Chapter 4

Chapter Four

W hen it was all said and done, it was damn near time for school to be out, the cops had left, and Kyler was in a shit mood.

Paige hadn’t done a thing wrong, but she’d gotten written up anyway. And that poor kid with the black eye…

He walked outside with the kids and the other dad, peering at the sky, which was clouding up. “You gonna take him in to urgent care?” he asked.

“No. I’ll take him to his regular doctor tomorrow. She always has a few appointments to squeeze people into just for things like this.”

He grinned at Paige, who was still holding the little boy’s hand. “Y’all want to go to lunch?” Kyler wasn’t sure why the hell he’d asked that, but he wasn’t going to take it back. Paige’s face lit up like Christmas, dammit, and he thought she’d found a fast friend.

“You want to, Dal? You didn’t get to eat your sammich. We can both get something different and share!”

“Can we, Pop? Please?” the boy asked. “Paige is my best friend. She can ride horses, and she wants to play T-ball.”

The other dad inhaled, then smiled. “Yeah? T-ball is great.”

“I’m up for it if you are.” He stuck out a hand. “Kyler Hale.” He grinned, because the guy seemed a touch constipated, but he also kept glancing at his son like he’d never seen the kid before.

Paige had that effect on people.

“Austin Williams. Pleased.” The man had a firm, solid, no-bullshit handshake. He approved.

“Good to meet you. So, where do y’all like to eat? Paige and I are just settling here, and we don’t know the area yet.”

“There’s a great diner—burgers, sandwiches, milkshakes, soup.”

“Chicken nuggets?” Paige asked.

That child was made of chicken nuggets.

“Oh, yes. And they have crispy French fries.”

“Oh, yum.” She beamed at Mr. Williams. “I love those.”

“Me too!” Little Dallas bounced, so much happier.

“Come on, you bunch of hooligans,” Kyler said. “Food.” A milkshake would make his day better.

“Yes, and your spare pair of glasses are in the car, okay, son?”

Dallas nodded and glanced up at his dad. “I’m sorry, Pop. Honest.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Williams said firmly. He liked that. “And you have a very good new friend who had your back. How cool is that?”

“Really cool, Pop.” Dallas gave Paige an adoring stare.

Oh man. He bit back another grin. “I’m in the silver Dodge. We can follow you?”

“Sure. I’m in the gold Acadia.”

“Nice. ”

He got Paige loaded, and she started up as soon as he got in the truck.

“Daddy! Did you hear that lady? She called me a liar! That Wayne boy is so mean! He was going to poop on Dallas!”

“You did good, baby girl. I’m proud of you for standing up for Dallas.” He would talk to her later about the rules here. Once she’d calmed down.

“He was all alone and everyone said mean things about him. Uncle Wacky says that those are the people you have to love the hardest.”

“Uncle Wacky is right.” Wacey Beame was his best friend, albeit old enough to be his uncle, not Paige’s. Still, he gave good advice. “You did a good job, sweetheart. You ought to be proud.”

“Yes, sir. I like him. He’s real smart. He reads all the time. He gave me a book of my own.”

“What did he give you?” He realized he’d been so busy with shit the last few weeks, he hadn’t sat down at dinner and talked with Paige like he usually did. He had no idea what was going on with her.

“It’s called the Dinosaurs Before Dark. It’s a whole bunch of books called Magic Treehouse , and he said they are second-grade books and he told me the words I didn’t know and said I was smart!” She bounced in her car seat. “Did you hear? He thinks I’m smart!”

“You are, baby girl.” But that meant next to nothing in the rodeo. Book smart. His girl was a hand, and she knew horses and goats and cows and trailer hitches. Books were a new frontier. “I’m proud.”

“Thank you! Do you think Dallas likes chicken nuggets?”

“I’ve never met a kid who didn’t. And if not, I bet he likes spaghetti and garlic bread.” A diner favorite of his girl’s.

“Cool. Or mac and cheese. He eats peanut butter jelly for lunch, just like me! ”

“Does he? That’s good.” No peanut allergy then. That boded well.

“Uh-huh. He has purple jelly, not red, but that’s it.”

“Grape, I bet.”

“I like strawberries.”

“I hear you.” He followed Williams to the diner, then coasted to a stop.

“It smells good. Can I have Coke?”

“Nope.”

“Durn.”

“Milk, lemonade, or orange juice, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy.” She took his hand after she hopped out of the car. “And you hafta have water with whatever you get too.”

“That’s the bargain.” He loved a Coke or a cup of coffee, but she’d decided he needed to not be dehydrated.

“I love you. You got to meet Dallas! Finally!”

Had he really not been paying attention?

“I’m so glad. We need to start sitting at supper again so you can tell me things.”

“I would love that, Daddy!” She beamed at him, bouncing on her way to the door.

God, he needed to slow down and remember what was good and right in his life. She was his light.

“Come on, Paige! We can sit in my favorite booth!”

Williams smiled at him as they met at the entrance. “I had no idea he had a favorite booth.”

“Right? She told me she’s been waiting for me to meet Dallas for-ev-ar.”

“They’ve known each other for twenty days of school, you know. Two. Zero.” The guy rolled his eyes.

“That’s an eon at their age.” Time had no meaning in kindergarten.

“Maybe more. He wanted to give her a copy of his favorite book. I hope you didn’t mind. ”

“Not one bit. She was so excited. She’s not used to folks calling her smart.” He twisted his lips wryly. “Not that she isn’t wicked smart. She’s just been a rodeo kid, and this is her first experience at formal schooling.”

“Sure. Sure. My boy grew up surrounded by books and not a lot else.”

They joined the kids at the big, round booth, and he grinned. This would have been his favorite too.

“Hey, Dallas! Austin. How are you guys?” The server came over, handing out menus. “Welcome, all. Is this your first time, honey?” she asked Paige.

“Yes, ma’am. Do you have chicken fingers?”

“Do we? They’re only the crispiest.”

“Oh, yay! What’s your favorite Dal?”

“I love the mac and cheese best. Do you like mac and cheese?”

“I do!” They high-fived, and he shared another grin with Dallas’s dad.

“I recommend the fried chicken sandwich and the patty melt.”

“Damn. I like both.” He eyed Austin Williams. “We could pull a kindergartner and split two things.”

“Works for me. You into fries, slaw?” Okay, that was easy peasy. He liked that about the man.

“I love a fry, but a side of slaw is not amiss. We’ll just graze.” Okay, maybe he was making him a new friend too. Or at least a dad he could deal with. That would be great.

Paige had rodeo friends for the summer. Cousins in Texas. But a school friend was like gold.

The kids were talking a million miles a minute, and Kyler stared a second, trying to figure out how his tomboy baby girl had ended up being friends with this skinny, kind of nebbishy little boy.

Dallas and his father looked just alike—tall and beanpole- skinny, with great big dark eyes with black eyelashes that folks would pay to have. They both had a mass of wild, ebony curls a bit too long for hat-wearing.

They both had glasses, and where the guy had grown into his features and was now bordering on being pretty, the little boy was all elbows and eyes. Just elbows and eyes all swollen from that bruise.

Jesus Christ, kids were assholes, and he knew it, but nobody should get beat up that bad at school.

“So what do you do for a living?” he asked because that was what a polite guy did. He made small talk, knowing some of it didn’t apply to him. Hell here, most of it didn’t apply to him.

He couldn’t figure out why the guy’s cheeks went vivid red, and why all of a sudden he couldn’t look at him. “I’m a writer.”

“Oh that’s cool.” And intimidating. Shit. “You write books?”

“Yes, I do. I write books. I’m a…novelist.”

“That’s cool.” Kyler swallowed hard. He was not going to bring up the fact that he was a guy who periodically let a photographer take pictures of his belly real close for romance novels because, well, no one needed that kind of reputation, and this guy was a novelist.

That was different than romance books, right?

“What about you?” Austin asked, and Kyler shrugged.

“I’m a cowboy. I have a little ranch, but my money-maker is in leather work.”

The guy’s blush went damn near purple, and he didn’t get it. “Leather?”

“Yeah. You know—saddles, chaps, custom work.”

“Oh?” Those dark eyes focused on him. “Okay, that’s cool. So, you literally make saddles? Like from scratch? ”

“I do.” And somehow he felt…cool. Like he was someone fascinating, and it straightened his spine.

Right now he was awful busy building his house and getting his workshop in order, trying to decide if he was going to run a couple head of cattle or focus on horses and llamas.

Kyler still wasn’t a hundred percent sure how he ended up lucky enough to have land in Aspen.

Thank God that his Uncle Billy’d had two surviving family members—him and Paige.

The parcel of land wasn’t huge—thirteen and a half acres, but it was fenced, it had improvements, they were lucky enough to be on municipal water, and the pastures were green.

It was too good to walk away from. So he was building a house and a workshop. He was gonna raise his baby girl here.

It was going to be amazing.

“I don’t know where I thought saddles came from, but I guess I assumed a factory.”

“Some are. But I do custom work.” And when he got back to work, he would make damn good money on commissions. He did bull ropes and chaps and saddlebags and all sorts of shit…

And he wondered what kind of leather Austin Williams had thought he meant.

“Daddy, can I have a pancake on the side?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You can either have the pancake or you can split a piece of pie with me at the end.”

Paige tilted her head, the expression in her blue eyes one of pure calculation. “What kind of pie?”

The server brought their drinks, smiling. “We have apple, cherry, and chocolate cream today.”

“Chocolate?” Now her eyes widened. “Okay, I’ll have pie.”

“Good choice.” He winked at her, making her laugh.

“I think we’ll share a chocolate-covered Rice Krispy treat after, hmm?” Austin offered, and Dallas perked up.

“Okay, Poppy!”

Paige tilted her head. “Why do you call him Poppy?”

“That’s his name.”

“Oh.” Paige nodded. “My daddy’s name is Kyler Justin Hale, but I get to call him Daddy. He calls me Punkin.”

“What do I call him?” Dallas whispered.

“You can call him Mr. Hale, buddy. Is that okay?”

Kyler nodded. “Or Mr. Kyler is fine, too. Whatever works best for you, Dallas.”

Paige locked eyes with Austin. “What should I call you, sir?”

“Mr. Austin?” Austin seemed a touch surprised by being asked. Maybe Dallas just didn’t have other kid friends or family around.

Paige beamed at Austin. “Thank you. Do they have coloring pages here, Mr. Austin?”

“I think so. We’ll ask when she comes back, hmm?”

“If not, we can turn these placemat papers over and make our own,” Dallas whispered, like he was afraid that Paige would mock him, but she lit up.

“You are the coolest buddy ever !”

“We have crayons in the car if we need them,” Austin told him.

“Oh, good. I don’t have the bag of tricks with me today.” When he and Paige had been on the road all the time, he’d carried a bag with some puzzles, colors, a couple of books, and one of those tic-tac-toe games with the pegs and holes for ease of playing.

But he’d cleaned out the damn truck. He’d have to put it back in.

The kids were talking again, and the drinks and coloring pages and crayons came, and both Dallas and Paige seemed to be in heaven.

“I really appreciate that she’s being good to Dallas,” Austin murmured under his breath. “School’s been hard, on the social scale.”

“I bet.” He scooted a little closer to Austin. “It has for her too. She’s used to adults, and to being the center of attention, I figure. The other kids don’t get her as much.”

“Well, I know someone who told me on the second day of school that she was his new best friend forever.” Austin whispered low. “I thought she was a figment of his imagination.”

“Oh, man.” He glanced at the kids. Yeah, he could see where Paige, with her larger-than-life western wear, her double braids, and her big blue eyes, could sound like something out of a book, not a real girl.

The server brought more coloring sheets, and eventually their food, which was solid and comforting and tasty. He’d come back here.

“This is a good choice,” he said. “Thank you.”

“This is our go-to. I’m not much of a cook, but I try. Unfortunately, what I do like to cook, the kid won’t eat, so we come here more than I would like.”

Interesting. “What do you like to cook?”

“Asian food. Lebanese food. Indian food. Thai food, which I know counts as Asian. I tend toward the sour spicy end of the food spectrum, I guess.” Austin shrugged as the words tumbled out of him. “He falls into the macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, spaghetti, normal kid food end of the food spectrum.”

“Paige could eat chicken nuggets breakfast, lunch and dinner, but she’s not picky.”

“I like oats for breakfast, Daddy, oats and pancakes, bacon, sausage, waffles…” Paige grinned at him. “My mama makes the best waffles. Did you know that Dal here don’t got no mama.”

“No?”

“Nope. He was hatched from an egg.”

He glanced at Paige, then at Dallas, then at Austin, who was sitting there with a smooth-as-glass expression on his face. “An egg?” he finally got out.

Paige beamed, so pleased to tell him something he didn’t know. “Uh-huh. They put a seed in an egg and then? He was hatched. He don’t got no mama. Only. Mr. Austin.”

“I had a surrogate,” Austin explained with a chuckle. “So yes, there was a sperm and an egg and an embryo and then? A surrogate.”

“Oh.”

Austin tapped the rainbow ring on his index finger. “Yeah. Oh. Hopefully that’s not an issue.”

He blinked. “No, sir. Not one bit.” Shit, he’d never met anyone who’d had a baby by themselves. Even he and Henley had tried to make a go of it, and they’d both known that was doomed from the get-go. “That’s pretty brave, having a kid alone.”

Austin chuckled. “Well, it didn’t seem brave at the time. On occasion since then, it has.”

He rolled his eyes, because he was a single dad too. “Yessir. That I do understand.”

Austin grinned at him. “There had been a long-term relationship. It simply didn’t last past the few packs of small diapers.”

“Paige’s mom and me… We knew it wasn’t that kind of a thing. But we caught pregnant, so we tried hard. And then we figured out how to be apart and give Paige what she needed. She’s a good… egg,” he teased.

“That’s amazing. Is she local?”

“No. No, she travels. She has a condo in Dallas. We worked it out so Little Bit will spend some time with her in the summer, and then for now Henley will come here on the big holidays and visit.”

“Momma and I talk every day,” Paige said proudly. “You can borrow her if you need to, Dal. ”

“I don’t guess I need a mom, but thank you. Is she nice like you?”

“She’s a racer. She’s tough and pretty. She bought me a horse.”

“Wow.”

“You can come see her. Her name is Penny.”

“Like Penny’s w Day ! Except he’s a puppy…”

“I like puppies too. Daddy says when our house is built, we can have one.”

He glanced at Austin, who was grinning. “Yeah. We’re building a house on some land I inherited. It’s taking a while, let me tell you.”

“Oh, I can only imagine. We have a cat and a condo close to town.”

“Nice.” What else could he say to that? Then it was time for pie, and they got two slices to split with the kids. It was weirdly… domestic.

Still—a cat? Really?

Men had cats?

“Can Paige come over for trampoline, pizza, and movie time tomorrow?” Dallas asked his dad. “Please. My room’s clean.”

“I—Let me talk to her dad. Maybe she has plans.”

“Daddy, can I? I love pizza and movies.”

“Let us adults talk a minute, baby girl.” He would be fine with it, if Williams was, but he wasn’t about to just say yes. This was important, teaching her that parents had the last say. “Are you even having pizza and movies tomorrow, Mr. Austin?”

“Tomorrow is Saturday. Saturday is trampolines at ten thirty, and then pizza and movies at the condo at noon. Paige is more than welcome, as are you, of course.”

“That would be great if it’s not an imposition.” He could check out the guy’s condo, make sure it was safe for any future visits.

“Sure. This is a first time. I think that would be…best. In case she needs you.” That made absolute sense.

“I agree. So if it works for you, we’d love to come. What can we bring? Or should we cover the pizza this time?” Fair was fair. If you did something at someone else’s house, you brought something.

“How about you bring what you’d both like to drink, and we’ll work it out? Did you want to meet at the trampoline park? I can text you the address.”

“That sounds good.” Neutral ground to start. He approved. This guy thought about things.

“Perfect.” He wrote a phone number on the back of a business card and handed it to Kyler.

“Thanks.” Kyler put it in his shirt pocket, then handed over his debit card when the server came over to ask if they needed anything else.

Williams did the same, and soon they were all standing in the parking lot.

“Okay, baby girl. Say goodbye to Dallas. We’ll see him tomorrow.”

“Bye, Dal! I’m going to read another chapter tonight!”

“Okay. I’ll wear my red dinosaur shirt tomorrow!” Dallas waved and took his father’s hand.

“I’ll text you the addresses, and you’ll have my details. Thanks!” Austin waved and took Dallas over to the SUV, the little boy trying to skip and coming off awkward as hell, at least until he did a handstand and hopped to the car.

This was not your average child.

At all.

“I appreciate it.” He took his baby girl’s hand, glad the catastrophe had brought about something good .

Paige held on to him, jabbering away ninety to nothing, and he did love to hear that excitement.

He needed to remember to listen to it and get out of his own head.

“Oh, Daddy. Daddy, do you like him? Isn’t he nice? He shared his macamaronis and—he invited me to his Saturday!”

“I know! I think he’s very nice, and I can see why you defended him.” And the dad was damn intriguing too, somehow.

“He’s sad, a little, but he is nice, and Uncle Wacky is going to be proud that I listened. And Daddy!” She stared into him. “It worked! I was nice, and he is my friend now.”

“It did.” He grinned. She had a lot of her momma in her. She was a little… hard to get to know, maybe. Goal-oriented. Focused. So for her to listen to Wacey about how to make friends and apply it meant she was growing up.

Lord have mercy, he wasn’t sure he was ready for that jelly.