Initiative (Suncoast Society #31)(66)

“This isn’t the first time he’s talked about it.”

“He’s thirteen in what, a month?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s going to be hard for any judge to ignore a minor that age. All we can do is give it a shot. I’ll get the ball rolling on this end and contact Chelsey’s attorney for a sit-down and see what we can hammer out. Maybe we can do this without it having to go before the judge.”

“You think so?”

“No, but it’s worth a shot. Meanwhile, document everything. Every visitation, every phone call, everything.”

“Will do.”

She texted Darryl to call her when he could, and an hour later, he did.

“Well?” he asked.

She filled him in. “I’m paying for it,” she added.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Um, yeah, I do. We’re a family. If you want to pay me back later, fine, but Kyle’s miserable. Did he say anything else this morning on the way to school?”

“He asked me how long it’d take to get it done, and when he could tell his mom. I told him to wait until we’d talked to Ed.”

“Smart. Because Ed needs to talk to her attorney first. No use tipping her off any sooner than necessary.”

“Kyle says he understands.” She heard him let out a sigh. “I feel like shit, Susie. Like I’m a horrible dad. I should have fought harder during the divorce.”

“You did what you had to do to survive.”

“I could have taken the initiative when I realized what was going on with her and filed for divorce myself. Maybe kept primary custody.”

“Or it might have still ended up this way. Don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes, we can only do so much before we hit a wall when we’re in survival mode.”

Goodness knew she’d lived that personally.





It only took two weeks. Susie didn’t know what magic Ed pulled out of his ass but after several rounds of negotiating, he got Chelsey’s attorney to get her to agree to let Kyle live full-time with Darryl without it having to go before the judge for anything other than his signature on the order.

The afternoon of the move, Grant called in a little insurance in the way of the Collins brothers to help not only move the things Kyle wanted over at their house all the time, but as witnesses to help ensure Chelsey didn’t cause any trouble.

Susie wanted them as witnesses, too.

Just in case.

At one point, Susie found herself alone inside with Chelsey, who looked her up and down.

“I’ll be honest,” Chelsey said. “I really thought Darryl was gay and just hiding it with Grant because of his job.”

Susie put on her cheeriest smile. “I’m happy to say he’s not gay.”

Okay, homoflexible wasn’t gay.

Technically.

Not completely.

“I thought about fighting this,” Chelsey said, “but my attorney said that you’re paying for it. I can’t afford that. Besides, Kyle made it perfectly clear he wanted to live with you guys full-time. So what’s the point in fighting?”

Susie wasn’t sure what angle the woman was looking for and just kept her mouth shut.

“Believe it or not,” Chelsey said, “I love my son. But I’m not very…maternal. Darryl’s a good father. I know that. He wasn’t manly enough for me, though. At first it was cute, having him taking care of me all the time, but I needed a real man. I couldn’t live my life like that.”

Susie couldn’t help herself. “I understand. Fortunately for me, Darryl and I are perfectly compatible.” She headed for the front door and turned. “Oh, and, by the way? Next time you have your son do tech support on your phone? Clear out your text messages from your other boyfriends. He saw them and told us all about them. That’s one of the things that got him so upset. He is very mad that you’re cheating on Greg. He also said he knows you cheated on Darryl while you guys were married because he heard you and Greg talking about it. And he overheard Greg on the phone once talking about your plans to soak Darryl for more money.” She smiled and waved. “Ta!”

It was all she could do not to burst out laughing at the horrified look on Chelsey’s face as Susie turned and walked out the front door.

Bitch.

Yeah, it was uncalled for, and would likely earn her some paddle hits or cane strokes later, but it was worth it.

Every last f*cking one.





We have to pull this off.

That was the mantra Susie repeated to herself over and over again in the two months leading up to the Friday evening of their wedding.

Yes, she should be happy. It was her wedding day, for chrissake.

But she still wished it was Grant and Darryl getting married.

Grant, however, had put his foot down. For the greater good, he wanted Darryl and Susie to get married. It ended a lot of potential issues with Darryl’s job. Hell, if Kyle was all right with it and going along with it, wasn’t that the important thing?

She also wished it was Loren performing the ceremony, but since she’d committed to the bit, as it were, for the wedding, she had to go along with Rev. de Papio performing the ceremony.

Was kind of the whole point of rubbing Marcus’ face in it.