The Good Father

And if nothing else, she would be gaining his full cooperation on a complete separation. No more phone calls.

Neck tight and body rigid, Ella felt the beginnings of a migraine and knew she had to get up. A sliding glass door led out to the back deck.

Moving stealthily, she pulled on a pair of thick socks, exchanged her pajamas for the jeans and sweater she’d worn that night, grabbed her sweater coat to ward off the fall chill and slowly and carefully lowered the latch to the door. The baby stirred when she slid open the door, and she froze. He settled and she slipped outside, shivering, and quickly got into her sweater, wrapping it around her and securing it tightly at her waist.

They were in the crazy time of year when days reached the high seventies but nights could drop to the forties.

The deck had been built a story above ground and was gated at the top of the steps leading up to it, hopefully precluding any wildlife from sharing the space with her.

It was dark, the moon almost completely hidden by the trees, but she knew her way around enough to find the padded lounge furniture and settle into a chair. Cool air chilled her face and fingers, the only exposed parts of her, but not enough to drive her back inside.

“Disclaimer. I’m here.”

Ella turned with a jerk toward the whispered sound. Brett was upright in a chair angled away but not two feet from her.

Her heart pounded out of fear, shock at finding herself not alone, and continued to pound even after the shock wore off. Brett had a way of eliciting that reaction from her.

“I’ll go back in,” she said, arms wrapped around herself as she started to rise.

“Don’t go on my account,” he told her. Still fully dressed, he lifted a beer to his lips. The same one he’d nursed during the game of cards they’d played before Jeff and Chloe ran off to have sex?

Or was he breaking his self-imposed limit? Not that three beers would even put a man his size over the legal limit, but Brett didn’t break his self-imposed limitations.

Not ever. She’d noticed that the couple times they’d had wine he’d stuck to his two-glass limit.

And why was he sitting alone in the dark?

None of her business. Or concern.

She should just leave him to it.

But she couldn’t do it. That had always been part of their problem. Her need to share his life with him.

“Would you be interested in taking a walk down to the boat?” he asked. “I left a small cooler of bottled water down there, and I’d like a chance to speak with you,” he continued as though they met like this every night.

She couldn’t say no to that request, either. So she got up and walked silently with him down the yard to the dock and even took his hand to steady herself as she stepped onto the pontoon boat that was swaying on the water.

The lagoon was dark, occupied only by docks from other summer residences. But because it was fed from the ocean, it was alive and even sometimes rocky as waves came into shore.

The boat had a couple of seating areas. Couches and chairs. She went to the back, where she was somewhat sheltered from the night air by a canvas half wall, and dropped into a chair.

After grabbing the small cooler at the front of the boat and bringing it back with him, Brett took the chair across from her, still with his beer in hand.

Silently he offered her one. Jeff had stocked the on-board refrigerator earlier in the day.

She shook her head.

“What’s up?” He’d been right to lead them away from the house. At least out here they wouldn’t have to worry about waking anyone. Or being overheard.

“I think after this weekend it’s pretty clear that the problem isn’t Jeff.”

Ella stared out in the direction of the ocean, watching for lights from ships to pass by their alcove. “How so?” she asked, carefully assessing. Carefully guarding.

Herself. Her heart. Her future. Chloe. She didn’t know what.

“I know the signs of abuse, El, and he doesn’t show any of them. He’s not controlling of Chloe—quite the opposite, really. He allows her to call the shots. He caters to her now as he always did.”

She’d noticed. And noticed, too, that she was alone, on a boat on the ocean, with the man she still loved.