“It doesn’t matter to them, but I’m pretty sure your wife doesn’t know you were sleeping with your brother’s wife. And I’m guessing you don’t want her to know either. So in order for these pictures to stay private, you’re no longer going to contest my guardianship of the children.” He opens his mouth, but I continue. “I’m not sure why you contested in the first place if you’re in an unhappy marriage, and I don’t care. I just want it to end. Sky and Patrick chose me to raise the kids. The kids want me. I am the one who is going to be their caregiver from this day forward.”
He says nothing but picks up the phone and goes through the pictures. It’s then that I see the weight of what he’s carrying. The dark circles under his eyes. The pain that flashes across his features with every new picture he reveals.
When he’s done, he sets the phone back on the table. I desperately want to ask him how it started, how and why they found themselves in this position. But they aren’t questions I want to ask Art. They’re questions for Sky. Questions I’ll never have answers to.
“Okay.” He nods.
I stand and pick up the phone. “It’s up to you if you want to tell your wife. That’s not my business. But I do ask that this stays between a select few until those kids get older. The last thing they need is to find out is that their mom and uncle were having an affair.”
My anger toward Sky is something I’m going to have to work through, but those kids do not need this in their lives. God, maybe I do need my own sessions with Therapist Allison.
“It will.”
I give him a nod. “Thank you.”
As I leave the study, I hear the couch crinkle when he stands. “I loved her.”
I turn at the door, just wanting to leave.
“I think you should know that. We were going to… come out, but Patrick surprised her with that trip, and she said she owed it to him to go and see what came of it. It was complicated.” He shoves his hand through his hair. “But I did love her, and she loved me.”
Wetness pools in my eyes. How did someone I felt so close to keep all this inside? Part of me thinks it’s because Sky knew how I felt about cheating, but still, I would’ve listened to her and tried to understand.
“Thank you for no longer contesting the guardianship. Obviously, I won’t keep you from the kids. You’re their family. If you want a relationship with them, you can have it.”
“I appreciate that. I love them, but I don’t really want to be a parent. That was more Julianna.”
“I figured.” I walk to the front door, and when I go to open it, Art reaches past me to pull it open for me.
My stomach swoops and a warm feeling invades my chest when I see who’s waiting for me.
Hayes sits on the front steps and stands to face us when the door opens.
“Was he worried I’d fight you?” Art asks.
I smile at Hayes. “No, he’s just here for me.”
I walk down the steps and right into Hayes, who swarms me in a hug as I finally let go of the emotions I put in a stranglehold inside the house and cry into his chest.
“Don’t worry, baby, I’m flipping him off behind your back.”
And then I’m laughing through tears.
“Come on, let’s go home,” he says, putting his arm around me and guiding me down the sidewalk.
Now all the puzzle pieces are finally in place.
Chapter
Fifty-Six
Hayes
Four months later
* * *
We got through our first baseball season as a family. I can’t lie and say it wasn’t stressful at times, but what matters is we came out of it together.
