Sean: The Sons of Crosby: Vampire Paranormal Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Emerald stood up, and he did as well. When she wrapped her arms around him, Franklin started crying. She’d beaten his mood out of him, and he loved her for it. While she still held him, she whispered in his ear.

  “Franklin, you need to go into the house and find Brandy. She’s hurting badly right now.” Franklin said it was all his fault. “Yes. I’m not going to bullshit you about it either. Go and tell her you’re sorry, then I want you to go and see the rest of the family before they have you committed. They’re about to rebel at having this shindig at your home from now on.”

  Thanking her again, he entered his home. It was a home too. Brandy had made it that way. Going to the kitchen, knowing that was where she’d be, he found her kneading bread, her favorite way of letting go of her stress.

  “I love you, Brandy. And I’m sorry.” Hugging her felt wonderful, and his heart broke when she started crying. “I’m so very sorry. I’ll be better. I promise you.”

  “You’d better.” She pulled away from him. “Which one had a talk with you? I’m thinking Jewel. No, not her. Emerald. She’d be just the right person to get you in here.”

  Kissing her, he laughed, telling her over and over again how much he loved her. Walking hand in hand with her after she finished up the bread, he went to find some babies to hold. His babies, all of them. He was more glad right now than he’d ever been that Emerald had come into their lives.

  ~*~

  Sean made his way home at about midnight. Rachel had left earlier, saying that she needed to get some things finished up before the dinner tomorrow night. Even as he walked into the house, he could hear her talking to herself, a habit she’d picked up from his dad.

  “Of course you’ll be the one that comes in late. Aren’t you always late?” She paused in berating herself. “No. Not always. Just since you’ve been old.”

  Laughter, he heard, was her answer to being old. Going into the living room where she was sitting on the floor with papers in front of her, he asked her what she was doing. Her look to him made him think he should have known why she was home.

  “I’m grading papers, as I told you I was going to do when I left you.” She folded her arms over her breasts. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been grading papers while you’re out having fun? Too many to count.”

  “Then why are you teaching?” He sat down on the couch, the only area that didn’t have stacks of paper. “If I remember correctly, you told me you were retiring if Peter and Kiley made it to the White House. Well? Do you want to retire?”

  “Yes. Badly.” He asked her to come sit on his lap. “I can’t leave without grading these papers, Sean. I’ve been putting it off for too long as it is. They’re needing their grades on these.”

  “I’ll help you.” He picked up the stack next to him and closed his eyes. Telling the paperwork to make corrections on the stack, he set them aside then looked at Rachel. “Now, what did I do?”

  “You could do that all this time?” He nodded, wondering why she sounded so pissed off. “And you didn’t think to share it with me? Damn it, I could have had this shit done weeks ago if you’d have told me about that.”

  “I’m sure you can do it as well.” She picked up the stack and did the same thing he had done. When she smiled, he knew it had worked. “I think you can even have the grades put into that book of yours. I mean, even if you can’t, this has to save you a ton of time. Right?”

  “Yes.” She picked up her grade book and laid it on top of her stack of graded papers. After telling it to put the grades into the book, she picked it up and squealed when she saw it had worked. “I should have known this before. Christ, when I think of how many times I got up from the bed to come down here and work. I could have slept better.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I didn’t show you that.” He leaned back as she started picking up the six more stacks of paperwork surrounding her. When she was finished, she did finally sit on his lap. “Peter is happy. I saw him earlier tonight talking to Dad. I think whatever they said to each other, it helped Dad. Of course, it could have been Emerald too. I bet she had a few choice words to give him. He was in a much better mood after that.”

  “I’m glad. I’ve been worried about him for the last couple of weeks. It’s like he was a shell of his former self.” Sean held her in his arms as they talked about his dad. “The rest of our family is going to be in DC for the swearing in service for Kiley. I’m so excited to see them again.”

  “I am as well. Jason was all silly about his newest grandchild. I think it’s the first time he’s been this over the moon about one of his grandchildren.” She asked if it was his first granddaughter. “Yes. He was telling the two-week-old that she was going to have whatever she wanted from him. Of course, he did say that to his grandsons too. I know how he feels about a granddaughter, however. They sort of do make you feel different than having a grandson. But I love them all the same.”

  He and Rachel had fourteen children and too many grandchildren to count. Some were adopted; some of them were of their blood. Rarely did he ever think of any of them in any way but of his body because they owned his heart. All of them did. Remembering something, he asked her how Becky was doing.

  When Rachel tensed up, he knew something had happened. Asking her about it, she told him that Becky and Jon had called her earlier tonight. That speaking to Jon had cleared up a great deal for her.

  “Becky is going away in about a month. She said she feels like she can do more work as a doctor in the poorer areas of the world. I don’t want her to go. I love having her so close to us all the time. But Jon told me it was more than just that, her going to help out. That she was feeling pulled in that direction. That something or someone needed her.” Rachel looked at him. “Do you think it’s the pull of a mate?”

  “I don’t know. I hope so. She’s been a little lonely, I think since Jon found his mate.” Rachel agreed with him. “Also, and this just could be me hoping, she might well come home feeling like her old self again.”

  After her mother, Sandy, had been sent to prison for the crimes against her and Jon, Becky had been fine with her life. Or so they had all assumed. Then about six months after Sandy had been out of their lives, she had called to speak to her children. That hadn’t gone over well with any of them. But Becky and Jon made the trip with them, and they stayed with them while she was brought into the room to talk to them.

  He would never forget the look on everyone’s faces when Sandy was uncuffed to sit in front of the windowed area that separated her from them. Pulling out a shiv or whatever it was she’d brought out with her, Sandy slit her own throat. She never said a word to anyone as she lay there dying. But her manic laughter made him cringe every time he thought about it.

  Becky had taken it differently than Jon had. In retrospect, he’d thought Jon was the one that had been having the issues with what his mother had done when all along it had been Becky trying to deal with the trauma and the horrific things that had been done to her. Primarily by her mother.

  A year after Sandy’s death, Becky went into a spiral of anger and being out of control. She attempted suicide several times. Her grades took a nosedive. No one could reach her, not even Jon. It had taken putting her in an institution for a couple of months to get her to the point where she was able to cope with life again. It wasn’t the rape that Sean had taken away from her that caused it, but everything else in her young life. Too much horror had taken the child under.

  “I want to believe she’s finally coming to terms with her life. For a while there, I was worried she’d figure out a way to end her life. I know we’re all immortal, but Becky knew that Emerald or Chase could end her life. I think she had been going to the two of them for days before it became clear to the rest of us that she was having issues.” Sean nodded. It had broken his heart to see Becky like that. “The best we can hope for is that she is really on a path to rec
overy. And that she keeps coming to us when things begin to change for her again.”

  The sun was coming up when they made their way to bed. There were others in the house—a few relatives had stayed with them, as well as some of their own children. But they were all quiet now. When they’d arrived a couple of days ago, he thought for sure that he was going to need to move out to the barn. It was too much after having no one in the house for so long.

  “Tomorrow, after the dinner, I’d like for us to have a movie night with the kids.” He asked her if she realized they had like sixty people in the house. “I know. But it will be fun. I want to just share something with them again. You think they’ll be up for it?”

  “If you ask them, yes. Besides, they’ll do just about anything for you, my dear. You’re their mother, after all.” She snorted at him. “Such a ladylike response.”

  “I think I might have not given you ladylike responses since we met.” He laughed and told her she’d been a pistol. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking of things like that all day. Having a movie night with the kids. Perhaps pulling out the things I’ve been saving for them to take home with them. I have so many of their projects that we’re going to run out of room when the grandchildren start making things for us.”

  “We’ll build another house for them.” She thought he was joking, but it had been a thought of his for the last several months. Not to have a new house to hang the things that the children had given them or made for them, but to have more of their family around. Not to mention, if they were to have a house around, perhaps they’d stay longer. “Do you suppose it would be better if we were to build a hotel so that anyone and everyone that wanted to come here to visit would have their own space? I know they don’t mind staying here, but I bet they’d feel better, especially when they think the children are too much for us with having their own space. I don’t have any idea why they’d think that when we look as young and feel as young as they do. They can leave their kids here, and they can go to the hotel for all I care.”

  Rachel smacked him and laughed. Lying down next to her, he felt like he was lucky, in so many ways, as a man. He had the best wife, children, and family. Sean loved them so much that words to convey it were shallow in expressing his true feelings. Closing his eyes, he held onto Rachel. Tomorrow would be a good day. A better day, because he had the love of his life with him.

  Before You Go…

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  Kathi Barton, a winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio, with her husband, Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband, who is an artist and potter.

  Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance, with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi on line and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans. aaronskiss@gmail.com.

  Follow Kathi on her blog: http://kathisbartonauthor.blogspot.com/

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue