Page 6 of Revived

“That will just make it worse,” the little girl – who must have been Harley – said as she laughed at her siblings’ predicaments.

“You guys better remember the rules around here before I embarrass you in front of Chevy’s father,” Kendra threatened.

“Not to mention, you keep giving your mom a hard time and I’m going to step in and show you little shits some manners.” It was clear that the man meant it, but the mirth underneath the words wasn’t to be missed either. I had no doubt that he would help keep Kendra’s children in line, but he was also amused by their antics tonight.

“Damn,” one of them hissed under their breath.

“Seriously?” Kendra called out as she popped the back of Ford’s head, in a playful, albeit warning gesture.

It was all such a normal family interaction that it physically hurt to witness. I caught myself rubbing my hand over my chest, trying to massage away the ache that started to brew there. I never had this growing up. Neither did Kendra. It made me happy to see that she was able to give it to her children. To our son. But I was infinitely saddened and angered that I had been allowed no part in it because the heinous people we called our parents had deemed it so. My band’s manager was a part of that scenario that would soon be dealt with as well.

“Holy fuck!” Chevy yelled into the room, but to no one in particular.

“Chevy!” Kendra huffed, obviously exasperated with the language her boys used.

“Mom, stop. This is too much.” Chevy looked at me as he said the last. “This is a Byrdland,” his voice was full of awe and respect.

“1961,” I confirmed with a nod.

“I can’t. This is a lot. Too much. You can’t give this to me,” he mumbled, almost incoherently as his hand stroked over the natural finish.

“Is that really expensive?” Kendra asked, her voice shaky.

I simply shrugged my shoulders. “It’s just a nice guitar.”

Ford, Dakota, and Chevy all raised their eyes to level me with stares that said I was being absolutely ridiculous. “‘Just a nice guitar,’ he says,” Ford spat out as he looked on in awe of the work of art before him. “Can you just go ahead and adopt me too while you’re here?”

“Ford!” Kendra huffed. “You guys are going to make me regret the day.”

“Mom, I don’t think you understand,” Ford told her, a wistful look in his eyes as he admired his older brother’s guitar. It made me feel a tiny bit bad about the gift I’d brought for my son. It was obvious from what had been said at the cemetery that Hex was not the father of either of the other boys, which made me wonder what kind of dads they had if one was willing to sell his fealty to another man – a stranger – for a guitar gift.

“I had a birthday plus another 17 to make up for with that, but I won’t forget you guys when it’s your turn,” I told them. Kendra’s attention immediately shifted from her boys to me.

“You don’t have to…” she started to say.

I swatted her words away with a flippant gesture of my hand. “The kid’s right. If I hadn’t been so stupid and believed the lies everyone fed me when I was younger, he might have been mine too.” I winked at Ford then. “I gained one son this week, what’s a couple more in the mix?”

“Don’t let Andy hear you say that about his kid,” Hex laughed. I turned a curious eye toward him. “Dak’s father,” he elaborated. “Local sheriff and also another dipshit who couldn’t see what was right in front of him until it was too late.”

Jesus fuck. It was hard enough to swallow the pill that Kendra had a new man, though it was doable considering the amount of time that had passed. If Dak’s dad was different, that meant she’d had three different fathers for her boys, all of whom were apparently too stupid to hang on to the best woman on this earth before Hex came along and gave her the one girl she had. Instead of dwelling on that knowledge, I turned to Ford.

“Who,” I didn’t get to finish asking the question though before his eyes narrowed and he hissed out his father’s name with disdain.

“Mayor Brady Fucking Evans. My mom was good enough for him right up until he realized she was already a single mom and had Chevy in her life. When he left her with a parting gift, he didn’t much care since he had a son coming from the woman that he ended up marrying. Turns out he had been stringing them both along until he figured out which would serve him better in his future political aspirations.

What. The. Fuck. I turned to Kendra who simply shrugged her shoulder. “I had really bad luck for a few years there,” she admitted quietly.

“Until I came along and changed it,” Hex added with a big grin on his face. He wasn’t trying to flex in front of me that time though. His eyes and his words were all for Kendra and judging by the blush on her cheeks, they hit their mark. Damn if that didn’t hurt just a bit anyway.

I glanced away after that but didn’t miss the pitying looks the three boys threw my way. I guess my feelings had been written all over my face. “So, let’s hear a little something,” I called out.

“You want me to play? In front of you? Right now?” Chevy managed to get the words out, though each question came out more rapid-fire than the previous one. His hair was a little bit on the long side in the front and it flopped over into his eyes. It was the one thing he seemed to get from his mother rather than me. He had golden blond hair with lighter streaks from time spent out in the sun. His bright eyes were more green than blue, but still so light as to make me unsure. I’d have to move in closer to truly figure it out. The rest of him though, it was like looking at my much younger self in the mirror.

“If you have a spare,” I nodded to the wall where a few guitars were lined up, “I’ll play with you. Just name the song, and we’ll jam for a minute.

“Holy shit!” Ford coughed out again. “Jamming in our music room with THE Gabe North.”

“Just Gabe. And if you want to be accurate, it’s Gabe Northman.”

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