Chapter two

Hugh sat at the bar with Jon as he seemed to be drowning his sorrows. This was his second anniversary of his divorce and for some reason this one was worse, must be because his Ex was getting married today. Dorothea and her divorce attorney were to be married at one in the afternoon. Here he was at one thirty having his fifth Jack on the rocks.

Hugh watched him lift his fingers for another round. Reaching out a hand to touch Jon’s arm, he felt it tremble.

“Hey, don’t you need to be home when they drop off Romeo?” Hugh asked him, hoping that he would stop with the fifth drink.

“I’m fine Dad; you of all people know I can hold my liquor.” Jon answered the question but still held his hand up for another round.

“Holding it and driving back to the house is different. Do you really need any bad press on Dorothea’s wedding day?” Hugh questioned.

Jon thought on what Hugh was saying. Did he want to cause a scene? Ruin her day, as she had ruined his? But did she ruin it? They had joint custody of the kids; he let her have the house on the river. Seeing as how the kids lived with her and he got them on the weekends, everything was working until Stephanie told him about the wedding date.

He put his hand down and turned to Hugh.

“Okay, So, I don’t need the drink.” He told Hugh.

“Listen, what you need to do is get out of town while they’re gone. Kelly has an Uncle who has a chalet in the mountains. I have the key and the garage opener in the car. Why don’t you head up there and take Romeo.” Hugh put his hand in his jacket pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “There’s snow up there and Romeo needs a little extra time. He didn’t want to stay with the others at Greg’s parents.”

Romeo seemed to be having a hard time accepting Greg as his new step-dad. Staying with his parents seemed to be out of the question. His own parents were in Florida and were getting ready for a cruise. They couldn’t take Romeo. So, Jon told them he could take care of him while they were gone. Jon swirled the ice in his empty glass, snow and his son sounded better than sitting in the townhouse feeling miserable.

It didn’t take Jon long to agree with the plan. He got the key, garage opener and directions to the chalet. Once Romeo was delivered to the townhouse, he had the Jeep loaded and they were on the road within an hour.