Page 114 of Dancing in the Rain

“That’s good.”

“For fathers who weren’t married to the mother when the child was born, the first step is legally establishing paternity.”

“Done.” Drew explained that he’d done the DNA paternity test before meeting Chloe. Not that Sara had argued about it at all. She’d been completely in agreement.

“Then we pursue visitation or custody rights. But before we go to court, there’s no reason you can’t negotiate this yourself, with your daughter’s guardian.”

“Yeah, there is. She’s taking Chloe to New York. That’s where she lives.”

“Ah.” Tyrell sat back in his chair. “I see. Well. So you want full responsibility for your daughter?”

Drew swallowed. “It seems to be the only way I would get to see her at all.”

“Well, the court determines custody according to the ‘best interest of the child’ standard. Illinois law doesn’t provide for allowing the children to decide which parent they want to live with, but the court might consider the child’s wishes. I expect they’ll assign a social worker to the case who will interview Chloe. It’s generally preferred not to involve the children in court proceedings.”

“Christ, yeah.” Drew rubbed his face. He sure as hell didn’t want Chloe involved in a legal battle. Even a social worker getting involved, interrogating her, probably interrogatingallof them…fuck. His gut churned at what he was contemplating and he wasn’t sure he had the balls to actually do this.

But what other choice did he have? Move to New York?

This thought gave him pause. He hadn’t even considered that. His life was here, but how much of a life was it? He didn’t have a career like Peyton did in New York, and Chloe’s school and friends were here. He sighed. Maybe that was something to think more about.

“So it’s a matter of deciding the child’s best interests,” Tyrell continued. “Not which parent is the best. They look at a number of factors, including possibly the wishes of the child, the relationship the child has with each parent, the child’s adjustment to school community, home, mental and physical health, domestic violence history—”

“Jesus Christ,” Drew interrupted. “There’s none of that.”

Tyrell smiled and nodded. “I’m just outlining all the things the courts look at. They also look at whether either parent is a sex offender.”

“Christ,” Drew muttered again.

It probably wasn’t in his favor that he hadn’t even been in the picture up until a few months ago, whereas Peyton had been around Chloe’s entire life.

This all just sounded ugly and painful. But he loved Chloe.

“So Chloe’s aunt is her legal guardian? Was this approved by the court?”

Drew made a face. “I don’t know. I never asked that. I’m going to assume yes, since Sara was an attorney and she had made arrangements for everything else before she died.”

“I’d suggest you find out more about that if you can. Some people name a guardian in their will, but that still has to be approved by the courts after the person dies.”

Drew frowned. Well, he knew he was going to have to talk to Peyton about this at some point.

“I would strongly suggest trying to work out a parenting agreement with the legal guardian,” Tyrell said. “It will be much less stressful on both you and the child, and it will certainly save you a lot of money in legal fees.”

“I thought lawyers looked for ways to charge people as much money as possible.”

Tyrell had been his lawyer for years and Drew trusted him enough to say that. Tyrell laughed. “Yeah, that’s one of the required courses in law school—how to chase ambulances, pad your billable hours, and generate revenue for your firm.”

Drew grinned crookedly. “Seriously, thanks for the advice.”

“So I assume you don’t want me to move forward with petitioning the court for custody.”

“Not right now. I’ll be in touch. Thanks, man.”

He left Tyrell’s office with a head full of confused thoughts and mixed emotions.

He’d taken another step in regaining control of his life. He’d made an appointment with his lawyer to find out more about what the legalities of his situation were, and how he could possibly get legal custody of Chloe—at least shared custody.

He hadn’t heard back from Step about his proposal when he picked up Chloe for her dance class on Wednesday. While waiting for her to come downstairs, he confessed to Peyton his worry about it.

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