Chapter 18
The next few days were spent with Havoc and Harley walking around their new property, walking down to Hellen's, then over to all the other houses so she could get her bearings and they could meet the new family that Addie belonged to. He took her across to Kaid’s property using both the road and through the woods several times. When he was sure she was secure with her surroundings, he made her take him on a walking tour so he could be sure she knew where she was going. And she did. She even stopped at the highway both coming and going and looked and listened before crossing. Going back to their home, there had been a car passing and she’d done great by stopping and being safe before crossing.
Even though they’d been over to Maverik’s house, they’d not seen Analise again. And Harley was getting antsy.
Havoc had started on the fence to enclose his property so Harley could have a puppy.
Having taken a break midday to make lunch for Harley, he found her irritated and full of questions.
“I want to see Analise.”
“She’s busy, baby.”
“I want to see Emmalyn.”
“Emmalyn is mean, you don’t need to see her.”
“She’s not mean. She’s funny.”
Havoc looked over at his daughter. “She’s mean to everybody but you and Analise.”
Harley grinned. “Why can’t I go see Analise? She’s my friend.”
“Baby, she’s just got a lot of things to do. That’s why we haven’t seen her lately.”
“But where is she?”
“I’m guessing she’s at home,” Havoc said, flipping her grilled cheese sandwich in the skillet.
“Why hasn’t she come to see us? She could come visit for just a little while.”
Havoc sighed and leaned on the cabinet. Once his daughter got something in her head, she was like a dog with a bone. “Baby, I told you, I hurt her feelings a long time ago. We’re just beginning to be friends again. It might take a while before she wants to come over here.”
“But she likes me.”
“Yes, she does.”
“I want to show her my room. And she said she’d take me for a walk.”
“I know. But I don’t want to call her. She’ll come around when she’s ready.”
“Not if she doesn’t know how much I miss her.”
He took the grilled cheese out of the skillet, cut it on the diagonal, then put it on a plate for her with chips and a pickle. “Eat your lunch. I’m going back out to work on the fence.”
“But I want to talk to Analise.”
He looked at her for a minute. “You’re lucky you’re cute, you know that?”
She grinned at her Daddy.
“I’ll find out if she’s busy and maybe you can go see her in a day or two. Alright?”
“Alright,” she said, satisfied for now.
Havoc went outside and leaned against one of the fence posts he’d already cemented into the ground. He was putting up what appeared to be a wooden fence with two boards running horizontally with about a foot between them. So that he could keep not only Harley’s pup, but Harley herself inside the fence, he was running field fence all along the inside. When he was done building it, he planned to stain it to bring out the natural color of the wood. He reached for his phone, knowing that Analise wouldn’t answer, and after trying twice and having his call sent to voice mail twice, he gave up and started to put his phone in his pocket and get back to work, but instead, he dialed Emmalyn’s number.
“What?” she asked, picking up on the first ring.
“I have a favor to ask,” he said.
“No! No favor for you, call back one year!” she said, imitating a skit on a television show they’d all enjoyed when they were younger.
“Fine, how about Harley wants a favor?”
“Hmm, little-Hellen-like child is much loved. What does she want?”
“Why do you keep calling her little-Hellen-like child when she looks just like me? And she is mine, not Hellen’s,” Havoc asked.
“Because Hellen is gorgeous, and she looks just like Hellen, so, she is forever little-Hellen-like child.”
“Hellen is my twin, she looks like me, too.”
“Yes, but I like Hellen better, so she will remain little-Hellen-like child. What does she want?”
“Analise.”
“Huh?” Emmalyn asked.
“She’s been driving me crazy, saying Analise promised to take her for a walk. I tried to call but Analise sent my calls to voice mail. So, basically I’m trying to give her her space, but I’m also trying to see if Harley can come over for a little while and take a short walk with Analise. I know it’s probably asking too much, and if she doesn’t want to, I’ll come up with some excuse, but I promised Harley I’d ask, so, this is me asking because that’s what a daddy does for his kid.”
“Hang on…” Emmalyn said.
Then he heard her yelling, presumably into the next room so Analise could hear her. “It’s Havoc, he says Harley wants to come go for a walk. Is that okay?”
He waited few more seconds and Emmalyn was back on the line.
“’Lise said that she’d be happy to take a walk with her. She said she’ll come over later and pick her up. Any particular time?”
“Nope. I’m building a fence. We’re at the new place.”
“I know that.”
“Oh, so you keeping tabs?”
“No, I am just that wise. She’ll be there later.”
“Thanks, Em. And please tell Analise how much I appreciate it, too. She really loves you both.”
“And we love her. Goodbye, asshole.”
“Bye, Em.”
He chuckled, shaking his head at Emmalyn’s insistence of keeping up the pretense that she was at odds with him. If that made her feel better, so be it. Instead of going inside to tell Harley, he just got back to work. She’d be surprised when Analise showed up, and if Analise changed her mind, Harley wouldn’t be disappointed because she wouldn’t have known to expect her.
~~~
It was close to three o’clock when Analise, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, dressed in a pair of black leggings and a navy-blue sweatshirt and tennis shoes crossed the road onto Brandt’s property. She was experiencing all kinds of nerves because the last time she’d done this, she’d spent the night with Havoc, but she fought her insecurities and powered through. There was a little girl expecting her, and she wasn’t going to disappoint her. She turned left at the road Havoc lived down and could hear the sounds of his hammer before she got close enough to actually see him. When he finally came into view, she just about swallowed her tongue. He was shirtless, sweating with the sun gleaming down on his back. His long, auburn-streaked deep-brown hair was held out of his face with a bandanna that had been folded and tied around his forehead. The only thought running through her mind was that he was all male. “My male,” she murmured before she caught herself.
As soon as she heard her own voice her brows slammed down close to her eyelids in consternation. “He’s not mine,” she grumbled. “Definitely not mine.”
Her Fox chose that exact moment to start pacing circles in her head. Lick ours. Now.
“We are not licking anybody!” Analise snapped aloud at her Fox.
Her Fox snarled a warning in her head.
“Stop that now or I’ll never let you lick anybody!” Analise ordered.
“Everything alright?” Havoc asked, having noticed her coming and stopped to watch her visibly argue with herself.
“Of course,” she answered with no small amount of attitude.
“Just checking. You look like you’re having quite the conversation.”
“I’m not. But if I was, it’d be none of your business.”
He raised both hands. “That’s fine. It’s all good with me either way.”
“Where’s Harley?” Analise asked.
“She’s inside. I didn’t tell her you were coming.”
Analise started to ask why, but then she suddenly understood why. “Because if I didn’t come, she wouldn’t be disappointed.”
Havoc gave her a hesitant nod.
“I wouldn’t do that to her.”
“There’s a lot of things pushed right up against the line with us. I didn’t want to take a chance that asking you to take her for a walk would be too much and you’d back out.”
“That is true, and thank you for understanding, but still, I wouldn’t disappoint her. I really enjoy her.”
“She’s something,” Havoc said, grinning.
“She’s got some Hellen in her, and a whole lot of you. She’s going to do just fine in this world.”
“Yes, she will.”
Analise took a moment to look up at the house and then the fence he was building. “It’s a beautiful house.”
“I like it. I’m particularly attached to it.”
She yanked her gaze from the house back to Havoc in response to his comment.
“I miss you,” he said.
“I’m not gone, yet.”
“Are you planning to be?”
“I haven’t decided. I’m leaning toward going back to work, they’re expecting me the end of next week.”
“Doesn’t leave much time.”
“For what?” she asked irritatedly.
“Family. Spending time with your parents, uncles, cousins and all.”
“My parents aren’t even here. They went on vacation.”
“Vacation?! I didn’t hear nothing about that.”
“Nobody did. It was a spur of the moment thing.”
“You don’t seem too happy for them.”
She smirked at Havoc. “They got wind of what was happening with us and figured out that Emmalyn was chasing Barron around and decided they didn’t want to be in the middle anymore. They left and took my rental car! They didn’t even ask.”
“They didn’t tell y’all before they left?”
“Not a word. Left a note telling us to fix our messes because they were tired of being in the middle.”
Havoc thought about, started chuckling and ended up laughing.
“It’s not funny.”
“It really kind of is. Uncle Bam is the one uncle I thought would never stop parenting. If we’re driving even him nuts, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s probably a bad thing.”
“It’s not a bad thing! And I kinda resent you think that it is.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry, I thought you thought it was a bad thing.”
“I don’t know what I think.”
“Really? Three days of no contact at all and you still don’t know what you’re thinking?”
“Is your daughter here?”
“She is. I’ll get her, or you can go get her. It’s right up those stairs, I believe you still know the way.”
Analise glared at him as she stalked past on her way up to the staircase and then up the stairs to the front door. She raised a hand to knock, and the door was suddenly flung open from the inside.
“Analise!” Harley screeched!
“Harley!” Analise screeched, mimicking Harley’s pitch and tone.
Harley jumped on Analise and Analise caught her up in a hug. “You ready to go on a walk?”
“Yes. But come see my room first.”
“Your room? You have your own room?”
“I do. Me and Daddy are going to move down here and he’s putting up a fence so I can get a puppy. And I said you could sleep in the extra room if you want to come visit and Daddy said that if you are in this house you will spend the night in his room. And that’s fine with me because then you will be like my momma, and I think you’d be a really good momma.”
Analise turned to look over her shoulder at Havoc, just about ready to throw something at him, until she realized he was standing there wearing a stunned expression on his face, completely shocked by Harley’s statement as she was herself.
“Come on, come on, come see my room!”
“Okay, I’m coming. Where is it?” Analise asked, allowing Harley to lead her into the house.
Havoc stood where he was, focused on his front door where he’d just seen Harley pull Analise into the house to show off her room. “Well, shit,” he grumbled, knowing what he had to do when he got a chance to talk to Analise alone.
A little later they came out of the house, Harley excitedly clinging to Analise’s hand and skipping along beside her.
“Bye, Daddy!” Harley called as they walked past him.
“Bye, Daddy,” Analise called.
Havoc looked up at them a rumble in his throat.
Analise realized how her attempt to tease him must have sounded. “Sorry,” she mouthed at him.
His eyes were alight, clearly his Wolf was looking out at her.
“We’re going to walk for a while. Shouldn’t be more than an hour-and-a-half or two at the most,” Analise said, her voice giving away her nervousness.
He didn’t even try to answer, he just went back to work.
~~~
Analise and Harley decided to walk up the highway instead of just sticking to their property on either side of the highway. And while they walked Harley talked about puppies and butterflies, and her Aunt Maia, and her many aunts and uncles and cousins from Missouri. She asked about Analise’s job and why she had to go back to it, and along the way several cars went zooming past. One in particular, an older model Pontiac with dark windows and a rusted quarter panel drove slowly past them twice. Thankfully, they were almost back to Brandt’s property.
“Feel like cutting through the woods?” Analise asked Harley, looking down at her to see if she’d noticed the vehicle.
“Sure! My daddy practiced with me so I’d know where I was going in the woods. I can find my way back home. I’ll show you.”
“You think? I’m not sure. I think I do need you to show me.” Analise picked up Harley and jumped a ditch, then quickly stepped into the woods so if the car came back there would be no trace of them. She just had a bad feeling about it. But she had a bad feeling about most things lately. Havoc being near her again had her senses all in a tizzy.
Fifteen minutes later they approached Havoc’s home from behind.
“See? That’s my house!”
“It sure is! I am so proud of you! You knew exactly where we were going,” Analise said.
“Yep. I’m a good tracker. I know where I’m going.”
“You sure do!”
“Y’all hiking the woods now?” Havoc asked, picking up his tools and putting them on the picnic table beneath the raised house.
“Yep! Analise said she wasn’t sure I could find my way in the woods, so I had to show her.”
“My girl can do that. She’s got more skill than we had at that age,” Havoc said.
“I don’t know. We were pretty good at tracking thanks to our fathers.”
“True, but I wanted to be extra sure with Harley,” he said meaningfully.
“Thank you so much for taking a walk with me, Ms. Harley,” Analise said.
“You’re welcome! Do you want to go in the morning, too?”
“Maybe. You like walking in the mornings, don’t you?”
“It’s the birds! They’re all out flying around and having breakfast and they sing so many songs!”
“Maybe we’ll do that, then.”
“Leave Analise alone. She just took you for a walk,” Havoc said.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll come over tomorrow morning and we can enjoy a quick walk. Would you like that?”
“So much!” Harley said excitedly.
“That’s what we’ll do then.”
“Go on inside and get you some water so I can talk to Analise real quick, okay?”
“Do I have to?”
“Do you want to go walk with her in the morning?”
“Yes, sir. I’m going inside.” She hugged Analise’s legs and grinned up at her. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning!”
“You certainly will,” Analise said.
Havoc waited until Harley was inside the house, then gave Analise his undivided attention.
“Is there a problem?” she asked.
“Yeah, and I created it. Look, I’ve made myself clear about what I want and what you mean to me. So clear in fact that Harley knows you’re important to me.”
“Maybe not such a good idea?” Analise said.
Havoc shook his head. “I’m never going to lie to her. I’ll be as honest as I can possibly be while framing things in a way that speaks to her maturity level at the time. And she’s not stupid, she knows there’s some connection between us — she can feel it, hell everybody can. But even without that, she loves you. Part of it might be because she wants a mom so bad, and it might be because she’s just drawn to you on her own. I don’t know. But the thing is, I don’t want you to feel like you have to choose a life with me because of Harley. She’s young, she’ll get over whatever happens between us.”
“Havoc…”
“No, now I need to say this. I realized today when you two were leaving here that it looks like I’m using her to pull you closer, but I’m not. The old me, wouldn’t have thought twice, would have been conniving to get closer any way I could. But not now, for two reasons. I’m not using my daughter for anything, and when you choose me, that’s right, I said when, it’ll be your own free will, not because you feel like you need to for me, or for Harley. It’ll be because it’s what’s right for you. Anyway, I just felt like I needed to say that.”
“I appreciate that. But what if I don’t choose you?”
“Then I guess Karma isn’t finished with me.”
Analise nodded and slowly walked a few steps toward the woods to go back the way she and Harley had come. She stopped after a few feet and turned back to where he stood still watching her. “When we were walking, there was a car that drove by twice, slowing each time it approached, then speeding off at the last minute.”
“You see who was driving?”
“No, windows are dark. But it’s an old car, a Pontiac and it’s got a rusted out rear-quarter-panel. Could have been nothing, just somebody slowing down to be careful as they passed us.”
“Could be,” Havoc said. “That why you came back through the woods?”
Analise nodded. “Thought I’d play it safe, just in case.”
Havoc watched as she turned and started walking away. “Hey!”
She looked at him over her shoulder.
“If you go, will you at least say goodbye first?”
He’d have sworn he heard her heartbeat thud in her chest.
“I’ll try.”
“I love you. If you go, I just want you to know that. And I’ll be waiting, whether I’m here or in Missouri. There won’t be anybody else, you can come to find me at anytime and not have to worry about that.”
“I thought Harley said you’re moving here?”
“Not sure about full-time yet. Eventually maybe. A lot rides on the outcome of a few other things.”
Analise nodded. “Love your house,” she said, walking slowly away again. “It’s the perfect home.”
He didn’t answer, he just watched her as she went, fighting against every instinct he had to run after her and dominate her into submission. She knew exactly how he felt and what he wanted, and he had to have faith that she’d make the decision to stand beside him. If she didn’t, no matter what he did it wouldn’t be enough.