Tate was forty-four and looked in his thirties.
Neeta’s man was likely close to Tate’s age but looked in his fifties.
Boy, she wasn’t just dumb, the woman was stupid.
It was bad manners to gloat so I didn’t and anyway, I was too startled by Neeta showing up drunk to her son’s custody hearing to gloat.
My eyes moved away from the spectacle of Neeta’s man attempting to guide her to the front and I saw Wood watching his sister.
I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his bicep. At my touch, he turned to me and showed me his pain.
“Honey,” I whispered.
“Stupid,” he whispered back. “Fuck me. So f**kin’ stupid.”
I squeezed his arm and my eyes went to Tate who was still standing, his gaze glued to Neeta. His jaw was tight and his eyes were cold.
He looked to me and shook his head in disgust. I shook mine back and squeezed Wood’s arm again before I dropped my hand in my lap.
Neeta’s man got her to her attorney and she didn’t look at anyone as she passed us. This was likely because she was concentrating on walking. Blake retraced his steps and sat across the aisle from Wood. He didn’t look at Tate, he didn’t look at Wood, he didn’t look at anyone. He just sat down and faced forward.
“Are you finally ready?” the bailiff asked Neeta’s attorney.
“If my client and I could have…” Neeta’s attorney started.
“You’re ready,” the bailiff cut him off and disappeared behind a door.
I looked back at Tate to see he was seating himself.
Five seconds later we were all standing after we heard, “All rise…”
When we were given the all clear to sit again, I did and held my breath.
* * * * *
Five minutes later, the judge cut off Neeta’s attorney mid-sentence and, eyes narrowed on Neeta, he asked her directly, “Mrs. Daniels, are you intoxicated?”
“Your honor, if we could –” Neeta’s attorney started.
The judge cut him off by saying sharply and impatiently to the bailiff, “Get a breathalyzer in here.”
Then he abruptly stood, the bailiff called out, “All rise…” we all rose and the judge stormed out.
* * * * *
“I bought this outfit for nothing,” I groused in the Explorer on the way home.
“Baby, it’s sweet,” Tate replied.
I turned to Tate. “The judge talked to me for five seconds. I told him about the snag in Jonas’s carpet and how I was going to fix it and he just said, ‘Good thinking, Miss Grahame, those can be dangerous, send the hotel people in here on your way out, would you?’ That’s it!” I ended on cry.
“Laurie –”
I crossed my arms on my chest and interrupted him. “I don’t think he’s a very good judge. How does he know if I’m a good person to have around Jonas?”
“Lauren –”
“He had Ned and Betty in there for fifteen whole minutes. I timed it and I heard them laughing. Fifteen minutes and they don’t even live with Jonas. He just goes to their pool. He had me in there less than five and he sent me out and I live with Jonas! I could be anyone. I could be a crazy woman who feeds him only cat food!”
“Honey –”
“I think you should ask for another judge,” I declared and Tate emitted a startled bark of laughter so I turned to him. “What?”
“Babe, I got full custody. I’m not asking for another judge just so you can convince him you’ll be a good stepmom and knock him out with your sex kitten school marm getup.”
He was, of course, right and I was acting like a lunatic.
I took in a deep breath and looked out the side window.
“I got wound up for nothing,” I whispered. “Stupid.”
“What’s stupid is showin’ trashed out of your f**kin’ brain to a custody hearing. That’s stupid. Givin’ a shit enough to buy a new outfit, do your hair, look presentable and responsible even though you’re nervous as all hell and knowin’ there’s a snag in your kid’s carpet and worryin’ about it ain’t stupid. It’s the kind of person a judge can trust around a ten year old kid. You think he doesn’t see that?”
Tate was, again, right.
I turned to him and asked quietly, “Do you think she was nervous too?”
“Scared outta her brain,” Tate answered.
“But nervous to lose Jonas?”
“Don’t know about that but scared, f**k yeah. Scared of losin’ child support which is pretty much all they got. Scared of lookin’ bad because everyone in Carnal’s gonna know the outcome and she knew it wasn’t lookin’ good. And scared because she knew you’d come in there lookin’ like you look and makin’ her look even worse. Neeta’s the master of self-fulfilled prophesies and today she topped even her best efforts and there’ve been some really f**kin’ good ones.”
“But not scared of losing Jonas,” I whispered.
“Don’t know but if she was, she fulfilled that prophesy too.”
I looked out the windshield and murmured, “She’s beginning to make me sad.”
His hand reached out and took mine. “Yeah, baby, you spent time with Jonas. A mom losin’ that? It’s sad.”
I turned my hand in his and held tight.
Then I said, “She doesn’t get anything but supervised visits for a day every two weeks so you don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Yeah.”
“And you don’t have to pay child support anymore.”
“Nope.”
“We should celebrate,” I decided and his hand squeezed mine.
“We are. We got reservations at The Rooster.”
I turned to him.
I’d heard of The Rooster. It was a fancy steak place in the mountains about half an hour away. It was supposed to be fabulous.
“We do?” I asked.
“Yeah, babe, we do.”
He’d made those reservations while on the road, thinking about his son and hoping there would be something to celebrate.
I leaned across the seat and kissed his bearded jaw.
Then, in his ear I whispered, “I’m so happy for you, Tate.”
His hand tightened in mine. Mine tightened in his.
Then I sat back and looked out the windshield.
“At least, going to The Rooster, I have a decent reason to have spent money on my outfit,” I noted.
Tate chuckled and I listened contentedly while I watched the landscape roll by and Tate took us home to Jonas.