“Well, fuck.”
“I know,” Steve said with a sigh. “Sorry, kid.”
“Not your fault,” I said, even though the news had landed like a punch to the gut.
“I’ll call you when we’ve got work again,” Steve said.
“Okay, yeah. Thanks.”
Steve ended the call, and I turned my truck around and headed back toward Goose Run. So much for the grocery run I’d been planning. That extra cash I’d made from Louise’s birthday party would be going to rent now. It was lucky Gracie loved Danny’s beans and rice because I figured we’d be eating quite a bit of it in the next few weeks.
This whole situation sucked, but there was no point getting angry with Steve about it because it sucked for him too. More than me, probably, since I wasn’t the only guy on the crew he had to break the news to. Also, it wasn’t my business that some asshole was trying to undermine. I just hated working so hard all the time and still feeling like I wasn’t getting ahead. Kids were expensive.Lifewas expensive. Costs went up and up and up, but my wages never did, and it felt like every month I had to figure out new ways to make less money stretch even further, and I was running out of things I could cut back on.
When I pulled into the driveway at home, Danny’s truck and Cash’s bike were gone. I figured everyone was at work, but when I got inside, Cash was sitting at the table spooning cereal into his mouth. He raised his eyebrows at me.
“Job got canceled,” I said. “You not working today either?”
He shook his head. Chase must have borrowed his bike then.
“I’m gonna put some laundry on,” I said.
I was bundling clothes into the washer when Cash’s shoulder bumped against mine. He shoved some clothes in alongside mine and Gracie’s but didn’t step back when he was done. Just leaned his head against my shoulder.
I turned and slung an arm around him, my eyes suddenly hot as the stress of everything hit me—Gracie, work, my lack of sleep, no fucking money. “Thanks, man.”
My voice came out tighter than I wanted it to.
Cash hugged me back, then shuffled off to his bedroom, probably still trying to catch up on sleep after yesterday’s double shift.
I started the washer, then went and collected Cash’s cereal bowl and tipped the leftover milk down the kitchen sink. Then I washed the bowl and left it to dry. Cash had left his bedroom door open, and I could hear the faint snuffling sounds he made that were like baby snores. Maybe I’d take a nap too. Hell, there wasn’t much else I could do today, so I might as well catch up on all the sleep I’d been missing lately.
Except the second I thought of it, my phone rang. I took a look at the name of the caller and went out onto the front porch to take it.
“Hi, Mrs. Moore,” I said. My tone was polite, but I was glad she couldn’t see my face.
“John,” she said, and because she never wasted time on pleasantries with me, she cut straight to the chase. “We’d like Grace for the weekend.”
“This weekend?”
“I think a week’s notice is quite enough.”
That wasn’t my point, but Mrs. Moore always thought the worst about me. “Uh, okay. I don’t think we have anything going on.”
“We want to take her to church,” Mrs. Moore said, her tone somehow attacking and defensive at the same time. “It’s not right that?—”
“No,” I said, sudden steel in my voice. “Absolutely not. Youknow that Cassidy and I agree on this. We don’t want Gracie going to church. If I ever find out that you’ve taken her to church, or Sunday School, or any church-related activity, even a potluck, you won’t see her again.”
“We are her grandparents! We have rights! We’ve been talking to a lawyer.”
I felt sick. I clenched my phone so hard I could have cracked the screen. “I have a lawyer too.” Well, I had Google, and Danny’s boyfriend, Miller, was a lawyer, so close enough. “And he says your grandparents’ rights arebullshit.”
There was stunned silence from Mrs. Moore, and I didn’t know if it was because of my anger or my bad language. I hated that I’d let either of them out of me because all it would do was convince her even more that I was an unfit parent.
“We’ll talk later in the week about the weekend,” I said, forcing my anger down. “But I am never going to change my mind about church, so you need to decide if that’s a fight worth losing Gracie over for good. Have a great day, Mrs. Moore.” I ended the call with a shaking finger and slumped down on the old couch on the porch that smelled faintly of damp. “Fuck.”
I sent a text to Cassidy.
Call me when you can? Your mom is stirring up shit over church again.
