BRODY WOKE TO the birds singing outside his window. Their cheerful tune only made the pounding in his head intensify with each squawk outside, echoing in his head. His bad leg tightened into an intensely painful cramp. He could barely move it without shooting pains up into his hip and back or down to his toes. Both of those things were bad enough, but the throbbing erection really had his attention because the damn birds had pulled him out of a dream so intense, he could almost feel Rain on top of him, grinding her hips to his. The weight of her breasts pressed into his palms.
Satisfaction was a hot shower and five fingers away, but the pain in his leg and head made it impossible to get out of bed. Thankful he’d remembered to put his pills on the bedside table, he popped the top, and against his will he took two pain pills instead of his normal one. Even the thought of needing the drugs made him feel weak, like his father. With his arms crossed over his eyes, he waited for the effects of the drugs to take hold and erase the pain.
Over an hour later, he finally made it out of bed and into the shower. Hands planted on the wall, the spray pounding on the back of his neck, he stared down at his damaged leg. The skin grafts looked better. The burns had healed. The doctors told him it could have been a lot worse. He was an excellent healer.
“Like any of that matters when I look like this,” he said to the drain. “What the hell will Rain think when she sees this?”
He didn’t know, but it was never far from his mind any time he thought about her. His need for her was a living thing inside of him. One day soon, he planned to take her to bed again and find that magical place only they could conjure.
The contractor arrived while he sat at his new kitchen table drawing out new plans for the addition to his cabin. Only this time, instead of adding on a few hundred square feet, he was adding on almost two thousand. A cabin wasn’t enough space for him and his family. They needed at least three more bedrooms and two more baths, along with a great room for all of them to enjoy. It would cost him a lot to keep the original cabin structure and build around it, but he felt it important to keep a piece of his past while looking forward to his future. Besides, what was the use of having all that money if he didn’t use it for his family?
“Hey, Jim, could you take a look at this?” Brody leaned over the table, staring down at the plans.
“That’s a hell of a lot more than we discussed. We’ve already poured the foundation and put in the subfloor for extending the living room and adding a bed and bath.”
“Yeah, I know. But I’ve got two daughters and I’m hoping a couple more kids in the future.” Rain would kill him for talking out of turn, but he needed to make a home for all of them, and that meant working with Jim to get it done.
“Everybody in town’s talking about you coming home and finding out about the girls. Can’t believe Rain would keep something like that from you?”
Brody ignored the tone, and what Jim was thinking and insinuating. “How long do you think it’ll take to make these changes?”
“Six months at the earliest. Probably take a year.”
“That’s too long.” Brody stood to his full height and flexed his ankle and bent his knee to stretch out his sore hip and thigh.
“You’re talking about practically building an entire house here, Brody. The cabin will stand as the main entrance and room, but the rest is like tacking on a house to a box.”
“If you hired subcontractors for the electrical and plumbing, hired on additional men for the construction, can you cut that six months in half?”
“Brody, you’re talking a lot of men and a lot of money to get it done that fast.”
“I’ve got the money. You hire the men and get started right away. I want to see some real progress on this by next week.”
“I’ll need an architect to look at this and make up some real plans.” At Brody’s glare for the added time it would take to wait on a set of blueprints, Jim added quickly, “I got a friend who owes me a favor. It’ll cost you overtime for him, but he can probably have the plans drawn up in a couple days. A project this big, you want it done right. Besides, that will give me enough time to set up the crews we’ll need to get this done in the time you want. Not to mention lining up all the permits.”
“I guess that will have to do.” Thinking of the aesthetics of the inside and out, he added, “Have the architect call me. This is the basic plan I want, but I’d like his take on making the place look good. You know, change the feel from a cabin to a nice home.”
“He’s done some real nice work using natural stone and timber from the area. I think he can take this and spruce it up, give it that real custom feel.”
“Perfect. Listen, I’ll be in and out over the next couple of days, but you need to be gone by five tomorrow. Rain is coming out to talk, and we need privacy.”
Jim raised an eyebrow and gave him a knowing smile. Brody dismissed both. He wasn’t about to tell Jim Rain planned to ream his ass for what he’d done. And tell him about Roxy. It still nagged at him his daughter was terrified of her own mother. Yet, even he had a hard time thinking of Roxy as Autumn’s mother. He didn’t see any of Roxy in her, only the kindness instilled in her by Rain.
“We’ll be out of your way. So, have you heard from Roxy?”
“No,” Brody replied. He hoped he never saw her again.
“Man, she was out for your blood when she found out you left town. Then, she found out she was pregnant and told everyone you’d be back to marry her. When she found out Rain was pregnant too, man, she went nuts. A few of the guys at the bar had to stop her from trashing her place one night. Said she was breaking dishes and tossing furniture, out of control and in a rage.”
“That’s Roxy,” Brody said, frowning, “ever the reasonable one. She was pregnant and in a rage, not thinking a damn bit about the baby she was carrying.”
“That’s not the best part,” Jim said, his delight in telling Brody the sordid story clear to see. “Roxy found out Rain hired a private investigator to track you down. She cornered Rain in the grocery store in front of God and everyone. They were both about five, six months pregnant at the time. Roxy shoved Rain up against the freezer doors and held her there with her arm across her throat.”
“What the hell!”
“I know. She was right in Rain’s face demanding she tell her where you were. She screamed that Rain found you and you’d pay for leaving her with your brat. Her words, not mine,” Jim added. “Roxy said there was no way in hell you were going to knock her up and marry Rain and have the perfect family. When Rain said the detective tracked you to Arizona but lost you, Roxy got really pissed and swore if Rain didn’t tell her where to find you, she’d get rid of the baby, she’d make sure of it.”
Brody’s gut tightened at those damning words. Even though Autumn was alive and well, a chill ran up his spine, thinking of Roxy that far along, making sure she lost the baby.
Jim’s silence told him there was a hell of a lot more to the story. “What did Rain say about that bombshell?”
“Nothing. Her whole face turned red. She shoved Roxy back and slapped her. I swear to God, the crack of her hand on Roxy’s face was like a gunshot echoing through the store. Everyone gasped. No one moved. Rain pointed her finger in Roxy’s face and told her if she did anything to the baby, Rain would kill her.
“Now, about this time the store manager is moving in to put a stop to the whole scene. Can’t have two pregnant women fighting in the freezer aisle. Anyway, Roxy tells Rain if you want the baby, you have to pay big time. Rain got real close to her, said something no one could hear, and Roxy smiled in a real nasty way. She walked right out of the store with that smug look on her face she always got when she got over on someone.”
“What did Rain do then?”
“Ballsy chick that she is, she finished her shopping. Manager asked her if she needed any help, and she just rolled her eyes. Never seen anything like it, I’m telling you.”
“Do you know what Rain said to Roxy to get her to back off?”
“Nope. No one does, though everyone speculated for weeks. Roxy walked around town happy.” Jim eyed him, his meaning clear. Roxy was never actually happy. Which could only mean one thing. Something had finally gone right in Roxy’s world and it linked back to Rain. So what had Rain said to make Roxy happy? And why the hell would Rain do anything to make Roxy happy after what happened between the two of them?
Jim continued: “What’s even more strange, the day Roxy left the hospital after giving birth, the nurse who wheeled her out said she thought someone was coming to pick her up. Instead, when they got to the curb, there was Rain sitting in her car, Dawn in the backseat, and another baby car seat right beside her. Rain got out, took the baby from Roxy, put her in her car, handed Roxy a duffle bag, and drove away. They didn’t say a word to each other and Roxy handed the baby over like it was nothing. Roxy got in a cab and left town. At least, that’s how the nurse described it to everyone down at the diner.”
“So, no one knows why Roxy handed over Autumn to Rain?”
“Rain never said a word. She’s just been raising her like her own. Oh, people still talk, but Rain’s never said one way or another what actually happened and why. Didn’t she tell you?”
“Not yet. But she will.” So far, nothing added up, and he had a lot more questions to ask.
“You should ask her what happened a couple years back. The girls were about three. Roxy suddenly came back to town. No one had really heard from her in years. She looked down on her luck, which seemed strange seeing as how she still owns the bar her daddy left her and collects rents on the two apartments upstairs. Anyway, she came back to town and made some sort of commotion at Rain’s place when she went to see Autumn. The neighbors called the police because of the ruckus, but Roxy was already gone by the time the cops arrived. The next night, early in the morning really, the cops had to go back. No one knows why. Then Rain went out of town for about five days. No one has seen Roxy since. Some even think Rain might have gone after her and killed her, though that’s just crazy talk. The bar manager says he talks to her about the business and rents, though she doesn’t call often.”
“You sure know a lot about what’s been going on between Roxy and Rain.”
“Small town, man. Everyone talks. You’ll see. Everybody’s talking about you coming back and showing up at Rain’s last night. Since nobody got shot, people are figuring you two are keeping things civil for the kids. Hell, man, no one would blame you for being pissed she kept the kids from you all this time.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Well, once Owen came back to town, we were all sure he’d tell you about the kids and you’d come back. Owen mentioned to Bill Radley at the real estate office that Rain told him not to tell you. After the thing with your dad happened, no one wanted to bring up Roxy with your brother.”
“What thing with my dad?”
“Well, he was drinking at Roxy’s place before he ran himself off the road. Everyone knew how you felt about her allowing him to drink as much as he wanted without the bartender or Roxy cutting him off for his own good. Anyway, I don’t think anyone really put it together anyway. Except maybe me, since I was there that night.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It was the same night Roxy came back to town and there was that trouble at Rain’s place. Roxy was in the bar that night. A real slow night, only a few of us at the bar and tables. She took your old man aside, sat with him in one of the back booths, both of them drinking from a bottle of whiskey.”
“Roxy was drinking with my father.”
“Looked real intense if you ask me. Your father outpaced her, she seemed to pour two, three for him to her one. He was wasted. Strange thing was, the more your father talked, the angrier she got. Finally, she dragged him out of the booth and shoved him out the door. He laughed at her the whole time, said something that really set her off, and she tossed him out.
“He was still laughing when he drove away. I went out to see if I could stop him, but he took off. Didn’t hear until the next afternoon that he’d had an accident. I’m real sorry, Brody. If I’d caught up to him, I’d have driven him home.”
“It wasn’t your fault. The old man drove home countless times from the bar. He had more trouble driving sober than he did drunk,” Brody added to take away the sting to Jim’s guilt.
“That’s for sure,” Jim said on a laugh.
“Did Owen know Roxy was with Dad that night?”
“I’m not sure. He didn’t come back to town at that point, except to take care of your father’s arrangements. Seems to me he came back for good not long after.”
“Because he found out about the girls,” Brody said, mostly to himself.
“Could be.”
That was the real truth of his brother giving up his lucrative job at a big law firm. He’d come back to look after Rain and the girls in his absence. Hadn’t Rain said Owen had been a better brother than he deserved? Well, here was the hard truth. Owen gave up another life to come back here and watch over Brody’s family. But why? He could have kept in touch with Rain by phone, come for visits to see the girls. Something else happened, and every time he came to a dead end, Roxy was right there waiting for him. Everything revolved around her. His father’s death, Autumn ending up with Rain, his brother coming back to town.
Brody sent Jim on his way, telling him to have the architect call to go over the details of the new construction. He still had Roxy and Rain on his mind when he drove into the parking lot at the electronics superstore in Solomon. Frustrated, he walked into the store knowing he wouldn’t get answers to his questions until he had Rain alone tomorrow night. Well, he might not get his answers, but his girls would get new computers and games to play. He owed them seven years of Christmas and birthday presents, and this was a good start.