7. Meet the Jamesons

7

MEET THE JAMESONS

BLAKE

T he first call I get from Olivia on her new phone later the same day, and I missed it. I’d been assisting Kipp and his fire team with brush clearing around Lake Maneto to contain a small fire, and it went to voicemail. It took me a few minutes to be able to take a water break and listen.

“Hi Blake. It’s Olivia.” A smile split my lips at the sound of her voice.

“Well goddamn. Is that a genuine smile I see, Wilson?” Kipp called out, laughing, resting under a shade tree near me. I ignored him, and focused on every word of hers.

“I wanted you to know that I’m rushing River to the hospital. His teacher called. He somehow managed to stuff pebbles in his ears at recess.”

My face fell. “Hey, Kipp. You ever had to take one of your kids to the ER because they stuffed something in their ears?”

His guffaw set me on edge. “Are you kidding? Each one of them. With Harrison, it was a popcorn kernel. Harper was a bracelet bead. And Holden was a damn hot wheeled car.”

“What? How?”

“Don’t ask.”

“Uh, okay. Was it painful to get them removed?” I hated to think of River suffering. He was too young for that. Suffering should be saved for adults only, in my opinion.

“It can be. Harrison’s was the worst with that teeny tiny kernel. He needed a shot to numb the area, then they used this special claw tool to dig real deep in there?—”

“Ew, I gotta go.” I grabbed my gear and ran down the path back to my truck. Olivia had said pebbles—plural. Small like popcorn kernels? My imagination conjured hundreds of them being yanked out by a doctor with a claw to the tune of River’s tortured screams.

As I sped down the road, I tried Olivia’s phone, but she didn’t answer, with no voicemail set up yet, either. Elizabethtown General wasn’t far from the lake, both just west of Kissing Springs. I could easily stop in, see if they were there, and make sure they were both okay.

When I arrived at the emergency room, the strong bleach scent smacked me in the face. Working Search and Rescue for the county meant I found people who were in need of medical care, but I typically turned things over at that point to the EMTs. Rarely had I needed to step foot again in this hospital.

My stomach suddenly soured as I threw on a flannel shirt, over my dusty clothes from the brush. Like I transported through time, the day I found out about my ex and the doctor hit me all over again.

I’d brought Julia lunch, only none of her coworkers knew where she was. I wandered the pediatrics floor, waiting, and finally ran into her as she exited the employee locker room, giggling with a man coming out directly behind. Dr. Jameson—with his hands circled around her waist in front of him. Her red traitorous lipstick stained across his laughing mouth…

My hand throbbed even now from how hard I punched him.

“Did a woman named Olivia Carlson check in yet with her son?” I asked of the nurse at the admissions counter.

“Officer Blake!” To my left, River’s voice called out. I spotted the two of them sitting at a desk with another nurse. Olivia’s hand paused with a blue pen over a clipboard thick with paperwork attached to it. I held my arms out wide, and he ran right into them.

“Hey, bud. You okay? Your mom called me and told me what happened.” I knelt and hugged him.

“It’s not my fault.” He sniffled. “Jimmy told me that if I put rocks in one ear, they’d come out the other.”

I bit my lips, holding back a laugh and a snort. There’d been plenty of silly crap my sisters and I did growing up. We must have given our parents heart attacks a dozen times over.

“I think next time Jimmy tells you to do something, you check with your mother first—or me. Understood?”

He nodded with the saddest face. Poor little man. As I approached Olivia, he slipped his hand in mine. She gave me a sheepish curve of her lips.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be here. I only thought you would want to know what happened.” Then she sighed as she poured back over the papers.

“Are you the father?” The nurse asked.

Olivia and I exchanged a sharp glance. Before either of us could say a word, River said, “I don’t have a dad. Only uncles.”

My forehead scrunched, the situation so awkward and new. At some point, though, we’d all have to get used to answering the question. Of course, it’d be easier once we got the paternity results. I believed her. He was mine; seeing it stated on paper with a high percentage of probability printed next to it would just make it more real and official.

I’d like nothing more than to tell River he’s my son. Changing his name to Wilson would please my mom, too, considering neither of my sisters were married yet.

What a shock that’d be to everyone I knew. A month ago, I was quite the guy. My life sailed along, single, not worrying about anybody else but myself. Now the little boy could be mine. And Olivia?

“Here. I think I filled everything out,” she declared, leaving the nurse’s question about my status unanswered.

“Let me see.” She squinted at the computer screen she consulted. “Your copay due now is?—”

“I got it. Put it all on my card.” I whipped it out of my wallet and tossed it in front of her.

“Blake, no.”

“Olivia, yes. I have five years to make up for. Do it.” I folded my arms and commanded to the nurse.

A few minutes later, as we sat in the waiting room to be called, Olivia whispered, “You didn’t have to pay or to drop whatever you were doing to be here.” River draped all over her lap, his head resting on her chest, and he whimpered now and then. I wanted to pat his back and make all this go away.

“Yeah. But here I am. I don’t know how your life was in St. Louis, how things were with his—uncles—but here, you got me. Okay? And I show up for my family and friends.”

“I don’t like Uncle Ward. He’s mean.” River rubbed his eyes.

“Sh. We don’t need to talk about him, baby.” She was quick to dismiss him.

The conversation bugged me, and ended when an attendant called, “Olivia and River Carlson?” They got up, but I remained.

“Why can’t Blake come with us, Mommy?” River held his hand out for me as they strode several feel away.

“Oh, sure. Come on.” She gestured for me to follow.

We waited for what seemed an eternity in a small room with no windows. At least it had a table full of building blocks to distract him while we took up chairs on the opposite side, and kept our voices low between us.

“What did you tell River about his father?” I had a right to know.

“Nothing. It has only been the past couple of years when he’d see fathers with their kids playing at the neighborhood park, and he realized he didn’t have one of those.”

“And?”

“When he’d ask why, I’d simply say it was because he had five uncles instead. Not that any of them loved River like a son.”

“Humph. We’re going to have to tell River at some point.”

“What are we supposed to say? Hey guess what? You actually have a father who hasn’t been around for the first five years of your life?”

“Good point. I don’t know.”

“We will tell him, eventually, Blake. We can’t just spring it on him. I don’t think he’d understand.”

“Fine, but why doesn’t he like his Uncle Ward?”

“This really isn’t the time to talk about it.” She fidgeted at the locket on a gold chain that sat right at the base of her neck. I hadn’t seen her without wearing it yet.

“I’m telling you right now. If he hurt a hair on River’s head—” My jaw tensed up.

“Please, let it go. I’m not prepared to talk about the past.” She hugged her arms and swallowed hard. I could tell whatever happened back then tortured her. I didn’t like it one bit.

Then the door to the room opened, and there stood a reminder of my own past. My turn to be tortured.

“Blake? What are you doing here?” Julia asked. Then her eyes darted around the room, as if quickly assessing and drawing her own conclusions. She faked a smile and headed for the hand washing station. Olivia side-eyed me, but I kept mine lowered on River, shocked by it all. I should have known she’d be here.

My ex finally sat on a stool and opened a laptop. “Hello. I’m Julia Jameson. I’ll be your nurse today, Mrs.—”

“Just Livvie.”

“Single mother?”

“Yes.”

She typed some notes. “Okay. This must be River.” She waved at my kid, who waved back as he retreated into Olivia’s arms. “And Blake, what’s your connection to um…?”

“He’s my hero. He saved me from a bear in the woods.” River stole the show once again, although he embellished the rescue a bit.

I wished I could throw it in her face that I had a beautiful, energetic son. Instead, I lifted my arm and let it rest on the back of Olivia’s chair, leaning further into her, too. With my other hand, I cockily hooked a thumb through the belt loop of my jeans.

“I’m a really good family friend,” I said, loaded with meaning.

“Oh. Interesting. For a moment, I hoped you were going to tell me you’d finally moved on. According to the old biddies in Kissing Springs, he’s been hung up on me for years.” She explained as an aside to Olivia, who I doubted was in the mood to hear it, judging by her frown.

“I have moved on, way down the road from the hell you put me through. So if you don’t mind, do your job and take care of River,” I warned Julia, my voice challenging her to piss me off again, and we’d see what would happen. Damn, that felt good.

Of course, after a knock at the door, Dr. Jameson himself walked right in. Upon seeing me, he jerked to a stop. His hand automatically went to his jawline, as if his body gave him a painful reminder of the day my fist had landed so hard it snapped his bone when I saw the two of them exit the closet.

To his credit, he quickly recovered. “Hello, River. I hear we have some magic beans stuck in your ear?”

That produced a small giggle from him. “No, just rocks.”

I shot up from my chair and approached the doctor. He winced back. “Is there nobody else who can do this?”

“I’m the only attending pediatric physician today. Look, it doesn’t matter our history. I took the Hippocratic Oath to heal those in need—and I take is seriously. That goes equally, whether it’s my own child or yours. Now, will you let me do my job? Please?”

Despite everything, I recognized in his words that of a man, like me, dedicated to service. I couldn’t argue with him. Didn’t matter if I had to save someone who was known in town to be an obstinate bully. I had a job, and I’d do it no matter the person involved.

I relinquished control and sat back down with a heavy sigh. The first time I’d heard he and Julia were having a baby—only a few months after we broke up, which led to their quick marriage, I knew it was really over. There was no groveling needed on my part; no crawling back to me on her part.

She was my past. Easily forgotten.

River in Olivia’s arms—they were my future.