The one woman who looked at me like I meant something, and I’d let her slip away.
14
CALLIE
PRESENT DAY…
Seven years of active avoidance and it all came down to a gravel parking lot and a question I’d been working really hard to forget. I bought myself a few seconds when I turned away to look at Cody. He’d worked his hoodie up around his face and put the string between his teeth. His eyes cut between the three men, his focus shifting but taking in every single part of them. Smart kid. Smarter than me.
Hawk waited with that same grim determination I’d run from seven years ago.
I locked my arms over my stomach and lifted my chin, finally squaring up to Hawk. I’d faced harder things than this. I’d lived in hell while with Wade and Mom. These men didn’t scare me.
I hid my shaking hands in tightly balled fists.
“Mom?” Cody tugged on my sleeve, instantly ripping my attention away from Hawk’s chiseled jaw and down to his curious expression. “What are we gonna do?”
Nowthatwas an impossible question, and one I could not, under any circumstances answer in front of Hawk. I could only imagine the look on his face if he found out the shop was all I had. “We’ll go home soon, Cody.” I swept a hand over his head, pushing his overgrown hair off his forehead and into the hood.
A fire engine rolled into the lot, lights strobing red and white across the gravel. Two deputies climbed out of the cruiser that parked behind it. The noise ratcheted up, and Cody pressed into my leg.
Colt and Diesel remained behind Hawk. Colt kept shooting glances my way, and he crept around to Hawk’s right side to drop to a knee in front of Colt. “Hey. Sorry about your place.” He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder.
“Yeah.” Cody scuffed his toe over the gravel, reminding me he still needed new shoes.
Ugh. One thing after another piled up in the back of my mind until it felt as stuffed as our bags on fill a bag for a buck days at the local thrift store.
Cody hunched his shoulders. “My homework was in there.”
“Aw, man.” Colt grinned a tiny bit. “Any chance your teachers will let it slide this one time?”
Cody shrugged. One side of his mouth tipped up in a smile so like Colt’s I expected him to recognize himself in that instant. “Probably not. I told her my dog ate my math homework last week. She didn’t believe me cuz we don’t have a dog. So that night, I chewed on my papers and turned them in all soggy and gross.”
“Cody.” Exasperation leaked into my voice. I rubbed the throbbing pulse in my temples. “Is that why I have a meeting with your teachers next week?”
He shot a panicked look at me, his eyes going round. Yeah, he definitely hadn’t meant for me to hear that story, but he’d been too intent on trying to impress Colt to realize he’d given himself up.
“It’s fine, buddy.” I patted his shoulder, making sure my face showed zero anger and forcing out a smile. “I dunked mine in an oil pan once because I thought the teacher wouldn’t make me read it out loud to the class.” I chuckled and tapped his shoulder with one finger. “Don’t get any ideas.”
“Don’t have any more oil pans.” Colt deadpanned the sentence without so much as a smirk, pushing to his feet in that slow, rolling motion that I used to adore.
My stomach flipped over and my pulse tried to race. I sank my teeth into my cheek, using the pain to tame my instant reaction.
One of the deputies angled toward me, a notepad and pen in hand. A smile flashed, the eager expression reminding me of a puppy being offered a treat.
Hawk stepped into his path, his low voice carrying but not the words. They exchanged a few quick sentences. The deputy scribbled in his notebook, nodded several times, and shook Hawk’s hand. Within seconds, Hawk had not only sent the deputy on his way but had spoken to a firefighter and taken complete control of the situation.
I hated how useful he was to have around.
“Mama.” Cody tugged my sleeve again. “What are we going to do? Why are they staring at us?”
I followed his line of sight to where Colt and Diesel stood shoulder to shoulder. Colt’s hands hung at his sides, and his jaw worked once. He ran a hand through his hair in the exact same way Cody did. I needed not to think about that right now.
“They’re just making sure we’re okay.” Did I tell him they were friends? I crouched in front of him and checked him again for injuries. My hands screamed when I brushed one over the shoulder of his hoodie. “Does your arm hurt?”
He glanced at it and rotated his shoulder and wrist. “Little.”
“We’ll get it looked at.” I’d done everything I could to protect him. But he’d gotten hurt anyway. Fear clawed into my throat and stuck, blocking my airway. I stood and scanned the area for a paramedic. Shouldn’t there be one? Why couldn’t I see it.
