Ever the Same (27 page)

“Does she?” The water went off, and Dixon tried to help, groping for towels.

“To your left, honey.”

“Thanks.” He found them, and wrapped one around Audie’s waist first. He felt better.

“This is a nice look for you. Wet and naked.”

“Yeah?” He twirled nice and slow, letting Audie admire.

“Such a good look for you,” Audie repeated. “And all mine.”

“Yeah.” He stepped toward the sound of Audie’s voice, begging a kiss.

Audie read his body language perfectly, hands settling on his hips, lips covering his. The simple heat filled him, made things better, not all fixed, but better.

They held hands on the way to the bed, the simple luxury of touch a wonderful thing.

“We should wear shorts, huh? You know the kids will be in here. It’s all new for them.”

Audie grunted, and left him to get into the suitcase. “Good idea, babe. I always wear something in case my mom comes down, or Sara shows up.”

“I just have the sneaking suspicion we’ll have four in the bed by morning.”

“Well, it’s a big bed.” Audie was laughing now, though, instead of sounding wary.

“Uh-huh. You’ll think that until Little Miss Sleepkarate gets in.”

“Oh man, is she a kicker?” The TV clicked on.

“God, yes. She should play soccer.”

“Good idea.” Audie pulled him down into a snuggle.

He pushed in, breathed in the scent of man and love. It grounded him, made things so much easier. The bed smelled like laundry soap too, nothing of Ron there.

Dixon thought about feeling guilty, but really, he didn’t have time. He would much rather focus on what he had, on how good Audie felt against him.

“I could get used to this, sleeping together.”

“So could I.” Audie sounded happier than he had all day.

“Love you, huh?” He kissed Audie’s chest.

“I love you too, babe. I really do. We’ll start dealing tomorrow, huh?”

“Works for me. Night, love.”

He closed his eyes, and to his utter surprise, he slept.

Chapter 22

The pool
needed work. Audie didn’t think he needed to call anyone in; the concrete seal was fine, and there was no weird algae. It just needed scrubbing, cleaning. Good thing he needed something to do.

“Can I help, Daddy?” Grainger was peering over the fence.

“Not right now, buddy.” There was no danger of drowning or anything, but he wanted to set clear rules about the pool.

“You sure? I can scrub.”

“Let me come get you, okay?” Grainger was right. He could help.

“Yes, sir.” Grainger gave him a huge grin, proving that he’d made a good decision. Someone needed a little attention and alone-time with his daddy.

He climbed out of the pool to go open the gate, and Grainger grabbed his hand.

“Can you believe they got a for-real pool, Daddy? Nobody I know has one at home.”

“Dion Taylor has that plastic one.” Audie winked. He was kinda looking forward to a swim.

“That doesn’t count, Daddy. What do I do?”

“Here. Take this bucket and scrub brush.” He showed Grainger what spots to work on.

Grainger scrubbed away. “Daddy, are we going to move here?”

He paused, taking a careful look at his son. “Do you want to?”

“I don’t know. I’d miss Granny, but…. Dix and Randi are cool, and there are guitars and music. I’d miss the horses.”

“Yeah, me too.” He’d have to find a place to board his good mares.

“Is Randi gonna be my sister?”

“I sure hope so, kiddo. I want us all to be a family.” The hard questions always came so easily to Grainger.

“Yeah? I could be her best brother. I would make sure that the boys aren’t mean to her when she gets a boyfriend.”

“There you go.” He knew Grainger sometimes dreamed of having a sibling. All kids did, right?

“Are….” Grainger chewed on his lips, face scrunched up. “Are you gonna get in trouble bad?”

“Why would I get in trouble?” He gave Grainger all of his attention, stopped fiddling with the filter.

“Chucky Walters said that Randi’s other dad died ’cause God was mad at him, and I don’t want you to be in trouble with God.”

Man, he wished he had Chucky Walters there, whoever he was. “Nope. He died in an accident, buddy. God doesn’t punish people for loving someone.”

“You promise? Because I don’t want you to die. I love Dix okay, but you’re my daddy.”

“I promise.” He went to Grainger to give his boy a hug, needing to reassure them both.

Grainger hugged him tight, holding on. “I love you, Daddy. For reals. Always.”

“I love you so much, kiddo. I would never do anything I thought would take me away from you. Okay?”

“Okay. Okay, cool. Is Randi rich?”

“Huh?” He hadn’t thought about it, but he guessed Dixon had to have some money. The house was something else.

“I asked Randi if she was rich, and she said no. Is she lying?”

“I think folks who have more money than us think people with more money than them are rich. Just like we do. Does that make sense?” He sure hoped it did, as it was the best he could do.

“Uh-huh. So… some folks think we’re rich?”

“I think so. We have horses. A ranch.” He knew for sure Marina had thought he was well-off back in high school.

“Wow. We do. Cool.” Grainger grinned wide, eyes twinkling. “And we got the best horses.”

“Yep. Don’t worry, we’ll always have them.” He ruffled Grainger’s hair. “You know you can always ask me anything, right?”

“I know. You know you can tell me stuff too. I’m big now.”

“You are. I’m so proud of how brave you are.” Audie was about to bust, in fact.

“I’m a cowboy like you.” Grainger kissed his cheek. “Can we fix the swimming now?”

“We can. We might even get the pH balanced by tonight.”

“What’s a pH, Daddy?” The question came like day followed night.

“The balance of chemicals in the water.” That was an easy one.

“Oh. Should I scrub more?”

“Yep. Over there, huh?” He steered Grainger toward another spot.

“Yes, sir.” Grainger started scrubbing away, singing like a wee bird. God, Audie loved that boy.

He grinned, feeling a little more settled in his soul. Grainger had his back as much as any kid that age could. Made him so damned pleased.

It was what he needed, to have his son, his lover, his Randi, all together.

Now all he needed was a way to make some money and his horses.

No problem.

Chapter 23

“Dixon? Dixon,
man? You really here?”

He heard the voice, recognized it immediately. “Damon! I wasn’t sure if you’d be in town!”

His little brother was a busy bastard, with internships and work and vacations and girls and such.

“You caught me.” Steps came closer to where he was in the kitchen. “Your man let me in. Says I look just like Dalton. He’s cool. He’s working on the sprinklers.”

“Audie. He likes to stay busy.”

“Cool.” He heard the sound of the chair moving, his brother sitting. Damon smelled like tobacco, like pipe smoke.

“Are you smoking now?” he asked.

“What?”

“Dude, Mom’s going to kill you.” Mom hated smoking.

“Good thing I don’t live with her anymore, and my nosy big brother isn’t going to tell on me, huh?”

Okay, that was fair. “Sure. I will note that it’s expensive and totally not good for you, okay?”

“Yeah. I’m quitting. Like officially for real.” There was something in Damon’s voice that was weird. Worried.

“Cool. So what’s up?”

“I could ask you the same. You moving back here?”

Hell, he didn’t know. “We’re talking about it.”

“Randi’s getting big. She’s out front with the little boy, playing in the hose.”

“I know where she is, man.” Like he couldn’t hear her happy squeals.

“Cool. I mean, yay. You’ll be able to work down here, at least. I mean, what are you going to do up there? Shovel llama poop?”

Dixon snorted. “I’m relatively sure I haven’t been asked to do that yet….” He could be wrong.

“Yeah. Well, you come, I’ll be around, you know. I mean, I’m sticking around here.”

“Not going to Houston? I thought that’s where the money was? Didn’t you want to design oil rigs or something?”

“I thought about it, but… I’m staying here. There’s some stuff in solar that’s interesting.”

No. No, he could hear a lie a mile away. “Come on. What is it?”

“What is what?”

“Whatever it is that you don’t want to tell me. Fess up.”

“It’s no big.”

“Liar.” Dixon knew better. “Come on. Just spit it out.”

“Promise you won’t tell Mom?”

Score! “You know it.”

“My girl, Heidi? She’s three months along.”

“Oh? Oh!” Uh-oh. Man. Man, that…. “Congratulations, dude. You excited?”

“Yeah. She’s real scared, but we can do this. We totally can. I’ll push, graduate in December before it gets here.”

“Well, good for you. Am I the first one you told?”

He didn’t hear anything, then Damon took his hand, squeezed. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be a good dad, right?”

“Great. I’m a great dad. Our dad’s a great dad. It’s genetic.”

“Genetic, huh? Christ.”

They sat and visited and before too long, there was the patter of muddy feet. “Daddy and me are going to go to the store and buy… Daddy?”

“Chemicals for the pool and a new skimmer. Hey, Damon. I’ll pick up lunch too. You gonna stick around, man?”

“Nope. I got to run see Heidi. I just needed to see my beautiful niece first!”

He heard Damon get up, then squealing and crying out.

Audie came to him, kissed his cheek. “You okay here?”

“Yeah, I’m solid.”

“Randi, you want to come with?”

“Uh-uh. Want to stay with Damon!”

Dixon listened, head to the side. Audie and Grainger left, Randi played with Damon for a bit before he took his leave.

Then it was the two of them, again.

Alone.

“Daddy, I’m bored.”

“Go play with your babies.”

“I don’t want to.”

He hated this game. “How about your colors?”

“I don’t want to!”

Jesus, Randi was shrill when she got worked up.

“I don’t want to stay here, Daddy! I want to go with Audie and Grainger!”

“Audie and Grainger are already gone, Randi. You can’t go. They went to get shit for the pool and grab McDonalds or Whataburger or something.”

“I want to pick out my own pool stuff. It’s my pool.” She stamped her foot. He heard it.

“It’s everyone’s pool, and they’re the ones that worked on it. You were upstairs playing all morning.”

“I was outside with Grainger too!” She was due for a meltdown, and Dixon was grateful she’d waited for Audie to go. He knew Audie would have to deal with her in breakdown mode eventually, but not now.

“Yes. And you saw Uncle Damon. So?”

“So I missed my room.”

“Okay, so you got to go up and play. Now Grainger gets to go with his dad.”

“Daddy!” The word was a long, drawn out whine.

“Wha-a-a-a-atie?” He could whine too.

“I’m so mad and I don’t know why!”

Oh, he had an idea or two. “I hate when that happens.”

“Me too!”

“Does it make you want to stomp your feet, Bumblebee?”

“Yes.” She came over to take his hand. “Everything is weird.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it is. I’m sorry.” He tugged her into his lap. “Does everything suck?”

Come on, baby. Talk to me
.

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” She sighed, curling her fingers into the cloth of his shirt. “I like Uncle Audie. And Grainger. I miss Sarge.”

“Yeah? Do you miss the house here?”

“I dunno. I miss Daddy Ron. I think. Do you miss him?”

“Every day.”

“Does Uncle Audie make it better?”

Did he? Hell, Dixon didn’t know how to answer that. He didn’t want to upset her, but he knew honesty was best. “He makes me happy, so I guess so. Your Daddy Ron will always be a part of me, though.”

“Me too.” She sighed softly. “I don’t know what to do, Daddy. I want things to be all normal again.”

“I know, Bumblebee. I’m sorry there’s all this hard stuff.”

“You didn’t make him die.”