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Paxton’s blood ran cold and his fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “Did he try to hurt David?”
“Other than driving drunk with him in the car, no.” She opened her eyes again. “I guess I might as well tell you the rest of the story.”
Biting down hard on his back teeth, he prepared himself for what he didn’t want to hear.
“Ed got caught up in a police sting. He seems to have an affinity for high-school-aged girls. Or at least ones he thought were teens. In the middle of the custody hearing, he was caught with a young looking police woman who Ed thought was a high school girl looking for a little fun, as he called it.”
Every minute this guy just kept piling on the reasons for Paxton to really want to ship this character off on a one-way passage to the moon.
“I have to let him visit, but it has to be supervised and honestly, I’d rather that be with someone who can make sure Ed doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“You don’t think he’d hurt him, do you?” Not that Paxton was putting anything past this guy. He sounded like a typical controlling and emotional, if not physically abusive, spouse. Especially if it meant hurting Sandra through their son.
“He’s a cowardly lush with a nasty mouth who thinks David ruined our marriage, but even so, sober, I don’t think he’d do anything to him.”
“What a moron.” Oops, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “Have you told Grace any of this?”
She shook her head.
“Might not be a bad idea to get a good lawyer involved as well. You know, just in case.” Though he suspected, knowing his family, wherever David and his father met, there would be a whole heck of a lot of Farradays nearby to keep the guy on the straight and narrow. Including him.
Sandra didn’t like the idea of too many people knowing what David’s father was truly like. The last thing she wanted was for people to paint her son with the same brush. For just a moment, she gave herself pause. When had she stopped thinking of Ed as her husband—or ex-husband—and only as David’s father?
“Shall we call Grace?” Paxton repeated.
The man was right. A good lawyer was something she really could use. She’d hired the best she could afford for the divorce and custody issues, but she was never fully convinced that the attorney had done all he could for them. As much as she believed that David deserved a father, she truly felt that with all of Ed’s issues, David would be better off not knowing the man than having to learn for himself what a jerk his dad was. The truck turned up her mother’s street and then shortly after, pulled into the driveway.
“I’ll call Grace tomorrow morning.” She reached for the handle as the truck came to a stop. Even though Ed had only texted her twice, she couldn’t shake the feeling that things were about to get way more complicated than she wanted. With David about to go to bed and her mother in the habit of going to sleep early, the thought of sitting home alone stewing over Ed held little appeal. “Want to come in for some coffee or tea?”
“Would love to.” Paxton threw the truck into park and climbed out. He’d barely had time to put both feet on the ground when the front door flew open and an excited David came running down the front steps.
To her surprise, Paxton was braced and ready when David flew into his arms. “I knew you’d come home with Mommy.”
“And here I am. But in your pajamas, shouldn’t you be inside.”
The child looked momentarily contrite, nodded, and then with a grin as wide as the Rio Grande, looked Paxton in the eye. “You’ll carry me inside, won’t you?”
“You got it, sport.” In a split second, as if Paxton had done the maneuver many times before, he shifted David around and had him hanging on piggyback style. “Here we go.”
David cackled with delight as Paxton, pretending to be a horse, trotted them up the stairs and into the house.
“You can set him down, now.” Sandra wanted to sound more stern, but couldn’t stop smiling herself at how much fun both the boys in her life seemed to be having.
“To my room!” David shouted with the authority of an heir to a royal throne.
“Your wish is my command.” Paxton hiked him higher on his back.
“Wait. You can’t trot him up a flight of stairs.” She set her hand on his arm, about to give David a short lecture on not taking advantage of people’s kindness and how life isn’t all fun and games and who knew what else when grinning as wide as her son, Paxton tilted his head to face her.
“Sure we can.” With a wink and a “Last one to the top is a rotten egg,” Paxton hurried up the steps, Sandra and her mother on his heels.
Following the direction of David’s extended arm, Paxton trotted into the bedroom the boy shared with his mother and grandmother and dramatically dropped him on the small bed, collapsing beside him, feigning exhaustion.
“That was fun. Can we do it again?” David practically crawled over Paxton sprawled across the narrow bed.
“Another day,” Sandra spoke up before Paxton agreed to more fun and games.
“You heard your Mom, sport.” Paxton pushed to his feet and took a step back.
