Life at Best

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Martin sat nervously in his truck waiting. He was set to meet Kaleen in fifteen minutes to pick up Kinsey for his first scheduled weekend visitation since their court date, this weekend also happened to be their last weekend at the track until February, so this would be a little preview of what his life would be like next year – with Kinsey and Brynne in tow.

Originally Kaleen had tried to get him to come pick Kinsey up from her house by texting him and telling him to come and get the stuff he would need for the weekend with Kinsey when he picked her up. She wasn't too enthused when she found out that she would no longer be able to hold that over his head because he and Brynne had gone out and bought Kinsey anything and  everything she would ever need to keep at his house.

There was no reason for him to be nervous.

He had spent plenty of time with Kinsey, but this would be the first time he would get to spend with her without her mother around, and with Brynne officially back in his life. This would be the perfect picture of what he hoped his future would look like.

Kaleen's SUV pulled up beside him and he hopped down and shoved his hands in his pockets – just a nervous tick of his. He would be so much more relaxed when he had Kinsey safely back to his house away from this awkward situation.

"Hey."

"Hi Martin." She seemed resigned, or almost standoffish, but he paid her no mind – she wasn't his problem anymore, and as long as Kinsey ended up in his truck at the end of this exchange he really couldn't care less about how Kaleen was feeling at the current moment, as she got ready to give her daughter up for the first time of many to come.

They did say the first time was always the hardest.

She came around the SUV without Kinsey and opened the backseat of his truck, causing his eyebrows to rise when he watched her check to make sure the car seat was put in the truck properly and securely strapped in.

"Really Kaleen?"

"Can't be too careful with our daughter Martin."

"Would it make you feel better if I told you that we literally drove the truck down to the police station and had them double check it too? Because we did, and it was Brynne's idea... she wanted to make sure it was installed correctly and safely before Kinsey was ever placed in it."

This didn't seem to faze Kaleen and Martin sighed, really he was just trying to make the situation better for everyone involved, but she just wasn't willing to make that happen it seemed.

"So Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and my parents have decided to come down instead of me going up there like I normally would so they can spend some time with Kinsey, and they're bringing Deana and Peyton down with them too, so what would work better for you? Having Kinsey in the morning or in the afternoon?  We have no concrete plans at the moment, so I can work around whatever works best for you and your family."

"Big happy fucking family," she muttered under her breath as she began pulling straps off of Kinsey getting ready to get her out of the car.

"What was that Kaleen?"

"Nothing Martin, I said absolutely nothing," she huffed.

"So about Thanksgiving..."

He was met with complete silence which just caused his level of frustration and aggravation to rise. Here he was trying to give her the option of what worked best for her, trying to be civil and she wanted to act like a child.

"Kaleen seriously, you can't just act like this is going to go away... this is our new normal, this is what the next eighteen years of our lives are going to be like, can't you just be civil and give me a straight answer?"

She walked around the back of her SUV with Kinsey in her arms, transferred the baby over to Martin's arms and looked him dead in the eyes, "Maybe you should have thought about that before you went and ruined everything."

And then she turned around, jumped in her car and was out of there before Martin could even react – Kinsey still resting in his arms as if nothing had happened.  He buckled Kinsey in to the car seat attached to the base in the back of his truck and sighed heavily.

Eighteen years was going to be a very, very long time if this was how every pick up, drop off and holiday was going to be.

*

Brynne was waiting for the two of them in the driveway when they got home and jumped in the truck so they could head to the airfield to catch the place to Phoenix for the last race weekend of the season. This was going to be a pretty relaxed race weekend for Martin.  Since he wasn't in the chase for the championship there weren't many media obligations he had to fulfill, which was just fine with him because it meant he had more time to spend with his girls.