AN: With Heath back in the bay I decided to go back through my drafts and see what was there. I found a couple more chapters I'd written for this story so I figured I might as well post them. Enjoy :)
"There was a man here today," Harley told Heath. "He wanted to talk to you but Dad made him go away." Harley looked at him expectantly, but Heath didn't have any answers for him.
"Who was it?" he asked Casey. Casey looked at him guilty, but there was something else there too, a coldness that bothered Heath.
"We'll talk about it later."
"No, I think we should talk about it now." Casey glanced at the kids, obviously not comfortable talking about this in front of them, but Heath wasn't gonna give in.
"Alright," Casey sighed, getting up off the lounge and heading to the front door. Heath told the kids to sit tight and followed Casey outside.
"So?" Heath pressed, irritated and well on his way to cranky about the fact that Casey had lied to him.
"Don't look at me like that, you think I'd keep anything from you without a good reason?"
"That depends. Who was it?"
"It'll just upset you."
"Who?"
"Kyle, alright? It was Kyle."
"Kyle?"
"Yeah."
"What'd he want?"
"I dunno. I told him to get lost."
"Why?"
"You think we need him poking around here asking questions? It's not just about you and me. What do you think it'd do to Harley and Cleo if they found out the truth?"
"Okay, okay, calm down. I get it."
"Good."
Casey raked a hand through his hair. It felt like everything they'd built was teetering on a knife's edge. He hoped to God he'd hurt Kyle enough that he would never, ever want to come back.
"Case?"
"What?" he snapped.
"Hey, come here." One second he felt completely out of control but the next Heath's arms were around him and he could breathe again.
"It's okay. We'll be okay."
Casey wanted to believe that.
"We did the right thing, didn't we Heath?"
Heath held him tighter.
"It doesn't matter now. I love you too much for it to ever be any other way."