Page 74 of Their Property
“I know, but he’s happy down there,” I sighed. “Her family spoils him, and he’s got no struggles. I’m just the absent dad that rolls in every once in a while.”
Don’t say that about yourself. You’d raise him good if she gave you the chance to.Grudge paused to take another drink, then stopped with the glass halfway to his mouth. He set it down quickly and scribbled out,Have you told Kyrie about him?
I finally took a drink and winced as the cheap whiskey burned its way down. “No. It hasn’t really come up. But still shitty of me, I know.”Especially if we actually give this a shot with her.
Despite the current circumstances, I couldn’t express how good it felt to have her riding with us again. The way she wrapped around me on the road, how she moved to my flute music by the campfire. She fit in with us so seamlessly, like she was the balm to the wound left behind when we lost everyone else.
I realized right then how much I wanted her to meet my son, Isaac. The only way his mother would allow him to spend more time with me was if I had a stable female figure in his life. But I didn’t want Kyrie just for that reason, nor did I want to thrust her into a situation she might not want.
Sharing three romantic partners was more than a handful for most people. Sharing one of them with a child and another woman as a co-parent just might be too much.
That’s exactlywhyyou haven’t told her, coward,I thought.You want to have your cake and eat it too.
Grudge whacked me on the arm to get my attention, then gestured behind us to the stairs. I turned to see Kyrie and T-Bone walking down together.
Holding hands.
Other details became clearer as they got closer. His dopey smile. Her flushed cheeks and kiss-swollen lips. Sothat’swhat they were up to in there. I didn’t know whether to be annoyed, jealous, or just…happy for them. T didn’t look like he was carrying Bash’s memory like a heavy sack anymore. He stood a little taller, even looked a little younger. And Kyrie at least didn’t look sad anymore.
Grudge and I openly stared as they walked up to us, while the two of them acted like newlyweds floating on clouds. Attached at the hip and grinning like they got away with murder.
Okay, I was definitely jealous.
“Hey, guys.” T-Bone put his free hand on the back of my barstool while draping the other over Kyrie’s shoulders, their fingers still laced. “Food coming out?”
“Yeah. It’s chicken tortilla soup.” I pointed at their linked hands and made a circular motion with my finger. “So, when didthishappen?”
“What are you talking about, D?” T-Bone straightened his fingers. “You like my nails?”
Kyrie snorted and smacked the back of her palm on his chest. “It happened just now. He apologized, we talked about stuff, and we…connected.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Grudge watched them while stroking his beard pensively.
“That better have been a hell of an apology,” I mused, even though I had no right to talk.
T-Bone was open to the point of being an oversharer. He would have told her about his history with Bash at some point. Me, on the other hand? My instinct was to keep things locked away. It was years until I truly had no secrets with the guys. Now with Kyrie, I wanted to do this right from the get-go. But what would she think if she knew I had a son that I barely got to see?
“I’d say it was an adequate amount of groveling.” Kyrie’s eyes were glued to T-Bone.
“Adequate, huh?” He grinned back at her, leaning down until his forehead touched hers.
“So this means what?” I asked right before Grudge kicked my barstool with a grunt. “Don’t kick me, man. It’s a fair question. What does this mean for all of us, and what are we going to tell Governor Vance?”
“What’s got into you? I’m supposed to be the cranky one.” T-Bone rubbed my upper back and the nape of my neck. “Let’s have some food, drink some whiskey, and talk this out after we wind down.”
“I would love to go just one day without someone wondering what my father will think.” Kyrie smiled, but her words were serious.
“I’m sure you would, but the fact is there could be serious consequences forusonce he finds out about this.” I gestured to their joined hands again. “I’m talking jail time. Exile, if we’re lucky.”
“What the fuck else is new?” T-Bone scoffed. “We’re outlaws, and he knows this. He hires us to keep his own hands clean.”
“She’s hisdaughter.”
“I hear you, D, but is now really the time? I thought you’d be happy about this. I’m finally living my fuckin’ life, like Bash said.”
Easy for him to say. He never had a woman threaten to run off with his child.
Kyrie’s brows drew together, her lips turning into a frown. “This is exactly what I didn’t want. To drive a wedge between you guys.”
