Real World, page 23
part #2 of Love is Blind Series
“He said Jakob was his son. What was the stupid kid thinking? He could have been anyone!”
“He wasn’t thinking, babe.” Dan shrugged, his expression grim. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me too. How are the girls?”
“Maddie is freaked out. Kenzie is watching TV.”
“I haven’t decided if she’s earned a punishment.” He just didn’t know. How long had Maddie known?
“She’s more worried about Jakob right now. Hell, she’d probably feel better if you grounded her.”
“At least she told you. Christ, he was filthy, trashy, just nasty, had his hand on my son.” Weldon shuddered, and the urge to go find the fucker, hit him again, was huge.
“Babe.” Dan reached for his wrist, warm fingers circling it.
“Fuck, I was scared,” he whispered.
“You got there. Kept him safe.” His mission oriented lover.
“I did. God. That’s my boy, you know? My own.”
“I do.” Dan rubbed his arm. “I was terrified. I can’t imagine what you went through.”
“Thank God you called me. Thank God Maddie trusted you.”
“She wanted to come clean. She was just afraid to break a promise. She says Jakob is mad all the time.”
“Yeah. He went to a therapist for a while. I’m going to call him, see if they can get together again. I mean, I’m trying to do right by them all, but….” There was only one of him and he’d never raised a teenager before.
“You’re doing amazing. I know it doesn’t seem like it today.” Dan leaned over and kissed just under his ear. “I love you.”
“I love you.” He took a deep breath. “I bought you propane for the grill.”
“Chicken ahoy. Tequila lime.”
“Is there a spare shot for a dad who’s had a shitty afternoon?”
Dan chuckled, the sound wry as hell. “There might be two.”
“Good, I’ll share.” See? That was love. Sharing the tequila and letting a man use your grill. True fucking love.
Now he just had to get through the night without killing any of his children.
29
Dan shot up to sitting, reaching for his sidearm. Whatever sound had woken him was also making his heart race, his ears straining to catch another hint of it.
He could feel them, so close, almost touching him, watching him. “Back off!”
“Honey?”
The enemy never called him honey. In fact, they rarely spoke English. Dan gritted his teeth, holding on by the skin of them. He wanted to answer whoever that was, but if he moved he’d lash out.
“Dan?” The light flicked on, the white brightness blinding him, terrifying him.
He rolled out of his bunk, trying to scramble away, his shout giving away his location.
“Daddy!” A pair of feet disappeared as he fell, and as he hit the floor, water splashed down on his head.
“Okay, soldier, come back now!” The bark was familiar, right.
Dan shook himself like a wet dog, snapping back to the present. To the bedroom he was sharing with Weldon.
“Fuck. Did I—Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah. Caleb needed a hug and encouragement back to bed. I’ll be right back.”
Caleb stared at him from Weldon’s arm, wide-eyed, thumb in his mouth.
“I’ll bring you a towel.”
“Thanks.” He tried a smile for Caleb. “Sorry, buddy, I was having a bad dream.”
Caleb nodded for him. “You want my nightlight, Dan-Dan? It’s Superman.”
“Oh, that’s sweet, Caleb. Your dad will hold my hand, I bet. You’ll need Superman, huh?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Come on, buddy. Bed.” Weldon carried the little boy out the door, patting his back, his butt.
Dan crawled up on the bed and covered his face with his hands. Shit. He could have hurt Caleb.
He dripped—with sweat and with the remnants of Weldon’s standard nighttime glass of water—shaking as the adrenaline faded.
“Hey.” Weldon came to him, warm hands wrapping a towel around him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For a nightmare? Shit, no worries.”
“I was really out there.” Dan scrubbed water out of his hair.
“Yeah, you seemed like you were fucking terrified.”
“I was.” He couldn’t be suave right now.
“What can I do?”
“Hell if I know.” Dan laughed. “According to Maddie’s book hero, chocolate helps.”
“I have that. I also have…. Uh. Tequila is inappropriate for four thirty in the morning.”
“Nope. It wasn’t really appropriate as dinner, either, but it comes with lime. That’s fruit.”
“Right. Fruit and cactus. Is that a song?”
“I think it’s close.” Dan shivered. “Can you come sit with me?”
“Surely can. I just didn’t know how best to make it better.” Weldon pushed right in close and leaned against him, sharing his warmth.
Dan’s muscles seized for a moment, but then he began to relax, and he moaned. Better.
“Oh, honey.” Weldon started massaging his arms, rubbing hard.
“Sorry. Sorry, babe. I have no idea what got into me.” He was freaked as fuck, his skin beaded up with goose bumps.
“Well, it’s been the least stressful night ever.”
Yeah. Jakob had refused to come to supper, leading to Weldon having a screaming fight with the kid. Maddie had sobbed all through her food, while Kenzie and Caleb whispered and worried together.
Thank God Emma was at overnight camp.
Dan had had no idea what to do all night, because he was the guy who’d moved in. Maddie’s heart wasn’t in Scrabble, so they’d watched a Disney movie.
“I’m sorry, huh? I know this sucks. He’s never done anything like this before.”
“Teenagers stink. You should have heard Dix bitch about Damon and Dalton.”
“Yeah? You weren’t around for a lot of that, huh?” Weldon’s hands kept massaging him, warming him up, easy as you please.
“No. I sent cards.” Dan put that thought away for another time.
Weldon chuckled, the sound deep, oddly merry. “Sorry you have teenagers cards?”
Dan hooted, relaxing even more. “Yep. They say Amazon.”
“Ah, yes. Amazon. iTunes. Xbox. There are lots. Makes for a weirdly uncheery Christmas, though. I like it when they still want toys.”
“I was definitely there for that.” Dan remembered how unfond he’d been as a jaded teen of the two littles waking him up Christmas morning. Looking back, he could see how cool it was.
“You’ll be here for one this year. Christmas morning, Halloween. Summer break.”
“I know.” The thought warmed the rest of the cold spots inside him. “Should I feel guilty that I’m really excited?”
“Why? Being a parent is hard. Those are the good parts.”
His practical lover.
“Yeah. I just—I feel weird. Really disconnected from my brain.”
“That’s got to suck.” Weldon squeezed his hand. “Is it about your time in the service?”
“I guess so.” Dan had never considered himself nervy that way, but then, he’d been sleeping alone until Weldon. “I mean, I didn’t know where I was.”
“I’m sorry. That’s got to be scary as fuck. When I have nightmares, I’ve always lost one of the kids. Now, at any rate.”
“That blows.” Dan hugged Weldon tight, pressing a kiss to his neck. “I just hope I didn’t scar Caleb for life.”
“He won’t even remember, honey. You’re Dan-Dan the Magnificent, fixer of robots and the inventor of the Donald Duck voice.”
“I am pretty cool.” Dan sighed, his body heavy when the adrenaline drained.
“You are.” Weldon eased them down, covered them both back up. “Pretty damn cool.”
Dan snuggled in, his joints aching a little. He’d have to have a Tylenol in the morning.
“I’ve got you, honey. Just relax. I got you.”
“Thank you.” He said it softly, but he meant it for certain. Weldon was his lifeline.
Weldon kissed his forehead, lips clinging. They settled down into the covers, both of them too still for a time, each waiting for the other to sleep first, he’d bet.
In the morning, he wasn’t sure exactly who’d won that contest.
30
Weldon sat at his kitchen table, blinking down at a set of plans, trying to figure out what in the hell he was going to do about his son.
Jakob wasn’t speaking to him, but was at least following the rules. No calls or texts, save to tell his girlfriend he was grounded, and no Wi-Fi.
A brief knock came to the door, and then Mel came in, Caleb jabbering behind her. “Hello, my dear Abe. Caleb, go play with your trucks, Granny’s going to have a chat with your daddy.”
Caleb frowned at him for a moment so Weldon smiled and nodded. “No trucks outside.”
“No. Dan-Dan is at work.”
“He is. He’ll be home for lunch.”
“Okay, Daddy.” Caleb wandered off, and Mel raised a brow at him. He shrugged and waved toward the coffeepot.
“Don’t mind if I do.” She poured herself a cup of coffee and plopped down. “Spill.”
“Spill what?” He was buying time. God knew he’d need her advice.
“Boy, don’t be a turd. What the hell happened? I could hear y’all screaming all the way down the pasture.”
“Jakob found his sperm donor, lied to me, and met the guy at the library without me knowing.”
“The sperm….” She whistled. “You mean Boyd? Christ on a pogo stick.”
“Exactly. I guess he told Maddie, Maddie told Dan, and Dan told me. I walk in and he’s sitting there with this skanky fucker of a man.” His fingers curled into fists, right there on the table.
“Yeah. Well, shit, son. That’s a bitter one to swallow.”
“He thinks I hid the bastard from him. Like I gave two shits about the motherfucker.”
“Oh, Abe, he thinks he’s the only boy on earth who has a biological dad and a dad.” She sighed, sitting with her cup of coffee.
“I’m not going to let the man near my boy. He smells.” How had his Krista—his beautiful girl—let the fucker near her, touch her?
“Well, now, he used to smell like Polo. You know they were only together once or twice, right? She moved on real fast.”
“I was there when she moved on, Mel. Remember?”
His mother-in-law’s laugh was merry as fuck, and a little unholy. “How on earth could I possibly forget?”
Weldon sighed. “I wanted to hurt him. That asshole, I mean. Jakob just ripped my guts out.”
“That’s what teenagers are good for, Weldon.” She reached over, put her hand on his wrist, and he had to smile, because his Krista had done that to him a thousand times, right here in this kitchen, at this table. “I prayed on it a lot, back when Krista told me she was pregnant, and again when Jakob was born. I asked God why. Why would He do this to us?”
He nodded. Weldon wasn’t a saint. There were times back when Jakob was brand-new that all he had was Krista’s love of that tiny baby and faith that God had a plan. When he’d lost Krista, he’d railed at God, lost his faith for months, but he’d had Caleb to feed every two hours, he’d had a two-year-old and a six-year-old and his brave Maddie and Jakob, who was as much his as if he’d planted the seed. More, because he’d done the tending with Krista.
“I decided that God blessed us—me and David both—with Jakob and with you, Abe. I couldn’t ask for a better son-in-law. And when Krista went to be with my David, well, I knew those babies still had you.”
“I try, Mel. I try to make her proud.”
“You do. Every day.” Mel sounded so sure.
“I’m going to kill that Boyd motherfucker, though. Just FYI.” He thought he ought to be clear. That person was a threat to his family generally and his son, specifically.
“I have a shovel and a tarp. I will bury the body. Though Dan should do that on a job site.”
“Who am I burying?” Dan walked in, completely covered in mud and soaked to the bone. “Little problem with the built-in sprinkler system. Don’t ask.”
“Ouch.” Weldon would kiss Dan, but damn. “The Boyd.”
Dan made an ah face. “I’ll let you know when I pour my next slab.”
“See? I knew I approved of him for some reason. Go wash, Dan. You’re dripping.”
“Be right back.” Dan headed to the master, his boots left in the mudroom.
“Seriously, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I can do. I mean, if he wants visitation, I don’t know if I have to let it happen, if I should let it happen. I just don’t know what to do, you know?” He supposed he should talk to some lawyer or something, but part of him worried that would make it worse, make things harder.
“Well, I say no visitation. He had his chance to do something. Man up and do anything but what he did.” Mel’s mouth took on the stubborn line Krista had inherited from her. “I got some savings if we need a retainer.”
“I don’t know if we need to go that far. I mean, if he wants to claim him, he’ll have to pay for the privilege.” God knew he’d listened to enough of his buddies crying in their beers over some girl trapping them into child support. Weldon was of the opinion that if you dipped your wick, you paid for it somehow, either in love or in money.
“Yeah.” Mel brightened. “Right. God knows raising Jakob hasn’t been easy no matter how much we love him.”
“And he’ll have sixteen years of child support coming due.”
“Does it work that way?”
“Does according to Sam Whelan.”
Dan strode back into the room, heading for the coffeepot. “Where’s Caleb?”
“Playing with his trucks. Did you not see him in his room?”
Dan frowned. “No, but I was kinda gross. Let me go say hey.”
“Yeah. Go.” He wasn’t worried. He wasn’t. This was a safe place. This was their house. He couldn’t be freaking out with every second he didn’t have a kid in sight.
Hell, if nothing else, he had too many babies to do that with.
Mel chuckled. “He’s still new at this. Everything will scare him.”
“Shit, I want to keep them lined up in front of me—in order of height—just to make sure they’re all okay.”
The soft chuckles turned into outright belly laughs. “Said like a true daddy.”
“I earned that title, thank you very much.”
“Absolutely, Abe. What have you got in the way of pastry?”
“Leftover kolaches?”
“Are they shitty gas station ones or good ones?”
“Mel. Seriously.” Dan came back in, holding Caleb in his arms. “Would I let Weldon buy gas station kolaches? That’s a crime against nature.”
“I knew he was worth keeping. Where are they and does everyone want one?”
“Kolaches!” Caleb crowed and Weldon shook his head with a grin. That boy had already eaten a bowl of oats, three pieces of apple, a chunk of cheese, and a cold hot dog at his house. God knew what Mel had fed the bottomless pit.
“Growth spurt,” the three of them said together, and then cracked up.
Dan pulled out kolaches to heat up, sweet and savory, jabbering at Caleb the whole time. “So Jon hit the pipe with his jackhammer….”
“Jacky-hammers! Dan-Dan, I want to play with a jacky-hammer, too!”
“I bet you do, kiddo.” Dan chuckled. “We’ll start you off with picking up nails when you’re a little older, huh?”
“Kenzie gets a nickel for every one.”
“Yep. I pay competitive rates.” Dan winked at Weldon over Caleb’s head.
Mel snorted. “Emma managed to get ninety nine percent of them before Kenzie could start hunting them. That girl’s got a plan.”
“We don’t know what it is,” Weldon continued the old joke.
“But it’s a plan.”
“She wants her own horsey,” Caleb said, matter of fact as hell.
“Does she now?”
“Uh-huh. She gots lots of moneys saved, and she is gonna buy one named Elsa like the Frozen girl.”
“How is she going to do that?” Mel asked. This was fascinating.
“Mr. Audie. He knows all the horseys.”
“Ah.” Mel’s lips twisted as she fought her smile.
“Emma says that Randi’s her bestest friend ever and that means, if Randi wants a brand-new bed shaped like princess and she saves her monies, Daddy has to make it, and if Emma saves her monies, Randi’s daddy has to find her a horsey and Randi’s daddy is Mr. Audie.”
“Kiddo, Randi’s daddy is Mr. Dix. Audie is her stepdad,” Dan pointed out and Caleb patted Dan’s cheeks, cute as could be.
“Stepping daddy?”
“Yes. Dixon had her, but Audie picked her.”
“Like you! Dan-Dan is my stepping daddy! Does Emma know? Does Randi?”
“I think so, kiddo.” Weldon was working hard not to howl with laughter.
“Then he still has to get Emma a horsey if she buys him.”
Dan was looking at Caleb like the little boy had grown a second head.
“Here, let me have him. Mel, grab plates. Dan, finish pulling out the kolaches.”
“You want sweet, Mel? I know Weldon wants jalapeno sausage.”
“I want pecan if that’s an option.”
Like he wouldn’t have put in a slew of the pecan rolls. All Mel’s grandchildren were addicts.
“You got it.” Dan slung kolaches like a pro, and Caleb fell to his as if he was starving.
Just watching his lover and his mother-in-law laughing hysterically together over an exploding cherry kolache, made Weldon’s day infinitely better.
Whatever happened, he had this. He had his family and they’d deal with this whole Boyd thing.
Even if dealing with it did require hiding a body.
31
“Emma, I swear to God, if you season my soup one more time when I’m not looking I will go wicked witch on your heinie and stuff you in the oven with the crescent rolls.”
