Page 34 of The Maverick’s Forever Home (Montana Mavericks: Behind Closed Doors #2)

Chapter One

A duck pond. That’s what he needed on his land. Minus the ducks.

Natural waste every fifteen minutes, not good.

With a future curious toddler in the mix…no.

But the pond…with a greenway…helping to preserve the water’s natural health…

“Jax.”

At the not quite stern sound of his name, wealthy rancher Jax Wellington stood up from the ornate bench upon which he’d been sitting, staring at the park’s duck pond.

So he didn’t have to watch for the ex-in-laws who’d called the upcoming meeting.

Turning the stroller in which his three-month-old son slept so that its interior was facing him, he waited for Christa’s parents, Emma and Frank Novelty, to reach him. And then, as if in pre-rehearsed synchronization, all three of them sat. Emma between Jax and her husband.

The immaculately dressed woman reached for the stroller and turned it so that it rested between her and Jax.

Out of respect for the fact that they were grieving, and though his jaw was clenching, Jax recognized the childishness of his desire to assert that he was not only the boy’s biological father, he was also Liam’s only guardian, and thereby, the chooser of his son’s whereabouts.

In light of the Novelty’s desire to share custody of his baby son, his defensiveness was understandable. Deliberate contention was not.

And he noted, with some appreciation, that Emma didn’t reach down to pick up her sleeping grandson. Jax would have had to intervene to avoid a bout of some untimely and very loud expressions of dissatisfaction. His son had mastered the art of getting immediate attention when he was displeased.

As Jax had learned over and over again, every two hours, each night of the past month.

The thought reminded him that the Noveltys were just a month out from burying their daughter. Their only child.

“We’re sorry to pull you away from work at your ranch, Jax, but that’s partially why we needed to meet with you today.” Frank started right in. No “how’ve you been,” “how’s your new place” or even just “you doing okay?”

He’d planned to ask some version of the three.

Had run them by Liam just before the baby had fallen asleep in his car seat.

The boy was just teetering past newborn, but he had a wisdom in his eyes far beyond Jax’s thirty-one years.

Or maybe it was just that having a son made Jax that much more conscious of how his every action affected everyone else with whom he came into contact.

“You said you had something to discuss regarding Liam, and anything to do with him always takes precedence over work,” Jax told the older man. In another place and time, he might have liked Frank Novelty. Enjoyed his company.

But with the man disapproving of Jax, judging him, based on one-sided information, he didn’t trust his ex-father-in-law even a little bit.

He most certainly didn’t look up to him as he had his own father.

Frank and Emma had shared a long glance, one that Jax knew did not bode well for him.

Yet he remained seated, outwardly calm, as Frank asked, “Well now, that’s not precisely true, is it?

” Then without leaving space for Jax to respond said, “In fact, truth is, you leave a helpless, three-month-old infant alone with paid help all day every day, don’t you? ”

Not every day. And not all day. “I stop by the house and check on him several times a day,” he told the man.

And whenever he was out farther on the ranch, he checked in by video call.

He saw Liam. Knew that he was safe and sleeping peacefully.

Or being held and content. If he happened to call during a time the little guy was mad, he remained on the line until the diaper change was done, or the formula warmed, and Liam was sucking greedily.

“So you give him what, half an hour, an hour a day at the most?” Frank continued on in his professor-like voice. Making his points with a logic he seemed sure would get him whatever win he was after, not with any hint of aggression.

Christa had adored both of her parents, speaking highly of them from the very first. She’d trusted them to the point that she’d confided in them regarding Jax’s lack of everlasting love where she was concerned.

Had even told them that she’d known he was about to break off their casual three-month fling when she told him she was pregnant.

It didn’t seem to matter to them that he’d stood by her, done the right thing and married her. Or that he’d grown to admire her a great deal when he’d seen how dedicated she was to their son. And to them as parents of the child.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t been quite as honest with them regarding the man she’d started seeing outside her and Jax’s marriage. Nor did Jax ever plan to inform them—or Liam—that she’d been with that man on the boat that had crashed and taken her life the month before.

Jax reminded himself, though, as he chose not to get defensive and respond to Frank’s last comment. How many hours a day he spent with his son was not the man’s concern. The fact that Liam was healthy, well adjusted and loved was most important.

Frank sat forward then, his hands clasped, elbows on his knees and looked at Jax as he said, “And your lack of attention to this matter just proves the point we intend to make to the judge. You’re going to be getting an official notice of the hearing, Jax, but we wanted to tell you in person that we filed a petition with the court to gain legal custody of Liam.

We’re both healthy, able adults. Neither of us work outside the home anymore.

And the child will benefit from having a two-parent family.

” The older man cleared his throat. “Beyond that, he’ll spend his days being raised and taught by doting grandparents who love him, not by paid strangers.

Grandparents who raised the mother who adored him, too.

We do want you to understand that we’ll be as generous with visitation as you’d like.

It’ll be good for the boy to have regular exposure to your ranch as he grows up. ”

The boy. Jax’s son.

Frank sat back, signaling the end to his perfectly delivered speech.

Burning inside, Jax went still. Breathing deeply to calm himself. Reminding himself that with their grief so recent neither Emma nor Frank was in their best state of mind.

When he was ready, he quietly said, “I had high hopes when the two of you followed Liam and I as we relocated here to Emerald Ridge, when you found your house, that together we’d provide a solid family support for Liam as he grows up.

” He started with what he’d have agreed to.

The Noveltys having an active participation in Liam’s life.

“But there is no way I am giving up custody of my son,” he stated then, quite clearly.

Distinctly. With all the power fatherhood—and growing up with a wealthy, strong dad—had given him.

“Most single fathers work during the day,” he stated succinctly.

“And the majority of them aren’t on the premises, available if needed, as I am. ”

“Oh, you misunderstand if you think we’re asking you again for custody, Jax.

We already tried that. You weren’t willing to compromise,” Frank told him, standing, while Emma stayed seated, facing Liam.

Her gaze hadn’t left the sleeping baby since the conversation had begun.

“We’re forced to take you to court to do what’s best for our grandson.

And we’re going to use anything we can dig up on you and your family to win, too,” he added.

“Like the fact that one of the reasons you’re working so many hours right now is to undo the damage your stepmother did on the ranch before she was arrested and sent to prison.

And another one being that you didn’t care enough about your family’s ranch to stick around after your father married her.

No, other than the four months before Liam was born, and the past three since his birth, you spent the majority of the past two years galivanting around the globe and having casual affairs with young women wherever you landed.

” Frank paused, glancing down, leaving unsaid that their daughter, Christa, had been among them.

Then with a bit of accusation in his gaze said, “Leaving a string of broken hearts behind you. Which fits right in with the rather distasteful Wellington reputation we’ve been hearing about ever since we arrived in town.

Seems it wasn’t just your recent stepmother who brought the family down.

Your own father married three women, the most recent being twenty-five years younger than him, and a criminal at that.

He married her only a year after his second wife died. ”

Again, Jax bit back the retort that flew to his tongue.

His father had buried two wives. One from a car accident that had absolutely nothing to do with him.

And the second, after twenty years of marriage, when Jax and his sister Annelise’s mother, had died of cancer.

But Jax didn’t completely disagree with Frank’s assessment, either.

Although his mother and father’s marriage had lasted, he couldn’t say a lot for the relationship they’d shared.

And it had been a slap in the face to him and Annelise when their father had remarried so quickly after their mother’s death, too.

All of which had soured Jax on marriage, but had nothing to do with his ability to raise his son single-handedly. Just because a man didn’t excel in the romance department didn’t mean he couldn’t love deeply. And well. Jax’s father might have lacked as a husband, but he’d been a great dad.

“You think degrading Liam’s birthright is good for him? Being supportive of him?” He asked the words as much out of curiosity as an attempt to get the Noveltys to see reason.