Page 59 of Guarding Over You
She explained the rest along with the card and how Gracie saw them before she could hide them away.
“I don’t like that,” he said.
“Welcome to my world. Some woman I don’t know about, who is itching to meet my daughter, goes behind her boyfriend’s back and does this. He admitted that he might have led Tina on that I will meet her sooner rather than later.”
“Were you willing?”
This was news to him.
“I’d said I had to do it first. I told you that. I said I wasn’t ready for it, but the past few days I got thinking that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to just see her. I realized she could show up where Billy and Gracie are and watch from a distance. To see how they interact. She might have done that already. Wouldn’t it be better if I met her and saw what she looked like?”
“You don’t know her last name or haven’t tried to find her on social media?”
“No. I haven’t bothered asking. Doing that would give too much importance to Billy. To get him to think I was okay with this all when I’m not really. I mean I just found out about her a month ago, not even. He said they’ve been together like six months. She wants to move in with him. We went from me not knowing to her dropping gifts off. Too much, too soon.”
That was his thought. “What did Billy say about this since he didn’t know about the gift?”
“He wasn’t happy. I could hear it in his voice. He took some of the blame, which is ironic because he never did that with me.”
“Don’t let your mind go there.”
“I’m trying not to, but it’s hard not to compare, even if I hate every second it happens.” She let out a sigh but made no move to get up. He was content for them to stay like this for hours. “He told me he was positive he’d be fighting with Tina tonight and I’d probably love the thought of that.”
“No, you wouldn’t. Because then it’d just work him up more to bleed over to you.”
“Yep. You get that. You don’t even know me that well, but you get me.”
“I know you well enough.”
“Which is why I called you. Because I knew you’d listen and you’d tell me if I was nuts.”
“You’re not nuts. I don’t like that this happened either. What was his reaction when you asked what he knew about her?”
“He didn’t reply. Didn’t tell me how they met either. I’ll have to bring it up another time I’m sure.”
“What’s the next step?”
“I wrote up everything that happened today. I’ll tell Julie next weekend when I drop Gracie off for the visit. She’ll report it.”
“You’re not going to tell your attorney?”
“Why?” she asked. “I’ll just have to pay him for the time and nothing will come of it. Our custody agreement isn’t going to change. Billy didn’t do it, Tina did. No one hid that information. Julie will file it with my attorney and Billy’s and his attorney gave him shit about stopping over here a few weeks ago. He knows it’s going to happen again and he’ll have to pay for that call.”
He wasn’t so sure he agreed with her decision, but it wasn’t his place to argue it. She knew what she was doing and he had to accept that.
“What about you lying about who the gift was from? Will you report that part of it?”
She stiffened in his arms. It wasn’t the reaction he wanted but expected it. When she went to get up, he held her in place and rubbed her back to relax her.
“I did what was right. If she hadn’t seen the gift I wouldn’t have given it to her at all. That’s just another incentive for me to get the rest of my stuff in the basement and be able to park in the garage. I could have avoided the whole thing. That’s what I’ll be doing this weekend.”
He’d offer to help, but with Clay’s wedding, he was swamped and wouldn’t even be around much.
“Might be the smart thing to do,” he said. “If you’ve got anything really heavy or big, please don’t lift it yourself and I’ll help.”
“I’ll ask you if I need help, but I think I can manage it on my own. I promise if I can’t, you’re the first person I call.”
He believed it because he was here right now.
