Claiming the Enemy: Dustin (Porter Brothers Trilogy 3)

“I’ll have the same. And add a side of bacon to both of them. I’ll take a coffee, and Logan will take orange juice.”

“Holly is going to be mad.”

“I’ll take care of Holly. Don’t worry about it.” Dustin put his coffee cup to the side to be filled, giving a polite smile to the waitress. She was the sister of a woman who worked at Jessie’s daycare.

When she left, Dustin watched Logan stare interestedly at what the other customers were doing.

Dustin slid his cup back in front of him. “We need to have a man-to-man talk.”

Logan’s eyes came back to him, his thin chest shrinking. “Am I in trouble?”

Dustin’s lips twisted upward in wry humor. “If you were in trouble, I wouldn’t be letting you eat pancakes, would I?”

“No.” His chest swelled in pride. “So, you just want to talk to me man-to-man?”

“Yes. We need to talk about something I’ve been putting off for a long time. I intended to have this talk with Holly here, but what I want to talk to you about was brought around by my actions, and they are for me to explain alone.”

He was about to continue when he saw the waitress coming back with their food. Leaning back, he made room on the table for her to place it all down.

“Thanks, Deb.”

She gave him an adoring look before retreating when he didn’t return it, keeping his attention on Logan.

Dustin didn’t touch his food, letting Logan pour as much syrup on his pancakes as he wanted. When Logan started eating, Dustin continued, dreading that Logan would never look at him the same way again when he was done talking.

“We need to talk about your mother ….”

Dustin told Logan about how they met in high school and dated secretly because her father didn’t like him.

“Why didn’t he like you?”

This was another reason he had put off explaining.

“Because Tate, Greer, and I hadn’t been nice. Sometimes we did things that other people in town consider outside the law.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that we would have gone to jail if we’d been caught. We knew it was wrong, but we did it anyway.”

“What kinds of things?”

“Things that her father knew we were doing and didn’t like. That doesn’t mean you can do things that’ll get you in trouble. You don’t want to make Holly cry, do you?”

“No, I won’t do anything that will make Holly cry.”

“Good. That’s all I’m going to ask you, Logan. If you think Holly wouldn’t like it, don’t do it.”

Logan’s fork paused halfway to his mouth with a big piece of pancake with syrup dripping off. “Does that mean I can’t finish my pancakes?”

“I’ll make an exception this time,” he said solemnly.

Pouring syrup on his pancakes, Dustin told him about dropping out of school and why he and Samantha eloped.

“Some things I’m about to tell you are going to be hard for you to hear, but I want them coming from me.”

“Okay.” Logan set his fork down as he listened.

“We decided to get married when Samantha told me she was pregnant with you. We sneaked off one night and went to Lexington. When we came back to Treepoint, she told me she wanted to go home to tell her father, and after she did, we’d leave town. We knew we couldn’t stay here. Her father—your grandfather—was too big in this town. He would have made trouble for Tate, Greer, and Rachel if we stayed.”

“You were going to leave town to protect them?”

“You never get off scot-free when you break the law, Logan. You have to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life, even if you’re caught. Samantha’s father would have made sure that Tate and Greer went to prison, and Rachel was taken away from Tate. She was still in high school, and Tate had custody of her. That’s why we were going to leave town.

“I kept expecting Samantha to call. I drove by her house a few times and saw no one was home. I called her a thousand times, and she didn’t answer. When she finally called two days later, she told me that she had a miscarriage the day she went home, and she asked her father to help her get an annulment.

“I tried to talk her into meeting me, but she wouldn’t. She disappeared for about six months before coming back to town. I never knew she had you. I took her at her word, Logan. If I’d known she was still pregnant with you, I would have never signed the annulment papers. I wanted you more than you’ll ever know.”

“I believe you. Did …? Did she want me?”

It was the question only Sam could answer, yet she wasn’t here, so he could only tell Logan what he believed.

“I think she did, Logan. I just don’t think she was willing to take the chance that I could protect her and you against your grandfather.” Dustin moved his plate of uneaten food away, his appetite gone.