v Ashley: Golden Trail

He watched her straighten her shoulders. “I need five hundred dollars, Tanner.”

“Is this something for the boys?” he asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

“What?”

She looked over his shoulder. The bitch was lying.

“What?” he repeated.

Her eyes came back to his. “Jasper and Tripp need stuff for school.”

“What do they need?”

“Stuff,” she answered. “Clothes and shit.”

They did not need clothes and shit. He knew this because he handed them both wads of cash about two days after he got out of the hospital so they could go back to school shopping. Both his boys were kitted out with trendy gear like rock stars.

“I think they’re covered,” Layne replied.

“Yeah, with stuff they keep at your house. They don’t have as much at my place.”

“Well, since they’re at my house most of the time, that works, don’t you think?”

Her face started to get red, not with embarrassment, with anger. “Oh, I get it. Dad’s the cool one, gets his son a hot rod, fills their closet with designer clothes. They go to Mom’s and they’ve got shit.”

“It isn’t like they don’t have bags. They want their stuff, they can take it with them to your place.”

“You want them to go back and forth like vagabonds?”

Layne sucked in breath and sought patience.

Then he reminded her, “Stew’s livin’ with you, Gabby, your expenses are lowered and you still get money from me. You wanna get them clothes, get ‘em.”

“I work at Kroger, Tanner. I’m not a shit hot PI who charges a hundred and fifty dollars an hour plus expenses.”

“You’ve worked at Kroger for fifteen years, Gabby, you’re a manager and you had to disclose your income the last time you took me to court. You are far from hurting.”

This was true, except the part about him learning this when she’d had to disclose it the last time she took him to court. He’d checked up on her regularly, he’d known for years exactly what she was paid, what she spent her money on and what she spent his money on.

“Jesus, why do you make me jump through hoops like this when it’s for our boys?” she snapped, her voice rising.

That pissed him off.

“I have never, not once, Gabrielle, made you jump through hoops when it’s for our boys. Not… fucking… once and you fucking know it.”

She snapped her mouth shut. She knew it.

“And you’re standin’ there lyin’ to me. You got trouble? You tell me, I’ll help you out. But do not walk into my office and hand me a load of shit and expect me to pay you to do it.”

“I’m not lying,” she retorted.

“Bullshit, Gabby. You think in my line of work I can’t spot a liar? I didn’t learn that quick, I’d be dead.”

Her flush suffused her face; she knew he’d pegged her.

“Now, why do you need five hundred dollars?” he continued.

“I don’t,” she returned.

“You asked for it not five minutes ago.”

“Stew does,” she bit off, her eyes sliding away from him.

Layne felt his body get tight.

Then he stated in a quiet voice, “You are fucking shitting me.”

Her eyes shot back to him. “He’s in a jam.”

Layne pushed away from the door and crossed his arms on his chest. “Don’t give a fuck Stew Baranski is in a jam.”

“If he’s in a jam, I’m in a jam.”

Layne’s brows drew together. “You in danger?”

“No,” she hissed, pissed as all hell she had to tell him what she had to tell him. “Things are just tight. I might not be able to make the mortgage.”

Layne sucked in another breath and his head dropped back so he could look at the ceiling.

Then he made a decision and looked back at his ex-wife.

“I told you –” he started.

“Don’t!” she clipped, her voice again rising.

“I told you not to let that asshole in your life. You did,” Layne went on.

“He’s my man, I love him,” she shot back.

“Your choice and because of that, he’s your problem.”

“I miss the mortgage, I could lose my house!”

“They don’t foreclose for months, Gabby, tell him to get his shit together and figure it out. I’m not getting involved.”

“He’s in deep, Layne, he’s trying to sort it out but it’ll take time. I can’t lose the house in the meantime.”

“What I don’t get is how the house is on the line. You got enough money to –”

“I’ve been helping him out.”

Layne studied her. Then he asked, “How bad is this?”

“Bad.”

That wasn’t a good answer.

“How bad and how long’s it been goin’ on?” he pressed.

She stared at him and didn’t answer. That meant awhile.

Then she said, “I lose the house, Jas and Tripp –”

“Then you’re lucky I’m home, Gabby. Means the boys are good, always got a bed with me.”

“I can’t believe you!” she yelled

He dropped his arms and walked to her. While doing it, he tried to find Gabrielle Weil in her bitter face, now twisted with anger. She hadn’t been a knockout but she had been very pretty. She carried an extra fifty pounds now, at least, and she didn’t carry it like she was comfortable with it. Her hair was now dyed and looked that way and she should have left it to turn gray. Her mother’s hair was thick and gray and attractive. She worked it, Gabby could have too. The skin on Gabby’s face was slack because she didn’t take care of it, bags under her eyes, probably from not sleeping or being pissed off at Layne and the world for nearly two decades.

He stopped in front of her and tipped his head down to look at her.

Then, softly, he said, “I told you not to get hooked up with that guy. I told you he’d bring you trouble. Stew is no good. He treated you right, I’d be happy to eat my words. But I get from this that he’s been fuckin’ around and he’s involved you in it and that is one way a man doesn’t treat a woman right.”

“You’d know how not to treat a woman right, Tanner,” she shot back.

“Don’t go there, Gabby. I took care of you, I took care of our house, I took care of our boys. I worked my ass off to make a life for our family. We weren’t a love match and you knew it and you wanted my ring on your finger anyway. I gave it to you and did the best I could. It wasn’t good enough. You gave a little, even the barest fucking inch, we coulda made a go of it. You didn’t. You can blame me but we both know that’s bullshit. That’s on you and this is on you. I don’t want any part of this. You made a decision a decade and a half ago to hold onto something when you shoulda let it go and you fucked up your life. You made a decision two years ago to hold onto something you shoulda let go and it’s happening again. I’m not getting dragged into this. I start, it won’t stop for me either and I’m not down with that. You go home, you talk to that asshole and you tell him to get his shit together and you don’t come here again and hand me this bullshit. Am I clear?”

“You are so full of shit,” she hissed.

“Yeah?” he asked, “How?”

“I gave,” she informed him.

“Yeah, you gave, you gave me attitude for five fuckin’ years.”

“My husband was lusting after another woman!”

Fuck!

He wished he had a dollar for every time she brought up Raquel. He’d have a much healthier bank balance if he did.

“That’s the something you shoulda let go,” he told her.

“Yeah, how would I do that, Tanner? How?”

“You cared about what we were tryin’ to build, you woulda found a way to let her go, like I did.”

The second time that day he watched a woman’s body jerk. He knew he had her. She knew he’d done the best he could with the hand he’d been dealt. She knew he wouldn’t step out on her, even if Rocky had come back. Gabby had his ring on her finger, their sons under their roof, so she had him. She couldn’t fight that corner. She tried, way too often, and she never won.