at the boy as his thoughts spun. How had this happened? How could DJ have had a child he’d never known about? And why the hell had the woman decided now to contact him? No answers came to Wyatt, which frustrated him even further.
It wasn’t the boy’s fault who his parents were, or how they’d behaved. But Wyatt knew he’d probably be the one to pay the heaviest price.
The hot Texas sun beat down on Wyatt’s shoulders as he climbed out of the truck. A warm wind slipped past, seemingly unnoticed by the glum boy.
The kid did, however, look up as Wyatt crossed the broken walk. The old metal gate creaked when he pushed it open. The boy’s eyes narrowed with distrust. “Who are you?” His words sounded more like an accusation than a question.
Wyatt stopped. “I’m your uncle, Wyatt Hawkins. You’re Tyler?” Silence. For a second Wyatt wasn’t sure if he’d get an answer.
“Tyler Easton, yes, sir,” the boy whispered, and continued smacking his stick on the sidewalk.
“Is your mother around?” The woman he’d talked to on the phone yesterday had assured him she’d be here. She had a lot to answer for.
The boy looked up again, and Wyatt swallowed the sucker punch that hit him. No child’s eyes should hold that much hurt.
“She left.”
“Left? When?”
“S’morning. Said someone from my dad’s family was comin’ and I was s’posed to go with ’em. Is that you?”
Wyatt didn’t know how to answer. He pulled the paper out of his shirt pocket and unfolded it. “I suppose I am.”
“I was ’fraid so.” The boy looked back at the ground, slowly drawing circles with the stick.
Wyatt read the letter again. How did you tell a child that his mother didn’t want him anymore? That she’d waited until his dad, a man he’d never met, shipped overseas? A man who couldn’t speak for himself from a thousand miles away.
Men didn’t deny their flesh and blood. Wyatt and DJ might have their differences, but at the core, he knew DJ took his responsibilities seriously. His brother would claim the boy, but until he could, Wyatt was all he had.
“You ready to go?” He didn’t think twice about his role in this boy’s life. Responsibility had always been something Wyatt easily shouldered, and he didn’t hesitate now.
He’d already gotten Jason’s legal advice, and his brother was working to contact DJ. Just looking at the kid, there was little doubt Tyler was DJ’s son. And Addie would be thrilled to have someone to take care of once Wyatt told her about him. But right now his sister needed the vacation he’d finally convinced her to take.
“I packed my stuff.” Tyler used the stick to point at two plastic grocery bags beside the door.
“That’s all of it?”
“Yep. Mama took the rest. She told me to be ready and not tick you off.”
“Is that so?” Wyatt’s chest hurt, for himself, for the boy and mostly for the man who didn’t even know he had a son. DJ was in for one heck of a surprise when, and if, he ever got back home.
Slowly, Wyatt stepped toward Tyler and sat on the step beside him. He figured he could take a few minutes to start to get to know his nephew, an apparently angry little boy of eight years old, who’d been totally unknown to him—to anyone in the family—until last week. If only Mom had gotten to meet him. She’d have loved Tyler, but would have killed DJ. Wyatt smiled and refocused on the boy.
Where did he start the conversation? But before he could say anything, Tyler jumped up. “Guess we’d better get goin’.” He grabbed a grocery bag in each hand and returned to stand next to Wyatt.
Wyatt stood. “Guess so. Need any help with those?”
“Nope.” The boy marched down the steps and was halfway across the bare yard before Wyatt moved. The wind had died down and the only sign of life in the battered neighborhood was a flutter of curtains in the house across the street.
Wyatt hurried to catch up and open the gate for Tyler. The sooner they got out of here and left this mess behind, the better. He helped settle the bags on the truck’s floorboards and buckled Tyler in before either of them said another word.
“Ready?” Wyatt met the boy’s stare.
“Yep.” Tyler looked straight ahead, not even glancing toward the old house as they pulled away from the curb. Wyatt glanced in the rearview mirror and thought perhaps Tyler was wiser than his years. It wasn’t much to look back on. With nowhere else to go, and not much else to say, they headed through Austin and on west to the ranch where Wyatt lived...and where Tyler would be living, too.
The hot Texas wind followed them, reaching in the window and ruffling the boy’s blond hair just as Wyatt used to ruffle DJ’s hair. DJ had always hated anyone touching his hair. Now he was in some godforsaken corner of the world with all his blond hair long gone to the barber’s razor.
Wyatt leaned back and returned his gaze to the two-lane blacktop.
What in the world were they going to do now?
CHAPTER TWO
EMILY JANE IVERS liked—no, demanded—predictability in her world. Unfortunately, few people or events lived up to her expectations.
Just like every other morning, she headed to her office. She checked with the clerk, scanned the docket and arranged her day’s schedule. She loved the consistency of her calendar. It shook up her whole day if there were cross outs or Wite-Out on it.
Today, she could only stare at the normally orderly page on her desk. The bright yellow sticky notes were not expected and she felt herself tense at the events spelled out on them.
“I don’t do juvenile cases.” She ripped one sticky from the page and headed to Dianne’s desk. “I don’t do juvenile cases,” she repeated to her clerk’s face.
The tiny, bespectacled woman behind the counter peered over her dark frames. “You do this week. Judge Ramsey is out sick and we’re covering any emergency situations.”
“Emergencies?” No one really had emergencies; they just thought they needed something done now and called it an emergency. She and Dianne had had that conversation often enough.
“There are already two cases scheduled.” Dianne rounded the desk, her arms loaded with files. She moved from desk to desk, delivering a few to each clean blotter.
“Can’t they be rescheduled?” Emily picked up the datebook that served as the department’s master calendar, needing something to hold on to.
“No.” Dianne grabbed the datebook and slapped it back on her desk. “It’ll be good for you.” Dianne’s blue eyes sparkled behind those infernal glasses.
“No. It won’t.” Emily knew there was no way this was going to end well.
No case was simple, not in family court, and certainly not in the juvenile arena.
