Page 64 of Forever Always

He was bouncing up on his toes, grinning from ear to ear as we walked out a couple hours later. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him this . . . free. Before Mom died, that was for sure.

“We need to go back, Becks. Please tell me we can go back?”

I wrapped my arms around him and kissed the side of his head, and didn’t care at all that we were in the middle of the street. “Course we can, butterfly. Next time, maybe Jay’ll come. Maybe even Dakota.”

“Oooh, like a double date. I’ve never been on a double date before.”

“Thought you’ve never been on a date before neither,” I grumbled. I knew I sounded ridiculous.

Riley just grinned up at me. “Not before today. Shit, I wish we both didn’t have work. I coulda stayed there all day.”

“Me too. But we’ll come back, I promise.”

I went to take a step away from the building when Riley started to pat his pockets. “Fuck, I think I left my phone in there. Be right back!”

He didn’t give me a chance to stop him so I could go too and bolted back into the warehouse.

“Goddamn it.” I wanted to follow him . . . I was overprotective on my best days, but after knowing that Mr. Chase had seen him, I was extra paranoid. I’d already decided either Jay or I would be taking Riley back and forth from his shifts. Not that he knew that yet. I figured there was no point ruining our perfect date with that tidbit. He’d find out eventually. I paced the sidewalk before I decided to go in after him.

“Excuse me, you’re Beckett Cooks, right?”someone asked before I could get inside.

I glanced up and came face-to-face with the guy who’d been working out on the other side of the place. I had only gotten a few glimpses of him, but the grim reaper tattoo that took up most of his left arm made it pretty fuckin’ obvious who he was.

“Why’re you askin’?”

He didn’t seem like one of Dad’s dealers, but who knew? He looked more like a fed than anything, besides the tats, but why would the feds want to talk to me? Mr. Chase? But that made no sense either. I just didn’t fuckin’ know. I shifted back, getting ready to run just on instinct. Not that I would, not with Riley still inside. I just couldn’t help the response.

The guy sighed. He was decent looking, probably in his early forties. He had short dark-brown hair, about the same color as Riley’s, and a well-maintained beard with a little gray in it. Guy was fuckin’ jacked and barely fit in the T-shirt he was wearing. He had sunglasses on despite it being cloudy, which added to the whole federal agent vibe.

“This is going to sound crazy, but my name is Wesley Hayes.” He paused like that was supposed to mean something to me. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t know what this guy was getting at, but I’d rather he be gone before Ri came back out. I didn’t trust him and wanted him nowhere near my butterfly.

He huffed out a laugh when he didn’t get the response he was looking for. “Listen, I’ve been wanting to meet you and Riley for a while now but wasn’t sure how to approach this, and then when you showed up at the gym, I knew I couldn’t miss my chance.”

My guard went up. How did someone I knew nothing about know both Riley and me? Did Henry say something?

“How do you know who we are?”

The guy scrubbed his face. He looked like this was the last conversation he wanted to have. “I’ve been asking around and everyone said to approach you first. I really don’t want to mess with Riley’s life, so I figured this was best when I saw him go back inside. But—” He took a deep breath, and I tried not to hold mine. I couldn’t even imagine where this was going, but it couldn’t be good. “I’m pretty sure I’m Riley’s birth father.”

The world stopped as I tried to make sense of his words. His birth father? What the fuck? Where the hell had he been all these years? How did I know if this was even true?

“Bullshit,” I snapped.

Wesley took off his sunglasses and I nearly fell to my knees. Riley’s sky-blue eyes were staring back at me. There was no mistaking them. I hadn’t ever seen another person with a color like theirs before. I stumbled a few steps back.

“Becks! What’s wrong?” Riley ran up to me, looking worried as fuck. He grabbed at my arms and glared at Wesley.

“What the fuck is goin’ on?” He pushed me behind him, which was laughable since I was so much bigger, and it pissed me off some because I protected Riley. But it still made me swoon, which I’d never admit, in a way I didn’t even know I could.

Wesley, for his part, looked as shell-shocked as I did. It made sense then why I’d caught him staring a couple times, but he’d quickly walked away whenever Riley had turned toward him. He wasn’t ready for this. Neither was I.

“Riley?” he asked, his voice faint, like he was about to pass the fuck out.

“Who are you?” Ri snapped, suspicious just like I’d taught him to be.

Wesley opened his mouth, but my glare shut him up. I had to do this. I spun Riley around so he was facing me and turned us so my back was to Wesley, not Ri’s. Not that I thought he was gonna hurt us, but part of me still screamed this was some kind of trap. For what? I had no fuckin’ idea. But it seemed too suspicious, and I didn’t trust this guy as far as I could throw him, especially after what went down at the shelter yesterday.

“Riley, this guy says he’s Wesley Hayes.” I used the same emphasis he did. The name meant nothing to me, so I doubted it did to Ri either, but since he seemed to think it might, I thought I’d see. Riley stared at me blankly, clearly confused as all fuck. “He, um, he says he thinks he’s your birth father.”

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