Page 39 of Keg's Revelation

I bent down and picked one up. “I wish I had the skills it took to put these together, but unfortunately, I don’t. These were handcrafted by others; I found some or others were given to me by my parents whenever they came across one. My mom loved thrift shops, garage sales, and antique shops. If a place had deals, she was there. She was the one who gave me the first one because I was fascinated with my dad’s motorcycle. This is the one that she gave me and started my collection.” I handed Ry the one I had taken out of the box.

“Why are they out here? Do you still collect them?” he asked while he turned the case around in his hands, inspecting the motorcycle that was inside.

“No. Not since I was fourteen.”

“How come?”

“Well...” as always, when I thought of my mom, a lump formed in my throat. I swallowed to try to clear it, then forged on as three sets of eyes where suddenly on me, waiting, “it was kinda a thing between my mom and me. I was fourteen, and after she died, I lost interesting in collecting them.”

“Oh,” Ry said and set the case back in the box.

I looked down at the little arms that tried to encircle my waist. “You can have Sergeant Bear back if you want,” Reagan said as she looked up at me. Her offer to give back the bear, in her little way of trying to comfort me, would be the moment I remembered where Reagan captured a piece of my heart with a simple gesture.

“Nah, you keep Sergeant Bear, sweetheart.”

“Okay. But you can visit him when you want.”

“Good deal. Now, how about we get these boxes loaded in my truck and dropped off at my house, so we can go have some fun.” I glanced at Raven and she smiled, making me wonder if she knew what had just happened with her daughter and me.

“I think that is a great idea,” she said and ran a hand down from my shoulder to forearm, giving it a squeeze.

Yeah, she knew.

“Istill can’t get overyour house. It’s absolutely beautiful, Reed.”

“Thanks, Raven. I know the place is big for just me, but I couldn’t pass up the deal I got on it. I still need to buy some furniture. But I think I’ll start with getting the downstairs fixed up before I worry about the four empty bedrooms upstairs. Well, the three that will still be empty after I set one up for Ry. Can’t have him sleeping on the couch.” I winked at Ry.

When we swung by my house to drop off the stuff from my dad’s, I showed them around. While I was showing them the upstairs, I told Ry that once he felt comfortable with me, I’d like him to stay over at the house sometimes.

His immediate response of,‘Sure, where will I sleep, though?’ surprised me, and I think Raven, too. After the initial shock, I told him to pick. He went through each bedroom again before making his choice.

After finishing the tour, we loaded back up in my truck and headed for Lugio’s. I’d felt stupid for every minute I had worried whether Ry would be genuinely interested in a father/son relationship with me or even if he wanted to put in the effort. His agreeing to stay at the house was like saying he was willing to try. It was all I could expect for right now.

“I wouldn’t worry about those rooms either. It gives you time to think about what you want to put in them. You could make one a computer room or office. Even a room to exercise in if you want. After seeing your place reminded me I really need to get busy finding a house for us. I know Gran and Gramps don’t mind us staying there, but it will be nice to have our own space. I’ll be in the same boat as you with furniture. I didn’t want to move a full house of furniture here and have it shoved in storage until I found a place. So I sold everything but a few pieces that I didn’t want to part with, and they’re in storage with everything we kept.”

“Wow, you’re going to be doing a lot of shopping.”

“Yes, we’re going to need a lot of stuff.”

“She even got rid of mine and Reagan’s beds,” Ry added in between bites of pizza.

“You needed new beds anyway.”

“Can we come over to your house again and swim in the pool?” Reagan asked as she reached for her drink.

“You sure can. But you’re going to have to wait until summer to swim, though.”

“The woods behind your house would be a great place to ride a dirt bike,” Ry said, giving Raven a huge smile.

“Gee, Ry, no one would even know you want a dirt bike. You haven’t mentioned it...” Raven pretended to look at her watch, and I laughed, “...in roughly twenty-four hours.”

“Well, they would be. It would give me something to do when I stay over. And if you’re worried about me learning to ride, Mom—who better to teach me than Reed. You know, since he rides a bike.”

I felt my lips twitch and fought not to laugh at the kid. He was really working on his mom.

“Ryker, you should be ashamed of yourself using Reed in your relentless pursuit of a dirt bike.”

“You’ve got to admit his angle was priceless.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

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