Elaine Grant - Make-Believe Mum

Jon checked his watch. “Let’s move, kids. We don’t want to be late for Sunday school.”

In a flurry of activity, the children scurried to help Kaycee put the dishes in the sink.

“You want to come with us, Dr. Kaycee?” Michele asked hopefully.

“Michele,” Jon admonished. This child would have Kaycee living with them if she could.

“Just asking, Daddy.”

Unflappable Michele. Jon had to smile.

“I don’t think I can dress in time for Sunday school. Suppose I join you for church?” Kaycee suggested, looking at Jon. “Are you going?”

Everybody in the room, Kaycee included, seemed to be waiting for his answer. Michele gazed up at him hopefully. Jon ran a hand through his hair. Truth was, he wasn’t ready. He still had some differences to work out with his Maker before he could set foot in church.

“I can’t buy groceries for all of us in an hour’s time. Maybe next week.”

“Will you come anyway?” Michele said to Kaycee.

“Sure, I’d love to. I’ll meet y’ all there.”

Michele beamed as she climbed into the SUV with the others.

“You’d better stop that, Michele,” Wendy said, buckling into the seat beside her sister.

Jon settled into the driver’s seat, listening.

“What?” Michele said evasively.

“You know what. Trying to get her to be our mother. Just stop it.”

“You can’t make me. I want her to be our mom. Don’t you think she’s nice, Daddy?”

“I’d say she’s real nice considering how you roped her into being mommy-for-a-day. How about leaving the mother-finding to me.”

“But you’re not doing too good,” Zach piped up. “We gots to have somebody!”

Jon grimaced. “The fact is, she’s busy and has a job of her own to do. She may not be in the market for a ready-made family. But don’t worry, I’m going to find another housekeeper as soon as I can.” Jon stopped in front of the church. “Now out you go. I’ll be back for you.”

He took a deep breath as he pulled away from the curb. The sudden silence in the car was unnerving. This is how the world will sound if Hal gets the kids. Sweat beaded on his upper lip. He almost turned around to go back for them. Gripping the wheel, he forced himself to keep going, to buy the food they needed and try to keep life normal for them.

Later that night, when everybody else was in bed, he poured himself a strong drink, something he rarely did—but then he rarely called his father-in-law, either. The worst call had been to tell him his only child, his baby girl, had been killed in an accident. That he’d never see her again or hear her voice, never make amends for the way he’d treated her since she married. Jon held himself responsible for her death. And so did his father-in-law.

Jon nursed the drink until he felt the soothing heat spread through his muscles and calm his overactive brain. He closed the door to his office and sat behind the massive oak desk. Beyond the open drapes, the black night spread into infinity.

Ten o’clock. Nine in San Francisco. He couldn’t put off the call. In another half hour Hal would be in bed. Slowly he picked up the phone, punching in the numbers with agonizing deliberateness. He hated this phone number. Hated it.

“Hello.”

He hated that voice more. Jon flinched at the sound. He gripped the receiver until his hand hurt. Fighting the urge to hang up, Jon forced himself to speak.

“Hal.”

There was a long silence on the other end, then Hal said, “What do you want?”

“Call off this social worker.”

Jon waited, listening to Hal’s accelerated breathing.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, hell, you do. You filed that complaint. Don’t bother denying it.”

Hal grunted, sounding pleased with himself. Funny, Jon had never really hated Hal until after Alison died, when he attempted to take custody of the kids. Before that he’d tried to tolerate the man in spite of his treatment of Alison—for her sake.

“Do you realize what you’re doing to my children? That woman came here and terrified them. Is that what you want?”

“I want the children in a good home. You can’t take care of them. You don’t even have someone to watch them while you work. No food for them to eat. And you claim to be a good father?”

“What are you doing, spying on us? A private investigator?”

Hal laughed. “You’d like to know, wouldn’t you? I have my ways. You should know that by now.”

“Call them off, Hal. Leave my family alone.”

“Not until I’m satisfied the children are being cared for.”

“Then let me satisfy you. We do have food in the house. Did yesterday, too. A freezer full of it. These kids have never gone hungry a day in their lives. As for a housekeeper, that’s a luxury I indulge to keep you happy. Ranch children learn young how to take care of themselves. But I’m going to have someone here so you don’t have any excuse to say they’re neglected again. I still can’t believe you reported me to Child Protection Services,” Jon said, amazed that Hal would have stooped so low.

“I didn’t have any other way of checking on them since you cut us out of their lives. You forced me to take drastic action.”

“Come off it, Hal. What did you do when I let them visit you after Alison died? Took out a restraining order against me, then had the gall to challenge me in court for custody. Why would I trust you to even talk to them, the way you bribe them? You tried to steal them from me once, but it won’t happen again.”

“You didn’t have any qualms about stealing my child from me.”

Jon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, frustrated at the old man’s stubborn refusal to admit the truth after all these years. “Alison was a woman, not a child. Perfectly capable of making her own decisions.”

“You lured her out there to that hinterland and then you killed her.”

The venom in Hal’s words was palpable, but the truth in them hurt Jon more.

Hal obviously understood Jon’s prolonged silence. “Yes, you know you’re to blame, don’t you? No wonder Marjorie and I are worried about the safety of our grandchildren after what happened to their mother. We want them off that ranch and in a civilized environment.”

Jon’s body went rigid. “My children are where they belong. Don’t pull this stunt with CPS again, Hal. It’s not a game and you don’t have any idea what that social worker might decide to do with the kids.”

“No, I’m not playing around. I’m dead serious. I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure my grandchildren are safe. Even if it means proving you an unfit father so we can get custody.”

Jon slammed the receiver down. He’d planned to offer Hal some compromise. Laying his head against the back of the chair, he stared at the ceiling. How had life ever come to this? What the hell was Alison thinking, leaving him this way? Jon blinked back tears.

He had to come up with some way to stop Hal. The idea of calling Kaycee crossed his mind, but he decided against it. No need pulling her any farther into this. He threw back the rest of his drink and went out to make night rounds.

KAYCEE SAT DAYDREAMING AT THE desk in her office, the only room with lights on in the building. Her door was propped open, as was the door across the hall leading into the waiting area. She liked the arrangement—her living quarters were attached to the back of the veterinary clinic with access from the interior of the office complex, as well as from the outside. Several of the businesses along this strip of Little Lobo were built that old-fashioned way. Whoever popularized the idea of living in the suburbs and commuting had to be nuts.

She forced herself to concentrate on the form on her desk. She’d been trying to fill out the report on her visit to the Rider ranch for the past half hour. She couldn’t get beyond Jon’s name without becoming distracted. Hopefully he could call off his in-laws and they could break off their so-called engagement.