Page 66 of Second First Kiss

17

It was late in the evening by the time Nolan was ready to pack up. Thanks to Wine Wednesday the bar was loud enough to penetrate all the way back to his office. Everyone was looking to burn off some of their mid-week energy. Nolan not so much.

He was so tired he could barely keep his eyes open but, thanks to another missing case of top shelf liquor, he still had a couple of hours of paperwork to try and get some sense of where the lodge would need to beef up security. Their budget was tight, so he needed to be as efficient as possible.

First, they were going to double their cameras, placing them higher so someone couldn’t get to them and lob eggs at the lenses. Then there were the scanners he was going to install on all office and supply room doors, so that an employee would have to swipe a unique card to gain access. Hopefully it would deter whoever was behind this, at the very least the resulting log of usage would make it easier to catch the SOB who was stealing from his family.

Needing a cup of coffee to get through the next few hours, Nolan headed to the break room. He reached the back hallway when he caught a glimpse of movement in the parking lot. He ducked so he was out of sight and stealthily watched as a shadow moved closer to the back door of the bar.

If this was R. J., he was going to catch him red-handed stirring up shit. Thank God Kat wasn’t working tonight. She and her car were safe and sound back at home.

He could feel the itch make its way up his spine, a telltale sign that his gut was communicating with his brain. The shadow was only a few feet away when something stood out.

His vandal was maybe five foot one. A hundred and ten pounds. Slim build. Wearing dark pants and a too-big hoodie. Skateboard under one arm and a smallish rectangular box in the other. Probably an egg carton.

His shadow belonged to a kid. No more than ten or eleven.

Then the new motion detector went off and in the split second before the whole parking lot was illuminated, Nolan knew who it was.

The kid froze like a deer in the headlights. Tommy.

He was bigger, leaner like he was going through a growth spurt, but his hair was still in that floppy boy phase and his eyes were still that hopeful blue.

Anger and longing bubbled up, fighting for domination. He wasn’t sure who he was angry at—himself for letting things get this far or Nina for doing what she did … stealing his kid from him. Tommy might not be his kid biologically, but in every way that mattered, that kiddo was his. His for three long years and damn, Nolan missed him with every ounce of his being. It was the kind of loss one never got over.

And he hadn’t been the only one to miss out. His family had treated that kid like their own. It was as if Peggy and Kent had another grandchild to dote over. His siblings took the kid snowboarding and fishing. Hell, Jax was the one who taught Tommy how to skateboard. He belonged to Nolan’s family. Until he didn’t.

And that was on him. He’d never put himself or his family through that ever again. Which made Kat’s situation with raising Tessa sound the alarm bells. Did he want to get heavily involved with someone who had a dependent—a dependent he could come to love and care for, only to lose them? He suddenly wasn’t so sure.

He waited until Tommy was a few feet away and he could positively ID him, then he opened the door.

“Paintballs do more damage from that distance,” he said.

Startled, the kid dropped the carton of eggs and looked behind him as if doing the math on who was the fastest runner. Then his eyes met Nolan’s and everything from apology to awe to good old-fashioned anger crossed his face.

I know, kiddo.

“I promised that I wouldn’t spray-paint your property anymore or Kat would kick my ass. Her exact words.”

Had Nolan not been wrapped up in being this close to the kid, he would have laughed. But he was as startled as Tommy. Being in law enforcement, Nolan usually knew the right thing to say to defuse a situation. But all his skills had gone on sabbatical because he didn’t know what to say to make this better. Other than, “I didn’t know you were trying to reach out to me. Not until the other day when you spray-painted my garage.”

“I knew she wasn’t cool enough to keep it a secret.”

God, he’d grown. He no longer came to Nolan’s hips, he hit mid-chest, and he was all arms and legs—and heart-crushing disappointment.

“She didn’t rat you out. I guessed.” He could see that Tommy didn’t believe him. “I swear. I thought of who would hate me enough to do that and the only person I could think of would be you.”

“I don’t hate you,” Tommy said, but his voice told a different story. A story this kid had lived through twice. First being walked out on by his own dad, then Nolan, and, from what he could gather, his stepdad wasn’t all that present in Tommy’s life either.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did,” Nolan said and took a step down the stairs. Tommy’s eyes went wide, and he took a step back. Nolan swore under his breath. He didn’t want to scare the kid, he wanted to get him talking. “But you have to believe that I would never leave you on my own accord.”

Nolan took a seat on the cedar step in a sign that he wasn’t going anywhere, then scooted over so that there was room for Tommy. Tommy didn’t exactly jump at the gesture, choosing to remain where he was.

“Then why did you leave?” he asked, disbelieving that there could be any answer that could take away the hurt.

“Your mom and I broke up and it was too hard for me to still be hanging around.”

“Too hard for who?” he said quietly. “You?”

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