by Piper Rayne
Austin takes it from him, but Savannah quickly snatches it from Austin. “I’m calling Uncle Brian.”
“No.” I put my hand up in the air. “This is my business and I’d like it to stay that way.”
“Rome, sweetheart, you need your family at a time like this.” G’Ma D’s kind and nurturing side is showing itself which speaks to the severity of this situation. It rarely comes out and if memory serves we usually only ever see it for a few moments on Founder’s Day every year when remembering what we’ve all lost is up front and center.
“I just need time to think.”
“It might not even be yours,” Savannah says. “Maybe that’s why she’s sending you to do a paternity test. You could be one of five.”
“Savannah,” Brooklyn scoffs. “This isn’t an episode of Maury Povich.”
“Sav’s right. I mean seriously, Rome doesn’t even recognize her,” Phoenix jumps in to my defense.
I think I remember her. Kind of. Sort of. Those eyes. I know those eyes. I run my fingers through my hair, expelling a long, deep breath. Denver kicks out a chair and shoves my shoulders down. “Sit.”
I do.
“Rome was in Seattle. He admitted it,” Juno says.
If my sisters don’t stop arguing right now, my head is literally going to explode.
“It’s mine.” I hold out my hand for the card and Savannah passes it over. Twirling it around in my palm, I try to figure out a plan. I’m a plan guy. Not like life plan, but when I’m thrown an off-speed pitch, I know how to react. Excuse the baseball analogy but when you grow up playing the sport your entire life you relate everything to that play when you have half a second to decide if you’re swinging or not.
I wasn’t as good as my brother Austin, but I had an eye for the ball. Off-speed, lay off until it crosses the plate. Curveball look to take it on the inside. This is like a wild fucking pitch I didn’t see coming that hits me right in the helmet. Now, I’m lying on the dirt-covered ground trying to figure out if I’m still that guy who can take a pitch.
“You okay, man?” Denver grabs a chair.
Denver’s voice draws my attention up from looking at the floor between my legs.
I glance over to my brother. “It’s gotta be a joke, right?” I stare down at the card. Diagnostic testing.
Denver presses his lips together but doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. Not only are we brothers but we’re twins. Not creepy telepathic twins, but we tend to know what the other is thinking.
“I don’t understand. Why did she track you down if she’s going to run off?” Liam asks.
“Because she wants money. That’s why,” Savannah says.
“You’re way too cynical.” Liam rolls his eyes at her.
“I’m a realist. She’s got wind that Denver was some hero and since doofus here used Denver’s name she probably thought Griffin Thorne gave Denver loads of money for saving his life. Or she found out about Bailey Timber and is under the impression that we’ve got millions.”
“What must it be like to be in your head.” Liam shakes his head and tucks in his chair. “I think it’s time for guy time.”
Thank God for Liam.
“You want me to clear everyone out?” Denver whispers.
I say nothing but express my feelings only with my face.
With a few hugs and pats on the back, my sisters and Holly leave. A cold rush of air floats through the restaurant as Brooklyn holds the door open and waits for G’Ma D. She waits because right now G’Ma D’s standing in front of me waiting to say her piece. I heave out a sigh and tilt my head up to look at her.
“I can’t say I didn’t warn you.” She stares down at me.
I nod.
“Baileys take care of what’s theirs, Rome. I hope I don’t have to remind you of that if that little girl is a Bailey. You need to figure out your priorities and do it fast.”
I nod again.
She pats my cheek. “First great-grandbaby, Ethel’s going to be so jealous.” A spring grows in her step as she heads out the door.
At least one of us is happy, even if it’s only out of spite.
Thankfully, it’s only the guys left—my brothers Austin, Denver, and Kingston along with Brooklyn’s boyfriend Wyatt, and my buddy Liam sit around the table.
I don’t bother saying anything to them, but just head straight behind the bar, grabbing a shot glass and a bottle of Jack and filling the small glass with amber liquid, before tossing it down my throat.
“Isn’t that what got you into this mess?” Austin says from across the room.
I stop what I’m doing and give him the best ‘fuck you’ look I can muster.
“How about being a brother instead of a father tonight,” I sneer.
Denver pats him on the shoulder and sits down on the bar stool in front of me. I put out a shot glass for him and he watches as I pour. “If there was ever a night to tie one on, it’s now,” he says, downing the whiskey.
“Pour me one, too,” Kingston says.
“Don’t leave me out,” Liam says.
One-by-one each of them take a spot on the bar stools in front of me.
I line up the glasses in a row and pour us all a shot then slide one in front of each of them.
Wordlessly, we raise the glasses in front of us and down our shots.
Kingston grimaces. He still prefers the taste of beer more than hard liquor. Thankfully, he didn’t ask for a chaser. If he had, I might’ve had to take his Bailey man card. It’s not summer yet so he can live a little before his obsessive physical conditioning to fight bush fires takes over.
“So, you think you’re the dad?” Kingston asks.
“Could be.” I sigh. “Probably. I didn’t recognize her at first because she had her hair back the night we met and more makeup on, but I did sleep with someone in Seattle around when she probably would’ve gotten pregnant.”
Every one of the guys nods slowly with their lips pressed together.
I get their sympathetic half glances. None of them want to make direct eye contact with me. From the time you start having sex this is pretty much your number one fear as a guy—some girl showing up telling you you’re her baby daddy.
Everyone but Austin and Wyatt because they’d probably welcome a kid into their lives at this point. They’re established.
I still sleep on a mattress on the floor. No frame. Just there, tucked into the corner with the cord for my phone in the nearest outlet. The makeshift apartment above the restaurant is less than stellar. Making it a decent apartment was part of my plan. Nice enough to have girls come back to. All that seems stupid and childish now. A father should have his shit together. A damn bed frame at the very least.
“Savannah’s on it. She’ll call the diagnostic place first thing in the morning and figure out how we can get the DNA results back ASAP,” Austin says.
“No surprise there,” I mumble.
“What do you think she wants?” Kingston asks.
He seems the most thrown. At almost twenty-one, he’s just starting his bachelor life. I’m sure he gets plenty of offers when he’s out fighting fires. Then again, Kingston isn’t Denver or me. He’s always been more like Austin.
“I have no idea. We didn’t get that far.” I reach for the whiskey bottle again and pour myself another shot. Denver slides his glass over. Never one to let me go through shit alone. I’m close to all my brothers, but we’re twins. Our connection is on a whole other level.
We clink our glasses together and toss them back, the liquid no longer burning as it runs down my throat.
“I always told you two that little game you played pretending to be the other would come back and bite you in the ass,” Austin says.
“C’mon man, you can’t be a twin and not do it,” Wyatt chuckles.
I stretch my hand across the bar, and he fist bumps me.
“It didn’t do anything to me except make me almost piss my pants for five minutes.” Denver leans back and catches my ey
e. “Sorry, man,” he says with guilt coating his features.
“Maybe so, but you’re twenty-five. Time to grow up,” Austin says in the dad voice he’s perfected in the decade since our parents passed.
“I was twenty-three when I did it,” I argue the moot point. “Doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.”
My jaw twitches under the strain of clamping it shut so I don’t say something I’ll regret. I know my big brother can’t help himself. He was forced into the dad role, but right now I don’t need the lecture. I need someone to tell me that it’ll be okay, that I can handle this, that if this is my child, I won’t be a shitty father.
I release my aching fingers gripping on the neck of the whiskey bottle.
“What are you gonna do?” Liam asks.
“What can I do? I’m gonna figure out if I’m her father and if I am… I don’t know. I guess I’ll figure it out from there.”
I’ve always been the guy who’s comfortable winging it through life, but there’s no flying blind without a plan in this situation. If I screw up a little girl’s life, there’s no sorry big enough to make up for it.
G’Ma D is right, I need to get my priorities straight.
Five
Harley
This morning I’m thankful we’re off Calista’s normal schedule because I get to enjoy a warm cup of coffee on the back patio of Selene’s house with the mountains as my view. My mind is a jumbled mess from last night. My biggest regret is running out of that restaurant like a coward. I should’ve held my head high and told him everything.
Then again, he didn’t chase us down. Not like I expected the guy who left me with only a lame note on the pillow the next morning to jump up and down with glee that he has a daughter with a virtual stranger.
I secretly hope he’s the guy I thought he was when I found the note because we’re here for only one reason and it’s not to woo Calista’s dad into becoming a permanent fixture in our lives.
“Oh dear, let me put on the gas fireplace.” Selene comes out, her dark hair streaked with gray pulled back and wearing a pair of colorful printed pajama pants cinched on her small waist and a t-shirt with a cardigan sweater over the top. She clicks on the gas fireplace in front and the warmth from the flames feels nice.
“Thank you.”
“You got in late last night. The little one still sleeping?” She sits in the chair next to me, sliding her legs so they’re tucked under her. The dried paint on her hands confirms my thoughts that she was working this morning.
My eyes fall to the baby monitor next to me. “Yeah. You painting? I heard Neil Young playing.” I sip my coffee.
Selene is someone I wish I could be like at times. I wonder what her upbringing was like to allow her the freedom of self that seems to come naturally to her. She beats to her own drum and doesn’t seem to give a shit what others think. We’re similar in a way, I suppose. I do what I want without asking permission or caring what others think, but I’m always on edge, anxious… never mellow like Selene.
“My aunt got me hooked when I was young. Neil always gets my creative juices flowing.” She stares down into her tea. “I’m a transplant if you haven’t figured that out.”
“Transplant?”
“I wasn’t raised here. Although I feel like it sometimes.”
I stare at a statue with a turquoise ball on the top that’s out in the yard. “You like it here?”
“Love it. I’m sure you will, too.”
I sip my coffee. “I’m only here another day.” Mostly because I’d never travel longer than two days in a row with Calista unless I wanted to torture myself.
“I do hope you take today to enjoy yourself then.” She looks sheepishly. “I don’t like to pry but may I ask if you’re here for business or pleasure?”
I raise an eyebrow. She may seem a little flighty, but I don’t get the feeling she’s an easy woman to pull one over on. Selene knows as well as I do that a woman doesn’t show up dressed in jeans and a sweater with a hole in the armpit and a baby on her hip for business.
“Neither really.”
We sit in silence, still not even one peep from the monitor.
“Okay…” she says it rushed like we’ve been playing a game of chicken and she’s the first one to lose.
“Selene?” There’s something she’s not saying.
“Lake Starlight is a small town and well, people find out pretty quick when there’s someone new in town. Someone saw you and snapped a picture and well, there’s this online blog thing. I don’t really follow it, but I was bored this morning waiting for a portion of my art to dry before I could start on another layer and… well…”
“And well what?”
“People are speculating about why you’re in town.”
I stand, my coffee spilling in the process as I place it down on the table. “I thought this town was a little bigger than someone recognizing someone new from the moment they set foot on the sidewalk.”
“You’d think.” She rushes to her feet but is able to keep her teacup in the palm of her hand. “I’m thankful it wasn’t around when I showed up, anyway, this isn’t about me. Jack said you asked about Denver Bailey and the Baileys are kind of a big deal around here.”
I snap my line of vision away from the turquoise ball to her. “What does that mean?”
She sighs. “They own Bailey Timber which funds a lot of the town. You add on their parent’s accident and well, I think the town almost feels like they’re our responsibility. I guess it’s a small-town thing. My daughter is good friends with Kingston Bailey… he’s so sweet and kind.” She waves her hand in front of her like ‘silly me.’ “I have no idea why I’m telling you any of this, other than my own curiosity as to why you showed up in Lake Starlight for a two-night stay and your first line of business was to track down Denver Bailey?”
My heart sinks. This woman standing in front of me knows more about Calista’s father than I do. What does that say about me as a mother?
It says that I don’t know what kind of genes he might pass on to my daughter. How I was going to let her travel through life never knowing her genetic makeup or family medical history? She’d ask me how she got brown hair and what was my plan? To tell her I dyed mine? That’s the whole reason I’m here—to get answers not a daddy for my baby.
Selene patiently waits and I’m unsure if she expects me to answer. She’s a B&B owner, not my therapist.
I owe her nothing is the first thought to go through my head. Then I realize how alone I feel. Sure, I have Miranda and Shane back in Seattle, but she’s moving on with her life and about to get her massage therapist license whereas I had to take time off because I have daycare to pay for. Miranda wasn’t stupid enough to get knocked up by a stranger.
I hate when I think that way because it makes me feel like I didn’t want Calista. I didn’t know I wanted her until I confirmed that she was growing inside of me. Since that moment, I knew I’d do anything for my child. I’d sacrifice being a massage therapist for her. Hell, if we didn’t need money to survive, I’d sacrifice everything, but life doesn’t work like that.
“More coffee?” Selene disturbs me from the rambling in my head.
Selene would be cheaper than a shrink and she doesn’t seem to be a judgmental person.
I shake my head. “I thought I was here for Denver but turns out I’m here for Rome.”
She makes this low uh-huh thing like she understands completely, which makes me assume he has a reputation in this town.
My eyes scan the monitor. Still silent. I guess I can’t dodge this conversation by using Calista as an excuse.
“Rome is Calista’s father.” It feels weird saying it out loud.
“Oh,” Selene says it like she’s trying to act nonchalant, but I can tell that inside she’s excited to be one of the first to know.
“He didn’t know about her until last night and I’m only here for his DNA.” I sip my coffee, the turquoise ball calling my name once again. Wh
y is it so alluring?
“Why his DNA if you know he’s the father?”
I shrug, not really wanting to get into my whole life story and Calista’s. No need for our story to end up in whatever this gossip thing is that takes people’s pictures without permission. I should ask Shane to look into the legal ramifications of that.
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me.”
I nod as a thank you, although I feel like I could trust her.
Another long stretch of silence ensues. I hate silence. It either means someone doesn’t want to tell you something or you feel uncomfortable in their presence. I remember my foster mom’s silence when I was a week away from eighteen. Not that I thought she’d like me to stick around after the checks stopped, but she could have brought it up before she was packing my bags.
“I feel like I need to prepare you for what coming here might bring.” Selene sits down in the chair next to me and I follow suit. “You said you only want his DNA, but I can tell you that’s not all you’re going to get.”
I sit up straighter. There’s no denying this lady has intel I need. “What do you mean?”
“I told you the Baileys own Bailey Timber. There are nine siblings in all. Two sets of twins. Rome and Denver being one and then the youngest are a set of twins, Sedona and Phoenix.”
I nod remembering the two girls who looked alike at the restaurant even though the whole showdown is a blur.
“Then there’s Grandma Dori and how do I politely say this… she’s a meddler. If she finds out about you, well the fact that she has a great-granddaughter isn’t going to be ignored.” She places her hand on my knee.
My heart wrenches because the grandma was there last night. They all were. The entire family.
“Do you think they’ll try to take her from me?” Bile rises up my throat. How did I not consider this before coming here?
Because you were thinking you were approaching a guy who didn’t care to say goodbye after you’d slept together. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for a guy looking for a commitment.
“No. They wouldn’t do that, but…”
