Page 113 of Mistaken Identity
So that was what I did for the next twenty minutes.
I gave two hulking one-percenter bikers a tutorial on how to style curly hair.
I couldn’t wait to see the results the next time I was with them and their kids.
By the time I was finished, more clothes had arrived for me to change into, thanks to Cutter’s wife, Milena. She’d also stopped to get pizza and had brought dessert as well.
It turned into an impromptu party as we waited for Apollo to get back to us on where we could find the doctor’s house.
I’d had a couple of glasses of wine when Lottie had walked up to me and held out her hands.
I picked her up and cuddled her close, sweeping some of her loose curls off her head. “You look so much like your mama, sweet baby girl.”
And she did.
But I also saw a lot of Gunner, too.
It made me wonder what Gunner’s son had looked like.
Which had me opening my mouth before I could think better of it.
“Gunner?”
“Yeah?” he asked, a small smile on his face as he looked at me with Lottie.
“What did your son look like?” I asked.
He got very quiet as he looked down at his hands, then swallowed before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone.
He pressed a few buttons, then he was spinning the phone around for me to see.
My heart melted at the sight of the sweet, smiling baby boy. “I see those dimples run in the family.”
He chuckled. “He got all the attention with those dimples. When he was born, I was so young and dumb. His mom wanted nothing to do with him, and so he became my little sidekick. I took him to baseball practice. I took him to school when it was allowed. He came to the batting cages with me. I swear to God, he got all the attention.”
“As he should,” I mused. “I used to take my son to college classes with me. I had this college professor who used to hold him through the entire class. He was the best teacher ever. I still keep in contact with him. He has a grandson who would’ve been Damon’s age.”
“Let me see him,” Gunner urged.
I looked at Audric, ready to ask where my phone was since I hadn’t seen or thought about it in hours, when he pulled out his own phone and swiped a few times.
He set the phone down on the table and pushed it our way.
My breath hitched because he was showing me a picture of my son that I’d never seen before.
“When was that?” I asked quietly.
“The last birthday party that he had,” he murmured. “I brought him a birthday gift but didn’t stay. Laney brought him outside.”
My heart physically hurt.
“That’s a good picture,” I murmured, admiring two of my favorite people.
One alive. The other one gone.
“I wish you were his dad,” I found myself saying.
Audric pressed his lips to the side of my head before saying, “Gunner, this kid had an arm. I bought him that baseball, bat and glove and it was like a fish to water.”
