Page 5 of Fated Surrender

“Do you really think it’s bothering him, too?” Caleb asked.

Connor nodded. “Look, I’m not trying to get in your business. But, I really think you need to talk this out with Bran. If you need a friendly ear, call me. We’ll take up ice fishing or some shit. Just the two of us,” Connor offered.

“You know, I may take you up on that. It’d be nice to be able to talk to someone about this. Normally, I’d go to Kate, but I don’t want to upset her this late into her pregnancy.”

“Come on. Grab a couple cases of soda and we’ll head back to the front. Just remember, Bran is probably just as twisted around the axel about what happened as you are,” Connor said, lifting a couple cases of soda easily.

Caleb nodded and grabbed a few more. “You’re right. I probably should have said something sooner.”

“Sometimes it’s harder to see when you’re in the middle of everything. It’s why friends are important. We usually have a clearer view from the outside.” Caleb bumped shoulders with Connor.

“Ice fishing?” Caleb asked, laughing as they walked out of the freezer.

“Yeah. Fuck that. I’d freeze my ass off,” Connor admitted, laughing.

Caleb chuckled and helped him to stack the soda next to the cooler in the diner. “No doubt.”

“What’s so funny?” Kate asked, her smiling face glowing from her pregnancy.

“Connor wants to take up ice fishing,” Caleb said, winking at Connor.

“Good. For a second I thought you were moving in on my man,” Kate said, scrunching her nose up at Connor, who laughed.

“He is a sexy devil.”

“No way. If Connor ever switched teams, he promised me first at bat,” Rian yelled, from two tables over where he sat eating lunch with Damian.

Connor nodded. “It’s true. I told him if I ever started to like boys that we would go out.”

“Seriously? How old were you?” Kate asked, laughing.

“Shit. Rian, we were in what? Ninth grade?” Connor asked.

“Yup, it was about that time that I really started to love gym class.” Rian wagged his eyebrows.

“Didn’t the other guys mind?” Kate asked.

Bran and Connor shook their heads. “Rian and Damian were too likable to really get mad at. They were never really pervy about it and were never aggressive about coming on to other guys. It just became normal to have Rian catcalling in the locker room or slapping us on the ass. The one that used to bother me was Harvey Miller,” Bran said, shuddering.

“Who was Harvey Miller?” Kate asked, completely riveted by Bran’s reaction.

“Harvey Miller was this sicko from high school. He had to repeat like three grades so he was older and much bigger than most of us. He would get all weird in the locker room, like breathing heavy and staring at us while we were changing kinda weird. He was constantly cornering Rian and Damian in the shower stalls. In my senior year I caught him when he had Gavin shoved against the lockers trying to get his hand down his pants. The next day he had a little accident with some cement and his family decided to move out of Arkadia,” Connor said, shooting a glance to his Ma and Pa to see if they were listening.

Ma turned to face him. “I knew you boys had something to do with that! I just never knew why. Good!” she said, wiping down the counters.

Pa just smiled into his coffee.

“Cement? No wonder Rebecca fits into your family so well. Tell!” Kate demanded.

Connor looked over to Ma, who waved him on. Shrugging, he continued his story.

“After I beat the ever-loving shit out of Harvey, I calmed Gavin down and sent him back to class. I stuffed Harvey into a locker and locked it. Then, I interrupted Mr. McMillan’s World History class to pick up Emmett and Duncan, telling Mr. McMillian that I needed my brothers to deal with some family business. We got Harvey out of the locker and dragged him by the ankle down the stairs, across the back field, and through the briar patch next to the edge of the perimeter.” He chuckled as he remembered the next part.

“Duncan stole a cement mixer, we added some quick-set cement, and we had ole Harvey sit in a box and we filled it with cement up to his neck. By the time he came around the cement had hardened nicely. We told him if he ever so much as made another person uncomfortable, next time he would be on the outside of the perimeter and we wouldn’t stop at his neck. His dad had to shift to track him down. The next day they were moving.” Connor shook his head at the memory and looked over to Kate.

“Kids can be crazy huh. So, you’re having two, right?” he asked wickedly.

Her eyes widened and her hand went to her belly.

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