“Hell no, they won’t.” Harley’s shoulders drooped, still stunned at this turn of events. “She said it was mine?”
Daniel’s eyebrows shot up. “You know what? I’m not so sure that she did.” Daniel considered that. “Not sure that anything she said would have been listened to because everybody jumped on the fact that you were the one who had left, and everybody knew the two of you had been sweet on each other.”
“Sure, but that didn’t mean that I’d have done that to her.”
“Everybody thought the worst of you anyway. I mean, your son …” Then Daniel stopped and corrected himself. “Her son is eleven years old now. We’re pretty darn sure she was pregnant when you left. If not then, it was within a week or two.”
“And like I said,” he murmured, “no way it’s mine.” Inside, he reeled from the shock. Had she been two-timing him the whole time? He’d been there, denying himself, doing everything he could to spare her, and instead she had been stepping out with somebody else? “I don’t even know how to feel about that. Damn, it was killing me, but I was being so good.”
“At least you have a clear conscience.”
“And yet nobody here, of course, believes it.” Harley shook his head. “Jesus.”
“Regardless of that,” Daniel added, “and we didn’t expect you to come back. Why are you here?”
Harley snorted and filled him in.
“War Dogs.” Daniel shook his head. “Not exactly sure I understand what all that’s about.”
“It was adopted in town and then sold to be a security dog.”
“That’s not too bad though, is it?”
“For a drug outfit.”
At that, Daniel winced. “Well, we do have some bad drug-running that moved into town. … Well, not really into town. Just out of town. I’ve had a run-in with a couple of the guys myself a time or two.”
“And they lived?” Harley asked in surprise. His friend’s temper was legendary. As was his massive size.
“So far, and I have no wish to spend any time in jail myself,” he noted, “but, if they keep pushing it, they’ll get a little more than they asked for.”
“I’m surprised they’re causing trouble.” Harley frowned. “That’s not normal. Usually they want to keep a low profile.”
“It’s a couple assholes in the group.” Daniel gave a one-arm shrug. “You know how it is. They think they’re better than everybody and have to tell the world who they are.”
“Only proving that, of course, they aren’t even close.” He nodded.
“You do understand guys like that.”
“I spent twelve years in the navy. It’s just amazing how different some people are.”
“Are you sorry you went in?”
“Hell no. It was great. I learned a lot, changed a lot, became a man all on my own. The accident kind of screwed me over, but that wasn’t their fault.”
“No, and you were always a little bit more hell for leather anyway, so if you got injured on the job, that was probably you being a little too gung ho.”
Harley burst out laughing. “How’d you know?” He smiled.
“Well, it’s definitely who you are.”
“It’s who I was. I don’t know about now.”
“Good point.” Daniel frowned. “Seriously, that’s not your child?”
He looked at him and nodded. “Absolutely. It’s not my child. And I have to tell you that it makes me feel pretty odd to think that that she was pregnant when I left because I had no idea.”
“And you never had sex with her?”
“Nope, that was my agreement with her parents,” he explained quietly. “And that’s one promise I didn’t break.”
“And I think that’s why they hate you so much.”
“Does the son look anything like me?” he asked quietly.
Daniel shook his head. “No, he doesn’t. Looks a lot like his mom though.”
“Interesting,” he murmured. He thought about it for a long time. “And I have no clue who the father would be either.”
“Well, once the town finds out, you can bet there’ll be an awful lot of speculation.”
“Of course there will be. And there’ll be a large group of them who won’t believe what I’m saying no matter what.”
“Probably not. I didn’t know what to believe, having heard the rumors all these years, but honestly, I thought it was yours too.”
“Of course you did, but then we were young smart-ass kids back then.”
“And dying to get into every pair of pants we could.” Daniel grinned.
“Well, you were certainly on that mission. I was just heading for the navy. I figured I’d get laid enough once I got in there.”
At that, Daniel burst out laughing. “Isn’t that the truth? I, on the other hand, was a good guy, and I got married.”
“Wow. Who did you marry? Do I know her?”
“You sure do. I ended up marrying Diane.”
He stopped and stared. “Pimply-faced, huge glasses, brainiac Diane?”
Again Daniel burst out laughing. “Absolutely. But you should see her now. She finally grew up, grew out of that awkward stage, and blossomed.”
“I’m really glad for you, … particularly if you’re happy.”
“Yep, we’re very happy, and we got two boys.” Daniel looked over at Harley. “You never did get married?”
“No, sure didn’t.” He paused. “Thought about it a time or two but never really could reconcile that relationship with how I felt about Jasmine.”
“Still carrying a torch for her?”
“I was wondering about looking her up when I got here. Now I just feel really weird about it all because that means she was stepping out on me back then. Not something I wanted to hear.”
“Sorry about that, dude. She’s not the kind who I would have thought would do that either.”
“No. So I’m not sure what happened.” When Harley grew quiet, Daniel looked at him speculatively. Harley shook his head. “I mean it. I made a promise to the foster parents, and I never went against it. She was only sixteen. I made a promise to myself.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, I believe you. At least now I do.”
“Now I have to wonder if I want to see her at all.” Harley frowned. “You just dropped a bombshell on me.”
“Well, you dropped one on me too.” Daniel snorted. “On the other hand I’m still really glad to see you. Don’t know about this War Dog stuff though. That sounds mighty upsetting, not how to treat a veteran, whether man or dog.”
Daniel had always been a big baby when it came to animals. His family used to pick up all kinds of rescues. “Have you heard anything about a big shepherd-Malinois cross?”
“I have. One that was supposed to be quite dangerous. I know that they found a dead dog on that supposed drug compound not too long ago. So I imagine that’s caused a fair bit of talk.”
“Absolutely. I can’t imagine anything worse than for a man to abuse, much less kill a War Dog.” Anger spiked in Harley’s voice.