“I was supposed to leave all of this drama behind when I moved out here.”  Bailey sipped her tea, resting her head on Justin’s shoulder as they sat on the porch swing.  It was early, not quite seven in the morning.  Carter was still sleeping, and the two adults were discussing the Travis situation.

“What do you think Travis is going to do?” Justin was worried about Carter’s sudden brush off and what that might do to Travis. 

Bailey shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I mean, the Travis I knew years ago would’ve done whatever he could to avoid confrontation.  This guy, though…I don’t know who he is anymore.”

Justin emptied the last of his coffee cup, setting in down on the table next to the swing.  He didn’t want to get in the middle of things with Bailey, Carter and Travis.  It wasn’t his place to tell them what to decide and what to do.  He was concerned and he would do whatever he could, but he was apprehensive.  A lot could go wrong with all of this, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to handle it all.

“Do you want me to take Carter for the day, so you can talk to Travis?”

Bailey studied Justin closely.  She was happy to have him with her; he’d been a huge support through all of this.  She worried, though.  She knew that Travis being around was going to put a strain on her relationship with Justin, and she worried about that.  Right now, though, she didn’t have the energy to devote to sorting through everything.  “Yeah, actually, that would be great.  Maybe you guys could just spend the day hanging out here?  I think Travis needs to relax a little.”

“Sure.  There are some things I wanted to do around the house, anyway.”  Justin kissed Bailey briefly, smiling over at her.  “It’s a good thing you have me around to do the man chores.”

Bailey raised an eyebrow, grinning.  “Man chores?”

“Right,” he puffed up his chest, taking a deep breath.  “All the manly things, like, fixing that leak in the bathroom, and mowing the lawn, and installing the air conditioner.  Man chores.”  His smiled widened as Bailey’s grin turned into a chuckle.

“You are very manly.”  She teased, placing a kiss on his jaw line.

Justin grunted, “don’t you forget it, woman.”

~*~

“What do you want me to do, Travis?  I can’t force him to want to spend time with you.”  The tone of Bailey’s voice should have been a warning, but it had been so long since Travis had been around her, he was missing the signs.

“Well…yeah.”  His head fell back in exasperation.  “He’s my son, Sarah.  I deserve to be a part of his life.”  It was probably better that Travis couldn’t see the look that Bailey was sending in his direction.  Her eyes were narrow slits, and her pulse was racing.

She cleared her throat, doing her best to reign in her temper.  “My name is Bailey.”  She said through clenched teeth.  “And you are not part of Carter’s life because of the decisions you made, not me.  You got yourself thrown in jail.  You spent his entire existence behind bars.  I have been there for every single moment of this boy’s life.  And I told you, Travis, I begged you to get out and clean up.  This is all on you.”

While the truth of her words stung a lot, Travis was too proud to admit it.  He’d done his time and he’d paid for his sins.  Now he just wanted to get to know his son.  “I’m sorry, I should rephrase that.”  He took a deep breath and looked over at the woman he was once so madly in love with.  She looked so different, but he could still see Sarah in there, somewhere.  “I have a lot to make up for, Bailey.”  He emphasized her name, making sure to get it right.  It would always feel foreign, though.  “I want to know Carter and I want him to know me.”

Another deep breath in, “I understand that, Travis.  But I will not force my son to do something he doesn’t want to.  I can try to talk to him about it, but the decision is his and his alone.”  She glanced over at the man next to her.  “Did you really expect him to be happy to see you?”

Travis shrugged.  “I don’t know what I expected.”  He licked his lips, resting his arms across the back of the park bench they were seated on.  The sun was warm on his face, but there was enough of a breeze to make it a pleasant day.  “I think I was hoping that time had stopped and you would still be in Boston, waiting for me with our baby.”  His face grew hot with shame.  “I didn’t expect to have to chase you across the country, find you with another man, and find that my son had all but grown up without me.”

Bailey let out a humorless laugh.  “You say that like all of this is my fault.”  She stood from the bench, pacing slightly on the dirt path in front of Travis.  “I made some bad decisions in my life, too, but I’ve made up for those and then some.  Everything I did, I did it with my son’s best interest in mind.”

“And this guy…this, Justin?”

Bailey stopped walking and turned slowly, her blue eyes piercing.  “He is non of your business.”

Travis held up his hands, surrendering.  “Sorry.”

Bailey let out a long, ragged sigh.  “I will talk to Carter.  I will see if I can get him to agree to meet you one more time.”  When a smile started to light his face, Bailey held up a hand to stop him.  “I make absolutely no promises, though.  And if he says no, Travis…you have to leave us alone.  You have to…” she trailed off.  Suddenly she wasn’t sure if she could let him leave, because he knew where they lived now, and he could certainly use that information against her.

“Bailey?”

She cleared her throat, shaking the negative thoughts away.  “I’ll talk to him.  Okay?  I’ll call you when he’s made his decision, and then we’ll figure the rest out.”

Travis felt his heart leap hopefully in his chest.  “That’s all I ask.”

~*~

Carter watched Justin climb the ladder onto the roof.  When the older man was up, he followed, carefully stepping from one rung to the next.  He wasn’t a huge fan of heights, but when Justin asked for his help replacing some of the roof shingled, he’d said yes.

“You all right?”  Justin asked, offering a hand to Carter as he took the final step onto the roof.

“Yeah, I’m good.”  The two of them slowly made their way toward the chimney, finding the spot where the leak had been coming into the living room. 

“Here’s the spot.  This shouldn’t take too long.”  Justin knelt down, ripping off the few rotten shingles before starting to affix the new ones.  “Can you hand me those nails?”

Carter took a seat next to Justin, careful not to look down too much.  He held out the nails Justin had asked for, watching as the older man started nailing down sections of shingles.  “Can I ask you a question?”  Carter’s voice was small, and Justin glanced over briefly to make sure he was okay.

“Of course you can.”

Carter took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “What should I do about Travis?”

Justin stopped nailing.  He set his hammer down and carefully turned himself around so he could take a seat next to Carter.  “Well, that’s not really a question I can answer for you, buddy.”

“I know, it’s just…”  Carter trailed off, feeling the swell of emotions inside his chest start to choke him.  Justin’s warm hand came to rest comfortingly on his shoulder, and Carter blinked back tears.

“Take a deep breath.  It’s okay.”  Justin patted the boy’s back, watching as he attempted to calm down.

“I don’t think I need a dad, Justin.  And I don’t think my mom needs Travis around, either.  He really hurt her, you know.”  Carter’s eyes looked off into the distance, seeing another lifetime.  “My Gramps told me about my mom and dad.  Mom didn’t like to talk about Travis, so Gramps told me what happened and how Travis had really messed everything up.  I know why he went to jail.”

Justin waited, keeping quiet as Carter get everything off his chest.

“I don’t think he’s a good man, Justin, even though Mom says that he’s just made some stupid mistakes.”  Carter looked over at Justin, licking his lips to get some moisture back into his dry mouth.  “But I’m afraid that if I don’t spend time with him like he wants, he’s going to tell someone about where we are and we’ll have to move again, or…”  he trailed off, not wanting to finish his last thought.

“Carter,” Justin wiped his hands on his pants.  “I think you just need to focus on you, and what you want.  I can take care of your mom, I promise.”  He smiled over at the boy, hoping to ease some of his fears.  “You need to decide if getting to know Travis, your father, is something you want or something you might want later in life.  We’ll figure everything else out when the time comes, okay?”  Justin watched Carter, waiting for his answer.

“Yeah, okay.”  Carter nodded and his shoulders relaxed for the first time in the past few days.

“Now, how about we finish up with these shingles, and then I take you over to the lot and we work on your fast ball?”

Carter’s grin reached his eyes as he smiled up at Justin.  “Yeah, I’d like that.”