Page 39 of Mending Fate

“I know. I get it from him.”

I was saved from having to stifle a laugh when a pair of squabbling boys came out of the bathroom, each blaming the other for splashing water. By the time I got back to Evanne, she’d moved on to a different subject, but not one I found any less interesting…though it was far more confusing.

“I think you should come to dinner again. Daddy likes you better than he likes Mommy.”

Dammit.

This was not a conversation I wanted to have. “We’ll have to see what your dad thinks about that.”

Let him be the one to tell his daughter about whatever he and I were or weren’t.

Twenty-Two

Alec

My meetingwith Percival this morning had gone well. I liked the way he worked. He’d done as he’d promised and put together several different custody agreements. When we’d gone over them, he’d offered his opinion on each one but hadn’t tried to persuade me one way or the other.

Each of the options had merit.

One granted me sole custody with Keli only having DCFS supervised visits.

The second granted me sole custody and gave me full control over when Keli’s visits were and how long they lasted.

The third was an agreement where I had primary custody, and Keli had a set schedule of every other weekend and every other holiday for visitation.

The final one was a more traditional joint custody agreement with Evanne going back and forth every other week or month

I hadn’t made a definite decision yet. I wanted to watch Keli a little while longer, see how she handled things now that she and Evanne were back in Seattle. The last one wouldn’t be a possibility at any point in the near future. I also didn’t want to do the first unless she did something crazy. Which meant I was debating between the middle two options.

It wasn’t, however, thoughts of the custody issue that were distracting me from the email I’d been trying to write for the past fifteen minutes. It was the same thing that had been circling in my head since last night.

I had royally fucked up with Lumen.

To make things right, I needed to speak to her. I had acted rashly more than once when it came to her. She made me behave erratically, impulsively. For her to know the things I needed her to know, I had to explain. Think rationally. Plan out each point I would make and the words I would use. She would understand the choices I’d made, the reasons why I’d made them.

Now that things with Keli and Evanne had settled down, Lumen and I could move past our disagreement and put all of it behind us.

Except my gut said that she wouldn’t be open to discussing anything unless I was willing to admit I had been in the wrong. But I hadn’t been. Evanne was my number one priority, and she would always be my number one priority.

The frustration I felt at not being able to see a solution grew as my day continued. I was unaccustomed to not being able to find answers, to fix problems. I accomplished whatever I put my mind to, and I always had. I refused to believe that I couldn’t do the same here.

I finally managed to finish my email and sent it off. When I glanced at the clock on the top right of my computer screen, I saw it was close to one. I didn’t have a lunch meeting, which meant I could stay in and eat here, catch up on additional work. Or I could take a break and go somewhere nice.

Before I could decide, Tuesday buzzed my intercom. “Sir, your brother’s here.”

“Send him in,” I said. I assumed it was Eoin, and a few seconds later, I saw that I was right. “You know I planned on telling the family how things went with the lawyer. You didn’t want to wait?”

“I’m actually not here about that,” he said as he took the seat across from me. “Not that I’d argue if you wanted to give me a head’s up since I’m here.”

“It went well. I’m deciding between two agreements, and once I do, I’ll take it to Keli and see what the next step will be.” I leaned back in my chair and linked my hands. “Now, how about you tell me why you came by since it isn’t about my custody meeting.”

“I came because your girlfriend or your ex-girlfriend – whatever Lumen Browne is to you –called me about an hour ago.” He paused, studying me for several seconds before continuing. “She wants my help with something.”

I scowled. “If it’s to get me to apologize for putting Evanne first, you’re wasting your time.”

“Actually, she didn’t mention you at all.”

I frowned. “All right. Whatever message you’re supposed to pass along, say it. I have work to do.”