“Where’s Ronan going?” Leo asked, coming to stand beside her as she watched Ronan go.
“He’s going home, baby. He’s got to get ready for school tomorrow, just like I have to get ready for work.”
“I wish we could spend the night with him again,” Matteo said, walking up on her other side.
Leo didn’t answer, but when she looked down at him, the expression on his face said more than she cared to know. She’d allowed herself and her kids to get caught up in her dreams of something more with a very desirable young man. And now they’d had a taste of what it would be like with a real man as a father, with a real family and other kids to play with and live near. And now what she’d managed to scrape together would never be enough. By giving in to her own desires, she’d unintentionally allowed them to see exactly what they should have had all along.
~~~
Ronan knocked on Daniel’s door. There was no answer, so he knocked again. “It’s Ronan!” he called out, just in case they didn’t want any particular visitors they’d know it was him and he wasn’t one to linger.
“Hey, boy,” a male’s voice called from behind him.
Ronan turned to find Kaid literally hanging out of his back door, one hand on the handle of the screen door, the other curved around the door jamb and just his upper body leaning out at an angle. “Hey. Looking for Daniel.”
“I see that. He’s in here. They all in here.”
Ronan just almost visibly recoiled at that. He closed his eyes and gave a quick shake of his head as he lifted a hand and scrubbed it down his face.
Kaid’s brow creased as he straightened up and stepped outside on the porch, allowing the back door and its screen door to close gently behind him. “You good?”
“No, I’m really not. I mean, I’m not bad, but I’m not good, and I really only wanted to talk to Daniel, because I just don’t want to talk to my dad.”
“So if he’s in here, you ain’t coming,” Kaid finished for him.
“Pretty much.”
“Why?”
“Because I tried to talk to him about something that’s important to me. Changes things, but doesn’t change the outcome, and he acted like I wanted to fight him. I needed him to hear me and all he did was argue with me. That’s not what I need at the moment, and honestly I have no patience for it.”
“Can any of the rest of us help you?”
“Yeah, more than likely all of you can. But I’m not presenting it as a clan issue because it’s not. It’s a Ronan issue.”
“Ronan, if it’s got you this bad, it is a clan issue. Anything that affects our kids and their families is a clan issue.”
“I’ll just wait until Daniel is alone and talk to him later,” Ronan said, turning toward his truck.
“I got this, Kaid,” Maverik said, coming from the front of Kaid’s house.
“Daddy, just go away,” Ronan said. “Please. I mean you no disrespect, but I’m not a damn child and I resent being treated as one. Havoc got more respect when he knocked up his side piece and I’m just not in the mood for it at the moment.”
“You’re right. You are absolutely right. I’m sorry I lost my shit on you. I just, I want so much for you, and I’m so damn proud of you, and I didn’t want you to step away fromyour schooling when you’re so close to having it all. I reacted emotionally, and I was wrong.”
“Ronan, you want a whole bunch of advice from one time badasses that now masquerade as grandpas, you come on in here after you finish with your dad.”
“Yes, sir,” Ronan said, still not quite having addressed his father.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Thanks for apologizing, I’ll see you later,” Ronan said, turning to the side to walk around Maverik and get in his truck.
“Ronan. I can’t help you if I don’t know.”
“You won’t help me anyway.”
“You don’t know that.”
