Page 59 of Challenged by the Single Dad

Dom simply shook his head.

“We have a no drug policy here,” Clint said, deadpanned. “There are children here. Weed is fine, in moderation, but not around them. But no hard shit.”

Logan nodded. “Of course. Of course.”

Dom, Jagger, Wyatt, and Bennett all stared at their older brother in disbelief.

“What are your skills?” Clint asked. “Besides royally pissing off your parents?”

“I bartended in college,” Logan said. “Mostly nightclubs and stuff, but I made a lot of money. I’m pretty good. It’s where I met Leila. She came in with a fake ID that said she was twenty-two. And she looked it. I didn’t find out she was eighteen until she told me she was pregnant.”

Was Clint actually thinking what Dom suspected he was thinking? That they were to take in Logan? He was a magnet for disaster.

“Does your mother know you’re here?” Jagger asked.

Logan shook his head. “No. They won’t talk to me. Said if I’m not going to go to college, then I’m on my own. They’ve basically disowned me.”

“Jesus,” Dom growled. “That’s rough.”

“What do Shirley and Darren do for work again?” Wyatt asked.

“They’re lawyers,” Logan said, throwing in a big eyeroll for good measure. “And my older brother, Bill, is a doctor. My middle brother, Stuart, is a lawyer; and my sister, Evelyn, is in finance on Wall Street. I’m the screwup. The black sheep.”

Okay, well, now Dom had some sympathy for the kid. He still wasn’t excusing the ketamine, the driving, the accident, or the knocking up of the teenager. But to disown your child because their path was different from the one you wanted them to take was all kinds of fucked up.

“You know that’s why my mom and your mom didn’t speak, right?” Logan said. “Because she thought you guys were stupid to go into the Marines and not go to college. My mom never liked your dad because he was a military man, and the fact that your mom supported you guys going into the Marines was always a sore spot between them. She thought your mom was perpetuating an uneducated generation of jarheads and government zombies.”

Dom and his brothers all went slack-jawed.

Logan nodded, then focused on Jagger. “She was a little gentler on you because you went to college, but she didn’t agree with the fact that you stopped at just a bachelor’s degree.”

“Fucking hell,” Jagger muttered, taking his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Aunt Shirley’s a bitch.”

Logan merely raised his brows. “And my siblings have chugged their Kool-Aid for years and have disowned me too. I’m on my own. Which is why I sought out my cousins to ask for help.” He gave them all a pleading look. “That is, if you’ll have a fuckup like me?”

Clint snagged all their gazes.

Dom’s sympathy for the kid was growing and he could see his brothers were feeling the same.

“No drugs,” Clint said again, turning back to Logan.

Logan nodded.

“He can stay with me,” Jagger said. “I’ve got the most space. No kids.”

“I want to see your bartending skills,” Dom said. “I’m not giving you a job until I know you can do it. Otherwise—”

“You’ll be put in the dish pit,” Wyatt finished.

His brothers nodded.

“You’re on probation, like every other hire,” Bennett added. “And if we find out you lied to us about any of this fucking story—”

“We were all Marines, and know how to hide a body,” Wyatt said,

Bennett gave Wyatt a harsh look. “I was going to say, then you’re out on your ass. Jesus. We’re not committing murder here.”

Wyatt cleared his throat. “Right. Sorry.”

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