Scene originally written and published Dec 2021.
The Punk and the Plaything turns two today! As promised, here is a post epilogue bonus scene to celebrate. If you have not read The Prince and the Pawn, beware of spoilers.
JAMESON
Checking my watch—an 18-carat white gold and blue reminder from my wife to be on time—I cursed when I realized I was fifteen minutes late. I scrubbed my hand down my face before exhaling and climbing from the car.
Ignoring the exhaustion in my bones, I stepped onto the sidewalk, still dressed in my three-piece suit. With no time to spare, I’d driven here straight from the office. There were only a few stragglers in the lot since the game had already started, so I made it to the ticket booth in no time.
Feeling my phone vibrating like crazy, I checked it and saw my friends texting me all at once.
Ty Baby: You’re late.
Ever: Tell me you’re on your way.
Vaughn: Hurry the hell up!
Four: Drive safe. Speeding’s my thing. :)
Old Flame: Some young dude’s hitting on your wife. Better hurryyyy.
Old Flame’s New Flame: All good, Buchanan?
Shit.
I bypassed the line and the guard standing by to make sure people paid. As Brynwood’s highest paying benefactor, no one stopped me as I pushed through the crowd and rushed toward the stands.
Tonight was the first game of the season, and it seemed the entire town had shown up.
The stands were already full on both sides of the field, leaving most people attending standing around—not that they minded.
My phone vibrated again with another text from Lou. Opening our thread, I saw a text that read ‘we need to talk’ and a picture of a cute kid with hair so blonde it was almost white attached.
Aww, Cici’s so cute, I texted back as I climbed the stairs to the stand.
I received no less than thirty new pictures of Lucy and Luke every week, and I was just as bad, if not worse.
I didn’t get to see Wren and Lou or their kids as often since they lived two hours away. Vaughn had only recently moved his family back to Blackwood Keep two years ago while Wren and Lou remained content in Sunset Bay.
Blackwood Keep was too white collar for them—or so Lou says.
I’d just finished climbing the stairs when I felt my phone vibrate. Rather than searching the stands for my family, I checked the message.
Old Flame: That’s not my daughter, asshole.
What are you talking about? I texted back. She looks just like you.
I was lying, of course.
I’d barely glanced at the picture.
I pocketed my phone without waiting for her response, and a moment later, some kid bumped me. She was a blur of brown pigtails and pink bows as she ran in the opposite direction.
Not a moment later, another kid wielding a water gun attempted to dash past me as he chased her toward the other end of the stands.
Recognizing that evil grin and mop of mahogany hair, I quickly yanked the boy off his feet with a fist full of his shirt.
“Aw, dad!”
“Junior, what did I tell you about terrorizing girls?”
“But she started it!” he yelled while glaring at the retreating back of his victim.
“And I’m finishing it.” My son was a bully so I already knew the girl had done nothing to deserve his attention. “We’re going to talk about this when we get home.”
Jameson grumbled as I set him on his feet and turned him around to face me. I kept a firm hand on his shoulder, knowing he’d run away the moment I let him go. My youngest four were fucking demons. The only one who seemed to behave was Lyric.
“Where’s your mother?”
With my hand locked around his nape, I followed my son back down the stands and through the metal gate to the sidelines where the players and coaches watched the field, and the cheerleaders hyped up the crowd.
My confusion disappeared the moment I spotted my wife’s strawberry blonde mane. She didn’t notice me yet since Four had her attention, but my Calla Lily was a different story.
The grumpy look on my daughter’s face disappeared the moment she spotted me.
“Dada!”
“Shortcake!”
Dropping Barbette’s hand, Summer ran toward me as fast as her little legs in those striped leggings would allow.
“Summer, no!” Bee yelled after her. Spotting me, the panic on her face disappeared, and she smiled and blushed when I took my time checking her out from afar.
After eighteen years of fucking, making love, whatever you wanted to call it, she hadn’t entirely stopped being shy because I never stopped pushing her limits.
I was her first, her only, and I wasn't leaving any room for regrets.
Taking advantage of my temporary distraction, Junior broke free of my hold and disappeared back the way we came.
Catching my eldest’s eye, I silently sent Lyric after his brother before he could find fresh prey and make trouble.
As he walked away, Summer reached me, so I scooped her up and tossed her small body in the air, which sent her into a fit of giggles.
Turns out, it was all a ruse.
The moment I held my daughter against my chest, she laid her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes.
I groaned under my breath because I knew what that meant.
I’d be holding her for the rest of the night.
She’d scream this entire place down if I tried to put her down now.
“Look who finally decided to show his face.”
My gaze followed the voice as I made my way over to the group. Tyra stood next to Vaughn while their daughter, Raven, clung to her leg and stared at me like I was a stranger even though I saw her almost every day.
It was easy to guess why they’d chosen her name. She had coal-black hair and midnight eyes that stood out against her supple brown skin. She looked nothing like either of them, but she bared an awfully close resemblance to Vaughn's aunt.
“I know you still carry a torch for me, Ty Baby, but this has got to stop. I’m a married man.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, and I responded with a kiss on her cheek. I flashed an innocent smile at Vaughn when he glanced over his shoulder and dragged his woman closer to him before turning back to watch the game.
River was on that field.
He was a senior now, and that meant college scouts.
“How long has superstar been like this?”
Vaughn’s tunnel vision took me back twenty years when he was the quarterback and football was all he cared about.
“Oh, only since Riv announced he was trying out for the team,” Tyra quipped.
I had the feeling she wasn’t exaggerating.
River hadn’t shown any interest in the sport until they moved back to Blackwood Keep. It must have taken them both by surprise, and knowing Vaughn, he hadn’t stopped to question his son’s reasons.
After hugging Four, I turned to my baby and kissed her painted lips. “Sorry, I’m late.”
At this point, my apologies were long past believable but no less sincere. If I had a time machine, I’d go back in time and cut my uncle some fucking slack—maybe even tell him to find someone else to take over the family business.
“It’s okay,” Barbette told me breathlessly between me tonguing her down. “You make the wait worth it.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I smiled against her lips and leaned in for another kiss, but then Summer whined with her eyes still closed at me moving around too much.
I was just a human pillow to her, wasn’t I?
Stepping back to stand next to Bee, I scanned the immediate area for Saint and Justus. “Where are the twins?”
“They went with Luke and Lucy to get nachos.”
I nodded before my gaze connected with Lou’s. She was walking from the direction of the bathrooms with the same platinum-haired kid from the picture at her side and some couple I didn’t recognize closely trailing them.
Now that I saw the kid in person, I could admit she looked nothing like Lou. The sadness and distrust swimming in her dark eyes whenever she peeked from beneath the hood of the too-large pullover was not something I could ever mistake.
Lou said something I couldn’t hear to the couple and the kid before coming to stand next to me.
“The fuck?” I whispered as soon as they were out of earshot. They didn’t go far though. The trio sat down in the folding chairs next to the orange Gatorade coolers to watch the game. I dragged my gaze away when I realized I was still staring like a creep and turned to Lou. “Who was that?”
Even with the grave expression Lou wore, I wasn’t prepared for her answer. “Your daughter.”
My heart immediately felt like it was caught in my throat as my gaze frantically darted back and forth between Lou and the little girl.
“What?” I choked out even as logic told me it couldn’t be true. The kid couldn’t have been older than eight or nine—the same age as Jameson. I hadn’t fucked anyone but my wife in twice that time.
I kept waiting for the punch line, but as the seconds stretched, I started to wonder if maybe she was serious.
Not possible.
It was not fucking possible.
“Lou,” my wife warned before moving away to keep Tyra company while Vaughn and the coach went back and forth.
Lou’s poker face fell, and she cackled at my expense. “My God, you’re gullible. You should see your face! You totally deserved that for mistaking her for Lucy.”
“Hilarious,” I retorted dryly.
Lou shrugged before falling silent while watching the game. I kept stealing glances at the silent kid keeping a vigilant eye on everyone around her.
Our gazes met during one of her sweeps, and despite her unease, she boldly refused to break the stare first. The kid had some balls to go with that huge chip and trust issues.
“What’s her name?” I’d blurted the question before I was even aware it had formed in my head.
“Genesis,” Lou answered without looking away from the game.
I ignored that prickly feeling in my chest. “Those people with her…they’re her parents?” I desperately wanted to put a face and name to whoever had done this to her. Whatever it was.
Lou finally tore her gaze away from the field. “Huh?” I nodded my head toward Mr. and Mrs. Smith. “Oh, no. The Fairharts are her foster parents, but they won’t be for much longer. They’re moving to Minnesota.” She rolled her eyes.
“Bummer.” A few seconds passed in silence as I watched Riv execute a play, but then I felt Lou’s attention burning a hole in the side of my face and turned to her. “What?”
“So, are you and Bee still trying, or has the baby factory closed for good?”
I perked a brow. “Why? You working me, Valentine?”
“Maybe. And it’s Harlan now, remember? You planned our wedding.”
“Whatever. Why’d you send me her picture? Doesn’t that break some kind of social work rules?”
I was squinting now as I peered down at my “ex-girlfriend.”
As if he could read my thoughts, the jealous asshole she married appeared in the distance with my cousin at his side. They were making their way over with the rest of my brood and both of theirs in tow.
“What can I say? I’m a rule breaker.” She paused and then added lowly, “And because I remember once upon a time, you wanted a large family.”
Feeling my arms slacken, I tightened my hold on Summer before my wife divorced me for dropping our daughter. She stopped giving me passes after dropping Junior one too many times.
Letting Lou’s statement hang in the air, I stalked over to the row of portable folding chairs and carefully laid my daughter down in the empty one next to Genesis.
Once I was sure she wouldn’t wake her ass up, I returned to Lou’s side, out of hearing distance of the Fairharts.
“No.”
“I haven’t asked you anything.”
I cocked my head. “Now you’re just insulting me, Valentine.”
She sighed. “You built that big house,” she argued. I’d guess she’d given up on being coy. “You have all those empty rooms, the means, you love kids—”
“I have kids. Five of them, in case you forgot.”
“Summer could have a sister.”
“No.”
“It wouldn’t even be permanent. It’s just until I can find Genesis a forever home.”
“No.”
“If you won’t do it for her, do it for me, your bestest friend. I lost my parents to violence just like she did. I was lost, just like she is. If it wasn’t for Wren, who knows where I’d be—if I’d be.” She stared up at me with her blue eyes pleading.
“Yes, that’s all very sad. I’m still not doing it.”
Her next argument died on her lips when Wren slowly wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist. He softly pecked her cheek over and over until the distressed look on her face faded, and a smile appeared.
“I’m guessing he said no?” I heard him whisper. “I told you.”
Lou turned in his hold and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Do me a favor, hubby. Threaten to shoot his kneecaps again if he doesn’t do what I want.” She pouted, making Wren chuckle and me roll my eyes.
A heavy hand suddenly clapped my back, and then Ever was there.
I bucked my eyes at him in a plea for help.
His eyebrows rose when he looked at his sister-in-law, and then he slowly backed away. I guess he didn’t want to risk her coming for him next.
Asshole.
I had the most kids out of the crew, yet Lou had come to me.
I didn’t get the chance to ponder the reasons why.
A piercing scream had rent the air and, in the distance, I caught sight of my son chasing after the same girl from earlier. This time he was clutching a mud pie.
Fuck.
In her desperate attempt to get away, she ran through the gate, separating the field from the attendees and past the players' bench.
Junior was closing in fast, so I stalked forward to intercept.
She ran past the coolers and the folding chairs that only Genesis, her foster parents, and Summer currently occupied.
For a moment, it looked like she’d escape.
Junior had been forced to skirt a few of the players who’d gotten in his way. Clearing them, he sped up, quickly closing the lead she’d gained.
“Jameson!”
He didn’t hear me.
My voice had been drowned by the band playing after one of the players scored a touchdown. I quickened my stride when he reared his arm back and sped past the coolers and Genesis's foster parents.
What happened next unfolded too fast for me to see.
One moment, Junior was running, and the next, he was tipping forward and landing flat on his face.
My steps slowed as the girl he’d been chasing ran past me. My son groaned as he lifted his head, blinked, and then before I could register the blood now dripping from his brow, he whipped his head around to peer over his shoulder.
My gaze followed his in time to see Genesis slyly tucking her leg back underneath the chair.
“You should watch where you’re going,” I thought I heard her say.
She was still staring straight ahead with her hands tucked in the large pocket of her hoodie as if nothing had ever happened.
Maybe I’d imagined it?
My brows rose in speechless astonishment, but then I snapped out of it when my son slowly climbed to his feet. I recognized all too well that look in his eyes.
“I don’t think so,” I said when he kneeled to remake his mud pie. Placing a firm hand on his shoulder, I pulled him into me.
“Is that blood?” Bee screeched as she and Tyra rushed over to inspect his face. The cut didn’t look deep, but I wouldn’t know for sure until we cleaned him up. “Junior, what happened?”
As if we rode the same wavelength, my son and I both glanced at Genesis who was now openly staring and waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Jesus.
“I fell,” Jameson answered and only I knew it was a lie. Well, Genesis and me.
“He’ll be fine,” I told Barbette. “I have a first aid kit in the car. Let’s go.”
Realizing I was too tired for this shit, I quickly gathered my wife and kids and said goodbye to my friends before leading my family to the parking lot.
Some night.
LOUCHANA
“It’s not going to work,” Wren told me as he drove us home. River had successfully led Brynwood to victory, thirty-eight to zero. “Even if he does agree to it, Jamie will never do what you’re really after.”
“Yes, it will, and yes, he will. Jamie attaches himself to people. It’s in his nature. You’ll see.”
“I wasn’t talking about him. What makes you think Genesis wants another family? You didn’t.”
“But then I found you,” I flirted.
I saw the smirk he used to hide his blushing, so I checked the backseat to make sure our kids were sound asleep before sliding across Paula’s bench seat. Wren wasted no time curving his arm around me as I melted into him.
“You just wanted in my pants.”
“I still do,” I admitted as I slipped my hand underneath his T-shirt and caressed his abs. “So, get us home quick, okay?”