Hold On Tight(21)

Still nothing.

DEWAYNE

The kid could throw a football. For five years old, he had an impressive arm. He was obsessed with basketball, but he had a talent that was going untapped. I caught the next ball he hurled at me and watched as he grinned and blew his fingers as if they were on fire. It was something my brother would have done.

Instead of my chest hurting with the memory of a little boy who looked so much like this one, strutting around the basketball court like he was king, I felt an empty place inside me being filled. Micah was so much like Dustin that I had fallen in love with him in less than six hours.

My dad hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Micah either. Once the shock wore off, he’d sat down beside his grandson and asked him so many things. And when Micah told him that he was a basketball fan and that he was going to be the best, Dad beamed like I hadn’t seen him do in six years. Micah also mentioned that his dad had been the world’s best basketball player. It had been pure luck that Momma had gone back into the kitchen just when he mentioned his father.

But my father had heard him. Seeing his eyes mist over with bittersweet tears had gotten to me. I’d needed to get the kid out of there. My momma had to be told gently, and when Micah wasn’t around to see her reaction. I had explained that Micah and I had some things to do, and we’d said our good-byes. Momma had made Micah promise to come visit again soon, and my dad had kissed the top of his head. He hadn’t been able to help himself.

“Momma’s home!” Micah cheered and dropped the ball he had just caught, then took off running to meet Sienna as she got out of her beat-to-shit car. The boy loved his mother. She must have raised him without her parents’ help, because Micah said he didn’t have grandparents. He said he had an aunt Cathy they used to live with in Fort Worth. That was it. He hadn’t had anyone else to talk about.

“Hey, Ace.” Sienna’s voice caught my attention, and I took my eyes off Micah to see the woman he was throwing himself at and latching on to. Her long hair wasn’t up like it had been earlier today. She had pulled it loose and let it hang down her back. All that red hair. Damn. I had to remember who she was and how off-limits that was. The way she looked wasn’t something I could focus on. Hooking up for a casual fuck with Sienna Roy was never gonna happen. She was the mother of my nephew.

And I didn’t do anything more than a casual fuck. Ever.

Sienna was responsibility. And she was mine already, even if she didn’t know it yet. I would help take care of her and Micah, but adding sex to that mix was completely against the rules. It would fuck up everything. I had to be a part of Micah’s life. That was what was important. Not the fact that his momma had legs that didn’t stop, and a face . . . damn, that face. Those motherfucking gorgeous eyes, and her lips. Jesus, I had to forget this shit. She was Micah’s mom. That was it.

“Did y’all have a good morning?” Sienna asked, looking from Micah to me.

I tore my eyes off her and all that perfection and looked at Micah. I needed to regroup. Dealing with this woman wasn’t gonna be easy if I didn’t stop imaging her naked and in my bed. I didn’t put women in my bed. Ever. Fuck that.

“It was awesome! Mama T gave me chocolate chip cookies and apple pie. And she had real milk like us, and she said I could come eat anytime I wanted to.”

The color drained from Sienna’s face as she looked from her son to me. I had to explain why I’d taken him over there. It wasn’t to undermine her, but to deal with it before my mother came over here and figured shit out the wrong way. Plus, Micah had no idea who my parents were to him.

“He met my parents. That’s all,” I said, hoping she read the unspoken words from the pointed look on my face.

She swallowed and took a deep breath, then turned her gaze back to her son. “Well, now it’s my time to talk to Dewayne about things. I need you to go play in your room with all those toys you have while we talk, okay?” she said, with a tremor in her voice that didn’t go unnoticed by the kid. He frowned, and his happy smile turned to a warning glare as he looked at me. He was a little thing, but no one had told him that. He was more than ready to take care of his momma if he needed to. Dustin would have been so damn proud of that boy.

“Don’t make my momma cry,” was his simple demand.

“It’s okay, baby. I promise. We just have to talk about good stuff, like Dewayne watching you again and maybe you visiting Tab . . . Mama T again. Okay?”

Micah looked back at her and studied her face before nodding, but he didn’t look real sure. Then he wrapped his arms around her neck and squeezed tightly before letting her go. He then turned and ran to the door.