The Better Man (Chicago Sisters) (5 page)

“Okay,” Wayne said, opening the file that lay in front of him. “We need to talk about a couple of things before we have our first appearance before the judge. The good news is you’ve consistently paid your child support.”

Max had been willing to pay whatever Katie needed to care for Aidan. The divorce was easy. They’d had little money at the time, so they shared a lawyer. They’d agreed on joint custody, but Katie was the custodial parent. Max was granted visitation, but that hadn’t really happened. As soon as everything was finalized, Katie moved Aidan to Chicago.

Max could have fought her, could have forced her to stay in California, but he hadn’t. Sadly, his only excuse was that it was easier for him to have her gone. He made plans to fly out for visits, but work picked up and he kept pushing the trips back. Weeks turned into months, months turned into years.

Max’s biggest regret was that he had thought his name was on the birth certificate and the money he put in Katie’s bank account made him a better father than his own. There was so much more he could have done and so much time had been wasted.

“I’m fairly certain we can get a judge to consider some form of visitation between appearances even if Mrs. Michaels fights us on it. It would be even better if you two would agree to arbitration or mediation.”

“I’ll do whatever. I don’t think Katie will agree to mediation, though.”

“We’ll ask for that first. I need confirmation from you that her moving was the reason your visitation agreement was not followed. Then we need something to go to the judge with that will cast you in a better light. It also wouldn’t hurt if we had some character witnesses. Friends, family, people who will testify that you’re a good man with every intention of being a good father.”

Character witnesses?
His mom was the only family he had, and she was unreliable at best. Friends were a luxury he couldn’t afford. He was always friendly, of course—it was required in his profession. Max made it his job to know his patrons and keep regulars coming back by getting personal. He knew details about their lives only a friend would know, but they knew nothing about him. Did they like him? Everyone liked him. But no one really knew him.

“What if all my character witnesses live too far away?”

Wayne took a breath and held it for a second before exhaling. He held his hands out, palms up. “Then I need you to make some friends. And fast. Because right now, she’s making a fairly strong case that your lack of involvement in your son’s life is because you’re negligent. We need people to tell the judge they know you as someone other than a guy who deserted his kid.”

It felt like a ball of fire exploded in Max’s chest. “I never deserted my son! Katie moved. What was I supposed to do? I had a job and a life in California.”

“Okay, that, right there, you
cannot
do that in front of the judge or the arbitrator,” Wayne said firmly. “But what I’m hearing you say is, had Mrs. Michaels not left the state, you would have continued visits with your son. Am I right?”

Max wanted to say yes, but the truth wasn’t that simple. Even if she’d stayed, it probably wouldn’t have changed how much time he’d spent—or not spent—with Aidan. He hadn’t deserted his son. He’d let them walk away from him and chosen not to follow.

“I’m sure I would have spent more time with him if he’d lived closer,” Max answered, the heat of his earlier anger slowly fading.

“But was her moving out of state the major obstacle?” Wayne prompted him with a nod of his head.

“Yes?”

“Is that an answer or a question?”

“An answer?”

Wayne sat back in his chair, his lips turned slightly upward. “Don’t do that in court, either. When you answer a question, you need to answer decisively. There can be no doubt. The judge isn’t going to believe someone who sounds like he doesn’t believe himself.”

Max scrubbed his face with his hands. This was going to be tougher than he thought. “I’ll work on that.”

“That’s all I can ask.” Wayne unleashed his full smile. Two rows of perfect, white teeth. “Well, that and make some friends, Max. Quickly.”

* * *

I
T
WAS
A
short cab ride back to his condo. The sun had set and the streetlights cast an orange glow on the pavement. It was only a little after seven, but Max was tired. And hungry.

He pulled out his keys and searched for the right one to open the main entrance. Before he figured it out, the door opened and Charlie nearly bowled him over.

“Oh, man, sorry about that!” His hulk of a neighbor stepped back. “Seems like every time our paths cross, I’m running you over. I swear I make my living saving lives, not taking them.”

Max waved off the apology. “Don’t sweat it. It’s my ninja skills. They make it impossible for you to see me coming.”

Charlie’s caterpillar eyebrows scrunched together before lifting along with one side of his mouth. “You’re funny, Floor Three. Ninja skills. That’s a good one.”

Max shrugged and reached for the door.

“Hey, I’m meeting a couple of guys for some dinner and the Hawks game, you wanna tag along?” Charlie offered.

As much as Max wanted to climb those stairs and lock himself inside his condo for the night, Wayne’s voice played in his head.
Make friends, Max.
Charlie was a nice, upstanding citizen who worked for the city and saved lives daily. Who wouldn’t want someone like that as a character witness?

“Sure. Thanks, man.” Max let the door close and followed a grinning Charlie down the steps.

Make friends, Max. Quickly.

CHAPTER FIVE

K
ENDALL
POURED
TWO
glasses of wine with shaky hands as her sister sat at the kitchen table, watching and wondering. Lucy had no idea what kind of bomb Kendall was about to drop. Kendall’s older sister was a realist. She didn’t believe in things like fate or miracles, ghosts or doppelgängers. She was also the rock in Kendall’s life. Strong and sure. It was six-year-old Lucy who told four-year-old Kendall that the tooth fairy wasn’t real, but Lucy was also the first one to drop everything and fly to North Carolina the day the two marines showed up at Kendall’s door to inform her of Trevor’s untimely death.

Lucy plucked the wine glass from her sister’s hand. “Okay, dish. What’s going on with you?”

Kendall stepped out of the kitchen and tiptoed down the narrow hallway, allowing her a clear view of Simon on the couch in the family room, snuggling the snowy white stuffed seal his aunt had given him for making it through the entire school day. The television was a tad too loud, but she didn’t ask him to turn it down since what she had to say wasn’t for his ears, anyway. The little boy giggled at the antics of the cartoon puppies. It made Kendall smile to see him so content. His moments of peace were hers, as well.

That warm fuzzy feeling didn’t last, though. As soon as she sat down across from her older sister, the ball of anxiety inside her chest pushed against her ribs and made it hard to breathe. “So, the guy Simon and I saw last week...” she whispered.

Lucy leaned in. “The one who looked like Trevor?”

Kendall nodded and took a sip of wine. “I saw him today.”

“This is about seeing Trevor’s freaky clone?”

The sound of his name scratched Kendall’s skin, leaving her feeling raw and vulnerable.
Trevor, Trevor, Trevor.
His name had run through her head all day, a distraction she couldn’t afford. “He works for Sato.”

Lucy choked on her drink. She coughed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “What?”

Kendall wished her thoughts weren’t so scrambled. It wasn’t Trevor. It was Max.
Max, Max, Max.
That name, associated with that face, felt so strange as it bounced around her head. “He’s the restaurant manager. I spent the whole day with him.”

“Oh, honey.” Lucy grabbed and squeezed Kendall’s hand. “No wonder you were ready to fall apart when you got home.”

Snatching her hand away, Kendall sat back in her chair. “I’m not falling apart. I can’t fall apart. This is the biggest job of my career. I can’t mess it up because this guy reminds me of...” She shook her head, unable to say his name aloud.

Lucy frowned at her sister before getting up and grabbing the wine bottle off the counter. “How Trevor-like are we talking here?”

“Very,” Kendall said. Almost identical from a distance. Up close, she noticed the subtle differences—his nose had a small bump, there was no scar on his chin, and his eyes definitely belonged to another soul. Max had brown eyes like hers. Brown with little flecks of gold. They were so warm compared to Trevor’s icy blue.

“You freaked out when you saw him, didn’t you? Did you faint? Please tell me you didn’t faint. That’s so cliché.” Kendall didn’t answer, but gave a little shrug. Lucy’s mouth dropped open before she began laughing. “Oh, my God, you totally fainted!”

Kendall’s foot connected with Lucy’s shin. “You have no idea what this is like.”

Her big sister shook her head. “Oh, K. What am I going to do with you?”

“Tell me I can do this. Tell me I’ll get this job done and not feel like I’m being haunted.” Haunted was exactly how Kendall felt. Her heart pounded in her chest. Had it always been this relentless? Maybe she
was
falling apart. This felt like some sort of sick cosmic joke. She had no idea how she was going to survive working side by side with Trevor’s double. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t him. This man would always be a ghost.

Lucy moved her chair so it was butted up against Kendall’s. “You can do this. This guy is going to be in and out of your life faster than you think. Not to mention, the more you’re around him, the less he’ll seem like Trevor. What’s his name?”

“Max,” Kendall replied, still testing the name as it came out of her mouth. It was still strange no matter how many times she said it.

“Max is just some guy. No different than the mailman or the guy at the art store you love to go to.”

Kendall dropped her chin. “The mailman doesn’t remind me of my dead husband. The guy at the art store is close to Dad’s age. Max, on the other hand, could fool Trevor’s father into thinking his son was still alive.”

Lucy blew her blond bangs out of her green eyes. “Any chance the Montgomerys had twins and gave one up for adoption?”

“I seriously doubt it. There was no way Paul would give up anything that belonged to him.” Trevor was gone only because he had been taken. Kendall rested her head on her sister’s shoulder. “Every time I think I’m getting better, something like this knocks me back down.”

“Stop it,” Lucy said sternly. “You are strong and you are my sister. This is nothing. There are setbacks, and there’s this. This is some weird coincidence, not some terrible twist of fate. Keep your distance from this Max, do your job and keep moving forward.”

Lucy was right. This was why Kendall confided in Lucy. Her level head came in handy.

Shuffling feet alerted the two women to Simon’s presence. The head of his stuffed seal was nestled in the crook of the little boy’s elbow. He gave them a closed-mouth smile and scurried around Lucy to Kendall’s other side.

“I’m hungry,” he whispered in his mother’s ear. Simon didn’t speak aloud in front of Lucy or their other sister, Emma. He talked to Kendall’s mother, but not to her dad, and when everyone was around, he didn’t make a peep.

“I’ll start dinner in a minute. Did you think of a name for your seal yet?”

Simon shook his head.

“Her name should be Lucy, don’t you think?” Lucy asked, petting the seal’s head.

“How do you know it’s a girl?” Kendall questioned.

“I adopted the real harp seal. I think I get to choose if the stuffed version is a boy or girl.”

Kendall shook her head and stood up to start dinner. Of course the seal was part of some bigger cause. Lucy never did things the easy way, like go to a big box store and pick out something from their enormous toy section. In fact, Lucy refused to shop at most chains. She’d even participated in some big rally a couple of weeks ago, protesting against one company’s employment practices. Lucy loved a fight, regardless of whether it was hers or not.

Simon pulled on his mom’s shirt, and she bent down so he could whisper in her ear. “I want to name him Seal Lo Green.” CeeLo Green, his cat and
The Voice
had been a big hit in the Montgomery house not too long ago.

Kendall smiled. “Sorry, sis,” she said, patting Lucy on the shoulder. “Looks like it’s a boy!”

Lucy scrunched up her nose and pouted. She playfully tugged on Simon’s arm. “You were the last hope I had for your gender, buddy, and you blew it.”

Simon gave her a confused smile before darting back out into the family room. “I love you, Aunt Lulu,” he said when he was out of sight.

Kendall’s eyes flew to Lucy’s. He spoke! He wasn’t in the same room with Lucy when he did it, but he spoke. Kendall was going to put that little nugget of positivity in her pocket and keep it. Any good that could come from today was priceless.

“He is so lucky I love him,” Lucy said before downing the last of her wine. “Anyone else who called me that would be dead right now.” She wasn’t a fan of that particular nickname, even though Simon had been the one to give it to her. It was taboo because someone else used to call her Lulu and that someone was no longer allowed to call Lucy
anything
.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Kendall said, pulling some chicken from the refrigerator. “You say I need to suck it up and deal with the fact that I’m working with a man who strongly resembles my dead husband, but you’ll kill anyone who uses the nickname your ex-boyfriend stole from my son.”

As strong as Lucy appeared, this subject always did something to her. Made her look more vulnerable than she ever allowed. Her arms crossed her chest and created a shield over her heart. “Your husband left you involuntarily. My ex had a choice, and he chose to walk away. I get to kill.”

“I love you, but I’m not sure anyone has a choice once Lucy Everhart makes up her mind about how things are going to go down.”

Lucy frowned. “Everyone has a choice.”

Kendall couldn’t argue with that. Everyone did have a choice. Trevor had one. He’d made several before he even left for Afghanistan. “Well, be that as it may, I’m pretty sure I won’t have enough money to bail you out if you commit murder,” Kendall teased. “So don’t.”

When Lucy gave in and cracked a smile, Kendall invited her to stay for dinner.

“Is that free-range chicken?”

“No.”

Lucy got up and opened the refrigerator. She pulled out the gallon of milk. “What did I tell you about this stuff? It’s chock-full of hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and pus. Plus, do you have any idea how they treat the cows on these dairy farms? It’s horrific. And what is this?” She pulled out a package of pudding in a cup. “Don’t you know what the preservatives in this stuff are doing to Simon’s growing body?”

Kendall snatched them away. After their mother’s breast cancer diagnosis, all three girls had been forced to pay closer attention to their bodies. Lucy was the most diligent of all three of them, yet she was the one who’d found a lump in her breast two years ago. That should have pushed Kendall to make better decisions about what she ate, but buying and cooking all-organic was also another luxury this single, working mom couldn’t afford. Not to mention that some things were just too tempting. Comfort food was all she had to make her feel better some days.

“Those are for me, thank you very much. Preservatives hopefully won’t hurt my already-grown body. The worst these can do is make my pants tight, but I’m fine with the fact that I don’t have a size 4 butt like
some
people.”

Lucy rolled her eyes and shut the refrigerator door. “I think I’ll go home and treat my body, including my size 4 butt, like the temple it is.” She pulled Kendall in for a tight hug. “You can do this,” she said, then kissed her on the cheek.

It was exactly what Kendall needed to hear.

* * *

L
UCY
WAS
RIGHT
about one thing—the best plan of action over the next two weeks was to steer clear of Max Jordan. Not only did he physically resemble Trevor, but he also knew how to give orders like him. The man acted like his life depended on being the bossiest person in the room.

Kendall hadn’t been a fan when her husband forgot he wasn’t her sergeant. She certainly didn’t like it when Max did the same. Every time she stepped foot in Sato’s to check on the construction progress, he was telling her what to do.

“You need to call the flooring subcontractor and get him back out here,” he said, blocking her path. “I asked him three times to fix the tile in the bathroom and he didn’t do it.”

This guy was quickly becoming a giant thorn in Kendall’s side. He might be a great restaurant manager, but he had no idea how to manage a remodeling project. She took a deep, cleansing breath instead of pushing him out of her way. “Once we get the west room finished, we’ll put together a punch list and the flooring guy will come back in and make everything right.”

“I thought we agreed that your redesign in the west room took away necessary space for the waitstaff to get to and from the kitchen.”

“I’m not sure
agreed
is the word I would use.” They hadn’t “agreed” on anything. In fact, she recalled telling him she’d change the design when she heard from Mr. Sato and only Mr. Sato. She stepped around him and set her laptop bag on the main bar. “You know what I remember? I remember discussing it wasn’t necessary for you to be here every day.”

Max followed her. “Well, I remember telling you Mr. Sato left me in charge of overseeing this remodel, and I
will
be here every day to make sure this restaurant opens on time.”

Kendall placed both hands on the granite counter, letting the coolness of the stone combat the heat of her temper. Max stood behind her. His reflection in the mirrored wall across from her was glaring at the back of her head. His eyes were narrowed and his five o’clock shadow emphasized the tension in his jaw. Like Trevor, Max was all hard, sharp lines, a perfect contrast to her soft curves. The facial hair made it easier to think of him as Max instead of Trevor, who was always clean-shaven.

She turned to face him. The brown eyes were still hard to get used to. They always caught her off guard. She struggled to regain focus, blinking and probably looking a fool. When she regained her composure, she attempted to appease him. “I have every intention of making sure this restaurant opens on time. If you let me do my job, we won’t have any trouble meeting our deadlines.”

He mirrored her movement to keep her from escaping and put a hand on her arm when she tried once more to move around him. It was the first time he’d touched her since their disastrous introduction. Kendall couldn’t stop the déjà vu that it prompted. The last time she saw Trevor alive, she’d been storming away and he’d tried to stop her. The memory jolted through her like an electrical shock.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Max said firmly. “I will be here. Every day. Whether you want me here or not.”

It was the exact opposite of what Trevor said in her memory, and what she had so badly wanted him to say back then. Hearing those words now, from this man with her husband’s face, was too much. She bit her lip to keep it from trembling. Max seemed to pick up on her emotion and released her from his grasp. He apologized and dashed away.

Kendall took off for the restroom and locked herself in the first stall. Fat, round tears rolled down her cheeks. Was it wrong to be this angry at someone who was dead? Was it worse to resent someone who was alive simply because he looked like that person? She just wanted Max to go away, to stay clear of the restaurant until the remodel was finished. It would make things so much easier on her, not only because he was annoying, but also because her heart couldn’t take much more abuse.