I Run to You (4 page)

The man in the mirror, wide muscled chest,
thick muscled arms and back, with long round muscled legs and taut
waist, appeared to be a man in his prime—yet Coy felt he’d lived a
couple of lifetimes already.

Bracing his hands on the dresser, he regarded
the present image, all the while letting others he had deliberately
suppressed sift through his mind, like shuffling through snapshots.
Some, were still so painful, so gut cinching to him; he ended up
closing his eyes and pushing away— unwilling to start the morning
like a thousand others since she had left Diamond Back.

He told himself weeks ago, when he had known
Brook was likely coming home to stay, that the past was the past.
But it never really left him. Time was meaningless since she left.
Emotions were just too damn fresh, and too present, sometimes.

“Coffee’s done!”

Shit. Pull it together, dude.

Coy opened his eyes, smiled at his son’s
grinning face, and followed him into the kitchen.

The two-bedroom log home had an airy great
room, which was where Levi had been watching TV, and an open
kitchen divided by a bar. He went there, got a mug off a peg, and
poured some of the strong coffee he needed to function.

Levi jumped up on a stool, on the other side,
his cereal now bowl empty. He always got his own breakfast and was
up at the crack of dawn.

He was half watching Coy, who leaned against
the counter, and half the time looking back at his cartoons as he
announced, “I don’t think it’s right.”

“What’s not right?” Coy lowered the cup.

“That we’re not going to Uncle Mitch’s when
the whole family will be there. I don’t know why we can’t meet Aunt
Madeline’s daughter—and Jett and Remy get to go.”

“I thought me and you were going to fish.”
Coy had come up with that as a way of subverting this conversation.
Since the Coburns were close, and they always went to each other’s
houses, and when everyone got together for eating, music, and fun,
they were normally a part of it—there was not an easy way to opt
out of Brook’s welcome home for himself and Levi.

“I like to fish, Dad. But, everyone will be
there. We always go. I don’t mind fishing…. But they’ll be funner
things for both of us going on there.”

Coy took another sip, straining to think
fast. He did not need to be asked not to show up for Brook’s
reuniting with the clan. He did not need to be told that she was
Madeline’s daughter; so of course, she would be at Uncle Mitch’s
often.

He figured his presence would create an
uncomfortable situation for her. But he didn’t know about Levi. He
loved Levi like his own soul, and wasn’t sorry for having him. That
did not mean he wasn’t regretful of the circumstances that made
him. Karla had been Brook’s best friend—and though Levi had never
really asked many questions about his mother, thankfully— likely
due to the fact he had so many stand ins with the Coburn women.
Including Ruby, Coy’s step mother, who had kept him a lot while Coy
was with the team, and who still came and got him often, loved
him—Levi would be a very tangible reminder of a very painful
betrayal—his betrayal.

Levi had Coy’s husky build, was tall for his
age, and a Coburn obviously. But with Karla’s turquoise eyes, and
her curls. He looked at the kid and his heart just swelled.
Nevertheless, because of the hell Karla put himself and the family
through, Coy could not respect her.

She’d told him, outside the courtroom, that
she’d gotten pregnant by him to more or less sell the kid to
them—knowing they’d pay her to let him raise and keep it when she
threatened to go off and do something drastic. She’d told him that
her Mom screwing up with Tony Singleton was just the push she
needed, but that she’d planned it carefully, been waiting for him
to come outside at the prom. She had wanted to leave town and was
broke, stuck, and if she had to carry a kid nine months to get that
escape, she would.

Coy drew himself back to the present, saying,
“We can go another time. I figured after we fished, maybe we’d go
into town, catch a movie?”

Propping his jaw on his fist, Levi gave him
one of those under- the-lashes looks. A slight frown on his cute
face. It was a mumble this time of, “We can do that too, any old
time.”

Coy opened his mouth, but a tap on the French
doors drew his eyes from Levi to the figure standing there. His son
had already whirled around and jumped off the stool saying, “It’s
Max.”

His hips still rested against the counter,
Coy watched Brook’s half-brother step inside and ruffle Levi’s
hair, the two of them exchanging an affectionate greeting. Coy had
to smile inwardly at the Kentucky born but upper class, Max. Since
he had taken time off from sports reporting and moved in his own
house on the lake, the man’s suave and urbane look was replaced by
the writer/ photographer casualness. It was not that Max didn’t
still have taste and panache. Lately he was all ratty jeans and
T-shirts, or denim shirts—instead of Armani suits.

The women in the family compared him to
Johnny Depp. Madeline likened his looks to a young Clark Gable. He
certainly had something that though a Coburn in height and sinew,
the dimples in his cheeks, those violet eyes were unique to only
Madeline and Brook. Coy understood he’d had several affairs since
coming to town, and somehow managed to keep all the women as
friends.

The lucky bastard.

“Coffee?”

Max took one the stools. “Thanks. Yes.”

Coy turned and procured the mug and poured it
full, wincing as Levi apparently took a seat beside him and
informed Max how unfair it was that they weren’t invited to Uncle
Mitch’s this time.

Turning, Coy met those black rimmed violet
eyes as he set down the mug.

Taking a sip, Max murmured, “Maybe I can talk
your dad into letting you come with me.”

“Oh. Boy—”

“You need to feed Ralph.” Coy looked at his
son. “And make sure his water bowl is full.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Levi raised his brows. “Can
I—”

“Feed the pup and let me talk with Max a
little.”

Levi sighed but jumped down and went through
the house to the back deck where the dog food was stored

As he got out of earshot, Coy murmured to
Max, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Max stared at him. “Levi’s a great kid, and
the past has nothing to do with him. It is why I stopped by anyway,
to ask if I could take him. He likes playing with Jett and the
others. Let’s be honest, the situation—as much as it’s complicated—
is not something he’s going to understand.”

“I think that…hell, I know, she would never
show any negativity towards Levi—but I have to consider it.”

“She’ll see him eventually, Coy.”

“Yeah. Well. It’s also that I don’t want to—I
don’t want to seem like I’m insensitive.”

“That would imply— you think she hasn’t
gotten over something that happened in high school.”

Coy murmured on a breath, “I really hope she
has. But I don’t underestimate the impact, either.”

Max took another sip and let the cup rest
against his palms. He was staring at Coy in a half-brooding way.
“You and the family all drew together during Karla’s trying to pull
the puppet strings. Everyone supported you. We have all loved Levi
from the get go. It is understandable that Madeline took
longer—”

“—Yes. I never thought she was unfair in
keeping that wall between us for as long as she did. You and I had
our strained moments.”

Max nodded. “But Madeline is a loving person,
and just as she loves Levi, she found her way of caring for you
too. Coy. Brook is not so different from that. No matter what she
feels about you—or Karla—she’d never hold it against, or show it,
to an innocent kid.”

“I believe that.”

God just saying her name, talking about her,
his stomach was all tensed up.

Max sat back. “You and Brook are going to run
into each other too.”

“I know that. But this is her reunion with
the family. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been—I don’t want to
look like the ass here.”

“Fair enough. But, let me take Levi. If I
don’t, he will have his feelings hurt. He will not understand no
matter what excuse you give him. He’s used to the family getting
together and him being there.”

Coy looked up and sighed. “All right.” He
glanced down at Max then. “But if she looks freaked out or if
anything is off—”

“I will. I am sure my sister is cool enough
to take it for what it is. A good kid, someone in the
family—Brook’s grown a lot in seven years. Despite what she
experienced here, or in the world out there on her own, she’s
always been as caring as Madeline.”

Coy nodded, although he carried an image in
his mind of that devastating night. He recognized deep down what
the betrayal of himself and Karla had done to her. Even now, his
freaking heart was beating too hard.

He had seen Brook’s pictures over the years
at Madeline’s, Ruby’s, and Max’s. He had heard her band’s CDs, saw
the concert pictures —some up on the wall at the Diamond Back
Tavern— knew about her other jobs, as waitress, and the classes. He
had seen pictures of her taken all over Europe with friends who
were in clubs, partying, or standing by some landmark. He had seen
her transformation from a beautiful and classy girl, into an even
more attractive and chic young woman. She had always had a certain
class and style, a certain grace. Even when she was in the band,
she didn’t lose that attention catching uniqueness.

Yeah—He’d seen pictures that Max had taken,
and he’d sat at Mitch’s when the gang was all there, and some news
of her was shared—Because even away, the Coburns claimed her and
wrote her, and made sure she remembered it. They celebrated her
achievements, ordered her CD, s, got autographed posters and post
cards, and wore T-shirts with the band Logo. Just as his own career
had been supported and celebrated by them, so had Brook’s life—so
it was not as if he could just forget her.

Shit. He never could. That had less to do
with family, than it did how drastically his life had
changed—because they were not together. Being a father certainly
made him skip all the collage partying and wildness—even if he’d
had any left in him after that night. But, his relationships,
everything— was different. Because of what he and Brook had—and how
it had ended.

Those first years he had seen the video of
Brook with all sorts of friends, many of them male, handsome, some
wilder looking than others. He would always feel gut sick. Lucky
for him, there were distractions, responsibilities, and
commitments, in his life—so that he could actually have a life at
all.

Coy told Max finally, “Everyone changes over
time, — seven years—all of us have—from the kids we were in school,
to adulthood. But I don’t doubt Brook’s basic character.”

Max eyed him again. “Whatever she feels about
you, she’ll make no secret of it, like adults do. But she won’t
bring Levi into that.”

Coy nodded, feeling that hollowness in his
stomach expand.

Max looked around to make sure Levi was
outside and asked, “Did you hear about Karla moving back?”

“About the marriage, all of it, yeah.” Coy
grunted in disgust. “That old man has no idea what he’s in for.
She’ll gather her usual crowd and take over his house, drain his
bank accounts, and manipulate him into believing he loves her for
it.”

“I thought there was some sort of restraining
order—”

“There is. She cannot come near Levi, because
of the felonies she racked up in Georgia. And because she didn’t
exactly hide the fact, she would have sold him to anyone, if I
hadn’t claimed him when we had those hearings. She was damn cold,
smug as hell, through the whole thing. A couple years back—when she
sent those fake ransom notes, and had the family crazy worried, I
gave them to Sunny, and he had her picked up. I believe the bitch
would have taken him and terrorized him for a few thousand
dollars.”

“Probably—to support her drug habit.” Max
shook his head. “She’s going to be trouble.”

“Doubtless. But not for Levi. I have met with
Sunny and the DA. Bill won’t hear a thing against her—says she was
young and confused and swears she has cleaned up, and walks on
water. The poor sonofabitch is in for a shock. Between the law, and
the family, she won’t get near Levi.”

“That’s only smart. If not her, then some of
her questionable friends. I don’t doubt she’ll have some hangers on
living in that house. From what I hear, old Bill worked most of his
life, scrimped and saved, never wed, which is why he is the richest
man in Diamond Back. But there’s no fool like an old fool, and
finding Karla in that strip club was the beginning of his
downfall.”

“I think she found him. She grew up there, so
she knew who he was.”

“Likely. I still think she’s going to be
nothing but trouble.”

“Yeah. I want to insulate Levi against it
though, so—”

Max agreed and stood as the boy come in.

“All done.” he said. “Boy, dad, Ralph was
covered in mud. I’ll bet he’s been running those ducks again.”

“We need to break him from that.” Coy smiled
and nodded.

“Yeah. So am I going?”

Both men laughed.

“Looks like it.”

“Oh, boy. You too, Dad?”

“Not this time.” Coy went to him and gave him
a hug. “I think it’s going to be pretty crowded, and I was just
telling Max I need to go pick up my guitar from the shop. It’s
probably fixed by now.”

“Aww, Dad. You should come.”

“Next time.” Coy pat him, then said, “You’d
best go brush your teeth and dress.”

Levi sighed again, but was too excited that
he was getting to go; so he went toward his room with the bathroom
beside it.

Coy walked with Max, outside, to the wrap
around deck. It poised out over the lake.