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“My biological father is Hunter’s dad.”
forty-eight
HolyBatman.Ididnot see any of that coming. I felt like I had a death grip on Sam and for the life of me, I couldn’t let go. We’d been desperate for intel, but the secrets revealed in their gramps’ letter almost felt like too much.
Nobody spoke for a moment, but Sam’s gaze had locked with Hunter’s. Hunter was breathing shallowly, looking like a startled fawn in the crosshairs of a rifle. He opened his mouth, then closed it again as his eyes went suddenly shiny.
I could feel Sam’s fear spooling through our bond. A sudden spiky fear of rejection. I sent a silent plea to Hunter to get it together.
“You’re my half brother?” Hunter asked tentatively, as if he needed someone to confirm he hadn’t heard wrong. Sam just nodded.
“Why did you wait to tell me? You read that letter two days ago,” Hunter asked, sounding incredibly vulnerable all of a sudden.
My heart ached for him, and his fucked up lonely childhood. Hunter and I had worked closely together helping settle the women I brought back to the farm, and he’d let slip a few things over the years that made me want to go back in time and wrap little Hunter up in a blanket to keep him safe forever.
“Because telling you meant telling Maia about Ronan. I wasn’t in a hurry to cause her more pain. It’s all mixed up together.” Sam sounded calm, but I could feel the shake in his shoulders.
“I felt like my dead brother’s ghost haunted me growing up.” Hunter’s eyebrows pinched together and his voice sounded thin, as if he was far away. “His absence was a constant presence in that house. I always dreamed about what it would be like to have an actual brother around. I imagined all the shit we could get up to together.”
“I thought I had one, but I had no emotional connection with him,” Sam said, then paused, swallowing hard before laying it all out. “You and your mates already feel more like brothers to me than he ever did.”
Hunter stood up suddenly and held out his hand to Sam. I let Sam go and scrambled to my feet alongside him. Hunter immediately grabbed Sam in a bear hug, looking dazed.
“My asshole father isn’t much of a prize, but I’d be damned glad to call you my brother,” Hunter said, his voice thick. I felt my throat getting tight, too. These people all meant so much to me.
We all surrounded them and joined in the hug as if the same string pulled us all, weaving through and amongst us. It made me wonder about fate briefly. I’d always kind of believed we made our own, but there was something at work here I couldn’t explain.
This big family that was growing by the day, that Leif and I had found, filled my heart with joy. I glanced across the people between us to Leif, and he smiled gently at me. We both had plenty of room in our hearts for more family.
“Hang on a sec,” came Maia’s muffled voice from somewhere within the scrum. We all pulled apart slightly to let her speak. “If you and Sam are half brothers, what does that make you and me, Hunter? Are we like a stepbrother and sister or something?”
“Oooh, kinky. I like it. Let’s go with that,” Hunter laughed, breaking the heaviness of the moment.
Sam punched him lightly, as much as he could with us all still crowded so close. “Hey, that’s my sister.” He had a smile on his face, though.
“Kinda mine too, now. That’s the point,” Hunter laughed before Leif took a turn to smack him.
“Okay, okay. Too soon, I get it,” Hunter said, rubbing his arm.
We could always rely on Hunter to ease any tension with humor. It was his default coping mechanism. He made life fun, though.
“If this is a picnic, you all need food,” came a thin voice from behind me.
We all shifted and turned to see GG standing behind us with an enormous basket. Dave quickly moved to grab it from her. It looked heavy. She had a thin throw blanket thrown over her shoulder that she passed over too.
“The girls have been experimenting with some recipes in your great granny’s recipe book, Maia.” A brief look of sadness flickered across Maia’s face, but she seemed to push it away quickly. “There are some breakfast biscuits in there made with oats. Easier to make once we run out of flour until we can figure out how to get the old mill working.”
“Thank you, GG.” Maia stepped forward and embraced the elderly woman gently. But GG wasn’t having it. She pulled Maia in for a solid hug. “I won’t break,” she grumbled.
I looked past GG to the window into the kitchen and noticed Isabella and Sirena looking out. I waved to them in thanks and they waved back before disappearing inside. That was going to be an interesting conversation between Maia and Sirena, and it would need to happen soon.
“There’s some hot chicory in there for you all. I heard you were low on coffee and it’s a decent substitute.”
“Really,” Maia squealed. “Where did you get chicory, GG?”
“I’ve been seeding the forest with chicory seeds for years. It grows well out there. I can show you what the plants look like.”
“That’s amazing, GG. Thank you,” I said, and meant it. Having a substitute for coffee was going to avoid a lot of caffeine withdrawals and frayed tempers around here. “Maia and I will get a few girls together and take you up on that. Just let us know when. Then you’ll have to show us how to make it.”
