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“Back for my ten days.How’s...?”My aunt that pretended I didn’t exist?His sister that I would barely recognize if I passed her on the street?His dad, who had never been in the picture as far as I could remember?He and his sister had different dads, and neither one had stuck around.I shared the same last name with Holden and little else.Unsure who to ask after, I stuck with, “How’s work?”
“Got in the fields today.”He lifted a shoulder.“Planting by mid-April.It’s a good year so far.”
“Only cuz it just began,” I pointed out.
“Are we talking old farmer already?”
“Is there any other way?”This was our usual banter.Quick and superficial.
Holden laughed until he glanced at the table he’d come from.He stiffened as Stetson’s gaze turned into a laser and burned a swath to us.“Well, it was nice seeing you.Don’t be a stranger.”
I lifted a brow but nodded.“See you around.”
Don’t be a stranger.I almost snorted as I wove my way to the bar where I had to pick up the pizzas.Thankfully, it was on the opposite side from Holden and Stetson.The middle-aged bartender lifted her chin when she spotted me and scurried away.She wasn’t originally from Coal Haven, but I ordered pizza often enough for her to know who I was.
I was pulling my wallet out when a sultry voice drawled, “Ho-ly shiit.”
Only trouble had come from meeting women at the bar.It might work for some couples, and while Eli and Owen were the best thing to have happened to me, they’d resulted from a tumultuous—and brief—relationship that had started just like this.
I turned, preparing a quick brush-off.It died on my tongue.
This was a face I hadn’t seen since graduation, when she’d lit out of town.“Laney?When did you—?”I stopped the question, but not late enough to be awkward.I’d heard what had happened to her brother.The whole town knew when and why Delaney Granger had returned to Coal Haven.“How long are you back for?”
Her crystal-blue eyes darkened, but she flipped her flaxen hair.“Here to stay.What are you up to?”She patted the empty stool next to her.
I shook my head.“Sorry, I’m just grabbing some pizzas.”
“You can stay for one drink.”She tipped her head in a way that came off as practiced.She’d left Coal Haven a caustic cowgirl and come back a sophisticated woman.Her bronzed shoulders were bared by a billowy top, and while it might be spring out, she was showing off enough toned leg to make me think it was eighty degrees without a cloud in the sky.
For a while, she’d been as off-limits as Kenny.Laney Granger had been almost as forbidden to Derek as me, but that hadn’t stopped him from dating her.Until he broke up with Laney to ask Kenny out our senior year.The entire time Laney and Derek had dated, she’d acted like she barely tolerated me.I had taken her boyfriend’s time.
Tonight, her eyes brightened like she was happy to see me, but I didn’t get the impression she was hitting on me.Laney used to be an open book.Tonight, she was guarded.
“I can’t.My kids are waiting for me.”
Some women got panicked looks in their eyes when I mentioned I had kids.A guy my age with kids meant baggage.I had that.Other women grew hearts in their eyes and I got the sick feeling they thought my kids were the way to my heart.They were, but not in the way most girls thought.The only woman I’d brought around them was Kenny, and that was the way it would stay.Eli and Owen would have enough feelings to figure out about their mother, they didn’t need other women streaming through their life.
Laney studied me, mild curiosity in her eyes.“Did not picture you the family type.”
“It’s just me and them, but yeah.”I wouldn’t be displaying a Dad of the Year award anytime soon.Pretty sure a guy had to be home at least half the month for that.
I was working on it.
People could judge my situation, but it was better than what Eli and Owen had been born into.For the first year of their lives, their mom, Payton, had used them to try to control me.We weren’t together by then, and I refused to be her puppet.The next year, she’d left them with me for days until I had to track her down so I could work before I got fired.Or she’d leave them with friends until I had to track her down to find out where the fuck my kids were.
Before their second birthdays, I’d had a long talk with Grandma Gin.The next time I had seen Payton, I had papers for her to relinquish her rights, along with the contact information for my lawyer if she wanted to fight me.Payton hated having to put effort into anything that wasn’t self-gratifying.She’d signed the papers and I hadn’t heard from her since.
“No wife?”Laney asked.
“No time.”
“There’s nothing but time in Coal Haven.”Her bitterness was swallowed as she took a swig from her White Claw.
The bartender appeared with my pizzas.“I’ll get you a total, hon.”
As she rang up my order, awkward silence descended.I asked Laney, “How are your parents doing?”
She smacked her lips against her teeth.“Peachy.”Another swig.
