Family Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 2) Read online

  FAMILY COUNSEL

  By Debra Trueman

  This is a work of fiction, and the characters, names and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to actual events or real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2014 Debra Trueman

  Front Cover Design Copyright © 2014 Olga Burger

  All Rights Reserved.

  Other Books by Debra Trueman

  Advice of Counsel

  Back on Solid Ground

  In Memory of Frank S. Manitzas

  (“Hats and Boots”)

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 1

  Someone once told me that the way to master fatherhood is simply to learn from your mistakes. That sounded reasonable when I first heard it, but what the theory failed to take into account was the unlimited number of mistakes that are out there, lying in wait, eager to be made. My take is that, with the first kid, parenting is a trial-and-error thing. By the time the next kid comes around, theoretically, you’ve already learned from so many mistakes that raising the second kid should be a breeze. And following that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, anything after two would be nothing short of effortless. In theory.

  As an adoptive father, my problem was that I hadn’t been around when the first two kids were babies. Consequently, when my daughter was born, not only was I in the learn-from-your-mistake mode on the baby front, but I was in there on the toddler and kindergartner fronts, as well. My only consolation was that my bride, Maddie, had already chiseled her motherhood skills down to a fine art. She made up in the motherhood realm everything I lacked in the fatherhood realm and as a result, my shortfalls were nowhere near as apparent as they might have been otherwise. As much as I prided myself on my leadership skills, I didn’t mind deferring to Maddie’s judgment in matters where the kids were concerned. In fact, I preferred it.

  So it was with great apprehension that I contemplated my first solo weekend with my three kids. And the truth was, I had no one to blame but myself. It was one of those snap-decisions that I find myself making more often than I care to admit - a gesture of appreciation, for lack of a better term - that I invariably come to regret. Maddie has a way of making me do things like that, but this was by far my worst blunder. I bought her a weekend get-away at a health spa.

  Our baby was 12 weeks old and Maddie was so tired she could barely function. So I came up with this brilliant idea of letting her escape from the family for an entire weekend. Had I thought it all the way through, I would have immediately noticed the fly in the ointment; but the truth was, the gesture was selfishly motivated in the first place: I wanted my wife back. I didn’t realize the full consequences of the offer until it was too late.

  With the weekend looming closer by the hour, I could feel my stomach tighten at the thought of our baby screaming inconsolably in the middle of the night. That had never happened in the 12 long weeks since Morgan’s birth, but there was always a first, and it would be just my luck to have it happen the one time Maddie wasn’t there.

  The phone buzzed and my secretary’s voice brought me out of my reverie.

  “Felicia Armstrong is on line one, sir,” said the male voice on the other end of the line.

  I groaned. My law practice had taken off in full force about a year earlier, when I had settled a sexual harassment case in the multi-million dollar range. Not only did I end up with my attorney’s fees, which was no small chunk, but I married the plaintiff, as well. With our pooled resources, Maddie and I were up there in the higher echelon economic bracket in our little community of Hollywood Park, a town within San Antonio with its own police and fire department, famous for its large population of free-roaming deer. We had been next-door neighbors when I represented her, and she served as my secretary for a brief stint. After we got married, we combined our tracts so that we had two acres, and we tore down both of our houses and built a sprawling 1-story rock home in their place. The house was U-shaped, built around a courtyard in the back, with windows lining the entire back of the house and French doors coming off the kitchen, family room, and master suite to the back yard. The kids’ wing made up a long section of the “U,” with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a game room. The house was spacious without being audacious; a place that could be our first and last home together if we chose. We sectioned off a large area that encompassed my existing pool, with a wrought iron fence; landscaped a fair chunk of the back yard; and left the nether regions of the property untouched.

  I’d never been big on kids, but Maddie’s two boys were different. Their dad had died the year before I moved into the Park and Oliver and I ended up becoming pals. He was almost four years old when I first met him and I came to love him way before Maddie and I ever got together. At five, he looked just like me when I was his age with his blond hair and big blue eyes, and he had a curiosity about the world that manifested itself in endless why and what if questions. I never thought that I could come to care for another kid as much I did that one, but somehow his little brother, Max, had swooped right in there with him.

  I’d met Max under unpleasant circumstances, and it took me a long time to get over it. The incident involved the contents of a diaper smeared all over him and everything in sight, and for a while I was certain the scene had scarred me for life. But eventually I came around.

  At two, Max was a handful in every sense of the word. If the kid was awake, he was in action. He tormented Oliver to no end and, all too often, I felt more like a referee than a father. Max developed what I truly believe were toddler curse words. He would string several together for emphasis when he was really mad, and although I had no idea what he was saying, there was no question that it was meant to be derogatory. So what do you do when you suspect your Terrible Two is cussing you out but you can’t prove it? This was the perfect example of the type of situation that I decided it was best to let Maddie handle.

  The thing with Max was that, despite his suspected cussing streaks and the occasional temper tantrum, he was a brilliant kid in every way. Outgoing and sociable, but always ready to hold your hand or cuddle. He was just as good looking as his brother, but in a more rugged kind of way. His hair was a dark blond and he had these golden brown eyes with long, thick lashes. I was truly blessed with my ready-made family, and I doubted that I could love them more had they been my own flesh and blood.

  And then there was Morgan. Morgan was definitely a mommy’s girl. And at 12 weeks old, she wasn’t much fun. It wasn’t like we could throw a ball to each other, or even roll one for that matter. She couldn’t sit up, she couldn’t crawl. Hell, she couldn’t even roll over. Sometimes she would smile and that was cool, but in general, the baby was Maddie’s domain. This was the main source of
my anxiety over Maddie’s leaving, and the last thing I needed right before she left was a discussion with Maddie’s cousin, Felicia Armstrong.

  I breathed out heavily to exact my irritation on my secretary. “Who does she want to sue now?” I asked irritably.

  “She didn’t say, sir,” Russ said, ignoring my nasty tone.

  I punched the button for line one, cutting off my secretary without so much as a thank you. “Samuel Collins.”

  “It’s Felicia. I need you to sue someone for me.”

  “Postman too slow?”

  “Very funny. I was just in an accident. The guy intentionally cut me off.”

  I sat up straight in my chair. Despite the fact that she was sue-happy, technically, she was family. “Are you okay?”

  “Oh, I’m fine. But I’m sure he’s going to try to sue me, so I need to beat him to the punch,” she asserted.

  I was confused. “Why would he sue you if he cut you off?”

  “Well, I kind of rammed my truck up the back of his Porsche.”

  “Kind of, or you did?”

  “I did.”

  I counted to ten. “Felicia,” I said calmly. “Do you remember what I told you about filing frivolous law suits?”

  “This isn’t frivolous, Sam. It’s strategy. If we sue him first, then he’s on the defensive.”

  I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. “Felicia, I’ve got to be in court in 15 minutes,” I lied. “I’m going to transfer you back to Russ, and he can take the information from you. I’ll call you on Monday.”

  “What’s with the male secretary?” Felicia asked before I could get rid of her. “Is he gay?”

  “No. He’s not gay,” I said patiently.

  “Are you sure?”

  “He has a wife and a kid,” I said, but she made a humph sound like I was making it up. “He’s retired Air Force,” I added, as if that would bolster my case.

  “Well, have you come right out and asked him?”

  It had taken less than 60 seconds for her to piss me off, about average where Felicia is concerned.

  “No, because I don’t give a crap!”

  “Well, you don’t have to be rude about it, Samuel.”

  “Yes, Felicia, I do. Because you don’t get it unless I’m rude. Now, I’m going to transfer you back to my secretary, and we’ll talk on Monday. Goodbye, Felicia.” I hit the button before she could respond and punched in Russ’s extension. He picked up with one ring.

  “Sir!”

  “Felicia’s going to give you some information. Remind me to look at it on Monday.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Russ, you don’t have to call me sir,” I said for the thousandth time.

  “Very good, sir.”

  I hung up and looked at my watch. Thirty minutes to drop-off.

  Maddie had been cooking for two days and had enough frozen dinners for me and the boys to last through the weekend. Morgan had her own stash of breast milk in the freezer, which I hoped to God would last until Maddie got back. There were dozens of little bags, all measured out, stuck in there next to our dinners. It certainly looked like the supply would last for three days, but you never knew; she seemed to eat constantly. Maddie had become a regular dairy cow. I was sure that the only way I’d be able to pacify the baby if she screamed was with a bottle, and since Maddie was breastfeeding, I didn’t have a whole lot of experience even with that. I’d given Morgan a bottle a couple of times in the middle of the night when I was half-asleep and that was it.

  As the minutes ticked down, I realized how unprepared I was to take care of a baby, my baby no less, and I wished I’d paid more attention to all the instructions Maddie had been giving me for the last week. At one point, she’d suggested I get someone to come in and help, and at another, she’d offered to not go at all. I scoffed at both suggestions.

  “If you can do it, I can do it,” I had asserted with a false sense of bravado.

  After that, Maddie was conspicuously quiet, and I got the distinct feeling that I’d end up feasting on those words.

  I gathered a stack of papers that needed filing and straightened up my desk, then went out to the reception area to wait for Maddie and the baby. The plan was simple enough. Maddie would drop Morgan off at my office at noon on her way to the spa, then the baby and I would go straight over to pick up the boys from preschool. From then on, there was no plan, and it was anybody’s guess what would happen during the next two and a half days.

  Penny, my office manager, was visiting with Russ when I came out. She looked at me over her glasses and down her beak. “Well, Samuel,” she cooed, “are you ready for your big weekend with the children?”

  “Absolutely. What are you going to be doing?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant. Penny had kept the kids a couple of times so that Maddie and I could go out, and I felt like I should line up reinforcements just in case the situation got out of hand.

  “I’m going to meet Sally and Janeene in Fredericksburg for the weekend,” she said cheerfully. “You know, the wildflowers are profuse this year.”

  I stifled a groan. Fredericksburg was a German town in the Hill Country that had become a tourist Mecca. There were scores of bed-and-breakfast establishments, and all kinds of shops and restaurants lining Main Street. I tried to calculate in my head how long it would take her to get from downtown Fredericksburg to my house in an emergency. At least an hour; probably twice that if Penny was driving. Strike one.

  I had my back to the door and the way Penny’s eyes lit up, I knew that Maddie and the baby must be there. Penny had always shown a motherly affection towards Maddie and it had only gotten worse since Maddie had been pregnant with Morgan. For the last 12 weeks, she’d been practically unbearable to be around, with her daily interrogation about Maddie’s condition. I couldn’t be too mean to her though, because she was working for me strictly out of the kindness of her heart. At Maddie’s suggestion, we had taken care of her with a career-ending bonus out of the proceeds of Maddie’s settlement, and she’d been nice enough to stick around to run my office. Maddie hadn’t been so thoughtful; she’d high-tailed it as my secretary as soon as the settlement check cleared. So it was with great restraint that I gave Penny a daily update on the status of both Maddie and the baby, always mindful that I needed her more than she needed me.

  Russ had taken over Maddie’s position quite capably, although I must confess that it took some getting used to having a male secretary. As much as I prided myself on being in tune with the societal norms of the day, I wasn’t exactly open-minded when it came to having a same-sex secretary. I like to have the liberty to boss my secretary around, and I’m not comfortable doing that with a man. Especially a man who’s older than me, which Russ was by at least 10 years.

  Penny hadn’t asked me how I felt about having a male secretary before she hired Russ, but in fairness to her I’d simply told her to hire the best candidate. We’d already been through a half-dozen female best candidates that hadn’t worked out, so when I came to the office early one Monday morning to find a stout, well-dressed, disciplined-looking man sitting at Maddie’s desk, I decided to give the guy a chance. And as it turned out, Russ was every bit as efficient as Maddie, although nowhere near as interesting to look at. Which, after several weeks, I decided was a bonus in itself.

  I turned around and caught my wife’s infectious smile. Maddie did something to me that was indescribable. I’d always prided myself on being a prick, but I couldn’t do it with Maddie or the kids. They brought out some absurdity in me that made me want to smile all the time when I was with them. Maddie passed the baby on to Penny, then hugged me around the neck and kissed me on the lips.

  “Well?” With her southern drawl, it sounded like whale, but with two syllables. Maddie’s eyes were sparkling for the first time in a month, and I remembered why I’d set up the weekend in the first place. “Are you ready?” she asked, barely able to contain her excitement.

  “Hell yes, I’m ready!” I said, feelin
g more secure by the second. If just thinking about being alone for the weekend put that kind of gleam back in her eye, I could only imagine how she’d feel upon her return. “We’re going to have a great time, aren’t we Morgan?” I said, reaching over for the baby. Penny grudgingly handed her over and I gave the kid a big smooch to show Mom how comfortable we were together. No problem here.

  “I’m going to miss you guys,” Maddie said.

  “We’re going to miss you too,” I said, and as the words came out, I realized how true they were. “A lot,” I added.

  Maddie looked at her watch and took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess I’m going then.”

  We did kind of a group hug and I kissed her again. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll be fine.”

  “I love you two,” she said, kissing first Morgan, then me. “I’ll see you Sunday,” she said with a huge smile. She handed over a preposterous, frilly pink diaper bag and I slung it over my shoulder, then she blew us a kiss from the door and waved.

  And my weekend had begun.

  Chapter 2

  If I believed in omens, I would have said that the weekend was doomed to failure from the get-go. It started as soon as we got to the boys’ preschool. I unbuckled Morgan from her car seat – which is no small feat – and we made our way to Max’s classroom. I’d only been to the school a couple of times and it took me a while to find the right room, but when we did, I got a warm reception from Max. He came running up and threw his arms around my legs.

  “Daddy!” he yelled enthusiastically.

  “Hey Max! How’s my boy? Did you have a fun day with your friends?” I asked, rumpling his hair.

  He made some noise to his friends which must have been a coded message, because suddenly I was surrounded by a pack of grubby 2-year-olds. They were all trying to touch me, grabbing at me and pulling on my pant legs. They had Cheeto fingers and applesauce faces, and one had some florescent blue crap all over his face and shirt. I was horrified.