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3
RILEY
I parkedmy car in front of my apartment building and peered up at the windows before I turned off the motor. The building looked quiet, but that could be a trick.
“Kingston said we could go hiking sometime—all three of us,” Connor piped up from the back seat. “Could we do that, Mommy? He seemed nice.”
I spun around fast. “When did you talk to Kingston?”
“After I came down from the mountain. I made it to the top and you weren’t there. I found another trail and I wanted to see where it went. I came out on the trail near the parking lot and he was there. The trail met up with the same one you were on and he said we could go hiking sometime—all three of us. He’s nice.”
I forced myself to turn away and gather my stuff. “Yeah. He’s nice.”
“So can we? Can we go hiking with him sometime?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“We never go anywhere,” he grumbled.
“Of course we do. We went hiking today.”
“I mean we never go anywhere with other people,” he countered. “Why can’t we?”
“I just said maybe.”
He made a face. “I want to go hiking with him.”
I cringed and got out of the car. I didn’t want to talk about Kingston Heller right now—or ever for that matter. I definitely didn’t want Connor around Kingston.
If Connor spent time around Kingston, that meant I had to spend time around Kingston, too. Spending time around Kingston meant the possibility that something could happen—something like what happened today.
I thread of adrenaline burned my stomach just thinking about Kingston. I probably would have done it with him if Connor hadn’t interrupted. In fact, I’m certain I would have.
I could never say no to Kingston. He had a way of dissolving all my resistance…..which is how I wound up pregnant from my stepbrother in the first place.
The first few years of our relationship were a nightmare. The chemistry between us spiked off the charts and only kept building with every passing day. Neither of us could sleep at night and forget about being in the same room with each other.
Things got better after we both stopped fighting it and just gave in. We still had to sneak out and do it in the woods or in the car or the barn or anywhere my mom wouldn’t find us.
Kingston’s dad getting murdered hit Kingston hard, but I really thought he was pulling out of it. I really thought we’d be together forever….and then he vanished.
Now he was back, but that wasn’t the worst of it. He wanted to take my son…..or at least share him. I wasn’t ready for that yet. I might never be, but I knew better than to underestimate Kingston’s determination. Nothing would stop him once he set his mind on something, especially something as important as this.
I grabbed my son and hugged him tightly. I couldn’t let anything or anyone take him away from me. I kissed him on top of the head, but I could already feel him wriggling out of my grasp. He didn’t understand and I didn’t want to scare him by acting differently around him. “Come on,” I told him. “Let’s go inside.”
We got out of the car and I checked the apartment again as we got nearer. Everything looked normal. The hair I usually placed between the door and the door frame was still there. No one had entered the apartment while we were away.
I unlocked the door, pulled Connor inside, and bolted the door behind me before I dared to turn on the lights. I shut the curtains and went through the whole apartment just to make sure. No one was here. Everything looked the same way I left it.
Connor waited in the living room until I came back and smiled at him. “Why don’t you go put your hiking boots away while I make dinner?”
He left for his room without a word. He knew the drill. We went through this whole routine every time we went anywhere. He’d sat on the couch waiting for me to check the apartment nearly every day for the whole five years he’d been alive.
I sighed and got busy putting dinner on the table. Tonight wasn’t the first time Connor expressed a desire to spend time with other people and do other things. It certainly wouldn’t be the last.
How long could I keep running? Maybe I should have just come clean to Kingston about the real reason I moved around so much. Maybe he could help me.
I shook that thought out of my head. Kingston was an irresponsible playboy who never took the slightest interest in me, Connor, or our wellbeing. Kingston never even bothered to check on us. He wouldn’t have been so stunned to find out he had a son if he’d even once come to see if I was okay.
