Hawk (A Stepbrother Romance #3)(33)

Jennifer nods. “Come on, hon. Let’s go for a walk. Jacob, keep an eye on him.”

The big man walks over to me while Jennifer and Alexis stride away, breaking into a jog.

I look at him. He looks at me.

“Should we get into a fist fight?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t.”

“So you guys are-”

“Alexis’ younger sister, May, is in my math class. She’s very good.”

“Yeah. Must run in the family. Alexis was always talented with numbers, too.”

“I know.”

“Okay, who are you people and why are you having clandestine meetings in the woods? You realize if I followed you here, somebody else could too right?”

He cocks his head to the side and gives me an odd look, and smiles thinly.

“Yes, and if they did I’d know.”

“Maybe I wasn’t really trying to hide.”

“Suit yourself.”

I clench my jaw, and it only seems to amuse him more.

“You’re military.”

“Was. Navy. You?”

“Army.”

“Huh. I didn’t realize they stacked shit that high in the Army.”

He looks at me, and then he laughs.

Uh, crisis averted.

“So you’re her stepbrother.”

I roll my eyes. “Of all the things I want to be for her, that’s not it.”

“Walk with me.”

He starts walking, and I fall in beside him, looking at the ground.

“Jennifer was concerned about May’s behavior at school. She came to me and we weighed our options. We’re mandated reporters, you understand what that means?”

“If you suspect abuse, you have to inform the authorities.”

“Yes, but sometimes the authorities can’t help.”

I look over at him. He looks straight ahead, a faint frown on his face. Funny how he has a matching scar, same place as his wife’s.

“So what does that mean, exactly?”

“Sometimes people have to take matters into their own hands. We approached May first and had a sit down with her, privately. Then she put us in contact with Alexis. Jennifer remembered her from school, but never had her in a class. You all were too old.”

“I don’t remember you.” I’d think I would.

“I was in the shit when you were in school… Hawk, is it?”

“Yeah. My real name is Howard, but don’t call me that.”

“Noted. Alexis was wary at first, afraid she found out. Then she told us everything.”

“Everything,” I repeat.

“She loves you.”

I stop. It feels like I just walked into a knife and it’s rooted in my stomach.

“You know what I did.”

“You left town when you turned eighteen. Dad threw you out?”

“More than that.”

“Tell me.”

I look at him. He folds his arms. Damn, he’s big. Scars, too. What the hell happened to him?

“I’ll wait,” he says.

I walk over to the nearest tree and lean against it.

“She told you everything. Alexis did.”

“She told us about Dorney Park. Just the two of us, not her sister. How you couldn’t stop looking at her and she pretended to be asleep so she could, and these are her words, cuddle with you on the way home.”

I just stare at him, gaping. Then I take a deep breath.

Then I tell him.

I relate the story slowly, and he asks no questions, makes no judgement. I start with the day I was made to leave, and work my way back from there. As he nods and scratches his chin I end up blurting out more stuff, how stupid I was, how much I missed her every miserable day.

When I finish he stays quiet for a long time. He puts his hands on his hips and sighs.

“There are times in a man’s life when he does what he has to do. In the moment when all the options are laid out before us, we have to choose the right one and go for it. If you had the information you had then, and only the information you had then, what would you do?”

I scuff my boot against the ground and answer without looking at him.

“The same thing. I’d rather she be alive and safe and hate me than…” I trail off. “That doesn’t matter, I left her to-”

“She had everything set up, you said.”

“Yeah.”

“School, job, she was leaving town too.”

“Yeah. She was supposed to be gone from this place. I knew her. She’d never come back, except to help out her sister, who wasn’t far behind. I had no idea my father was even involved with her mother, as far as I knew they only met once and it was years before I left. My father hated Alexis and her family. He wanted me to stay away from her anyway.”

Jacob rolls his massive shoulders and walks to stand next to me. He looks around, his sharp eyes darting from shadow to shadow.

“You know, it’s easy to wallow in regrets. They pull you in. Become a blanket. The past is a sunk cost, kid. What matters now is what you do with the future.”





Alexis





Now





Every time I look at Jennifer, I feel a little pathetic. When she sat me down and told me what she’s been through, it makes me feel silly and stupid for my own problems. She’s so strong, wearing the scar on her cheek like a badge of courage. Naturally I glance at her hand. She wears a glove over it all the time; right now it’s one of a matching pair of riding gloves but she always has one on.