Joker, feeling Travis fretting, turned to him, took him in, then bent in and kissed his forehead.
After he did that, he ordered in a soft voice, “Your Joke is done, kid, you can cool it.”
Travis studied him.
Then his head wobbled a bit before he dropped it to Joker’s shoulder, cheek first, and grasped on to the neckline of Joker’s tee like he knew Joker was upset and he was giving him a baby hug.
Gosh, but I loved my boy.
And I loved my biker.
I took in a breath.
“It’s done,” I whispered.
Joker nodded.
Then he said, “Come get your kid. He needs ma time.”
I grinned. It was shaky but I pulled it off and walked across the room to get to my boy.
And my biker.
* * * * *
The next morning I was changing Travis’s diaper on the floor in the living room. I had an afternoon shift, which stunk. But Joker was at work, and he was coming home to look after Travis while I was at work. Then I would be home and sleeping with Joker with Travis home so it would all be good.
My cell phone rang in the kitchen as I pressed down the last diaper strip.
Travis, very much done with the changing routine, instantly rolled and started crawling toward a scattering of toys on the floor.
I nabbed the balled-up dirty diaper, got up swiftly, and dashed into the kitchen to grab my phone.
Not surprisingly, but a little scarily, it was Angie.
“Hello,” I greeted, heading to the Diaper Genie in the laundry room.
“Hey there, Carissa. It’s Leanne. Can you hold for Angie?”
“Of course,” I replied.
I held as I dealt with the diaper.
I was back in the kitchen when Angie came on.
“Hi, Carissa. How are you?”
“I’m good, Angie. Let me guess,” I said, moving to the sink to wash my hands. “Aaron’s attorneys have been in touch.”
“Was there an incident?” she asked.
“It happened during the handover yesterday,” I told her. “I haven’t had a chance to call.”
“Tell me about it now,” she ordered.
I washed my hands and did so.
“Well then, this makes their demand that we set a meeting as soon as possible not as surprising as it seemed,” she remarked when I was done. “I need you to give Leanne your work schedule for this week so we can schedule the meeting.”
“I’ll do that, but, Angie, I need to say that confrontation was unpleasant, so I feel from now on that we should talk through our attorneys only. And if this drags on, I’m not comfortable in Aaron’s presence, so there will be someone else dropping Travis off at Aaron’s and I’ll not be opening the door when he brings him to my place.”
“Will this be Mr. Steele?” she asked.
“Likely,” I told her. “However, it could be another friend. It just won’t be me.”
“Noted. And if this drags on, I’ll make that point. But I’ll call them immediately to share that any further communications go through me. If you hear from Mr. Neiland, it should only be if there’s an emergency about your son. If it isn’t, you tell me as soon as you can.”
“Thanks, Angie.”
“Not a problem, Carissa. Now I’m handing you off to Leanne.”
“All right. Speak to you later.”
“You will. Take care.”
She did the handoff. I gave Leanne my schedule as I walked into the living room and watched Travis rearranging the scattered toys.
We rang off and I called Joker immediately.
I gave him the news.
“Not a surprise,” he said when I was done.
“He’s angry, which means I’m scared,” I told him.
“You’re good, Carrie. But if he makes you not that way, then I’ll be there to make you that way again.”
“I know,” I whispered, eyes to my boy as he played.
“Hang tight, this’ll be done soon,” he promised.
“Okay.”
“Love you.”
I closed my eyes.
Aaron had made me not good.
Then Joker was there to make me that way again.
When I opened my eyes, I was smiling. “Love you too.”
I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Let you go. Later, Butterfly.”
“Later, sweetie.”
We disconnected.
Before I left for work a few hours later, Leanne called.
Aaron wasn’t messing around.
The meeting was set for Thursday afternoon, the specter of which made me not good again.
So I called Joker.
And he made it all better.
* * * * *
Joker
Disconnecting with Carissa, Joker texted Tack.
It’s happening.
Five minutes later, he got back, Meet me at the table.
Joker didn’t waste time leaving the garage and walking across the forecourt to the Compound.