Page 81 of The Archer and his Rosebud

Am I?

“C’mon.” She finds my hand and leads me inside.

With a calmed Clementine on the floor surrounded by soft blocks, we settle on the couch, me staring at the black screen of her television and her sideways, staring at me. I relive this story often in my nightmares, but I haven’t retold it since the trial.

“I stayed working on the rig until after Eli was born and I knew he was mine. It was easier to keep my distance from Leah that way. Of course, that meant I wasn’t in town often enough to know what she was up to. I didn’t know she’d continued seeing the man she cheated on me with.”

“His name was Bo?”

“Yeah, Bo,” I verify what Ty revealed. “To be completely honest, Will, I considered taking Leah back after the paternity results. Yes, she’d cheated and lied, but we had two boys and a past. I’m not one to give up. I wanted us to work. I wanted us to stay a family.”

She tucks her leg beneath her. “What happened?”

“Paige showed up at the house unannounced thinking to help Leah with the boys while I was offshore. Bo was there.” Paige’s shrill voice still echoes in my head from that phone call. “I put in my notice that day, and the moment I was back in Beaumont, I filed for divorce. It’s sad, really. Leah cheated and lied and kept having her affair, but she never wanted to divorce me. She was a wreck the day the papers were served.

“Even still, somehow, I found a way to be civil with her. It was early November, and we wanted to make good holiday memories for Nolan and Eli, so we pretended to be a happy family. I slept on the couch at the house often. We took the boys to see Santa and shopped together. Then we suffered through the most awkward holiday family meals in history with my parents, then hers, but I was okay with all of it because I was back in Texas and in the boys’ lives.” My foot bounces. “It was all a ruse on our part. She was still seeing Bo in private, and we barely spoke if Nolan wasn’t around, but, after a few weeks, our act was convincing enough to fool Bo into thinking we’d reconciled.”

Willa draws a long inhale, wetting her lips as if anticipating what came next.

“It was another Sunday night in the new normal Leah and I established for switching custody of the boys. She met us at a local noodle place Nolan loved, and since she arrived early, she sat and ate dinner with us. Then I kissed my teary-eyed six-year-old and sleeping three-month-old goodbye for another lonely week on my own. I had no idea Bo saw us together.”

Frustratedby the tears in Nolan’s eyes as Leah pulled him from my arms, I stopped at Dixie’s for a beer. I rarely drank since the rig was a dry space, but since Leah admitted cheating on me last year, alcohol had nursed me to sleep more than a time or two.

“This is becoming a habit, Handsome.” A shot hit the bar without me asking.

“Hey, Rach.” I tipped my head, then the whiskey.

My beer followed, and Rachel leaned across the bar top, a knowing smile on her red lips. “Let me guess, you just dropped the kiddos with Leah?”

I didn’t need to answer. Rachel went to school with Leah and me. She knew the story. She also knew I was lonely, hurting, and lost since leaving my job on the rig and returning to Beaumont. She’d offered me her ear, her bar, and her bed, the kind woman that she was. I’d taken her up on two out of three so far. I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d resist number three.

I was nursing my beer and shooting the breeze with Rachel and other patrons when my phone lit up minutes before 9:00 p.m.Leah.I slapped the phone on the bar top, looking at the profile picture I’d set years ago. Back when I still loved her. I wanted to ignore her, but I never looked the other way when she called on the off-chance something was wrong with the boys.

“What’s up, Leah?”

“Daddy?”

I turned my back to the bar. “Nol?” His hitched breathing sent me to my feet. “What’s wrong, bud?”

“He’s yelling at Momma.”

“What?” Tossing a twenty on the bar, I rushed for the exit. “Who’s there, Nolan? Bo?”

“Ah-huh.” The background noise picked up in my ear. A deep voice. Leah’s higher tone. Crying.

“Nol, bud, where’s Eli?”

Nolan cries. “He’s with Momma.”

I saw red. What the hell was she doing fighting with Bo while Eli and Nolan were there? We had an agreement. He wasn’t supposed to come around when she had the boys. Not until after we finalized the divorce.

Tucking my phone against my shoulder and cheek, I threw myself into the crappy used ‘family’ car I’d bought a month ago. “Where are you?”

“In Momma’s bedroom.”

I shifted into drive and hit the gas. “Okay, you stay back there and on the phone with me. I’m on my way, okay?”

With Nolan sniffling in my ear, and Eli’s cries echoing through the house, the ten-minute drive from the bar to my old home was the longest of my life.

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