He wasn't good enough. He hadn't been good enough for his parents, and now he wasn't good enough for Jade, either. If it weren't for his brothers and what they needed from him, he would have driven away this minute and never looked back. Everyone would likely be better off that way.
“Come on, what now?” he groaned when the phone he’d tossed on his passenger seat began ringing. When he glanced down and saw who was calling, he sighed. He honestly wasn’t sure whether he was up to talking to Lacey, not after the blow he’d just suffered. On the other hand, Lacey was taking care of Jade. On the off chance that something was the matter, he wasn’t sure he could afford not to pick up the phone.
“Hey, Lacey, what’s going on?” All of a sudden, he was so tired, he didn’t think he’d ever feel right again. Then there was the added stress of wondering whether she would ask how his meeting with Holloway went.
"Hey," Lacey answered hurriedly. Gone was the typical calm he had come to expect from her. She sounded harried and distracted, which made him sit up a little straighter. He was starting to be glad he'd picked up the phone.
“What’s going on, honey?” he asked, cringing at how easily the pet name slipped off his tongue. The last thing he needed was to give Lacey the impression they were headed toward some kind of happily ever after. Not that he needed to worry. At the moment, she was apparently too distracted to notice the term of endearment.
“Trevor, I’m so sorry, I know this goes against the whole reason that I’m staying on at the ranch for the summe—” she started, talking a mile a minute.
“Whoa, there,” he interrupted, doing his best to make his voice sound soothing. “First of all, there’s no need to apologize. Far as I can tell, you haven’t done anything wrong. Second, what exactly are we talking about here?”
“It’s Jade,” Lacey said nervously. “I know I’m supposed to be the one watching her, and I love doing it, but it would be so, so great if you could take over. Like, right now.”
"Sure, of course," Trevor said without hesitation. "Just so long as you tell me what's going on. Are you okay? You in some kind of trouble?"
"No," she sighed, already sounding relieved. "Just dealing with a nuisance. I got a call from the man handling my loan, and he said he needs me to come in and discuss some things. I would take Jade with me, but—"
“But that’s no place for a kid,” he finished for her. “Don’t worry about it. I can be back at the house in ten minutes flat. That enough time for you?”
“Oh my gosh, yes!” she cried with pure exuberance. “Thank you! Seriously, Trevor, you’re the best. I don’t know what I’d do without you!” Before he could attempt to respond, Lacey hung up the phone.
Trevor knew he needed to get moving, but for a second, all he could do was sit and stare down at his phone. A minute and a half ago, he'd been feeling like the worst kind of failure, and now, one phone call from Lacey later, he was surprised to find that he felt kind of good. Mr. Holloway didn't think he amounted to anything, but for a wonder, Lacey did. When she needed somebody, she’d called him. That had to count for something.
As he put the truck into reverse and hurried back toward the McCall ranch, only one thought kept running through his mind. He wasn't ready to give up—statistics be damned. Jade was worth fighting for, and that was exactly what he was going to do. Staying and fighting for the future, he was starting to realize, might not be such a bad thing after all.
13
"When is she coming home?" Jade called loudly from the living room. Her mood had been steadily declining throughout the afternoon and evening, and at this point, she was in full-on whining mode. Trevor may have been pleased by the idea of taking care of Jade on his own, but it was a whole lot more difficult in practice than in theory. With Lacey being her primary caregiver, Jade seemed to think of Trevor more as a buddy than a parental figure. Add on top of that the fact that she was still young enough to start getting truly cranky as the day wore on and she began to get tired, and things had been far from a cakewalk. Currently, he was trying to make them dinner and failing miserably. He wouldn't go so far as to call the results inedible, but they were cutting it close.
“I want Lacey now!” Jade called out again, just in case he hadn’t fully realized her displeasure.
“I know it, sweetie,” Trevor said, trying hard to keep the annoyance out of his voice and only partially succeeding. “I wouldn’t mind having her here myself, but she’s at the bed and breakfast.”
"Make her come home!" Jade insisted with the pure stubbornness found only in children.
There was no reasoning with her, and Trevor knew it, but that didn't make things any easier. From where he was standing, it was fixing to be a long night. “Can’t do that, Jade,” he said as patiently as he was able. “We need to let Lacey get her work done so she can get that place up and running. And you like the bed and breakfast, too, right?”
“No,” Jade said sourly, coming into the kitchen and crossing her arms across her chest. Despite the testiness of the evening, it was all he could do not to laugh. They both knew that Jade loved what she called “Lacey’s Place.” If she was crossing her arms over that, they must really be at the point of no return. He was about to say something to that effect when the phone in his back pocket started ringing.
"Is it Lacey?" Jade asked hopefully, perking up even as she looked at the ruined mess of Trevor's attempt at a quesadilla. "Is she coming home?"
“Lord, I hope so,” Trevor muttered to himself. For the first time since their night together, Trevor felt no trepidation at the idea of seeing Lacey. Except that she wasn’t the one calling. It was Frank Hoffman on the line. As much as he liked the guy, seeing the name pop up now filled him with an instant feeling of foreboding.
“Lacey?” Jade asked again, her smile turning uncertain.
"No, darlin’, I'm afraid not. I've got to take this call real quick, but when I'm done, we'll figure out something for you to eat. Something that isn't burnt."
He smiled, happy to see that he’d managed to get a small laugh out of her, and moved into the hallway to take his call.
"Frank, buddy, what's going on? Don't usually hear from you this time of day," he said by way of greeting, playing it lighthearted for the moment.
Unfortunately, Frank wasn't in the mood for a casual conversation. "Hey, boss, I'm sorry to bother you, but we've got a heck of a situation here, and it's not one I'm equipped to handle."
"Okay," Trevor said slowly, trying to get his bearings. "Tell me. Give it to me straight, too. This isn't a great time to head back to Helena, if I'm being honest. I have to know if I really need to."
As Trevor listened to his foreman and friend, he began to understand that going to Helena was exactly what he needed to do. Frank had been doing his best to keep things together, but today he'd learned that one of the newer hires was stealing money from the till, and another had been caught in bed with the daughter of one of Trevor's top clients. Along with a project that had gone wrong in every way a job could go wrong, and Frank was in over his head.