The Heart of Devin MacKade (The MacKade Brothers 3)

Bryan wiped his hands on his dirty jeans. “Does it hurt? You can put one of the soda cans on it.”

“It’s okay.”

“Look, Con, I didn’t mean anything by what I said. Nothing bad about your mom, I mean. She’s great. If I thought somebody was saying something bad about my mom, I’d beat the hell out of them.”

“It’s okay,” Connor said again. “I know you weren’t.”

“Well, what’d you go at me like that for?”

Calmer now, Connor rested his chin on his knees. “I thought Sheriff MacKade was coming around because he liked me.”

“Well, sure he likes you.”

“He’s coming around for my mother. He’s probably been kissing her, and maybe even more. You know?”

Bryan shrugged. “Well, since he’s stuck on her…”

“Everything’s been good. Everything’s changed, and it’s so great the way it is. We’ve got the apartment, and Mama’s happy, and he’s locked up. Now everything’s going to be ruined. If she marries the sheriff, it’ll ruin everything.”

“Why? Devin’s cool.”

“I don’t want a father, not ever again.” Dark eyes dominated Connor’s dirty, tear-streaked face. “He’ll take over, and things will change back. He’ll start drinking and yelling, and hitting.”

“Not Devin.”

“That’s what happens,” Connor said in a fierce whisper. “It’ll all be his instead of ours, and it’ll all have to be his way. And if it isn’t, he’ll hurt her and make her cry.”

He had an image of Devin making a vow, offering his hand on it, right here in the woods. But he pushed it aside.

“That’s what fathers do.”

“Mine doesn’t,” Bryan said reasonably. “He’d never hit my mom. He yells, but she yells back. Sometimes she yells first. It’s pretty cool.”

“He hasn’t hit her yet. She just hasn’t made him mad enough.”

“She makes him real mad sometimes. One time, she made him so mad I thought smoke was going to come out of his ears, like in a cartoon. He picked her right up and threw her over his shoulder.”

“See.”

Bryan shook his head. “He didn’t hurt her. They started wrestling around on the grass, and she was yelling at him and swearing. Then they started laughing. Then they started kissing.” Bryan rolled his eyes. “Man, it was embarrassing.”

“If he’d really been mad—”

“I’m telling you, he was. His face gets real hard, and his eyes, too. He was really steaming.”

“Did it scare you?”

“Nah.” Then Bryan moved his shoulders again. “Well, maybe it does just a little, when I do something to make him really mad at me. But it’s not because I think he’s going to belt me or anything.” Bryan let out a long breath, then shifted so that he could drape an arm over Connor’s shoulders. “Look, Con, Devin’s not like Joe Dolin.”

“He fights.”

“Yeah, but not with girls, or kids.”

“What’s the difference?”

Connor was about the smartest person he knew, Bryan thought, but he could be

so dopey. “You just socked me, right? Are you going to go home and whip up on Emma?”