Callie Endicott - Kayla's Cowboy

Alex pulled himself up and faced the squirt. Why did she have to make up such strange words? You’d never know she was practically a genius. Maybe. Personally, he thought she’d just fooled the teachers and school counselor.

“I didn’t run away from home,” he informed her haughtily. “Guys who run away from home don’t leave letters to tell their mothers what they’re doing. Besides, I also emailed Sandy about it.” Sandy had been his best friend for as long as he could remember.

“That’s a technicality. Boy, was Mom pissed.”

“You’re too young to talk like that. Besides, Mom doesn’t get pissed, or at least I don’t think so.”

“Shows how much you know. She was pissed at Dad, too, at first because he thought you’d gone off for the day without telling anyone and hadn’t done anything about it, and then because he didn’t call her right off.”

“So she wasn’t mad at me?”

“Of course she was. Mom gets mad when she’s scared.”

“Really?”

DeeDee snickered. “You can build a computer, but you’re too much of an idiot to figure Mom out.”

“I wasn’t too much of an idiot to get here on my own, was I?” he countered.

“Probably just dumb luck.”

There was a knock on the door and Alex called, “Come in.”

It was Mom, and he couldn’t tell if she was angry or not. “DeeDee,” she said, “please go watch the baseball game with your grandpa.”

His sister grinned. “I’d rather stay and watch Alex get shredded.”

“Out.”

“Jeez, I never get to have any fun.”

“DeeDee,” Mom warned.

“Okay, okay.” His sister winked at him as she slid through the door.

“Close it,” Mom ordered.

“But closing it means I’ll have to work even harder to hear what you’re saying.”

“I don’t think so, young lady.” It was Grandpa, who’d come down the hallway and put his arm around DeeDee’s shoulders. “We’re going down to the family room to see how the Cubs are doing.”

“Okay.” DeeDee stuck her head back into the room again. “By the way, Alex, I am glad you didn’t get splattered on the road or kidnapped and taken by pirates to Shanghai or something. Surprised, but glad.”

“Get out of here, squirt.”

DeeDee simply grinned, and Alex was almost sorry when she was gone since their mother’s attention would have been split between them.

“Okay, I’m really sorry,” he rushed to say. “I guess it was a stupid thing to do, but I—”

“You guess it was stupid?” Mom interrupted, sounding incredulous. “I thought we’d brought you up with more sense than to do something so dangerous.” Her face was so tired and pale that Alex felt awful.

“You did, but...uh, Dad spends all his time with Brant and doesn’t notice us anymore, even when we’re there.” He’d meant to ask her about Dad adopting him, but the words got stuck in his throat.

Her lips pressed together, then relaxed. “What was the real reason? You’ve seen your dad in other relationships, and how he gets...er...swept up in them.” It was true—his father was an ass a lot of the time. Even when he was just dating some woman with a kid, he did the daddy thing with them and seemed to forget him and DeeDee.

Alex stuck his chin up. “Isn’t that good enough?”

Mom sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Nothing’s good enough to justify a fifteen-year-old running off on his own. And why Schuyler? You could have come home if it bothered you that much.”

She was always so logical, it was hard to argue with her.

“I didn’t run away. I just took a...an unauthorized vacation.”

“You’re fifteen. An unauthorized vacation for a fifteen-year-old is running away.”

“Grandpa says he’s always admired the logical way you argue,” he said, hoping to avoid more questions. “He says you’d make a Vulcan proud. Imagine an old guy like that knowing about Star Trek.”

“Don’t try to slide around this, Alex. You scared me half to death. I almost...” Her voice choked up and he could swear she was ready to cry.

Crud. If he’d felt rotten before, now he was neck deep in pond scum. But it was mostly her fault, because she hadn’t told him the truth.

She straightened. “Alex, I want to know right now. Why did you run away?”

“I... Okay. That is, I thought...”

Now he wasn’t completely sure why he’d done it. He’d just been so angry the way Dad acted around Brant and how they’d kept the adoption a secret. Heck, he knew they’d gotten married three years after he was born, but that wasn’t unusual. Half his friends could tell the same story.

“I wanted to get back at Dad somehow, and you, too, I guess,” he blurted out.

“Why me?”

“Because you never told me that Dad isn’t my real father,” he said in a rush.

His mom’s face turned pale. “That was wrong,” she admitted slowly. “Your father wanted it that way, so I agreed. Later I knew it was a mistake, but Dad still thought it was best to wait. And it doesn’t change anything to say he isn’t your birth dad. He’s your real father. Adopting you was his idea. He really wanted to do it.”

She stopped talking and waited, but Alex didn’t know what to say.

“How did you find out?” she finally asked.

“From Brant. Dad told him when they went on that stupid ‘bonding’ camping trip.”

“Bonding?” Mom’s mouth tightened.

“That’s what Dad called it when he said I couldn’t go. I guess he was trying to be buddy-buddy with the obnoxious little creep. Brant couldn’t wait to spill everything.”

“Oh. Well, now that you know, you must have some questions.”

Mostly Alex had thought about how to run away without getting killed. Face it, he was a wimp. When he’d run away, he’d gone to his great-grandparents’ house; how lame could you get?

“Do you want to know anything about your biological father?” his mom prompted. “You have to hear about him now anyway. He lives in Schuyler.”

“Here?” Alex gulped.

“Yes, and since there’s a strong resemblance, folks in town may have already realized you’re his son.”

Alex nervously rubbed his nose. People had looked at him funny and said he seemed familiar, but he’d thought it was because of his great-grandparents.

“Uh, what’s my birth dad like?”

His mother shook her head. “It’s hard to say. I briefly ran into him today, but that’s the first time I’ve seen Jackson since before you were born. I’ll talk with him as soon as possible, and should know more after that. In the meantime, I also need to explain everything to your sister.”

“DeeDee doesn’t have to know,” Alex protested.

“She does unless we leave Montana immediately, which isn’t going to happen. And it might even follow us back to Seattle. This is like breaking an egg—we can’t put the pieces back together again in the same way. So start thinking about whether you want to meet your birth father. I’ve left a message at his house so we can get together and talk. I can try to arrange for you to meet him, but to some extent, the timing is up to you.”

That made him feel a little better.

Mom stood up. “I’m going to see DeeDee right now. I don’t want her to hear what’s happening from anyone else.”

“Uh, okay,” Alex said reluctantly, then realized there was something he wanted to ask. “Wait. Why didn’t my birth dad ever come to see me?”

His mother looked uncomfortable. “It’s complicated. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

Alex settled back on the bed, convinced she wasn’t telling him everything.

* * *

THE NEXT MORNING, Kayla turned in at the road with the Crazy Horse Ranch sign arching over it. She’d been tempted to come over the evening before, but dealing with Jackson when she was so tired hadn’t seemed wise. Instead, she’d called a second time, leaving another message on voice mail when no one had picked up.