Page 57 of Grim

“No, not at all.” I looked up at him and smiled. “I like staying here, but I don’t want to take advantage.”

He leaned over and kissed me on the forehead as he whispered, “Couldn’t if you tried.”

“How’d you get to be so great?”

“You do know who you’re talking to, right?”

“I’m serious,” I argued. “You took us in and helped us out for no reason at all. You got me a job, and if that wasn’t enough, you took care of Luna when she was sick.”

“That was Blade.”

“But you’re the one who got her to him. You just knew what to do. It’s hard to believe you don’t have kids of your own.”

“Who said I didn’t.”

“What?” I eased up on my elbow. “You have kids?”

“I have a kid.” A strange look marked his face as he admitted, “Well, he’s not a kid anymore. He’s in his twenties now.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I probably should’ve mentioned it sooner.” Lawson looked down at me with a blank expression. “Skid’s mine.”

“What!”

“Yeah, he’s mine.”

“But he never acted like he was your son.” I felt a little betrayed as I told him, “Neither of you did.”

“That’s because he’s prospecting. The whole father/son thing was put on hold. It’s what he wanted, so I played along.”

“But you could’ve at least mentioned something about it.”

“Yeah, I should’ve.”

My mind was reeling. I’d seen the resemblance. Anybody could see it. They both shared the same dark hair and eyes, and they even walked the same and had some similar personality traits. But I hadn’t pieced together the fact that they were father and son. “What about the pictures? I didn’t see any of him and you when I was unpacking those boxes.”

“You’d have to ask his mother about that.”

“Oh.” Until that moment, I hadn’t even considered Skid’s mother. Nor had I considered the fact that Grim had a past wife or a significant other. “Is she still around?”

“Nah, she’s long gone. She couldn’t handle the club life.”

“And what about Skid?”

“She couldn’t handle him either.” I could hear the anguish in his voice as he explained, “We were just kids when we met. Too young to get tied up like we did, and when Thatch was born, things took a turn. She didn’t want to be tied down. Not to me or to Thatch. So, she left.”

“How old was he when she left?”

“Just before his ninth birthday.”

“Oh, bless his heart. That must’ve been really hard for him. And hard for you, too.”

“Not as hard as you might think. We had the club, and the brothers did what they could to help out where they could.”

“That must’ve been nice.”

“It was. I don’t know what I would’ve done without them.”

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