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Jaxson
Sanctuary was great. The guys were great. Sam was great.
That gnawing ache in his gut, the constant jonesing because he hadn’t seen Penny? Not so great.
Jaxson had expected to run into her at least once. For the first few days he’d been in town, she’d been there every time he turned around. Ever since the night he’d thrown caution to the wind and favored his little head over his big one, she hadn’t appeared on his radar once.
She hadn’t called or texted or shown up unexpectedly with flowers and some lame excuse for being there.
That was what he’d wanted, right? No strings, no attachments, no promises he couldn’t keep. A one-time thing. Just two adults who shared a mutual physical attraction, satisfying each other’s needs.
So why was he disappointed that Penny had finally taken his words and wishes to heart?
He had been keeping busy, and that helped somewhat.
One day, Smoke had driven him and Sam down to Pine Ridge to meet a doctor friend of theirs, a former SEAL named Michael Callaghan. The test had been quick and painless, and less than twenty-four hours later, they had their answer. He and Sam were definitely brother and sister.
This afternoon, Doc and Sam took him to visit an old man in town, Mr. O’Farrell. The guy was older than dirt but sharp and active and newly wed to Tina’s eighty-something-year-old grandmother.
That visit was as equally illuminating as the DNA test, if not more so. Mr. O’Farrell had known Sam’s grandfather, Martin Appelhoff. He recalled that one night, Martin had shown up at O’Malley’s and gotten soused, which was totally out of character. Mr. O’Farrell had walked him home, and the elder Appelhoff had told him the story.
“In those days, people weren’t as open about things as they are today, and small towns like Sumneyville are slower to evolve than most,” Mr. O’Farrell told them. “Mental health issues were seen as something to be ashamed of. An indication of faulty upbringing or a lack of discipline that reflected poorly on them. Being the strict, old-world types they were, they thought the way to deal with Ilsa was to pull the reins even tighter.
“But pull something tight enough for long enough and it’ll eventually snap. Ilsa went out and got herself pregnant, adding insult to injury in her parents’ eyes. Things reached a head when Ilsa refused to give up the name of the baby’s father. Martin gave her an ultimatum: reveal the name and get married to make the child legitimate or get out. She chose the latter. I don’t think he’d expected that.
“She came back once, as I recall, around Christmastime. I ran into her in town. I swear I’d never seen the girl smile so wide. She said she was going to see her parents. That Christmas was the time for forgiveness and second chances. I wished her luck, but she had her work cut out for her. Martin Appelhoff was a stubborn, prideful fool. That was the last I ever saw of Ilsa.
“The next night was when I walked her father home. He told me that he’d turned her away when she still refused to give up the name of the baby’s father. I think he assumed, like we all did, that it was someone in town.
“Then, a couple years later, social services showed up with little Sammy, but as far as I know, no one knew anything about you.”
“Someone knew,” Jaxson pointed out to Sam on the way back to Sanctuary, “How else would my—our—father wind up with me? Someone had to reach out to him. It doesn’t explain why he didn’t take you too though.”
“We could try to dig into social services records,” Doc suggested.
“Does it matter who knew what when?” Sam asked quietly. “Our parents are gone. The important thing is, we found each other.”
* * *
Later that night, Jaxson was lying in his room, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about what Sam had said and trying not to think about Penny.
Did it matter?
To him, it did. He wanted confirmation that the man he’d loved and respected hadn’t known about Sam. That if he had, things would have been different.
At the same time, Jaxson understood Sam’s desire to keep the past in the past and move forward. She’d had years to come to terms with things and make a good life for herself. She was settled and happy.
He wasn’t. Unlike Sam, he was still trying to figure things out.
That was why, after Sam had gone back to her cabin with her husband, Jaxson had sought out Doc and Cage and asked them to find out what they could. If Sam didn’t want to know, that was her prerogative.
In the meantime, it was time for him to head back to Campbell’s Junction. The last few days had left him reeling, and he needed time to process. He suspected Sam did, too.
He closed his eyes.
He’d leave first thing in the morning.