The Mountain Man's Secret Twins

by Alexa Ross

  Gunner led her into the dark bar, helping her to a back booth. He ordered swiftly from the bartender, a frothing beer for him and a tea for her. He sipped the beer quickly after its arrival, making foam appear on his mustache. “What brings you all the way out here, then?” he asked, gazing at her. “You don’t look like you belong up here in the mountains.”

  Kenzie swallowed, raising her shoulders. “Am I so obvious?”

  “Where did you come from?” Gunner said.

  “Concord. New Hampshire,” Kenzie answered, finally calming down. She nodded several times, trying to connect her thoughts to her mouth. “Sorry. I’m still just processing what happened out there.” She pulled the patch from her pocket and laid it on the table in front of them, feeling like Gunner was her last chance, at least for the night.

  Gunner peered down at it curiously, his eyes glinting with familiarity. “Where did you get that?”

  “Do you know it?” she asked.

  “I might,” he said.

  Kenzie couldn’t speak for a moment. What were the chances? She pushed the patch toward him, turning it around so he could really look at it. “You know the Blue Boys?”

  “Who are you looking for?” Gunner asked, leaning toward her. His teeth glinted in the soft light of the bar.

  “Bryce Walker,” Kenzie whispered. “Do you know him?”

  The man leaned back, assessing her. His face had become gray. He’d forgotten his beer. “How do you know Bryce Walker?”

  Kenzie placed her hand on her abdomen, feeling warm, knowing she wasn’t alone. “I met Bryce recently. Last February, in his cabin in the mountains.” Her eyes flickered toward Gunner, trying to deliver the severity of the situation. “If you know him, you have to tell me. It’s incredibly important that I find him.”

  Gunner scratched at his red, cold face, pausing. “I do know Bryce,” he finally said. “I used to know him quite well, in fact.”

  Kenzie perked up, righting her posture. She couldn’t believe she’d found it: her ticket home. “You know where to find him? You know about this motorcycle club?”

  Gunner lifted his hands, stretching his fingers high. “I need to give you fair warning before I tell you,” he said.

  Kenzie frowned, trying to align this warning with the Bryce she’d met, the man who’d held her as she’d ice skated, gliding backward so he could look into her eyes. She waited, realizing Gunner was pausing for dramatic effect.

  “The man has demons, is all,” Gunner said, shrugging. “Demons I wouldn’t want to be involved with if I were a pretty girl like you.”

  “What does me being pretty have anything to do with his demons?” Kenzie whispered.

  “You want to know the entire story then?” he asked, sounding tentative.

  “Absolutely. I wouldn’t have traveled all this way just to be left in the dark,” Kenzie said. She sipped her tea, watching him with cat eyes. “Go ahead.”

  Gunner bit his lower lip, waiting. He ordered another beer from the bartender with a flick of his hand. The bartender smacked the glass on the table, allowing the foam to froth over the sides.

  “I knew Bryce when we were younger,” Gunner said. “Quite a bit younger, actually. Maybe five or so years ago.”

  “So you know about this Blue Boys Clubhouse?” Kenzie asked, tilting her head.

  “I’m a Blue Boy myself,” Gunner said, laughing. “It’s a hokey name for our motorcycle hangout, but we go with it. It was passed down to us from other bikers, and the bikers before them. It’s like our church.”

  “I see. A real community,” Kenzie said, waiting. All she wanted to hear was Bryce’s name. All she wanted was information about him. She was sitting at the edge of her seat.

  “The clubhouse is local to Cambridge, just a few miles away. Bryce and I would spend long, hot afternoons there, drinking beer and shooting the breeze. He was a good guy, but he was guarded. He didn’t want to reveal a lot.”

  Kenzie frowned, watching as Gunner finished the rest of his beer in several quick gulps. “Will you take me to this clubhouse?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, Kenzie,” Gunner said. “Are you sure you want to follow this road?”

  “I don’t really have a choice,” Kenzie answered honestly. “Come on. I’ll drive. You’ve been drinking.”

  Gunner smacked a 10-dollar bill onto the table and rose, following her into the darkness. The night had begun to spit a cold, harsh spring rain. Kenzie wrapped her jacket tighter around her without speaking. Gunner coughed several times before lighting a cigarette and pointing toward a motorcycle parked across the street. “That’s my bike,” he said, as if Kenzie should be impressed.

  “I’ve never been on a bike,” Kenzie said, unlocking the car.

  “Bryce didn’t take you?”

  Kenzie didn’t answer, choosing instead to keep up her mystique. She drove out of her parking spot, waiting for directions, as Gunner exhaled smoke out of the small crack in the window. The chilly air kept Kenzie shivering.

  “Which way?” she asked.

  “I’ll tell you when to turn,” Gunner said.

  “Pretty far out of town?”

  “It couldn’t have been close,” Gunner answered. “Too many of the guys are into drugs. Had to keep a low profile.”

  Kenzie’s heart nearly burst. “Not Bryce, right?”

  “No. Of course not,” Gunner answered, his voice sincere. “He was an honest guy. Almost a protector, with that quiet kindness. He nursed some of the guys when they overdosed, things like that.”

  Kenzie imagined her Bryce, the muscled, stoic man with piercing blue eyes, placing cool washcloths over other men’s foreheads.

  “Wait. This is the road,” Gunner said, flicking his cigarette out the window. “Turn left. Now.”

  Kenzie jerked her steering wheel to the left, toward the mountain, and found herself barreling down a dark country road with trees on either side, creating a kind of canopy. Gunner closed the window and exhaled into his palms, his eyes beady. “Coming up on it. You’ll see it on your right.”

  Moments later, a red barn appeared on Kenzie’s right. Its windows were alight with candles and beer signs, and some of its clientele was outside, smoking cigarettes and gazing at the mountains. Kenzie parked to the side, giving Gunner a last-second, tentative look.

  “Don’t worry. Once they hear you know Bryce, they’ll love you,” Gunner said, popping out of the passenger seat. He held her arm as they walked into the barn. The same logo from the patch was painted on the top half, sending a shiver down Kenzie’s spine. That morning she’d been a crumpled ball of life on the floor of her bathroom in her Concord apartment. Now she was out in the mad world, chasing a dream.

  The moment Kenzie entered the biker clubhouse, she sensed she’d made a mistake. The music was blaring, pumping blues from every speaker. She cradled her abdomen, hoping her babies couldn’t hear the ruckus. She leaned toward Gunner, who was already buying a beer. “Can we go somewhere quieter?” she asked.

  Gunner smacked his palm on the top of the counter, glaring at the bartender. “This lady needs the music turned down. It’s manners, Jeff,” he said.

  Dutifully, Jeff turned down the music and grinned at Kenzie, looking at her as if he’d never seen a woman before. “What can I get the lady?”

  “Just water,” she answered, giving him her real estate smile.

  With their drinks in hand, they walked toward the back of the clubhouse where five bearded men sat, leaning back, watching a baseball game on television with dead eyes. Gunner got their attention, smacking one of the men on the back.

  “Hey. I have a surprise for you guys,” he said, tilting his head toward Kenzie.

  “A broad?” one of the bikers said, leering at her.

  “Don’t speak about her that way, Ev,” Gunner said, snapping his fingers. “She knows Bryce. Bryce Walker. She’s looking for him.”

  “Is that right?” the man, named Everett, said, leaning closer. “That seems like a fool�
��s errand. If you’re in love with him, that is.”

  Kenzie tilted her head. She wasn’t fearful of these men; rather, their apparent lack of character confused her, as she felt she knew Bryce so well. “Why do you say that?” She sat down beside Everett, gazing at him curiously.

  “I knew it. She is in love with him!” Gunner said, sipping his beer.

  Everett’s initial hardened face eased. He thought for a moment. “Bryce is about the best kind of man there is. Saw him here just a few days ago in fact. He asked me countless questions, about my wife, about my kids. He even remembered the name of the daughter who doesn’t speak to me anymore. I probably hadn’t seen him in five years.”

  “That’s what I was telling her,” Gunner said excitedly. “He hasn’t been around. But he just popped up the other day?”

  “Larry and I both saw him,” Everett said.

  “He already said he’d help me with my tractor this spring. Needs some fine-tuning. He was always such a good handyman, that one. Before he disappeared.” Larry turned his shaggy head back toward Kenzie. “Where was it that you met him?”

  “Up in the mountains.”

  “So that’s where he’s been,” Larry muttered to himself.

  “He abandoned you?” Kenzie asked. “Didn’t tell you where he was going?”

  “He didn’t tell us a lot, no,” Larry said.

  “Well, do you know where I could find him tonight?” Kenzie asked, feeling hopeful. They’d seen him only days before! That meant he couldn’t have gone far. Unless he was on the run.

  No one spoke for a moment. Gunner sipped his beer, and a man rushed around the bases on the TV screen, scoring a point for his team. The men acknowledged it, always keeping one eye on the game.

  “I might know where he is,” Gunner said then, sounding cryptic. “But warm yourself here first. I don’t want you running around in the cold. Found her getting mugged on a street corner just over an hour ago.”

  “What are the chances?” Everett said, shaking his head.

  “It was terrifying,” Kenzie admitted. As she sat, sipping her water, she watched as some snow kicked up outside, one of those sad, April snows where winter reared its ugly head once more. She was reminded of the safety of Bryce’s cabin, and of the secrets therein.

  “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about Bryce’s wife or child, would you?” she asked.

  Everett and Larry exchanged glances. Gunner looked perturbed. “Wife? Child?” he asked.

  “I have reason to suspect he has both, yes,” Kenzie said.

  “Well, he never mentioned anything to us,” Everett said. “Remember—he kept his mouth shut a lot, unless he was giving one of us idiots advice. A good man, but not one you can get close to.”

  Kenzie turned toward Gunner, pleading with her eyes. “Just tell me where I might find him,” she whispered, finishing the last droplets of her water and aching to be on her feet again. The sooner she found Bryce, the sooner she could feel safe, warm.

  Gunner scratched the back of his scalp, clearly disappointed to see her go. He’d found a curiosity in her, one he could show off to the other Blues Boys at the clubhouse. But he drew up a napkin from his back pocket and wrote directions in a black scrawl. “You’ll find him just east of town, where the town dwindles off and the mountains begin. He said he likes to sit in a park called Blue Blossom and think.”

  “Think about what?” Kenzie asked.

  Gunner shrugged. “He told me that years ago. He could be writing poetry in his head for all I know.”

  Kenzie thanked Gunner, standing up and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Thanks for taking such good care of me today. Bryce is lucky to count all of you as friends.”

  The men, now looking tired, with bags folding several times beneath their eyes, hugged her back and sent her on her way, telling her to be careful on the roads near the mountains. “It’s still April, ma’am, and the roads get slick.”

  Kenzie walked quickly to her car, grateful to be alone again. She couldn’t imagine her Bryce hanging around men like that, men who seemed to swap off-color stories and drink beer long into the night. But then again, there was little she really knew about Bryce. Perhaps loneliness had kept him there. Perhaps just having another warm body to talk to or be around for a few hours had been enough back then.

  She didn’t know if she should feel encouraged that the men hadn’t known about a wife and child or not. Her information was lacking. For all she knew, she might come upon Bryce in the park only to find him playing with his six-year-old child, his wife looking on. It would break her, certainly, but perhaps she’d watch from afar and make peace with the situation.

  Kenzie ducked into her car and drove east, toward the mountains. She shivered as she drove, her elbows swinging. If she didn’t find Bryce at the park—late as it was—she’d have to check into a hotel immediately. Clinging to the steering wheel for dear life, she hoped, prayed, wept—just wanting him to be there. Her heart felt squeezed.

  After driving 15 minutes, Kenzie found the wooden sign for the park on her right. She slowed to a halt, parking along the dirt walkway. The park was small, with a single bench near the far side, tucked between several trees. Kenzie peered at the figure sitting on the bench. He wore a dark hat, black pants, a large coat, and his hands were stuffed into his pockets. With so much distance between them, Kenzie couldn’t tell if it was Bryce or not.

  She had to get closer. She had to try. Don’t give up now, she thought.

  Using the last of her dwindling energy, she wandered down the dark path toward the bench. As she drew closer, she sensed the man on the bench looking at her, trying to gage who she was, what she was doing. But with Kenzie’s massive coat wrapped around her, along with her rotund, newly pregnant belly, she assumed her figure in the dark looked nothing like that of the woman he’d held tightly in his bed. Probably more like a whale, she thought.

  Finally, she reached the bench and peered down at him, standing two feet in front of his black boots, which were stamped into the frigid ground. Slowly, a smile stretched across Bryce’s face. He looked incredulous.

  “Kenzie. What on earth are you doing here?” he asked. His words were dreamlike, as if he didn’t fully believe she was there.

  Kenzie felt frazzled. She wanted to wrap her arms around him immediately and weep into his shoulder, telling him how terrified she’d been that she’d never find him. But she exhaled deeply, showing the whites of her eyes. After all, she reminded herself, he might still have a wife and child lurking somewhere.

  “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  “Where? Near the cabin?”

  “All of the surrounding towns. I had your patch. The Blue Boys Clubhouse patch. I figured I’d find you there.”

  Bryce smiled again, nearly outright laughing now. “You met the Blue Boys?” he asked.

  “Gunner, Larry, Everett…” Kenzie said, trailing off.

  “Oh, wow. That’s my old gang,” he said. He tapped the bench beside him, telling her to sit down. She did, collapsing. Bryce rubbed her shivering shoulders, trying to calm her. “You look freezing. Should we go somewhere?”

  “I just drove here from Cambridge. There’s nothing close,” Kenzie said. “Besides, I’m not actually cold. Just nervous. I came all the way here to tell you something. Something important.” Her eyelashes fluttered.

  “Okay,” Bryce said, after a pause.

  “I’m pregnant. With twins. They’re yours,” Kenzie blurted. She smacked her hand over her mouth. After hours of practicing how she would tell him, she’d done it like a child: loudly, quickly, without regard for his feelings.

  Bryce didn’t speak for a long time. He rubbed his blond beard, trying to make sense of the news. Just when Kenzie assumed he wanted nothing to do with her, nothing to do with any of them, Bryce wrapped her in a bear hug. He kissed her cheek, looking overjoyed. His eyes glittered with tears.

  “Kenzie, this is beautiful news,” he whispered, kissing
her cheek again. “Whatever happens, no matter what, I’ll be there for you. Twins. You have got to be kidding me. Really?”

  Kenzie nodded, sniffling. “Two babies.”

  “Do you know the genders yet?”

  “No,” Kenzie said. “I only just had the ultrasound. This is relatively new for me as well.”

  But is it new for him? she wondered. Her face clouded with the thought of his apparent wife and child. Would he leave her for someone else down the road, like her father had? Or was he just that impossible to get to know, as the men at the Blues Boys Clubhouse had said?

  “I have to ask you something,” she said.

  “Anything,” Bryce returned. He swiped her dark hair behind her shoulder, clearing her face.