The Newcomer (Thunder Point #2)(25)

And then they walked out of the diner, Mac striding in front of his ex-wife and leaving her to follow. He walked across the street to his department vehicle while Cee Jay momentarily disappeared. And then Gina saw her drive by, following Mac in a shiny sports car convertible. Her car wasn’t white, it wasn’t beige or soft gold. It was pearl.

Then Gina had to sit down. Her legs would no longer hold her up.

Six

Mac called Deputy Steve Pritkus at home. “Steve, can you cover the town for a few hours? I have a family emergency.”

“Everything all right, Mac?”

Far from all right. Far! “No injuries, Steve. Just a situation that has to be dealt with immediately. I can explain more later. It’s sensitive. Should I call Charlie?”

“Nope, I got it. I’ll be parked in front of the office in ten.”

“Thanks, I owe you one.”

Mac then drove to a Denny’s restaurant on the outskirts of Bandon, parked and went inside. Cee Jay pulled up right beside him but he didn’t wait for her; he just walked straight into the restaurant. When he faced the hostess holding her menus, he pointed to the booth he wanted, far to the rear of the restaurant. “Just two coffees,” he said. “No menus today.”

“Whatever you want, Officer,” she said with a smile.

Mac took a seat in the booth with his back to the wall, facing the restaurant. Cops never sat with their back to the crowd. A few moments later Cee Jay came in and, seeing her, he scowled. Well, she’d done all right for herself. She probably thought herself tempting, looking so fetching and sophisticated. Well, hell, Cee Jay had always been pretty. But now she looked elegant, as well, and it pissed him off. Here he’d been scrimping, saving, trying to inch by on a deputy’s paycheck with three kids and she was driving a brand-new Lexus coup convertible. He hated her.

She slid into the booth. Her smile was a little subdued. The waitress was immediately there with two coffees, then departed just as quickly.

“What do you want, Cecilia Jayne?”

She was a bit taken aback by the formal use of her name. “It’s been a very long time. I wanted to see how you were.”

“Just fine. That it?”

“I thought we could talk. How are the kids?”

“Just fine. And I don’t want to talk.”

“Mac, look, I know what I did was wrong. I’m sorry. It took a lot of time to work up the courage to come here, and to apologize. I know there’s no way I can make it up to you. I was a screwed-up abused foster kid and shouldn’t have gotten married at the age of sixteen. I shouldn’t have—”

“You had a nice family,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Shows what you know,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “They weren’t my family, they were about the eighth one and they were only nice in public. It was awful. I suffered. I was messed up and was trying to escape.”

Mac’s eyes narrowed, as well. Being in law enforcement, he wasn’t easily duped by how people appeared on the outside. Just a couple of months ago he’d arrested a seventeen-year-old for battery, for beating up his elderly father, and he came from the richest, snootiest family in town. The kid had everything, and it still wasn’t enough.

He was trying to remember Cee Jay at sixteen—she was a cheerleader, in lots of school clubs, always looked well-heeled, had a curfew that was too liberal and could borrow the family car often. They let her talk on the phone till all hours. He’d been to her house many times. There were a lot of kids in that house, but he’d grown up with Aunt Lou. Hell, Lou did more yelling and disciplining than Mac had ever seen at Cee Jay’s foster home.

He had been silent too long. Since she’d said “I...was trying to escape.”

“And so you did,” he said. “Are we done here?”

“Mac, I want to see my kids.”

“You signed away custodial guardianship and visitation, Cee Jay. I’d appreciate it if you’d just leave now. Leave town, leave the area, like you did before.”

“Will you please listen to me? Mac, I made a terrible mistake, but I was twenty-three and had three kids. I was half-nuts. I just about had my life together, my mental health straightened out, when you sent the divorce and custody papers. It was very clear—you were done waiting around for me and you didn’t want me near our kids. I was devastated, but I was also feeling terribly guilty. I couldn’t blame you—so I just signed. That was almost five years ago and I regretted it almost immediately. I want a second chance. I’m begging you.”

He rested one forearm on the table. “Do you have any idea what you did to our children? The babies cried day and night. Ryan wandered aimlessly around the house calling out for you. Dee Dee was so screwed up—she stopped sleeping, napping, just couldn’t get comfortable, couldn’t be soothed. But that’s nothing to what it did to Eve! We could hardly get her to go to school, she was so afraid you’d come home and she wouldn’t be there. She wet the bed, threw up, cried herself to sleep, wouldn’t socialize with the kids at school. I had at least two kids in my bed every night for a year, usually three. Cee Jay! You f**ked up the whole family because you couldn’t take it! Because getting laid by some golf pro looked better to you than bottles and diapers! No, you are not coming back into their lives now! Keep me posted on your location and when they’re over eighteen, I’ll tell them where they can find you if they want to see you or talk to you.”