River Road (River's End Series, #4) (21 page)

Joey stopped when he saw AJ and held up a white cup. “You want some coffee, AJ?”

His tone was quiet and kind of subdued. AJ stood up taller. Usually, he hunched his shoulders forward whenever he was in one of the Rydells’ presence. But Kate might have been right. AJ was ten times the financial worth of one man in what he produced for their ranch. It was much more than Joey could ever dream of. He, in contrast, was nothing but a drain on the Rydells’ finances.

“Thanks, Joey.” AJ nodded, taking the cup of coffee.

Joey poured himself some more and sat down. “Do you, uh, live here now?”

“No. I still have the trailer.” AJ leaned back against the counter.

“Well, I, ah was planning on staying awhile this time.”

“It’s your home. I’m sure Jack will be glad to hear it.”

Joey glanced behind AJ, towards the closed door where Kate still slept.

“She lives here now. That means we will be living here, together.”

“I think she made herself perfectly clear last night. As far as I’m concerned, we’re good.”

Joey’s shoulders slumped. Relief? AJ had to conceal a grin of satisfaction. Who knew he could intimidate Joey? Joey had spent most of his vacations at home making AJ feel inferior or stupid, like he was an indulged pet whenever he was in Joey’s proximity. Joey set his coffee cup down, grabbing his temple. “You’re more man than me, AJ. She’s got a sharp temper.”

AJ chuckled, finishing off the coffee. Time to get to it. “She sure does. Don’t mess with it.”

He was at the front door when Joey called his name and he glanced back. Joey shifted his butt around. “I’m sorry. You know, for being such a dick to you. Jack was always comparing me to you. I didn’t do this or that as well as you did. It used to piss me off, so I acted like a shit towards you. But you’ve always been solid to me, AJ, and everyone else here.”

AJ’s eyebrows lowered and his mouth dropped open. He could only nod, he was so unsure of what to say. Finally, he waved Joey off. “I appreciate it. But I might have let you off too easily. Be forewarned, Joey, I won’t do it again. As I said before, we’re good as far as I’m concerned.”

Joey nodded.

AJ walked out into the morning light, feeling a few inches taller. He stuck his hat on, marveling at the mysterious woman who went to bat for him when he’d never done so for himself. Maybe it was time to realize his own value. If someone like Kate could find so much potential in him, then who was he to argue? The small smile on his lips stayed with him as he started the tractor up and headed out towards the orchards. It was the
Kate effect,
he was starting to realize.

****

Jack asked Pedro to call AJ up to his office. AJ stepped into the barn and stopped dead. A well-dressed woman turned towards him, which was totally incongruent to find in the barn, even more so than seeing Kate there when she first arrived.

Wearing a severe navy blue skirt and jacket, the woman’s white blouse looked crisp and fresh against the deeper colors. Her dark skin glowed in contrast to her shiny red lipstick. Perhaps forty, she was quite stunning, as tall as Kate and striking enough to draw all the air towards her. At least, that’s what it felt like.

“Mr. Reed?” she asked at his appearance.

She had a cool tone. Jack was standing a few steps back. He gave a small shrug of his shoulders to AJ, letting him know he had no idea who she was or what she wanted. AJ wished he were wearing another t-shirt and clean jeans. He was sweaty and dirty as usual. Except this woman wasn’t Kate, who always appreciated it and assured him he should stay that way rather than clean up.

“Yes, ma’am, can I help you?”
Prison? Parole? Lawsuit?
All those words filtered through his brain and instantly made his stomach cramp. Had he missed something? Had he been released prematurely? Or broken some law he wasn’t aware of? A wave of apprehension shuddered through him.

“You are not an easy man to find out here.”

Probably not. He had moved all his life. Never owned anything major to speak of and had no credit cards. Unless she was from the Department of Corrections, he might have been very hard to find. “Why, ah, were you looking for me?” AJ’s gaze skittered to Jack, and his nerves made his words waver, making him sound almost guilty.

The woman cleared her throat. “Perhaps we could go somewhere that we could talk more privately?”

“Um, well…”
His trailer?
Except this woman seemed above that. Which was odd because he never felt that way with Kate, but this woman wasn’t Kate.

“You can use the house, AJ,” Jack offered and AJ nodded his appreciation. Jack might also have known AJ had at least one clean shirt at the house. How did one face an unknown stranger so poorly dressed?

“This way, ma’am.”

“Nicola Ragenou.”

“Uh, Mrs. Ragenou, it’s nice to meet you.” Was her name supposed to mean something to him? Because it didn’t.

AJ went in first, holding the front door open for her. She entered, and her gaze beheld the impressive room. AJ still marveled at it too, but he simply walked in now as if he owned the damn castle. Half the weight of his muscles lifted when Kate, hearing them enter, appeared in an open doorway. She was in the downstairs room that served as the Rydells’ home office, but of late, it was hers. She glanced at him, puzzled by his appearance, until she saw the strange woman behind him.

“Hello,” she said, moving forward. She offered her hand when she got close enough. “I’m Kate Morgan.”

The woman put her hand in Kate’s. “Hi, I’m Nicola Ragenou.” Still no title or reason for why she was there. AJ lifted his shoulders in a half shrug, answering Kate’s silent inquiry that he had no idea what she was about. Kate smiled. “While AJ grabs a shirt, would you like some coffee or lemonade, or maybe some ice water?”

He smiled his relief at Kate, first because she gave him a task to do; and second, it was also the chance to cover his bare chest. “Excuse me,” he mumbled to the stranger. “I was working and it gets hot sometimes—”

“I’m sure Mrs. Ragenou understands it’s the middle of your workday, AJ, and the kind of physical work you do makes you sweat. Now what would you like to drink?”

AJ could have kissed Kate. She never let anyone or anything make her feel inferior, and strangely, she extended that gift to him too.

He rushed into the bathroom and quickly ran the cool water over his hands, face and torso, drying off with a towel. All he had were t-shirts in Kate’s room so he returned feeling severely underdressed next to Mrs. Ragenou and even beside Kate. Kate set the woman up at the kitchen table with a glass of lemonade, and was talking amiably with her. Thank God, she came out and took control as she was wont to do. He needed her meddling this time.

He slipped into a chair and Kate smiled as she pushed a glass of lemonade toward him. He eagerly gripped it, grateful for a place to put his hands. “Why were you looking for me, Mrs. Ragenou?”

“Nicola, please.” She dug into the brown leather bag she had set beside her and pulled out a file filled with paperwork. “I work for the Department of Social and Health Services.” AJ glanced at the card she offered him. Sure enough, there were her name and credentials. Which still meant nothing to him. She glanced at Kate. “Perhaps we could have some more privacy?”

“Uh, no. Kate can stay.” AJ could not handle this unscheduled meeting without Kate’s confidence and easy rapport. His tongue already felt challenged. She smiled and reached over to discreetly link her fingers with his. He grasped them as if she were a lifeline, rescuing him from a sinking ship.

“Okay. Well, then, I am here about Parker Sanchez. Do you know her?”

AJ sat up straighter. Talk about a name from the past. From more than a decade ago. From when he rode bulls in the rodeos. She often hung around them. But what the hell did she have to do with
anything
?

“I know her,” AJ answered, keeping his tone respectful. “She was a close friend when I was younger.”

“I’m sorry to inform you, but she is deceased.”

Deceased? She wasn’t even thirty. And younger than him by two years. A pang of regret stabbed his heart. She was pretty deep into the partying. Last time he saw her… hell, when was that? Must have been before he got arrested probably. He was genuinely sorry to hear of her demise.

“I’m real sorry to hear that. She was a nice girl.” If anyone had ever given her two licks of attention, maybe she’d have had a better shot in life. Still, why would her untimely death bring this lady to him? Did Parker remember him in her will? Seemed like a huge stretch of the imagination to foresee her having anything to leave in a will.

“Yes, well, she also left behind a young child. A child whom she listed you as being the father of. I don’t know if you just left her and never went back, or perhaps you never knew, but I’m here to inform you, AJ Reed, that you have a thirteen-year-old daughter.”

COMPLETE NUMBNESS FILLED AJ. And the words the stranger had just uttered didn’t totally register.
Dead. Child. You
. White noise filled up his head. He didn’t know what to do. He sat on the wooden chair, his hand now going slack in Kate’s while the other tried to grip the cold, moist cup that perspired.

“Mr. Reed? I take it by the shock on your face it must be a case of not knowing. She listed you as the father on the birth certificate. That is all we had to go from. Your DNA is on file with the state databases after being imprisoned for a felony. We did a paternity test with the girl’s and it’s a match.”

“Th-that’s impossible. We were… I was seventeen. She was barely fifteen. I mean…” AJ’s brain seemed to be short circuiting as if an essential wire just snapped in half. His breathing escalated.

“I realize this is a lot to take in all at once; and there might be strong feelings…”

Strong feelings?
The lady had just detonated his own personal dirty bomb.

“But she is currently a ward of the state and I’m trying to find her emergency housing. She’s been placed in temporary guardianship, but it isn’t going well. She needs a more permanent home almost immediately.”

Those familiar words. Images from his childhood spun all around his head. Temporary guardianship. Foster care. Not going well. Placement.

He stood up, sliding the chair out so fast, it almost hit the kitchen cabinets. His breathing was so fast, it began to hurt. Sweat broke out over his skin. “Excuse me,” he mumbled before nearly racing off to the bathroom. He stopped before the sink, running the water and splashing it over his head as he stared into the drain.

Daughter. Parker. Dead. Daughter. His child. Paternity. Permanent placement. The words made no sense to him. They didn’t relate to his life. He cupped more water and splashed it over his head. Running both hands through his hair, he stood up, using his fingers to spike up the strands. What had he done now?

She didn’t knock, but simply appeared. He should have known she’d follow him. Kate swung the door open and stepped inside, locking eyes with him in the mirror. Her eyes were wide with wonder, but seemed resolute. Nodding her head slightly, her cool, soft touch fell on his shoulder. “You need to come back and hear her out.”

“I can’t. I can’t have a—”

“It sounds like you do, AJ.”

Of course, fearless Kate could in minutes, or maybe even seconds, wrap her head around this latest revelation and remain grounded enough to deal with it. “This is…”

“A game changer? Yes, it is.”

He leaned harder on his hands, still staring down into the sink. “I didn’t father any child.”

“Is it possible in your teens you weren’t as careful?”

He shuddered. Of course it was. It was very possible. Kate gently rubbed his shoulder and his upper arm. “Who was she?”

“A girl. Just a little girl, looking back on it. But she was a lot like me, a forgotten kid no one gave a shit about. She was molested by a creep in the house where she lived, some old, perverted jerk. The guy’s wife kicked her out when she tried to report him. She could ride too. We shared that. We were just friends, or survivors. I didn’t know…”

“What happened to her?”

He shrugged, shaking his head. “I left. Moved. Drifted. Whatever. I disappeared, or she did. I honestly can’t say. I never heard from her again. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”

“Well, you know now. Camilla. She named her Camilla Smith Reed. Cami, for short. Nicola says she goes by Cami.”

Cami Reed? She used his last name? No one he knew had his last name, which was disconcerting. A daughter. A girl. A teenager. What the hell was he supposed to do with her? What could he do?

“You need to come back and hear her out.”

He nodded, still so blind to what his eyes were seeing.

He pushed off from the sink and Kate nodded her encouragement. Her mouth was tight, but he sensed real sympathy in her eyes. She went first, and AJ held the door as she passed through before returning to hear his fate.

Nicola waited primly with her legs crossed at the ankles while she sipped her lemonade. She nodded as he sat down, mumbling an apology. Continuing as if he never left, she said, “So, Mr. Reed…”

“Please, call me AJ.”

“Antwon Jester, isn’t that your given name?” Kate’s gaze flitted to his. AJ shrugged with a small smile. She had never asked him what AJ stood for, and it sure fit him better than that mouthful.

“Yes.”

“You spent time in the system too, I see, before you fell off the radar.”

“Yes. It wasn’t a good experience for me. I left as soon as I could.”

“Is this your permanent residence?”

“No. Not even close. It belongs to the family who owns this land. They employ me.”

On and on, Nicola asked all the questions that outlined his life. The woman finally sighed, saying, “You are Cami’s father. You have every legal right to her custody. In fact, she has nowhere else to go. She’ll be shuffled around the foster care system. Older kids like her are rarely adopted. You already know the drill, it sounds like. I’d like to place her with you, AJ. You simply have to apply for temporary emergency guardianship. There are also some legal channels to cover, but since your DNA matches, I foresee no huge hurdles. But right now, she needs a place to live. And that place is with you.”

Nicola then listed the procedure for obtaining temporary emergency custody while AJ’s head spun and his hands sweated.

He really had a daughter?

He was a father
. The words were English, but they sounded so foreign to him. They sounded downright wrong when applied to him.

In a daze, he acknowledged Nicola’s departure. After some platitudes, and a brief reiteration of the instructions, Nicola assured AJ she’d bring Cami there tomorrow. It seemed Cami had been brought to Nicola from Idaho where she had been living. So Cami was within driving distance of River’s End.
Tomorrow.
Kate shut the door and turned towards him. The ensuing silence was palpable. He slid his chair back with a loud scrape and stood up slowly. He couldn’t do it. Any of it. He couldn’t even get the ominous words to stick in his head. He wasn’t like Kate. He wasn’t capable or ready for such a life-changing event and didn’t know how to handle it. Rising, he simply walked past Kate, going out the front door and beyond.

****

AJ sat down, staring at the river, but the gorgeous scenery was completely lost on him. His head was everywhere but in the reality of the rocky beach he sat upon. All his thoughts were about his daughter. The physical shock almost made him wonder if he were having a stroke.

A scrape of shoes walking over the rocks alerted him someone was there. Assuming it was Kate, he couldn’t muster the courage, and failed to have the interest to turn and see. So weary and exhausted, he never remembered feeling so weak in his life. Digging back into the miserable heap of crap his adolescence had been, he was ashamed to realize how it affected Parker so badly. She had his baby while she was still just a child.

His child
. How could Parker not have told him? What would he have done if he’d known? That was the sadder part, he wasn’t sure he’d have stuck around back then to face it.

“Not now, Kate.”

A figure squatted beside him and he jumped when he realized it was Jack. Nodding, AJ rose to his feet.
Crap!
He forgot to go back to work. That never happened before. No. He never spaced out on work before. He never failed to show up on time either, not that he could think of.

“Sorry, Jack. I…” He dared not say
I forgot
, and snapped his mouth shut. “I’ll get back to the orchard now...”

But Jack pushed his shoulder down. “I know about Cami. Kate already told me. Relax. I certainly don’t expect you to be working right now. I’d be freaking out.” Jack slid onto his ass, drawing his legs up before him..

“Yeah. That’s about the sum of it. I didn’t know about her.”

“I believe you. I don’t think I made it clear to you, as Kate just pointed out to me. I consider you an equal around here. Your integrity and intelligence are unanimously valued and appreciated.”

“I know. I know how well you pay me, compared to other ranch foremen. And Kate needs to stay out of it,” AJ grumbled.

“I think we can both agree that in the short time we’ve known my industrious sister, she doesn’t stay out of anything she thinks she has a right to meddle in.” Jack glanced at the river, throwing a small pebble. “Anyway, so your daughter will soon be coming to live here.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t…” It sounded so wrong. AJ pushed his hands against his aching, ringing head. She wasn’t his. Not his kid. Not his daughter. He didn’t even know what she looked like. He wanted to scream and protest, “She can’t be mine.”

“Well, DNA is pretty conclusive, so, she’ll be coming here. We need to talk about that. Make new arrangements. A young girl can’t be stuck out in a trailer with a stranger.”

“I don’t expect you to do anything. I’ll figure it out.”

“By tomorrow?” Jack’s tone sounded skeptical.

Tomorrow.
How could this be his new reality?

“I guess. I have no idea.”

“You’re going to have to accept some help from us. And since a child is involved, if your stubborn pride acts up, always remember you’re doing it for a bigger and better cause than yourself. She’s just a kid. Imagine Charlie all alone without anyone. I can’t… so really, we need to do right by this young girl.”

AJ opened his mouth to argue, but nodded his head and promptly closed it. “Thank you, Jack.”

“Come up to the house. We can all talk in there.”

AJ started to rise, wiping the loose sand off his butt. With a sigh, he followed Jack.

Inside the living room were Erin and Kate. Kate had apparently wasted no time in setting off all the alarms. AJ resented her taking control, but then, he thought about tomorrow. That was something he could not look forward to.

There were all kinds of murmurs of appreciation despite his situation. Shell-shocked and numb, he sat down.

“She’ll need to stay here, inside the main house.”

That comment finally cut through the haze. “No. I can’t do that. I have the trailer. I can’t…”

“A young girl can’t live in a one-room trailer with a man she doesn’t even know, AJ. It would be embarrassing, awful, and awkward for both of you… and really inappropriate. She’s a young girl. Thirteen. She needs privacy and room. Space. Especially with her father, even if she doesn’t know you yet. How can you change clothes in that trailer? Think about it. For now, this is the best solution. There is plenty of room in the main house and Kate’s here. It’s a good arrangement,” Erin said in her gentlest tone.

AJ rubbed his face anxiously, saying, “I can’t believe this.”

“I know.”

****

Cami Reed was a teeny, tiny girl, petite from her height to her width. She looked more like a young child than a teen. AJ nearly gulped when he saw her. She barely reached his elbow. He appeared like a huge, overgrown buffoon next to her, and would’ve probably scared the living bejesus out of her. When she got out of the back seat of the car, AJ was sure his eyes revealed his astonishment no matter how much he tried to remain neutral.

She wore a hooded, dark sweatshirt that she had pulled up over her hair, which was dyed a terrible black and had bleached streaks running all through it. The ratted, gnarly dreadlocks skimmed her shoulders. Fully goth, she had black eyes, eyelids, eyelashes, and at least an inch of black liner under her eyes in dark circles. Her lips were also black. Her small face and features were overwhelmed by so much darkness. AJ blinked, curious what she looked like under the mask of black paint. The huge pants she wore dripped off her waist. Black and gnarly too, they were all ripped up, like her shirt and sweatshirt. The hems dragged over her shoes so the ends were soiled dark brown and also tattered. She scowled at AJ as she glanced around. Ear buds dangled from her ears. Nothing. Not a flinch of her mouth or a squint of her eye.

AJ stepped forward. Should he put his hand out? That seemed stupid to shake hands with a girl who looked like that. But then again, she was his freaking daughter. He was supposed to feel… something, right? He didn’t, however. He felt nothing except an intense urge to pass around her and keep walking towards the fields. He wished he had nothing more to do than go twiddle around in the pastures, work on the buildings, feed the livestock, or do anything but this. Anything was better than standing there and staring at this churlish girl.

“I’m AJ,” he said finally when they stared at each other for far too long. It was uncomfortable and awkward for both parties. She lifted her eyes up, and up and up until she finally met his gaze.

She shrugged, saying, “Cami.”

“So… I guess we could go inside?”

“That your house?” She nodded to the impressive log house behind her. Most onlookers took a second glance or gasped even, it was so visually impressive. But Cami? Raising one eyebrow in disdain, she couldn’t have shown less interest.