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punishment, or Drew using access to Jonathan as blackmail to get me to do what he wanted.
    Either way we were all screwed.
    It was such a mess, and I was entangled right in the thick of it.
    Both Alex and I were quiet once Millicent returned home with Max that afternoon. After he laid down for a nap, tired after their afternoon excursion, Millicent offered to take me down to her garden. I welcomed the distraction. Nothing was better than getting my hands in the cool, dank earth. Pruning a garden was far more clear-cut – and productive – than pruning this twisted family tree. By the time we headed back to the house, I was sunburned but happy. I had a smile on my face as we headed into the kitchen, where Alex stood with a frilly apron around his hips. He prepared a vegetarian lasagna casserole that was chock full of colorful veggies and gooey cheese.
    Perhaps sensing the tension between us, Millicent decided to take her meal upstairs. We sat in stony silence as we ate in the informal dining room that faced out onto the lanai. Finally he said, “I’m sorry, Rachel. About this afternoon and about dragging you back out here, especially since it seems Drew will make it impossible for you to do the very thing you came to do.”
    I shrugged. “What else was I going to do this summer?”
    His eyes scanned my face. “I’m really sorry about this afternoon.”
    “How did you even know he was here?” I asked.
    He held up his cell phone. “Let’s just say I have friends at the office. When they said he left suddenly, I figured he had made a beeline right for the house, so I figured you could use reinforcements. But I had no idea that he would get so aggressive with you.” He scanned my face to see how I felt about it. “A real man would never force himself on a woman that doesn’t want him.”
    I glanced up to see that familiar, inquisitive look in his eyes. He was still testing me, trying to get me to admit that I still wanted Drew. I tipped my chin defiantly and said, “I couldn’t agree more.” I tossed my napkin on top of my plate, scooted back my chair and headed upstairs.
    I tried to read one of my books but it was useless. No work of fiction held a candle to my real life drama. Finally I tossed my reader onto the nightstand. With a sigh I slid out of bed, hoping maybe a cup of tea would help me relax. I slipped from my bedroom and padded softly down the hall. The sound of music stopped me before I reached the staircase. With a furrowed brow, I followed the sound of the guitar toward another room. The door was cracked open so that I could glance inside, where I saw Alex playing his guitar for Max, who sat cuddled in dinosaur bedding. As the last note faded, Max clapped his hands together. “Do it again, Daddy.”
    Alex smiled. “Okay,” he agreed without hesitation. Max played his toy guitar as Alex sang to him. The love between them was so genuine; I felt it all the way across the room and behind the heavy door. He may have been a shit of a brother, but Alex was an exemplary father. I saw shades of his mother, and ultimately, shades of Jonathan, in how he shared his open heart and open spirit unconditionally. “ Max was one lucky kid ,” I decided as I turned away from the door and, tea forgotten, returned to my room.

Chapter Three
     
     
    It only took a week for the judge to overrule Drew’s objection to Elise’s new educational plan for their son. Her lawyer argued that I was the only educator who had managed to reach him since his parents’ divorce, which ultimately used Drew’s dastardly plan against him. Drew couldn’t argue that I wasn’t, in fact, a positive influence for Jonathan when that had been the very platform he had used to wrangle for full custody. All his testimony beforehand, that the best environment for his son included me having direct and constant access, would ring hollow if he backtracked now.
    For my part, I crafted a new curriculum that included the natural surroundings of