A Baby for the Daddy: Boys of Rockford Series

by Maverick, Henley

  Then Tenley came into my life and for a while she’d join us, sitting quietly and minding her own business, but it wasn’t long before she was part of the group, being drawn in to the jokes too.

  And the things we did in this garage… Man. Those memories were enough to keep the spank bank stocked for years to come. It was always the good girls you had to watch out for. The quiet ones were the ones that’d claw you up and drive you wild.

  Tenley definitely had me on the second account. I still didn’t know what had ever made her say yes to dating me, but the moment she had, I’d been wrapped around her little finger.

  To this day, Tenley Alexander was the only girl I’d ever been on a date with. She was the only girl who had ever made my stomach flip-flop and tie itself into knots.

  She was the only one who’d ever made me think about a future.

  But then she left. She left without telling me a damn thing. Left me wondering what happened, if I’d ever see her again, if I’d ever hear from her.

  I waited as long as I could until my brother and friends were all telling me that I had to get over it. I had to move on. By the time I went back to school the next fall, I was a different guy. I slept my way through that whole damn school, then the teachers, and by the time I was graduating, I think I’d banged every interested woman in a thirty-mile radius.

  Not that any of them made me forget Tenley and her almond-shaped eyes, her heart-shaped face, those lips that would practically disappear when she thinned them at me in annoyance.

  None of them did anything to erase her.

  Time had done a better job of it. And alcohol. Copious amounts of alcohol.

  Then all of the sudden, after a dozen years of convincing myself she wasn’t real and I needed to move on from a fantasy, she reappeared.

  She was there on my doorstep and willing and wanting, just how I remembered. Better than I remembered.

  And then she’d left.

  Again.

  There was a pattern, and the pattern was going to land me with a broken heart if I didn’t get a handle on myself and shut that shit down. I needed to amputate the piece of my heart that still had feelings for Tenley, forget all about it, and refocus that energy on Cal and building our relationship. Tenley didn’t want anything to do with me, and I swore I’d never be the guy to go chasing after someone once they’d said no. Plenty other fish in the sea.

  Too bad Tenley wasn’t just a fish. She was a damn mermaid, and I didn’t think I’d ever find another one like her.

  I kicked a wrench across the garage, satisfied with the clatter it made as it skittered across concrete. I wanted to make more noise. I wanted to break things. I wanted to take out all this frustration on something, so I left.

  I knew being at the garage in that state wasn’t going to be productive. I hopped back on my bike and drove off into the mountains. At least up there, I couldn’t fuck anything up anymore, and no one could tempt me to.

  16

  Tenley

  It was after eight when I finally convinced Kait to leave, but Cal was in no mood to be thinking about bed, he was still bouncing off the walls — even more so after spending time with his rowdy aunt.

  “Can we watch a movie?” he asked, big blue eyes looking up at me, pleading in that way that I could never seem to say no to. Those eyes always got me. They always got me when they were Knight’s, and they still got me as Cal’s. It wasn’t fair. I shouldn’t be such a pushover, I knew, but who could resist a kid that cute?

  “Which one?”

  He thought about it for a long moment, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

  “G-rated,” I warned, making his face fall.

  “That’s no fun,” he whined.

  “I guess I’m no fun then,” I teased, sticking my tongue out at him.

  We flopped onto the couch together and scrolled through the movies available to rent until he found one that sounded good — and met my approval. It was one of the Lego movies, something with ninjas? I didn’t know really, but he seemed excited about it, so I headed off to make the popcorn while he brought down pillows and blankets for our customary movie fort.

  I always loved the summertime when he was home from school like this. I loved spending time with him, without worrying about school or projects or conferences or any of that other stuff. It was just the two of us.

  And all my work with the ministry could be done remotely, so I had as much time with him as possible. It was exactly the way I’d always wanted it, and as we settled in to watch the movie, everything was perfect.

  Cal fell asleep halfway through the movie and since he was way too big for me to carry anymore, I just turned the TV and all the lights off and tucked him in on the couch, giving him a kiss on the forehead before I headed off to bed myself.

  The next morning, I woke up, made breakfast and coffee, and Cal was up bright and early, ready to greet the day and looking no worse for the wear for having slept on the couch.

  “Morning Bug,” I said, pouring him a glass of juice to go with his eggs.

  “Do you think I could see my dad again today?” he asked hopefully.

  I frowned, not really sure what to say. I hadn’t heard anything from Knight still — both a relief and a problem — and I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about me just dropping in again without warning.

  “I dunno, bud. He’s probably got some work to do or something. I’m sure he’ll let us know when he’s got some free time.”

  Cal looked down, poking his eggs forlornly. “Okay…” he muttered.

  “Hey, you can’t take it personally, okay? He’s got a whole life here he still has to live. I know you want him to, but he can’t drop everything for you. You’ll have plenty of time with him, I promise.”

  Cal didn’t look so sure, but he didn’t say anything. I just sighed. I didn’t know how to make this better for him, and I didn’t want to pester Knight about it to the point that he resented us both. If I pushed him too hard, Cal would be the one to suffer for it.

  Of course, I couldn’t explain any of that to my kid, because it would require explaining in more detail the kind of guy I knew his dad to be. And I’d tried really hard over the years to not talk shit about Knight in front of Cal. For precisely the reason that he’d come to me yesterday. Because he’d heard his family talking bad about his dad and it hurt his feelings.

  I knew better; I was disappointed that my parents and sister didn’t, but maybe it was time to talk to them about it again. Cal was getting older, and he was going to be picking up on a lot more. They needed to be more careful. Or learn to let the past go — that would be even better.

  Before I could figure out what else to say to him to make things better, my cell phone rang, pulling me away from the kitchen table.

  Cal sat up straight, eyes wide and hopeful. “Is it him?” he asked. “Is he calling?”

  I looked at the phone, my heart twisted in a knot, and felt so guilty for being glad that it wasn’t Knight.

  “Sorry, it’s Grandma,” I said, answering. “Hi Mom.”

  “How’s my boy?” she asked right away. As much as my mom got on my nerves most of the time, she was a great grandmother, and Cal adored her. They spent so much time together, and I was sure my mom was already going into withdrawal without her daily dose of Cal.

  “He’s doing great,” I said. “Want to talk to him?”

  “Maybe later,” she answered, something in her voice putting me on edge, making me alert. “I called to talk to you.” I froze, heart sinking. There was nothing good that was going to come out of that sentence. I didn’t know what she called to talk about, what she could possibly have to say, but I didn’t have a good feeling about it. Not at all.

  “Oh-kay,” I said hesitantly, grabbing my coffee from the table and heading out of the kitchen, upstairs to the master bedroom that had been serving as my room. “What’s up?”

  “When were you going to tell me that you’re seeing Knight again?” she asked, not beating around t
he bush at all, not tiptoeing, not even acknowledging the bush was there. She just barreled right through it.

  “What?” I asked, trying to play it off, to act like she hadn’t just caught me.

  “I talked to your sister last night,” she continued, my blood pressure spiking, hot fire rushing through my veins — Kait.

  “Mom, whatever she told you, she doesn’t—”

  “She told me plenty,” she said, cutting me off. I gnashed my teeth together, free hand balling into a fist. I hated when she steamrolled me like this. I hated being pushed over like I didn’t matter. I wasn’t fifteen anymore, damn it.

  “She told me that you moved back to that town and immediately got caught up in his mess again. I thought you’d learned your lesson, Tenley. Hasn’t that boy done enough to hurt you? To hurt this family? What are you even thinking letting him into your life again?”

  “He’s Cal’s dad, Mom. Cal’s got a right to know him, and Knight’s never done anything to compromise that. He’s never done anything to make me think I can’t trust him with Cal.”

  She scoffed. “You can’t be serious. He’s done plenty. Should I remind you about the property damage? The vandalism? The theft? He’s a bad influence on you and Cal. You were always such a good girl without his influence. That boy’s got the devil in him, mark my words.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Mom, you have no right to say stuff like that. Cal really likes spending time with him, and he’s already upset that he heard you, Dad, and Kaitlyn bad-mouthing Knight. He’s getting older, Mom, and he’s not always going to listen to what I tell him. He’s going to start forming his own opinions about people, and that’s including you. He’s not going to want to hear you saying those things about Knight when he cherishes him.”

  Mom scoffed again. She always thought it was ridiculous that I let Cal have opinions different from mine. The way she brought us up, we were never to question the authority of our parents, or the wisdom of their words.

  Didn’t stop me, obviously. And it certainly didn’t protect me from making a huge mistake when I was way too young to know how to handle it.

  Mom was just going to have to forgive me if I didn’t put much stock in her preferred method of parenting. Having lived through it as a kid, I knew that it wasn’t what I wanted for Cal.

  For one thing, I wanted Cal to like me still when he was an adult. I didn’t want him dreading talking to me like I did with my mom. I didn’t want him getting upset every time we spoke, on the verge of hysterics because I would never listen to anything he had to say.

  I wanted better for my relationship with Cal, and if my mother couldn’t understand that… Well, I couldn’t say I was surprised.

  “You let him be too strong-willed. He’ll grow up without any discipline, just like that shiftless father of his—”

  She kept going, pretty much having ignored everything I said, just railing on and on about how awful Knight was, how he was going to ruin Cal, destroy his future, drag me through the mud again, etcetera, etcetera.

  I sent Kait a GIF while Mom was blathering on and on. There was no point in trying to argue with her or get a word in edgewise, so I opted for letting my sister know that I knew she’d betrayed me — with a GIF showing someone getting a knife to the back.

  Kait responded right away. Heard from Mom then? With a kissy-face emoji.

  I glared at the phone like I could send a virtual headache through it to afflict my disgustingly-perfect snitch for a sister. But I knew she’d probably go on to have a wonderful day. She’d meet a few clients, taste some delicious cakes, tour glamorous venues, and end it all with cocktails and dancing.

  That was her life. Because she had never done anything wrong. At least not where my parents — or the Universe, apparently — were concerned. Kait could do no wrong, she was the golden child, and when she talked about what she wanted, everyone listened.

  Meanwhile, I was on the phone being lectured about something that happened a dozen years ago, just ‘mhmm’-ing every few moments.

  Finally, Mom seemed to have run out of steam. She sighed, and there was a long pause between us, the silence heavy in the static between the phones.

  “You know everything I’m saying to you is only because I want what’s best for you right? I want what’s in your best interest. Cal’s too. I worry about you.”

  I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose where a headache was starting to bloom behind my eyes, putting pressure on them and making me feel every beat of my heart in my eyeballs. Not pleasant.

  “I know, Mom. Thanks.”

  “So, you’re going to stay there?” she asked, after waiting another beat.

  “Yep, we are. Until the end of the summer,” I answered, not sure what she’d said that would have made her think I’d changed my mind on that front. I’d already paid for the sub-lease. I wasn’t going anywhere until my time was up. Knight Calhoun or no Knight Calhoun.

  Mom sighed and clicked her tongue. “I wish you’d reconsider.”

  “You’re the one that told me wishes were a waste of time, Mom. What’s meant to happen, will, right?” I asked, tossing back her old dogma at her. Those were the type of things she liked to say when things weren’t going my way. Things like ‘God has a plan,’ and ‘everything happens for a reason.’

  I could tell by her lack of response that she didn’t appreciate having it flung back at her, but honestly, I was past caring. Something about being back in Rockford, back where it all started, made me revert back to how I felt back then. Back when it seemed like my parents were determined to control every single aspect of my life and leave me no room for breathing.

  Even though now I was further away from them than I’d ever been, it felt like they were breathing down my neck more than ever.

  I was going to kill my sister.

  “Thanks for calling, Mom. I’ll let you know if anything changes,” I said, deciding I was through waiting for her to get the hint that I wanted to be off the phone.

  She sighed heavily and paused. “I love you, Tenley. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “Love you too,” I said, hanging up. Know what I’m doing? That was rich.

  17

  Knight

  “Son of a bitch,” I groaned, waking up on my couch, my head throbbing from the night before.

  Fuck, I guess my tolerance was in the trash from not drinking while I was on those pills. I had a six-pack the night before and I was still feeling drunk, even after sleeping it off.

  What the hell was that about?

  Had to be the tolerance thing. That was the only real explanation. I looked over at the empty cans crumpled on the floor across the room, and the mess scattered all over the place. I’d been feeling sorry for myself since the last time I saw Tenley and Cal, and when I wasn’t finding something to keep busy at the garage, I was at home trying to distract myself.

  And not doing a great job of it, to be honest.

  But there was something in the back of my head, telling me to pay attention to it. Something whistling and chirping at me, trying to get my attention through the fog of pain and intoxication clouding my brain.

  What…

  Oh, duh. It was my phone ringing. It sounded weird because it was under the couch cushion and only half-audible, but I was sure that was what had woken me up. Since I was still feeling the effects of my paltry amount of booze, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it.

  Still, I’d suffered the consequences of not answering my phone enough times to know that I should answer. I fished into the couch, rooting around crumbs and loose change until I felt the smooth glass of the screen under my fingers.

  I snatched it up and brought the phone to my face without checking the caller ID as I answered.

  “What,” I snapped, still not fully awake in any sense of the word. My brain was mush, the world was spinning, everything seemed far off, like I was watching the world through a hazy telescope.

  “Good morning to you too,” Tenley’s voice came
through, clear and sharp. It was like having a bright light shined in my face. I winced and wanted to shrink away. Talking to Tenley when I was in this shape couldn’t go well. Not for me at least.

  I groaned and scrubbed a hand over my face.

  “You sound like shit,” she said, not hiding the judgment in her voice.

  “Thanks. Great to hear from you too.”

  She scoffed. “Hey, are you busy? I’ve got some errands today and it would be really helpful if you could watch Cal for a few hours.”

  “Uh…” I didn’t have plans for the day, but I didn’t know how to tell her the state of my house, of me, of my life, without making her take back the offer. There was no way Cal could come here, though. The place was too much of a mess. There was no way I could clean it all up in a few minutes.

  Besides, I didn’t have anything fun here for a kid to do. I got lucky last time with the baseball game, but this time? I didn’t know what I’d do with him here.

  “Why don’t I come over there?” I asked, thinking on my feet, brain starting to get with the program out of necessity. It was one thing I’d always appreciated about my body: when I needed to sober up, I normally could. I still felt groggy and out of it, my mouth still full of cotton and my head full of rocks, but I could overcome. I was already headed to the fridge for some Gatorade.

  “You sure?” Tenley asked, sounding skeptical.

  “Yeah, why not? My place isn’t really kid-proof or anything. I don’t have any toys or shit…”

  “He’s twelve, Knight.”

  I groaned. “Fine, I don’t have an Xbox or whatever,” I snapped.

  She laughed. “Fair enough. I’ll text you the address.”

  “Be there in a bit,” I said, hanging up the phone, the sound of her laughter still in my ears, still making me pulse quicken.

  Damn her. Damn her and how she always did that to me. How she could always turn me into a puddle with that musical laughter of hers trilling in my ears. How she always made me feel like such a damn mess when she was so put-together.