Chapter Five

Tuesday Afternoon

“I want those papers on my desk by eight in the morning or we'll be scouting a new location.”

Lance leaned back in his office chair, his legs and elbow resting on his desk.

“Yeah, yeah, that's right,” he said. “And you'll get to explain to your boss how you lost him so much money.”

He slammed the office phone back on the receiver. He groaned and covered his face with his hands, harshly rubbing his eyes.

Two o'clock – only two o'clock. It would be at least another three hours before he could pick Kayleigh up from daycare and go home to collapse on the couch. He was so tired. He could barely function.

In the four nights since Kayleigh had come to stay with him, he'd gotten less than half the sleep he needed because she kept him up. He couldn't figure it out – didn't kids need like, ten hours of sleep a night in order to be the bundles of energy they normally were? And what about the phrase “sleeping like a baby” - weren't they supposed to sleep all the time?

He'd managed to get her in at Kiddie Academy yesterday morning – barely. Money could talk and do wonderful things, and as he'd imagined, he'd had to mostly buy his way into the only extra spot they had. Or at least, he'd bought his speedy way into it.

“Is it sorted out?”

He turned to see Wendy standing in his office doorway, leaned against the door frame.

She was still mad at him; in fact, he could see it in her face now. Since Sunday, for the most part, they had done a good job of avoiding each other and letting each other do their respective jobs. She had been quite upset at him Monday morning when he'd had to come in to the office late to try to get Kayleigh into daycare, but he didn't bother trying to smooth things over with her when he'd finally made it in to work. He was far too tired to deal with it.

“For the most part,” Lance responded, willing his eyes not to close as he leaned his head back. “I'm waiting on the papers but they should be here first thing in the morning.”

“Good,” she said. “Lance, we need to talk.”

He groaned. Great, he thought.

“Wendy, I'm too tired to deal with this,” he said. “Can you ripping me a new asshole yet again wait a few days?”

“Your dedication to this company and to the job has slipped,” she said. “You're spending too much time partying.”

He scoffed. “Partying? That's what you think I'm doing?”

“I saw you at the office Christmas party on Thursday,” she said. “You were drunk beyond your own comprehension. I saw you slip out with Claire from accounting. You can't risk our business like this, Lance.”

“I'm not partying,” he said, looking at her with a smile. “Unless you think that spending your nights playing with Barbies and consoling a crying four-year-old at two in the morning is a party. In that case, by all means, crash the party – maybe I could get a decent night's worth of sleep.”

“Barbies?” she said.

“Yeah,” he responded. “Oh, didn't I tell you? I found out I have a kid. I forgot, you were too busy ripping me for not leaving her at home alone to come in and babysit the project funding.”

“You have a kid?” she asked, obviously stunned.

“Yeah,” he said, his tone becoming snide. “Funny how that happens, huh? Maybe you're right Wendy. Maybe I have been spending too much time partying.”

He was amused by her open-mouthed stare until his desk phone rang again, and he had to look away to pick it up.

“Happy Place Productions, this is Lance.”

“Hi, Mr. Bass?” a female voice said.

“Yes, can I help you?”

“This is Lisa Brooks, from Kiddie Academy. I'm calling in regards to your daughter, Kayleigh.”

He leaned up in his seat, suddenly feeling panicked.

“Is she okay? What happened?”

“Oh no sir, Kayleigh's fine,” Lisa answered. “Unfortunately, we do have a slight problem. We're going to have to ask you to come pick her up immediately.”

“I'm at work right now,” he responded. “What's wrong? Is she sick?”

“No, sir,” she responded. “I'm sorry to bother you at work, but we can't have Kayleigh here at the daycare anymore. She got into a fight with another little boy and bit him.”

“She bit him?” he asked, his mouth dropping open.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “We need you to pick her up as soon as possible.”

He sighed. “I'll be there in twenty minutes.”

Instead of waiting for a goodbye from her, he hung up the phone, standing to attention and grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair and throwing it on.

“I have to pick up Kayleigh from daycare,” he said, barely looking at Wendy. “I'll be gone the rest of the day, I have Daddy duty. Guess you'll have to learn how to be sufficient on your own.”

He breezed past her and out of his office before she could respond, leaving her still stunned.

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He picked her up from daycare, apologizing to the teacher that he talked to – which wasn't exactly his forte – and managed to smooth things over by offering to pay for any of the boy's medical bills. The whole ride home was quiet, Kayleigh in the back hanging her head and barely looking out the window, avoiding his looks.

They pulled up to the house and she unbuckled herself, rushing out of the car when he opened the door for her. The minute they got inside and he closed the door behind him, he saw her take off running toward the staircase.

“Kayleigh Jane Jackson, you get your butt back here right now,” he scolded.

She froze a couple of steps up, slowly turning around to look at him before stepping over to him.

“Why would you do something like that?”

“But Daddy...”

“Kayleigh Jane, you answer my question! Why would you do something like that?”

Looking at her dejected face, he realized...this was the first time he had ever scolded her. Or any child, for that matter.

He hated it.

“Daddy, he called me a bad name,” she said quietly.

“What did he call you?” he asked.

It was a few moments before she answered; her head hung low and the points of her toe dug into the carpet as he waited for her.

“He called me a bastard,” she said.

He noticed that her voice had changed, as if she was crying. Shortly after, he noticed the sounds of her sobbing.

He sighed and ran his hand over his face, eventually kneeling down on the carpet to her level.

“Kayleigh,” he said. “Honey...he shouldn't have said that to you. It was mean. But you can't bite him, do you understand?”

“He called mama a whore.”

Hearing the word 'whore' come out of his daughter's mouth stunned him.

“Sweetie, mama wasn't a whore,” he said. “Mama was a wonderful person. You know that.”

“But that boy said she was one.”

“That boy doesn't know mama,” he said, leaning down to look her in the eyes. “We knew mama, right? And we know better, don't we?”

“Did you ever love mama?”

He had to admit that the question took him by surprise. What could he say? He couldn't tell her the truth, that he hadn't spent enough time with her in order to love her – only enough to make a baby and then bolt. But he couldn't tell her a bold-faced lie, either.

“Why, sweetie?” he asked.

“Because that boy said you never loved mama, and you never wanted me. He said you never loved me and that's why you were never around.”

The idea that someone had told his daughter – his little girl – that he didn't love her...made his blood boil.

“Kayleigh Jane, you listen to me,” he said. “That boy doesn't know anything. Just because I wasn't around before doesn't mean I don't love you – because I'm here now. I do want you. I do love you. You got it?”

She only nodded.

“Kayleigh,” he said, softening his voice. “I love you.”

And that was it. He had changed. Five days ago he had never even imagined he would be standing in front of a four-year-old, much less telling her he loved her and meaning it.

But here he was.

He grabbed her into a hug as the tears started coming down her eyes and cheeks, lifting her up into his arms. He ran his fingers through her curly hair as she cried into his shoulder, tears staining his suit jacket.

“You're grounded from TV for a week,” he said, whispering into her ear. “But how about ice cream to make you feel better?”

He smiled as he felt her nod, even as she continued crying, and carried her into the kitchen. By the time he'd filled a bowl full of ice cream, he was wiping her tears as she ate it, smiling. He'd softened.

He was surprised when there was a knock on the door.

“I'll be right back, Kay,” he said, leaving her sitting at the island with her ice cream.

When he opened the door to see Leann Stanley, he was sure the shock registered on his face.

“Mrs. Stanley,” he said.

“Hello, Mr. Bass,” she said, smiling. “Did you forget about my home visit today?”

“I did,” he said. “You caught me unprepared.”

“That's usually what we do,” she said. “Although that certainly wasn't my intention today. May I come in?”

“Yeah, of course,” he said.

Even though he knew he had nothing to hide, he felt nervous as she walked into his house and he closed the door behind her. The only context he'd ever thought of Social Services or DCF was when it was bad, when parents weren't taking care of their kids. Being so new and unprepared for this, he was sure he was making mistakes along the way, and he didn't want those to be misconstrued and count against him. It made his stomach twist up into a knot.

“I realize that my visit today may make you nervous, especially if you forgot and I caught you unprepared,” she said, as if she was reading his mind. “I want to assure you that today I'm only coming into the home to have a look around, monitor how you guys are getting along starting out, and advise you of anything I see that may be harmful to Kayleigh to give you a chance to change it.”

“Okay, that sounds good,” he said.

“Your house is very nice, Mr. Bass,” she said, immediately looking around the living room. “Do you own it?”

“I do. I own two homes, actually – this one here and one out in Los Angeles.”

“Oh really?” she asked. “Do you go out there often?”

“Well, I used to, but I'm sure my travel time will be cut down a lot now, unless it's for business.”

“What is it that you do, Mr. Bass?” she asked, writing down things on her legal pad.

“I own a production company,” he said. “We do a lot of the work behind making movies – finding the funding, hiring and managing the crew, setting filming locations, handling pre- and post-production, things like that.”

“So you make a pretty good income then,” she said.

“It gets me by,” he said, smiling.

“How has Kayleigh handled the past few days with you?” she asked, slowly moving her way around the living room as she looked over things and wrote on her pad.

“It hasn't been too bad,” he said, putting his hands in the pockets of his suit jacket. “We're finding a routine, I think. The only problems we've had is during the night.”

“Nights not going so well?” she asked, briefly looking up.

“Sleep doesn't seem to come to her so easily,” he said.

“How do you handle things when you're feeling tired?”

He was smart enough to catch onto her.

“It's not so bad,” he said. “Sometimes she'll take a small nap during the day and I can get a few minutes of rest. The rest of the time we relax on the couch and watch a movie, read a book, that sort of thing.”

He was appeased when she only smiled in response.

“Where is Kayleigh now?” she finally asked.

“She's in the kitchen.”

“Would it be okay if we stepped in there for a few moments before I go upstairs?”

“Sure.”

He led her into the kitchen where Kayleigh was still seated on the stool at the island counter, putting big spoonfuls of ice cream into her mouth. When she heard the adults enter the room, she turned.

“Miss Leann!” she yelled, smiling.

“Hi, Kayleigh,” Leann said, walking over to the counter. “Oh, you have ice cream there?”

“Yeah, want some?”

“That's okay,” Leann responded with a smile, then turned to Lance. “I assume ice cream so close to dinner isn't a regular occurrence?”

“No,” he said with a laugh. “We had a bit of a bad second day at daycare.”

“Oh yeah? What happened Kayleigh?”

“I bit a mean boy.”

Lance could feel his muscles clench.

“Is that true?” Leann asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “They had a little misunderstanding with each other. He said some things that upset her. We've had a talk about it already.”

“And I'm neeeeever gonna do it again,” Kayleigh said, looking into her bowl before putting another spoonful into her mouth.

To Lance's relief, Leann laughed. “That's good, Kayleigh.”

He watched her take a few notes before she looked up again at Kayleigh.

“Kayleigh, would you mind if we talked for a couple minutes by ourselves?” She looked over at him. “I hope that's okay with you.”

“Yeah, that's fine,” he said, feeling the nervousness in his stomach again. “I'll be in the living room.”

When he hesitantly walked out of the living room, he couldn't help but slip against the wall, hoping to listen in to their conversation.

“Kayleigh, do you like living here with Lance?” he heard Leann say.

“Yeah, Miss Leann, I really like living here.”

“Do you guys do anything fun?”

“Sometimes we watch movies. He reads me books, too. And he sits with me when I play. He likes playing dolls.”

Lance tried to stifle a laugh – it wasn't that he liked playing with her dolls. In fact, he was hard pressed to find anything more boring to do with his day. It was the fact that he liked watching her play with them; it was something so small that brought her so much joy.

“That's good, Kayleigh,” he heard Leann say. “Does he take good care of you?”

“Yeah,” Kayleigh responded. “He feeds me every night, and I take a bath, and he reads to me before I go to bed.”

“It sounds like the two of you are getting along well with each other, then,” Leann said.

“Yeah, he's my Daddy. I really love him, Miss Leann.”

Lance found himself smiling.

“Is it okay if I go with your Daddy upstairs and see your room, Kayleigh?”

Lance walked quickly away from the wall in an effort to at least look like he hadn't been eavesdropping, and only smiled at Leann when she entered the living room again.

“Would you mind if we go upstairs and check over everything?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he said, leading her up the stairs.

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“So everything looks pretty good,” she finally said as she came back down the stairs with him following. “I have a list of some things that I'll need you to fix, but they're pretty basic. They're simple safety precautions that you should take to child-proof the house for Kayleigh, since she's so young. I won't be back again until after the Christmas holiday to check, so you have another couple of weeks to do everything.”

He nodded. She had gone upstairs to check through all the rooms – he could only assume to make sure that everything was clean and she had a real bed to sleep in. All the while, he could only wonder what she was writing on her yellow legal pad.

“And don't worry, you're not in trouble for anything on this list,” she said, ripping a page off the pad before handing it over to him. “I understand that all of this was unexpected and you didn't have an opportunity to plan for it. We're simply giving you this opportunity to fix these things.”

He glanced briefly over the list she had given him – it was basic and he couldn't say he was surprised by anything she had listed. Drawer and cabinet locks, locks for medicine cabinets, poisonous substances put into only locked cabinets or high places, covers for electrical sockets...

“I can definitely manage this,” he said.

“I figured you could,” she said, smiling. “That's a basic list I've written out for you but I'll have a more formal copy available in your records, if you need one. I think I'm done for the day, so I'll get out of your hair for now.”

“I appreciate your help,” he said, folding the list in half. “I love having Kayleigh around here, so anything I can do to make it better for her, I'll gladly do.”

“I'm glad to hear that,” she said. “She seems to enjoy being here with you.”

She turned and headed for the door.

“I'll let myself out. Thanks for being so welcoming, Mr. Bass. I'll see you again in two weeks.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Stanley.”

He walked slowly to the door as she opened it and walked out, grabbing the doorknob and closing it behind her. After he was sure she was gone, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

He had successfully survived his first encounter with Social Services.