Ch 106: What to do about the kid

“Damn her!” Jeffery snarled, tossing his cell phone onto the counter.

He had tried more than a dozen times and Karen would never take his call. Well, he did avail himself of her voice mail--several times, in fact--and let her know exactly what he thought of her.

“Damn me,” he muttered, hiding his face in his hands, willing himself not to scream in frustration.

He knew full well he ought not to have done that. He shouldn’t have lost his temper and said half of what he did, but he was too angry. He couldn’t keep it in anymore, not if what Janet discovered was true, and it was sounding more and more like it was. Surely now he lost any shot he had of getting Karen to tell Wendy the truth about what she did, and more importantly, what he didn’t do. 

“Oh, Wendy,” he mumbled, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’m never gonna get you back now and it’s all my stupid-ass fault.”

He sighed and turned back to the amethyst necklace he was supposed to repair, but he knew he couldn’t deal with it right now. He set down his tools, closed the shop and called it an early day. Perhaps he’d go by the school and watch Stevie at practice. That would cheer him up some.

When he walked out to his car, however, he stopped dead in his tracks and wondered if he was imagining things. There stood Karen leaning on the car parked beside his own. 

When she spotted him she straightened up and attempted to smile. It looked rather painful. 

“Hey, Jeffery, can we talk?” she nervously said.

He merely glowered. 

“You’re mad, huh?” she said.

“What was your first clue?” he snapped.

She sighed. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”

“Should I?”

She shook her head. 

“Then let’s talk,” he said. He grabbed her arm and roughly took her back into the shop.

******

“Omigosh! What took you so long?” Janet said, kneeling down to hug her little cousin. “Tristan, how are you? Look at how big you are now!”

“Hi, Janet, I’m good,” Tristan said, kissing her cheek.

“Geeze, Dad, where the heck were you?” Wes said. “We thought you’d be home long before now.”

“I hope you were a good boy, Tristan. He didn’t cause you too much trouble, did he, Mr. Sebastian?” Janet anxiously said while taking off Tristan’s jacket.

Donny grinned. “No, we had ourselves a great time.”

“We’re best buds,” Tristan said, smiling up at Donny and taking his hand.

“You are?” Janet said, staring from one to the other.

“Yep, although…” Donny said. “Don’t know what his mom will say, but we had fun.”

“Um…okay,” Janet said, a bit confused. “Dinner’s almost ready if…”

“Not hungry no more,” Tristan said.

“You already ate?” Janet asked. “What did you have?”

“Um…enough,” Donny evasively said.

“It’s a secret,” Tristan whispered behind his little hand.

Janet blinked stupidly at the two of them. “Why is what you ate a secret?”

“Cuz Mommy will get mad,” Tristan replied with a shrug.

“Dad, are you corrupting a minor again?” Wes said, a knowing smirk on his face. “I’ll bet it involved greasy burgers, fries and maybe some ice cream and cotton candy. Am I right, Tristan?”

Tristan looked from Wes to Donny in wide eyed wonder and whispered behind his little hand, “How did he know? I didn’t tell him!”

They all laughed. 

“It’s what dads do, Tristan, when moms are not around,” Wes explained.

“Oh, okay,” Tristan said, avidly staring up at him. “Are you Weswe?”

Wes glared at his father. “Really, Dad?” he said. “You had to tell him my name’s Wesley?”

Donny shrugged just as Stevie bounded into the house with Cindy and Jeffery right behind him.

“Stevie!” Tristan shouted and ran to him.

“Hey, Tristan,” Stevie said, hugging his little cousin. “I didn’t know you were here already.”

“Mr. Bastian brought me,” Tristan said, before going to Jeffery. “Hi, Uncle Jeffery!”

“Tristan, my buddy boy!” Jeffery said scooping him up for a huge hug.

“Mommy said I wouldn’t see you, cuz you’re broken up,” Tristan said, his little arms tight around his neck. “Are you broken?”

“Well, no. Your mom was a little wrong. I’m here now and not broken,” Jeff laughed, although he couldn't keep a look of pain out of his eyes.

“I’m glad,” Tristan said, kissing his cheek.

Jeffery caught Donny's eye then. “Thanks for bringing him home, Donny,” he said. 

“My pleasure. He’s a good boy,” Donny said.

“Weird that you went to get him. I didn’t know you knew May Lyn,” Jeff said, setting the boy down.

“I don’t…not really. Only spoke to her once. All I know is what Wendy told me about her. That she needs a place for a yoga studio when she gets here and a home for this little guy,” Donny said, running his fingers affectionately over the boy’s soft blond hair.

“Wiff a twee house,” Tristan interjected.

“Yes, I won’t forget,” Donny said. “Well, since everyone’s here, we should be going. Ready to go, Cindy?”

“No! You can’t go!” Tristan said hugging Donny’s knees. “You’re my buddy.”

“I’ll see you again soon, Tristan,” Donny said. “Soon as your mom gets here I’ll show both of you the building.”

“I wanna see Weswe’s twee house,” Tristan said. “Can I see your twee house, Weswe?”

Janet burst out laughing at the scowl on Wes' face. “Yeah, Weswe, you gotta show Tristan your twee house,” she said.

“Maybe Dad can take you to see it,” Wes said. “I have to take Janet to rehearsal tonight.”

“Any time you want,” Donny said.

“Omigosh. Dad, can you watch Tristan tomorrow while we’re at school?” Janet said. 

“He can come with me to the shop,” Jeff said. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Tristan?”

He shook his head. “No, I wanna see Weswe’s twee house. I wanna stay wiff Mr. Bastian.”

“That’s not an option, Buddy,” Jeff said.

“Actually… if you think it would be okay,” Donny interjected. “I wouldn’t mind watching him. I have no afternoon appointments and you have a shop to run.”

“Seriously, Dad?” Wes said, completely incredulous. “You’re going to baby-sit?”

“Why not?” Donny said, irritably. “I used to watch you and Cindy all the times your mother went on book tours. I can do it.”

Wes laughed. “Okay, okay! Just checking. You can spend all day in the tree house for all I care.”

“We can?” Tristan asked excitedly jumping up and down. “Please, please!”

“If Mr. Sebastian can come by my shop you can go with him, but you have to promise to be good,” Jeffery said.

“I will!” Tristan shouted.

“Dad, I have to go to Luke and Alana’s tonight and I’m not sure I’ll be back before Tristan’s bedtime. Can you…?” Janet said, anxiously biting her bottom lip.

“Sure, baby, don’t worry,” Jeff said, not looking directly at her. “Can we eat now?”

“Sure, Daddy,” Janet said, watching him curiously. She frowned slightly then went into the kitchen, Wes and the other kids following close behind her.

Jeff and Donny stood in awkward silence for a few minutes. It was Jeffery who took in a deep breath and spoke first.

“So, how was Wendy?” he asked.

“What?” Donny said, nearly choking on the word and more than somewhat shocked. Could it be he knew? Did he know how close he and Wendy came to...?

“When you left her. I wondered how she was. I gathered you were to travel together to JFK then you’d continue onto …what was it? Boston?”

“Yeah…yeah…uh…” Donny said, collecting his thoughts and trying desperately not to look as guilty as he felt. “Um…she was a mess all the way there. Cried for almost the entire trip, but eventually she stopped and she had a great time.”

Jeff nodded with a frown on his face. “So, you saw her again, on the way back?”

“Uh…what do you mean?” Donny asked, wondering what he said to mess up his story.

“When she told you she had a great time.”

“Oh,” Donny said, running his fingers nervously through his hair. “When she talked to her sister…then she called me and I offered to get Tristan… and we talked and… you know.”

Again, Jeff nodded. “May I ask you a personal question?”

Donny stared at him, assessing. Then he grinned. “You can ask, but I reserve the right to refuse to answer,” he said.

“Far enough,” Jeff replied. “You got the hots for my wife?”

Even though he expected it, Donny still was taken aback by the direct question. He could lie, he supposed, but that wasn’t his style. He needn't speak the complete truth, however. “I might have, had she not been married and obviously still in love with you.”

The air whooshed out of Jeff’s lungs. “She said that?” he asked.

Donny nodded. “She just doesn’t know if she can forgive you, but I think she’s more than willing to try. My assessment, of course, which means very little. I don’t know the particulars, nor do I want to. None of my business. I hope things work out for you two and I hope you know how lucky you are to have such a woman loving you. I’d do almost anything for that, Jeff… except steal her from her true love.”

They stared at each other, an unspoken understanding developing between them.

“I think we should go eat now,” Jeff said.

“At least Troy’s not here,” Donny said with a laugh. “Might get to have some leftovers now.”

Jeff chuckled and he followed Donny into the kitchen. It was the lightest he’d felt in a very long time.