by Jamie Begley
“Then you should have told your teacher or told me after school. Getting in a fight in the school cafeteria wasn’t your only option.”
“I had to protect her. I’m going to marry her when I get as big as you.”
Dustin smiled in the dark at his son’s certainty. “You’re going to fall in love with a lot of different women before you’re all grown up.”
“I’m going to marry her,” Logan repeated stubbornly.
“Good luck with that. Just remember not to tell Darcy or anyone but me that.”
“I won’t. Everyone at school thinks I’m weird enough.”
“No one thinks you’re weird.”
“They do, Dad. Fynn calls me a weirdo all the time. He has everyone in class calling me that.”
“Does your teacher hear him?”
“No, he only does when she isn’t listening.”
“I’ll talk to her about it when I meet her tomorrow afternoon.”
“Don’t. If she says something to him, he’ll call me a crybaby.”
“Then I won’t. If you change your mind, I’ll talk to her about it then.” Dustin wanted to give Logan the chance to solve his own problem before stepping in. “But if there’s another fight in school, I will.”
“Okay.”
“Get to sleep. You’re already in enough trouble for fighting. I don’t want to add tardiness to the list of things the principal is going to complain to me about.”
It took a few minutes before Logan quit fidgeting and settled enough to slip back to sleep. Unable to do the same, Dustin stared up at the ceiling, thinking about the dream, trying to rack his brain about who it could be. It was a useless endeavor. He was never given any clues about the person who was about to die.
He was still awake when his alarm clock went off. Getting out of bed, he started the coffeepot before taking a shower. Before getting dressed, he woke Logan. Choosing a pair of black slacks and a charcoal plaid shirt, he grimaced at having to wear the clothes, preferring the jeans and T-shirts he normally wore.
Tucking the shirt in, he slid the black suit jacket on, feeling in the pocket to make sure the matching tie was inside. He freed it as he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair. Satisfied that he looked respectable, Dustin went into the kitchen, bending down to kiss the little girl in the highchair.
“You giving Mama a hard time?” Dustin gave Holly a sympathetic glance when Rosie hit the metal tray with the plastic teether ring.
“If I remembered how cranky babies could be when they’re teething, I would have waited on having one.”
Dustin laughed. “No, you wouldn’t have.”
Holly gave a self-effacing smile. “Maybe not, but I would have thought about it harder.”
“What you should have thought harder about was marrying my brother,” he teased, going behind the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee.
“You want to start the day off with an ass whipping?” Greer growled from behind him.
Dustin lifted his cup to his lips, moving aside so Greer could reach the coffeepot and seeing he was dressed in his deputy uniform.
“Holly, turn on the TV. The world must be coming to an end if Greer is already out of bed and dressed for work.”
Greer gave him a retaliatory glower. “You’re begging for a smackdown, ain’t you?”
Raising his free hand in surrender, Dustin decided to take one of the cinnamon buns that Holly had placed invitingly on the counter. He was taking a bite when Logan came out of his bedroom dressed for school.
“Can I have a Cinnabon, too?” Logan excitably sat down next to him at the table.
“I made you oatmeal.” Holly got up and went to the refrigerator, grabbing a blue canning jar and bringing it to the table with a spoon. She placed it in front of Logan before returning to her chair.
Logan’s face fell like a deflated balloon. Dustin knew why he wasn’t given the treat for breakfast, but he would let Logan figure that out for himself. He and Holly had discussed Logan’s punishment for fighting after he had gone to bed.
“But Dad and Greer have one.” Logan stared at the overnight oats in distaste.
“They didn’t get in a fight at school yesterday,” Holly replied evenly, though Dustin could see it was killing her to stick to the plan they devised.
Greer leaned against the kitchen counter, dunking a bun in his coffee. “Next time, be smarter, boy—don’t get caught.”
“Greer!” Holly sent her husband a furious glare.
Dunking what was left of the bun again, he shrugged unrepentantly. “I’m just saying.”
Dustin changed the conversation before his brother landed himself on the couch tonight. “So, why are you going to work so early?”
“A word to the wise: if you get bored at lunchtime, don’t get suckered into a poker game with Knox.”
Dustin rose, carrying his cup to the sink. “How long do you have to work the morning shift?”
“A flipping week.”
Dustin watched as Greer leaned over to press a lingering kiss on Holly’s lips before removing the tray on Rosie’s highchair and lifting the cranky baby into his arms. Rosie settled immediately at her father’s touch, laying a tired head on his shoulder.
Dustin wasn’t surprised Greer was such a good father. Appearing uncouth and obnoxious, deep down, there was a part of him that only family members were aware existed. Greer would give his life to protect their family, having a wealth of caring not only for those he protected but toward others who had no idea of the part he played in their lives.
“Logan, finish up or you’ll be late.” Going to the hall closet, Dustin then went to his bedroom to get his briefcase, putting the paperwork he worked on last night inside before snapping the top closed.
Returning to the kitchen, he saw Greer handing off Rosie to Holly while Logan grabbed his backpack out of the closet.
“Make sure you don’t break the speed limit to get Logan to school on time,” Greer joked as he went to the door. “I’m on the clock when I go out this door. I’ll arrest your ass.”
Dustin stared at the brother he had hero-worshiped since he was younger than Logan. “You be careful out there, bro.”
Greer paused, giving him a strange look, his penetrating eyes seeing the silent warning that Dustin couldn’t explain to himself why the feeling of dread had come out in that grim tone of voice.
“Always, bro, always.”
Greer gave a long look at his wife and child before leaving. Holly stared after him worriedly.
“Dustin, is there anything wrong?”
Shaking off the apprehension, he gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m just being a worry wart.”
Holly bit a trembling lip. “You never worry about Greer. You always say he’ll outlive us all.”
“I’m just being paranoid. He hasn’t looked good since he came back from that trip with The Last Riders.”
“No, he hasn’t. He still hasn’t told me what happened while he was gone. Has he told you?”
Dustin shook his head. “No, and Rachel hasn’t either. They’ll tell us when they’re ready.”
“It must have been bad, whatever it was, or they would have told us. Greer promised me that he wouldn’t heal anyone else unless it was one of the family and it was an emergency. Whatever it was had to have been bad, or that tuft of hair wouldn’t have turned white.”
“It is hard to miss.” Dustin tried to ease her concern, even though his own tore at him at seeing the brother he had always thought of as invincible spend the last month in bed with barely enough strength to make it to the bathroom.
“Knox is watching out for him. That’s why he suckered Greer into that card game when I told Diamond how worried I was after he wanted to go back to work.”
Dustin lifted a brow in Holly’s direction. “I would keep this just between us. Greer hates the morning shift.”
“Believe me, I know. He complained about it all night,” Holly said, reaching for the teether wh
en Rosie began crying before glancing at the wall. “You better go, or Logan’s going to be late.”
Taking his car keys off the kitchen counter, he hastened Logan out the door. Then he made sure Logan was buckled in the back seat before he got behind the wheel.
Driving down the dirt road that led down the mountain, he bit back a swear word when the bumper hit a large rut. He was jealous as hell of Greer’s truck. He had enough saved up to get one for himself, but as an accountant and wanting to grow his business, he wanted to earn clients’ confidence that they could trust him. Tooling around town in an expensive truck would give the doubters in town fuel that a Porter couldn’t make an honest living. They would say he bought it with his clients’ stolen money.
Most of the townspeople were wary of the Porter brothers. It had taken Dustin several years to accumulate enough clients to make a wage that could support Logan without solely relying on planting pot that the family depended on for their income.
Turning onto the road into town, Dustin looked in his rearview mirror at Logan’s glum expression. “Be careful, or your face will freeze in that expression.” Dustin screwed his face into a comical look in the mirror.
“I want to go hunting with Uncle Cash tonight. Why can’t I go? Razer is letting Chance and Noah go, and they get in trouble at school all the time.”
Dustin’s eyes went back to the road. “I already told you no.”
“But why?”
“Because you hate hunting, and Noah and Chance don’t.”
“But I like fishing, and Uncle Cash said he bought a new pole that I could use.”
The first thing he was going to do when he got to his office was call his brother-in-law and give him a few choice words that he wasn’t able to utter in front of his son.
“No. Maybe next time Uncle Cash invites them to go, you can go, too, but not right now.”
“But why?” the little boy argued back.
“Logan, do you want to lose your video games for another week?”
“No.”
“Then I would stop asking but why?”
Dustin pulled his car into the drop-off line of the school. Waiting for his turn, he edged his car forward, coming to a stop when it was Logan’s turn.
Dustin winced when he heard Logan’s seatbelt loosen, the metal bracket hitting the side of the door at an angry jerk.
“What am I supposed to tell Noah and Chance about why I can’t go?”
Dustin knew what his brother Greer would have said if Logan had talked to him in that tone of voice. Instead, he started counting to keep from losing his temper.
“Tell them you’re waiting for me to take you. That your dad’s a better fisherman and hunter than Uncle Cash is.”
Logan paused from getting out of the car. “Are you?”
Cash was damn good, but he was better.
“For sure.”
2
“Dustin is looking sharp this morning.”
The feminine appreciation in the voice behind her had her lifting her head from the craft project she was doing with the small group of three-years-olds she was helping at the table.
“Kailor, can you take your eyes off Dustin long enough to hand me the paper towels?” Jessie snapped, holding the small hand still before Presley smeared glue on her clothes. The mischievous child was determined to smear the sticky mess everywhere but on the construction paper in front of her.
“Sorry, Miss Hayes.”
“I can’t blame her. He does look sharp.”
Jessie’s brow lifted at the other woman she worked with. Then she stood to go to the window, looking outside. “Bliss, I don’t think your husband would like you gawking at his cousin.”
“Drake is cool with me looking. I’m just not allowed to touch.”
Jessie shook her head at the beautiful woman who had one of the best-looking men in the palm of her hand.
“I love a man with black hair.”
“It’s red,” Bliss corrected Kailor, moving away from the window to gingerly pick up Presley’s artwork, laying it on the table in front of the window.
“No, it’s not. It’s black,” Kailor countered as if she were an expert on Dustin Porter’s hair.
“It’s chestnut.” Rising from the low table, Jessie went to the sink to wash her hands as Kailor and Bliss finished clearing the table.
“Chestnut? You might be right.” Kailor looked up from the mess she was cleaning to Bliss. “I wish he would ask me out. Can’t you hook a friend up?”
“I tried, but Dustin said he’s not interested in dating anyone seriously right now.”
“I would be fine with a flyby,” Kailor said, wiggling her eyebrows so the children couldn’t get her meaning.
“Then you should stop buying stuff for your hope chest and telling everyone in town why you’re buying it,” Bliss countered.
“That crystal punch bowl and cups was 75 percent off. If Lena hadn’t been the saleswoman, no one would have known. She’s the biggest gossip in town,” Kailor sputtered out.
“You didn’t have to fill her in on what you wanted it for.”
“I couldn’t help it. It was beautiful. I would have never been able to buy it unless it was on sale.”
“Lena is the biggest gossip in town.” Bliss rolled her eyes at the younger woman.
Jessie had to silently agree with Bliss. Lena was the biggest gossip, and not just in their town but the world. She couldn’t stand the woman, who was a member of their church. She had done nothing but gossip about why Angus had left town when their church deacon decided to move away. The whole congregation had been shocked when Angus left to go to Bangladesh. Lena told everyone who would listen that Angus had been falling in love over the internet and had taken off to be with her.
Jessie couldn’t understand how Lena had twisted the truth in her mind when Angus told the entire congregation that he was going to work with a Christian organization.
“That’s probably why Angus wanted to move to Bangladesh—so he wouldn’t have to listen to Lena gossiping every Wednesday and Sunday,” Kailor joked.
“I’d move there, too, if I lived next door to her,” Bliss said, picking a book to read to the children, who were now all gathered in the reading area.
Jessie smiled toward the doorway as it opened and Holly came in carrying her daughter. “Hi, Holly. How are you doing today?”
“Good. You?”
“I couldn’t be better … unless I were sitting on a beach drinking a Mai Tai.”
Holly laughed as she handed Rosie and her diaper bag over.
Jessie held both with ease. She had opened the daycare when she turned eighteen, so having a child in her arms was now second nature to her.
“Me and you both. I haven’t had a drink since I became pregnant with Rosie.”
“I’m amazed. I don’t know how you do it. A teething baby and married to Greer would have me drinking a bottle of wine at least once a week.”
“I’m afraid to. I’m afraid I’d bash it against Greer’s thick skull. He still texting you every five minutes?”
“He’s gotten better. He took it down to every twenty minutes when I threatened to spray paint his truck.”
“Sometimes I think he loves that truck more than me.”
“Don’t. He loves you and Rosie more. But he definitely loves it more than Tate and Dustin.”
“I’m just glad that truck isn’t gold-plated, or he would have married it instead of me.” Grinning, Holly gave her daughter a parting kiss before leaving to go to work.
Jessie was still laughing as she carried Rosie to the baby room. The woman sitting in the rocking chair in the secluded infant room stood, placing the sleeping infant she was holding in a crib before taking Rosie from Jessie’s arms.
“Rain, make sure you keep Rosie’s teething rings chilled. We don’t need another fallout like yesterday.” Jessie laid the baby’s diaper bag on the cabinet next to the small fridge that kept the baby’s milk and food cold so that Rain wo
uldn’t have to leave the infant room. It kept the germs from the children to a minimum and within her sight at all times.
“She may have inherited her mother’s looks, but her temper is pure Greer.” Rain grinned as she tickled Rosie until the baby’s fussy frown disappeared and her lips parted in a giggle, showing the beginning of a lone tooth.
“He’s definitely one of the more challenging fathers I’ve had to deal with.”
“I’d rather deal with him than Knox. He looks at me like he’s expecting me to drop Brink.”
“Don’t worry about it. In another few months, they won’t be so anxious. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.” Feeling the vibration in her pocket, she took her phone out of her pocket, seeing Greer’s text. “How much time do you think I would get if I strangled Greer?”
“The town would probably give you an award. What does he want? Rosie just got here.”
“He’s checking to make sure we put Rosie’s milk in the fridge. He doesn’t want it sitting out too long. He said that Holly shouldn’t be made to waste time pumping milk that is going to go bad because we’re too lazy to put it in the fridge.”
“Jesus, did he put a camera in Rosie’s bag?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him.” Jessie went to the bag, grabbing Rosie’s milk and placing it in the fridge before checking the bag.
“Did he?”
“Sadly, no. I was planning on taking it back to him in person.”
Rain pulled her hair out of Rosie’s clutching fingers. “Thank God he doesn’t have my phone number and you’re the one who has to deal with him. I just get to have fun with babies and leave the parents to you.”
At nineteen, Rain had a natural affinity with the children in her charge. She was the oldest of nine siblings, and when she had come searching for a job, Jessie hired her immediately. Like her, she had been home-schooled, but that was where the similarities ended. Unlike hers, Rain’s family made a concerted effort to involve them in sports and the community, whereas Jessie’s father had wanted her and her brothers to remain isolated.
Returning to the toddler room, Jessie started organizing the morning snacks while Bliss and Kailor kept the children occupied.