I was looking at a sixty-thousand-dollar overhaul, and that was only the big stuff.
The knocking pulled me from my thoughts, and I tried to clear my head. I swiped at my tears and fluffed my hair, knowing it could only be one person. I smoothed my hands over my shirt and cleared my throat, trying to cast the money out of my head as I walked to the door.
I whipped it open, however, and found a very distraught Brian standing in front of me.
“Brian?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
His eyes were stern, but his hands were fidgeting. His cheeks were red, and he was shuffling on his feet. I peeked out and looked around, trying to see if I could find Lanie. But when I didn’t, the worst ran through my mind.
“Where’s Lanie?” I asked.
“With her nanny,” he said.
Relief flooded my system as I stepped off to the side
“It’s a mess in here, but you’re welcome to come in,” I said.
Brian stepped into my home, and his body stopped. His eyes were scanning the cabin, taking stock of its desolate nature. I shut the door behind him as he slowly walked over into the kitchen, his eyes on the piece of paper I’d left out to answer the door.
I ran up behind him and snatched it off the surface, hoping he hadn’t seen. I stuffed it into my pocket as he turned and looked at me, his worried stare turning quizzical.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Brian, is Lanie all right?”
“Yeah, I think so. I mean, she will be. I—”
He ran his hand through his hair and sighed, but the sigh wasn’t of relief. It was a tense sigh. A stressed sigh.
It was the sigh of a man who was running out of options.
“Are you thirsty?” I asked.
“I wanted to ask you a favor.”
“Oh. Sure. What’s up?” I asked.
“I have a meeting with someone in town on Monday. An urgent meeting. And my nanny isn’t available to watch Lanie. She’s has doctors’ appointments lined up with her own kids all day Monday.”
“I can help out. Is everything okay? You looked really freaked about something.”
His eyes looked over at me hesitantly before he drew in a deep breath.
“No, everything’s not ok,” he finally said.
I leaned against the counter as Brian looked down at his feet. I could tell he wanted to talk, but he was in awkward territory. A man who kept himself isolated probably didn’t know how to have a conversation like this. He was rigid, to the point, and precise. He came here to ask a favor, and he asked it.
He didn’t look prepared to have a conversation, but he also didn’t leave.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.
“It’s Lanie’s biological father,” he said.
That got my attention.
“He’s alive?” I asked. “I figured with you watching her he was out of the picture.”
“Yeah, he’s alive, but he’s never been involved in her life. He’s unfit to be a parent,” he said.
“Oh.”
“He’s taking me to court to fight for custody of Lanie. That’s why I have to go to town, to meet with a PI that’s helping me out.”
“But if he’s an unfit parent, how can he sue you for custody?” I asked.
His eyes glanced over at me. I could see his temple throbbing with the clenching of his jaw. The questions were pissing him off, but I didn’t care. This was Lanie we were talking about. The little girl I’d come to know that enjoyed whenever I came over. The girl with the big, beautiful eyes and the brown hair that matched his.
I suddenly realized how attached I’d become to her in such a short period of time.
“When my sister gave birth, she didn’t put down Lanie’s father’s name on the birth certificate. She was cleaning herself up. You know, getting her act back together.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means my sister was a drug addict,” he said sternly.
“I’m sorry.”
“ When she found out she was pregnant, she kicked that asshole to the curb and checked herself into rehab. It was horrible, going through withdrawals while she was pregnant, but she did it. She got clean. A few months after she got out, she had Lanie, met a great guy, and they got married. He was set to adopt Lanie and raise her as his own, when the accident happened.”
I watched Brian close his eyes as he relived the horrors of his sister’s death.
“I’m so sorry, Brian,” I said.
“I was nowhere. Here. Isolated. Running from my own pathetic existence. It took them ten months to track me down. That poor baby had been in foster care for ten months,” he said, clearly disgusted with himself.
“And that’s when she came to live with you,” I said.
“Yes.”
“So if her biological father was never listed on the birth certificate, how does he even know about her?” I asked.