Page 14 of Next Door Midlife Alpha
“I’m sorry.” Dylan’s tone was genuine but a bit clipped. “There’s something I have to take care of right now, but I’m sure we can come back another time.”
The boy’s shoulders sagged, and he gave one last wistful look out the window before he shuffled toward the stairs.
Lila stepped in front of him with the instincts of a mother, even at her young age, making sure that she went down ahead of him. “Hold onto the rail, okay?”
As they spiraled back down toward solid land, Stacey watched the back of Dylan’s head. Somethingwas happening, and she felt the tension radiating out from him. What was the deal with the boat? Her curiosity was getting the better of her, but she and Dylan were still too new to each other for her to feel comfortable asking.
“Stacey, I’m sorry to cut things short,” Dylan said when they were out of the lighthouse.
“No, it’s all right. I’ll see you soon.”
A bit of relief flitted across his face, but it quickly disappeared as he turned to Lila. He bent his head to say something to his daughter, and that same look of concern now darkened her features.
“Come on.” Stacey moved toward home with her kids in tow. She glanced over her shoulder, getting a better look at the boat now that it was getting closer to shore. Considering his job and the fact that he’d lived there for so long, Dylan probably knew a lot of people. In that regard, none of this was all that strange.
“Mom, Lila is so cool!” Vivian enthused as they plodded back through the sand. “Her room is cool, too! I want purple walls like she has.”
“We might be able to make that happen,” Stacey murmured.
“Do you think she can hang out with us again?”Elijah asked. “She’s fun. She even let me play with the basketball hoop on her bedroom door.”
“It’s a good possibility.” Stacey gave a noncommittal answer even though she knew she and Dylan had already decided the kids would stay with Lila while they went out.
It was a solid plan that would make everyone happy, but was all this happening too quickly?
7
Dylan watchedStacey and her kids go. His bear tugged in their direction, urging him to follow. It knew how good it felt to be close to her, to have her right there in the clanhouse, to get a glimpse of what it might be like to have her there permanently. Logically, he knew that wasn’t a reality. It’d been dangerous just to have her over, regardless of his mission to find out more about her. It was even more dangerous to think about what a future between them could look like because there could neverbeone.
It also felt rather impossible to see this fishing trawler coming as close as it dared to the shore before it dropped anchor. Dylan hadn’t seen the vessel in a long time. The blue trim had peeled andweathered. Before it had shut off, the engine sounded like it’d seen better days. The equipment that hung from the sides and the cabin had rusted over. It was the sort of vessel that might make anyone a bit suspicious. Dylan knew exactly who it belonged to, which only made him even more suspicious.
A small, scruffy dog raced up to the bow. It stepped up to the railing, its head bobbing from side to side as it looked down and evaluated the water. With little more thought, it leaped, its arms and legs splaying midair and its ears flying out as it flopped down into the ocean and doggy paddled to shore.
Dylan didn’t know the dog, but he did know the man who emerged from the cabin a moment later. The wind ruffled his dark hair as he also stepped up to the bow. He took less time than the dog before he hopped out of the boat. His deeply tanned skin contrasted with the soft blue of the water as he made the short swim before the bay was shallow enough for him to walk. The anchor tattoo on his arm showed as he stood upright and flicked his hair back, and water ran from the tattered ends of his khaki shorts. “Ahoy, brother.”
That face was so much like the one Dylan saw in the mirror, or at least it used to be. Like the boat, itwas weathered from so much time at sea. The crow’s feet on either side of his eyes were deeper than Dylan’s, as were the lines that ran alongside his mouth. This was a version of Dylan that’d been exposed to the harsh elements for decades, but it was impossible not to recognize his very own features on someone else’s face. “Will.”
“So youdoremember me after all this time!” Will stepped forward and clapped his twin on the shoulder. “I wasn’t sure. It’s not like I was getting any postcards.”
“I can’t imagine I’d have enough to say to fill one up,” Dylan sniped back.
Will whistled at the scruffy dog, who was excitedly running up and down the beach now, pausing every few seconds to sniff a shell or a rock. “Come here, Barney. This little dude has been quite the companion while I’ve been out on the water, you know. He clung to me like a barnacle when I first got him, which is where he got his name. He’s pretty great.”
“Good for you, Will, but that doesn’t answer the only question on my mind right now. What are you doing here?” Dylan folded his arms across his chest. How long had it been since he’d seen his twin? Tenyears, at least. That night had been brutal, and he had no interest in reliving it.
“What? A guy can’t come back and visit his family?” Will gave him another playful slap on the arm and laughed. “Let’s let bygones be bygones, brother. None of that old saltiness really matters these days, does it?”
“I think it does, actually. Most people who start a massive fight at their brother’s Alpha initiation ceremony don’t have the hubris to come back.” Dylan had pushed those memories from his mind as much as possible, choosing to concentrate on what was currently happening in his life and on building a continually better future for his clan. Dwelling on his grudge with Will wasn’t going to make that any better. Even now, though, his body remembered the anger and frustration he’d felt at Will’s actions that night. His black bear twisted inside him, for once more interested in a fight than tracking down Stacey.
Behind him, Dylan heard doors opening and closing. He heard footsteps on deck stairs and then muting when they hit the sand. He wasn’t the only one who’d spotted the boat. The other clan members who lived along the shore had seen what was happening and had stepped outside. Dylan couldsense them arcing out behind him, standing solidly by their Alpha. Though he knew he could handle this threat alone, this gave Dylan that much more confidence in his actions. “You’re not welcome here, Will.”
Will shook his head and grinned, unabashed by his clan’s show of force. “Listen, maybe things didn’t go so well in the past. We both said some things we didn’t mean and did some things we regretted. But I’ve had a lot of time to think while I’ve been out on the water. There’s something incredibly therapeutic about it, you know. You get a different perspective on the world, one you just can’t find when living in a regular house and going about your business like everyone else.”
Ross took a step forward. “Time doesn’t exactly erase the past.”
“Ross! My man! You’re looking good these days!” Will enthused despite his younger brother’s demeanor. “I get what you’re saying, but I’m a changed man. I’m not the same person who sailed away from here all that time ago.”
“Then why come back at all?” Dex asked, an echo of the question that Dylan had been trying to get to the heart of.
