unloaded me and handed me my suitcase. Spoke in whispered voices with my aunt Cathy, who I had

never met before, then drove away without a good-bye.

Present day . . .

DEWAYNE

Micah lay sprawled out over me, fast asleep while Darth Vader kicked ass and took names on the

television. The original plan had been to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. But then Micah said his

mother liked Captain Jack and that we had to wait on her to start the movie.

Hell no was Sienna going to sit here and look at Johnny Fucking Depp. I had ejected that DVD

really damn fast and stuck in one of the Star Wars discs. I didn’t even care which one it was. Just so

Sienna wasn’t thinking about some other man.

Sienna walked into the room with that silky little wrap around her and her hair in damp curls, her

face scrubbed free of makeup. “Is he asleep?” she asked, moving toward us.

“Yeah,” I said, wondering if she had anything on under that wrap.

“Let’s get him into bed,” she said, bending down to scoop him up.

“I got him,” I told her.

“Okay.” She stepped back and let me stand up with him, and then she led the way back to his room

and pulled his covers back so I could tuck him in. Tonight we’d made sure he was bathed and in his

pajamas before movie time.

She bent down and kissed his little cheek.

“Love you, Momma,” he muttered with his eyes closed.

“Love you more,” she replied.

When she turned to leave the room, I bent down and ruffled his hair. He was such a little thing. So

much like his daddy at that age.

“Love you, Uncle Dewayne,” he said in that same little groggy voice.

My throat closed up, and I had to swallow hard to loosen it up before I could speak. “Love you,

kiddo,” I told him.

He pulled the covers under his chin and snuggled deeper into his bed.

This moment was all because of Sienna. She’d made this possible.

I fucking loved her. Not just because she’d given me this kid to help heal what I’d lost, but because

she’d stolen a piece of my soul with those big eyes and that sweet smile when she was fourteen. I’d

wanted to be close to her and keep her safe. I hadn’t exactly known why then, I’d just known I wanted

her happy. It was important to me.

But I knew why now. She was special. The kind of special that is hard to find in this life. The kind

of special most people don’t get to touch. It’s the rare kind that, when you find it, you know it’s worth

fighting for.

Her hand softly touched my arm. “Today went well.” Her voice was a whisper.

I wrapped my fingers around her small hand and walked out of the room with her by my side.

When she closed the door behind her, I was able to peek down the front of her wrap to see that she

was in fact naked under there. Hell yeah.

“I hope he’s a deep sleeper, because I got some plans that involve you naked with those long legs of

yours over my shoulders.”

Sienna glanced back up at me with wide eyes. “Tonight?”

“Fuck yeah, tonight. I hope you don’t think I’m going home without you. I told you I wasn’t going

anywhere and, baby, I was speaking real literal. If you’re here, then I’m here.”

“Oh,” she said as she swayed toward me slightly.

“Yeah, oh. Get your ass in that room and let me unwrap my present,” I said, turning her toward her

bedroom door and walking her inside, then locking it behind me.

The double bed that sat in the middle of the room was so damn small. Sleeping on that was going to

be tough, but I’d have my king-size one moved in tomorrow. Tonight we could deal with a double.

“Dewayne?”

I tore my eyes off the small bed and my plans and focused on the almost-naked beauty in front of

me. “Yeah?”

She fidgeted with the satin belt, keeping me from seeing all her creamy pale skin underneath. “You

staying here is moving fast. I don’t want Micah to get his hopes up if in a couple of weeks you realize

this isn’t what you want.”

She didn’t get it. Of course she didn’t. Sienna Roy didn’t understand that she was special. I had a

lifetime to show her just how special she was.

“This ain’t something I’m trying out, Sienna. I don’t fucking try shit out. I either want it or I don’t.

And I’ve wanted you since I was seventeen years old. Admitting that shit ain’t easy. It felt wrong for

so long because I love Dustin. I’ll always love him, and I’ll miss him to the day I die. But he had what

I desired, and more than anything I wanted you to be happy. I thought Dustin was who would make

you smile. He was who you loved. So I made sure you got what you wanted. But he didn’t see what he

had. He wasn’t careful with it. He didn’t cherish it, and in the end he lost it all too young. So I won’t

be changing my mind in a few weeks. I don’t do this shit. I never did this shit. Because they were

never you.”

Sienna inhaled deeply as she stared at me. I waited on her to say something, anything, to assure me

that I wasn’t alone here. That she felt something more. That this was different for her.

She reached for the belt on her wrap and tugged it open, letting it fall and giving me the view I’d

been wanting. “Show me,” she said softly.

Confused, I looked up from her tits to her eyes. “Show you?”

She nodded. “Show me with your body just how different this is for you.”

Oh, fuck yes. I could do that.

“Challenge accepted,” I said, closing the space between us and shoving the wrap off her arms and

letting it fall to the floor in a heap.

She shivered as I ran a finger from the valley between her breasts to her navel, then back up again.

So soft. So perfect. “Mine,” I told her.

Her breathing hitched, and it made her tits jiggle. Fuck, that was nice.

SIENNA

When I pulled into the driveway, my father’s station wagon sat in the driveway right behind

Dewayne’s truck. I’d only been at work four hours, and Dewayne hadn’t called me to let me know my

mother was here. Because that was the only person it could be. I hadn’t seen her in six years, and those

last memories weren’t happy ones.

And she was in that house with my baby. I didn’t even grab my purse before I bolted out of the car

and took off running. When I reached the door, it was locked. The keys were in my hands. I’d at least

pulled them out of the ignition in my hurry. Unlocking the door, I ran inside.

“Micah?” I called out. “Dewayne?”

No answer. I couldn’t call her name. What did I even call her? Mom? She hadn’t been that when I

needed it most. I walked through the house, but it was empty. No one was here. Could they be at the

Falcos’?

The front door opened, and I hurried back to the living room. But the sight of her made me stop.

Her hair was gray now. Completely gray. I had been born to my parents late in life and my mother’s

hair was already starting to gray when I lived at home. Seeing it completely gray now was startling.

Her face looked like it had aged ten years instead of six, and she was thinner.

“Sienna,” she said with an uneasy smile. “You look beautiful.”

I looked different too. She’d sent off a sixteen-year-old girl. I was a woman now. A woman with a

child.

“Where are Micah and Dewayne?” I asked.

She looked hurt, but she covered it up quickly. I would not feel guilty for that. She had abandoned

me. I could never hurt her as badly as she had hurt me. Nothing compared.

“I don’t know. I knocked and no one answered, so I walked around back, then heard a car drive up. I

didn’t recognize the fancy car, but it seems you’re doing well now, from the looks of it.”

That meant Dewayne and Micah were at the Falcos’, and the moment Dewayne looked outside and