Chapter 2
My lips still tingle from the kiss and my brain is filled with a low humming noise that”s making it difficult for me to focus on what”s going on.
”Mom, come see the horses, Raine said I can ride one if you say yes. Can I?”
Donner”s words are incoherent jabber as his little hand grabs mine and tugs me in the opposite direction of the man we came to see.
The man that just kissed me like it hasn”t been five years since he had me kicked out of his house without an explanation or even the decency to do it himself.
Kissed me like I”d expected he”d do for the rest of our lives.
To say I”m confused is an understatement, but when I turn my eyes from Donner back to Cane, it”s clear that if this is a contest to confuse each other-- I win.
”Hey, Donner,” Raine flattens a hand over my son”s head, halting his insistent tugging on my arm and forcing his attention toward the giant man glowering down at him with his arms crossed over his broad chest. ”This is my big brother, Hurricane. Most of us just call him Cane though. Don”t let him fool you, he”s more afraid of you than you are of him.”
Raine”s joke is enough to break the spell, causing Cane to take his eyes off Donner momentarily to deepen his scowl on his brother while Raine just laughs and shakes his head.
Donner keeps a loose hold on my hand and watches the two older men with fascination.
”Go home.” Cane”s voice is deeper than I remember it, and I remember it being deep. Maybe it”s just the way he barks the order at his brother without even a hint of the humor reflected in Raine”s smile. ”Don”t you have a pregnant wife waiting for you--”
Cane”s words fade as both men glance toward me and away so quickly it”s easy to think I imagined it.
”You know where to find me.” The smile drops off Raine”s face.
”You ok?” Raine asks me so quietly, I have to read his lips.
I never got to meet any of Cane”s family. There just hadn”t been time to make the introductions before he was injured, and afterward well, by then he”d changed his mind.
The man hovering protectively between me and Cane right now, asking me if I feel safe for him to leave us alone together doesn”t fit with the way Cane used to describe his younger brother. It”s obvious that Raine”s grown up to be a good man.
My heart aches deeper, knowing that this is the only time Donner will ever get to spend with his uncle. That Raine has a wife that will never be my sister-in-law, that he has a baby on the way that will never get to know his older cousin.
With a forced smile, I give the worried man a falsely confident nod. Letting him get home to the life he”s so obviously excited about, while the man that once had me convinced he felt that way about me glares in silence the entire time it takes for Raine”s truck to disappear down the dirt road.
”What do you want?”
Whatever he was thinking when he kissed me earlier has long since left his mind, reminding me not to get any ridiculous ideas in my own head about second chances and happy endings.
Which was easy before I felt his lips on mine again, before he went and reminded me what it feels like to have those massive arms wrapped so tenderly around me, and feel his chest so warm and solid against me.
”I need some paperwork signed,” I answer cautiously, not wanting to have the full conversation in front of Donner.
Cane”s eyes drop down with a hard scowl, but as soon as Donner looks back at him, those dark eyes soften. But just for a moment before he”s wearing his scowl just for me again.
”Is that it?”
”That”s it,” I promise, relief flooding my stiffened muscles.
”Do you have this paperwork with you?” He eyes the messenger bag style tote under my arm expectantly.
Slipping the strap off my shoulder, I open the bag and pull out the over-sized envelope with his name on it.
He takes it from me, careful not to make contact as the envelope passes from my hand to his.
”Just a minute,” I assure Donner when I get a tug on my hand, ”we”re almost done.”
An impatient huff sounds to my right.
”What the fuck is this, June?”
”Cane!” I pick Donner up and position him over my hip. Like that”ll protect him from the profanity-- or whatever else is about to spew out of Cane”s mouth that I can”t control. At least it does the job of reminding Cane that there”s a curious pair of four-year-old ears present.
Cane gives Donner an apologetic look. Don sinks his little head onto my shoulder.
He”s a good kid. He likes to observe things quietly, but he”ll be all questions on the drive back down the mountain. I haven”t told him much of why we”re here today or who these people are, and with luck, Cane will put his name on every one of the lines where there”s a little blue flag sticking out of the stack of papers and I won”t have to explain anything to Donner until he”s much older.
Of course, that”s not what happens.
* * *
Hurricane
”You”reout of your goddamn mind. There”s not a chance in hell I”m signing this.”
Running the camp means I”m around kids plenty enough to have learned how to hold my damn tongue but the swears won”t stop coming out of me.
The boy-- Donner...
Shit. My son”s name is Donner.
As if it wasn”t plain as day from looking at the kid, the papers Junie handed me spell it out in printed legalese across sixteen sheets of paper that are marked with no less than six places where she expects me to sign away my parental rights to a son I didn”t know I had.
”Fucking hell, June!”
She lets the boy scramble into the back seat of the little rental car and I stand rooted to the fucking ground while I watch her hand him a bag of snacks from the front seat and give him smiles and nods and then a kiss before she heads back to me.
”Could you keep your voice down? I don”t want to have to explain why you”re so upset.”
It”s like there are too many words trying to get out of my mouth at the same time. All I can do is spit and huff and curse some more.
”You don”t want to explain why his father was mad about not knowing he existed?” I pull at my hair and pace the breezeway between the administration building and the first aid station.
”I don”t want to explain why the perfect stranger that mommy had to come visit was mad at knowing he existed.”
June hisses between her teeth, low enough that she won”t be overheard and lethal enough to mistake her for a diamondback.
”This isn”t going to happen.” I hold up the papers she expected me to sign without question. ”When you said you needed papers signed, this is the last thing I was expecting.”
”What were you expecting, Cane?”
Sounds like the fight”s gone out of both of us.
Junie leans against the wall like she needs it to hold her up and my pacing slows to a stop not far from her, both of us careful to keep the car within sight and our voices low now.
”I thought you”d be handing me a bunch of shit about child support,” I admit. ”I was looking for the request for a lump sum for back support, what you expect me to pay you going forward. Figured your attorney would be smart enough to go after a portion of the family trust, make sure my boy gets the inheritance he”s entitled to.
”I thought I”d find a custody proposal in there, for fucks sake. Not a bunch of places to sign away my rights like he”s not even mine.”
Junie”s staring at me with wide eyes that tell me my reaction is a far cry from what she”d been prepared for.
”We don”t need your money, Cane.” She sounds insulted.
”Don”t tell me you came all the way up here with him in tow thinking I”d sign your papers and let you walk out of my life-- again. Shit, Junie, you know me better than that.
”At least...you used to.”
”You”re right, Cane; I used to know you better than that. The man I knew would never have let us get to this point in the first place. But that man disappeared a long time ago. So, yeah, I kind of figured you”d be more than happy to sign off and let us get on with our lives.”
The feel of the legal envelope in my hand is dry and suddenly a lot heavier than a few sheets of paper ought to be.
A few years back, Rapid Jones adopted Doc”s boy. I remember the Joneses threw a big father”s day party for him and Jackson up at their River Bend property, with half the town coming out to celebrate the fact that the kid”s deadbeat dad was so happy to sign away his parental rights and let another man be a real dad for his kid.
”You married now?”
My eyes slide to Junie”s left hand. I shouldn”t feel so relieved to see the bare ring finger, but the feeling still barrels through me like a train.
Junie clenches her hand up and rolls the bare fingers into the dip of her waist like the mere suggestion caused her physical pain.
Her movement stretches her loose-fitting top tight across her breasts and presses the fabric so that it shows the curvy figure that”s matured since I last saw it.
My cock twitches behind my zipper and I curse the damn thing for noticing her.
She”s not mine anymore. The claim I had to that sweet body has been a long time over now. Broken the day I find out she”d been gone long before I came home to an empty house.
”No. I”m not married,” she answers quietly after a long pause.
The taste of her still lingers on my tongue. That one, reckless, kiss I stole from her when I foolishly gave in to the fantasy that she”d come back here after all these years for me. For us.
The way she”d softened in my grasp, melded against me, opened up and let me in like nothing had changed between us after all this time-- I don”t know if there”s another man in her life now, but it”s clear she still belongs to me.
”You got a new man? Is he thinking he”s going to adopt my boy? Is that why you never told me about him before now?”
Junie must have gotten her second wind. Rage darkens her face and, God help me, but even seeing the fury of hell itself etched on the woman”s features isn”t enough to keep me from wanting her still.
”Fuck you, Hurricane,” she spits as she pushes away from the wall she”s been leaning on. ”You”re the only reason you didn”t know you had a son, so don”t try to play the victim in this one.
”Now that I know where the fuck you are, you can talk to my lawyer instead of putting me through your gas-lighting bullshit.”
Before she can take more than one step toward her car, I have my hands planted against the wall on either side of her.
”You two aren”t leaving my sight.” It comes out on a snarl. I”ve seen men near my own size cower in fear from me, but the woman caged between my arms doesn”t look the least bit scared of me.
The pulse in her neck is beating visibly, her breaths are quick and shallow, and her pupils are so blown-out that the darkness makes the clear green irises take on a stormy gray hue.
Her lips part, maybe she was planning on telling me to get fucked-- being this close to her, with the fruity smell of her shampoo invading my nostrils and the heat that”s rolling off of her body making my dick respond like it”s answering a call neither of us made-- if she wants me to get fucked, I”m willing to comply.
”You”re not going to take my boy away from me, June.”