Free Golden Trail by Kristen Ashley

doesn’t unload the
dishwasher unless I’ve asked him ten times. I remember askin’ you
to do it last night but that was only once. I got nine more to
go.”
    Tripp’s comically confused face split into a
smile and he muttered, “Shut up, Dad,” before he turned back to the
dishwasher.
    “You feed Blondie?” Layne asked but he knew
Tripp hadn’t because Blondie was dancing between both him and his
son, unsure which one of them was going to end her enforced fast,
and if she’d been fed she’d pick one or the other to bug.
    “Not yet. Just got downstairs. She’s only
been out a few minutes.” Tripp answered.
    “I’ll get her after I make coffee. You get
breakfast after you finish with that.”
    “Okay,” Tripp agreed and shoved some plates
into a cupboard.
    Layne made the coffee and started to feed
Blondie but stopped when he was about to plop the food in the dirty
bowl. He stared at the bowl a second then cleaned it before he fed
his son’s dog. By the time he set down the bowl, Blondie was beside
herself and Layne added a trip to the Garden Center to his day’s
agenda to buy her more bowls so they could put them in the
dishwasher and she didn’t have her breakfast delayed.
    Layne had a cup of coffee in his hand, his
hips against the counter by the sink and Tripp was sitting at the
island spooning up cereal when Jasper showed. He let his oldest son
get his cereal and sit by his brother before he moved to stand in
front of them at the island.
    “Spoke to your Mom yesterday. She wants you
guys to stay with me next week.”
    Tripp had been looking at him while he
talked and when he finished, his head dropped down to look at the
milk in his bowl. Jasper had been looking at him too but his head
didn’t drop down. Layne watched anger flash through his features
before he looked away and Layne saw a muscle tick in his cheek.
    This was another reason why he knew they
were his boys. They’d pegged Stew before Layne even moved home.
They didn’t like him and they didn’t like spending time with him.
But more, they didn’t like him with their Mom.
    Gabby might be a bitch to Layne but she
loved her kids and they loved her. For this reason, Layne knew they
were torn. When they spent time with her and Stew, when he got them
back, they were both tense to the point of wired and it took a
couple of days for them to settle in. Even not liking Layne, Jasper
obviously liked him more than Stew because he relaxed when he was
at Layne’s house. Then they’d go back and it’d happen all over
again.
    This caused Layne concern but neither of
them had shared and he felt it important to let them deal with it
how they saw fit. They needed him, they needed to man up and ask.
Until then, it was up to them to cope.
    They were torn because he knew they
preferred to be at Layne’s house because Stew wasn’t there. But
they didn’t want to be away from their Mom because Stew was there.
If Stew wasn’t there, he wondered how they’d be. Tripp probably
would take it in stride. Jasper would probably be more of an
asshole.
    “That cool with you guys?” Layne asked and
they both looked at him.
    “Yeah,” Tripp answered.
    “Whatever,” Jasper muttered.
    That was the best he was going to get from
Jas and he’d take it.
    Then Jasper decided to take his anger out on
Layne and Layne knew this because Jasper stated, “Mrs. Astley is
thirty-eight years old.”
    This was a bizarre statement leading into
unknown territory but considering he was referring to Raquel at
all, Layne braced.
    “Yeah,” Layne confirmed. “How’d you know
that?”
    “Kids know everything about Mrs. Astley,”
Jasper answered.
    Layne bet they did.
    “You were twenty-five when Mom had me,”
Jasper went on.
    Layne studied his son and prompted, “Your
point, Jas?”
    “You said you lived with her before Mom,”
Jasper replied.
    Layne kept his eyes locked to his boy.
    Layne had made the decision when he moved
home that he would treat his sons, mostly,