Page 33 of Bad Boy Bakers, Vol. 2

Chapter Eight

There was nothing like hard physical labor to clear the head.

After picking up a baby gift for Magnolia and a productive call to Ned Maguire, his contact in Washington, Grey found himself pitching in to clear the debris left by the ice storm.

It wasn’t the afternoon of napping and debauchery he’d have preferred, but it was a solid use of his time.

He was moving home. He needed to start putting himself out there and reintegrating back into the community.

He’d been unsurprised to find Jonah and his friends as part of the impromptu crew.

While all three men gave him wary looks, none of them started anything.

Grey figured that was progress. The four of them naturally gravitated into a team, running chainsaws, hauling tree limbs, clearing roads.

As day bled into night, most of the workforce began to peel off to head home.

Holt was the first of their group to call it. “I gotta go pick up Maddie and rescue my mother-in-law, since Cayla’s with the rest of the women tonight.”

“I’m sure not gonna leave our two with Donna on their own.” Brax tugged off his gloves. “I’ll come with you.”

Other than lifting a hand to wave, Jonah didn’t stop what he was doing.

Pausing to guzzle down some more water, Grey eyed the long stretch of downed fence along the north side of Percy Gibbons’s farm.

The row of trees that had taken it out had been removed.

Chunks of tree trunk still needed to be hauled off and wire restrung to ensure none of Percy’s cows wandered off.

The fencing materials were already waiting for the job.

“You know whether Percy’s got his cattle corralled for the night? ”

Jonah hefted another chunk of the tree into the back of his truck. “He does for now, but he’ll want to let them out after milking tomorrow.”

“You ready to stop for the night, or you want to keep going? Shouldn’t take more than an hour or two to restring those fences.”

“Given the alternative is making some fussy, handmade gift box thing back at my house, I’ll take the fence.”

Grey huffed a laugh. “I’ll move my Jeep around so we can see.”

He parked so that the headlights illuminated the stretch of fencing, and the two of them got to work.

They fell into a rhythm, attaching wire, stretching it to the next post, fastening it, then doing it all over again on down the line.

Grey wasn’t uneasy with the silence, but as it was just the two of them, he thought he ought to make an effort at conversation.

Maybe it would help get them over the hump of this new weirdness between them.

“You getting excited about the wedding?”

“I’m ready to be married and get on with the business of life. In a month or two, they’ll be starting the dirt work on the new house.”

“Y’all are building?”

“Yeah, out on the site of my great grandmother’s old house. It burned down last year, so we cleared the land. Just been waiting until Mia and her crew can get to it.”

“Pretty spot out there. I liked your great grandmother.”

“You knew her?”

“Oh, yeah. She made the absolute best chocolate chip cookies. When we were young, Lonnie and I did a hell of a lot of yard work for her in exchange for those cookies.”

“I’ll have to see if Mom has the recipe. We can try them out at the bakery.”

“They’re sure to be a best seller.” Grey hammered in the next fencing staple. “Are you happy at the bakery? With this whole new life you’ve built here?”

Jonah glanced at him over the post. “Are you asking as a former CO or as somebody who’s in the same boat starting over?”

“Both.”

He unspooled the wire, walking it to the next post. “It’s not the life I expected.

” The long pause was filled with the sounds of metal bending and wire sliding over wood.

“But yeah. I get to work with two of my best friends every day. I met a woman I’m crazy about, who’s crazy enough to want to spend the rest of her life with me.

I’m not risking life and limb on the daily.

I feel pretty fucking lucky all around to get a shot at all that.

” Getting a grip on the wire, he stretched it around the post, pulling it taut. “Do you regret missing all of that?”

Grey placed the next staple and pounded it in to give himself a few moments to think. “I believed in the work we did. Is there a part of me that wishes I’d had a wife and family to come home to in between missions? Yeah. But I think that would’ve made doing my duty harder.”

“And now?”

In the relative darkness, Grey couldn’t read the expression in Jonah’s eyes, but he felt the weight of the younger man’s gaze.

“Now, I feel really fucking fortunate that your mom is giving me a shot.”

The words hung in the air between them, eclipsing everything else for just a moment.

“You seem to make her happy.” Jonah’s grudging admission was accompanied by a wry smile.

Grey returned it. “I’m trying my level best.”

“That’s more than Lonnie managed. I know he had reasons, but—” Jonah shook his head. “She deserves to be happy.” He loosed a long breath and met Grey’s eyes. “So do you.”

On that pronouncement, Jonah lapsed back into silence and began to string the final strand of barbed wire.

Grey felt as if they’d turned some kind of corner.

He’d take whatever progress he could get.

Once they’d finished, he gathered up the remaining fencing supplies and tools while Jonah called to tell the very grateful Percy that his pasture was secure again.

As he ended the call, Grey’s stomach gave an audible rumble.

Jonah lifted one brow. “How long’s it been since you ate?”

“Lunch, I guess.” He’d been too consumed with the work to think much about food.

“Why don’t you come on back to the house? I can’t make any promises about what’s in our fridge, but there is absolute certainty Rachel made something for dinner. And there’s definitely beer. I think we’ve earned one.”

“I definitely won’t turn it down. Whatever she made is better than the sandwich or can of soup I’d be opening back at my place.”

“Come on, then.”

Grey followed him back into town proper and out the other side, a few miles up into the mountains where Jonah and Rachel were renting a house.

Seeing Rebel’s car still in the drive had his mood lifting.

His afternoon plans might’ve gotten derailed, but maybe they could be replaced with overnight plans instead.

Trailing Jonah to the front door, they both stopped to slip off their filthy work boots before going inside.

Through a cased doorway, he could just make out some kind of hutch thing with neat stacks of boxes tied with pretty ribbon.

Looked like the women had finished their project for the wedding.

The low sound of voices came from that direction.

The tone was soft, serious. Maybe Rachel and Rebecca were having a pre-wedding heart to heart.

Grey hoped he and Jonah wouldn’t be interrupting.

As they got closer, Rachel’s voice came clearer. “I need to know—is Jonah Grey’s son?”

Ahead of him, Jonah stopped dead in his tracks. So did Grey.

Someone—Rebecca?—inhaled a shuddering breath.

“Yes.” The whispered response went off like a bomb.

Grey felt his world tilt.

His son.

He’d suspected. He’d hoped, even though that fact would rewrite everything he’d thought he’d known about his relationship with Rebecca.

Joy and relief shot through him at the confirmation.

He had a son. And not some stranger. A man he knew well and respected.

A man he was proud of. A man he’d helped nurture and foster because somewhere deep down, maybe he’d already known.

That man was frozen half a dozen paces from the kitchen doorway, his face etched with the same kind of confusion Grey had seen on the battlefield in the wake of a concussive blast. He started to step forward, reaching out to touch him, but Jonah surged into the kitchen.

“What the fuck?”

Grey didn’t actually think Jonah would get violent, but instinct had him rushing in, positioning himself to intercept him.

Rebecca made some small, choked sound, all the color leeching from her cheeks.

She looked from her son—their son—to him and simply closed her eyes, her face twisted in pain.

Of course, this wasn’t how she’d have wanted this to come out.

Grey didn’t know if she’d ever have admitted it on her own if she hadn’t been asked outright.

But that was a question for later. In the moment, there wasn’t room for anything but the tsunami of Jonah’s reaction.

The boy’s hands were fisted. “How the hell could you lie about something like this?”

She flinched as if he’d struck her, and it took everything Grey had to stand still and let things unfold. Jonah had every right to his rage.

“Did Dad know?”

Grey noted the shift from Lonnie to Dad.

“Yeah.”

What had Lonnie thought about raising another man’s child? His child.

“Is that why he left? Why he wanted nothing to do with us? Because he found out?”

Her eyes peeled wide. “What? No! Your dad leaving had nothing to do with this. He knew from the beginning, and he never loved you any less.”

A muscle ticked in Jonah’s jaw as he turned a frustrated gaze on Grey. “You don’t look surprised. Did you know?”

“I suspected.”

What little color had come back into Rebecca’s cheeks drained out again. He read so much pain and apology in her eyes.

“Before or after you came back here?” Jonah demanded.