Beginning of Forever (Heaven Hill #7) (23 page)

“I’m too young to be a grandmother. A grandmother at 38. This can’t happen.”

He laughed and brushed a kiss along her neck. “You stay down here and hang out with the girls. I think Meredith and Bianca are in the kitchen. Meredith had a craving for cookies now that she can finally eat sweets again. Why don’t you go in there and talk with them for a bit?”

Nodding, she shuffled out of the room and walked towards the kitchen, sniffling as she did.

“Holy shit.” Liam breathed as he had a seat back down in his chair. “That boy almost got my nuts chopped off, or at the very least a night on the couch. Fuck. I’m too old for this shit.”

Tyler laughed, running a hand through his long hair. “Well, at least the cat’s outta the bag and he doesn’t have to be sneaking around anymore.”

“Oh, he’ll still be sneakin’ around.” Liam took a long drag from the cigarette he had sitting in the ash tray at his side. “He ain’t having sex in the house. I can’t deal with Denise if that happens. He’ll obviously find a way to get it taken care of. He’s a man now, and that’s just something you deal with. He’s not a little boy anymore, and that’s the problem.”

“Yeah, that’s the truth. We’re still working out every morning, and he can almost out lift me now,” Tyler conceded.

“Y’all do me a favor and finish the rest of this schedule. I gotta go talk to my son before Denise has a nervous breakdown.”

*

Liam checked the clock on his cell phone and saw that it was after four in the afternoon. He was almost positive that Drew didn’t have any kind of practice this particular day, or any kind of extracurricular activities at school. It was the Friday that began their Christmas break, so he knew Drew would be home. Deciding to forego the bike for once, he got into the truck Denise had driven and made his way to the house. When he crested the hill, he saw a cute little Honda sitting out in front, and he knew that car belonged to Charity.

“Damn,” he sighed. He really did
not
want to walk in on what he was almost positive he was going to walk in on.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Drew’s number. It rang a few times and then went straight to voice mail. Parking the truck, he dialed the number again and this time it didn’t ring before going to voicemail. As a last resort, he honked the horn twice before getting out of the truck and pounding up the stairs of the front porch.

Hesitantly, he opened the front door, and he breathed when he saw no one in the living room. Stopping for a moment, he listened, and that’s when heard shuffling on the back porch. “Drew!” he bellowed.

“Back here,” he called out.

Liam purposely took a few minutes to get out there, and when he did, Drew was busy buttoning his jeans, and Charity was pulling her shirt over her head. Both of them were red in the face, and they were breathing very heavily.

“Charity, I need to talk to Drew. I think it’d be best if you left, honey,” he told the young girl.

She nodded before walking over and kissing Drew on the cheek. “I’ll call you,” she whispered.

“As soon as I’m done here, I’ll just come get you,” he told her as he slowly ran a hand over her back, squeezing her around the waist.

“I’d rethink that if I was you,” Liam warned, his eyes burning a hole through his son.

Charity looked like she wanted to say something, but quickly made her way out of the house. Liam walked over to the other side of the screened-in porch, watching her as she left. It gave him time to collect his thoughts and think about how he wanted to play this. Hell,
he
had been this boy not too many years before. When he turned around, Drew had put a shirt over his body and was sitting on one of the couches. Liam had done enough interrogations to know that even though Drew sat with his legs spread and his hands between his knees in what appeared to be a relaxed pose, he was anything but.

“You’re lucky it was me that pulled up here and gave you all kinds of time to get your shit together and not your mom.” Liam pointed at him before having a seat across from him.

Drew at least had the decency to look down at his hands, properly reprimanded. “Sorry,” he whispered.

“Dude, not that I begrudge you doing what you’re doing. It’s normal and natural, but you have
got
to clean up after yourself.”

“I do, Dad, she’s been here lots of times while y’all weren’t here, and nobody knew until today,” he blurted.

“You sure as hell don’t do as well in the truck.” Liam pulled the condom wrapper from his pocket and passed it over to him.

“Fuck,” Drew cursed.

“Yeah, fuck. You’re mom found it and accused me of cheatin’ on her.”

Drew was shocked; he didn’t know what to say to his dad. That wasn’t what he had wanted to happen. “I’m sorry. I thought I’d cleaned up after myself better than that.”

“It’s okay, but we have to talk about some shit here. Neither your mom nor I want to be grandparents right now. Are you serious about Charity?” he asked, looking him square in the face.

“I care about her, yeah. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with her if that’s what you’re asking. I’m just havin’ a good time right now. You and I both know she’s going off to college in a few months. I’m trying not to get too attached.”

Liam had figured these would be the words out of Drew’s mouth. “Then you need to make sure you’ve got this under control. You don’t want any surprises.”

“I know,” he whispered.

It was then that Liam took note of how deep Drew’s voice had gotten, and for the first time, he looked at him like he hadn’t seen him in years. He was almost as tall as Liam now, a beard showed on his face, and Tyler had been correct, he was almost as big as him.

“Look, let’s just be honest with each other here. You’re a man, and we need to start treating you like it, but you’ve also gotta be honest with us. If you’re out with her, we want to know it. Don’t be sneaking her in here either. You want her over, you ask. Got it?”

“I got it.”

“Two more things,” Liam finished as Drew started to get up. “Don’t flaunt the fact that you’re having sex in front of your mom. She’s not having an easy time of it. You’re still her little man; she’s not used to you being old enough to do this.”

“I understand. It’s not like I
wanted
my mom to know I was bangin’ a chick…ya know? I’ve kept it quiet for a while; I hoped to keep it quiet until I moved out.”

Liam grinned. “And the last thing. Good job, Drew. Charity’s always been damn cute.”

Drew blushed and bent his head down. “I know. We’ve been friends for a very long time, and while there was always something there, it took a while for her to see me as anything more. Especially after the whole steroid issue, I thought I’d fucked up for good, but she gave me another chance. I had to prove to her that I have a brain.”

“Just remember to use it,” Liam reminded as he got up and patted him on the back.

“Do you mind if I use the truck tonight? We were going to go to the movies.”

Liam groaned and threw the keys to Drew. “Take me back to the clubhouse first, that way I can put your mom’s mind at ease. Remember what I said.”

“I know.” He walked over to where Liam stood and put his arms around him in a hug. “Thanks for caring enough about me to worry. I really did luck up when you came into my life, and I’m proud to call you my dad.”

Uncharacteristic tears clogged Liam’s throat. “I’m proud to call you my son,” he said as he hugged him back. Reaching over, he ruffled the hair on Drew’s head to cover up the emotion. The next words he spoke were gruff, but they were the honest truth. “We both got pretty damn lucky.”

‡
Chapter Twenty-Eight

“A
re you ladies sure you’re gonna be okay here tonight?” Tyler asked the group of women who had gathered at his house.

The run Heaven Hill was about to go on would take most of the manpower they had, and since March was upon them and the newscasters were calling for snow, he hadn’t wanted to leave Meredith and Addie alone. March could sometimes be the worst when it came to snow in south-central Kentucky. When he’d called for backup, he was surprised when Mandy and Charity had readily agreed to stay with Meredith for him.

“We’re good,” Mandy told him. “And if anything should happen, Drew and Dalton are a phone call away.”

“And,” Meredith reminded him, “You know that Travis has eyes on this house all the time. He’s sticking behind, and no matter how irritated I get at him, I trust him.”

Tyler did too, but he really wished Rooster, Layne, or Jagger were also sticking around. He knew he could trust Drew and Dalton to take care of things too, didn’t mean he couldn’t shake the feeling he had. “I know, I’m just worried because of the snow in the forecast.”

“You act like I’m not.” She pinched his side. “Y’all are gonna be riding your bikes on 65; that makes me incredibly nervous.”

“We’ll be fine,” Tyler assured her. Glancing at his phone, he realized he had to go if he was going to meet the guys. “I gotta be going. You ladies be safe. If anything feels outta the ordinary, give Travis a call, and then call the guys.”

“Yes sir.” Mandy saluted him, giggling when he shot her a glare.

“Don’t be flippant, I’m serious.”

She couldn’t keep the grin off her face.

When he was finally out the door, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

“He’s a little high-strung,” Charity mentioned, pursing her lips.

“Yeah…” Meredith grimaced. “Addie’s taken to falling asleep with us on the couch at night, and I’m usually tired myself. Mr. Blackfoot is goin’ through a dry spell, the likes of which he hasn’t seen since we started dating.”

The girls giggled, and then Meredith wondered if she should have shared that with them, before deciding it was probably okay. She and Mandy were close, there was no reason she shouldn’t also be as accepting of Charity. She spread out on the couch, resting her hands on the round ball that her stomach had become. The two girls sat in chairs opposite her, both playing on their cell phones and quietly talking between the two of them. This is how her relationship would be with Addie when she was old enough.

“So, Mandy, did you ever get to use any of that info from Jess’ books?”

Mandy’s face burned a bright red.

“I knew it.” Charity pointed her finger at the other girl. “Drew’s been shooting Dalton dirty looks since Halloween, but I could never get you to confirm or deny, so neither one of us has been sure. Spill. It’s just us ladies here.”

Mandy hated being put on the spot, but she hadn’t gossiped about this to anyone. She’d kept it completely to herself while she’d taken the time to process it. There was a part of her that knew she needed to talk about it. It was only natural. “It did happen on Halloween, and we’ve done things a few times since then,” she admitted.

“Are you okay?” Meredith asked, her expression sympathetic. She remembered being a teenager. The guy was always way more enthusiastic than she had been.

“Yeah.” She nodded and glanced over at Charity. “But you were right, it does change things.”

“Did it change things for the better at least?”

“Yes and no. Now, I think he’s more attached than I am,” she hurried to explain her statement. “I think he feels much closer to me than I feel to him, because there’s still a part of him that won’t let me in. He purposely keeps me at a distance in some aspects of his life; I don’t know what I can do to break that wall.”