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“That’s me.”Liam spoke while I grasped for words to defend myself.“A user like my dad.Goodbye.I’ll tell Grandma Gin you said hi.”
Cameron’s eye twitched.The boys were quiet, but sensing the hostility between the two men wasn’t hard.I would have been surprised if the whole market wasn’t staring at us.
“Don’t come back here, William.Sell your garbage somewhere else.Isla has worked hard to build this up.She doesn’t need trouble.”He spun on the heel of his leather boot and strode off.I spotted Isla at the far end of the market, talking to another vendor.She lifted her gaze, spotted her dad, read his expression, then found us.Her mouth formed an O and she rushed to her dad.
She’d found out and told him?I’d expected better of her, but then saying hi to someone at family picnics didn’t mean I knew her.
“Who was that?”Owen asked, incensed that the man had interrupted his good time.
“No one.”Liam flipped the case on his iPad closed and tossed it into the cab of the pickup.“Just a mean man with nothing better to do.”
His jaw was set as he started loading the items that didn’t sell into the back of his pickup.The soy candle couple watched us, their gazes full of sympathy.If they hadn’t known before, they’d figured out who Liam was to the great Cameron Barron.
I got the boys loaded and buckled by the time Liam was done.The supervisor was wandering by, oblivious to the drama.Liam thanked her for the booth.Her surprise seemed genuine when he canceled the rest of his reservations.
“Was there something wrong?”she asked.
“No,” he said grimly.“But if I keep coming, then there will be.”
We packed what was left and drove away.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
“Nothing you did.”
I had done everything.I’d encouraged him to come.I’d used my name instead of his.Putting his name down might’ve prevented the confrontation from being public.“It shouldn’t be like this.”
“I shouldn’t have thought it’d be any different.”
He was talented.He had a good eye for design and the creativity needed to do work that wasn’t for an oil field.I hated that the Barrons thought Liam was using me.He was the most generous man I’d ever known.But a family that hadn’t acknowledged him since before birth and pretended as if he and his kids didn’t exist wouldn’t understand anyway.
Liam
The driveto my place was quiet.The boys sensed something was wrong.I didn’t want Kenny to feel bad.The only person I blamed was Cameron.
Once I’d become a father, his behavior had seemed more bizarre.My situation hadn’t been identical, but there’d been similarities.My mom had latched on to him, gotten big ideas in her head.Thought she was what he’d be willing to leave his family for.
As the only child of a couple who struggled to get into the black with ranching, my mom had envied Cameron’s wealth.Third generation oil money.Land.Siblings with land.A high-paying job handed to him because of the status of his last name.His wife drove a Lexus.My mom had wanted to be Naomi.She’d wanted to be in a family that didn’t have to mend clothes ten times before they purchased new ones.She’d wanted to be the wife that drove to Minneapolis to shop.The wife who’d had the entire refinery lighted for her when she’d given birth to Stetson.
Then Cameron had showed her how he’d really felt.Hell, maybe he’d been remorseful.Maybe his affair with Mom had really been a bad decision in an overly stressful time of his life.But the way he’d handled it!A life growing up as the revered oldest, getting whatever he’d wanted, hadn’t made him sympathetic to the emotions of others—especially when he’d been the one to cause the hurt.
With Mom gone, he had no one else to blame.No one to shove a finger at and claimlook what she made me do.But I’d been around.And I’d gotten older.Worse, I had his height, his build, and the same brown in my hazel eyes.
I also had my mother’s tendency to not care what people thought…or at least pretend like I didn’t.I had my maternal grandparents’ tenacity.When times got tough, I tucked my chin down and barreled forward.But I didn’t have Cameron’s money.And I didn’t have a huge family backing me.
I’d do anything for my kids.Was that what Cameron was doing?Shunning me so thoroughly to protect the feelings of his kids, Stetson and Isla?Was he creating the illusion that an affair had never happened and his marriage to their mother was faultless, and whenever he saw me that illusion was shattered like the windshield my mom had flown through?
I wouldn’t feel empathy for him.He was a selfish asshole, no matter what his motivation was.
When I reached home, I backed up to the shop and stared at the house.The place where I’d grown up.The property and the land that Grandma Gin didn’t want to sell.The first place my kids experienced real stability and unconditional love.Eli and Owen had been two when I’d moved them here and started commuting.They’d been with me for a few months before that as we’d crammed into the room I rented.
I used to have to drop them off at day care an hour before my shift started so I could sit on the floor with them while they had a chance to calm down.Now, they loved having their own bedroom to share in a house that was always the same, and Grandma Gin was the perfect mix of unconditional love and consistent discipline.Say thank you and please.Pick up the toys on the floor before you brush your teeth.Bedtime was the same every night.
Coal Haven had driven me away, but it had become a sanctuary for my kids.Was I really prepared to do everything for them?
“I’ll open the shop door.”Kenny grabbed the keys from my console and slipped out.She probably thought I needed a moment to calm down.I did need some time, but I was calm as hell.
“What’s for supper, Daddy?”Owen asked.
