It wasn’t that hot out here. “Way up the mountain.” He pointed in the direction that would lead to the trail he’d intercepted me on the week before.
He must’ve been running hard. “Thank you so much. I don’t think I would’ve gotten to her in time. I know it’s sand, but that’s a long drop for a child as small as she is.”
I pulled her arms from around my neck and looked into her tear-streaked face. “Honey, how did you get up there? You know you’re not supposed to do the monkey bars by yourself.”
She looked around the park. “A girl helped me get up, but I don’t see her now.”
I sighed. “This was why I always hesitated to bring her to this park and not the smaller one down the trail,” I said. “But she loves the slide and most of the jungle gym is appropriate for her. I just keep her away from these monkey bars and the swings.”
Maddox nodded and leaned in close to Tiffany. “Be careful or you’ll give Mommy a heart attack.” Tiffany nodded at him sagely, like she took his advice to heart. He chuckled. “Kids are crafty. They get into tough situations all the time. Don’t beat yourself up. If you knew some of the things I did to my mom as a kid...”
I laughed. “I bet you did. You seem the type.”
He put his hand over his heart. “Oh, what you must think of me.”
His movements made my heart flutter, to my chagrin. This was the best, most natural interaction I’d had with him yet. Neither of us acted awkwardly or like there was some weight on us. “Well, thank y—”
“Is that the type of parenting that is supposed to keep our granddaughter safe?”
His voice burned through my good mood in a split second. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath before I turned around to find Kyle’s parents standing close by with their hands crossed and angry expressions on their faces.
I’d been worried they’d do this eventually. Barge in and try to make a mess of my life. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
They both ignored me. Tiffany had twisted in my arms to see who I was talking to. Of course, she looked just like Kyle and this was the first time they had seen her since the day she was born. They were stunned.
Kyle’s mom, Mary, stepped forward. “She’s precious,” she whispered.
“I agree.” I couldn’t help the acid in my tone. “She’s been precious for three years.”
“Is this your idea of good parenting?” Walter asked. “Letting her fall off a jungle gym she had no business being on in the first place?”
My blood ran ice cold. “You have no right to judge anything I do with my daughter.”
Mary sniffed. “We’ll see about that.” She shot me a venomous look but smiled at Tiffany. Too bad for her, Tiff saw the expression on Mary’s face when she looked at me. Tiffany buried her face in my neck. “Mommy, go,” she whispered.
“What do you mean, we’ll see?” I asked.
Walter tugged on Mary’s arm, so she stepped back beside him. “It means, this proves you’re a negligent mother. You’re too busy to be raising a little girl on your own. We’ve decided to sue for custody.”
I looked at him in shock. After three years of nothing but drunken calls, he expected to get custody of his grandchild? “Over my dead body,” I seethed. Moving to the side, I tried to walk past them, but Walter sidestepped and got in my way.
“You’re a child playing house,” he said. “And you killed our son. We’ll get custody.”
Tiffany was only three, but she was smart. She’d be able to figure out what they were saying, or at least their intention. “How dare you do this here, now? How did you even find us here?”
“When you weren’t home, we drove by your mother’s house,” Mary said. “Your car wasn’t there. Black Claw is a very small town. There were only a couple of other places you could’ve been.”
They’d driven all over, looking for me. “You could’ve called, set up a meeting. Done this amicably. Now Tiffany is scared of you and you’ve made a scene in front of all these other kids.” I gestured toward all the parents sitting on benches around the perimeter of the play area, shooting us looks and trying to listen in.
My anger began to build, and my voice shook. I opened my mouth to give them another dressing down, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. I’d completely forgotten Maddox was behind me.
He stepped forward. “I’m Maddox. I may not look like it now, but I’m a deputy sheriff here in Black Claw. I think it would be best for you folks to leave instead of making threats.”
“We have every right to be here,” Walter sputtered. “We’re Tiffany’s grandparents.”
“Be that as it may, lawyers exist for a reason.” He looked down at me and Tiff. “In my professional opinion, you don’t have a case, so you might want to back off with the threats before you get the consultation of someone knowledgeable in family custody cases.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Walter hissed.
He smiled, but it was more threatening than reassuring. “Maddox Kingston,” he said. He seemed to grow taller and more imposing, though of course, that was impossible. Suddenly having him around all the time didn’t seem like the worst thing. I was grateful to have an ally against Kyle’s parents.
They obviously knew the Kingston name. It carried more weight around town than I realized, though Kara had told me it did. Walter and Mary drew back slightly, and Mary smoothed her hair. Most of the time we’d talked, she’d only had eyes for Tiffany. More than likely, if I remembered her correctly, she had no interest in a custody case. She probably would’ve been happy with visiting Tiff.
Walter was another story. But he grunted and looked at Mary. “We’ll consult an
