The Good Father

But Cody’s birthday...Jeff had a good point there. If he wanted to, he could press things with Chloe and force her to let him have equal access to their son.

He’d done nothing wrong. Didn’t deserve not to see his own son.

Used to sitting at board tables where quick thinking was paramount, used to making important decisions on his own, Brett said, “I’ve got an idea. How about if Ella and I chaperone a meeting between you and Chloe and Cody someplace neutral for a birthday celebration? And then, afterward, after you’ve had time to make a good memory to replace the bad one she left on, you agree to give her complete silence for a time.”

Let Jeff see his family, have time with them to assure him that they were well and still were his family, in exchange for total silence between him and them for a period of time afterward.

And maybe, if they were extremely lucky, Chloe would have a moment of clarity when they were all together and no longer need the time apart.

And Chloe and Jeff, seeing him and Ella together, would understand that there was going to be no reunion between them.

Logistics played themselves through his mind—the challenges first. Like convincing Ella that this was a good idea...

“You’d do that?” Jeff was saying, leaning on the bar’s round high-top table, focused on Brett. “You’d be willing to spend time with Ella? From the little she’s said, up until now you wouldn’t see her at all.”

“You were there for me at my crossroads,” Brett said, meeting the other man’s gaze with difficulty. He and Jeff had had some emotionally sloppy moments, back when they’d been kids and Brett had been pretty messed up. But they weren’t kids anymore. “If not for you, I don’t know that I’d have stayed in school, much less graduated. I could’ve ended up a drunk just like my old man.”

“You didn’t drink any more than the rest of us.”

He’d never drunk at all until that first year in college. Not while Livia was alive. And he was living at home watching out for her and their mother.

“I owe you,” Brett said now, needing not to get lost in memories that he could ill afford. “And it’s not like she and I would have to interact personally.” He was assuring himself as much as he was Jeff. “You and Chloe and Cody will be there the whole time.”

“I know Ella would do it,” Jeff said. “My sister doesn’t know how to say no to me, which is why I’m always so careful not to put things on her.”

A true statement on all counts, as Brett knew from personal experience way back w

hen.

And not at all the actions of a manipulative, abusive man.

“But what about Chloe? Would she be willing to leave wherever she’s staying and meet up with us all?” Jeff asked, looking hopeful and worried at the same time, his beer untouched on the table. “I mean, I’m pretty sure she would if Ella asked her,” he continued without pausing long enough for Brett to respond. “She’d never ask Ella,” Jeff said. “She’s careful not to pit my sister against me, which is why I was so glad to know that they’ve been in touch. Chloe still considers Ella and me part of her family.”

He sipped from his beer then. And Brett waited.

Being duplicitous with Jeff, for whatever reason and in whatever fashion, did not sit comfortably with him.

“But if Ella suggested a gathering to Chloe,” Jeff continued as soon as he put his glass down, “Chloe would probably agree.”

“I can’t guarantee anything,” Brett said, his mind calculating. “But I think we might be able to work something out.” Once he explained the plan. “We could meet up in LA someplace,” he said. Santa Raquel was definitely out, for obvious reasons.

Such as Cody somehow letting his father know that the town was familiar to him.

And while taking Chloe back to Palm Desert for a weekend might help her realize that she missed home, wanted to be there, belonged there, Brett was fairly certain that, for those very reasons, Ella would refuse to be a part of that plan.

“I’ll go anywhere,” Jeff said. “You name the time and place, and I’ll be there.”

“I think it might be best to suggest the idea, and then to let Chloe choose a time and place.” Brett was thinking out loud now. “We want her to feel comfortable and like she has some level of control...”

“That woman has all the control where I’m concerned,” Jeff said, shaking his head with a bit of an affectionate grin on his face. “Has since the day I laid eyes on her.”

“I remember.” Brett grinned now, too. He and Jeff had been on a bike trip along the coast—Brett’s choice for his bachelor party—and had stopped at a small but very popular diner along the ocean road. Chloe, who’d been in culinary school, had been managing the place. Jeff had seen her from across the room and had dropped his glass of spiked tea. He’d said the glass was wet. That it had slipped.

What it had done was summon the manager over to their table, and she’d helped mop him up.

They’d both ended up chatting with her. She’d asked where they were from. Jeff had told her that they were bent on raising hell one last time before Brett got married the next weekend to his baby sister.

Before they left that day, Jeff had asked Chloe to the wedding.