Best-case scenario, right?
Great sex. No strings.
So, why did he have that empty feeling in the center of his chest?
Jaxson did what he did best when faced with something he wasn’t prepared to deal with. He shoved it deep down and went on with his life.
He packed his minimal belongings and went to the front desk.
“Checking out?” Harry asked.
Jaxson nodded, not feeling the need to share his plans with Harry. Harry had been friendly—at least to his face—but that didn’t mean Harry wasn’t feeding information back to his buddies at O’Malley’s.
“Probably a good thing,” Harry commented casually. “If the locals find out Penny Hoffmeier’s been spending the night with you, things could get ugly.”
Jaxson stilled. “What makes you think Penny’s been here?”
Harry shrugged. “I got eyes, don’t I?”
Jaxson’s room wasn’t visible from the lobby, and Harry didn’t work the night shift, so he hadn’t been around when Penny showed up or when she left in the predawn hours. Perhaps the security camera mounted above the back entrance wasn’t broken, as Harry had claimed.
“You’d do well to keep your eyes to yourself and leave Penny out of this,” Jaxson warned.
“Of course,” Harry said with a smirk. “What happens at Mel’s stays at Mel’s.”
Jaxson left with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, mounted his bike, and set off for Sanctuary.
* * *
“It’s complicated,” Cage told Jaxson and Sam and some of the others who’d gathered to hear what he’d found. “I can’t find a record of either birth—at least, not one I can verify. My guess is, Ilsa didn’t give birth in a hospital.”
Jaxson shook his head. “That can’t be right. I’ve seen my birth certificate. I needed to provide it when I enlisted.” He turned to Sam. “Didn’t you need one to get married?”
She shook her head. “In this county, you only need to provide one if you’re underage. But I do have one.”
“Based on the dates of the stuff I was able to find, the certificates were created several months after the births, at different times, and the requests were made by different people. Sam’s father isn’t specified on her birth certificate. It simply says unknown where the father’s name should be. Jaxson’s is just the opposite. His father’s name appears on his official record but not his mother’s.”
“How is that possible?” Sam asked.
“I’m not sure,” Cage admitted, “but I suspect Jaxson’s dad had a friend with some legal pull.” He looked to Jaxson for confirmation.
Jaxson nodded, remembering the older man who used to stop by occasionally. “He did. A judge.”
Cage nodded.
“So, basically, we don’t know much more than we did a few days ago.” Jaxson exhaled. “What do we do now?”
“We have a friend in Pine Ridge who specializes in finding answers, but that could take some time,” Cage said, “and there’s no guarantee he’ll be able to tell you anything more than I have. There might simply be nothing to find, depending on where Ilsa gave birth. We still don’t know where she went after leaving Sumneyville.”
“In the meantime, we could run some genetic tests,” Doc suggested. “That will tell us if you’re related and how closely.”
“Doesn’t that take months?” Jaxson asked.
“Usually,” Doc replied with a smile, “but we have another friend who could probably get it done much faster and without all the red tape.”
Jaxson looked at Sam. He wanted to move forward, but this wasn’t just about him. “What do you think?”
“Honestly, I’m pretty sure I already know how the results are going to come out, but it would be nice to know for certain.”
Jaxson nodded. “Same.” To Doc, he said, “Can you set it up?”
“I’ll give Michael a call now.”
The meeting broke up, and Sam turned to Jaxson as they walked out of the room together. “Hungry?”
“I could eat.”
“Kate always keeps the fridges stocked. Let’s go raiding, shall we?”
“I’m game if you are.”
They made sandwiches, grabbed a pitcher of peach iced tea, and found a quiet corner in the dining room.
“Surreal, isn’t it?” Sam said around a bite of ham and cheese.
It really was. He’d come to Sumneyville to find information about his mother and ended up with so much more.
“Listen, Sam, if this turns out the way we both think it will, then you’re entitled to half of whatever our father left behind. It isn’t much—some property and vintage vehicles—but it’s something.”
Sam waved him off. “Keep it. I don’t need it.”
“But ...”
“Jaxson,” she said, “it’s okay. Seriously. I have everything, including the big brother I always wanted.” He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off before he could, “And that’s regardless of what the DNA results say. I feel it, don’t you?”
He nodded, because he did. “How do you know I’m older though?”
“I don’t. But you are definitely bigger.”
He laughed at that. Despite their similarity of features, Sam was a full twelve inches shorter than he was and about half as wide.
“Fair enough.”
“I would like to know more about Bo though. What was he like?”
“Quiet. Kind. Good with his hands.” Jaxson told her about their plans to do custom car and bike renovations. “He was a good man.”
Sam looked doubtful, and he instinctively knew what she was thinking: What kind of good man walks away with one child and leaves another behind?
Jaxson wondered if Sam had been plagued by the same questions he had as a kid, believing that maybe he was the reason the other parent hadn’t stuck around. That maybe he hadn’t been good enough. As an adult, he knew it was a hell of a lot more complicated than that, but as a kid, things were much simpler. Right or wrong. Yes or no. Your parents loved you, or they didn’t.
“He never talked about me or my mother?” Sam asked, breaking into his thoughts.
“No,” Jaxson replied, shaking his head. “When I was younger, I asked about her sometimes. He’d get this really sad look on his face and tell me I was better off, not knowing. Eventually, I stopped asking.”
The more he found out about Ilsa, the more he was convinced his father had been trying to protect him.
Based on Sam’s reaction, her mother had never mentioned him either, which seemed worse somehow. After all, it was possible that Bo hadn’t known about Sam. It was highly unlikely Ilsa hadn’t known she had a son.
“As for you,” Jaxson said aloud, “I don’t think he knew about you.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but he wasn’t the sort of man who would have left you behind if he did. You’ll just have to trust me on that.”
Sam chewed on that for a moment, then abruptly changed the subject. “So ... you and Penny, huh?”