Whiskey Tribute: A Trident Security Series Novella - Book 5.5 (8 page)

“Harder, please, harder!”

Who was he to deny her request? Fucking her hard and fast, he
felt her walls begin to spasm again and when her orgasm overtook her, he roared
his own release as she milked every drop of cum from him.

Spent and gasping for air, he remained deep inside her and
felt the last of her tremors fade away. They were both covered in a sheen of
sweat, but neither cared as he dropped his forehead to hers. It was only then
he realized he hadn’t kissed her mouth yet. Tilting his head to the side so
their noses were out of the way, he brushed his lips against hers. “I don’t
know about you, but for me, that was well worth the wait.”

Wrapping her legs tighter around his waist, she clenched her
pussy surrounding his softening cock. “Definitely worth the wait. But now I
can’t wait to do it again.”

Lifting his head, he glanced at the bedside digital clock
then smirked at her. “Well, we do have another half hour before the kids get
home.”

Sitting at the kitchen
table, sketching a new bike design which had come to him, Curt’s head whipped
around at the sound of one of the cabinets slamming shut. Scowling, Ryan opened
the refrigerator and grabbed a deli bag of sliced turkey. He continued to open
drawers and cabinets, retrieving what he needed to make an after-school
sandwich, all the while creating an unnecessary racket.

Curt studied him for a few
moments, before finally asking, “Something you want to talk about?”

The boy ignored him and
slammed the fridge door shut again.

“Talk to me. Maybe I can
help.”

“Maybe you’re the
problem.”

Okayyyy
. Not what he’d expected. “Why am I the problem?”

Ryan spun around and
crossed his arms. “What are you doing here again? Mom said she told Ian the
SEALs didn’t have to come all the time anymore.”

Curt was stunned at the
venom in the boy’s voice and tried to figure out where it was coming from.
Nodding, he stood and leaned against the kitchen table. “She did. At Connor’s
party. Most SEAL families stop the visits when they’ve gotten through the
worst, a year or two after a death. We all expected your mom had reached that
point.”

“So what are you doing
here? We don’t need you anymore.”

“Ryan!” Both of their
heads turned at Dana’s shocked exclamation as she stood in the doorway to the
hall. “Apologize to Curt this instant.”

“No!” he shouted. “I don’t
want him here! The only reason he fucking comes is because he wants to have sex
with you!”

The hurt and shock on
Dana’s face were palpable. Curt stood to his full height and grabbed Ryan’s
upper arm, his grip firm but not damaging. “That’s no way to speak to your
mother. Apologize and then sit down, so we can talk about this.”

The boy ripped his arm
from Curt’s grasp. “Don’t tell me what to do! You’re not my father! I saw you
kissing the other day when I came back to get my math book! How could you do
that? I hate you!”

Before either of them
could stop him, Ryan ran to the back door, yanked it open, and fled in a flurry
of anger and resentment. Dana started after him, but Curt stopped her, gently
cupping her cheek. “Let me handle this. Let me talk to him, man to
boy-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-man.”

She bit her lip then
nodded and wiped her tear-filled eyes. “Okay. I’ll clean this up and start
getting dinner ready.”

After giving her a quick
kiss, he headed to the backyard in search of Ryan, but found he was too late as
he saw the boy disappear, riding his mountain bike on the trail leading into
the woods. Deciding to let the kid cool off instead of chasing after him, Curt
sat on the porch steps and stared at the bluff in the distance. “Eric, I could
use a little help here. I love these kids like they were my own. I should have
figured it would be hardest on Ryan, being the oldest and about to become a
teenager. How do I convince him I’m not trying to replace you and I’ll always
make sure they remember you?”

Aside from the sounds of
birds singing and the rustling of leaves, his question was met with silence.
Dragging his hand down his face, he pondered what to say to the boy when he
returned.

Ninety minutes later,
though, Ryan hadn’t returned and darkness was falling. The worry Dana felt was
evident as she kept checking the clock on the microwave while she fed the other
children at the kitchen table. He knew her thoughts were going back to the
night Eric had gone missing and he couldn’t wait any longer for Ryan to return.
Standing behind Taylor, Curt squeezed the boy’s shoulders. “Any idea where he
would have gone?”

Taylor shrugged. “Probably
the cave.”

Curt’s eyes narrowed as he
glanced at Dana who didn’t seem to know what her son was talking about. “What
cave?”

“There’s a cave we found
while biking one day in the woods. Sometimes we go there to hunt for Indian
arrowheads, but I don’t know if we can find it in the dark. We’ve never tried.”

Shit
. He knew the boys had done a lot of exploring
throughout the woods, but they never went there alone. Dana had always insisted
they go in groups of three or more and stay with each other.

Justin piped up. “Mr. Olsen
knows where it is. We showed it to him one day.”

Grabbing his phone, Curt
found Phil’s number and pressed ‘Send’. When the man answered, he told him, “I
need you and your ATVs. Ryan and I had an argument and the boys think he went
to some cave in the woods. That was over an hour and a half ago.”

“Come on over. I’ll pull
the ATVs out of the barn and we’ll go get him.”

Hanging up the phone, Curt
pulled Dana into an embrace and kissed her forehead when she briefly clung to
him. “I’ll have him back in no time. Don’t worry.”

Jogging a few houses down
to the Olsen’s, Curt found Phil all set to go with flashlights and his portable
police radio, just in case. They mounted the ATVs and Phil took off into the
woods with Curt on his tail. It took them a good ten minutes to reach the cave
and with the moonlight hidden by some dark clouds, they had to rely on the
ATVs’ headlamps and the flashlights. Searching the area, they found no sign of
Ryan or his bike. From the looks of things, the boy hadn’t even been there as
they couldn’t find any fresh tire tracks or footprints.

The two men slowly rode
back along the trail they hoped he had taken, looking for evidence of which way
he might have gone. As they came around a large boulder, the light from Curt’s
headlamp flashed on something red about twenty feet off the trail and he hit
the brakes. It was the reflector of a mountain bike. His heart pounding in his
chest, he leaped over a downed tree and spotted Ryan lying among some shrubs
and leaves. Dropping to his knees beside the boy, he was relieved to see him
open his eyes even though they were filled with pain.

“Ry, what happened? Where
are you hurt?”

“
Uhhhh
. My-my arm.
A deer ran out in front of me and I lost control.”

While Phil contacted his
dispatcher to send an ambulance to the closest access point, Curt ran the beam
of his flashlight over Ryan’s arm and the rest of his body. Thankfully, despite
his anger earlier, the kid had remembered to put on his helmet, which probably
saved him from being hurt worse. As it was, it appeared his left forearm was
broken.

Retrieving a blow-up
splint from the first aid bag he’d brought along, Phil handed it to Curt, then
very gently helped him apply it. Although he was in a lot of pain, Ryan did his
best not to yell or cry. Once they had the limb immobilized, they gave him a
once over to make sure there were no other injuries, then sat him up so they
could carry him to Curt’s ATV. Straddling the seat behind Ryan, Curt reached
around and grasped the handles. Before he restarted the engine, Ryan turned his
head so he could be heard. “I’m sorry, Uncle Curt. For everything. I didn’t
mean it.”

Curt squeezed the boy’s
good arm so he knew he was forgiven. “It’s okay, sport. We’ll talk about it
later.”

* * *

It was well after midnight
when Dana and Curt returned home with Ryan from the emergency room. The arm had
definitely been broken, but it was nothing a few weeks in a cast wouldn’t heal.
As Curt got the boy settled in his bed, Dana paid the college-aged woman who
lived up the street and baby-sat for her often. Dana had called her as soon as
Curt had gone back to the house to tell her what happened as Phil went in the
ambulance with Ryan. He’d been torn between going with the boy or being the one
to tell his mother he was en route to the hospital. But Ryan had made the
decision easier, telling Curt it was okay for Phil to go with him while he went
and got Dana.

After Ryan fell asleep
from the painkillers he’d been given, Curt checked to make sure the other
children were sleeping, then joined Dana in the master bedroom. Just wanting to
hold her for a while, he mentally set his internal alarm clock and lay down
beside her, pulling her into his side and wrapping his arms around her. At five
a.m. he woke and reluctantly left her bed to go back to sleep on the couch so
none of the kids would find them sleeping together until they had a chance to
talk with all of them.

Later that afternoon, Curt
took the sandwich and glass of milk Dana had made for Ryan and brought them
into the boy’s bedroom. Handing him the plate, he placed the glass on the
nightstand along with a pain pill for him to take when he was done eating. Ryan
eyed him warily as Curt pulled over the room’s desk chair and straddled it.
“Think we can have a chat without yelling at each other?”

His question was met with
a shoulder shrug and a mumbled, “I guess.”

“Good.” He inhaled deeply
then let it out slowly. “I loved your dad, Ryan. More than you’ll ever know. He
was a brother to me and I would never, ever, try to replace him in your life…or
your mom’s life. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be here for all of you in a way he
can’t be. Your mom loved your dad with every bit of her heart and still does…and
always will. But don’t you want to see her happy again? What happens when you
and your brothers and sister grow up and go out into the big world? Do you want
your mom to be alone or with someone who loves her and will take care of her?”
Ryan’s eyes were focused on the sandwich on his lap which he made no effort to
eat. “I don’t come up here just for your mom. I’m here for the four of you,
too. I made a promise to your dad a long time ago, that if anything ever
happened to him, I would take care of all of you for him. I didn’t expect to
fall in love with your mom and vice versa—but we did.” They had said those
words to each other before falling asleep last night. “Your dad will always be
the first love of her life…nothing will ever change that and I’m more than
willing to accept it. But we need you to accept the fact that your mom and I
love each other. And we love you, too. I hope you know you can come to me
anytime you have a problem or even just to talk.”

Deciding he’d said enough,
Curt stopped talking and waited for Ryan to say something. The boy’s eyes were
still downcast. “Do we have to move to Daytona with you?”

He finally got it. The kid
was worried about leaving behind not only his friends, but the place where he
had the most memories of his father. “No, you don’t. I haven’t told your mom
yet, since everything is so new between us, but I talked to my brother the
other day. I told him I wanted to move up here and open another bike shop…sort
of like a franchise.”

Ryan’s head whipped up,
his eyes wide in surprise. “Really?”

Smiling, Curt nodded.
“Yeah, really.”

“Do you…will you teach me
how to fix motorcycles?”

That was the last thing he
expected to hear from him. “Seriously? You want to learn?”

“Yeah. My friend’s older
brother has one he’s rebuilding. It’s cool to watch him.”

Hmmm.
He’d have to find out if the brother was
experienced and old enough to work in a shop. “Okay. Here’s the deal. I’ll
teach you how to fix up bikes, and shave when you want, if you apologize to
your mother…
and
…you agree to come to me like a grown-up if something I
do or say bothers you. Deal?”

He held out his closed
fist and Ryan bumped it with his own. “Deal.”

“Okay. Now, since all of
that is out of the way…I think it’s time you and I had a little talk about the
birds and the bees.”

He grimaced when Ryan
rolled his eyes…yeah, this talk was going to be a lot harder than the first
one.

Two Years Later

“Open mine next, Papa Curtsy!”

He smiled as eight-year-old Amanda handed him a birthday
present, which her mother had obviously helped her wrap. Winking at his wife of
six months, he shook the small box and felt something heavy shift around
inside. Outside at the picnic tables, he was surrounded by his mother, Eric’s
parents, the kids, and Dana, who now went by the hyphenated name Mrs.
Prichard-Bannerman. It was something they had both agreed on so the children
would never feel as if they’d pushed Eric from the family. They all had chosen
different names for him. Ryan called him Pop. Taylor used Dad instead of Daddy,
which is what he’d called Eric. And Justin told everyone Curt was his Pa.

“I wonder what this is?”

Amanda bounced on the balls of her feet in front of him.
“Open it and find out!”

Everyone laughed at her exuberance as he tickled her side. “Good
idea, short-stuff.”

After tearing the paper off the square box, he held it up for
everyone to see. “Someone remembered I wanted a new fishing reel.”

“I did,” the little girl announced with a look of pride and
joy on her face.

“Well, thank you very much. And thanks to everyone for the
gifts. It’s been a great birthday.” It really had been. In fact, it’d been a
great year. His motorcycle shop had quickly gained the following it had in
Florida and there was a waiting list for his design services. Dana was teaching
again and loving every minute of it. They’d even finished Eric’s dream of
bringing some farm animals back to the property. They were now the proud owners
of three pigs, two goats, ten chickens, and that same cocky rooster. They had
also rescued two bullmastiffs from a rescue group Ian’s friend Parker
recommended, and the big lugs were sleeping in the shade of a nearby tree.

Fourteen-year-old Ryan stepped forward and handed him a shirt
box which Curt hadn’t noticed. “There’s one more. This is from all of us.”

Glancing up, Curt took it from him. He still couldn’t get
over how tall the kid had gotten in the past few months. He was probably going
to end up being several inches over six feet.

As he started to open the present, he noticed Dana had begun
filming him with her camera. “Just so you know, this was the kids’ idea, and
they had Grandpa help them with it. I just found out about it last week.”

He squinted at Amanda and teased, “Short-stuff, how’d you
keep a secret from me?”

Giggling, she shrugged as her brothers surrounded her. Taking
the top of the box off, he moved aside the tissue paper and found…papers. A
stack of typed papers. Removing them, he read the top page and his eyes filled
with tears.
Application for Adoption.

Ryan pointed at the papers. “We want our last names to be
Prichard-Bannerman, just like mom’s.

Choked up, all he could do was open his arms and the children
stepped forward to hug him in one big huddle. When he finally regained his
composure, he looked each one in the eye before moving to the next. “You have
no idea how much this means to me. I love you.”

“We love you, too,” they responded as one.

Standing, he shook hands with Earl, then kissed Alice and his
own mother, all of whom were beaming at him. Lastly, he turned to his wife, who
handed Ryan the still recording camera. She then took both of Curt’s hands in
hers and smiled at him. “There’s one more present which no one else knows
about. I’m pregnant.”

Stunned, he just stared at her while all around him there
were cheers and shouts of congratulations. Dropping to his knees in front of
her, he placed his hand over her womb and his unborn child. “Hello, little Eric
or Erica. I’m your daddy.”

Towering over him, Dana gasped and he tilted his head so
their gazes met. “What else would we call him or her?”

Happy tears ran down her cheeks as he got to his feet.
Wrapping his arms around her, he shouted, “Family hug!” As the children joined
them, Curt knew his best friend was watching over them, with his full approval,
and always would be.

The End