She smiled softly at him, moved closer to him on the couch and curled into his side. “That was very considerate of you for Maverick, but I’m positive your grandmother is itching at the bit to see her great-grandson.”
“I don’t know. She never came across as a baby person to me.”
“Because you’ve never seen her with one, but I don’t know her like you.”
“We’ve already established I didn’t grow up the same way you did. There weren’t many tender nurturing moments. My grandmother was tired and worked hard. She didn’t sign on to raise me.”
“But she raised you and you’re trying to make it sound like you were a burden to her and I doubt that. Do you feel as if Maverick is going to be a burden to you?”
The tone of Jocelyn’s voice told him the answer to this could determine more than the relationship he had with his son in the future.
“No. I’m pissed. I need to get past being pissed and it won’t happen overnight.”
“Mad because you didn’t know about him or because of the way he was being raised?”
“Both.” He stood and paced. “I told you that Baylee and I had nothing long or special. It was sex more than anything, whether or not you want to hear that, but the person I was with didn’t seem as if she’d do this.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know. She liked to drink when we were out. She had a job, but I don’t remember what it was. I never saw where she lived, she came back here.”
One of the last women who did. Baylee said she didn’t live alone so he assumed it was with roommates. Why go somewhere with other people when his place was empty?
“Nettie said she got in with the wrong crowd. Could it be that?”
“I can’t guess. I’ll find out as soon as I can get in to see her.” Not something he was looking forward to but knew it had to be done. It was going to take a lot for him not to lose his shit.
“It doesn’t matter what is in the past,” she said. “That little boy in the other room is your future and that is what you need to put your full focus on.”
“I am. I took a leave from work. This tour and next unless I can get daycare set up before that.”
“I’ve got a list of places for you to call. All those things can be done tomorrow. I can help.”
“I should do it,” he said. “But if you want to go with me to check the places out, I’d appreciate that.”
She’d taken the week off with him. He wanted to tell her she didn’t need to, but he was positive he couldn’t do this without her.
32
SEAT OF THEIR PANTS
“Why won’t he go to sleep?” Chance asked.
“It’s a new place,” she said. “And Nettie said he slept with her at night.”
“I’m not letting him sleep in my bed,” he said. “I can’t do it.”
She sighed. “I won’t disagree with you. Everyone parents differently. I think the only reason Nettie did that was because he had nowhere else to sleep and it was just easier for her to monitor him at night than worry he’d be running around the trailer after getting out of bed.”
“Fuck. I didn’t think of that.”
They were lying on their backs in bed while Maverick was crying in the room next to them. She wondered how thin the walls were here and if he’d get a neighbor complaint.
Nothing she could do about it. Maybe the tears were getting on her nerves too, but it wasn’t her kid to tell Chance what to do either.
“He’s never been in bed by himself,” she said. “So he’s in a room, in a new place, in the playpen again. Maybe it’s not that comfortable.”
“He napped in it.”
