Page 248 of Overcast

My heart thuds—once,twice, double time, back to one.

Leaned up against the wall, I stare at the antler chandelier that hangs on top of the ceiling of my cabin. I never spent too much time looking at it, my eyes finding something more soft and femine to gaze upon as of late, but it’s dumb as fuck. Why the hell Reagan thought I’d want that shit is beyond me.

I don’t hunt animals.

Maybe it’s a joke that I’m three years late on or some shit.

It’s not so much a secret as we don’t talk about it. Reagan knows what I’m doing when I’m not home and it’s not me being in some tree like some asshole waiting for the prey to walk by.

“Waiting to use the bathroom or something?” Mills’s voice hits the side of my head like a headache that I’m not wanting to have right now.

I’m on edge already.

My body won’t stop fidgeting against this wall and I can’t do anything about it.

“Why in the fuck are you here?” I shoot back. “Play time is over.”

“Emmy wanted to hang around Huck for a few days.” I crane my neck in his direction as he lines parallel with me against the gray paint.

“What’s your excuse?”

He gives a noncommittal shrug. “Got nothing else better to do. And I like the kid.”

“You’re annoyingly too loveable. Go fuck off somewhere.”

“I am,” he replies. “Here.”

I roll my eyes and cross my arms, tightening them around me so I can just attempt to relax.

I’m so far from my damn element I’m starting to believe that I fucked up everything.

Stormi is married to me, she took my name and adopted some of my life. I’m not one of those guys that envisioned past a week or a day let alone years in the not sought out future.

“So, before she comes out,” Mills conveys, lowering his voice so that his big mouth doesn’t echo off my tall ceilings. “I just wanted to tell you to get the hell out of your head.”

I scoff. “What makes you think that?”

Um, hello?

“Because it’s all you’ve been doing since you met her. From the first moment you tortured that girl you made a subconscious decision that you weren’t going to kill her. Something about her embedded into you and, trust me, I don’t think it took much. She’s extremely special.”

She is, I’m fully aware, except I’m the bastard that can spin us around and upside down before an hour is up.

“You’re going to be a good dad,” Mills voices. “I just pray to God it’s not a girl or she’s fucked already.”

I can’t help the broken chuckle that escapes my lips because he’s not wrong. My unconventional ways would try to come out to play and I can’t make every single one of my daughter’s boyfriends bleed and cry.

Mills slaps me on the shoulder then squeezes. “You’re a douchebag but not to her...and you won’t be if she walks out of there with two solid lines on that test.”

My jaw locks because I’m scared of all the possibilities. I’m terrified she’s not going to want me around our child because what I do is fucked up and I have zero remorse for it. That she’ll be afraid that I’ll turn on our family like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth.

“I want the kid,” I deadpan. “I want…”

Everything.

Every single good and bad moment with Stormi.

“I know,” Mills finishes for me. “Keep me updated.” On his own accord, he actually leaves, taking the steps two at a time and leaving me to my own devices.

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