by Kim Law
“Wait.” Joanie’s hand reached toward Lee Ann but fluttered back to her side when Lee Ann stepped even farther away. Joanie scrunched up her shoulders. “Don’t you want to know the rest of it?”
A quick nod. “Oh, yes. Don’t hide anything from me.” The harsh voice coming from her throat surprised Lee Ann. “I’m not wasting one more minute of my life because of that man, so go ahead and spill it. Get it all out there.”
Silence was the only answer for several long seconds, and then Joanie finally spoke in a low voice. “Gina said she’d just seen him at the Bungalow with Holly.”
The Bungalow was the local watering hole.
“They were apparently...close.”
Lee Ann paused and looked up. “Close?”
“Alcohol was involved, slow music, and no space between the two. In fact Gina said each of his hands had a butt cheek gripped tight.”
Yep, that sounded like Cody.
Anger, jealousy, and humiliation all filled her at the same time, rolling her stomach upside down. The lying piece of scum. How dare he come back to town and do this to her again? She scanned the floor, where more kids had finally started dancing, and spied Kendra and Candy talking to some friends. The entire time they talked, they both kept an eye on the front door of the dance hall.
Doing this to Lee Ann was bad enough, but the girls would be crushed when they found out why he’d missed the party. She’d warned him not to hurt them. The man should have listened.
She snapped herself up straight. She was finished with Cody Dalton and would do everything in her power to ensure he never had another chance to come near her girls. They chose that moment to glance her way. She made eye contact while giving them the most encouraging smile she had in her.
Life would be okay for them—she would make sure of it. Just like she always did. She should have never even considered relying on anyone else.
She nodded to Joanie and moved toward the table. “Time to cut the cake.”
Bright light seared Cody’s eyelids, forcing him to move from the bed, where he’d collapsed sometime late last night. The top of his head throbbed as he rolled over and checked the bedside clock. Ten thirty. Damn. He was too old for late-night drinking.
Remembering what he’d done the night before shamed him like no previous time in his life. He’d let his kids down. He’d let Lee Ann down. Rising, he dragged himself to the bathroom, splashed water on his face and squinted at his reflection. Red, hollow eyes echoed back at him. He was one dumb son of a bitch.
Dirty cotton had taken up residence in his mouth, so he brushed his teeth. After splashing more water on his face, he thought he could stand long enough to move through the apartment and see if his brother had returned or gone home with Holly. He made his way down the hallway, the space seeming more narrow than usual, then silently stared at the man sprawled out on the faded couch. Cody fought the urge to pack his bags and get out of town. Leave before facing anyone. But strangely, even though he had panicked last night at the sight of him, there was a small glimmer of hope deep in his gut.
He had a twin brother.
Nick Dalton.
And the man had wondered about Cody enough to hunt him up.
Cody scrubbed his hands over his face and opened the door to let Boss out to relieve himself. He needed to call Lee Ann. Apologize. Huh, like that would do any good. But he couldn’t ignore her or the girls, and putting it off longer would only make it worse. When he located his cell phone on the kitchen floor, he found himself choosing a different number instead. Holly.
No answer.
He studied his brother and tried to remember exactly how the night had gone.
After Nick had arrived and the initial shock had ended, they had headed to the Bungalow so they could talk without having to sit and stare at each other the whole time. Long-lost brothers find each other? A night in the watering hole was apparently recommended. At least in his screwed-up mind. And yes, he had known exactly what he was doing at the time. No doubt he’d been subconsciously looking for an excuse to back Lee Ann off. He’d jumped at the first opportunity. Like he always did. Like he’d done with Stephanie.
He was bad. He’d known it his whole life, and Nick’s arrival had only confirmed it. Seeing the brother his parents kept had sent Cody on a tailspin. Worthlessness, hurt, and anger had combined until all he could see had been bleak desolation.
Since hurting Lee Ann and the girls was inevitable, he’d figured he might as well do it last night instead of putting it off any longer. Quit waiting for it to eventually happen. Eventually had knocked on his door.
Holly had been at the Bungalow, scowling because Tucker Brown was dancing with the teacher and had yet to discover the true prize that was Holly. She’d seen Nick, checked him out top to bottom, then proceeded to welcome him to town.
Flipping through the tattered phone book he found in one of the kitchen drawers, Cody located the number for the diner. He told himself he needed to call Holly to make sure she’d made it home okay. He couldn’t remember getting home himself and had no idea if Nick had been sober enough to drive. Given the way the man had been pouring them back, Cody doubted his brother had been the designated driver.
He told himself this was his reason to call Holly, but he suspected it had more to do with delaying the other phone call.
“Sugar Springs Diner. Can I help you?” Holly sounded fully awake, unlike the way he felt and the way his brother looked. Cody opened the door when Boss returned, patted him on the head, and moved to feed him his breakfast.
“Holly? It’s Cody.”
Silence followed his declaration. Finally “Hey, Cody. Everything all right?”
“Uh, yeah.” He fidgeted with a dirty glass sitting in the sink. “I just...Guess you brought me and Nick home last night?”
She laughed lightly. “Yeah, I brought you both home last night. That man can’t hold his liquor any better than you.”
Silence again. He didn’t know how he knew, but he was positive there was something she didn’t want to tell him. And he was positive he didn’t want to hear it. “Well, I just called to say thanks.”
Nothing.
“Okay, I’ll—”
A long sigh sounded across the line. “Cody, wait.”
Sweat broke out on his upper lip.
“You know how we hear all kinds of gossip here at the restaurant, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well...” Holly paused and then blurted out, “Some of the people are saying that you not showing up for the party last night really upset the girls.”
He closed his eyes. “I’m sure it didn’t sit well with Lee Ann, either.”
“Yeah, they’re saying that, too.”
“She’s next on my list to call.” He couldn’t smooth things over with her. He’d known it last night as he’d pulled the door closed behind him on their way out. But he at least owed them all an apology. Hopefully the girls would still allow him in their lives. Maybe occasionally.
“That’s the thing.”
Pinpricks stabbed his neck from the inside out. “What’s the thing?”
“They apparently left town during the middle of the night.”
“Left town?” Fear scalded down his throat. “What do you mean left town? They don’t leave town. That’s what...”
He stopped. That’s what he did. Holly’s silence confirmed she knew it, too.
“They’re coming back, right? They can’t just disappear?”
He could almost see her shrug. “I assume, but I really don’t know. She left me a text that she’s quitting the diner, too. Word is that immediately following the party, they loaded up the car and took off.”
“Her mom lives here. She has to come back.” He sounded desperate, and for a man who’d just ruined his one chance for a happy life, he had no right to sound that way.
“Well, yeah, you would expect that, but I don’t really know what’s going on. Other than...” Another pause. “There was one more thing with the goss
ip I thought you might need to know.”
Nick chose that minute to push himself up from the couch and peer around the room, his eyes thin slits. Boss watched from his food bowl, still weary with this new version of his owner, but he had quickly accepted it as fact the night before. He returned to eating, leaving the other man for Cody to deal with.
When Nick spotted Cody, he jolted as if shocked at finding himself in the same house as his twin brother. Cody poured a glass of water and passed it, and a bottle of aspirin, to him.
“Cody? You still there?” Holly asked.
“Still here. What’s this one other thing?”
“They think it was me with you last night.”
Eyes closed, he took in her words. Someone had confused him for his brother. Big surprise. And then the meaning registered, and his eyes opened wide. “Someone told her I was with you?”
“Yes.” Her voice was small. “I’m sorry. I know Nick and I got a little carried away. It never occurred to me anyone would think it was you.”
Lee Ann believed he’d stood up her and their daughters to go out and get soused with Holly. And he assumed Lee Ann also imagined the evening had ended far differently than how it had.
“I’m sorry, Cody.”
“Not your fault.” What an idiot! “I shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I had somewhere else to be.”
“Yeah.” The word said it all. He and everyone else in the county knew he’d had somewhere else far more important to be. And he’d blown it.
Nick came around the table and set his glass in the sink before propping a hip against the counter. He watched Cody squirm.
Cody’s gaze bounced from one wall to the next. The room was closing in. He had to get away. Then his eyes landed on the identical pair staring back at him. The man had his own set of pain. They hadn’t gotten into it yet, but Cody had seen it last night, just as he could see it now.
Nick’s life hadn’t been the perfect picture Cody had always envisioned. But the look said he was now here for Cody. And that was an amazing thing to see.
Cody nodded and then realized Holly couldn’t see him. “Thanks for telling me, Holly.” At the mention of Holly’s name, Nick’s eyebrow twitched. “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
“Okay.” Another sigh skipped across the line. “You two are good for each other. And your girls need you, Cody. Don’t do anything stupid.”
He already had.
“I don’t want my accuracy percentage to go down because of you,” she finished up, trying to lighten the mood.
“Guess that means you betted on me staying, huh?” At her soft agreement, he gentled his tone. That rating was about to take a hit. “Take care, Hol. I appreciate the warning.”
Cody slowly closed the cell phone and put space between him and Nick. The apartment was way too small for two six-four men.
“That was Holly?”
He gave a half laugh. “That was Holly. I can show you where she works if you want to catch her later.”
“Nah.” Nick scratched his fingernails over his jaw and eyed Cody. “I was just blowing off some steam last night. I take it my behavior with her got you into some trouble?”
Understatement of the year. “My own behavior before that got me into trouble. But it doesn’t matter, it was over anyway.”
“Why’s that?” Nick grabbed one of the two chairs at the table and straddled it. After pulling two Cokes from the fridge, Cody did the same.
He guzzled half the can as he considered his next move. Nick was essentially a stranger, yet as soon as they’d set eyes on each other, nothing about the situation had felt strange. Cody wanted to talk to Nick. He wanted a brother. And for the first time, his desire for taking a chance began to outweigh his fear. He let his mouth tilt in a sarcastic smile. “Because my contract here is up in a couple weeks. I’m heading on to my next stop then.”
“Ah.” The word seemed to say so much more than it should have been able to. “So she was just a fling?”
Cody’s vision blurred. She was so much more than a fling. He ignored the direct question. “It’s not just her. She’s also raising my twin teenage daughters.”
That got his attention. Nick’s eyebrows arched, but he didn’t speak for several minutes. Finally, he said the last thing Cody had been expecting. “After Mom died last week and I discovered the papers where I learned you existed...when I found out she’d given you to someone else...I was jealous.” He took a deep drink and when he set the can down, his words came out deadly and cold. “I wanted to be the one who had gotten to leave.”
No words came to mind as both men simply appraised each other, circling with their gazes as if in the school yard waiting for someone to throw the first punch. Because someone always had to throw the first punch.
Cody couldn’t figure it out. Nick had gotten to keep their parents and he’d wanted out? He was supposed to have been the one with the good life—the life Cody wasn’t good enough to stay in. “You’re full of shit,” he said.
A simple shake of his head. “No. I was furious you had been able to escape.” He broke eye contact then. “Mom was mean. A drunk, and a lousy person. Our father died from a bar fight not too long after we’d been born. From everything I could figure out, she changed almost immediately.” He shrugged. “Or more likely, reverted back. My life was crap, and from what you told me last night, yours was no picnic, either.”
“The papers I saw showed they’d both signed to give me away.”
Nick eyed him. “The man died before we were one. I saw the death certificate and pictures of his funeral.”
“Huh.” The papers had been wrong? He wondered how that had happened. And then another thought popped into his mind. The documents had also indicated he’d been given away because he was a troubled child.
Cody considered everything Nick had said and tried to relate the description of his brother’s life to the one he’d always imagined. It didn’t fit. Through all the confusion, one question kept pounding through his mind. “Do you know why she got rid of me?”
Nick’s hollow eyes looked as lost as Cody always felt. “You weren’t the first one she did it to. It was all legal, but from what I can find out she sold you to the highest bidder. I suspect to support her cocaine habit.”
“She sold me?” That made zero sense. “To the foster care system?”
“No. Apparently to some woman who planned to adopt you.”
“Then how in the hell did I end up a ward of the state?” Anger colored his vision as he fought through the new information. His mother had given him away to another woman who, in the end, hadn’t wanted him, either? Jesus, his life was fucked up.
Nick’s shoulders moved in a shrug. “I’ve no idea, man, I didn’t chase that rabbit. I was only interested in finding you.”
Cody’s breath slowed as he fought through his anger, then something else dawned on him that Nick had said. “Wait.” He held up a hand in a stopping motion. “I wasn’t the only one she sold?”
Nick raised his gaze and once again locked it on Cody’s. “We have another brother.”
The can slipped from Cody’s fingers, but he caught it before it spilled across the table. He had two brothers? That hadn’t been in the paperwork he’d seen, either. But if Nick had seen it...“Three of us?”
Nick gave a single nod.
“Have you found him yet?”
“No.” His brother stood and paced. “After she died, I started with you. Figured being a twin, maybe there would be some great connection that would pull us together. I didn’t even have to hire a PI. I found you on the Internet the first time I searched. As for our brother, though, he’s proving more difficult. I’ve discovered he was adopted, and therefore likely had his name changed. Locating him hasn’t been going well.”
Two brothers. He had a family. “He the same as us, too? Identical?”
Nick shook his head. “He’s a year older, almost to the day. From the people I’ve talked to, she sold him before
our father knew anything about it. They weren’t together at the time. Then they hooked back up for whatever reason, and next thing she knew it was her lucky day again. A chance to make another buck.”
A family. Cody had a family. And then he realized he wanted to keep Nick in his life as well as help find the other brother. He was tired of being alone. He wanted this.
Reality hit with a thud. He’d already had a family. They’d been here waiting for him all this time. He’d finally found them, too, and then he’d shoved them away.
He had to fix it. He needed them. He needed their forgiveness.
Without them, nothing else mattered.
Snow from the limbs overhead landed softly on Lee Ann’s camera as she stretched out on the bough of the tree, the massive branch dipping low to run parallel with the ground. She framed the scene before her. She’d heard scurrying above and was thankful snow was the only thing tumbling down.
“It’s beautiful,” Candy whispered in awe as she squatted on the ground beside her.
Thanks to a light snowfall the night before, the stream she and the girls had visited the previous three afternoons now glistened, as purples and blues painted the sky beyond. Lee Ann clicked off more shots and agreed with her daughter.
“Do you think it’ll be good enough for the show you just signed to do?”
Pride swelled as Lee Ann recalled the e-mail she’d gotten two days earlier. Cody had apparently contacted the gallery in Nashville he’d told her about. The e-mail had ticked her off at first, but then she’d taken her emotions out of it and looked at it from a business perspective. If she really wanted to make a go of it, she had to do that now. And since she’d quit the diner, she needed to make a go of it.
The manager at the gallery had wanted to see some of her work. After she’d sent the woman a sample, she’d been very interested in doing a show. They’d agreed to a small one to start. Come the end of January, her world would officially take a new turn. She nodded and reached out to stroke Candy’s silky hair. “I think it’ll be perfect.”
Kendra had not crouched with them, as she wasn’t as drawn to the artistic sight. She preferred searching for wildlife. And thanks to the hours they’d had in the Smoky Mountains the last few days, she’d been able to point out multiple animals, which Lee Ann had caught with her camera.