The Legacy of Falcon Ridge: The McLendon Family Saga - Book 8

by D. L. Roan

  “Clumsy old goat,” he groaned as he dipped to pick it up, his knees creaking with the effort.

  Moonlight sliced through the curtains, illuminating the long-forgotten image. Smiling, he walked over to the window and set his glass of whiskey on the sill.

  The tension in his shoulders eased as he stared at Connor and Carson’s youthful smiles. They were fourteen—no, fifteen. He remembered because it was the summer before they won the talent show. He closed his eyes, recalling every detail of the day he’d taken the photo.

  He and Cade had made a tradition of summer camping trips with the boys; a different adventure every year. He snorted. Most of their trips turned into nothing but a compilation of calamities fit for a comedy show. That particular summer, however, couldn’t have been more perfect.

  The twins had insisted on taking rock climbing lessons. Neither he nor their mother were thrilled with the idea, but Cade had never been one to shy away from a challenge.

  Daniel stared at the image of Cade sitting on the tailgate of their pickup truck between Connor and Carson, his arms stretched across their shoulders like a proud, protective uncle. The high sun reflected off his sunglasses, hiding his playful eyes. His thick hair was spiked with sweat and dirt. His sexy smile stretched from ear to ear, compelling Daniel to grin back at him.

  They’d just reached the top of their climb, where Daniel had waited with the other half of their instructor’s team. He’d never liked heights. Voluntarily dangling from the end of a rope over the edge of a hundred-and-fifty-foot cliff face didn’t quite qualify as fun, in his opinion, but Cade had been fearless.

  High on adrenaline, Cade had roared like a beastly conqueror. Connor and Carson pulled themselves over the crest moments later, high-fiving and shouting their victory across the mountaintops. Daniel stroked the glass picture frame, hearing the echo of their victorious celebration as if it were yesterday.

  He’d seemed so invincible.

  Despite his sadness, a smile pulled at his lips. Cade had also been insatiable after that trip. After dropping the twins off at their parents’ house, they’d raced home, barely making it through the front door before Cade tackled him, fucking him senseless on the entryway floor. Daniel’s gaze drifted across the room to the hallway, his heartbeat fluttering wildly as he remembered every touch, every kiss, the feel of Cade’s fervent possession.

  As the moon rose higher in the clear night sky, Daniel picked up his glass of whiskey and sank down into the oversized leather chair beside the window, staring at the picture as he took another sip.

  “That was a good day.”

  Chapter Nine

  Jonah stared into the blinding afternoon sun, his eyes watering as he strained to keep them open.

  “Stop squinting,” Pryce commanded from behind the camera, his laugh riding the brisk breeze across the field.

  “I’m trying!” He turned his back to the sun, blinking away the involuntary tears before assuming the pose again. “I’m going to be blind after this,” he mumbled through his forced smile.

  “Wait.” Chloe swiped her thumb across his wet cheek. “You missed one.”

  The camera clicked.

  “Oh, that’s a good one,” Pryce said. “Do it again.”

  Jonah jerked his head away from Chloe, swatting at her hand. “You just want to make me look like a giant crybaby,” he said and lunged for the camera.

  “No!” Pryce twisted away, but Jonah was quicker. “I haven’t gotten any shots with your tattoo yet!” he protested as Jonah lifted the camera strap from around Pryce’s neck.

  “You try it, since you think it’s so easy.” Jonah nudged Pryce onto the picnic blanket they’d spread out beneath the spindly limbs of one of the ancient cottonwood trees that dotted the Falcon Ridge landscape.

  Exhausted from studying, both Pryce and Chloe had woken that morning insisting on a day out of the house. Jonah’s schedule was packed, but luckily, most of his tasks were at the ranch that day, helping his dads move Uncle Cade and Papa Daniel’s bedroom downstairs into their office so Uncle Cade didn’t have to climb the stairs, and then finishing up the maintenance on one of the ranch’s feed trucks.

  Instead of driving back into town, he’d told them to pack a picnic lunch and meet him at the ranch. He knew the perfect spot, away from prying eyes, or the occasional wandering McLendon, where they could spend some quality time together, hopefully naked.

  He’d just tightened the last bolt on the oil pan when they’d arrived, Chloe all dolled up, and Pryce with his camera around his neck, holding a bag full of clean clothes for him to change into. Sometime in the few hours since he’d left them alone, they’d schemed up a plan to transform his idea for an afternoon romp into a photoshoot for Chloe’s baby scrapbook.

  “Now all our pictures will be headless,” Chloe joked as Pryce moved into position beside her.

  “They will not,” Jonah argued as he looked through the viewfinder, zooming in on her boobs.

  “Jonah!” she giggled, holding out her hand to block the shot.

  “Fine.” He shifted his focus lower and to the left.

  Pryce snapped his fingers. “That’s my crotch, jackass.”

  “I know,” Jonah chuckled, clicking the shutter button.

  “Jonah, please,” Chloe sighed, giving him a pouty sideways look he’d come to learn meant she was reaching her limit of his bullshittery.

  “Okay-okay.”

  As Pryce positioned them for their next pose, Jonah watched through the viewfinder, trying to remember what little Pryce had taught him about balance and angles.

  Sidled up behind her, Pryce wrapped his arms around Chloe’s and cupped their hands together over her rounded belly. When they looked down at the baby, Jonah clicked the picture. When they looked up at each other and smiled, he clicked another. When they looked at the camera, Pryce squinted and his eyes began to water.

  “Told you!” Jonah laughed as he took the shot.

  “Okay, fine,” Pryce conceded. “Stand over there.” He pointed to a spot to his left, and turned Chloe in that direction. “And be sure to keep your shadow out of the shot,” he instructed as he knelt in front of her.

  Another brisk gust of wind lifted Chloe’s dress and she squealed with laughter as she tried to push it down. Jonah raised the camera and took a few pictures, laughing at Chloe’s giggly protest.

  Shot after shot, pose after pose, Jonah slipped into Pryce’s world, seeing the chemistry between them through the lens of Pryce’s camera. When Pryce splayed his fingers over her rounded belly and tenderly kissed their unborn child, something warm stirred in Jonah’s gut, spreading south to his groin and north into the center of his chest. He couldn’t describe the overwhelming feeling, but the look of awe and pure adulation in Pryce’s eyes as he looked up at Chloe solidified something he’d always known.

  Pryce was going to be an exceptional father.

  He’d heard what Pryce had said to his mom in the doctor’s office. He knew their husband had been struggling to embrace his family’s acceptance of him, along with processing all the bullshit Pryce’s mom had filled his head with. He and Chloe had both tried to ease his fears, and his family had done everything to make him feel at home, but nothing seemed to work. He’d hoped his mom’s reassurance would finally get through to him, but he’d noticed Pryce’s persistent awkwardness at the family dinner.

  If he could only see what I see.

  He raised the camera and clicked the shutter button a few more times, hoping he could somehow capture the truth. When Chloe called for a break, Jonah joined them on the blanket and plopped down between them. “How do you look at the pictures in the viewfinder?” he asked, handing the camera to Pryce.

  “Oh, let me see, too.” Chloe leaned across him as Pryce fiddled with the buttons.

  Pryce handed the camera back and pointed to one of the arrow buttons on the side. “Press this one to scroll through them,” he instructed.

  Jonah pressed the button, hurrying through the
images to get to the one he wanted.

  “Slow down,” Chloe protested. “I want to see them all.”

  “I’ll go back,” Jonah promised, scrolling until he found the last few he’d taken, that same warmth blooming in his chest again when he saw the last one. He held the camera over to Pryce and pointed at the screen.

  Pryce’s brows shot up as he took the camera. “Not bad,” he said, cupping his hand around the viewfinder to block the sun as he looked closer.

  Chloe leaned over Pryce’s shoulder to see. “Oh my God!” she gasped, her eyes as wide as saucers. “You took that?”

  “Yes.” Jonah rolled his eyes. “What do you see?” he asked Pryce.

  Pryce shrugged. “I like it. It’s really good.”

  Jonah pointed at the screen. “I see a man humbled and in awe,” he said. “A man with a heart so filled with love and honor for his wife and child he could never be anything less than the perfect father.” Pryce stared at the picture as Jonah stared at him. “The man in that picture is a good man, a great husband, and the best friend I could ever ask for.”

  “Aww.” Chloe sank to her knees and draped herself against Pryce’s back, wrapping her arms around him. “Ditto.”

  Pryce remained silent, still staring at the picture.

  “You are not your dad,” Jonah pushed on, determined to rid Pryce of this constant worry and sense of inadequacy once and for all. “This is who you are,” he insisted, pointing at the screen. “This is who Chloe and I see when we look at you. This is who my family sees. Who our daughter will see.”

  Pryce didn’t move. He was quiet for so long, Chloe took the camera and climbed into his lap. “He’s right. You know that, don’t you?”

  Pryce dropped his chin to his chest, his head bobbing a fraction so slight Jonah barely caught it. “I know I’ve been screwed up lately,” he finally said, looking up and staring sightlessly out into the open field in front of them. “But I’ve been thinking about things,” he admitted. “A lot, actually.” He shifted Chloe in his lap until his hands rested over their unborn child. “Especially since seeing her.” His voice was thick with emotion and he cleared his throat. “I don’t want our daughter growing up with the stuff I did. The fear, the toxicity, all of it. I don’t want anything from my past, or what I endured with my family, to touch her. Ever.”

  Jonah took Pryce’s hand and laced their fingers together, remembering a time not so many months ago he wouldn’t have done so because of his own fears. “I don’t want that either.”

  Chloe twisted around in Pryce’s lap, a cynical but indulgent glint in her eyes. “The last thing I want to do is bring your mother into this conversation, but are you saying you don’t want her to be a part of our daughter’s life? Because if you are,” she hurried to add, “I just want to put it out there, that I’d be totally okay with that. I mean, my mom’s not exactly mother-of-the-year material, either, but your mom takes the cake.”

  “Me, too,” Jonah added quickly, glad Chloe had broached the subject. “I mean, I know she’s your mom, and it’s a sticky subject, but I second that idea. If that’s what you’re saying.” Shit, this was hard. He knew Pryce was sensitive about criticizing his mother, but what he really wanted to say was, if that witch ever came within earshot of their child spewing her garbage, he’d shove her broomstick straight up her ass.

  “It’s one of the things I’m saying, yes.” Pryce conceded. He pinched off a blade of grass, releasing Jonah’s hand to tear it into a dozen pieces, and then broke off another.

  Three blades later, Jonah gave him a nudge. “What else?”

  Pryce tossed the tattered remnants of grass and stared out into the field as they scattered in the wind. “I want to change my name,” he finally said.

  Jonah snapped his head up. “What?”

  Chloe twisted out of Pryce’s lap and sat on the blanket in front of him. “What do you mean?”

  Pryce pulled his knees to his chest, glancing up at Jonah, but then shyly looked away. It was too late. He knew exactly what Pryce was saying, and damn if his pride didn’t swell up so high in his chest it was hard to breathe. “You want to take my name?”

  Pryce shoved against his shoulder. “You don’t have to make it sound so gay.”

  “You want to change your last name to McLendon?” Chloe asked, her smile beaming with matching pride.

  Pryce gave her a jerky nod, his gaze dancing between them. “You took his name when we all got married,” he said to Chloe. “And our baby will be a McLendon.”

  “You want to be a McLendon.” Stunned, Jonah wasn’t sure if he was asking a question or making a statement. He just hoped he wasn’t dreaming.

  Pryce finally met his gaze. “You’re right,” he said, the uncertainty in his eyes fading as he spoke. “I’m not my dad or my mother. I’m not a Grunion anymore either, even if I wanted to be, which I don’t. I just…I’m a part of you and Chloe now, and…if you think your family—”

  “Yes.” Jonah answered the ridiculous question he was about to ask before he could utter the words. “Yes, my family will love it.” He cupped the back of Pryce’s neck and yanked him forward, kissing him so hard his lips stung. “Yes, I would love it,” he said when they parted, but Pryce chased him until their lips met again with an intensity that betrayed Jonah’s initial intent of slow afternoon seduction.

  One swipe of Pryce’s hot tongue sent every ounce of blood in Jonah’s body racing to his dick. Like one magnet pulled to another, he curled into Pryce, pushing and pulling all at once to get closer. “I fucking love you,” he breathed into Pryce’s open mouth, slipping his tongue back alongside his.

  A teasing touch grazed his cock and induced a feral groan that was answered with Chloe’s shy giggle. He drew his hips back to give her hands room to unbutton their jeans, then took her face between his palms. “I love you, too,” he said, and fused his mouth to hers, chasing her sweet taste. She was the center of his and Pryce’s universe. Neither of them were complete without her.

  Lost in her drugging kiss, Jonah was vaguely aware of Pryce moving beside him. When his mouth caressed the side of Jonah’s neck, a flood of hot need raced through his veins. Pryce chuckled as he swirled his tongue over the sensitive spot below his ear. Over the last six months, the man had discovered every one of his weaknesses and took great pleasure in teasing each one.

  As much as Jonah wanted to immerse himself in Pryce’s seduction, he had a different agenda. Just as Chloe was the center of his and Pryce’s world, Pryce was the center of theirs. Now, more than ever, he wanted—needed Pryce to know, to feel that truth.

  As if Chloe heard his thoughts, she broke their kiss and met his gaze, a silent understanding swirling in her eyes as she leaned in and pressed her lips to the side of his neck beside Pryce’s. A shiver raced up Jonah’s spine when he felt their tongues tangle together against his skin.

  He sucked in a shuddering breath. “Fuck,” he breathed out as their tongues flitted over his neck, leaving a trail of flames in their wake before they found each other again. Maybe she’d gotten the wrong message.

  Seconds before giving into their seduction, their touch vanished. Jonah looked back to see them lost in their kiss, Chloe’s hands working to undo the buttons on his shirt. Damn, she was good. Jonah was so amped watching them, his hands were trembling by the time he’d stripped down to his boxer briefs and finally freed his cock. He dug into the front pocket of his jeans and pulled out a condom and the pack of lube he was thankful he’d remembered to transfer from his work jeans when he’d changed clothes for the photo shoot.

  Everything he needed in hand, he sank onto his knees behind Pryce and urged them down onto the blanket. Pryce kicked out of his boots, humming his approval when Jonah yanked his jeans and underwear down, then kissed his way back up Pryce’s spine as he laid down behind him.

  “I haven’t even begun,” Jonah breathed against the back of his neck, trailing his lips up to his ear, grinning when his teasing lick extracted a strangled groan
. He knew where all of Pryce’s weaknesses were, too, and he was about to nail them all.

  In front of him, Chloe snuggled against Pryce’s chest and nuzzled his neck, kissing her way along his taut tendons until her lips met Jonah’s. “Show him,” she whispered to him, her breath ghosting over Jonah’s lips. “Love him until he knows where he belongs.”

  Her sultry kiss pushed Jonah straight to the edge. With a ruthless grip he could never use with Chloe, he kneaded Pryce’s bare ass cheek, ready to drive inside him, but Pryce drew in a sharp breath and jolted away from him.

  Jonah looked over Pryce’s shoulder, his alarm receding into mouth-watering desire when he saw Chloe’s petite fingers wrapped around his engorged cock, her thumb swirling through his silky pre-cum as he fucked her hand. Damn if he didn’t want to swallow that gorgeous shaft and suck him dry. His own cock throbbed at the thought, and he squeezed his eyes closed. He needed to slow down, but Chloe was making it damn near impossible.

  His premature release abated, he ripped open the packet of lube and coated his fingers. Pryce had become accustomed to his intimidating size, but he still needed a little prep to ease his first penetration. He’d also discovered Pryce’s affinity for prostate stimulation, though between Chloe’s hand job, and what he was about to do to him, Pryce might not last long enough to give their wife the attention she deserved, too.

  He’d read a lot of parenting books since they’d found out she was pregnant, making a mental note of all the chapters that mentioned the increased sex drive phase of Chloe’s pregnancy. Her morning sickness, which had been more like all day-every day sickness, had lasted so long he was beginning to think they’d never get to that phase. Thank fuck, it looked like they were finally there.

  Deciding to give her the choice, he leaned over Pryce’s shoulder again and whispered in her ear. “Do you want him inside you when he comes?”

  “God, yes,” she sighed, extracting herself from Pryce’s hold long enough to shimmy out of her panties.