Page 7 of His for the Taking

“Maybe next time you’re at your Nan’s, alright?” Jameson nods, happy I’m giving him an excuse to be his scapegoat.

“Thank you, Kody. We’ll walk you back across the street.” It almost sounds like it hurts him to say it. Wow, talk about hot and cold.

“You’re welcome, and it’s okay. I’ll see you around, JoJo.” My hand goes out to hers, asking for a high five. Instead of giving me the palm of her hand, she launches her body into mine.

“Want Kody.” Her little body is wrapped around me, legs like an octopus and hands cupping my cheeks. “We play again?”

“I promise we will.”

“Otay, see you water tater.” I smile. Jameson really does have an amazing daughter.

“Come on, sweetheart. Time to let Kody go.” Jameson’s voice is deeper with an edge to it, and while his behavior is that of a wild boar, I can’t help but wonder what his voice would sound like in a different place and time.

“See you around.” This time, it’s me who pulls away, giving them my back, looking both ways before I jaywalk across the street and taking a few deep breaths to get over the tremble that has yet to leave my body.

9

JAMESON

“Daddy mean to Kody, Nan Nan,” Josephine tells my mother the second I open the door to drop her off for the day. It’s too fucking early, and my nerves are still on edge from yesterday’s scare. Jesus, there’s no way I would have survived if something happened to Josephine. And while my daughter is currently tattle-telling on her father, she isn’t exactly wrong. I was an asshole both times Kody was near. It’s no fault of hers either. I’m blaming it on my damn cock. The fucking thing won’t go soft whenever she’s around, and it turns me into a person I’m not. Maybe I need to get laid. It’s been too many months to count. I don’t see that changing anytime soon, especially since my cock seems to only want the one woman it shouldn’t.

“Oh, really?” Mom arches an eyebrow at me. There’s no getting out this now. “Why was your father mean to Kody?” Josephine may be young, but she has quite the vocabulary and has no problem taking her time to get the story right either.

“At park. He, hmm…” She thinks about the words, sticking her tongue out, while I rock back on my heels, knowing that my mom is going to tear into my hide. Even now at my age, she’ll have no problem boxing my damn ears. “I wanted to pway.” Another pause, this time a finger going to her lip as she draws out the conversation. “Daddy said no wif Kody.”

“Well, we can make that happen. Should we call Kody and ask if she’d like to come over with her mom today?” I roll my eyes. As if a thirty-year-old woman is going to willingly come over and play with a two-year-old. My mother is off her rocker, but she will also do anything for Josephine to make her happy.

“Pwease, pwease, pwease!” She claps her hands, holding them together in a prayer motion, and wiggles her body around. Josephine doesn’t even have to do that in order to get her way.

“I’ll make sure it happens. Pops is about to head to work. Make sure you go say hello while I talk to your mean daddy.” Here Mom fucking goes. I’m never going to get out of the house now.

“Hold up. Give me some love. I’m heading out the door with Pops, too.” I squat down since Josephine was hell on wheels about not to be held while walking into the house. My heart was in my throat, eyes locked on hers the whole fucking time. The only reason I was even remotely allowing her to walk instead of carrying her was if she held my hand the entire time. Yesterday was a damn fluke. I was chasing after her, and she bobbed and weaved around the kid in front of her, leaving me no other option than to stop in my tracks, further giving her more time to locate Kody and run after her. A lesson I never want to experience again, which is why I ordered her swing set and jungle gym combo last night. All I have to do now is ask for my dad, brother, and Shaun to come over and help set it up.

“Otay!” She waddles her cute little self into my open arms. I may have been mean to Kody in Jo’s eyes, but the same can’t be said for my own. One word comes to mind, and that’sprotective.

“I love you. Be good for Nan.” I pull her tight to my body, more for me than for her.

“Me will.” She pulls back, hand going to my cheek before kissing me on the other. “Wove you, too!” I’m going to hate the day she starts talking correctly. Instead of the cute way she talks, in its place will be my little girl growing into a little lady. When she’s done, I stand up and watch as she runs toward the den, where Dad has his own area set up so the two of them can watch what they want without arguing.

I walk toward the kitchen, heading to where my travel mug sits empty. I can always count on my parents to have a full pot on at all times. I’m going to make another in order to get through what I’m sure is going to be a lengthy question-and-answer session. “Let’s get on with it. Kody helped me out yesterday. I didn’t handle the situation well.”

“I’ll say. Josephine never tells me you’re mean. So, what happened?” Mom asks in theI’m not taking this shit lying downway of talking.I take my lid off, pour as much as the cup will hold, and put the lid back on, then turn back around so I’m facing her.

“Josephine decided to run off at the park yesterday. I was trying not to truck down a little kid when she darted across the street toward Kody. Between Josephine and Kody, my head wasn’t in the right state of mind when she asked to play with Kody afterward. All I could think about was getting Jo home, where she’d be safe.” I take a sip of my coffee. It burns my mouth and throat on its way down. The look on Mom’s face is one of shock, horror, and worry. The full impact of what I went through is looking right back at me.

“Well, shit, I know how quickly these things happen all too well. Matthew ran off at the hardware store once when he was Josephine’s age. I don’t know if you remember it, but God, I was an absolute nightmare for five minutes straight. Thank God your dad was with us, or I’d have been in a way worse hysteria than I already was. That being said, you owe Kody an apology. I excused your behavior at Emma’s wake, but this is too much. We’ve known their family for a long time, and I won’t have you being a grump to that pretty girl. She’s been through enough, more than I’m sure Shaun has led on, but I’ll tell you what. It took Cleo everything she had to keep David and Shaun from driving to Chicago and bringing Kody home. That girl is more independent than Cleo and I put together,” Mom finishes, leaving shit hanging in the air. Maybe Shaun doesn’t know as much as he thought he did.

“I was already going to. I don’t have her number, and showing up on Shaun’s doorstep would probably raise a lot of eyebrows since we work together. You don’t happen to have it, do you?” Mom doesn’t have to know it’ll be through a text. The less interaction with Kody I have, the fucking better. I don’t even want to get into the way her voice sounds or how often I’ve imagined her say my name while she’s on her knees sucking my dick.

“As a matter of fact, I do. Let me grab my phone.” There’s a twinkle in her eye. Fuck me, that’s never a good sign. I bite my tongue, knowing if I say a word, I’ll never get the hell out of here. No freaking thanks.

10

KODY

“Let’s try this again, shall we?” I say to myself as I walk out of The Java Hut for the third day in a row. This time, my camera is around my neck and I’m doing what I was after yesterday, only this go-around, I’ll get some shots. My goal is to scope out a place that would be out of the way while still garnering some interest for a fall mini shoot. That is if I can get approval from the town management and find a good area. Maybe I’ll rope my dad and brother in to helping me set up a few props. The only problem with that is I’ll need it done within the next week in order to set up the weekend after in time for the pumpkins to be in their prime.

I take a slow sip of my iced coffee. Walking while drinking with my super ridiculous camera around my neck is sketchy. Which is why I have my free hand on the lens, just in case. After the fiasco with Jameson yesterday, I tucked my tail, crossed the street, picked up my discarded cup, and threw it away. Then, since I didn’t want to leave a sticky mess or allow ants to take over, I walked into the nearest store and asked if I could use a pitcher of water to wash it away. After that, I was going to call it a day, let the day go without doing what I set out to do. Almost, I almost let the meanness and his cruelty stop me from looking for jobs. But I somehow pulled myself together, realizing that Jameson Evans is just another man who feels like he’s better than anyone else. Well, good for him, though he does have a cute daughter, a hot body, and a way about him that makes my thighs clench. Nope, not happening. Don’t even think about it, Kody. I’ll continue to use my toy. He doesn’t talk back, is always consistent in theOdepartment, and is easy to put away when I’m through. Either way, it’ll never happen. I knew that before he could even speak the words. So, I went about my day, popping in and out of places that looked like they’d have potential for work even if they weren’t displaying aHelp Wantedsign. Sadly, I struck out in finding a job until I got my feet wet in the town of Lane County. This is why today, I’m not stopping until I’ve got everything figured out. There’s social media I need to be active on, my website needs to be updated, and I need to find out who a girl has to talk to about setting up a small event. I also need to call Kari. Texting is only going to work for so long after telling her via a voice message what happened. I walk down the red brick sidewalk. The downtown area is quiet for a Monday morning, with only a few people, which should help me relax more. My penchant for people watching means nothing would get done. Though, I kind of wish I’d brought my laptop to work outside today. Maybe I’ll do that since my days are filled with a whole lot of nothing. I am promising myself this is the last time I hit up The Java Hut until I’ve got a steady income. A large iced coffee a day adds up quickly when you’re not working.

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