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I hurried back to the truck.
Once we were pulling away from my parents’ house, Whitney blew out a noisy breath. “Well, that was awkward. I’m sorry if I did something wrong back there.”
“What? No. You didn’t do anything,” I tried to reassure her.
“Your mom looked pissed. Like I was stepping on her toes. I don’t know why Katie did that.” She picked at her nail, staring out the window.
“She likes you, Whit. You don’t need to apologize for that. I’m glad she’s taken to you. I was worried having someone new living in the house would be hard for her, but you two seem to have hit it off.” I went to take her hand as I had done earlier, but stopped myself, pressing my palm to my thigh instead. “Look, Mom has been the only woman in Katie’s world for most of her life. Any upset to that order is going to be hard on my mother. She’s never been great with change.”
“I’m not trying to take her place with Katie. I’d never do that,” Whitney exclaimed.
I parked the truck in front of Jenkins, Decate, and Wyatt, shutting off the engine. “And my mom will figure that out. But don’t change how you are with Katie because my mom is getting her nose out of joint. Look, she’s a great grandmother, but you’re Katie’s stepmom now. You have to forge your own relationship with Katie.”
“I won’t be her stepmom forever, though, right? We have to remember that,” Whitney replied softly, and I felt that sickening lump in my middle again.
“Right,” I echoed dully.
We sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity.
“It turned out great,” Whitney said out of the blue.
“Huh?” I asked, not understanding.
Whitney inclined her head to the town square that was now perfectly manicured with brightly colored flowers and blooming rose bushes. The massive gazebo was bright white in the sun. The new stone fountain bubbled beneath the oak tree. I was proud of the final result. The crew and I had worked hard. It had even passed Marla Delacroix’s sniff test, which was the equivalent of winning an Olympic gold medal.
“Yeah, it did, didn’t it?”
More silence. Then Whitney opened her door. “I guess we should get in there. Lena’s covering the phones for our meeting with Adam, and we’re already late.”
“Shit. Right. Let’s get in there.”
I followed her to the door, my hand finding its way to the small of her back as if it belonged there.
“Hey, you two! Adam’s been asking where you were for the last ten minutes,” Lena greeted as we walked inside.
“Did you tell him to keep his pants on?” I looked down at my phone. “We’re only two minutes late. Hardly time to call out the calvary.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “You know how he is. He should have had ‘tight ass’ tattooed to his forehead at birth.” She got up and came around the desk to give both Whitney and me a quick hug. I noticed her belly was starting to show the signs of her second pregnancy.
Lena hooked her arm through Whitney’s. “I want to show you the sonogram pictures from the doctor’s appointment yesterday. I wanted to know the sex, but Jeremy now says he wants to do one of those stupid gender reveal parties. Like what the hell is that about? He was like this with Daisy. All cocky and strutting around like he was the one incubating a human being in his uterus.”
Whitney laughed, but I noticed a tightness around her eyes. What was that about? “I’d love to see them. But we’d better get in there before Adam starts getting too cranky.”
We headed toward Adam’s office just as Lena yelled, “Too late!”
“There you are. You know I have back to back appointments, Whitney. You need to keep this guy on a schedule,” Adam admonished good-naturedly, getting to his feet to kiss Whitney’s cheek and to give me a one-armed dude hug.
“I’ve got a big update for you.” Adam waved his hand over the seats on the other side of his desk, which we promptly took.
I felt suddenly nervous. The reality of the custody trial was a constant buzz in the back of my head, but most days I could almost forget about it. I hadn’t spoken to Josie since my phone call to her after finding out about her plans. And it was just as well. I wouldn’t have anything nice to say at this point.
“Now that both sets of custody paperwork have been filed and given that both you and Josie are fighting for physical custody, a preliminary case for temporary physical custody has been set for Friday.”
“What?” I all but shouted, starting to rise from my seat. “Already? I thought we’d have more time—”
“Calm down, Web. This is all standard. The judge will hear from both sides and given that you’ve been providing a stable and loving home for Katie for going on two years now, you will most likely be awarded temporary physical custody, though most likely Josie will be granted visitation. But they have to start the ball rolling, and since you and Josie have nothing on paper, they need to establish a path to custody now. Does that make sense?” Adam was watching me closely, gauging whether I was going to freak out or not.
