Play for Keeps (The Devil's Share #6)(21)
“Come here, Halen.” Landry, my hero, took her by the hand and led her away from me, a little farther down the boardwalk. As soon as I was out of my daughter’s line of vision she stopped crying and started dancing to the music coming off the beach. Landry was Halen’s big sister, in every way that mattered. She could always make her smile and calm her down.
I sighed. “She hates me, my own kid hates me.”
“She doesn’t hate you. She’s just a toddler.” Bryan adjusted my train, peeking around my ass and watching her daughter walk with mine.
Amy came up and hugged me for the hundredth time since she’d flown in yesterday. “I can’t believe you’re getting married. I can’t believe my brother is engaged. I can’t believe that I haven’t seen you in over a year.”
“It’s been way too long. You live three hours away and I had to make you fly to Florida to see me? That’s it. I’m putting my foot down, you have to come to the compound at least once every three months.” I got close to her ear before whispering, “Besides, I think Harlow is knocked up. So you’ll need to come spend time with your nephew.”
She pulled back, her eyes narrowed. “What makes you think that?”
“I’m Lexi. I know everything.” I could tell by the way Luke was looking at her today. It was different than yesterday. They wouldn’t say anything because today was my wedding day, and they were smart.
Amy laughed. “What makes you think it’s a boy? I thought karma was giving the band daughters.”
I shook my head. “Not our Lukey. He’s a saint and a gentleman. He’ll have sons.” I shrugged. “It was just a fluke deal that Jacks ended up with one. Lord knows that man deserves a house full of daughters.”
Dylan was cradling Evie to her chest, shielding her newborn eyes from the sun. “You think Landry will be able to handle getting both babies down the aisle?”
Bryan stood and moved a lock of long brown hair out of her eyes. “I think so. Besides she has Beau to help her. Halen adores him just as much as she does Landry, if not more.”
Chapter Twenty
Jacks
I smiled when I saw my kiddos walking down the aisle. A daughter and a son. I was a lucky man.
Turned out that Jared had a little boy named Beau, a little boy he’d never mentioned, not once. Poor kid’s mom had died of a drug overdose a few weeks after he was born and Jared had raised him the best he could after that. The way Beau talked about Jared made it seem like he’d been an okay father for the most part. When he’d been carted off to prison, Smith’s dad had to take him in. Apparently Smith’s dad was the only man left in that family who had never been to prison. Which was mind-blowing.
Two weeks after we left Meraux, I’d gone to talk to Jared in prison. I’d told him that we’d taken his son from Smith’s father’s house. The house with guns taped under tables and meth being bagged and tagged on the coffee table. The house where he was beaten.
Jared had been in jail for almost a year, which meant he was sober. I gave him the same deal we gave Emily, Landry’s mom. When he got out, he could visit Beau as long as he stayed clean. He didn’t blink before signing his rights away to his child.
At first I thought that Smith would want to raise Beau; after all, he was Smith’s blood. His cousin’s son. And Dilly was a saint. She’d have taken him in, no questions asked. But Smith said that he was Beau’s family already and staying a cousin would mean Beau would have Smith as a friend, a confidant. As a father, Smith would have to do the parent shit that kept kids from sharing their secrets, and Smith wanted to be the one Beau came to with the deep stuff that kids don’t tell their folks. It hit me in the gut that I would be the parent who didn’t hear “the deep stuff,” but given what Beau had been through already, having a father who loved him and a cousin who he could tell his secrets to was the best of both worlds.
Also, Smith thought that one day Jared would come back and Beau would need someone he could trust, someone who had been there…lived that life and survived the abuse he knew was coming when Jared fell off the wagon and disappeared again from Beau’s life. Harsh, but if anyone knew Jared’s patterns, it was Smith.
Within days after we brought Beau home, he and Smith began spending a lot of time together. Smith didn’t feel it was a betrayal to share that they talked about life on the bayou. It was clear Beau could open up to Smith about things a lot easier than he would to anyone else.
And when Smith said that B and I could adopt Beau, I hugged Smith so hard, I cried.
From the moment I’d first seen that little boy, hurt and sobbing in that boat, he was mine. I’d loved him, just like that.
When I walked into the house carrying a sleeping kid, Bryan didn’t blink an eye. She’d smiled, kissed my lips, and then kissed his bruised cheek. And just like that, she’d accepted another broken child into our family.
Landry adored him. The first couple of weeks he was with us she’d slept on his floor at night, crawling into bed with him when he had nightmares. Holding his hand when he got nervous. They were inseparable.
I’d told Beau that I was the guy his dad sent to take him away from the bayou. And he’d come willingly. It was like he’d been waiting for me, and we’d been waiting for him. I didn’t bother to go up to the house and tell Smith’s dad. I sent Smith a text telling him to tell his old man I was taking the kid. His dad didn’t give two shits. He was more pissed that we’d taken the dog he’d paid good money for.