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His First Choice

Page 107

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He’d already felt the head himself. There was a tiny welt where Levi’s head had hit the metal, but it would be gone in an hour or so. There was no real swelling and no broken skin.

“He’s got a bump!” Tressa said, pulling Levi away from the other people. “Feel it!”

Levi’s lower lip started to tremble as he looked up at his father. Jem knew he had to defuse the situation immediately.

“He’s fine, Tress.”

“I don’t even hurt, Mommy,” Levi said, taking Jem’s tone.

“He could be concussed,” Tressa hissed. “Oh, God. On my watch. They’re going to hang this on me. I just know it...”

The day was going nowhere fast.

“I’ll watch him like a hawk,” Jem said. “He’s not concussed. He didn’t hit his head hard enough to even raise a decent bruise. But even if he was, they’d just have us keep him awake for the next few hours, to watch his behavior.”

“We have to take him in, Jem. My life will be over if something comes of this and we didn’t take him in. I’m going to lose my chance to see him at all if one more thing happens with me. If he’s hurt one more time. You heard the judge, Jem. That’s what he said. But I can’t risk Levi’s life because I’m afraid of getting in trouble. That’s what I already did. You heard it, Jem, you know.”

The storm was brewing. He saw it coming. He couldn’t let Levi get caught in it. Never again. He’d made a promise to his son, to himself.

And though she didn’t know it, to Lacey, too.

“I know of an Urgent Care in Santa Barbara,” Jem said, herding them back to collect their blanket. “They’ll take one look at him, tell you he’s fine, and we can be done with this,” he said, coming up with the plan as he went.

It didn’t dissipate the sick feeling in his gut.

“An Urgent Care?”

“In Santa Barbara. They’ll see two overconcerned parents and one very unhurt little boy. They won’t have anything to report. Probably won’t even put our name in the system. But if they do, it won’t be connected to the hospital here.”

“So no one will know we’ve been!” Tressa was throwing things in the basket as quick as she could, but stopped to look up at him. She was grinning through her tears. “Thank you, Jem. I knew you’d know what to do to save me. You always do.”

“Aren’t we going to watch the firecrackers?” Levi, who’d caught on to the fact that they were leaving, cried out. “I wanna watch the firecrackers.”

Jem wanted to go home, sit at his fish pond and drink a beer.

Maybe call Lacey later. And listen to Levi’s even breathing coming over his nursery monitor as he slept.

“If we hurry, we’ll make it back in plenty of time to watch the fireworks,” he said, infusing his voice with a joy he didn’t feel. “They can’t do them until dark, and it’s a long time until then.” An hour and a half. At least. If he was lucky.

Feeling duplicitous, running off to the next town to hide a doctor visit, Jem nonetheless prayed that traffic was light. That the Urgent Care wasn’t filled with patients who actually needed to be seen. And that someday he’d be free

from Tressa-induced stress.

CHAPTER THIRTY

LACEY LOVED JEM. She hadn’t come right out and told him so, but she’d admitted the truth when Kacey had asked, and again when Kacey told their parents about the man in Lacey’s life.

Kacey thought Lacey was sabotaging herself again—borrowing trouble where there might not be any in her concern over Tressa’s hold over Jem. But Kacey had spent the past ten years working in a world of pretense, not dealing with victims of domestic violence as Lacey had.

She knew the signs. Impartial or not, she could run through a checklist. Jem had every sign of being a victim other than physical bruises.

Being without him on the Fourth intensified her worry. Not out of jealousy—she knew by now that he did not enjoy his ex-wife’s company—but because he hadn’t been able to tell Tressa that he wanted to take Levi away for the holiday.

He’d explained it all to her. How Tressa was all alone. How holidays—times when everyone else went off to be with family—were hardest for her. How she was doing so well and he couldn’t risk setting her back. For Levi’s sake.

She’d read between the lines, too. But had been unable to tell Jem what she really thought. He’d only deny the truth.

Because if he could see it, he’d be doing something about it.



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