Teach Me Daddy: A Mountain Man’s Secret Baby Romance

by Hart, Rye

  I hoped the grin on my face looked a lot more real than it felt, the effort of maintaining it was hurting my face though. It wasn't because I disliked kids, but as I looked at Jenn's kids, so bright and beautiful, it felt like another part of my life had been torn away from me. Seeing the happy family together brought tears to my eyes, but not for the right reasons. “They're beautiful,” I said, squeezing my best friend's hand. “I'm so glad I finally got to meet them. And I'm so happy for you, hon.”

  “Me too, Hailey,” Jenn said, pulling me into a tight bear hug.

  And while she hugged me, I let myself revel in it, let myself forget about everything – forget about Leo, who was back in California, forget about moving back home and living with my parents, and forget about every horrible thing I'd endured over the last few years.

  For the briefest of moments, it felt like no time had passed at all. Jenn and I were young again. We were best friends, by each other’s side, and celebrating in our shared awkwardness. The wave of nostalgia that washed over me was powerful. Almost overwhelming. And for that wonderful moment, all that existed was our love and friendship.

  “I'm so glad you're back, sis,” she said to me, invoking the nicknames we once called each other, adding to the nostalgia enveloping me. “I know you always wanted to get away, but I'm so glad you came back. I have missed you so much.”

  If only she knew the real reason I'd come back to Black Oak, maybe she wouldn't be saying that. But that wasn't something I wanted to share just yet. I needed to find a way to deal with it on my own, and to put it behind me. It was my pain, and in that moment, I couldn't share it with anybody.

  Not even with my best friend.

  ***

  “I can't believe you married Martin,” I said, taking a bite from a mocha cupcake topped with an amazing frosting and with Oreo crumbles. “Not that I dislike him, it's just so –”

  “Strange?” Jenn laughed. “Yeah, I know. Believe me, I know. It's not like we got along back in high school either. But, people change, Hailey. We grow up, realize that the cliques in high school are bullshit and learn to just hang out with people we like, people that makes us feel good and happy.”

  I shrugged. “I guess so,” I muttered, taking another bite from the heavenly cupcake, my eyes rolling back in my head, and making a sound probably best suited to an adult film. “I missed out on a lot, apparently. So what else has changed around here?”

  “Not much, really. You know Black Oak – people are born, get old, and die,” Jenn shrugged, her laugh a little wry. She picked at a pink lemonade cupcake while nursing Marty. “Most everything you knew stayed the same. It's not all that exciting here. I mean, compared to your glamorous life in Cali and all.”

  I scoffed. “Please, it wasn't so glamorous,” I said. “Far from it, actually.”

  Jenn cocked an eyebrow as she licked the neon pink frosting from her lips. She looked at me evenly for a long moment and even after all these years, it was strange to me to know that she could still see right through me. She could see that there was something I was holding back from her – I could see it in her eyes.

  “You still don't want to talk about why you came back?” she finally asked.

  “Nope. Sure don't,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

  I turned and let my gaze wander around the crowd and the festival going on around me. Jenn's booth was getting a lot of attention and I'd had to hide a few times, to avoid seeing or talking to people I remembered from back in the day. Jenn had no problem selling her sweet confections to them though, and they talked about school board meetings and field trips as if they'd always been the best of friends since the beginning of time.

  I know her business depended on being friendly with anybody and everybody, but it made me sicker than the overly sweet cupcake I'd devoured in three seconds flat.

  There was a BBQ food truck parked across the way from us, and the unbelievable aromas drifting from it made my mouth water. I hadn't had breakfast that day – I really hadn't felt like eating and wasn't sure I could actually keep anything down if I'd tried. I was sick with fear and dread at the idea of making an appearance publicly for the first time since I'd moved back. I worried what people would say or think. There was a line of people lined up and waiting at the truck, backed up almost all the way to Jenn's booth. I noticed that the people walking away had big smiles on their faces as well as racks of ribs and massive pulled pork sandwiches oozing with delicious, red sauce in their hands. It made my stomach growl so loud, I was surprised nobody commented on it.

  “Good to see Driftwood is still in business,” I said.

  My mouth watered as I remembered the famous cocoa infused barbeque sauce that you couldn't get anywhere else. Everything was made in house, and had been passed down from generation to generation of the Dierks family.

  “Last I'd heard, Paul was the last of his family,” I said. “Who took over the business? He sell to somebody before he passed?”

  Paul Dierks, the locally famous BBQ man, had died about two years ago, leaving his business without an owner. After hearing of his passing, I'd assumed I was never going to taste the sweet barbeque chicken I loved so much as a child ever again. He'd never married or had kids – after him, there was no one to pass down the family recipe to.

  “Oh, didn't you hear? The McCormick brothers took it over after old man Dierks passed,” she said casually. “Yeah, Cason used to work there as a cook, and apparently Paul took him under his wing. Treated him like the son he never had.”

  “The McCormick brothers are still around?” I asked.

  That was an interesting piece of news and I strained my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of who might be working the grill. All I could see were flashes of a white apron. The crowd milling about, as well as the small windows of the food truck were obscuring my view of the person inside.

  “Uh yeah,” Jenn said. “Where would they go? Black Oak is their home.”

  “I dunno,” I said. “Figured they'd get football scholarships somewhere and get out of Black Oak. At least Quinn.”

  “Yeah, he did,” Jenn said with a shrug. “Notre Dame. But he blew out his knee and ended up coming back home.”

  “Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling sad for the guy – he deserved better than that. “Quinn was actually nice to me.”

  “Hell, all of them are still good guys,” Jenn said, removing Marty from her breast and straightening her shirt. “I went on a date with Ben before Martin and I got back together. We had a good time, but it didn't end up going anywhere. Obviously.”

  I looked over at Jenn and tried to imagine her with Bennett McCormick – the oldest of the brothers. He'd been a senior when we were freshman, and the last time I saw him, he'd been dating one of the cheerleaders. Typical jock move. Back then, he'd never given us the time of day. “You went on a date with Bennett McCormick?” I asked. “And you never told me about it?”

  Jenn shrugged. “Like I said, it didn't go anywhere. He was nice, but I was already interested in Martin by then.”

  Back in high school, there was no way Jenn or I would have chosen Martin Drake over any of the McCormick brothers. No girl of sound mind would have. The McCormick brothers were the most gorgeous men in school. They were practically royalty in Black Oak and had their pick of the girls. And for the most part, they'd been cocky assholes. But like I'd learned, a lot had obviously changed since those days. And Jenn was happy, so that was all that mattered.

  A mischievous little grin spread across my best friend's face. “Why don't you go over there, Hailey?” she said. “I'm sure they'll just die when they see you!”

  My cheeks burned and flushed with color as I looked down at my hands. “They wouldn't even know who I am,” I said. “They never did back then.”

  “You'd be surprised, sis,” Jenn said. “Seriously, go say hello.”

  “Maybe later,” I said, no longer straining to see if the brothers were in the truck.

  I didn't want to look too desperate. Besi
des, I may have been single, but I was far from ready to start dating again. Just the idea of entering into a relationship so soon after getting back to town made my stomach roil and a wave of nausea rise up within me.

  Not that I stood a chance with any of the brothers in reality, anyway. Even if I looked a lot different than I had back then, my transformation was nowhere near as dramatic as Jenn's. She was like an entirely new person.

  And me? Well, I was apparently still very much me.

  CHAPTER TWO - CASON

  Preparing for the Bonfire

  “Think I could get some help here?” I asked.

  I pushed the door to my brother's bedroom open. Bennett – the oldest of the three of us – was already up and at the restaurant. But Quinn, the middle brother, was sleeping in.

  Quinn rolled over in bed and grumbled something that vaguely sounded like English at me, the girl next to him still snoring away. The girl – Shelly Stewart – was an on-again, off-again fixture around the house, so that wasn't surprising to me that she was snuggled up with him in bed.

  What was surprising though, was that both of them were fully clothed. Usually, I got an eyeful when I opened the door to Quinn's room in the morning. Typically, I either got a glimpse of my brother's bare ass or Shelly's boobs – which she didn't seem to care about hiding.

  But today, they were both in pajamas, which was different.

  Ever since I'd graduated from high school, I'd slacked on the workouts and wasn't nearly as in shape as I used to be, especially compared to Quinn and Ben, who still worked out hard every day – and it showed.

  Sometimes, I envied my brothers’ muscular physiques. Having a leaner build, when I saw either of my brothers with their shirts off, was another reminder to me that I needed to hit the gym.

  Except for the fact that he was more muscular and in better shape than me though, Quinn and I were spitting images of one another – right down to the reddish-brown hair. Quinn was desperately in need of a haircut though, with his shaggy locks spilling down to his shoulders. I kept mine trimmed neatly – mostly because I needed to keep it out of the way when I was working in the kitchen.

  “Quinn, seriously, we need to get moving, bro,” I said. “We need to get the grills set up by ten.”

  Sometimes, going into business with my brothers seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth. There were times I felt more like a babysitter than a partner. And other times, I enjoyed the hell out of it. The camaraderie we shared sometimes made the workdays fun and entertaining.

  This though, wasn't one of those times.

  Quinn peeked out from under his squinted eyes and he groaned when he saw me. But instead of fighting me, like he used to do in high school, he instead, immediately swung his legs over the side of his bed. Running a hand through his long hair, he sat there, certainly not in any hurry to actually get out of bed.

  “Come on, Shells,” he said, not turning to the girl in his bed. “I have to get to work.”

  His voice sounded more detached than usual; distant and there was a tension in the air I hadn't noticed before. Groaning, Shelly got up, and quickly threw on her shoes. I looked at Quinn with a question in my eyes, but he merely shrugged. The silence in the room was as awkward as it was painful to witness.

  “I'm going to be outside,” I said, excusing myself from an obviously awkward situation.

  Quinn and Shelly had been together on and off since high school. Everyone always assumed they were soul mates, but living under the same roof as my brother, I knew the pain Shelly brought to him. I knew the way she turned his heart and mind upside down and inside out. But he kept going back, like a loyal lap dog to its owner. Every single time. Whenever Shelly called, Quinn was right there, wagging his tail, begging for a little love and attention.

  With a sigh and a shake of my head, I left them to work out their latest issues in peace.

  Walking out front, I moved my pickup truck to the garage where we stored everything for the business that wasn't in the restaurant itself. As I opened the garage door, Shelly slammed the front door behind her, and walked down the steps, huffing and puffing her way to her car, parked on the street in front of the house.

  “Mornin'” I said to her as she passed.

  She didn't say a word to me. Typical. But, what wasn't typical was how she slammed the door of her car and sped off, like a bat out of hell. Or the red, puffy eyes she'd had.

  Quinn peeked out the front door, a nervous look on his face.

  “Don't worry,” I said, glancing into the garage as I took inventory of everything we'd have to move. “She's gone.”

  Dressed in jeans and a Notre Dame t-shirt, my middle brother was by far, the largest of the three of us. Not that any of us were small. We came from strong, Irish stock as my mama used to say. But Quinn took his workouts very seriously and was bulkier than either Bennett or me.

  When he stepped outside and joined me at the garage, Quinn didn't say anything about Shelly's grand exit, so I took it upon myself to play counselor.

  “So what was that all about?” I asked.

  “With Shelly?” he asked.

  “No, with the other girl who stormed out of here,” I teased.

  Quinn helped me lift one of our larger grills into the back of the truck, not answering my question. I wasn't going to grill the guy – no pun intended – but I could tell that whatever had gone down between them was bothering him. He wouldn't make eye contact, at all.

  “I dunno, man,” he said with a sigh. “She's been offered a job in New York City.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “You're not –”

  “No,” he scoffed, shaking his head. “No fucking way I'd move to New York. Besides, she doesn't want me to anyway.”

  “Good,” I said. “Because she's not worth it.”

  Quinn flinched like I'd slapped him in the face when I said it, and I could see that what I'd said bothered him. But I wasn't one to coddle my brother. Sugarcoating things wasn't going to help him, he needed to hear the truth.

  “Seriously,” I said, loading a few smaller items into the truck bed. “She's not. She twists you all up and makes you feel like shit half the time, man.”

  “I know,” he sighed.

  “Man, you can do so much better than her,” I said, leaning against the truck. “She's done nothing but play you since the beginning. And you just keep going back for more and more abuse. Do you even love her?”

  Quinn shrugged. “I don't know. Which I guess should tell me a lot. I mean hell, if I loved her, I'd know it, right?”

  “Yeah, I think you would.”

  It was a relief to know Quinn wasn't in love with Shelly and wasn't planning on moving away to New York City on a whim. We might have our differences, but the three of us owned a business together now, and we needed him.

  “Come on, let's get this stuff over to the park,” I said, shutting the truck bed. “Ben should be meeting us over there soon.”

  CHAPTER THREE - QUINN

  The park was already starting to fill up with booths and people by the time we got there. It was a warmer than usual fall for us, and it still felt like summer during the day – especially with all the damn humidity in the South. But, warm or not, the leaves were changing and there were already big red and orange piles of them all over the ground.

  “South Carolina apparently didn't get the memo that it's October,” I muttered to myself.

  I wiped the sweat from my brow as we finished setting up the grill behind the food truck Bennett brought over. Most of the cooking happened out back, on the massive grill we brought out for special occasions. Good BBQ couldn't be made inside a piddly little food truck.

  Cason and I were working the grill, and I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of standing outside in the damn sun all day. Bennett would be in the nice, cold air conditioning of the truck – taking orders, handling the cash and doing whatever else needed to be done.

  As soon as we were done with the hard stuff, Ben drove up in his truck a
nd parked alongside ours. Climbing out, I noticed he was dressed nicer than the two of us. He was in dress slacks and a button-up shirt. His hair, darker than ours – a chestnut brown opposed to the reddish-brown color most of the McCormicks are born with – was neatly combed and styled. He took after our mother in the face, but his build was all McCormick. Clocking in at six-foot-three, he had the same wide shoulders and chest that we all had.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Cason called out.

  “As usual, he waits until the hard stuff is over to show up,” I teased. “Probably had to get his hair done.”

  Bennett McCormick was the brother who cared most about appearances – specifically, his appearance. He always took care to make sure he looked his best, right down to his freshly shaven babyface and meticulously trimmed hair.

  “Business isn't all about what goes on behind the grill, boys” he said. “Someone has to make sure the bills get paid.”

  And that was Bennett. Cason was the chef, Bennett was the numbers guy. I still wasn't sure where I fit in, but I helped where needed. Sometimes marketing and advertising, other times alongside Cason on the grill. I was the more jack-of-all trades type.

  “And those bills just had to be paid this morning, huh?” Cason teased, wiping sweat from his forehead with his t-shirt, which was covered in charcoal and dust.

  Ben shook his head, an almost condescending look on his face – an expression that never failed to make me want to smack him right in the mouth.

  “Not like you'll understand it,” he said, his tone matching his smug expression, “but I was meeting with the banker this morning to discuss our expansion.”

  “Explains the suit,” I said.

  “And the haircut,” Cason added. “But still not why it had to be done this morning when we could have used another set of hands to put this all together.”

  “Hey now, I'm not the one sleeping with my ex still,” Ben said, turning the attention back on me.

  I shrugged. “At least I'm getting laid these days. One of us has to keep the genes alive.”