Page 113 of Sinners Reunion

“Yeah. He was shooting blanks. She wanted a kid. I know. I fucking know, King. Doesn’t change shite, though, does it? It still destroyed my family. I’m still a bastard.”

“You were wanted.”

“By my mother, yes, and look how I repaid her. Oh, I turned into a fine young man. Got her killed and everything.”

I look down at the earth and gather my thoughts. This isn’t about a vasectomy or his legitimacy. This is something deeper. My feet move forward, and I place my hand on his shoulder before he can back away.

“What’s this really about? I can’t help you if you don’t let me.”

He jerks his shoulder out of my grasp and starts walking again. “It’s nothing, pal. Thanks for the talk, though. Sorry I’m not much good at it.”

I stand still and let him get a few paces ahead of me before I carry on behind him. Whenever he’s ready to share, he will. I just hope it happens before we reach California. He’s the most closed-off of the four siblings, and I’ve made the least amount of progress with him. I’ve yet to find a way through, and I’m running out of time.

Once we’re back through the secret passage, he breaks right, and I go left. Adrenaline pushes me forward and quickens my pace. I’m either heading toward the punishment or the prize, and I won’t know which until I shed this secret.

I stop walking. I’ve just let a golden opportunity slip through my fingers. If I wanted Aven to share something with me, I should have shared something with him. Instead, I just let him walk on.

But Josie . . .

Maybe Jim’s right. Maybe I really am losing focus.

Realistically, Josie is the least likely to kill me once she learns the truth. Aven is the most. Even if I didn’t give a shit about bonding with the young man, I want to improve my odds of survival. But as luck would have it, I also care about connecting with my son, so I turn around and jog to catch up with him before he reaches his RV.

Aven passes a beer to me. We sit on a flat rock tucked away in the darkness. Some of the others gather around a small campfire nearby. Everyone else had the same idea as Josie and myself, planning to stay up all night and sleep through the heat of the day in preparation for the night drive into Nevada.

When I told Josie I needed to have a word with Aven, she assured me she would be just fine by herself for a bit longer. I tucked her in with a heating pad, a ginger ale, and a book of word searches. She’ll likely nod off, but that’s okay. We can have our talk another time. My discussion with Aven might ensure more time for talking post trip.

I convinced him to have a chat by saying that I needed some advice myself. In reality, I do. Of my three sons, Aven and I are most alike when it comes to the romance department. We never really envisioned ourselves as men to be possessed by any woman. He’s made peace with this unforeseen turn of events, and perhaps he has some words of wisdom.

If nothing else, maybe I can get him talking.

“I’ll just get right to it,” I say. “When did you know you couldn’t live without her?”

Aven’s head rears back. “What’s this all about now? I figured you wanted to talk favorite hobbies, not romance.”

“I see a lot of myself in you, and I just want to know how you’ve made it work. I mean, the sex is⁠—"

He holds up his hand. “I’m with the other lads. I dinnae feel comfortable hearing about your sex life. You’re more like my da than my own da.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do.” He drops his hand and looks at the stragglers sitting by the fire. “That’s what’s been bugging me.”

There it is. We got around to it quicker than I thought we might.

“It’s normal to seek attachments when⁠—”

“No, that’s not it,” he says with a shake of his head. He looks down at the beer in his hands, then takes a long pull from the silver can. “I feel like a whingy little toddler for even feeling this way.”

“What way?”

“That you connect more with the others than you do with me. We’ve all adopted you as our patriarch, even the ones who aren’t Carters. Hell, even Ice Pick was talking about changing his name to Chad King because he feels closer to you than his family.”

“He believes that’s my surname?”

Aven chuckles against his will. “I’m serious, King. I feel like I showed up so much later than everyone else. You already knew Frankie from work and everyone else from these retreats. Hell, Jim is like a fucking brother to you. The two of you go back to childhood, don’t you?”

“Teenage years,” I say. “Quite a long time.”