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“When Mom came to Grandma’s on Thanksgiving and shouted about it, I didn’t know what to think. But I thought about it since, and I like Anne. She’s a nice person.” Max shrugged. “I don’t mind if you date her.”
“It’s not too weird for you?”
Max pursed his lips, creased his chin, and shook his head. “Not really.” He shrugged again.
“It makes me so happy to hear you say that.” Happy? He would have died if the answer had been different, and what he felt now was beyond joy. It was as if Max had just reached in and placed his heart back in its place.
He hugged his son. Then, leaning back, he added, “You might be hearing a lot of things about me, about Jane, about your living arrangements, about the future and the past. I need you to know that any question you have, any doubt you have, you can come to me, and I’ll tell you the truth.” He meant it, even if it meant the truth about their past, though he hoped Avery wouldn’t stoop to spreading the affair lie to their son so he wouldn’t have to relay the real story to a twelve-year-old.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.” He hugged him again.
“Dad?” Max said from within his embrace.
“Yeah?” He pulled himself back so he could see his son’s face.
“Can we have pizza for dinner?”
He laughed. “You got it!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“She upped her game. This is getting dangerous. Courts tend to take these things very seriously. And if you had a witness there who saw you yelling at her—”
“I raised my voice. I didn’t yell. In fact, her neighbor might tell you that I didn’t threaten her.”
“We can’t rely on that.” His lawyer sounded metallic over the car’s speaker. It fit the taste in Finn’s mouth. “Here’s what we’re going to do. You keep that restraining order; don’t go anywhere near her. Drop your son and pick him up at his grandparents’ after you call to make sure she’s not coming out of the house, and you park at a distance, you hear? We’re not taking any chances here.”
“I can do that.” He stared at the beach that stretched from side to side in front of him. He drove there to breathe after dropping Max off at school.
“I’ll try to get an earlier date for the hearing, before Christmas, but I can’t promise anything.”
“Max is supposed to be with me for Christmas. We’re supposed to visit my mother in Florida for part of the time.”
“She contested that in her filing. You can’t take him out of state. You might have to let her have him for Christmas. And, right now, we don’t want to get into that when we have Max’s physical custody at risk. We pick our battles.”
Finn closed his eyes and released a slow breath.
“Lastly, I suggest you refrain from seeing her cousin until I give you the green light. Her claims of an affair with a family member, along with the threat accusations, aren’t working in your favor.”
He opened his eyes at once. “Aren’t we playing right into her hands?”
“You want main custody, you want your son to continue living with you, that’s your end goal. Show you’re squeaky clean. Stay away from her for the time being.”
“How long?”
“However long it takes.”
For the second time in his life, Finn felt that his single mistake from a long time ago had cost him his heart.
