Ryder’s nostrils flared. Duke was pretty sure the boy wanted to take a shot at him.
“Damn it, Duke,” he heard Colt say softly. “He’s so much like you.”
“I always wanted a boy who was just like me,” he said, looking at his son. “I’m not so sure it’s a good thing.” He let go of Ryder’s shirt and put his hand on his shoulders. “Look me in the eye, boy, because I’m only going to say this once. Go inside. Get your book bag and meet me out here so I can take you to school. If you get on that roof again, I’ll climb it. If you run, I’ll come after you. And trust me, if I catch you it’s going to be a hell of a lot worse. So do what I say and the world will be a brighter place for you.”
Ryder’s jaw set but he nodded and Duke let him go watching him until he went into the house.
Duke wiped his hand over his face, feeling his head start to throb.
“This is funny,” Levi said, coming around to face him. “I’m really fucking pissed at you for not telling me you had a kid, but seeing him give you a run for your money makes me so damn happy.”
“Don’t bust my balls, Levi. I just found out that I’ve got a son with Grace. A teenager for fuck’s sake.”
“Pleasant little bastards.” Levi grinned. “You’ve got a son, Duke. If any one of us should be a father, it should be you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You took care of us, Duke,” Colt said. “You were a father long before you had a son.”
Grace’s car pulled up then and Duke let out a long string of curses. She looked pissed. “The school called wanting to know why Ryder wasn’t there. What happened? I asked you if you could handle taking him. You told me not to worry!”
“It’s our fault,” Levi said, stepping in front of Duke. “Don’t be mad at Duke. We wanted to meet our nephew.”
“Levi?” Grace blinked at him. Then she smiled and leaned in to hug him. Levi always had that effect on women. “I haven’t seen you since you were a kid. You’re so handsome.”
“You’re gorgeous. Just like you always were.” He kissed both her cheeks. “You were my first crush and if I were a little older I would have fought Duke for you.”
“Stop flirting with me, Levi. I’m trying to be mad at Duke.”
Ryder reappeared, his face going pale at the sight of his mother.
“What did you do?” Grace rounded on him, finger wagging looking just like a mother. “You wouldn’t look so guilty if you were innocent.”
“We should go,” Colt said. “They’ve got family matters to discuss.” He grabbed Zanna’s hand and yanked Levi into the car and left.
Leaving seemed like a good idea, so Duke grabbed Ryder’s arm and led him to his car. “We’ve got to get to school, Grace. Go to work. We’ll both be here when you get home.”
She still looked mad at as hell as they drove off. He could see how she kept Ryder in check with a look like that, but Duke found it kind of sexy when she got all hot and bothered.
“I could have ratted you out,” he said to his son.
“Yeah, but then you would have been in just as much trouble as me.”
“True.” He was quiet for a moment. “I’m not going anywhere, Ryder. I’m not leaving you. I’m not walking away. I want to be your father.”
Ryder looked out the window and was silent for so long, Duke was sure he didn’t have anything to say to that. “I’m just not used to having one,” he said quietly.
“I’m not used to being one, either. Just give me a little time.”
Chapter 11
Grace walked in that night to find Duke and Ryder in the kitchen, neither one of them speaking to the other, but both of them there together. Duke at the stove and Ryder at the table. She honestly didn’t know what to expect when she walked in that evening. She’d been uneasy all day about leaving them alone.
She knew she had to trust Duke. He was Ryder’s father and he had a right to know him, but he had been gone for so long and giving away half of her son just like that was going to be hard for her. “Hello, boys.”
They both looked up at her, identical expressions of their faces, as if she was interrupting their quiet time.
“Hi, Mom,” Ryder said quietly and looked back down at whatever it was he was reading. It was then she realized he was reading something. She stepped closer to see that it was a car magazine. The article he was reading was detailing the process of reconstructing an engine. That seemed as interesting to her as watching grass grow, but Ryder was engaged in something.
She looked up at Duke, who looked back at her and shook his head, seeming to read her mind and know that she was going to ask their son about it.
“What smells good?” she asked instead, walking up to Duke. She looked into the pot and was surprised to see it was some kind of pasta dish with fresh vegetables. “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and asparagus.” That sentence coming from a giant tattooed man wearing a T-shirt with a skull on it seemed unreal to her. She just blinked up at him. Duke looked like the kind of man who lived on a diet of red meat and whiskey. “I’m going to top mine and Ryder’s with a fried egg for extra protein. Do you want one on yours?”
“Yes,” she said feeling kind of breathless. That might have been the sexiest sentence he had ever uttered to her.
“Good. Sit down. Ryder, grab the bowls out of the cabinet, put forks and glasses on the table, and come here.”
To Grace’s surprise he did exactly what Duke asked without a word.
“I’m going to show you how to make a perfect fried egg,” Duke told him. “Grab the butter and fill that tablespoon up most of the way, then drop it in the pan. We like to keep the temperature real low and let that butter melt slowly. Now I want you to crack the eggs separately in the bowls and be careful about those shells. No one wants crunchy eggs. It pisses people off.”
Ryder did exactly as Duke asked. For the first time in days he lost that hard look on his face and seemed genuinely interested in what he was doing.
“Put the eggs into the pan, but be gentle about it. Then put the lid on the pan. Now watch it. The egg should change from transparent to a nice creamy white and the yolk should thicken, but not be hard. You got that, boy? You let me know when they are done.”
Duke left the stove and retrieved what looked like cubes of mozzarella cheese from the refrigerator, along with two bottles of beer and a pitcher of lemonade. Duke was so confident in the kitchen. Some men acted like this space was a woman’s domain. Like it was woman’s work, but Duke King did everything like the boss he was.
“Duke,” Ryder called, sounding unsure of himself. “I think they are done.”
He walked over. “You’re right. They look perfect. Take them off the heat for me.”
Duke mixed the cheese and the pasta and placed them in the bowls like he had been doing this forever.
“Serve your mother first,” he ordered Ryder, motioning to the bowls as he grabbed the pan of eggs. He then came around and slid an egg on top of each of their dishes and finished them by sprinkling them with salt and black pepper. Grace sat there just blown away.
He was no longer that poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks that she fell in love with.
“Eat,” he barked at them as he sat down.
Grace dug her fork in, never having eaten anything like this before. It was delicious. She looked over at Ryder, who was shoveling food in his mouth like he had never seen it before. She was a tiny bit miffed again that he never enjoyed her cooking this much, but even she had to admit nothing she had ever made compared to this.
“Where did you learn how to cook like this?”
“In pri—” He caught himself. “Meals are important to me. I’m going to cook dinner from now on.”
“What about breakfast?” Ryder asked Duke with his mouth full.
“You’re going to learn how to cook your own. I’m teaching you how to make eggs this week.” He looked at Grace. “Is that okay with yo
u?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “Are you also going to take over rebuilding the porch? I saw all the materials out there.”
“It’s rotting. I would have gotten more done, but I had a meeting with Ryder’s teacher and guidance counselor.”
“You did what?” She dropped her fork. Ryder looked down into his plate.
“The boy has been playing you. The reason he’s been skipping out on math class is because he’s bored. He ain’t stupid and it sure as hell isn’t too hard for him.” Duke slipped a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Grace. It was a worksheet with complex equations on it that she couldn’t begin to understand.
“What is this?”
“Calculus. Ryder was getting his work done really early in class and it was all correct. So the teacher started to give him harder and harder assignments and the boy just keeps blowing through them. The counselor said he’s gifted. Hasn’t seen a kid like him in Destiny in a long time, maybe never. I had him taken out of the class. He’s going to be working with a professor at the local college from now on. I had it arranged so he’ll meet Ryder at the school every day.”
“And you did this all without asking me?”
“Yup.” He nodded.
Her stomach began to burn, anger causing it to roll. “You couldn’t have called me to let me know what’s going on?”
“I’m telling you now. And even if I had told you, would it have made a difference? Our kid is a goddamn genius, I thought you would be a little more interested in that.”
He was right, but she still didn’t like him making decisions without her. He had only been a father for a few days. She had been Ryder’s mother his entire life. “You did this?” she asked Ryder, looking at the paper.
He nodded.
“I’m impressed. I’m proud of you, but I’m upset with you, too. I got you a tutor who you terrorized. I fought with the school to get you more help and you’re a math whiz?” She sat back in her chair, frustration overwhelming her. “What am I supposed to do with that?”
“You kept a secret from me, too,” he said, surprising her. “Now we’re even.”
“Don’t be disrespectful,” Duke barked.
Ryder’s words were like a slap in the face, but it was one she deserved. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I haven’t always done what was best for you.” She rubbed her temples, the throbbing she had felt all day increasing. “My head hurts.” She got up from the table. “I’m going to go rest for a while. You and your father can enjoy the rest of your dinner in peace.”
*
Duke watched Grace go. She was hurt. It was clear on her face, but there was nothing he could do about it. Ryder was angry at her and he had a right to be.
“You probably are going to have to apologize.”
“For what?” he asked with more emotion than Duke had heard from him all day. “I’m not sorry about what I said. She should have told me about you. I asked about you. About who you were. She just kept telling me that you were gone and that I was all she had left of you.”
Duke looked down at his bowl of rapidly cooling food. At least she hadn’t told the boy that Duke didn’t want him. He couldn’t imagine what she thought about him when she didn’t get any responses to her letters. “She had her reasons.”
“It’s because you were in prison, wasn’t it?”
The question made Duke’s head snap up. “How do you know that?”
“One of the kids in my class asked me about it today and I looked it up on the Internet. It’s not a secret. People write about you because you’re rich now.”
“What exactly did you find out?”
“That you spent six years in jail out of your ten-year sentence. What did you do?”
Duke debated whether to tell him or not, but there was no reason to hide it from him. In a town as small as Destiny, where gossiping was the national pastime, he was bound to find out. “A man hit your mother and we got into a fight. I would have killed him if there weren’t people there to stop me.”
“Somebody hit Mom?” Ryder’s nostril’s flared. “You should have killed him.”
Duke couldn’t deny the small bit of pride that flared in his chest at Ryder’s response even though he knew it was wrong. “I can’t sit here and tell you that what I did was right.”
“I would have killed him.”
Ryder had been the man of the house all this time. His mother’s protector. He was giving her trouble now, but he could tell they were close. “I needed to control my temper. You’re like me, boy. I can see myself in you. You’re going to have to keep your cool in life. You’ll end up regretting it if you don’t.”
“I hit you that first day,” he said softly.
“You tried to take my damn head off.”
“I’m sorry.” He genuinely seemed to feel bad and Duke wanted to reach out and touch him to reassure him, but he kept his hands in his lap.
“Don’t be. You had your reasons. But you shouldn’t try that again because you know I’ll stomp you, right?”
Ryder nodded and there was just a little hint of a smile from him. That made Duke feel surprisingly good. It was the first time his kid smiled at him.
*
Duke rested the book he was reading on his chest. He was tired, but he couldn’t fall asleep. There was too much going on in his mind to relax. Too many thoughts about Ryder and Grace and where his life was going. He still had his shop in Vegas to think about. He had hired men he trusted who were talented and hardworking, but the first shop was his baby. It was what he’d worked the hardest for and he didn’t know how long he could be away from it. He’d committed to being here for the month, but what about after that?
What about Ryder? He didn’t want to be one of those fathers that just saw their kid sometimes on holidays and weekends. He wanted to be there all the time. But he didn’t want to be here. When he walked into that school today it all came back to him. How much he hated sitting at a desk and having a teacher drone on and on about shit he didn’t care about, about shit he was never going to use.
He’d dropped out just before graduation senior year. Lolly raked him over the coals for it, but it didn’t matter to him. School was getting in the way of him working. Those seven hours spent there were hours he could have been making cash as a mechanic and learning more about customization. He didn’t know if he regretted his decision to drop out of school, because it enabled him to save up thousands of dollars and he had gotten his GED eventually, but now he had Ryder. Who probably wasn’t going to use a third of the shit he learned in school, but still Duke wanted that for his son. He wanted him to go to college and get a degree and be more like Colt than him.
That was why he’d decided to have that professor come down and work with Ryder. He had more money than he could spend in ten lifetimes. He was going to make sure his kid had better than he had. That he had the best. He was going to win that bet no matter what the cost or how much he pissed Grace off in the process.
He heard the door open and then Grace’s footsteps on the stairs. He didn’t think he would see her tonight. She had gone to lie down during dinner and hadn’t come out for the rest of the evening.
“You cleaned the kitchen,” she said when she reached the last step.
“Of course I did. I don’t do anything half-assed.”
“No.” She stood there looking at him. “I guess you don’t.”
He took her in for a long moment. Her hair was loose and hanging around her shoulders. She wore a cheap pink cotton nightgown that was meant more for comfort than titillation, but he still found her sexy in it. It was the way it lightly skimmed her body. He could just see her curves through it and he knew what was hidden underneath. She looked exhausted but beautiful and he found himself wanting to be near her. “I made Ryder help.”
“You think I baby him.”
He nodded once. “I do.”
“You think I don’t give him enough responsibility.”
“That’s right.”<
br />
She came over to the bed, pushed the book off his chest, and placed her head there. “I think you should shut up.”
Her comment was unexpected and it made him laugh.
“I’m so mad at you, Duke, I could punch you.”
He ran his fingers through her hair. “Why is that, Grace?”
“You’re a better cook than me.”
“Prison didn’t have many perks, but that was one of them.”
She looked up at him with those big wide eyes, and it made his heart beat just a little faster. Those eyes were what made him fall in love with her in the first place. She looked at him in a way that only she was capable of. She looked at him like she cared about him. “You learned how to cook in there?”
“Yeah. We had a bona fide four-star French chef in with us.”
“What did he do?”
“Tried to kill his sous-chef for sleeping with his daughter. He was a nice guy, though.”
“Really?” She didn’t believe him.
“You can’t define people by one day in their life, or one action. Chef’s daughter was sixteen at the time. The guy who was sleeping with her was thirty-five.”
“Oh. I guess you’re right then.” She stoked her hand over his stomach. “I don’t like it when you’re right. It makes me feel horrible.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought prison would change you. Make you harder. Make you institutionalized. I read about maximum-security prisons. I was afraid of what you might be like. But you’re still you and I kept him away for nothing.”
Her fears were right. He had seen people get beaten and stabbed. He had seen guards do terrible, illegal things. He had seen scared kids turn into hardened criminals. He didn’t blame her. He could have been an animal.
“Ryder knows.”
She looked up at him. “Did you tell him?”
“No. He knew. One of his friends saw me bring him to school and asked him about me. I guess I should have known it wasn’t a secret around here. Ryder looked me up on the Internet. He asked me about it. Wanted to know what I did.”
“You told him?”
“I didn’t want to lie.”
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