Tamed and Free

Chapter 8: Both

Gatlin had let Beau go to a doggy day care for the day. She really just needed to blow off some steam. The time was five minutes pass the time she told Takoda to meet her when she finally pulled in.

Little John's was a tiny little mom and pop place ran by a local family. They specialized in breakfast, having it until they closed. The place was loaded down with pictures of the high school football team, cheerleaders, and family pictures. 

Gatlin walked in with heavy shoulders. She easily found the others by how loud Takoda was talking.

".....But anyway she decided the best thing to do was let Beau slide down first." He was talking. 

Gatlin put her fingers to her lips to tell Deacon not to say anything. She got behind Takoda.

".....And when he went down, she remembered he couldn't stop himself before....." He continued.

Gatlin grabbed his shoulders. "What are we talking about it?"

Takoda jumped almost to a standing point then slinked back to his seat, "When Beau went sliding down the hill during that winter we finally got snow."

"Ah. Fun times." She grabbed the empty seat by Deacon and smiled at him. "Have y'all ordered yet?"

"We were waiting for you." Merida stated. "What's with the urgent call?"

"Jacob is back."

Takoda's dark brown eyes got black and Merida's mouth dropped to a war face. "Why?" Takoda's voice was like a knife to the air.

"He has work over here is what he told Sara." 

The waitress came for their orders. They changed their tone when talking to her and placed all their breakfast orders. When she left, they went back to serious.

Deacon looked more puzzled than anything. "Who is Jacob?"

Merida looked across the table at him. "Sorry. We forgot you don't know him. Jacob is Gatlin's biological...."

"He donated sperm to Gatlin's mom and it created her." Takoda corrected, he looked at Merida, "He's not her dad."

"Oh. And why isn't he liked?" Deacon was confused.

Finally Gatlin spoke, "He didn't want me. His dream was to have one boy and one girl. Sara is my older sister, and well, I'm a girl too. So he packed up his bags and left my mama and us. When she put him on Child's support to help take care of us, he treated it like we didn't deserve it. Now, he calls me and tells me that I owe him since he pays a hundred and forty four dollars a week to support me."

Deacon was starting to understand why the other two were angry about it. "And what did he say to you this morning? Isn't that why you wanted to talk to us?"

Gatlin fell into Deacon's chest, with eyes filling up with tears, she said. "He said that I was a slut and that he was going to be here for a while. It really wasn't anything that I'm not used to. Just with that and what happened with Jeff.."

"What happened with Jeff?" Takoda demanded while Deacon rubbed Gatlin's back.

Gatlin stared at Takoda. She didn't want to tell him. Not after seeing what he is capable of. "Nothing Koda. Let's eat." The waitress brought their food to them.

Merida was taking in the scene. She was the most logical of them all. "I think you should stay with one of us or one of us stay with you." She said more to her eggs than to the group.

"I don't want to be a bother. Besides, I have school and Jeff is very particular about school nights and us staying at other people's places." 

Takoda slammed his fist down, "Fuck Jeff! Last year he put your arm in a cast because you asked your mama to build the apartment in the barn. The year before that you had stripes down your legs for weeks because you were on the porch watching the moon and not in bed."