Just Like That (The Kings)

It was late when I finally heard the crunch of tires on gravel and the squeaking brakes of an oversize school bus.

A fucking skoolie, of all things. This woman couldn’t get any more impractical.

I had expected Hazel and Teddy to show up at my place right away and be there squatting when I returned home from work. Instead, she’d taken her sweet-ass time, and by the time night descended, I wondered whether she’d be coming at all.

A flicker of hope that this was all a terrible dream died when I saw the ridiculous bus turn in.

By the time her skoolie finally did roll down my driveway, I was fully irritated. All I wanted was for this problem to go away. If that meant she parked her house on wheels in my driveway so I could keep tabs on her and ultimately expedite their departure, then so be it.

Veda had given me the side-eye all afternoon at the office. No doubt my family had a field day with the unexpected development that some kid had claimed I was his father. I had been distracted at the office. I caught myself staring off into space, trying to recount where I’d been, what—and who—I’d been doing seven years ago. I racked my brain but still came up empty.

I had also wasted far too much time reliving every interaction I’d had with Hazel. She was a distraction—I knew it from the beginning.

Beside me, Veda had worked silently, clacking away at the keyboard and adding notes to what I referred to as her murder board. The oversize corkboard she’d put up in our cramped office took up the majority of the wall space and was color coded with photos, notes, and timelines.

I had initially hired Veda as a business consultant behind my father’s back. I needed someone impartial to look into King Equities and find what my father was hiding. At the time, I had no idea she would be the one to uncover a web of lies and deceit far more unsettling than a few underhanded business deals.

Her tenacity had been the key to unraveling everything my father had done to hide the real reason behind my mother’s disappearance. Veda had even bought red string to denote events she suspected were connected. The Post-it Notes were organized by color and highlighted the bits of information we were still looking into in order to ensure, after his arrest, my father never saw the light of day again.

Untangling the web of deceit my father had woven over the course of nearly thirty years was a daunting task. Her board was ridiculous but, admittedly, helpful.

At the very least, Veda knew to keep her mouth shut and work.

She’s getting another raise.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and downed the last sip of whiskey in my glass as I peered out the front window. Sighing, I set down my drink and walked out of my house and onto the front porch.

With the setting sun sagging across Lake Michigan, a riot of golden hues illuminated Hazel’s strawberry blond hair through the bus’s front window, making it sparkle with flecks of gold in the sunlight.

She looked tiny behind the gigantic wheel of the school bus, and the air suspension seat bounced her up and down with every bump. I leaned against the porch column as she parked.

Hazel shot me a grin and two thumbs-up.

I offered a tight smile and raised my hand, letting her know the haphazard way she’d parked at an awkward angle was good enough.

It wasn’t like I got any unannounced visitors anyway.

Within seconds, the door swung open and she bounded down the steps of the skoolie. I looked behind her, curious when I didn’t see Teddy hot on her heels.

“He’s asleep,” she said as though she could read my mind.

Hazel walked across the grass in her flip-flops, and I focused on the trees behind her rather than the way the breeze lifted her soft red hair.

When she got close enough, there was a ripple of uncertainty that fluttered across her perfect features. For a split second, she almost looked scared.

It was gone in a second, though, and in its place Hazel stepped up and rolled her shoulders back.

“Honey, I’m home!” Hazel’s soft brown eyes crinkled at the corners from her wide grin.

My breath expelled in an impatient huff.

Hazel mirrored my sigh and looked around with wide eyes. “Woof. Tough crowd . . .”

Her humor almost pulled a wry smile from me.

She swallowed hard and met my unyielding eyes. “Did you change your mind about me parking here?”

I gritted my teeth. It was the most practical solution I could come up with on the fly. “It’s fine. Did you have a better option?”

Hazel laced her fingers together, pushing her shoulders back and straightening her spine. “I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of girl. This isn’t much different.”

The way her lips quirked to one side was cute and endearing. I caught myself staring at her mouth. It was plump and lush and looked like a hell of a good time.

I tore my gaze from her mouth when Hazel looked over my shoulder to the house at my back. “You live here?” she asked.

My house was custom built and far too large for any one man. The black siding nearly vanished under the towering trees. A trail of flat cobblestones wound a path from the driveway to the steps of the porch, and I’d made sure the landscaping melded seamlessly with the surrounding trees. At the back of the house, floor-to-ceiling windows provided spectacular views of Lake Michigan. The house stood proudly on top of a towering sand dune that led to a private beach.

Sure, it was a beach I never had time to enjoy, but it was mine.

My home was a few miles out of town, which offered me the seclusion and privacy I craved. Why on earth I thought it was a good idea for her and Teddy to camp out on my property was beyond me.

It had to be the stress. That was the only excuse for giving up my privacy to a woman and child with a ridiculous claim that I was the kid’s father.

I tried my best to appear unaffected by her poking. “Are you surprised that a bachelor has taste?” I shot back.

Her eyes narrowed but didn’t waver as she stopped at the base of the stairs. “Surprised to see you live in an overpriced, secluded hideaway where no one would hear it if I screamed? No. No, that tracks.”

I stepped down to stand beside her and leaned forward, pulled by an invisible tether that drew me to her sass and inconvenience. I was close enough to hear the hitch of her inhale as I soaked in the warmth of her skin. My gruff whisper floated across her ear. “If the neighbors can’t hear my woman scream, then I’m not doing my job right.”

As soon as the words were out, I bit back a curse. My eyes sliced to the side, immediately checking to see if Teddy had heard my slip of the tongue, but the inside of the bus was dark and still.

Fucking idiot.

Something about being near Hazel Adams made me lose my composure. Like there was a feral animal locked inside a cage in my chest and she stood on the outside, waving the key.

Taunting me.

I turned to go inside.

“Do you want to have breakfast or something tomorrow?” Hazel asked as I climbed the stairs. I slowly faced her, unsure of how to gently tell her that sharing a meal with her was the absolute last thing I needed to be doing.

Against the setting sun, she looked sad and tired.

And young.

“How old are you?” I asked, ignoring her question about breakfast.

Her chin lifted. “Twenty-five.”

Just as I thought—young. Too young.

“So . . . breakfast?” Her teeth toyed with her lip.

I shook my head. “No.”

Her soft brown eyes widened with hope and a little sadness. “Don’t you even want to get to know him?”

“Not really.” My chest filled with a sense of haughty superiority, regret hot on its heels when I saw her pretty face fall.

Without waiting for her response, I strode through the kitchen and up the stairs at the back of my house. I didn’t stop until I was cocooned inside the sanctity of my bedroom. I picked up the discarded novel on my bedside, simply because it was the closest one I could find, and settled into the high-back chair in the corner. From the window, I could see her skoolie, but I ignored it.

I flipped the book open, but my eyes refused to focus on the words.

Everything is going to be fine. This is just another problem that needs taking care of.

Just like everything else, I would bear the brunt of the setback and make it go away. The claim that Teddy was my child was utterly ridiculous. Impossible. Lots of kids had dark features and light eyes and a good sense of fashion. That didn’t make me their dad.

I considered when all this was over, I could take some time off. Relax. Disappear where no one knew my name and one bad business deal didn’t mean losing millions. Somewhere I didn’t have the burden of expectation. Somewhere my father’s horrific actions didn’t follow me.

I loved the coastal air, but I’d never seen the mountains. There was an appeal to standing at the base of something grand, forged millions of years ago by nature, staring up and feeling your insignificance.

I flipped a page in the book, my eyes glossing over words that weren’t even registering as I let my mind wander. Maybe on my sabbatical I’d meet a cute girl in some quaint mountain town, someone with thick thighs, blondish-red hair, caramel eyes, and a mouth made to pout. This mystery woman would have an easy laugh that cracked me open in new and unexpected ways. She’d make it easy to open up, to laugh. During the day, she’d show me around her town and we’d get lost on random hiking trails. At night we’d be nothing but tangled limbs and heavy breaths.

My eyes glazed over as I realized I hadn’t read a fucking word. I leaned my head back, closing my eyes and relishing the feeling of my dick twitching to life. I could almost feel her hot breath on my skin, her whispers in my ear, her taste on my tongue.

My eyes flew open when I realized it was Hazel starring in my unhinged production of JP’s Mountainside Mental Breakdown.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and forced the ridiculous fantasy aside. It was utterly inappropriate to be having the thoughts I had about Hazel. She was convinced that her nephew was my son—that her sister and I had been together and gotten pregnant.

The fact that anyone would claim me as a father was the most absurd part of it all. I had never wanted kids and had always been careful. Besides, I would have been, what? Twenty-four, twenty-five when she claimed to have gotten pregnant?

Dread pooled in my stomach when the pieces started to click together. It would have been around that time I was spending the summer and fall interning for one of my father’s clients in Chicago. Dad had claimed the position would give me the big-city experience I needed to truly level up. I’d worked hard by networking and making solid connections that still served me today.

But out from under my father’s thumb, I’d also spent a few reckless months partying hard and fucking my way through Chicago.

I slammed my book closed. Nausea swirled in my gut, and I felt sick. I swallowed back the bile and tried to focus on breathing.

Jesus, I was an asshole.

A grade A prick.

The son of a killer.

Teddy was a cute kid, but he certainly didn’t deserve to have me as his father.