“Then I’ll go too,” Dev shot out. Shanna wouldn’t be enough to keep the suspicion off Cash. “They won’t fuck with me.”
Except that meant everything he planned to do today got pushed back a day…
“Dad, Mom’s on the phone,” Abi said, drawing all the attention down to her as she came through the still open front door. She was dressed with her hand sticking out as if the cell phone was the most offensive object she’d ever had to hold.
“I wanna talk to her,” Mae said, rubbing her eyes, following behind Abi. She was also dressed, but her hair hung down her back in a tangled mess. Damn. He’d forgotten the braid last night. She’d cry through the brushing out later.
“No, you don’t,” Abi said. “Nobody wants to talk to her.” She spoke loudly, drawing the phone back to her mouth to make sure her mother heard. When Dev took the phone, Abi put her finger over her lips, getting right in Mae’s face, urging her to be quiet. She whispered, “Mom needs to know you can’t just run off and everything’ll be fine. We matter and she needs to treat us better. We’re supposed to stick together because we’re a family.”
Mae looked ready to protest until the expression on her face became a study of Abi’s words, then nodded. “I’m hungry.”
Shanna jumped into action. “Come on, you two. We’ll go get donuts and then maybe swing by the grocery store, okay? Unless you like apples for dinner. Your dad has a lot of those.”
“Apples are good,” Abi said, scrunching her face as she looked over her shoulder to Cash. He winked at her proper summarization. Those apples were far too healthy for Dev to have stocked in his home.
“Are you gonna get Puppy this morning?” Mae asked. “She’ll be scared being there by herself.”
“I thought the puppy was a boy?” Shanna asked, ushering them out of the apartment.
“We thought she was a boy too but then she turned into a girl,” Mae answered.
“I’ll go get her right after breakfast.”
Dev waited until he heard his apartment door shut then brought the phone to his ear. No doubt, his and Tena’s exchanges always got loud. “What the fuck could you possibly want from me?” Dev asked by way of a greeting.
“What the fuck was I served with you pansy-ass?” she shouted right back.
She’d finally lost her mind. Did she think he could teleport there to see what she held in her hands. How did he know what she was served?
“You tell me,” he shot back after a fraction of a second.
“Custody papers. I have to pay you child support and take parenting classes before I can see my children? And you think I abandoned them? They came from my fucking body.”
Dev’s gaze landed on Cash, searching for answers. After a few seconds of a blank stare, Dev moved the phone from his mouth and whispered, “Did you send custody papers to Tena?”
Cash shook his head.
“It must be my mom.” Dev brought the phone back to his mouth, instantly shifting into bitch mode. “You fuckin’ took off. It’s the least I could serve you with. Good luck fightin’ it.”
“Fuck you, Dev. I’m not doing either one of these things. And I’m gonna see my girls whenever the fuck I want to,” she shot back. “They’re my kids too. I hate you.”
For no other reason than to piss her off further, he said, “Then I’ll see you in fuckin’ court.”
The screech he got in return had a smile forming. At least Tena was something consistent in his life. He dropped his chin to his chest and listened as she called him every name in the book. When her breath ran out, and she was forced to suck in air, he quickly began the negotiations. “Parentin’ classes are a hard yes for me. You can mark out the child support if you agree to the classes.”
“You’re a goddamn piece of shit…” Dev put the tip of his thumb and index finger into his mouth and gave an earsplitting whistle to shut her up.
He waited about five seconds to let her eardrums function properly again before he spoke. “If you agree, then send the papers back to me and I’ll cover all the cost to make them fuckin’ official. It’s a fair deal. They deserve better than they got. I’m gonna take the classes too. We do whatever online shit together, if that’s a thing.”
He could hear her heavy breathing, but the silence remained.
“Then I’m gonna write in here that you’re taking the classes too.”
“Got it,” he said and nodded as if in conspiracy with Cash.
Cash lifted a hand in confusion and mouthed, “What?”
For several long seconds, Tena remained silent.
