She almost hadn’t come. The day hadn’t started well. She’d woken up on the couch— again—heavy limbed and with her head banging. She’d been drinking a hangover cure and checking her email when the fulminating anger hit. It had been bubbling inside her ever since. According to the time stamp, the email had been sent late the previous evening and it was as brisk, rude and to the point as ever.
Rosa and Rick will be doing the pick-up and drop-off.
No greeting or sign off. No “Is that okay with you, Jess?” No explanation. Nada.
Jess didn’t even know if Leo had ever met Nick’s parents. Jess had only met them a couple of times and that had been years earlier. She didn’t want to freak Leo out by sending him off with strangers. Libby would never allow her children to go off with people they didn’t know, yet Jess was expected to do exactly that without comment or complaint.
Being angry with Libby was now a permanent state, but Jess couldn’t believe Karen would let her down like this. Karen was the saving grace of this whole access nightmare. For weeks, she’d faithfully met Jess in the park, picked Leo up and returned him home to her at six o’clock. Last week, Karen had said, “Don’t worry about daylight savings. I’ll still bring him home to you.”
Jess knew Karen cared for her and Leo. Unlike her spoilt princess of a daughter, Karen was doing her best to make things as easy as possible. So why hadn’t Karen told her she couldn’t come today? Why did it have to be an email from Libby ramming home yet again that she called the shots? But Jess knew it was more than that—it was another test to push Jess to her limits so she’d pull the pin on the access visits and conveniently leave the Hunter-Pirellis’ lives.
No way in hell, bitch!
Jess had typed the words, “any change of plans requires twenty-four hours’ notice,” but sense had prevailed and she hadn’t sent it. Libby could keep pushing but Jess wouldn’t crack. Still, it didn’t mean she wasn’t anxious about meeting Rosa and Rick or worried about Leo’s reaction.
“Mama, swing!” Leo tugged on her hands, having lost interest in driving his back hoe in the garden bed.
But the thought of standing up and pushing a swing was all too hard today. “Let’s have a cuddle.”
She gingerly picked up Leo, trying to avoid the ligament twinge she often got now he was heavier. It didn’t work—the hot twisting pain froze her for a few seconds as she braced herself for the next wave of pain that would come when she breathed out. She really needed to see a physiotherapist and get this fixed.
Leo wasn’t in the mood for a cuddle and he wriggled and squirmed. Jess was about to put him down when he flung himself forward, arms outstretched. “Pa-Pa!”
Jess looked over his curly head, struggling to bring the couple who were walking toward her into focus. “Who’s that?”
“Pa-Pa.” It was Rick.
“And who’s the lady?”
“Non.”
Leo was kicking now, struggling to get down. Every bone in Jess’s body ached and her arms felt floppy so she let him slide off her lap and watched him run to Rick. Nick’s father scooped him up and swung him around and around. Once, she’d watched Nick do the same thing. Leo giggled and squealed like only happy children can.
Joy and relief swooped through Jess, momentarily dispersing her general malaise. Leo knew his grandparents! Despite Libby’s refusal to have anything to do with her son and Nick’s failure to stand up to her, he’d involved his parents in the life of their son. Jess blinked back tears as Rick adjusted Leo on his hip and Rosa kissed his chubby cheeks.
She raised her phone, capturing the moment of two doting grandparents making a fuss of their grandson—a boy Libby hadn’t been able to give them. She instantly emailed it to her ex-friend. Suck on that, sweetheart.
“Jess.” Rick now stood above her, but he didn’t extend his hand.
“Is this Leo’s?” Rosa picked up the brightly colored backpack.
Their aloofness chilled some of Jess’s euphoria. It was obvious their enthusiasm for her son didn’t extend to her, but she aimed for conversational, hoping to bring them around.
“Yes. I put his swim trunks in today. I thought perhaps Nick might take him swimming. Do you know what he’s got planned?”
“We’ll bring him back here at 6:00,” Rick said.
“I meant, as in the activities?”
Rick and Rosa exchanged a look. “We don’t know.”
“Like hell you don’t.”
Angry at the obvious lie and their lack of consideration for her, she stood wanting to neutralize the power imbalance. Her head spun and the ground tilted. She threw out an arm, trying to regain her balance, but red hot pain seared her, sucking the breath out of her lungs. She staggered forward.
“You’re drunk!” Rosa pushed her back onto the bench.
“No.” But the word was cotton wool in her mouth and unspoken sentences a jumbled mess in her head.
“Sort yourself out,” Rick said. “You’ve got four hours to sober up.”
They walked away. Jess lay down on the bench and closed her eyes.
Libby’s cell rang with Nick’s ring tone so as soon as she’d said farewell to Lucinda Trioli, she called him back. For years, Nick had only ever phoned during clinic hours if there was a domestic crisis, but these days, most of his calls had nothing to do with the girls and everything to do with him telling her how much he loved and appreciated her. They’d taken up the
