The Return of Brody McBride (8 page)

Damnit, this time he wasn’t letting her go.

“Brody, you have two daughters. They’re standing behind you. They’ve waited a long time to meet their father.”

Taking a step toward her, he said softly, “You gave me a daughter.”

Rain took a step back and ran into the car behind her. “Yes. She’s right behind you.” Her eyes grew wide when Brody advanced on her, grabbed her by the front of her coveralls, hauled her up to her toes, and kissed her.

He felt her shock and the jolt when their bodies touched. She went rigid, her mouth not responding, her eyes wide. But he didn’t give up. Not after all this time. He wanted her more than anything in the world. After everything he’d been through, the taste of her eased all the anxieties, crowded into all the dark corners, consumed all the anger and pain and left nothing behind but good.

When she went lax against him, her lips softening against his, he pressed her into the car, his whole body aligned with hers. She returned the kiss with as much heat and demand as he gave to her. This he remembered. This is how things used to be between them. One touch ignited the fire in both of them.

“Is he mad at her?” a little voice asked behind him.

“No, honey. He’s very happy,” Owen said with a laugh in his voice.

Brody reluctantly stopped putting on a show for everyone standing behind them watching. With his forehead pressed to Rain’s, he tried to rein in his emotions and put words together that would make sense and tell her just what this meant to him. “Thank you. I’m sorry.” He kissed her slow and softly. This time, there was no resistance. Her silence made him nervous, but he was just so damn glad to be this close to her. “Thank you, Rain. You don’t know what this means to me.”

“Is he going to kiss Roxy like that, too?” the little voice asked, and Rain’s body turned to stone with a look of pure rage in her eyes a moment before she pressed both hands to his chest and shoved him away. Falling back onto her flat feet, he gave her some space. He needed some, too.

“No.” Brody never took his eyes off Rain.

Rain slapped a hand on his shoulder and turned him toward the two girls standing in front of his brother.

Time stopped, everything in him stilled. They looked alike in every way, and so much like him. Blond hair and round faces with little pert noses. They even dressed alike. Both girls wore jeans, pink tops, though one had a darker version, and pink Converse high tops. Rain’s influence there, he thought.

One of the girls belonged to Rain. He recognized which upon closer inspection. The one with the light pink shirt had wavier hair and her mother’s nose. Looking more closely at the girl in the darker pink shirt, he tried to see Roxy in her. She seemed to be the shyer of the two. Everything about her appearance resembled him. The only thing he could say that spoke to Roxy’s contribution was that she was slim and maybe the shape of her eyes was a little like Roxy’s. The color was all him and shared by both girls.

He bent on his good knee in front of them, knowing full well Owen, Eli, and Rain watched him closely. The two girls remained reserved, but inquisitive enough to look him up and down.

“Hi,” he said and had to clear his clogged throat. “I’m Brody, your dad.”

The two girls looked at each other, then Rain’s daughter spoke for the two of them. “Do we have to call you Brody?”

“If you want to for a while, that’s okay. But it would really make me happy if you called me Dad.”

“Because you want us?” Roxy’s daughter asked softly.

Brody thought he’d lose it. His throat hurt for keeping the tears from spilling out his eyes. “Yes, honey. I want you very much. If I’d known about the two of you, I’d have come back for you.”

“Are you going to take us?”

Confused by the question, he glanced up and found Rain standing close. She went to the girls, stood behind them, and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Girls, Brody just found out about you. Whatever decisions have to be made, Brody and I will discuss them. But no matter what, I’ll always be with you.”

“But, Mom . . .”

“Dawn, let it be for now,” she said softly.

“Dawn?” Brody asked.

Rain looked down at him and smiled softly. The smile didn’t really reach her eyes; too much worry clouded any happiness she might feel. The sadness he read easily. Her heart couldn’t stand he’d missed out on knowing the girls. “I think you know Dawn is your daughter with me.” She looked down at the other girl. “Autumn is your daughter with Roxy.” Rain smiled at her worried little face.

“Dawn and Autumn. Beautiful,” he said, meaning their names and the girls themselves. It hit him hard. He was their father. As time ticked by, the meaning of that took root inside of him. A piece of his heart grew two sizes and came to life. His chest ached, he was so full of emotion.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to talk with your mom, Autumn.”

“No! She’s not my mom. God put me in the wrong belly!” Autumn yelled and buried her face in Rain’s stomach. Rain wrapped her up in her arms and stared down at Brody, rolling her eyes and letting out a frustrated sigh.

“Brody, Autumn is mine. It’s a long story, one we’ll get into another time.” Cocking her head toward the two girls wrapped around her. “I figured you’d be by today for the truck. I just wanted you to meet them.”

Unsteady, he rose to face her. “But, Rain . . .”

“Let it be, Brody. Give yourself and them time to adjust.”

Rain moved away, leaving him feeling lost. Dawn and Autumn stood beside Eli. Owen stood near Rain. He was the outsider here. He had a past he’d come home to face with Rain, but the girls made everything more complicated. He owed Rain more than an apology for leaving.

She’d given up everything to be a mother to his children. He wasn’t sure why she had Autumn, but it was clear Autumn saw Rain as her one and only mother.

Eli spoke up, trying to defuse a volatile situation. “Let’s start with a family dinner. Say, six o’clock at Rain’s house?”

Owen smiled wickedly. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Rain rolled her eyes and turned her back on all of them. “Let’s go home, girls. You’ve got homework. I’ve got to cook dinner for six.” She left the garage bay with her head up, shoulders stiff. A little girl on each side of her, tiny hands clasped in hers, she’d never looked more beautiful.

Chapter Six

“S
HE’S PISSED
,” B
RODY
said, stunned the girls driving away with Rain belonged to him. His girls. All of them. That’s how Brody thought of them now. He liked that. A lot. Still, the guilt threatened to swallow him whole. It gnawed at his gut and made it hard to breathe.

“She has every right to be pissed,” Eli said, examining the Buick, checking to see where Rain left off.

“What about me? Don’t I get to be pissed that I have two daughters no one told me about? Owen?” As overwhelmed as he was right now, his mind grabbed on to the one thing no one had said. “Why the hell didn’t you call me? You had my captain’s number for the last six years. You knew about my being shot, the roadside bomb.”

“Don’t blame me. You’re the one who slept with two women within days of each other. Normally, I’d high-five you and buy you a beer. But you were reckless and a sonofabitch. You left, never thinking you might have gotten even one of them pregnant.

“People who hide the way you did, usually have a good reason. We all know why you were hiding. Think about how that made Rain feel. You’d rather disappear than face her.

“Imagine how she felt when you took off without a word. Then, imagine how she felt when everyone knew she was pregnant with your baby, and there’s Roxy parading around town pregnant as well.”

“How did anyone know Roxy’s baby was mine to begin with?”

“Seriously? You know what a conniving bitch Roxy can be. She told everyone the baby was yours. Sure, everyone had their suspicions the baby could belong to any number of men in and around town. But she wouldn’t shut up about it being yours. It’s like she had some sort of grudge against Rain.”

“She did,” Eli interjected. “Roxy hates Rain.”

“Why? Between their three-year age difference and their completely opposite lives, why the hell would Roxy care about Rain at all?” Brody had never understood the grudge Roxy held against Rain.

“Simple. Look at Roxy’s life. Look at what Rain’s life was supposed to be. Rain had a chance to leave small-town-nowhere behind, go to college, build a dream life with an education behind her and opportunities in front of her. Roxy had been stuck here all her life, raised in that bar by her father before he died the year after she graduated. She wanted more. Never got it. Always looking for the easy way, she never considered working hard to earn it. Then, she set her sights on you. Probably because she wanted to take Rain down a few pegs, or just because she wanted to take one of those good things away from Rain.”

“Yeah, I was real good for Rain.” Actually, Brody thought, the only person who’d ever thought he was any good was Rain. And he’d had to go and prove her wrong.

“You weren’t then,” Eli began, “You need to do better now. You’ve got two daughters to consider.”

Brody turned to Owen. “Two daughters you could have told me about any time during the last six years.”

Owen frowned. “She asked me not to.”

“What? Why?”

“She had her reasons,” Owen said, not telling him anything.

“She had no right . . .”

“You weren’t around to tell.” Eli crossed his arms over his chest. “She spent three years trying to find you, but you made damn sure you couldn’t be found. She loved and took care of Autumn like she was her own. The minute she sees you, she tells you about the girls. She didn’t hide it from you. In fact, she’s terrified you’ll try to take them away from her for no other reason than to be ornery about the fact you didn’t know about them.”

“I’d never do that. I want us to be a family.”

“Yeah, I got that from the kiss you laid on her. Not fair, by the way. Since you’ve been gone, she’s been a mother. It’s been a long time since she remembered she’s also a woman,” Eli said, giving him a nod when the shock registered on his face.

His brain was on overload. Brody decided with Eli present, better to stick to his daughters than the fact Rain tasted as good as ice cream on a summer day, and he had plans for that delectable woman. Hot, sweaty plans with lots more kissing.

“Okay, forget everything else. How did Rain end up with Autumn?”

“Because, dumb-shit, you had sex with a viper,” Owen said scathingly. “Rain had to—”

“That’s for Rain to tell you,” Eli interrupted. Owen clamped his jaw shut, daggers shooting out his eyes all aimed at Brody.

Brody bit back a hot retort and the demand someone give him a straight answer. Apparently, the only one who’d do that was Rain. “Okay. What about Rain and the girls? Where are they living? Are the girls healthy? Do they need anything?” He tried to cover all the bases, but he’d just become a father and he wasn’t sure where to start. He’d planned on coming here, finding Rain, convincing—
begging
, if he had to—her to marry him, and then they’d have a family. It seemed so easy and brilliant in his mind. Reality sucked. Well, maybe not. He had a child with Rain. Two, by the looks of the bond between her and Autumn. That was his ticket in the door. Now all he had to do was keep her from tossing him out on his ass again.

“The girls are perfect,” Owen said, smiling for the first time since Rain left. “They live in Eli’s old house. Eli moved to the apartment upstairs after the girls were born.”

“I wanted her to have a place of her own, to be on her own. I couldn’t give her college and the freedom she’d worked so hard to earn, but I could give her the freedom to run her own household and raise her girls without my interference.”

“When I moved back to town, I offered to help her financially.” Owen’s eyes grew sad. “She wouldn’t accept, except a few times when she was short and didn’t have a choice but to ask for help.”

“So, she’s had Autumn since she was a baby?”

“Yes. But that’s a long, ugly story. One you’ll have to get from Rain. She deserves a chance to tell you herself,” Owen said.

“Fine. Owen, are you done for the day?”

“I’ve got a few things to tie up at the office. Why?”

“Seems I have a family to take care of and provide for. I’ll need your help putting some legal matters in order.”

“Will you petition the court for joint custody?” Eli asked.

“No. I need to set some things up for the girls. I owe Rain seven years of child support and some kind of monthly support from now on. That is, until I can convince her to marry me,” Brody said bluntly to gauge Eli’s reaction. Eli didn’t give anything away, only stood waiting to hear what came next.

“I own the cabin and half the land on Clear Water Ranch. I also own part of a company. If something happens to me, those things will go to the girls.”

“Wait,” Eli interrupted. “How do you own a company when you’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last six years?”

“I had a buddy who was really smart and had a great idea, but he needed the money to get started. The military provided everything I needed, I banked a lot of the money I earned, and decided to invest in my buddy’s idea. He started the company and got the patents on a couple of his ideas, but because I financed the patents, I insisted the patents be in my name to protect my investment.”

“Sounds like you were the smart one,” Eli said, surprising him.

“If Bill Gates can buy an operating system from someone and build a company, why couldn’t I do something similar? Anyway, the company took off. I do some of the work, but for the most part, I’m a silent partner. Now that I have the time, I’ll get more involved.”

“Your degree in business and finance doesn’t hurt,” Owen put in.

“You know all this about me, but you couldn’t make a simple phone call and say, ‘Hey, man, come home. There’re a couple people you need to meet.’”

“You were overseas most of the time. Besides, not my call to make,” Owen said. “Get over it.”

“I don’t have a choice. I do, however, have to change my plans for the future.”