Always Aimee

Chapter One

Chapter One

THIS FEELS LIKE s**t. Aimee Harper was accustomed to being in the offices of the Benson and Taylor Law Firm, just not on the client side of the table. She didn’t like the feeling. While there were times she felt bad for the clients who sat opposite the lawyers, her heart aching for what was happening to them, this time was different. This time, the usually warm and inviting wood paneling sent a cold shiver of dread through her. This time, the soothing landscape portraits on the wall mocked them and their hope. This time, the comforting cup of warm coffee in front of her made her nauseous, while the dark burgundy drapes, which were meant to offer a soothing semblance of comfort from a cold, harsh outside world, suffocated her, making her claustrophobic. This time, the cold sweat made her keep wiping her palms on her slacks, the fluttering of her heart due to her anxiety, and the twisting in the pit of her stomach all came from what she was forced to endure; well, what she and Clint Asher were forced to endure. This was it, the final consultation before any real action happened. From what Ginny Taylor, Clint’s lawyer and Aimee’s Boss, just told them, there wasn’t really much they could do outside of Clint divorcing his wife, Bonnie, and filing for primary custody, which in Florida was tough since it was a fifty-fifty state. If Bonnie met specific criteria, then she could legally gain joint-custody of their three-year-old daughter, Abigail. With every word Ginny uttered, the knot in Aimee’s stomach twisted tighter until she thought for sure she would vomit all over the conference table.

Glancing over at Clint, in his dark blue suit and bright yellow necktie, his hair, usually shaggy and unkempt, combed straight, and his scruffy face cleanly shaven, she knew he suffered even more inner turmoil than she did at the moment. This was his life, after all. The future of his daughter and her happiness, as well as her sanity, rested in the balance. Aimee stretched out her arm, taking his hand in hers and squeezed it tight. She couldn’t begin to imagine what went through his mind right then. To have everything thrown back in his face like this, to relive it over and over, had to be gut-wrenching. Everything he did over the past three years had been for that precious little girl, to protect her from a mother who never wanted her in the first place. Now it seemed as if everything had been wasted effort.

“This doesn’t seem fair,” Aimee said, turning her gaze back to Ginny. “Bonnie walked out on them without so much as a kiss my ass or wish me luck. How can the courts be on her side?”

“As the courts see it,” Ginny said, her voice soft, sympathetic, a tone Aimee heard the woman use on other clients way too often, “they aren’t on Bonnie’s side. They’re on Abigail’s. They believe it’s in the best interests of every child to be with both parents.”

“Even when that parent didn’t want them?” Aimee pressed her point, while Clint sat there, staring at the tabletop. “Even when they walked out on that little girl in the middle of the night? How in any sane, logical world is that in Abigail’s best interest?”

Clint reached over and wrapped his other hand around Aimee’s, squeezing it. “It’s not Ginny’s fault,” he said. “She didn’t make the laws. She’s just trying to help us navigate them.”

“Well, the laws suck,” Aimee said, letting out a frustrated sigh as she did. None of this was what she expected when Ginny had her set up a meeting with Clint. Aimee assumed her boss discovered a loophole in the system somewhere that would continue to protect Abby.

There was no loophole.

There was no protection.

There was only the unfairness of the unsympathetic law.

“I’m sorry,” Ginny offered. “I researched everything I could, but there just isn’t any grounds to block Bonnie from your daughter, regardless of what she did before. I can help you draw up divorce papers and look into the custody issue, but that’s about it. Again, I’m sorry.”

Aimee watched as Clint nodded, his gaze downcast, staring at the table again. “We can look into other options,” she urged, Clint’s beaten expression ripping at her heart. “We won’t give up.”

He turned his gaze to her, his smile weak, his expression defeated. “I appreciate your hope, but,” he shook his head, “as Ginny just said, there isn’t anything else to do except fight to make sure I get primary custody. That’s about all I can do right now.” He squeezed her hand, and Aimee wanted to cry.

He turned his gaze back to Ginny. “Thanks for all of your help. I appreciate you trying.”

Ginny smiled, trying to offer some semblance of sympathy and understanding. Aimee recognized the expression from the many times she sat in this very room, on the other side of the table. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way we wanted. I’ll get started on the other paperwork.”

He nodded as he stood, reaching out to shake Ginny’s hand. Aimee didn’t say anything, as she followed him out of the conference room and then outside the offices. She wasn’t sure what to say to him. Everything they hoped to accomplish had been ripped from their grasp. She had nothing tangible to offer him, no hope to give. No answers. She wasn’t sure how to help him at this point, and she hated the helpless feeling that enveloped her. She was supposed to be his strength, but she didn’t know how to do that right now.

That, however, wasn’t her only fear. While Clint was alone, a single father taking care of his daughter, Aimee didn’t feel threatened. Bonnie was an absent mother, who ran off with some over-indulged playboy promising her exotic adventures with no kids. Now, the woman was back in Abigail’s life, in Clint’s life. How would Aimee be able to handle Clint with his ex on a regular basis? Abigail had her mother back. How could Aimee get in the way of that? Worse, what if Clint discovered he wasn’t really over Bonnie? Aimee had only been dating him about a month. He had been with Bonnie for over three years. They had a history of which Aimee was afraid to even consider competing.

The morning air felt warm against her face as she stepped out into the parking lot, Clint’s hand holding hers as they walked to his truck. When they reached the driver’s side, he turned and fell back against the door; his shoulders slumped as he held onto her hand. “Well, that felt like a complete waste of time,” he said, blowing out a breath through his nose.

Aimee nodded, pulling stray strands of her blond hair out of her eyes with her free hand. “What are you going to do now?”

He glanced off into the distance, staring at traffic passing by in front of the lawyer’s office. “To be honest, I’m not really sure. I’m not looking forward to surrendering to her, but it seems, thanks to Florida’s stupid laws, we don’t have much choice.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll fight for primary custody, that way I can keep Abby with me and protected most of the time. I don’t know Bonnie well enough to know how she would take care of our daughter. She didn’t do it even when she was still around. I’ve always done it. Bonnie was always the partier.” He turned his gaze back to Aimee, taking her other hand in his and holding them in front of his chest. “Thanks for being here with me today. It felt good to have you with me.”

She smiled, feeling the slight blush heat her cheeks. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. Did you need me to take the rest of the day off? I can go with you and help you figure this out.”

He pulled her knuckles to his lips and kissed them softly. “Thank you, but I’m not going to do any figuring just yet. I’ve got to get over to that abandoned house and start the remodel. Ben will be meeting me there in about thirty minutes to get the crew started.”

She nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. All she wanted to do right then was hold him, wrapping him up in her love.

“How about dinner tonight?” he asked. “I’ll even make my famous lasagna, with garlic bread, extra garlic.”

She smiled, trying to appear upbeat and positive. It was all she could do for him at the moment. “Sounds wonderful. I’ll bring the wine.”

“Then it’s a date.” He kissed her knuckles again. “I can’t wait.”

Aimee leaned up and kissed him. “Neither can I.” She kissed him again. “I’ll see you later. Have a great day.”

“You, too.” He squeezed her hands, and then opened his truck door and slid into the driver’s seat. He started the engine, glanced over at her, and smiled, and then shifted the vehicle into gear and drove off.

She stood there for a moment, watching him as he left the parking lot, turning south into traffic. Life had been going so well these past few weeks. She was afraid that time was over.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The late morning traffic sucked, just like Clint’s mood. While he would admit that he hadn’t expected the meeting to go completely in his favor, he hadn’t expected it to go as sour as it did either. Even if he had divorced Bonnie a year ago, he would still be in a fight for custody of Abby. It just didn’t seem fair that a woman could run out on her family, get her rocks off, and then just prance back in and lay claim to everything she abandoned. It wasn’t right. Wasn’t fair.

Clint squeezed the steering wheel, twisting it in his hands as he steered through the happy people on the road, people whose lives didn’t just take a downward turn. How was he going to protect Abigail from her mother?

And what of Aimee?

He sighed, his grip on the wheel loosening. Aimee stood by him, holding his hand through it all, even using her resources at the law office, ever since Bonnie popped back into his life. Yet, did Aimee deserve to be dragged through this? Knowing Bonnie the way he did, he knew it would get worse before the situation got better. Was it fair to Aimee to make her trudge through his garbage? No, it wasn’t fair, he knew, but he also knew he didn’t want to go through this nightmare alone. He needed Aimee’s quiet strength to help bolster his resolve. Why couldn’t Bonnie have just stayed away?

As Clint pulled up in front of the old western-style home, parking by the dilapidated front porch that wrapped around the house, he stared up at the faded paint and broken windows. Gazing at the wooden shutters dangling from rusted hinges, he thought back to how, just a few weeks ago, Aimee walked the floors of this house, snapping photographs, lost in the world of her camera lens. It was the first time he managed to get her alone without Abby squeezing between them. He used Aimee’s passion for photography to get her to join him as he made notes and measurements about the house. His ploy worked better than he expected and, later that night, she joined him for dinner, just the two of them. They had been together ever since—even after Bonnie showed up at his door one day.

“You going to get out of that truck, or just sit there using your mental powers to get the work done?” Benjamin Tucker stood at the side of the house, hands on his hips as he stared at Clint sitting in his truck.

Clint turned the engine off as he opened the driver’s door. “Sorry,” he called out, grabbing a clipboard that sat on the front seat, as he slid out of the vehicle. “Lost in the past for a second.” He chuckled, thinking that the past he referred to was actually his present, and he loved every minute of it. “I was thinking back a few weeks when I was here with Aimee and she shot some photographs. She takes amazing pictures.”

Ben chuckled as he left his spot and joined Clint as they walked toward the front steps. “Alone with your girl in an abandoned building and you were taking notes on the structure of this place? Dude, we need to work on your game.”

Clint squeezed the clipboard as they started climbing the steps, making sure to test the boards before putting their weight down. “Sure, if I was in it for the short game. However, I’m in for the long haul, and so far, it seems to be working out perfectly.”

Ben shook his head. “My friend, you’ve always been a romantic. It’s kind of sickening, really.”

Clint shrugged. “What can I say? I’ve never been the one-night-stand type of guy. I want the romance and the happy-ever-after.”

Ben opened the front door of the house. “Not me. Too many gorgeous women out there to settle down with just one. That would be totally unfair to them. Now, settling down with a different lady every night, maybe.”

Both men laughed as they entered the house. “The crews ready to begin?” Clint asked, bringing the topic back around to work. It’s not that he wanted to because he could talk about Aimee all day. However, he needed the distraction from what was going on in his life at the moment. Aimee wasn’t a distraction; she was his life. Bonnie was the interruption he needed to deal with so he could get back to his life.

Ben nodded. “Toby and his crew are out back, pressure washing the house. Walter and his men are tearing out some walls upstairs. So far, we’re on schedule.”

“Good.” Clint glanced around the room the two of them stood in, soaking in the opportunity that existed in the place. He loved his job. They tore down the rotten pieces of a building, tossed out the old, faded, and broken-down parts, and replaced it with new, sturdier materials. “Okay, let’s schedule the drywall subcontractor to come out next week after we get the electricians in here.” If he thought about it, it was just like his life at the present moment. Bonnie was the part he needed to rip out, toss into the dumpster out by the curb for pick up, while Aimee was the sturdier stuff that he needed to fortify his life, making the walls of his existence erect and sound. She was the fortress that protected his sanity right then. God, I sound so pathetic. Aimee doesn’t deserve this. He took a deep breath. But, I don’t think I can go through this without her. He didn’t want to go through this without her. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t think he could go through this without her.

And that was probably the very reason why he should.