, but you could take a look at him when you get there and...” Brett cleared his throat. “Nope, I need you to pick him up and take him to the doctor.” She didn’t have kids. What did she know about fevers and making the decision to get professional help? It was better to get a trained person’s opinion. He wouldn’t trust Parker with anything less.

“Can you do that?” Brett heard the order lacing his tone. Putting a question mark on the end didn’t change much, but it would prevent her from hanging up.

“Yes,” Christina snapped. “Officer, I am on the job.” Then she cursed. “But I don’t have a car.” He could hear the panic edging into her voice. “I’ll call Woody. If he’s not out on the lake, he’s in town. It won’t take long.”

From the tension in her voice, he could tell she was doing the mental spinning he’d been doing before he’d contacted her. Between the two of them, they could come up with a solution. This was what he did, levelheaded planning. Why was it easier to do that with her than on his own? “What about my old truck? Can you walk over to the station and get it? How long would that take?”

He drove the reserve’s SUV most places, but the beat-up truck he kept on hand was nice for heading deep into the woods. No scratches mattered, and he could get away. Keeping it felt too sentimental most days, but it might save the day today. “Keys are in the glove compartment.”

“Okay, ten minutes up, and then I’m headed into town.” Christina’s voice was breathy as if she was already on the move. He appreciated the immediate response. How nice would it be to have someone like that around all the time? Christina didn’t complain or question; she moved. That was enough to ease some of his worry in that moment. If he had someone else like her in his life, he wouldn’t be the only one shouldering every problem alone.

Then he realized that it was still Christina on the other end of the call. There were about six different ways she could mess this up. “Call me when you get to the school, please. I’ll let them know you’re coming. You aren’t on the list, so it might take some talking on your part, but if—”

“Can’t talk, Brett, I’m running up a mountain,” Christina said before she ended the call. The return of her normal sassy tone was reassuring. He didn’t have anything solved yet, but things were not so out of control as before. As he imagined her racing up the road to the station, he wondered what sort of reports the rangers might get about a crazy jogger and smiled.

Christina had never worried overmuch about what people said about her. That was a quality he should try to grow himself.

While he waited, Brett called the school. Janet didn’t sound any surer of his final solution than he’d felt staring down his only option, but she agreed to let Parker go with Christina. Then he peeked back inside the classroom.

He should gather up his stuff and hit the road.

There was no way he’d be getting what he needed or even what he could manage to sift through and find from these classes. Not now. He’d be worried about his son and his mother and the last-chance solution he’d dragged back into the mix.

Remembering Ash’s serious face when he’d said it was time to finish the training or else made Brett pause with his hand on the door. Parker needed a doctor and a prescription. Christina could manage that. His mother would be home eventually. She loved her grandkids in her own way. He had a plan that could work.

But Christina was still in contact with Leanne. She’d mentioned a phone call the last time he ran into her. What if Christina seized this chance to do something crazy, like take Parker to Leanne, wherever she was now? When his wife had first run off, he’d refused to investigate. She’d always been wild. And she would do like she’d always done, turn back up when everyone least expected it, knocked down and desperate for help.

Leanne would always upset whatever normal life he managed to carve out.

Quitting the management class would be easy. He’d already postponed it twice because of upheaval at home. It would also derail his career. Ash had made it simple. He could fish or cut bait.

Half a second from throwing in the towel and forcing himself to come up with some other career choice on the long drive home, Brett stopped when his phone rang.

“I’m at the school. Parker’s with me.” Christina’s voice was tight with anger. “He should never have been sent to school today.”

“I figured.” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the cool metal of the door frame. “I’ll head back as soon as I can. Can you stay with him until I get there?”

“We’re headed into Gatlinburg right now.” Christina cursed as the truck slipped its gears with a loud groan. “If this rust bucket makes it that far. I can’t believe the situations I get myself in.”

Brett understood her completely.

He’d never imagined he’d be a single dad, either.

“Yeah, I get that. Please, take him to the doctor, and then straight back home. If I hear that Leanne gets a visit or finds her way back into my house because of this, I will—”