Chapter 19

[Clay]

The drive to my home is quiet. Once inside the house, Mavis runs a bath for Dutton and after, tucks him into bed, allowing him to read something on his own while she showers. I keep my distance, giving them time together. Letting Mavis work her magic with her son.

As for me, after stripping out of my VillainMan costume and putting on a fresh tee and gray sweatpants, I lay on my bed. I’d ordered the getup when I ordered Dutton’s pink Power Princess, thinking the contrasting costumes would be a fun surprise for the kid.

The night had certainly not turned out how I’d hoped to surprise him.

I’m not sure how long I lay in the dark on my bed, my hands folded over my lower belly, images from throughout the evening colliding in my head.

Fucking Perry. And fuck that new friend of his. And why did Dutton call his dad Wesley? And why did he call Mavis May-May?

I know I don’t know everything about Mavis, allowing for time to further discover one another, but if I thought Wesley and the harrowing house fire were her only secrets, I was wrong. I don’t want to accuse her of omitting important details about her life, like she felt I’d done about Glady, but I’m suddenly a bit leery about Mavis’s past.

With too many rambling thoughts, and too many unanswered questions, my body still vibrates with the need to fight, although I’m the least likely to raise a fist in our family. It’s one reason Dad and I didn’t go knuckles to knuckles. He’d be confrontational and I’d try to reason with him. Or ignore him.

My ankles are crossed, and my eyes are aimed at the ceiling when Mavis enters my room. Her scent precedes her entrance. She’s freshly showered with that floral fragrance wafting around her. She’s wearing a Sylver Seed & Soil tee again with a pair of dark leggings.

I close my eyes for half a second. “How is Dutton?”

“He’s sleeping.” Mavis exhales. “I don’t want to leave him alone tonight, but I wanted to check on you.”

“I’m fine.” But my voice is hollow, giving away the lie.

Mavis rounds my bed and helps herself to the other side, laying on her back, mirroring my position. I turn only my head for a second before facing the ceiling once more.

“Dutton isn’t biologically my son.”

This has my head swinging back in her direction.

“He’s my nephew. My sister Cecilia’s child.” Mavis swallows and licks her lips, keeping her gaze focused on the ceiling dancing with shadows. “Before she was killed, we’d agreed that Dutton would come to me, if anything happened to her.”

Mavis rolls her head to meet my shocked gaze. “My family is part of a motorcycle club. Not a riding club, but the real deal. They aren’t bad people. They loved me and my sister, and God knows I owe my parents for lending me money and giving me a place to live for a year.” She turns her face away from me.

“But all I’d ever wanted was a simpler life. I dove into nursing school and dedicated myself to helping others heal their aches and wounds. I didn’t want to be part of the club and I’d walked away roughly twenty years ago.”

She sighs.

“Cecilia was younger than me and got wrapped up with one of the club members. I don’t know what she ever saw in him. When she found out she was pregnant, he didn’t want to believe Dutton was his kid. When she died only a few months after Dutton’s birth, I took Dutton in. My parents were upset. They wanted him with them, but them as guardians didn’t follow Cecilia’s wishes.”

She rolls her head on the pillow again to look at me. Her dark eyes reflect the moonlight streaming into my room through the windows.

Mavis’s situation is rather similar to my own, which hits me hard. Vale was only a baby when our mother passed away and our father checked out, leaving Sebastian, Ford, and Judd each under eight years old and in desperate need of parenting. Stone and I did the best we could to educate ourselves with the help of Trudy Wallace and Mary Haven, our mother’s friends, and to raise children when we were kids ourselves.

“I have tried so hard to honor Cecilia’s wishes and her memory. I taught Dutton to call me May-May because Mavis is a hard name for a toddler to say. But May-May is so close to mama, and my mama told me I was Dutton’s mom now. My sister was his mother, but I would be raising him. We were sharing Dutton as our son.”

Mavis is a savior in her own right. A saint in many aspects, and she’s doing a fucking great job as Dutton’s mother. No other term honors her position. She is Dutton’s mom, and she should be proud of everything she’s done for that sweet boy.

“I never pictured my future with a child. It wasn’t that I didn’t want one, but I hadn’t given it much thought. I worked so much, devoting my all to the hospital, and I didn’t have a man in my life.” She scoffs, rolling her head to face the ceiling again. “I had dreams of a family, but I couldn’t envision one with the reality of my life.”

I can so strongly relate. In many ways, I’d done my time raising children, but it didn’t mean I didn’t want a family of my own. And similar once more to Mavis, work had taken precedence in my life.

“I’m on the pill. Went on it shortly after getting with Wesley, and he insisted on wearing a condom whenever we were together.” She snorts, disgruntled. “At least he did one kind act for me.”

What a fucking wanker. If I ever see him around here—

“Anyway.” She licks her lips. “Everything happened so fast. I had Dutton in my care and Wesley came along. I collected the inheritance my sister had from our grandmother, as everything was set up in a trust fund. That’s how I had the money for the house. I thought I was doing the right thing. Being with Wesley gave Dutton the semblance of a normal family structure, but what’s normal really mean?” Her brows pinch, the question rhetorical but also one of deep concern for her.

Rolling my head, I face the ceiling again as well. I’m not one to define a normal family. Our normal was two brothers raising our younger siblings.

“Over time, Wesley changed toward me. He wasn’t connected to Dutton. He’d taken all my money, lost most of it, or sunk it into the house we couldn’t afford.”

Mavis pauses a second. “Going back to Florida, with my tail between my legs, was exactly what my dad wanted. He always thought I’d be back for the life. For their lifestyle. But I couldn’t stay. It wasn’t what Cecilia, nor I, wanted for Dutton. Still, I needed that time away. I needed space from Sterling Falls, and I needed a place to live. My mother wouldn’t let my dad push Dutton away, and my dad did what he could with Dutton. But he doesn’t understand him. He doesn’t appreciate the amazing, wonderful, special kid he is.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her chest lift and lower. “I had to come back here.”

“And now you feel like you should leave.” It isn’t a question.

She shifts her entire body to her side, and I feel her looking at me. “Do you want us to go?”

“No.” My head rolls so fast on the pillow, my neck cracks, but I don’t sound as convicted as I feel. I’m too wound up. The highs and lows of the night, and the special moments in-between. Mavis met my entire family tonight. She fit into the town dynamics. She fits with me.

Still, her and Dutton’s story is a lot to take in on top of everything else that happened this evening.

“Thank you, Clay. For defending Dutton. For protecting us. You are helping us, and that’s not a bad thing. I just don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“You’re not.” The response is edgy and rough, and I look at the ceiling once more. She isn’t taking something I’m freely giving her, and I don’t know how many times I need to tell her or how to reassure her that I don’t feel taken advantage of. If anything, I feel like she’s been doing me a favor by being here.

Mavis remains quiet. Her history swirls through the air. I don’t need to know the details of the club or her upbringing. I only want to know Mavis now. Who she is. Dutton’s mother. Part-time nurse. A woman I want to give more of herself to me.

Slowly, she sits up on the edge of my bed. “Can I get you something? Do you need anything tonight?”

I don’t know what she might mean, but the only thought that comes to mind is her not leaving this bed. I just want to hold her, but more selfishly, I want her to hold me. I want her to tell me she won’t leave.

Instead, I shake my head. “Good night, butterfly.”

“Good night, honey.” She presses off the bed, and I close my eyes at the sting suddenly burning them. Hearing defeat in her voice and feeling the distance between us.

I only last five minutes before I’m hoisting myself off my bed and opening her bedroom door. She’s curled around Dutton, protecting him as best she can from the evils of this world. Violence. Ignorance. Hatred.

Saving the world starts with loving your child.

Mavis lifts her head and watches me round the bed until I’m behind her on her side. Climbing onto the mattress, I cuddle up behind her, wrapping my arm over her and around Dutton, who is nestled into her chest with his back.

Mama bear and her cub in one bed.

Dutton asked me earlier if I could be his dad. He must have heard me call him my kid by mistake.

But somehow, it doesn’t feel entirely wrong. He’s never had a positive father figure in his life, and my desire to be papa bear returns.

I close my eyes and squeeze mama and her baby tighter to me.

Because this feels just right.