“You don’t have to do anything, Shane!”

“Hey, you’re the one that wanted to take Carla in in the first place!”

“Oh, don’t fucking try to pin this on me!”

“I’m not, but I can’t leave him there!”

“Why? He left you in Whistler, didn’t he?”

There was a long pause after that, and though Shane knew Carmen didn’t have malicious intent, it had still hurt. Because it was true.

“Look, I’m going to go get him, and that’s it. I have to… for Shay.”

“Shay’s better off without him.”

“No, he’s not, you don’t know what it’s like to grow up with no father.” They were back to yelling again, why did they always yell at each other?

“Yes, I do, Shane! Remember? My father’s dead. He was dead, and I was raised by just my mother….”

“And your grandmother, and your brother, and your sister. Shay only has his mother.”

“So, having a deadbeat dad who’s in and out of his life, sometimes on crack, sometimes sober, sometimes faithful, sometimes cheating. That’s better?”

Fuck. Carmen had nailed her on that one.

“I just… I need to do this, Carmen. Okay? And you need to understand that.”

“Fine. I understand, just don’t pretend you’re doing this for Shay instead of for you.”

Carmen turned and walked out.

“Hello, ma’am.” The officer was tall, bent over to look inside the window of the Saab. His face was cut and full of stubble, his hair protruding slightly from under his hat where you could see that his hair was a dirty blonde. His muscular jaw worked on a large glob of something in his mouth, either gum or tobacco, it was hard to tell which. And then he spit, leaving a large brown mark on the sidewalk. Definitely chewing tobacco.

“C-can I help you?”

“Yes, what exactly was it you ladies were doin’?”

“Um…. we were….”

“Never mind, I know what you were doing.”

A tense silence ensued, and the young man looked around the vehicle. He motioned to the back seat.

“That your baby?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

“And you were, uh… Fornicatin’ right in front of ‘im?”

“Her. And, um, yeah. I… I suppose we were.”

“Hmm. Well, I won’t book or fine ya, seein’ as how you got a baby ‘n’ all, but I am gonna have to give you a warnin’. What yer doin’ could be dangerous.”