Read Chayton's Tempest for Free Online Page B

and set out a plate of
    cookies to go with their drinks. “What if he is here about me?”
    Tempest reached back and undid the ponytail holding
    up her thick hair. “Dakota, you are twenty-one, you don’t have
    to do anything you don’t want to. I will not try to sway you in
    any decisions.”
    “I hit him,” Dakota blurted out.
    “What?” she screeched. “Why?”
    “Because you hit him and he’d abandoned us. When I
    heard you tell him, I was furious. So after you left I punched
    him. I hit him a few times actually. Cole and Trey were there to
    break it up.”
    “Ah, hell! Are you going to be charged?”
    Dakota shook his head, his shoulder-length dark hair
    flowing easily around his neck. “Nope, he said he wasn’t
    pressing charges.”
    “Well, you are very lucky. Look, Dakota, I have no idea
    why he is here or what he wants. So please just try to be polite
    if he comes back into the bar.”
      “Anything for you, Mom.” He ate another cookie and
    smiled. “I have a date this weekend, so I won’t be in the bar.”
    “Thanks for letting me know.” She took a drink, fighting
    the urge to pry. Dakota wasn’t ever on the schedule at work
    since she wanted his schooling to be first and foremost.
    “Don’t you want to know who she is?”
    “I figured you would tell me if you wanted me to
    know.”
    “You are the best mother in the world.” He stood and
    put his glass in the sink. At the doorway he turned back
    around and grinned. “It’s Shelia.”
    As her child slipped down the hall, Tempest shook her
    head. She knew Shelia and liked the girl, a very intelligent
    black woman who was also majoring in African-American
    Studies. She’d been extremely polite the few times Tempest had
    met her.
    Tempest sat in the kitchen for a while longer. When the
    urge to scream and cry had left her, she got up and headed to
    her room.
    As she stood in front of her mirror, her dark eyes were
    confused as she asked, “What are you up too, James?”
    Shaking her head, she did her nightly meditation and
    climbed into bed. Sliding between the cool cotton sheets she
    allowed the gentle scent of her fabric softener to surround her,
    helping her to relax even more.
    There was no sign of James “Maverick” Chayton
    Lonetree in her bar for the rest of the week. More disgust filled
    her as she imagined he’d discovered he had a child and ran
    again.
    Tempest struggled to not let it affect her, but having
    seen him after all this time did funny things to her. Her body
    seemed to be at odds with her heart. She might be furious with
    his behavior in the past, but she wasn’t dead; and she’d reacted
    to his masculine good looks.
    Pouring all her energy into work, Tempest was
    determined not to let his memory swarm her every thought.
    She worked until she dropped and on her time off, she made
    sure to stay busy.
    Her house had to be one of the only places in the desert
    that didn’t have any dirt. She scrubbed and cleaned until she
    was exhausted. But, still, every time she closed her eyes or had
    a free second, Maverick’s handsome face had stared at her with
    that bewildered expression as if the impossible had happened.
    As if he hadn’t known about their child.
    Five
    The motorcycle roared up the driveway and screeched
    to a halt. It seemed the large man on the bike was off it before
    the engine had completely shut down. Long strides took him
    up the five steps in two.
    His pull on the screen door was so forceful one of the
    hinges gave under his yank. It didn’t stop the thirty-six year
    old man, however. He didn’t care about the damn door.
    “Where is everyone?” he hollered as his steps took him
    farther into the living area of his youth.
    Maverick was beyond pissed. Five weeks before I left, you
    got me pregnant . Tempest’s words wouldn’t leave his
    subconscious. Could it be true? He thought back to the slip up
    that Talli had said about him having a child. And how his own
    mother had been quick,