Stef Ann Holm by Lucy Back (books to read in your 30s TXT) 📗

that he could get away with the meager child support he sent. But that was another story and she didn’t feel like revisiting it now.

“Jason was smoking pot again,” she said. But she bit the words off, wishing she’d never spoken them.

Gary knew about Jason’s troubles in Boise, and in fact, Gary had been the one to tell her the city was a bad influence on their son. But Gary had no clue about how to fix the problem, he only liked to impose his opinion.

“You catch him?” Gary asked.

“No. He had a roach clip in his pocket. I found it.”

“Maybe it wasn’t his.”

Lucy turned the steering wheel, hoping she was headed down the right street. “And maybe it was, Gary. I mean, come on. What are the odds? Trust me, it’s his. Our son has a problem with pot.”

“Then call the cops on him.”

Gritting her teeth, Lucy tried to remain calm. “I can’t do that.”

“Why not? If he’s screwing up, let him think about it in the slammer.”

A few deep breaths and Lucy’s pulse was under control. “I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t think that his problem is so severe he needs to be put in jail. Gary, he’s a minor.”

“A minor pain in the butt. This isn’t his first screwup. He needs to be taught a lesson.” Gary mumbled something to someone, then chuckled before returning his attention on their phone call. “I’ll talk to him.”

“No!” Lucy exclaimed. “You’ll only make it worse.”

“Well, then why’d you call me if you don’t want me to do anything?” Gary’s dander rose and she could tell he was clenching his entire body. He got like that these days. Combative and edgy if she so much as critiqued him.

“Gary, I don’t want you calling him. Please promise me you won’t tell him you and I spoke. I only called you because…”

At this point, she had no “because.” In a moment of complete delusion, she’d thought she could count on him as an ex-husband and a father to their son. She was wrong.

Gary being Gary flew off the handle, was unreasonable, didn’t think anything through, and he just plain irritated her.

“Never mind.” Lucy flicked her blinker on, made a turn into Timberline. “I’ll figure something out.”

Even though he made a slight attempt to put his hand over the mouthpiece, Lucy heard him say, “I’ll be there in a minute, hon.”

It made her stomach roil to hear him speak to Diane like that. The pain of the affair still festered in her sometimes, and she wanted to scream. He was a deadbeat jerk.

“I have to go, Gary. I’m late for an appointment.”

“Yeah, okay. But I think you should call the cops on him.”

Lucy thought about Sheriff Lewis, his hick-town demeanor and the curl to his lip. She thought not. No calls to the law officials in Red Duck, thanks.

“I’ll handle it,” she said, then disconnected the line and prayed Gary would make good on his promise not to call Jason and talk to him.

Chances were he wouldn’t. It would take too much effort and actual memory capacity to put his son on his radar.

Lucy drove through Timberline, the spacious estates large and looming, metal rooftops peeking through the thickets of pines and aspens. She couldn’t imagine living here. What must these people do for a living? They couldn’t all be investors, politicians and movie actors. Maybe some got their money the old-fashioned way. They earned it.

Her mind drifted to the expenses that Jason had just incurred on her insurance plan by having a hospital stay. Her deductible was a killer, since she was self-employed. Gary was supposed to pay fifty percent of the fees, but he was sporadic about it, and then she had to call Child Support Services and get them involved. It became a nightmare at times when she had to pay the bill up front, then wait for Gary to reimburse her.

Lucy needed this cooking job with the Greenbaums.

But when she started working, who was going to keep an eye on Jason for the summer while school was out? He was beyond needing a babysitter, but he needed supervision so he wouldn’t make more bad choices. At the very least he needed a full schedule so he couldn’t have time to get into trouble.

Lucy glanced at her cell phone and wondered if she should call Drew to see if he’d made the team. If Jason got on the seniors, part of her worries would lessen. Baseball would take up a fair amount of her son’s time, keeping him out of trouble.

Just as she contemplated making the call, the phone rang and she answered.

“Lucy—Andrew Tolman.”

She didn’t know why she felt such relief. His voice instantly comforted, soothed. She was glad he had her phone number.

“Drew. Hi.”

“How’s Jason this morning?”

Trying to drive, talk and read the directions she’d written down for the Greenbaums, Lucy replied, “He’s got a bad headache, but he’ll be okay.”

“I won’t be able to let him play without a doctor’s release.”

With Drew’s words, finding the correct turn took a back seat. She knew her son was good, but she hadn’t been completely sure he’d make the team until this moment. “Thanks, Drew. He’ll do a good job for you.”

As soon as Jason got involved, he would do his best. She knew her son, and no matter what he was struggling with, he always put his whole heart into playing ball once he was on a team.

“I know he will,” Drew replied with a resonant laugh that got her attention and evoked shivers across her arms. “He’s got attitude and a chip on his shoulder that’s good for throwing fast balls.”

She turned right, then started looking for the entrance to the Knolls, but her focus wasn’t fully on the street signs.

Then it hit her: she was contemplating confiding in Drew about Jason and what she’d found last night.

What was she thinking?

It would be crazy to involve Drew, who she knew would be bad news in her life—but why