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“She seems very bitter,” Lyrica observed. “I mentioned them once, and she completely shut down. It’s one of the few subjects she refuses to discuss with me.”
“She doesn’t discuss them with anyone,” he admitted as his thumb stroked against her ankle almost absently, his gaze seeming to settle on the past rather than the present. “She and Mom were incredibly close. Girlish secrets, shopping trips.” He breathed out heavily. “She was here when they left that night. She heard them arguing about the trip. Mom hadn’t wanted to leave because Kye had a dance that weekend and she didn’t want to chance returning home late. She’s still very angry at Dad, for convincing Mom to go.”
His head settled back against the wood of the headboard as he focused on Lyrica then. “It was a hard time for her, for both of us.”
“You were close to your father then? And your mother was close to Kye?”
He laughed at that. “That wasn’t what I said,” he pointed out. “Kye was their baby; I was their son. She was the surprise they were certain they’d never have another chance for, and she was a delicate, fragile little girly girl.” He shook his head as he smiled. “Dad, though, he was a very distant person emotionally, but he loved us. It just wasn’t a love he was able to show. He kept me with him for the most part while he worked on the farm, so I guess I didn’t get to know Mom nearly as well.”
A shadow touched his gaze then, as though some thought had spoiled the memories he was allowing himself to touch.
“My mother always spoiled us with love. She still does,” Lyrica said softly. “We didn’t have much, but we never missed it. Mom made so many things an adventure and tried so hard to ease the nightmare that Chandler’s visits made in our lives.”
She looked down at the hand covering her ankle, the broad, strong fingers, the way his thumb brushed against the skin covering her anklebone.
“You have very gentle hands,” she said softly. “Chandler didn’t. He was very harsh and always so very angry.”
Thankfully, the man who’d fathered her and her sisters hadn’t been around much.
“Elijah said Brogan mentioned that he had you and your sisters taken from your mother at one time?” he asked her gently.
Lyrica inhaled slowly, deeply. “It was horrible,” she admitted, shaking her head at that memory. “We were placed in foster care with Kenny and Lucy Tannley.” She almost shuddered at the thought of them. “Kenny was a drunk that leered at Eve and Piper like an animal stares at meat. Lucy thought foster children were no more than her personal servants and maids.”
They had slept in the basement on a few thin blankets. Eve and Piper had kept Lyrica and tiny little Zoey between them and the three of them listened to Zoey as she cried most of the night for their momma.
“I’m sorry.” The apology had her lifting her head to stare back at him.
“It’s over.” She shrugged as she pushed the past behind her once again. “There were a few bad experiences, but we survived. And we survived intact.”
“Dawg raged for weeks after Timothy brought you home with your mother. I was home that week. I was actually at the bar when Natches, Rowdy, Alex, and Zeke were called to collect his drunk ass.”
She winced at that. “It’s the one and only time Dawg got drunk after his marriage to Christa. I felt so bad for that.”
“He loves the four of you, probably about as much as he loves his daughter,” he told her. “It broke his heart that he hadn’t known about you or your mother.”
“We had no idea Chandler had another family. That we had a brother or cousins. Though I guess we should have. Momma said the marriage the village priest performed was never made official though. Timothy checked. It didn’t surprise her, or us.”
He was petting her.
His hand stroked her ankle, brushed over her calf, caressing, just gentle touches meant to ease memories that might hurt.
“Dawg’s our hero.” She grinned up at him. “Him, Natches and Rowdy, Uncle Ray. When Timothy first put us on that plane and told us he was taking us to our brother, we were terrified. We’d found out about him weeks before when Eve went searching for Chandler. We had no idea he was dead. And Momma was so sick.” That was a bad memory. There had been days, nights, when they were certain she would suffocate, it had been so hard for her to breathe. “But, from the moment we arrived, we were family.”
“Everyone who knows him and Natches agrees the four of you were put on this earth to prepare those two for their daughters’ adulthood.” He chuckled.
“Oh god, don’t go there.” She hung her head and groaned in amused horror. “We’re not practice; we’re their training in how to torture their daughters fully once they realize there’s life out there that doesn’t include Daddy. They should have had more kids.”
“Why didn’t they?” Graham was amused, almost chuckling at the thought.
“I think they might have, if it hadn’t been for our arrival.” She did laugh then. “Right off the bat Eve and Piper were slipping out at night, testing their wings, testing their freedom. I think they terrified Dawg and Natches, though Rowdy has always found it highly amusing. So I imagine they decided one daughter was enough and they’d probably be exhausted by the time they managed to force the girls into convents that no boys could possibly breach. We exhausted them.”
He smiled with genuine warmth. “I can’t imagine that.” He cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing against her lips. “Natches can see the beauty his daughter is going to be in you. Do you know how many rednecks around here are terrified to even look your way?”
“You weren’t,” she pointed out, leaning closer, wanting a taste of his kiss again. Wanting his touch, his warmth and strength.
“I was terrified,” he admitted, though his eyes told another story. “Natches threatened to cut my dick off if he caught me around you.”
Disbelief shot through her, causing her to pause as she drew closer to him. “He did not!”
