Chapter Twenty-Three

Arthur

“Sir, with all due respect. If you take a sip from that glass, I’m leaving.”

I pretended that I didn’t hear Jo and continued to stare at the glass of vodka I had poured twenty minutes ago. I hardly needed Jo to tell me he would quit if I took a drink. I would have quit on me too if I had taken a drink. I didn’t intend to, but I had to prove to myself that I had changed…that Bailey had changed me for the better.

Man, I was such a fool for letting him get away.

“You always do this!” Jo ranted, stalking into my line of vision. “Something doesn’t go the way you expect it to and you immediately take to the bottle. It’s not healthy, Arthur, and I’m not going to sit by quietly and let it happen again.”

“You called me Arthur,” was the only observation I made after his rant.

Stumped, Jo paused and stared at me as though I had sprouted horns. “That’s what you got out of everything I just said to you? You are unbelievable, do you know that?”

I shrugged. “What do you want me to say, Jo? That I screwed up? That I probably let the first man who ever loved me for who I am slip right through my fingers? You think I haven’t already figured that out?”

He sat on the chair across from me and placed his elbows on his knees. “I know you figured out that you’ve screwed up. You’re good at figuring that out by yourself. What you’re not good at is doing something about it. So tell me, Arthur, what are you going to do about Bailey and those kids?”

Instead of answering him, I took up the plain brown envelope from my lap and handed it to him. He stared from the envelope to me. “Is this the long anticipated letter where you finally admit you don’t need me and hand me my final paycheck?”

I scowled at him. “What? Where the hell did that come from?”

“It’s just that I’ve been thinking,” he answered. “It’s time for me to move on. It’s time for us to move on. I’ve been waiting for you to find someone who can be there for you, and you found that with Bailey. He was right for you in every way, and the way you talked about those kids, Arthur, it was evident how much you cared. You never did say why you bailed on them.”

“It’s personal,” I responded, wishing I could talk to him about Bailey’s past, but I didn’t get the impression Bailey wanted to talk about it with anyone. I wouldn’t betray his trust any further by spreading the information. The only ones who would know about his past were him, me and the dozens or so guys he’d slept with. No biggie.

“Well, whatever it is, I’m sure you can put it behind you. You’re in love with the guy.”

Yes, I was, and I was already certain I’d be going back to Bailey, probably crawling on my knees for him to take me back. Just as soon as I figured out how best to approach him after insulting him that night. My face burned in anger at myself from the way I had acted. I had treated Bailey like he was one of my exes, when in fact, he was so different. I’d let my fear and insecurities of once more falling for a guy who loved fucking around come between us.

“Oh my god!” Jo gasped as he peered at the contract he took from the envelope. “Are you insane? You give this to Bailey, and he’ll think you’re pegging him for a gold digger.”

“I thought about that,” I answered, frowning. “But I don’t have much of a choice, Jo. He needs somewhere to stay with the kids. I’d invite him here, but I have a feeling he wouldn’t accept now. Plus there are the kids to consider. I’d like to know he has someplace to call his own while we get to know each other better and develop a better relationship.”

“A relationship you don’t have?” he asked, waving the contract at me. “Arthur, you just signed over your second home to Bailey. You can’t have done this since you returned. It’s just been three days, and it’s the holidays.”

“All lawyers have a price,” I replied. “But you’re right. As soon as Bailey told me what his mother planned to do, I called my lawyer and had him draft up the transfer of property. This isn’t even about a relationship. He’s had it tough. So have the kids. He needs the break. I planned to tell him over Christmas, but he overreacted to what I got for the kids so I thought it best to put it off.”

Jo started to laugh, rising to his feet as he shook his head. “God, I hope for your sake this doesn’t backfire on you. This has the potential to go either really well or horribly wrong.”

“Think positive, Jo. Think positive.” I rose to my feet as well and took the envelope from him. “Here’s to hoping the new year won’t catch me alone, but I’ll have Bailey and the kids beside me.”

Jo nodded, took up my drink and downed it. “I’ll drink to that.”

I grinned at him. “Later we’ll talk about that nonsense of you leaving. I’ve got to get over to Bailey’s and apologize for being a giant ass.”

I had already retrieved his address in Gardendale from my employee file, and the information was committed to memory. Jo walked me to the garage where I got into my car and turned on the heater. On the rare days it snowed in Birmingham, we were actually under several inches of snow. The temperature had dropped lower than I had experienced it in a long time.

“Good luck!” Jo wished me.

“Thanks. I’m gonna need it.”

I couldn’t get Bailey’s devastated look from his face after I’d told him to lie to me that he wasn’t the guy in those pictures. He must have thought me crazy to demand something so ridiculous of him. Yet, in my mind at the time, it had made perfect sense. I had known about cheating in my previous relationships, but accepted it when my partners denied it. Bailey was right that it wouldn’t have worked for us. I cared about him too much.

I plugged his address into the GPS system and allowed the car to guide me to the location in Gardendale. I had to drive slower than usual because of the icy roads, but the light traffic made up for it. When I made it to his house, I slowed down and took in the nice two-story house. My heart strummed a crazy beat in my chest as I parked and got out of the car, envelope in hand. He wanted to do this all on his own, but I had seen the occasional worry in his eyes while on the cruise. He wasn’t sure he would be able to find some other place to live before his mother evicted him on the thirty-first. At least this way, he wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

I was also hoping it would help me worm my way back into his life. And the kids! I missed them something terrible. I missed their laughs and the way they lit up every room they entered with their vivacious spirit. I wanted to be the person to help nurture them and see them grow.

Trying to conceal how nervous I was, I tried to run through some apologies in my head while I walked to the porch. None seemed quite good enough to atone for how shallow I had been to him, not being able to overlook his past. I didn’t imagine it would have been easy for any man to see their partner in the compromising positions I had seen Bailey in. I just had to let those images go and focus on the man Bailey had become.

I rang the doorbell and waited, excited at seeing Bailey and the kids again. Three days had been long enough. I wanted them back in my life.

I frowned when the doorbell went unanswered. I stepped back from the porch and observed the stillness of the house. There wasn’t any sign of life. They must not be home. What was I going to do now? I didn’t want to leave this for another day. I would just have to wait in my car with the heater on and hope they would return home soon.

The snow crunched beneath my feet as I headed for my car, hands tucked into the pockets of my jeans.

“Arthur! I knew it was you!”

I spun around, almost losing my balance in the snow as I stared over the row of pruned trees to Bailey’s friend. She lived next door? Ah yes, I vaguely remembered him telling me because she lived next door and didn’t work, she helped him out with the kids. I watched as she jogged toward the fence, bundled in a hooded sweater. She rounded the hedges and came around to stop before me.

“You came for Bailey!” she cried, puffing out cold air from her lips.

“Yes, but he’s not home.”

“Right, we need to talk,” she remarked. “I’ve a few things to say to you. You were wrong about Bailey, you know. He’s a good guy, one who really liked you, and you hurt him a lot. Now everything is ruined!”

To my complete dismay, she burst into tears, sobbing. What the hell! “I-uh, I know I was an idiot. That’s why I’m here to talk to Bailey. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about you two. For that, I apologize.”

“It’s too late!” she sobbed. “His mother came and took the kids.”

“What?” I frowned at her. “That doesn’t make any sense. He told me he had until the end of January.”

“She was pissed about Bailey taking the kids without consulting her,” she answered, scrubbing at her eyes with her gloves. “Yesterday, she had the cops here while she evicted him and took off with the kids. It was so heartbreaking to watch. Gina couldn’t stop crying, and Reggie kept begging Bailey not to leave him too.”

My eyes pricked with tears as the heartbreaking scenario unfolded in my mind. I was too late. The kids had been taken from him. Those children meant the world to Bailey, and if he lost them, there was no telling what he would do.

“Where is he?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I begged him to stay with me, but he was devastated with the kids being gone. He said he couldn’t sit and do nothing.”

Fear gripped me. He could be anywhere in Birmingham. How was I going to find him?

“Didn’t he mention where he would go? What about his friends back in Louisiana? Do you think he went there?”

She shook her head. “I doubt it. Bailey wouldn’t go too far from the kids. He’s trying to come up with money to pay the deposit on a house so he could get the kids back. The social worker lady who came with his mother said he could get them back if he had somewhere stable to stay and could provide for the kids.”

Oh god, no! My heart plummeted in my chest. I automatically knew what Bailey would do to get the money. He was a fighter, a survivor, and there was no way he would let the kids go like that. There was one sure way of him getting that money fast.