Stay With Me, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 5) by J.H. Croix Page A

parents might show up and try to force him home. Eli also wouldn’t allow Ryan to return to their mother, knowing that meant a replay of Eli’s adolescence. Norm Brooks, their jerk of a father, had reached his worst once Eli was old enough to stand up to him. When Eli was younger, Norm was frightening enough for Eli to steer clear, although he had to stand by and watch the relentless verbal, emotional, and occasional physical abuse of his mother. Once Eli got to be about Ryan’s age, he became more of his father’s target with his father lashing out verbally, deliberately picking fights over nothing and occasionally swinging his fists. To this day, he wasn’t sure he should be proud he’d never responded physically to his father. He’d been determined he wouldn’t become the man Norm was. He supposed he should consider it good that Norm hadn’t come knocking sooner on his mother’s door. Ryan was old enough now to find his own way out.
    Eli shook his head sharply and grabbed the phone. He needed to get this over with. He dialed the number for his childhood home, knowing his mother would be at work and his father home.
    “Yup.” Norm couldn’t even be bothered to say hello when he answered the phone.
    “Hey Norm, it’s Eli.” Eli had stopped calling his father anything other than his name years and years ago.
    There was a long pause before Norm spoke again. “Eli, huh? Figured you’d be calling sometime soon. Your mother’s heartbroken over Ryan. You’d best send him back this way soon.”
    While Eli should have been startled at his father’s matter-of-fact expectation, he wasn’t. He knew well that Norm expected others to do whatever he wanted them to do. Why Norm wanted Ryan around was beyond Eli though.
    “Right. That’s why I’m calling. Ryan’s staying with me. You can either make it ugly, or you can let it go. I’ve already talked to an attorney, and I’m filing for guardianship tomorrow.”
    “Oh, and you think you’ll win?” Norm’s question dripped with belligerence.
    Eli took a slow breath. He would not be baited into an argument with Norm over this. “I will. Between the police reports over the years, the reports to child welfare when I was little and the fact I’m willing to testify, I’ve got a solid case. Mom can try to oppose it, but it won’t do a bit of good for her relationship with Ryan. If she wants a chance to actually have a relationship with him, she might want to let this go.”
    Norm was quiet for several beats. Eli could hear the rattle of his breath through the phone line. Norm was probably on his way to emphysema based on his two-pack a day smoking habit. Every memory Eli had of his father involved the labored sound of his breathing, which had only worsened over the years.
    “Well, aren’t you just the tough guy now?”
    Weariness washed over Eli. “Norm, I’m just trying to do right by Ryan. Life with you is hell, so I’m not putting him through that. I don’t like knowing you’re back with Mom, but she’s an adult and she can make her own decisions. Ryan has to wait four more years. All he’s had to deal with is six months with you and he ran away. Just let him be.”
    The line went dead in Eli’s ear. He tossed the phone on his desk and sat down in his chair with a thump. Not that he’d expected any talk with his father to go well, but he’d hoped for a little more clarity than that. Norm would either let it go because he genuinely didn’t care, but he couldn’t admit it; or he’d put up a fight for the sake of it.
    “Eli?”
    Eli glanced up to find Ryan standing in the doorway. The worry swirling in his eyes told Eli that Ryan had likely heard part of his conversation with their father. Eli cursed himself for forgetting to close the door. He ran a hand through his hair and rolled his shoulders in an attempt to loosen the tension there. “What’s up?”
    “Was that Dad?”
    Eli nodded. “Yup. Didn’t mean for you to hear that.”
    Ryan