Sue made a confetti cake for the small party in their backyard. The brothers played outside taking turns target-shooting soda cans off of a tree stump with the BB gun that Beau had bought for Gage. A couple of kids from the boy's school had come over for the afternoon but were gone by the time Jena rolled in, which was the mid-evening. Happy Birthday had been sung and the candles were blown out by then. Sue greeted Jena in the driveway. "Hi, Sweetie!" Sue smiled as she embraced Jena who desperately needed a hug. Jena squeezed her back. "Hi, mom. I missed you!" She admitted. Sue realizing Jena was more diminished than usual asked, "Is everything okay?" Jena not wanting to break down just then nodded. Sue knew not to pry and led her to Beau who was drinking a beer at the patio picnic table.
Jena approached him and immediately noticed the heavy bags under his eyes. He looked overworked and run down. He had lost nearly all his muscle mass since she last saw him. He had a hump on his back and a protruding belly, something very unlike the normally active brother she knew. It was as if he hadn't been out of his truck in a year. Beau waved to his sister in recognition, saying "Hey, you! How's it going over in Yuppie Town?" Jena shrugged, "It's going. How's the convoy life these days?" Beau looked around to make sure no little ears were listening before he said, "It's shit work, but good money." Jena kept her opinion to herself of how badly of an idea she thought it was that he had been forwarding all of his pay to Thallea, who was squirreling it away for the twins or so she claimed. Jena was aware that Beau wouldn't hear of it regardless. Every time she tried to warn him about Thallea he would bring up his regrets about how he handled things with Tawny, the boy's mother, and end the conversation. Beau decided that he'd rather lose his family than Thallea. Jena thought he had already lost himself.
"How's my special lady? You helping her out?" Beau asked before chugging another beer, again something unlike the person she grew up with. Jena restrained herself from complaining to him, about his partner who was ungratefully mooching off of her rent-free in a home that she had been trashing since she got there. "Same old, same old I suppose. Too bad she couldn't get the day off to come up." Jena side-stepped direct insults toward Thallea and instead opted to point out how easily Thallea could have come to see her baby daddy and his kids after months of being apart. Beau didn't respond but finished his beer. Sue stopped him before he went for another one. She whispered, "Beau your boys haven't seen you since before Christmas." Beau frowned and sat back on the bench seat. Sue rolled the cooler away. Jena felt like she had made her point and asked Beau to help her unload the many gifts she had brought for the kids. Beau begrudgingly assisted.
Jena handed the snowboard to Gage. Unbeknownst to the partygoers in the backyard, Beau was putting the rest of the goods into Sue's garage. They both decided it would be rude to give everything to the kids on Gage's birthday and wanted to wait to dispense it to them. Gage gleefully accepted the present saying, "Thanks, Aunt Jena!" Before he dashed off to put it in his room. Since the house had only two bedrooms, the younger boys had the guest room, and Sue had the master, leaving the eldest on the couch. Beau slept on the living room recliner when he came to visit or in his truck. He had become a stranger in his home. Jena noted this but said nothing of it to avoid conflict. Beau was a grown man. His mistakes were his burden to live with.
When Beau emerged from the cabin once more he went straight to the picnic bench again He had an expression of wanting to put Jena in her place. "A snowboard?" A little too nice for a kid, isn't it?" Jena was wondering when Beau would start to lash out at her because he was unhappy with the direction his choices had gone. He was as bad off now as he had ever been with Tawny, if not worse. At least with Tawny, he kept his dignity intact. Jena was looking at the shadow of a once respectable person. Jena not wanting to seem pretentious answered honestly, "Sorry Beau, money's tight all around. It's all regifts from Nate's stuff in the garage. I thought the kids might as well get it before it goes to Ivy-Mae." Beau sneered in response to that, "'Money's tight'? You're married to the second-richest guy in town. And You're buddies with the richest guy there. Explain to me how you're down on your luck. You know you're not always the victim, Jena." Jena slightly taken aback wondered for how long Beau had been holding that in. Mistakenly thinking that explaining the reason why Beau was wrong Jena said, "I've never been on a single one of Nate's accounts. Our money has been completely separate for our entire marriage. As for Turner, he blackballed me from ever working for him from day one. I have significantly less chance to work because I'm married to Nate, and you know that." Beau snorted in disagreement but said nothing more on the matter.
A few minutes later after brooding, Beau straightened up so that he could look down on Jena, "Are you even allowed to give out Nate's stuff? Sounds like a violation of the court order. Did you think about that before you involved my kids?" Jena knowing she was being dragged into an argument with her likely drunk brother defended herself realizing that their conversation was not private. She spoke up, not for Beau's approval but so her nephews, who were listening, knew the truth, "First off it anything, I'd be on the hook not them, and none of those things were disclosed in the filings, as far as the court is concerned, none of it exists." Sue overhearing the exchange called Beau to the kitchen before he could further escalate the conflict. Beau was about to say something more but stopped himself, realizing the children were watching him. He relented, however still angered, stomped away mumbling, "That's what I'll tell them if shit ever rolls downhill."
Jena could see that she was not welcome there. Beau was too resentful of Jena for her position on Thallea. As long as the trip was back to Meadows Parting, and as much as she missed her mother, she made her visit there short. The entire way back, Jena couldn't help but think about how the kids no longer looked at their dad with any respect. He was a beaten-down, spineless slob now, not the level-headed man they looked up to. Jena wished Beau would come to his senses, but also realized he was doing this to himself. Jena couldn't make him see what he was closing his eyes to because was too far in denial to accept what was right in front of him. She had to walk away. To decompress during the hours-long trip she turned off her phone and put on some relaxing music to ease her mind. She passed Mrs. Flossie's house but didn't try to visit Tiki because it was so late when she finally arrived. Eerily her house was quiet when she returned. As always Thallea left all of the lights on, but her car, (which was Jena's car) wasn't there. Puzzled over this, Jena took her phone off of airplane mode, to find an unanswered voicemail from none other than Turner's assistant, Yriella.
As Jena listened to the message she learned that Thallea was in the hospital because she had gone into labor. Jena immediately called Yriella to find out any details before she did anything else. Yriella relayed that Thallea was delivering a food order to Turner's address, despite him not ordering anything, and had gone into labor on his doorstep. This was odd to anyone who was associated with KT construction because it was common knowledge that Turner rarely ever stayed at his own home for long. He typically slept on his office couch or at whatever work site he was overseeing in the manager's trailer.
Turner's gardener, Edgar, had found Thallea and called EMS. Turner himself was out of town visiting one of his baby mommas, one of many whom he would collectively label as, "my kid's mom." Jena listened to all this while she sat in Nate's truck. When Yriella was done she hesitated before saying, "I mean I'm just telling you what Edgar told me, but she did not want us calling Beau. She kept asking for Turner and where he was so I called you because I didn't know what to do. Do you know why she'd be asking for him? Or why she was at his house? Is there something going on that we need to know?" Jena's mind went to Beau who would be crushed by Thallea's infatuation with Turner that she had nourished for self-serving means. One more thing and Beau could break down for good. Jena answered Yriella, "Your guess is as good as mine, but I've got it from here. I'll call back if I find anything out." Although this answer didn't satisfy Yriella, Jena hung up anyway.
Jena then called her brother who was still in the dark about what was happening. Beau picked up after the phone rang almost to voicemail, "What do you want?" The seemingly drunk Beau asked. Jena not sure what to say went on, "Beau, Thallea went into labor and is at the hospital now." Beau louder now on the line exclaimed, "Are you serious?! When did this happen? No one's told me anything!" Jena trying to fill in Beau replied, "I guess it was when I was driving home, but I had my phone off. Can mom drive you?"Beau with much background noise on the phone, said, "I'm on my way. Go take care of her until I get there." Then the phone cut off.
Jena once again fired up her engine and headed over to the same hospital that Nate had been taken to that horrible night. Walking in was like a cruel nostalgia of a bad dream she never wanted to relive. Jena moved slowly. Jena went to the labor and delivery ward on the fourth floor. Thallea let her in when the front desk called her room. Inside Thallea had no explanation, only questions. "Where's Turner? I've been trying to get ahold of him. Why is no one calling him?" Jena smelling a stunt a fool like Thallea would put together was afoot stood at the end of her bed calmly ignoring her concerns, "I've talked to the staff on your behalf. They said you lost one of the twins." Thallea angrily retorted, "They're not allowed to tell you that!" Jena might not have known everything that transpired but she knew Thallea was up to something bad. She continued, "Beau is on his way." Before she left the room, Thallea yelled at her from behind. Jena didn't care to be kind to the wretch, but out of curiosity, she stayed nearby to find out the whole story. Beau was there shortly. Jena used the time to ask around whatever she could find out.
It didn't take long to learn that Thallea's three-week early delivery had complications. The twins were both underweight, something chalked up to Thallea's heavy smoking during her pregnancy. Thallea named the baby who survived, Tiger Blood, and the baby who died Mickey-Moon. She must have been waiting for Turner to show up for a while before Edgar found her because the catering van was checked out hours before by Thallea herself, although there was no official reason why. Thallea wasn't on the clock or scheduled to work that day, despite her saying otherwise as an excuse to avoid Gage's party. This put Thallea at Turner's at about the same time as when Jena hit the road to go to her mother's. The timing alone was suspicious as far as Jena was concerned. Jena dared not inform Beau of what she had learned. She relegated herself to the waiting room with her mother to keep her company. They sat feeling like time had stopped until things were sorted out by the early morning hours.
It was a somber feeling when the chaplain called them to go into the small chapel at the hospital for Mickey-Moon's funeral. Only Sue, Beau, and Jena were present. Thallea stayed in her hospital bed, saying she was too tired to go. Beau was too sad to stay for the entirety of the ceremony. Wiping tears from his eyes he left the room. Jena stayed with her mother out of respect for the life that was lost. Sue was also in tears. However, Jena was too angry to cry. She knew that there was something foul that had caused these events.
When it was over, Jena sought out her brother to comfort him as much as she could before she left. She went to Thallea's room, but before she knocked on the door, she stopped herself when she heard the couple inside speaking to each other. Jena overheard Beau trying to console Thallea by offering to marry her one day. Emphatically Beau said "I'm yours. We can get through this and still be a family." Jena listened as Thallea reacted in disgust, retorting, "If you cared about us as a family, you'd give me space." Beau stumbled over his words and asked "For how long?" Thallea answered coldly, "For as long as it takes to build an apartment over the garage at Sue's." Then Beau tried to hug her, but she pushed him away saying it was an insult to see him at the hospital when he knew they didn't have a place to stay. Beau cleared his throat and took his leave of the woman he loved more than anything else in the world. He walked out without so much as kissing his now-only infant son goodbye.
In the hallway, Beau nearly bumped into Jena. He glanced at his sister, realizing she had eavesdropped on the private conversation. Jena stood frozen in place. He glared at her in utter hatred. She could feel the rage in him as he looked at her. Jena was shocked by the exchange. She could not fathom what was going through Beau's head or rather, what was not. With his hands in clenched fists, he walked past her as if she were the worst thing he had ever seen in his life. As if she had hurt him so deeply. Jena thought he'd punch her at that moment, but he saw Sue down the corridor and stepped away. Then just as quickly as he was gone. Sue looked at Jena who was about to explain herself, but Sue shushed her saying it wasn't her place to say a word right then. Then Sue pulled Jena away from the room by the arm. Once they were in the lobby Jena said, "She'll always find an excuse to send him away. Why can't he see that?! His other sons need him too. Why did he go?" Sue still shaken up looked off into the distance and spoke to no one in particular saying, "Because he's gone when he's with her anyway."
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