A Forever Love(51)
She didn’t turn to Justin. Instead, she wiped the counters and listened to his heavy footfalls as he climbed the old staircase and walked down the hall to Max’s room. Then there was silence, and she realized that soon, very soon, silence would be the only sound she would hear in this old farmhouse.
*
“So you’re letting the man from the city take your son.”
“Dad, please don’t start.” Aubrey lay on her back beneath the old Case tractor they used to haul hay and wrenched at the axle.
“No, no. I think it’s a good trip for the boy. Honestly I do.”
Aubrey pulled herself out from under the tractor and wiped her greasy hands on a rag that hung from the pocket of her jeans.
“Boy needs to know his family. Max doesn’t know that side. I’ve been doing some research, and they seem to be a pretty successful group. He’s got some fine blood pumping through his veins, that Max Travati.”
Aubrey flinched with the sound of Max’s new last name. This morning, before Max’s enrichment class, Justin and Max had managed to get in front of a judge in Lawrence and have Max’s birth certificate officially changed. Aubrey had sat that one out, instead opting for orders and a cake tasting with another set of soon-to-be-marrieds.
“Maxwell Hayes Travati.”
“Hayes?” Aubrey threw the wrench into the open toolbox. “His middle name is Roy, after you.”
“Got rid of that and put Hayes in there instead. Came by my place this morning and asked me if it was okay. I said, ‘Maxie, I think that is a damn fine compromise, you keeping mine and your mama’s last name.’”
Aubrey’s heart warmed but her lips thinned. Ever since their disagreement, she’d been a bit of a baby. She’d not gone down to Justin’s to have breakfast with Max, nor had she spoken with Justin in two days.
“Girl, what’s got you all worked up? Think those two are being awful generous to you, considering.”
Aubrey slammed shut the toolbox and turned toward Dad. “Considering? Considering what? That I’ve dedicated my life to my son?”
“No.” Roy pursed his lips. “Considering neither one knew of the other until a couple of weeks ago. I mean, some men might not do too well with that.”
She closed her eyes. “I made the best choice I thought I could make at the time. How many times do I have to say it? How many times do I have to repeat it?”
“I guess until you believe it, Aubrey. Seems no one else is bothering you much about that choice but you.”
Aubrey’s heart jolted in her chest. “Dad, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I don’t? Early-morning walks back home from that suite, late-night drives, dinners, ice cream in town? Nope, no, I wouldn’t know a man courting a woman if I stumbled across one, now would I? Not like I ever had to do any of that myself.”
“We have a life here. I have a life here, and so does Max.”
“True enough,” Roy said. He lifted the toolbox from the tractor. “True enough. Hear your sister has her sous running the place tonight and we’re all meant to have dinner together. I got a new job I’m working on, so I’ll see you then.”
Aubrey threw the rag onto the tractor and crossed her arms. Courting a woman? Dad had no idea what he was talking about. Those were pent-up emotions playing out between two people, one of whom had just discovered he was inextricably linked to the other. There wasn’t a future for her and Justin aside from the joint parenting they’d have to participate in for the rest of Max’s life. Yes, the words Justin had said about them becoming a family catapulted through her mind each day. But what would that look like? How was that possible? Those were words spoken on the edge of passion and excitement, not the true desires of a man who wanted to build an entire life with her.
How would this new life for Max play out with a father in New York City and a mother on a farm in Kansas? How could it play out? Only one way, and it wouldn’t be pleasant for her son. Max would have to choose. Eventually he’d have to pick where he was going to live and what kind of life he was going to lead, and one of them would lose. Maybe not forever, but for long bits of time. One of them would be without Max.
Anger rushed through her body. She kicked her foot into the dirt. Maybe Dad was right. Maybe she was beating up on herself more than anyone else was right now. Maybe it was the whole damn idea that Max was leaving for two weeks and he’d be a thousand miles away in a giant city and she wouldn’t be there to protect him or watch over him, and maybe she was damned scared that Justin Travati hadn’t changed all that much and he’d get back to New York and get busy with his hundred-million-dollar deals and forget that Max was alone and without anyone but him.