Jade Archer - Sandpipers 2 - Raven's Mark by Jade Archer

Author:Jade Archer [Archer, Jade]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

What a mess!

Mark wiped down the countertop in the kitchen and cleaned away the milk, butter and jam he’d used to make Ryan’s breakfast on autopilot. He couldn’t concentrate on anything but how totally out of control everything seemed to be right now.

And how the hell had that happened? Yesterday had been so good. And last night…well, last night had been fantastic. But this morning everything was tense and strained and back about a million miles from where they’d been twenty-four hours earlier. How had it all just fallen apart like that with one bad dream? And more importantly, how was he going to fix it?

The only one that didn’t appear to be feeling it was Ryan—thank goodness. He was happily munching away on a slice of toast and washing it all down with a glass of milk like he didn’t have a care in the world. Which was wonderful, of course—the last thing they needed was Ryan getting upset.

Mark finally fully appreciated just how extraordinarily adept Raven was at shielding the little boy. The cool, calm and collected performance he’d put on while getting Ryan ready was worthy of an Academy Award. But away from his son, Raven worried him. He was all twitchy and withdrawn and stretched tight.

Now that he thought about it, ‘what a mess’ didn’t even begin to cover it, really.

Mark noticed Ryan starting in on his second slice of toast and that his milk was edging down towards half empty. “Do you need anything else to eat, buddy?”

He should have asked earlier before he finished tidying up the kitchen, but he’d been too distracted—apparently Raven wasn’t the only one all wound up and agitated.

Ryan swallowed and shook his head. “No, thank you.”

So polite. Raven really was doing an amazing job of bringing Ryan up. He knew firsthand it wasn’t an easy thing to do. He also freely admitted he was more than half in love with both of them. Now if he could just work out how to fix it so Raven didn’t bolt on him. And yes, he could see it was a distinct possibility after this morning’s little wake up call.

Mark felt a painful squeeze to his heart just thinking about it. What was he going to do?

He placed a hand over the clothes he had retrieved from the dryer. Raven had forgotten to take them with him when he went for his shower—another small sign all was not right. But he needed to speak to Raven without Ryan—for a second, anyway. This might be his chance.

“I’m just going to take your dad his clothes. Will you be alright for a minute?”

“Uh huh,” Ryan replied, chomping down happily on his toast again.

Picking up the bundle, Mark made his way to the bathroom. Unfortunately, he made it to the door well before any brilliant ideas of what to say occurred to him.

He hesitated. The water wasn’t running anymore—hadn’t been for a while—but he wasn’t quite sure what to do. He didn’t want to make things any worse than they already were.

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