Chapter 28
[Stone]
“There was an accident on the highway,” I begin, feeling like my own story is inconsequential compared to what just happened with Andy, but Taxi doesn’t want to let my injury go.
“That’s the reason I’m here so early.” I glance down at the bandage. The EMT on call insisted I have the cut stitched.
“Two-car collision. Pretty bad crash,” I explain, omitting the gorier details like how the passenger in one vehicle hadn’t been wearing a seat belt and the driver of the other car had fallen asleep at the wheel. For now, the assumption is the person was going home after a long shift.
“Stuck my arm through the window to check the vitals of an injured victim.” I twist my arm, glancing at the bandage again.
My skin feels tight beneath the wrap, stitches pulling in my flesh, which is nothing more than a scrape compared to the physical damage done to the three victims. “Got cut on the glass.”
“Stone.” Taxi’s voice grows louder as her hand hovers over my arm, which she’s placed in her lap. “Does this kind of thing happen often?”
Her silvery eyes catch on mine, confusing me. She looks genuinely concerned for my well-being, but that’s not the confusing part. It’s that I can’t remember the last time someone other than family looked at me like she is, worry etched between her brows, mouth tight.
“Accidents happen,” I admit, swallowing thickly. Trying not to think about what could have happened to those three people, innocently making their way somewhere. Knowing I’ve thought about such accidents happening to Taxi, as she travels all over for her art.
But also, that thickness happens from an overwhelming sense that Taxi cares about me. The world has been unkind to her in so many ways, but she’s worried about a little scratch on me.
“You need to be careful,” she says, lowering her voice and her gaze. Her hand hovers over the bandage again. “Does it hurt?”
“Only a little.” Going to sting and itch in a day or so, but nothing I haven’t dealt with before.
“Would a kiss make it better?”
I chuckle. “Definitely.”
She cups my jaw and pulls me closer to her, giving me a sweet kiss on the lips, instead of where my ouchy—as my niece June would call it—is. Her lips are soft and warm and gone too quickly from mine.
I’m still feeling a little rattled about seeing Andy in a security uniform at the hospital. Even more unhinged about what I heard him say to Taxi. His tone. The implication. The suggestion. She doesn’t need that kind of comment in her life. No one does.
But I settle a little under her kiss.
Andy Whitehall previously worked for the sheriff’s department, and I hadn’t been contacted about his employment potential at the hospital.
Legally, I couldn’t say whether he’d been a good employee or a decent human being.
I could only confirm he’d worked in the department, had they reached out to me for a reference.
He was a little too squirrelly for my liking.
Attempting to give big dick energy when he was a small man.
He was the type of cop who had seen too many movies and was a little overzealous with his gun, as in, he liked to show it as a symbol of authority.
He'd been put on probation for an incident two years ago and was eventually let go from the department last summer. While working for the sheriff’s office, he’d also taken a job working security at my brother Ford’s baseball camp, but after a comment not too far off from the one he spoke to Taxi, made to our sister last summer, Ford fired him.
Andy did not have a good track record working with Sylvers.
“Let me take you to dinner tonight,” I whisper, tipping my head close to hers as she continues to hold my arm on her lap.
“Let me check on Trudy first.”
I nod to agree, and thankfully, an hour later Trudy gives Taxi her blessing to cut out of the hospital early.
“Get her out of here,” Trudy turns tired, teasing eyes on me.
“Are you sure?” Taxi looks back at Trudy.
“Yes. Please.” Trudy attempts to sound annoyed but offers a weak smile. “And don’t come back ‘til the morning.”
“Aunt Trudy,” Taxi admonishes.
Trudy responds with strained laughter that causes Taxi and me to meet eyes.
But the reality of Trudy’s suggestion hits.
I don’t want to let Taxi out of my sight until morning.
“Your house?” Taxi questions as we pull onto the gravel drive.
I shift my truck into Park and twist to look at her. “Figured you could use a home-cooked meal instead of more take-out or cafeteria food.”
“You can cook?”
Her skepticism makes me laugh. “I have many talents.” I tip a brow while shoving open my door. Rounding the hood, I get to Taxi’s door just as she pops it open. Holding out my hand, I help her out of the vehicle and keep her hand in mine as I lead her into the house.
I haven’t slept here in a week, and it’s almost strange to return to my place. I’ve only taken quick showers here lately.
“Your sister lives here, right? With your nephew.” Taxi looks around the living room after I’ve shut the front door and dropped her hand.
A year ago, when Taxi was here, Vale did live with me. “Actually, Vale got engaged in July. She and Hudson moved in with Cort a couple of weeks ago.”
I nod toward the kitchen and place my hand on her lower back to lead her toward the back of the house.
“Did they live here long?” she asks.
I pause near the kitchen island and pull out a stool for Taxi, patting it for her to take a seat.
“Vale has lived here since Hudson was born. But essentially, she’s lived here all her life, other than going away for college, just like me.”
“Sounds like a story,” Taxi teases.
I round the island and grab a bottle of wine, holding it up for Taxi’s inspection.
“Yes, please.” She smiles wide, curling those lush lips and exposing beautiful teeth. I want to lean over the island and kiss her again. Skip the wine and dinner and conversation. But it’s been a long time since I’ve entertained a woman, made her a meal, so I want to do this right with her.
I want to do it for me as well.
“I was born and raised here, just like all my siblings.” I uncork the wine and pour each of us a glass, then hand Taxi hers. I tap my rim to hers and take a sip before continuing. “Went away to college on a football scholarship and had a chance at the pros.”
“You were a professional athlete?” Taxi runs her gaze over my shoulders and down my chest.
I chuckle and spread my hands to lean against the kitchen island between us. “Not exactly. I could have been, but I wasn’t.”
Taxi takes a sip of her wine but keeps her eyes on me. “Sounds like more story,” she says, encouraging me to continue.
“My mom died when I was twelve.” I lower my gaze. “Pre-eclampsia.” I glance up and around the kitchen as if it happened in this room. “Happened in my parents’ bedroom. Clay found her. He was only eleven.”
Taxi sets down her glass, eyes wide and focused on me. “I’m so sorry, Stone.”
I shrug. I miss my mom, but it was a long time ago. “They were able to save Vale.”
Swallowing thickly, I remember when Dad came home, stone-faced and worn. Exhaustion like I’d never seen before. He took Vale out of the car, left her in her car seat in the living room, and headed straight for the cabinet above the fridge where he kept the booze.
Everything changed.
“My dad shut down after my mom died. He didn’t know how to raise a baby, although he had six sons from twelve to two.”
Taxi whistles and gives a compassionate smile.
“Yeah.” I chuckle. “My parents really liked each other.” I laugh a little harder. “I have no doubt my dad loved my mom with everything he had. He gave her the children she wanted and the business she desired, and then . . . he just didn’t know how to function without her.”
I hang my head again, staring at the red wine in my glass. “I’ll spare you the details of his behavior. Let’s just say he changed toward each of us, going from bad to worse the younger down the line my siblings ran.”
Taxi taps a dark nail on the island surface, signaling she wants my attention, and I lift my head, focusing on her face to finish my tale.
“I loved my dad, but I didn’t know him by the time I left for college. He wasn’t the same man he was when I was younger.”
Taxi’s head bobs as she says, “I totally understand that. I loved Mama something fierce, but with age came perspective. I couldn’t make her have a relationship with me if she didn’t want one.”
Taxi and I have both had parents who walked away from parenting. Even if my dad was present, he wasn’t involved with any of us. Taxi already told me how her mother shut her out. We both lost our mothers too young.
“Anyway, to explain why I was not a professional athlete, my dad died just before I graduated from college. I’d already been drafted, and intended for Tennessee along with my best friend, Cort.
” My mouth twists at the memory. Cort and me on the same team again.
Always there for each other. Quarterback and receiver. We shared everything until . . ..
“But, when Dad died, Knox, Ford, Sebastian, and Vale were all still under eighteen.”
“Stone,” Taxi whispers, knowing where this story leads.
“And I couldn’t let them be separated.” I scoff lightly. “Trudy even offered to take them in.”
Trudy had always been good to our family. As best she could be, keeping her distance from Dad and his growing wrath toward the world. She’d offered to take in my younger siblings, but she was nearing the end of raising her nieces and nephews and foster kids, and I couldn’t do that to her.
I couldn’t part with my brothers and Vale.
I shrug. “I came home. Gave up my contract. Worked at Sylver Seed & Soil and did what I needed to do to become a sheriff.”
The training was straightforward and easy enough, as Sterling Falls is the hub of Milton County.
“I took a job under a good man who endorsed my position after he retired, and I’ve been the sheriff for more than fifteen years.”
Taxi stares at me for a long minute, and I almost worry I’ve told her too much. I know her distrust of the law, but I want her to believe in me.
“You are a good man, Stone Sylver.”
My cheeks heat, and I deflect the compliment. “Haven’t you heard? I’m Superman.”
Typically, I wouldn’t consider myself a superhero.
I’m just a guy who loves his siblings and knew my mama would want us to stick together.
I believe in my heart my father wanted his children all together as well, even though he disappeared in a bottle.
We were a constant reminder of what he had with our mom.
Their love was present every day in children who looked like her and loved like her, even if he turned into a hateful man.
Taxi scoots off her stool and rounds the island to stand in front of me. I spin, leaning my ass against the counter, and she steps between my spread legs. Her hand cups my chin.
“Hi,” I whisper.
Her response is tipping up on her toes and kissing me. Kissing me slow and tender, pulling me under her spell.
Her hand comes gently to my forearm, and our kiss breaks. “How’s the arm feel?”
“Feels like I can make you dinner.”
She smiles but doesn’t step back. Instead, she leans into me, returns her mouth to mine, and kisses me again with more intensity, more urgency, reminding me of the night we met. Her lips suck at mine. Her tongue seeks as well.
I cup her ass, and she circles my neck with her arms, lining herself up against me. Her breasts plaster against my chest, and I tug her tighter to me. The kiss continues with sympathy and compassion and understanding.
Life isn’t always easy.
Moments like this make it better.
I spin with our mouths still connected and hitch her upward by her butt, setting her on the edge of the island.
She breaks contact only long enough to move my wineglass and then wrap her legs around the back of mine, tugging me toward her.
Tilting her head, our kiss turns hungry, almost desperate, and I bring her flush to me again, nudging where I’m long and hard against where she’s warm and soft.
She’s still wearing those denim overalls, and I can’t wait to peel her out of them later. I want to strip her down to nothing and take her to my bed, but I also want to do this right.
Slowly, I pull back, setting my forehead against hers.
“You putting on the brakes?” she breathes heavily, and I watch her breasts lift and lower.
“Just making a little pit stop for dinner. Let me feed you, Taxi.”
“Lots of innuendo in that statement, Superman.” She pulls back and laughs. The sound is almost musical, lightening the tension in my chest I hadn’t known was there.
“I like your laugh,” I admit, stroking my finger around her ear to brush back her hair.
“I like your smile.” She runs her finger along my bottom lip.
Her compliment only makes me smile wider, like a love-sick fool. Deep down, I could love this woman if I thought she’d be open to it. If I thought she’d stay.
With my hands on her firm backside, I lift her off the counter and set her on her feet. I don’t immediately let her go, but lean in for one more heated kiss to tide me over until after we eat.
“You’re a dangerous man,” Taxi says, smoothing her palms over my chest before stepping away from me.
“Made of kryptonite.” I pat my chest as she rounds the island.
She laughs. “Ain’t that the problem?”