Martin stood outside the conference room where he and Kaleen would be meeting with the mediators and took a deep breath, knowing he was coming into this as prepared as he could be and that was all he could do in this situation.
Brynne sat outside on one of the benches in the main waiting area waiting for him to be done, silently giving him all her strength. Even though she wasn't allowed to come inside with him today, he felt as if she had been his biggest strength and supporter over the last few weeks; she was after all the one who had urged him to sit down ahead of time and write out exactly what it was that he was looking for in terms of visitation; those requests scrawled on the paper currently tucked in his pocket.
He pulled the door open, walking in with his head held high. If he went in confidently and spoke with confidence then maybe it would help his case and make him seem as if he was confident, when in reality he was nervous. He had never done this before nor had he ever thought he would ever have to do this, things were so easy between him and Deana in terms of Peyton, so he had never thought he would ever have a child he would have to fight against the mother for rights.
"Hello, you must be Mr. Truex?" Martin nodded. "Come on in and have a seat and once Miss Montgomery arrives, we can go over how this whole process will work and what we hope to achieve with this mediation session today. In the meantime, my name is Natalie Richards, and this is my fellow mediator David Andrews."
As they finished introducing themselves, the door opened and Kaleen slipped in, big sunglasses covering her eyes. She slid into the open seat directly across from Martin and slid her glasses off her face, looking everywhere but at Martin. "Miss Montgomery, thank you for coming today. We already introduced ourselves to Mr. Truex, but for your sake my name is Natalie Richards and this is David Andrews, we will be your mediators today."
"Hello."
"So we are going to explain to you the process before we start and then we can begin. Our objective today is to give the two of you a place where you can talk out visitation plans without any interference from others and without involving a judge. We are here simply to keep things calm and civil between both parties as you discuss terms of visitation and to document any decisions that are made and agreed upon by both parties – at which point we would then get your agreed upon decisions in front of a family court judge to make them legal and officially documented in the court system and both parties would get copies mailed to their home addresses to keep on file at home in case it needs to be used at a later date. If we don't come up with agreed upon terms today, then we can send in a request to get the both of you set up with a court date with a family court judge – at which point the judge would hear the points from both parties and would rule on what they felt was best for the child involved. Do you both understand?"
"Yes."
"Yes," Martin nodded, knowing that he would be willing to play by the rules, but would Kaleen?
"Okay good. Now Mr. Truex you filed for visitation rights, so I take it you have something in mind for what you were looking for?"
He slipped the piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it, laying it down on the table in front of him. "Yes, I wrote down what I would like ahead of time and brought it with me."
"So this is how we're going to do this: Mr. Truex I would like you to go through your list of visitation requests first. During this time we are going to let him get through his whole list without interruption. Upon his completion Miss Montgomery, you can address any issues you may have with his requests and we can talk through any changes and figure out if we can come to an agreement. Does that sound good to both of you?" Both Martin and Kaleen nodded. "Okay then Mr. Truex you can begin."
"Okay," Martin nodded awkwardly, "I would like every other weekend – but due to my occupation, I would need to pick her up on Thursday and drop her off Sunday night once I got back in town. It would also have to include her being able to travel with me, at least as long as the season lasts. I also understand that once she starts school in a few years we wouldn't be able to keep this visitation because it would require her missing school, unless she was given permission to miss those days. So if it became a problem I would be willing to switch my visitation to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday once she starts school with the responsibility of driving her to school, picking her up from school and any school work that needed completing then becoming my responsibility. I would like to split time on the holidays – so someone would get her for the morning – say 9am to 2pm – and the other person gets her for the afternoon/evening so we can each plan holidays and celebrations around visitation schedules. And if Kaleen wanted to, we could swap times on holidays each year, or keep what we agree on now – I'm open to discussing that. On her birthday I think it's only fair that we both get time with her on the actual day of her birthday – unless I'm traveling for work – without the awkwardness of having to do it together. We could discuss birthday parties and when we're doing one for her year to year and make an agreement about visitation in terms of her birthday parties at that point. And finally Christmas – Christmas is the only holiday I think should be discussed in depth up front – I think we should split Christmas with one of us getting her Christmas Eve overnight until Christmas day at noon and the other would then get her Christmas day at noon and have her for the rest of Christmas day/evening and overnight that night. This one I think should absolutely be rotated from year to year so we both get the opportunity of waking up with her Christmas morning to a full Christmas tree and seeing her eyes grow wide knowing Santa came; just the general sentiment of Christmas to a child." Martin smiled wistfully, almost picturing the image in his mind's eye already – him, Kinsey and Brynne. And someday – another baby, his and Brynne's child to make their family complete.
The room was eerily quiet for a moment. It should have been called the calm before the storm. It was as if Kaleen had needed a moment to process everything Martin had just said before her tyranny began. "You want her to fucking travel with you?! Who would watch her while you're in your race car Martin?" She was practically hissing, coming apart at the seams.
"Miss Montgomery, we could do without the course language, we are attempting to keep it civil here!"
"First of all, you failed to mention that you brought her to the track with you a couple weeks ago, so it must be the thought of who would watch her when I'm busy working that's got your panties in a bunch right now. Second of all, Brynne could watch her, my mom would absolutely love to come down to watch her for me, Julie is there every weekend, so is Delana, there are numerous trusted people that would be willing to help me out with Kinsey if I asked..."
"Oh of course, I should have known your little girlfriend was going to make some sort of an appearance today."
"And that can stop right there Kaleen – Brynne has never done anything to you for you to harbor these feelings against her, except for your jealous spite. In fact you're the only person who's done anything horrible and you did it to Brynne. Don't act this way towards her just because she's with me – because even if she wasn't I wouldn't be with you – and from what I heard the few times Brynne has run in to you and Kinsey, Kinsey has loved Brynne."
"Take that back Martin! My daughter will never love her!"
"Okay, okay, okay!" Natalie said, standing up and placing her hands up, "We are getting off track here. Miss Montgomery did you have any issues with anything else Mr. Truex presented besides the traveling and who's care Kinsey would be in while he was busy working?"
"Did I have any more issues? Of course, I had issues... with everything! So, if I didn't get her Christmas Eve, I wouldn't get her until noon Christmas day? Christmas is almost half over then! What about Christmas with my family?"
"Kaleen I'm just trying to come up with something that is fair to both of us. I have family too that would love to see her on Christmas but understand our time is limited so they will plan things before or after Christmas, because that's what this takes – compromise."
Kaleen scoffed, "Compromise? This isn't compromise. This is you taking my daughter away from me. You can call it what you want Martin – you can say you're looking for visitations right now, and you'll get them. Then next thing I know, you'll be claiming I'm unfit to take care of my own daughter and be taking her away from me."
Martin sighed, "She's our daughter Kaleen and I'm just taking what I'm entitled to – visitations."
"Miss Montgomery, can you agree to Christmas – one party gets Kinsey Christmas Eve overnight until noon on Christmas day at which point there is a custody exchange to the other parent at noon on Christmas day and that party would then get her from noon on Christmas day overnight until the next day? To be rotated each year to continue to be fair to the both of you?" Natalie asked Kaleen, ready to document their first visitation agreement.
"No. No, no, no, no, no. No, I can't. I can't agree to any of this. I can't do this. I won't do this. I'm not going to agree to just give away my daughter. It shouldn't be this way. It wasn't supposed to be this way," Kaleen said, abruptly standing up, sending her chair flying backwards towards the door as she made the quickest exit she could.
With her hand on the doorknob Natalie tried to reach back out to her to get her to come back. "I'm warning you Miss Montgomery, if you walk out of here this case will go in front of the judge and you will lose any say in the visitation agreements for your daughter. And most family court judge's like to see a father stepping up and actually trying to be a father; this is your only chance to talk out what you would like to see for Kinsey."
But Kaleen didn't care, the door clicked shut behind her.
Martin sat there wide eyed, not believing that even just happened. He never believed she would ever just walk out. When it came to Kinsey, he never thought he would see the day she would concede, but that was basically what she had just done, that was basically her conceding to Martin's visitation requests. He hadn't gotten too brazen in his requests, so there was no reason for a judge to deny what he was asking. But he didn't want to get too far ahead of himself yet.
He cleared his throat and looked at the two mediators, "So um... what happens now?"
"We will document what happened here today and put in a request for a court date for the two of you. All you have to do when you get your date in the mail is show up with the list you've already prepared. We can include in the request the days that are not good for you because I know you travel for work if you would like."
"Oh, yes please... if it could be on either a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday it would not interfere with work in any way."
"Okay thank you Mr. Truex, we are all set here for today. Have a good day."
"Thank you, you too."
*
Martin felt like his head was in the clouds as he walked out of the room and slowly walked down the hall, so many thoughts running through his head. Most of all: disbelief.
He pulled the door to the main waiting area open and Brynne practically jumped on him, obviously anxiously waiting for his return.
"What the hell happened in there?"
"I – I don't really know. It was so weird."
She put her hands on his cheeks and shook his head a little, clearing his mind and connecting their eyes, "Weird? How was it weird?"
"I basically got to list my requests and then we got to talk them out. Of course, all Kaleen wanted to do was argue about everything – you being around, sharing time on holidays. Then all of a sudden, it got to be too much for her or something because she just got up and left. The mediator basically warned her if she left that most family court judge's give father's what they request for visitation and that basically by her leaving she was conceding to my requests, and she just – left. Walked right out the door like she didn't hear the lady and didn't care."
"I know, I watched her run out of here and she looked bad – horrible even. Full on ugly crying, literally pulling her hair out. She didn't look good. I couldn't fathom what could have possibly happened in there that she had that reaction to."
"Yeah, I just don't know..."
"So what happens next?" Brynne asked.
"They are going to put through a request for a court date with a family court judge, once I get that date we will have to go to court and basically do the same thing we did here. I will tell them what I would like for my visitation, she will get to say what issues she may have with those requests, but instead – unlike today – she won't get the final say in any decisions regarding visitation, it will strictly be left up to what the judge feels is in the best interest of Kinsey."
"Well I'm not trying to get ahead of myself, but I'm considering this a good start to hopefully a really great outcome. What do you say, you up for some ice cream?"
Brynne laughed and grabbed his hand, "I'm always up for ice cream! Come on, let's go!"
*
Brynne was positively radiating happiness when she met Julie for breakfast the next morning, a new tradition they had come to adopt now that Brynne was basically non-existent at their house these days. She recounted for Julie, the showdown between Martin and Kaleen at mediation and Julie stared back in utter amazed horror over the fact that Kaleen – the one who had been doing everything under the sun to make Martin and herself a family with Kinsey – had just up and left mediation and basically gave up her chance to have a say in their visitation schedule.
"I told you everything would work out," Julie smiled.
"You did, we're still not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it looks like Martin will at least get what he was asking for, which is a relief that we didn't really have to fight too much for it."
"And once it's in writing it's official, right?"
"I believe the only way it could change is if either of them refiled for either more visitation or she tried to take visitation away from him or make it supervised visitation, but I think she would need considerable proof to back up why she was trying to take visitation away before they would just yank away all of his visitation rights. So, once we go to court it's basically official."
"I'm so happy for you and Martin, Brynne! I know this wasn't exactly where you saw your relationship with Martin going, but Kinsey is so damn cute how could you not want to be a part of her life? She needs a positive and sane female role model in her life, too! Thank God she looks like her father, hopefully she acts like him too!"
"Oh I'm sure if Martin has anything to do with it, she'll be a little mini version of him, Peyton is. She's like a little mini tornado blowing through when she's around."
"Peyton was absolutely adorable, and Deana was amazing. I can't believe it took us so long to meet them, I know Martin wanted to keep them out of the limelight to allow Peyton to have as much of a normal childhood as possible, but come on that child is destined to be a racecar driver, or am I the only one who thinks that?"
"No, I said the same thing the first time I met her. I think they've always stayed in New Jersey because Martin's parents are there and Deana's family is there, so while Martin couldn't help her raise Peyton, she had all the extra help of family to make up for it."
"Well I think they should move here, we could bring her in to the fold, she would fit right in with us," Julie said.
"I'll work on it," Brynne laughed, "She told me she met a guy when she went out that night when she was here, and she got his number! I tried to drill her for information, but she wouldn't give me anything else other than that... I think that's really the first time she's put herself out there and let herself go out and have fun since Peyton was born, and Peyton is six!"
"So note to self, next time Deana is in town we have to take her out on the town and get her drunk – I think we can make that happen!" They finished up their breakfast, paid and headed out of the restaurant, "Are you ready to go look at more dresses today?"
Brynne nodded and looped her arm through Julie's as they walked down the sidewalk. Today they were looking for her bridesmaid dress – it was the last piece of attire needed for the wedding, which was a big thing to check off the list and both of them would feel so much better once they had that checked off.
Julie had been checking out some dresses online, so they decided to stop in to David's Bridal first as she had seen a couple styles she liked there and they happened to make those dresses in the color she was looking for. The sales associate met them just inside the door with a giant smile on her face, "Hello ladies, my name is Amanda, what can we do for you ladies today?"
Julie took the lead. "We're here to look at bridesmaid dresses."
"Of course, how many dresses are you looking at?"
"We only need one dress."
Amanda nodded, "Okay and when are you needing that by? When is the special day?"
"We have approximately six weeks," Julie said, "And I know that isn't a lot of time, but I will pay for expedited shipping for the dress to get here as soon as possible and we can worry about alterations once it gets here. We planned this wedding kind of quickly, so we're kind of throwing everything together at the last minute, and we focused on my dress first before we worried about the bridesmaid dress..."
Brynne put her hand on Julie's arm and laughed, "Julie you're rambling..."
"Oh, sorry," Julie blushed.
"It's no problem Julie, do you know what you're looking for?"
"Actually yes... we are looking for something floor length and in the color maroon, the style of the top does not matter, neither does the tightness or fit of the dress or really the full style of the dress, just floor length, please."
"Okay ladies, if you would like to look through the racks and grab a couple that you would like to try on that you see, I'm going to go in back and check the racks that we have back there that just haven't hit the floor yet and we can meet each other at changing room #3 in ten minutes and start trying these dresses on!"
"Thanks so much," Julie beamed, grabbing Brynne's arm and dragging her to the racks of dresses. They went to the dresses in the size Brynne wore and carefully pulled each floor length dress off the rack to check over and see what they thought of the look of it. They ended up pulling three dresses off the rack and Amanda met them at the dressing room with two more dresses, giving Brynne five different styles to try on, surely they would be able to find the perfect one amongst all five dresses.
The first dress Brynne tried on and could tell as soon as she slid it up her body that she didn't like it, but she still walked out of the dressing room and let Amanda zip her up before presenting herself in front of Julie. The dress had no sleeves, a high neckline and a slit that went so far up her leg she was afraid she would let someone see more than they bargained for!
"Um... I don't think that's the one," Julie said.
"Thank God," Brynne breathed, "I felt like my whole thigh was sticking out the side of this slit up the side of the dress."
Brynne could hear Julie still laughing even as she entered the dressing room to try on the second dress. The second one was better than the first, but still didn't feel like the dress they were looking for. It had a sloped neckline, short sleeves and fell to about mid-calf – so not quite floor length like they had been looking for. It must have been one of the one's Amanda grabbed, because all the one's they had grabbed had definitely been floor length, they had made sure of it, because that's all Julie was sure of.
She walked out and let Amanda zip her up before she walked out for Julie's inspection. The main reason they were looking for floor length was because the wedding was taking place in December, and even though it was North Carolina, it still got chilly. At least a floor length dress would keep her a little warmer than not.
"I still think I want to go with the floor length."
Amanda nodded, "Understandable. I wanted to throw another length in there just in case, so you had another option in case you changed your mind."
As Brynne slid the third dress on and looked at herself in the mirror, her breath caught in her throat... this was definitely her favorite. The dress was V-neck with thin spaghetti straps, the back was completely open down to the small of her back except for the thin spaghetti straps that crisscrossed her back and ruching across her stomach and back.
She stepped out of the dressing room in front of Julie and Amanda and both clapped happily. "I think this is the dress Brynne. You look amazing in it."
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"It really does look great on you," Amanda agreed.
"It may not be a wedding dress, but it feels perfect," Brynne smiled.
"So I think this is the one," Julie nodded to Amanda, "And in that same color too."
Amanda pulled around on the dress on Brynne's body a little, before looking at Brynne, "How does it feel Brynne? Does it feel too big or does it feel like it fits you okay?"
Honestly as Brynne slid it on, it almost felt like it fit her perfectly. Like she was meant to get this dress. "Honestly, it fits perfectly."
"So do you want to get it as is then?" Amanda asked.
"Yeah, this is perfect."
Another thing checked off the list. Six weeks to go.
*
It felt good to be able to go places with both their best friends again and know that everyone was having a good time. It had been a long time in the making. Thinking back, Martin and Brynne were the reason that Julie and Junior had even been introduced to each other, so in the long run they had the two of them to thank for each other. They wouldn't go a day without thanking their best friends for what they found in each other.
They had just left dinner and were of course heading to get ice cream because that's what the girls wanted to do. And what was the saying? Happy wife, happy life. It would be the motto they lived by, that was for sure.
The season was winding down, there were only five more races left and the race to the championship was heating up, even though neither Martin nor Junior were involved in the run to the championship trophy it was still entertaining to watch their peers and friends battle each other for points, wins and championship positions.
What should have been a fun trip to the ice cream parlor turned in to an all-out war when Junior tried to shove Julie's cone into her face, Martin stood back and laughed at the scene not even seeing Brynne come up behind him and do the same thing to him. At that point it was a free-for-all of ice cream and cones and it just turned in to a giant mess. It was a good thing they had been outside, because if they had been inside they would have had a huge mess on their hands to clean up.
After wiping off as much of the ice cream as they could and some major ass kissing to get back in each other's good graces the foursome said their goodbyes before getting in to their separate vehicles. Once inside Martin's truck Brynne looked at him with a goofy grin on her face.
"What's that look about?"
"I just missed having fun with everyone like that, I've never really had friends or been in a relationship where we've had friends we can hang out with like this, so it's just fun for me. I enjoy all the time we spend together."
He picked her hand up from the center console and kissed the back of it, "I have fun too. I enjoy all this time we're getting to spend together too. It's nice having you here all the time. It's something we've never had, so it's different and it's nice."
They lapsed into silence as Martin drove them back to his house. "Brynne?"
"Hmm?"
"I love you."
She looked at him and smiled, "I love you, too."
*
Julie sighed happily.
"What was that about?"
She smiled, "I'm just happy. We get married in less than six weeks. Brynne and Martin seem to have finally worked things out and are happy. And I honestly think she may be thinking about staying in North Carolina, especially now that there's nothing in Boston keeping her there. I would love nothing other than my best friend being happy and living near me..."
"Jesus woman, I love you."
Julie laughed, "You're such a barbarian sometimes. But I love you too, you big goon!"
"Aren't we so cute already calling each other names and we're not even married yet! Is this what we have to look forward to when we do get married?"
"I could call you a lot of names," Julie grinned.
"Oh yeah? Any sexy names?"
"Oh I have plenty of sexy names for you, big boy..."
"Big boy?" Junior asked, "I'll show you a big boy when we get home..."
Julie's smile was as big as a Cheshire cat, "Don't tempt me with a good time, babe."
