“Forget it. I didn’t like her attitude—” about Belle almost slipped out of her mouth, but the girl wasn’t all that far away. “This isn’t a hobby. I’m running a business here, and this business is supporting my kid. You may have all the money in the world to cover your ass, but I don’t. I’m trying to do a juggling act with work and Cooper, and it feels like he’s always the ball I drop. I need a manager who can keep this place going so I can spend more time with him. He’s only three, and I already feel the years melting away. You have no idea how time-consuming and expensive it is to raise a kid. Especially on your own. There’s babysitting and activities and schools and sports. And shit, maybe colleges like Cornell.”
Expressing her frustrations and worries acted like a release valve and her fury fizzled into annoyance. “Who the hell goes to Cornell for a Hospitality Management degree, anyway? That’s like walking into Baskin Robbins and asking for a diet soda.”
When Wyatt didn’t laugh, she refocused on his face. “Why do you look like you’re going to throw up?”
“Because I might.” He rubbed his face with both hands. “I’m sorry for not calling. I just… There was so much… The lawyer…” He shook his head. “No excuse. I should have called. I really am sorry.”
Gypsy didn’t want to care about Wyatt’s problems. She had plenty of her own and had no business inviting his into her life. But she couldn’t ignore the terrified, sickened look on his face either.
“Sit down.” She pulled the chair out from the nearest table, and Wyatt sat across from her. “What’s going on? What did the lawyer say?”
Wyatt glanced behind her, where Belle still rattled bottles behind the bar, and lowered his voice before speaking. “Francie’s gone. As in really gone. She moved back to South America to live with her family.”
Gypsy’s mouth dropped open, and the repercussions of this news hit her hard. “Oh no. No. Oh my God.”
Wyatt nodded, pressed one elbow to the table, and rested his head in his hand. “My mind is still spinning. Francie had been thinking about doing this for a while, because she went to the lawyer and had all the correct paperwork drawn up. Larkin, the lawyer, said he tried to offer her options to keep her with Belle, but she wasn’t interested in any of them.”
Gypsy’s heart twisted.
“She refused to leave a forwarding address,” Wyatt went on, “and Larkin doesn’t know how to get in touch with her, so it’s not like I can try to reason with her or create some situation that would work for her to stay here. I’m terrified to tell Belle. I have no idea how she’s going to react. Hell, I still don’t know how I’m taking the news.”
“What kind of papers did she have drawn up?”
“Permanent guardianship. It transfers all parental rights to another person. I still can’t get my mind around just up and walking away from a little girl who loves you. I mean, Francie had to be miserable to do this. I bought her a house and an SUV. After Brody died, I sent her money every month just to make sure she could focus on the one most important thing—Belle. For her to walk away from all that to go back to South America, she had to be really miserable, and it kills me to think how completely unhappy she’d been all this time.”
“What did your parents say? Was this as big a surprise to them as it is to you?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t told them,” he said.
“What? Why not?”
“Because they haven’t had a vacation since Belle was born, and I don’t want to ruin it. They took Francie in as their own. They gave her emotional support, babysat Belle as often as they could, tried to get Francie to go back to school and make some friends. They even encouraged her to start dating again, for God’s sake. They love her. This is going to kill them.”
Gypsy was sick over this turn of events. She knew Wyatt had suffered when he lost his brother. It was the only time he hadn’t come straight to the bar as soon as he’d landed over the last three years. He’d come after seeing his parents, at closing. Gypsy had been blown away he’d come to her for a sympathetic ear. That night marked a turning point in their relationship, from just another flirty customer to something deeper. Something real.
He’d stayed in town long enough to bury his brother and offer emotional support to the rest of the family, but then he was off again on another tour. He hadn’t been quite the same since. A little more subdued, a little more serious. But still the good-time guy with several women on his arm and a playful tease for Gypsy.
Now he was back to the defeated man he’d been when he lost his brother, and Gypsy couldn’t help but hurt for him. “What are you going to do?”
He sat back and lifted his hands. “I wasn’t there when Brody needed me, and, shit, now Francie. I’ll be damned if I’ll do that with Belle.”
“You’re too hard on yourself,” she told him. “People with depression don’t always share what’s going on inside, and you’re not a mind reader. You did all you could with the information you had. The fact that they both wanted you in Belle’s life shows how much respect they had for you.”
Wyatt didn’t argue, but he didn’t look convinced either.
“I can’t help but keep replaying our last moments before she left,” he said. “I knew something was wrong. She’d lost more weight, felt like a skeleton when I hugged her. It was Belle’s first birthday without Brody, and Francie said the day had been hard. Then she went to the car to go pick up more ice cream for the party, but she stopped and just stared at me. I should have known then. She told me she loved me, told me how good I’ve been for Belle. She was saying goodbye, and I couldn’t see it. Then she just drove away.”
He shook his head, coming back to himself with a devastated look on his face. “I can’t believe this is happening. There is no way on God’s green earth this will ever work. I don’t know anything about being a parent. I’m on the road three hundred days a year. I certainly can’t bring a little girl on tour with me. What in the hell am I going to do?”
His leap in thinking confused Gypsy. “Wait, did you sign the papers?”
“Of course.” He gave her a how-could-you-ask look. “She is my brother’s kid.”
“Whoa.” Gypsy went from confused to shocked. “You’re telling me you just accepted guardianship of Belle? As in permanent guardianship? As in, you’re now her dad?”
“Ah, jeez, don’t do that.” He grimaced and waved his hands out in front of him. “Give me a minute to ease into this. Women at least have nine months to get used to the idea. I got nothin’. Jesus Christ, I think I’m going to have a panic attack.”
Gypsy went silent. She had no words for the shock of this news. The shock of Francie up and leaving, the shock of Wyatt’s position, the shock of him actually signing the papers to take Belle on as the most important responsibility of his life.
“Besides,” he said, “my parents’ situation isn’t any better than mine when it comes to Belle. They’re almost seventy-five years old. My dad’s got asthma, bordering on COPD, and my mom’s arthritis makes it harder for her to get around. There’s no way they can raise Belle on their own.” He shook his head and stared at the floor. “I have no fucking idea how this is going to work, but she’s my family, and there’s no way in hell she’s going to be raised in foster care.”