“It’s our fault,” Levi said, stepping in front of Duke, not wanting her to doubt his brother’s parenting skills. He could be annoyed at Duke but he didn’t want Grace to be. “Don’t be mad at Duke. We wanted to meet our nephew.”
“Levi?” Grace blinked at him. She then smiled and leaned into hug him. “I haven’t seen you since you were a kid. You’re so handsome.”
He hugged her back. There was always a sweetness about Grace. It was probably why Duke fell so hard for her. “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.
“Well, that was about the last thing I expected to happen when I agreed to come here with you two,” Zanna said.
“Yeah, me too. Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” He punched Colt in the shoulder.
“Tell you what?” he asked, only flinching slightly.
“Don’t start with that bullshit, Colt. I’m not stupid. You knew.”
“I didn’t know everything. Only that Duke suspected and it wasn’t my place to tell you. It was his. It’s Duke’s son, so it’s his business when he decided to divulge it.”
“I’m not a goddamn kid. I don’t need to be protected from the truth.”
“I know that. I trust you. Your beef is with Duke.”
Levi agreed. He needed to have a real conversation with his oldest brother.
Chapter 12
Shells,
I totally disagree with you. I want the dinosaur because it would eat people I don’t like and I would never have to sit in traffic again because I would ride him everywhere.
And I can’t imagine anything cooler than playing fetch with a twenty-foot-tall dinosaur.
Shelly found herself browsing the shelves of the library that day. She had only come to return some books her father had that were overdue, but she couldn’t help going through the aisles and checking out all their little library had to offer.
She ended up in the cookbook section, thumbing through an ancient copy of The Joy of Cooking. She was wondering what the hell corn oysters were when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
There was a man standing behind her. He was tall with curly light-blond hair and a bit of a belly. But he had a pleasing face and she smiled when she saw him.
“Hello, Sid.” He was the guy her father wanted to set her up with. But standing before him, she didn’t get the same belly full of butterflies that she had when she was near Levi.
Which was problematic. Levi was leaving soon. She was afraid she would be stuck with those feelings for the rest of her life.
“I-I almost didn’t recognize you. You look very nice today. I mean you look very nice every time I see you, but today … you look … You look, just amazing.”
She blushed. He seemed nervous and she found it sweet. She’d been feeling different these past couple of days. She stood a little taller. Her body felt a little looser. She’d actually looked in the mirror this morning when she got ready instead of avoiding it, and instead of categorizing what was wrong with her, she’d taken in the things that were right.
She felt pretty. It was a new experience for her. “Thank you, Sid.” She touched his arm, not knowing what else to say.
“How’s your father?”
“Good. He’s in Florida on vacation. How’s yours?”
“Good. Good.” He nodded and there was another long moment of silence. “What brings you to the library today?”
“I was returning some books and decided to browse.”
“Cookbooks, huh? Maybe I should take one out. I’ve been wanting to learn to cook.”
“Try this one.” She handed him the large book in his hand. “They’ve been printing it since 1932.”
“Oh. Great. Thanks.”
Shelly just smiled as another awkward moment of silence passed between them.
“I should be going,” Sid said. “M-maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”
“Yes,” she said, feeling kind of dumb. “Good-bye.”
She walked away from Sid feeling a little embarrassed.
Well, that was pathetic.
She was pathetic.
She couldn’t even hold a conversation with a nice guy that she knew was interested in her. Her father was right to worry about her future. If she couldn’t manage to make small talk for five minutes with Sid, how would she ever get through a full date?
That is, if he still wanted to go out with her.
*
Levi lay on his bed staring at his ceiling that night. He was tired. Mentally exhausted, his mind unable to stop spinning. Duke was a father. He had known he had a son and so did Colt. Maybe they hadn’t known for long, but they knew and they didn’t bother to tell him.
He was so sick of them treating him like he was still a kid. Like he couldn’t handle shit.
He needed to show them that he was an adult. He played the role of the carefree one because that’s who they wanted him to be. But he wasn’t carefree and he sure as hell wasn’t going to allow them to disregard him anymore. He was just going to have to be done with the show.
His life was going to have to be less entwined with theirs.
There was a knock on his window and he popped up to spot Shelly outside. He grinned, happy to see her. He hadn’t been planning to contact her today even though she had crossed his mind more times than he could count.
“Hey.” He opened the window and stuck his head out. “What are you doing out here? Why didn’t you call me?”
“I just came to give you this.” She presented him with a beautifully frosted chocolate cake on an old-fashioned plate. “Make sure you give that back to me. It was my mama’s.”
“Shells …” His chest felt a little heavy. “I was joking. I didn’t really expect you to make me a cake.”
“I wanted to. I just wanted to do a little something for you. It doesn’t really compare to all you’ve done for me.”
He hadn’t done anything except be with her, and he was sure he got more out of being with her than she did out of being with him.
He took the cake from her and put it on his dresser before he returned to the window. “Come here.”
She lifted one of her brows. “You expect me to climb in your window?”
“You could use the front door but I think this would be more fun.”
“You really want me to come in?”
“I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t.”
“I thought you might like a night to yourself.”
“I was thinking the same thing about you.”
She looked at him for a long moment before she shook her head. “Help me in.”
She hoisted herself up and he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her inside. But he lost his balance as the bottom half of her came through the window and they landed on his bed. Her soft body sprawled on top of his.
She let out a little yelp and tried to scramble off him but he wouldn’t let her go.
“Relax. Stay awhile,” he said softly.
Her body loosened and rested her head on his chest. “How was your day?”
He reached into his nightstand. “I got you something.”
He handed her a paperback novel that he had spotted on a shelf in the coffee shop.
“The Pregnant Nanny’s Greek Protector,” she whispered as she sat up. “I’m going to cry. This one is the sister to The Virgin Mistress’s Italian Prince. I heard she loses her memory in this and doesn’t know when or how she got pregnant!” She hugged the book to her c
hest. “I love you. I love you so much for this.”
It affected him whenever she said that she loved him. He knew his brothers loved him, but no one said it to him, no one but her. “I thought it was perfect for your collection.”
She hugged him, really grateful for the little book that hadn’t even cost him a dollar used. “This made my day.”
“It’s just a book, Shells.” He pulled her on top of him again, burying his hand in her hair.
“You’ll make some woman a good husband.”
“What?”
Some woman?
He had never thought about marriage before. He must have had a mental block on it because he had a hard time picturing a woman who would be okay with the closeness he shared with Shelly. With the letters they exchanged and the secrets that they shared. With his complete unwillingness to give any of it up.
She would have to be a pretty phenomenal woman.
He didn’t think she existed.
“You’re going to be a good husband to some woman. I’m not sure I’m going to get married. My father will be incredibly disappointed, because he really wants grandkids.”
“It will happen.” He knew in his gut that she wouldn’t spend her life alone.
“Yes, my father will find a way to arrange it. I have a hard time talking to men.”
“You talk to me all the time.”
“You don’t count.”
“Ouch.” He didn’t count and yet he was the only one to kiss and touch her naked body, to see her face when it was twisted in pleasure. It was his name she moaned when she came. Did that mean anything to her or was she handling the change in their friendship better than he was?
“You know what I mean. I ran into that guy my father wants to set me up with. It was so awkward, I was so awkward. I just didn’t know what to say. How do you do it?” She looked up at him.
“Talk to men?”
“Ha! To people, you jackass. You make it look so easy.”
“It’s not so hard. Compliment people. They like that. Smile. Relax. People will be open to you if they think you are open to them.”
She smiled up at him. “You sound like Yoda.”
“Wise, I am.”
“I should go out more. I should date a bunch of people, right? Just to get practice. Just to learn how to talk to men.”
He wrapped a piece of her hair around his finger, not really liking the idea of her having this closeness with another man. But he knew it was wrong of him to think that. “Do you want to talk to men because you want to or do you want to because your father thinks it’s time for you to get married?”
“I think it’s a shame that I didn’t live any kind of life before you came back here and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I have to keep this up after you leave. I have to keep having new experiences.”
He was leaving here soon. He had to remember that. He had his racing career to think about. A life outside King’s Customs to grow. But he didn’t want to think about any of that, so he took her face in his hands and kissed her.
Her eyes drifted shut and she let out a small moan.
Shelly wanted to date. She wanted to have new experiences and he wanted that for her, but he couldn’t imagine anyone else kissing her like this.
“What was that for?” she asked, her eyes still closed.
“I needed that.”
“Why?”
“I found out Duke has a son today and didn’t bother to tell me.”
“Oh.” She rested her cheek against his heart. “What does one say in this situation? I’m sorry your brother sucks. Congratulations.”
“That would make one hell of a greeting card.” He laughed briefly before it dawned on him. “Why don’t you seem surprised?”
“I kind of knew.”
“You knew!”
“I figured it out a couple of days ago when you said Duke left. Ryder looks like Duke. I just don’t know why none of us figured it out till now. The judge said that she was engaged to somebody else when she left here. I guess we all thought that she had married someone else and Ryder was his.”
“You should have told me. Damn it, Shelly. You’re the only one I can count on to always be straight with me.”
“I didn’t know for sure. And what was I supposed to say, Levi? Gee, I think your brother has a kid. Let’s go storming over to Grace’s house and investigate. I figured he was going to tell you sooner or later. People would have started to figure it out as soon as they knew Duke was living over there.”
“He’s a father to a thirteen-year-old. And he’s over there with Grace trying to make it work. I’m not sure I could do that. I think I would have gone ballistic.”
“And you think your brother didn’t? I’m sure he wants to kill her, but he’s got a son and he needs to do what’s best for him.”
“I know. The kid is a surly, obstinate pain in the ass … I love him already.”
“I’m sure Duke does, too. I hear that when people see their kids it’s like instant love.”
“I don’t know about that. If you love your kids you don’t beat the shit out of them and then take off and leave them.” He wasn’t sure where that thought came from. Maybe realizing that one of them was a father made him think about the lack of his own.
Shelly’s hand came up to his face, the backs of her fingers stroking his jaw. “My father and I were talking about your dad not too long ago. He said Cal used to be a good man until your mother died. That he started drinking when she got sick and by the time she died, the alcohol took over and started to control his life. My dad said that he had judged him like everyone else until my mom died. And that he almost understood your father. When you lose someone you love so much, it’s like a big piece of you dies and you’ll do anything to numb the pain.”
“Goddamn it, Shelly.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “You’re not allowed to make me feel bad for the son of a bitch.”
“I don’t want you to. I’m just reminding you that you were loved by your parents. It would be impossible to look at you and not love you, Levi.”
“Oh, really?” His chest felt heavy again. She was looking at him with those gorgeous wide eyes again that always made him feel like he was falling. There was no greater rush than being with Shelly Walker.
“Yes, really.” She reached up and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. “You’re very cute.”
“You’re not bad yourself.” He shifted them so they were lying on their sides, their bodies pressed together.
“Do you know if he’s still alive?”
“He is or was as of a few years ago. I got a letter from him when I was still racing.”
“You never told me.”
“I never read the letter. I thought it was one of yours at first, but I saw that the greeting said ‘To my son’ and I froze and looked at the envelope. It was from my father, from a Reno address. I just shoved it in my bookshelf.”
“Do you know if he contacted Duke and Colt?”
“I never asked. I figured it was better. As far as they are concerned we don’t have a father. They probably were contacted. But I’m sure if they were that’s something they kept to themselves.”
“It’s okay that you didn’t tell them, but you’ve got to tell me these things. I tell you when I have a good piece of pie. The least you could do is tell me when your deadbeat dad sends you a letter.”
“I pretended like it wasn’t there. I didn’t even know how to begin to tell you in words, when I couldn’t process it myself.”
“That’s what I’m here for. To help you process things.”
“It’s too hard to process when you’re so far away.” He brushed the hair out of her face. “We can’t go back to the way things were before. Thirteen years was too long.”
Thirteen hours had been too long for him today and he found that troubling, but that was another thing he couldn’t process today.
“I agree. We’ve got to read that letter.”
“But it’s in Vegas.”
<
br /> “Your ass ain’t broke. We could drive there and get it.”
“You would spend ten hours in a car to get it?”
“I want to be with you when you read it. It’s like going to the dentist. Something that you don’t want to do but you have to or you’ll rot away.”
She made him smile. He smiled a lot but she was the only one who made him smile. “Would you come to the dentist with me if I asked?”
“I would go anywhere that you asked me to.”
Damn. He wanted to make love to her right then. Just bury himself inside her and feel her body around him and connected to his.
“But we can’t go until after the reading party at the library. My teaching partner, Judy, and I are running it. Which reminds me—we really have to start planning tomorrow. We tried yesterday, but then we went to her house and she made Bellinis and we talked all morning. I like Bellinis and sangria a lot. Why didn’t you tell me about them before?”
“Shells.” He kissed her cheek, finding her too cute not to. “Focus.”
“What were we talking about? Oh, it doesn’t matter. I made a cake for you. Grab some forks and we’ll eat it right off the plate.”
“Okay. Stay over tonight.” He hadn’t meant to ask her, but the words slipped out of his mouth. The best part about last night was waking up to her. He wanted to experience that all over again.
She looked at him for a long moment before she nodded. “It’s lucky for you that I’m already in my pajamas.”
Chapter 13
Dear Levi,
I had a bad day at work. There’s a girl in my class whose parents are getting divorced.
Her father moved out and she wept all day. I didn’t know what to do or say to her. It made me miss you more. You kept me together after my mother passed away. Have I ever thanked you for that? I hope I have. On another note I ate whole pint of cherry cheesecake ice cream. Coping with sadness like a boss.
The phone was ringing when Shelly walked back into her house the next morning. She hadn’t planned to spend more than a few minutes with Levi last night, so she had left all the lights on in the house; she’d even left the ingredients she used to make the cake all over the kitchen.
Heart of a Bad Boy (Bad Boys of Destiny #3) Page 15