Lainey’s List Chapter Twenty-Two

Lainey

The bar Chip selected is so dirty and so ramshackle I’m surprised the City of Dallas allows it to have a liquor license. There are four people inside. Two are sitting at the bar and one is serving drinks. Chip is the fourth and he sits in the corner, his cowboy hat pulled low. He’s the only Texan I know who looks awkward in a cowboy hat. Even city boys look like they were born in them.

I hitch my purse more securely to my side and make my way to Chip’s table. As I approach, he kicks a chair out for me.

I take a seat. “What’s it going to take to get you to stop hassling my friends?”

“No ‘hello Chip, how you doing?’” He mocks.

I stare stonily in return.

I have no doubt that other women find Chip quite attractive. He has sunny California good looks—blonde hair, blue eyes. His family is ordinary—middle-class and rather unexciting. His father was a factory worker who quit his job after Chip signed his first contract. Gossip around town varied as to the reasons why. Some said his father had been fired. Others said it was because of an injury. Even the middle class folks in my town, however, were above my family so I didn’t know the truth of it, but I knew from my limited interaction with Chip that the relationship with his dad was strained. Not that that gives Chip any excuses.

His mother is a schoolteacher and he has two older sisters, both of whom are lovely. Everyone is incredibly proud that Chip was an NFL quarterback. That he isn’t any longer doesn’t matter at all. It was enough that he was touching glory for a few short years.

Chip, on the other hand, isn’t taking his forced retirement well.

He throws a small rectangular piece of paper onto the table and gestures for me to pick it up.

Peter Tanner, Esq.

“What’s this?”

“Turn it over,” he says.

I turn it over. The back reads “Specializing in family law.”

I set the card down carefully, my fingers trembling with the need to crush it. I slide it over in front of him.

“So?” I arch my eyebrow. Behind my calm exterior, my heart is pounding furiously, fast and loud. I have to strain to hear him over the fear that roars in my ears.

“I just wanted to see what a professional thinks of my chance of winning a custodial battle.” He pulls out his phone and lays it next to the card. “I recorded him. You want to hear?”

Of course not. I don’t want to hear anything a lawyer has to say—especially one who specializes in family law. “Go ahead,” I say stiffly; hoping it’s a bluff.

When he presses play, I realize it’s all too real.

  “The mother’s past can be important if you can prove she is continuing her negative behavior.”

 “What kind of negative behavior?” Asks Chip’s smooth voice.

The lawyers voice sounds old and moneyed and knowledgeable. I hide my hands under the table and grip them together, fingernails digging into tender skin.

  “If you found evidence that she is using drugs or that she has a drinking problem or that she is exposing her daughter to an unhealthy lifestyle, those are all things that could go toward proving she is unfit.”

  “What if she’s sleeping around?”

  “Is she leaving the child alone? Or is she bringing unsavory people near the child?”

 “It could be all of those things,” Chip suggests.

  “My recommendation is that you hire a private investigator. Have the investigator follow her for a period of time and see what he produces.”

  “And if the PI comes up empty?”

  “There are still ways you can argue to the court that the child is better off with you.” The lawyer pauses. “Although, you do have the five years of abandonment you’ll have to overcome.”

 “I just discovered her,” Chip claims. I nearly choke on the bullshit. “Had I known about her before, obviously I would not have ever left her in the care of a woman who is unstable and unsafe.”

Chip lies so easily. It’s quite remarkable.

The lawyer’s voice changes from cautious to mild excitement. “The fact that she lied about the parentage of her child, keeping your daughter from you is an entirely different story. The court would frown greatly upon that. A family law judge will want to award custody to the individual who is going to foster both parents to participate fully in the raising of this child and the fact that she’s prevented that from happening will reflect poorly on her. What does the birth certificate say?”

  “Father unknown.”

My teeth grind together. That was the primary provision of our agreement. He paid me to not put his name on that damn document.

  “That’s good. Very good. I’d still recommend a PI.”

Chip replies, “Oh I will. I’m covering all my bases.”

Chip reaches over and taps on the screen, ending the recording. He folds his perfectly manicured fingers in front of him.

“I don’t like you around the Mustangs. And I particularly don’t like you around our young starting quarterback. I’d hate for more reporters to hear about the behavioral issues of Nick Jackson. He’s such a promising young player.” Chip clearly hates Nick’s guts. “But if he’s a cancer in the locker room, we both know that any mistakes are going to be talked about all the time in the news. Not to mention some of his teammates are already thinking he’s too big for his britches. Not everyone likes a rich kid playing football.”

“His performance reflects on you,” I remind him but I can’t keep the quaver out of my voice. By the smirk on Chip’s face, I know he caught it. “If you help Nick win, you’ll move up the ladder quicker.”

“I’ll worry about my job,” he replies.

“Charlotte would never date you. She’s in love with someone else.”

“From what I hear, that someone else isn’t around; but between you and me, she’s just another rich bitch and I’ve had plenty of those. I could fuck her and leave her. There are plenty of other hoes in the sea. Besides, a friend of yours has probably been used so much, it’d be like fucking a cow.”

“I’ll defer to your experience with cow fucking.” I shouldn’t poke him but I can’t sit here and listen to him rundown Charlie without defending her. “You’re not fit to eat the dust from her shoes.”

He laughs, an ugly, bitter sound. “Here’s what I know. You’re a piece of trash and anyone who comes in contact with you is going to end up the same way.”

“Why do you even care? I’m not going to say anything.”

“I don’t want you near me.”

Translation—he doesn’t want to see his mistake, Cassidy.

“What do you want?”

“I want you to leave. Go back to Ashton and don’t show your face around here. In exchange, I’ll do everything to make young Nick’s experience as smooth and easy as possible and I won’t hassle Charlie in any way shape or form.”

“And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t, then I ruin your life, along with Nick’s and Charlie’s. And you know I can. Because I’ve already started it.”

I grasp at straws. “Nick and Charlie have money. You can’t ruin them.”

“The things Nick wants can’t be bought with money. As for Charlotte, my guess is she’d be pretty miserable if Nick fails and if it comes out that her best friend practically sold herself.”

 I was 17! I scream inside. And you took advantage of me. I didn’t know those other people would be there. I didn’t know— I cut off that train of thought. There is no point in belaboring what I didn’t know and what I did. I got myself into this position so many years ago and now I’m paying for it. But I’m the only one who has to pay for it. Not my daughter, not Nick, not Charlotte.

“What assurance do I have you’ll follow through?”

Chip leans back with the all the confidence and good humor of a victor, “You’ll just have to trust me, won’t you?”

I stand up. “Someday, Chip, you’re gonna get yours.”

An ugly sneer covers his face. “I got mine. I’m just making sure everyone else is as miserable as I am.”

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