Page 80 of Alec’s Dream

“Aunt Becky didn’t mean to upset you, sweetheart. You know how much she loves all of us and she’s a little scared about what happened. It is very nice of her and Uncle Rob to offer for us to go stay with them. But we’re staying here, with Alec.”

The worry that had been swirling in his stomach settled. They were staying—by her declaration. Not that Alec had planned on allowing anything different, but it felt damn good not to have to battle it out with her.

“I don’t ever want to go home again,” Rory declared.

“I know, baby girl. Wanna come back with me, or would you like to go and sit down with your brother?”

“I wanna stay with Alec.”

“No, Rory. He needs to talk to his friends about grown-up stuff.”

“But—”

“Gorgeous, go with your mom. When I’m done, I’ll come get you and we’ll see if McKenna bought some ice cream. Bet Caleb would like some, too.”

It took a moment for Rory to nod and reach for her mother, but when she did she was smiling.

So damn pretty just like her mother and that smile was no less potent. It didn’t matter if it was mother or daughter flashing it his way, it made him want to pull his heart from his chest and hand it to them. A wholly different experience—instead of keeping himself at a distance, he wanted to tether the five of them together.

Macy mouthed ‘thank you’ and moved to rejoin the woman. Alec turned his attention back to the men to find Nix, Jameson, Jonny, Rob, and Weston all staring at him. But it was Jonny openly assessing him that had him worried.

“You good?” Alec asked Jonny.

“No.”

“We got problems?”

“You and I? No. Me and Doug? Fuck, yeah. Beyond what he’s done to his family—”

“They are not his family,” Alec sneered. “They never were.”

Jonny gave Alec a jerk of his chin and continued. “Beyond Macy, Caleb, and Rory, he’s jacked over my parents. They informed me this afternoon they loaned him five thousand dollars. Of course Doug had some bullshit story about wanting to fix up Aurora and Caleb’s bedrooms as a surprise. My parents love those kids. Doug knows that so he knows he can exploit it. And does frequently. But what you need to take away from that is my parents love their grandchildren and it would suck if they lose them.”

“Why would they lose them? They thinking about cutting—”

“Fuck no, brother, but I’m getting the sense what’s happening with Macy is more than I’d assumed. And I’d assumed you were serious. So what I’m saying is, I’m worried you making those kids part of your family means mine’s gonna lose out.”

Alec put a lid on his irritation. He didn’t appreciate Jonny straight up implying that he’d be a dick and try to hedge the Spencers out of their grandchildren’s lives.

“You love them.”

“Hell, yeah.”

“They love them.”

“Absolutely.”

“Then why you think I’d want that taken away from those kids is beyond me. The more good people they have in their lives loving them, showing them the way, making them feel that love, the better.”

“It can take a toll on a man having the reminder of the—”

“I am not that man. You think it’s lost on me? That every time I look at Aurora, I don’t see the eyes Doug gave her? And when I look at Caleb, I can’t see how much he looks like the guy? When I tell you I’m going to erase the assmunch from their lives, I mean the danger he brings. The neglect. The emotional havoc. Doug Spencer is a part of them; I will never allow them to be ashamed of that, Jonny. If I do, that means they’ll be ashamed of half of who they are. I’m gonna have to dig really fucking deep to find it, but there has to be some good in him. I know this because while Macy gets credit for most of it, Caleb is a damn good kid. Loyal and protective as all hell. I suppose your brother had to give him some of that.”

“They’d appreciate it if you allowed—”

“Now you’re just pissing me off. First, I have no say in that. I don’t get to allow anything when it comes to who Macy permits to see her kids. But I already told you, if it was up to me, I’d want them around. And Jonny, that includes you.”

The other man’s shoulders slumped slightly and there is was—Jonny was taking all of this shit on himself.