with a smirk on his face. Why was he here? He never showed up at my work sites.

“Just dropped Manda off to get her hair done,” Preston said, looking at me pointedly.

I had no fucking idea what this was about, so I just stood silently and waited for there to be a point

to this.

I saw the moment when it finally dawned on him that I had no clue what he was talking about. He

pressed his lips together, then shook his head. “You might want to stop by. Say hello,” he said.

“Sienna is back.”

I should have known. Each day that passed without my mother calling to yell at me for not telling

her that the new neighbor was Sienna, I breathed a sigh of relief. But it was only a matter of time

before people in town saw her. And what the hell was she doing at Hillary’s salon? That place was

expensive, and from the look of Sienna’s car, she didn’t need to be paying high prices for her damn

hair. What about the kid?

“She have her kid with her?” I asked, trying to make the disgust in my voice not too obvious.

“Kid? What? Fuck! She’s got a kid? She married?”

She didn’t have her kid with her. Fan-fuckin’-tastic. She’d left the little boy at home alone. What

the hell kind of a mother was she?

“And you knew she was back? With a kid? Why haven’t you said anything?”

“She moved into her parents’ house. I met her kid when I went over there to check out the

neighbors for my parents. Didn’t think it was important that she was back. She was a part of Dustin’s

life, not mine,” I replied, then jerked open the truck door.

“Liar. Fucking full-of-shit liar. You watched over that girl for years. Hell, when she was a

freshman, you acted like her damn guard dog. When she was sent away, it fucked with your head. You

were grieving Dustin, and then she was gone and you grieved for her too. I would have thought you’d

care that she was back. Unless she’s married and that’s why you’re pissed.”

Pretending like I hadn’t been super invested in Sienna and her happiness back then was pointless.

My friends knew the truth, even if my brother hadn’t noticed. “She’s not married,” I replied, and

climbed into the truck. “But the girl I cared about is gone. A cold bitch is in her place. And if she’s

getting her hair done at Hillary’s, then she’s a selfish bitch. The piece-of-shit car she drives isn’t safe

for her boy to ride in.”

I started to close the door, but Preston grabbed it. “Whoa, man, what’s your deal? She’s got you

acting like an ass, and you’re not an ass. Sienna is working at Hillary’s, not getting her hair done.”

Maybe I was an ass.

“Oh,” I replied, wishing I hadn’t snapped in front of Preston.

“Yeah, oh. Sienna didn’t seem like a bitch at all. She seemed nice. . . . She was Sienna.”

No, she wasn’t. She was a mother, and she was fucking hiding something.

And if she was working, where the hell was Micah?

“I’m tired. I need a beer and then my bed. I’ll see you later,” I told him.

“Live Bay tomorrow night?” he asked.

Live Bay was the club in town were we all used to drink and pick up women. Now it was just me

picking up women. The rest of those assholes were hitched or as good as hitched. “Yeah. I’ll see you

there,” I told him as I closed the door. Then I headed to my parents’.

I could tell myself I was going to visit my momma, but the truth was, I was going to make sure

Micah wasn’t at home alone. Something about the way Sienna had sent him away from me and gotten

defensive bothered me. I wasn’t convinced the woman was mentally stable.

* * *

Once I got to my parents’, I parked beside my dad’s truck and made my way across the street before

he realized I was here. I didn’t want a fucking audience, nor did I want his commentary.

Sienna’s car was gone, so she wasn’t home yet. That kid had better not be here. I walked up the

steps and knocked on the door. I waited a full minute, and nothing. So I knocked again. Why I was

fucking convinced she’d left her kid at home I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know Sienna. I didn’t actually

have proof she was crazy.

“Micah, you in there? It’s Dewayne. I thought I’d stop by and check on you,” I called out, but there

was only silence.

He wasn’t in there. I was overreacting. Why? I didn’t have a fucking clue. I turned and headed back

down the stairs just in time for the beat-up Honda to pull into the driveway. Great. Now I had to

explain myself.

Her car door opened and she stepped out. The sunglasses perched on her nose covered up those eyes

of hers, so I had no idea what she was thinking. She bent down and then stood back up. I could see the

small head scrambling out of the backseat and then heard his feet hit the pavement.

“Dewayne!” he called as he ran around the front of the car with an excited grin. But then he

stopped. His smile vanished, and he stiffened and glanced back at his mother.

Sienna closed the car door and walked toward Micah. She rested her hand on his shoulder, bent

down to whisper in his ear, then handed him the keys.

He nodded. “Okay,” he said glumly, then headed toward the house, not looking up at me again.

When he got to the door, he unlocked it and went inside.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in her very unwelcoming tone. Apparently, the friendly

smile she’d had for Preston was not happening for me.

Now, I could either lie to her or tell her the truth. I wasn’t a liar. “Heard you were working. I was

concerned the kid was home alone.”

The expression on her face went from shocked to downright pissed. “Alone? You . . . you think that

I would leave my son alone?” she asked in a horrified voice. “I’m not an idiot. And if you haven’t

noticed, I’m the only family he has. I’m the only one who wanted him and loved him. So don’t”—she

pointed her finger at me, her voice rising as fury simmered in her eyes—“act like you give a shit about

him now. You DO NOT have the right. Get away from here. Go back over to that house. Forget about

what your brother would have wanted. Pretend that abandoning me and his son when we needed

SOMEONE was okay.” She was breathing so hard her chest was heaving, and tears had filled her eyes.

Then she was running past me, and I couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t fucking move.

Hell . . . I couldn’t fucking breathe.

“Momma?” Micah’s voice called, and I moved then. I spun around and looked at him. Sienna

wiped at her face with her arm and bent down to press a kiss to his head and whisper something to

him. He wrapped his little arms around her, and then he turned his head and glared at me. He actually

glared at me. My chest exploded into a million pieces as I stood there and stared into the eyes of my

brother’s son. How had I not seen it? His eyes were just like Dustin’s.

“Don’t come back here. You made my momma cry!” he yelled at me.

Sienna leaned back and grabbed his little arms gently and started talking to him again. He nodded

and turned to go back inside. She stood up and glanced back at me.

The pain in her eyes confused me. Her words confused me. Why did she think we knew about this?

Why was she blaming us for not being a part of his life? We didn’t know. She’d left and never come

back.

“He’s Dustin’s,” I said as the reality of this finally sank in.

She frowned, and then she slowly nodded.

I dropped my head into my hands and took several deep breaths. Holy fuck, I had to get control of

myself. One emotion after another slammed into my chest, taking my breath away. Pain, guilt, anger,

disbelief—but more than anything, pure joy. It trumped all the other emotions. For six years I had