Rex
Maria’s initial reaction to the sight of me was fear.
Eyes gaping as wide as her mouth, tension making her as brittle as an overcooked wishbone, she shivered in front of me, whispering, “Grizzly?”
If, with a night’s stubble and a fresh haircut, I still looked like Grizzly, it was no fucking wonder Rachel thought I was him after a nightmare.
I was, it seemed, cursed with their looks.
And cursed was the right word considering her goddamn reaction.
“Yes. I’m Bear’s son.”
She whispered stiffly, “He isn’t here.”
Confused, I retorted, “I know he isn’t. He’s fucking dead.”
“Rex!” Wynter grumbled. “That was uncalled for.”
Maria shook her head. “No! Bear’s not dead.”
Seeing her disbelief, her grief, I swallowed down my bitterness and told her, “He is. He’s…” I blew out a breath. “He died. On Christmas Day.”
“He was here last year—”
He fucking was, was he?
“A lot can change in a year. I guess you don’t talk with Kendra all that much anymore, do you?”
She tensed even more. “No. Kendra’s a wild card, but I guess you’d know that seeing as she’s spent most of her adult life with the Sinners.”
I dipped my chin. “I do know that. I just don’t understand how my father could have let his daughter whore herself out.”
Sorrow had Maria’s shoulders slumping. “He didn’t know at first. Then, after, it was too late. Kendra’s stubborn. She said she liked that way of life…”
“Dad would have stopped her if he’d cared.”
Her breath hitched. “Kendra was a source of great shame to your father.”
“Go figure seeing as I only found out about her after his death.” I tried to contain my anger by retorting, “I only found out about you too. Seems you kept in touch with him after Mom passed away if he visited last year?”
It was ironic that her cheeks burned then, when Kendra’s had stopped years earlier. Her mother retained an innocence that the daughter had long since lost.
“We were friends, Rex. I-I understand that you probably hate me, but I appreciate you coming here to tell me about his passing.”
“Because you did it so kindly,” Wynter muttered under her breath at me.
I refused to feel guilty.
“You knew he was with my mom,” I rattled off, unable to hold the words back. “You knew and you still shacked up with him anyway.”
“I had nowhere else to go and he helped me, Rex.” Her mouth wobbled. “It wasn’t like you think—”
“Somehow you made a baby, and unless the birds and the bees changed over the last couple decades, I know my train of thought is correct.”
She made to close the door on me, and while that pissed me off, in her shoes, I’d have done the same. On the brink of turning around, leaving her the hell alone, Wynter tugged on my arm and said, “You inherited something from Bear. Rex can’t go until he gives it to you.”
Maria whispered, “I don’t need anything from him.”
My top lip curved into a sneer, but only Wynter’s presence kept me from releasing my toxic bitterness out into the world.
My kid had one piece of shit for a father already. I didn’t need to add to her woes.
It was hard, so fucking hard, but as pleasantly as I was able, I informed her, “Bear wanted you to have it.”
I didn’t wait around, just reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out the key Rachel had sent to me.
Shoving it at her, I said, “Whatever went on between you, it was enough for him to remember you in his will.”
Unable to stay there much longer, I dragged Wynter away and tugged her along to the bike.
“I’m not like my daughter.”
The words had me freezing in place.
“You can condemn me for falling in love with a married man, but I wasn’t a home wrecker. The home was already wrecked, and he wasn’t the one left raising a daughter on his own and with a broken heart too.”
And with that, she closed the door.
“That question on the tip of your tongue… I think you were too much of a jerk for her to answer it for you.”
I cast Wynter a glance, saw her disapproval, and asked the one question my kid always said ‘yes’ to: “Are you hungry?”