Bucked: The Mountain Man's Babies(13)

The next night I walk into Jaxon and Harper’s home exhausted. I feel beat up, battered and bruised.

“Dude, you look like shit,” Jaxon says, offering me a cold one.

I take a long pull on the beer and follow him to the kitchen. Harper is pulling the potpie from the oven, a salad is tossed and on the island. And all three of their babies are in identical highchairs in various states of disarray. Food in their hair, on their faces, and what looks like mashed up, steamed carrots painted all over their highchair trays.

“Hello, Bucky,” Harper says, giving me a hug, her hand still wearing a potholder. She’s the only person I put up with calling me Bucky, mostly because you don’t say no to a woman like Harper.

She’s grown into a strong, determined woman over the course of the last year. Hell, getting married and having three babies at twenty-one is an impressive feat. But the thing with Harper is, you know she is living her life to the absolute fullest.

“Bucky you look exhausted. Which is saying something considering we’re the ones with the triplets,” she says, giving me a once over.

“It’s been a hell of a twenty-four hours.”

“Tell me everything,” Harper says, handing me the salad bowl, and weaving to the table. “Jax, love, can you grab me some white wine?”#p#分页标题#e#

Jaxon kisses Harper’s cheek before pulling open the fridge. As he uncorks the bottle, I tell them the story with Rosie. The meal she made, the men coming after her, the bathroom, the running away.

I explain how after I found her missing from the diner I went to the motel and convinced Janice at the front desk to walk through the room with me. It was empty, stripped of anything personal that could give us a clue.

All I know is that her first name is Rosalind. “I spent hours Googling every iteration of her name, trying to find a Facebook profile or a Google image – anything. But there is nothing on her anywhere.”

“She just vanished?” Harper asks.

Jax and I exchange a knowing look. No one vanishes. Rosie was taken.

“Did you contact the Sheriff’s department again? They could put out a missing person alert.”

“Except I don’t have a photograph, and when the cops interviewed Janice, she told them plainly that Rosie walked in of her own accord and checked out. No one was being coerced, so far as she could tell. I can’t actually prove anything.”

“Fuck, man,” Jaxon says, shaking his head as he dishes Harper up a plate of food. “Here you go, baby.”

We eat in silence, my story having created a somber mood. Even the babies seem to realize it, seeing as they eat their carrots in relative quiet.

“Thank you for having me over tonight. I know you guys have a lot going on.” After taking a few bites I add, “And this food is amazing, Harper. “

“Sounds like Rosie knew her way around a kitchen too,” Harper says, swirling the wine in her glass.

“Way to pour salt on the poor man’s wound,” Jaxon says laughing.

“I didn’t mean any harm by it,” Harper frowns. “It’s just, I’m sad too. I want to meet this woman who so easily wooed a mountain man like Buck. She must have been pretty special.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” I say, running my hand over my beard. “She’s gone. She decided to leave. And the truth is, she didn’t want me to find her. If she had, she’d have left a clue, a number, a name. Anything.”

“So you just move on?” Jaxon asks.

“Didn’t you do the same thing after I left you, Jax, and went back home? You tried to move on?” Harper asks quietly. “Maybe Rosie had somewhere she needs to be right now, but maybe when she’s ready, she’ll return.”

I nod, looking around their beautiful home, their happy children, the love that so clearly covers every single log laid in this cabin. “How long do I wait for her? Because the truth is, I’d wait forever if it means I’ll end up having a life like the two of you.”

“Then don’t give up, Buck,” Jaxon says. “Get your shit together so when she returns you can be the man she needs.”





10





Planning an escape from the mob is no easy feat. Not for a healthy young man or a strong woman, and certainly not for a woman who is eight and a half months pregnant. Certainly not for a woman who has unborn children already purchased.

After the genetic testing, it was confirmed that I have two strong, healthy, female babies growing in my belly. No complications, no red flags.

I’m not surprised. Their father had a heart like no other man I’ve ever met.