"Look, you aren't that scared girl any longer. You're a fantastic mom. You've got a career you love, and we have a good life here, but keeping this secret even a day longer is wrong. You need to call him and tell him you have to meet. Hell, invite him here or take Gage to his mom's house! Once they see Gage, they’re going to know. That boy is an exact copy of his father!" Dawn pointed to the wall where Gage's pictures were on display. She stared at her son's photos and almost cried. His mischievous laugh came from Brody. The smile, a little crooked but so damn endearing, and those beautiful eyes, were exact duplicates of his father’s. Every King sibling had those vivid blue eyes with a dark navy ring on the outside and so did Gage. His hair was a little lighter than Brody's, and his coloring was fairer, but there was no mistaking Gage for anything other than a King.
"Gage asked about his dad a couple days ago. He asked why his dad wasn't with us. He asked if we were divorced." Amber dropped her head into her hands.
"Damn. What did you say about that?"
"I told him the truth. That his father and I never got married, and I moved away when I was pregnant with him. His father didn't know about him."
"Yeah, and if I know Gage, he asked if he could go meet his dad, right?"
She nodded. "He jumped up and grabbed my laptop and said, 'You can find him and tell him about me.'"
"Girl, you've got a mess on your hands." Dawn walked into the kitchen and came back with the open bottle of wine.
She stared at the wine left in her glass. "He's never asked such a pointed question before."
"Well at least you didn't lie to him." Dawn filled the wine glasses again, draining the bottle.
"I'm so screwed."
"Yup." Dawn agreed and took a swig of her wine.
Brody opened the door. The top floor of the warehouse he'd purchased and converted into an apartment was ablaze with lights. He'd renovated the downstairs and divided it into three smaller apartments. Two were currently rented to great tenants whose rent paid his mortgage on the entire building.
"Blay do you have to turn on every fucking light?"
His brother popped out of the kitchen. "I'm cooking for you. Stop being a dick."
"Right, I'm the dick stuck with the electric bill," he grumbled to himself, flicking off lights as he walked through the apartment.
Blay, his baby brother, was his on again, off again roommate while he was saving enough for a down payment on his own place. Blay stayed at the firehouse during his shifts but was normally here when he wasn't working, although there were plenty of nights when he went MIA. He lived the life of a young man without obligations and his whole future ahead of him. Brody rolled his shoulders and squelched the envious feelings.
The aroma of onions and garlic made his stomach rumble. "Damn, that smells good. What are you making?"
"I'm testing a new recipe for the station. I'm on rotation to cook for the next shift. This is Cajun risotto." Blay smiled at him as he poured red wine into whatever was in the massive skillet on the stovetop.
"I'll be your crash test dummy any day. Want a drink?" He reached up and grabbed a rocks glass.
"Yeah, that'd be good." Blay stirred the pot and glanced at him. His brow furrowed and he angled his head. "What's up with you?"
Brody chuckled. Blayze was the youngest son of the family, and he'd learned to gage his older brother's moods while growing up. The little prankster knew to run fast when he pushed his practical jokes a bit too far. "I'm tired, man. Thirty hours straight. Went from the wedding to the precinct and then straight into an op with the DEA."
"Did you return your tux?"
Brody blinked at him. "Ah, that would be a no." The damn thing was still hanging up in his office tucked behind the door. He sighed and poured them each a fat finger's worth of bourbon.
"You're going to pay through the nose for that."
"What else is new?" He placed Blay's drink beside him and then slid his ass onto the countertop and leaned back against the upper cabinets.
"How did it go? The DEA thing? Did you catch the bad guys?" Blay ladled what looked like beef stock into the rice and meat mixture.