Declan a reverse age gap.., p.1
Declan: A Reverse Age Gap, Single-Parent Romance, page 1
DECLAN
LARAMIE BRISCOE
CONTENTS
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Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Epilogue
Shadows
Renegade
Only the Beginning
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Copyright © 2023 by Laramie Briscoe
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Editing: Katy Nielson
Cover Design: LB Design
Photography: Wander Aguiar
Cover Model: Brooke
Created with Vellum
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BLURB
My sister’s best friend has always taken my breath away…
Declan Tennyson
At twenty-two, most guys my age are living it up; swiping left and right, trying to find what’s good for the night instead of what’s good for life.
Me? With my dad looking to slow down to spend more time with my mom after twenty plus years of love, I’m left with a life impacting decision to make.
Take the shop – or make my own way.
I thought I had it all worked out, until a single mom with brunette hair, blue eyes, and the cutest son ever needed my help on a freezing, snowy night.
Claudia Wilson
Declan Tennyson was cute and annoying. My best friend’s little brother could always be counted on to be underfoot or secretly listening to our girl talk.
But in the last three years?
He grew into a man without me noticing.
Being a single mom is harder than I ever expected it to be, and I haven’t had time to notice anything.
Not until the night Declan saved us in the snow, and if I’m not careful, he’s gonna end up saving me from myself.
CHAPTER 1
DECLAN
The night sky sparkles in the inky blackness as the snow crunches under my boots. The city is asleep, partly because of the late hour, and partly because the weather has been shit which is why I’m walking home from the bar tonight and not driving my truck.
Stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jacket and ducking my head into the wind, I pick up the pace. I stayed out longer than I meant to, and my morning wake-up call is going to come in just a few hours.
Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I check the temperature.
Fifteen degrees.
My face is about to freeze off. Luckily, I only have a few more blocks to go.
“How am I going to get us out of this mess?”
The voice of a woman cuts through the night. It’s one of distress and irritation. It’s also one that sounds familiar to me. Picking up my speed, I hurry to where I heard the sound coming from.
Once I turn the corner, I see a little Toyota I recognize. A brunette is standing beside it with her hands held on top of her head; one I’ve always thought was beautiful. One who has been the star of so many of my adolescent fantasies. I haven’t seen her as much in the last couple of years, not since she became a single mother and stopped hanging out with my sister, Riley, so much.
“Claudia?” I call out, not believing what I’m seeing.
“Declan.” The relief is palpable. “Did I conjure you up?”
Chuckling, I hurry over to where she stands. “No, I’m coming from the bar up the street. I decided to walk since the roads are shit, and you know, I didn’t think driving my bike would be a safe bet.”
She blows out a breath. “I should’ve done the same, but I couldn’t with him.” She points into the backseat.
“How’s the little guy?” I look in, noticing he’s knocked out, his head jacked to the side against his car seat.
“He’s good,” she smiles softly. “He’s slept through this whole situation.” She holds her hands out in front of her, as if she’s saying she can’t imagine how.
“What’s going on here?”
She sighs heavily. “I’m supposed to be on my shift at the hospital right now, but I got stuck as you can see. I called his dad to see if he could come help us,” she stops talking and seems to be fighting tears. “He said he’d be here, but that was three hours ago, and I’ve just gotten stuck worse.”
“Claud, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she sniffs. “It is what it is.”
“Let’s see if we can get you out.”
I walk around the car, trying to figure out the best way to get her out of the embankment she’s gotten herself stuck in.
“What do you want me to do?” she asks.
“Get back in the car. I’m gonna push.” I give a testing push on the bumper. “Roll down your window so you can hear me.”
“Thank you so much, Declan,” she says before getting into the driver’s seat.
“Not a problem, and don’t thank me until I get you outta here.”
I rock the car back and forth, trying to get it out of the hole she’s dug herself into by continuing to spin the wheels.
“Turn it to the left and give it some gas,” I instruct.
She does as I’ve told her and I take a little bit of a running start to get some force behind my push. It starts to move. My footing begins to slip but I continue pushing. “Gas, gas, gas… don’t be scared.”
Claudia continues. I’m proud she doesn’t take it easy. I can remember the first time I got myself stuck in the snow and ice. It’d been hard to trust I was doing the right thing.
“Now, crank it to the right slightly. Okay, back to the left and gas, gas, gas.”
“Yay!” she yells as she gets back onto the road. The brine and sand allow her tires to grip the surface, although it’s still slick.
Since it’s just the two of us on the road, she gets out and comes around, throwing her arms around my neck. “Thank you so much. Guess all those afternoons of you and your friends riding bikes in your backyard in the mud, paid off. All those times you got stuck ended up being a life skill, huh?”
The hug takes me by surprise. She hasn’t hugged me since before I hit puberty, and this time I can’t help but notice the feel of her chest against mine.
“I forgot about riding my bike in the mud when I was a kid. I always loved getting you and Riley dirty, though. It was my favorite to send you and two upstairs crying because I’d gotten your clothes dirty. Luckily for you, I’ve grown up since then. Are you still going to work?”
“Yeah.” Her eyes don’t meet mine. “I can’t afford to lose the hours. Even though I’m late, I’ll still be able to get paid for something.”
“Do you feel comfortable driving yourself?” I eye the ice and snow-covered asphalt.
“We’ll just take it slow,” she shrugs, running her hands up and down her arms.
But I can tell by the way her lips tremble she isn’t comfortable, she’s just used to taking care of things on her own. Of pushing aside her needs and fears, and doing what needs to be done.
Mind made up, I grab her hand, ignoring how good it feels. Walking her over to the passenger side, I open the door. “Get in. I’ll take him wherever it was you were taking him and then we’ll swing you by work. Just let me know what time you get off and I’ll make sure to be there.”
“No,” she protests. “We’re not your responsibility.”
“Maybe not, but I think we both know Riley would have my ass if she knew I left you alone in this vulnerable situation.”
She makes a noise in the back of her throat. “She would definitely have a few choice words to say.”
Raising an eyebrow, I look at her, thinking about the mouth on my sister. She could make a sailor blush on the right night. “A few?”
She wrinkles her nose, seeming to think about Riley and how she’d react. “Alright, Declan, thank you. We appreciate it.”
After getting into the driver’s seat, I buckle in and then ease onto the street, aware of the precious cargo I’m transporting.
CHAPTER 2
CLAUDIA
When I glance over at Declan, it
"You shouldn't even be out in this mess," he whistles through his teeth.
My gaze is glued to where his gloveless hands grip the steering wheel. It's not as if I've never seen his tattoos before, but I can't remember a time when they've caught my attention as much as they are right now. I've seen him without a shirt but, at this moment, those hands are the sexiest things I've witnessed – which either says a lot about him or about me. Pulling back to the moment, I respond to his previous words.
"I wish I didn't have to be," I sigh. "I hate working this shift, but I get a shift differential. It's three bucks more an hour."
"What happens with him?" He tilts his head to where Jay is asleep in his car seat.
"Luckily, they have childcare. I get off at seven in the morning and my
mom or Riley will take him for a few hours for me. It seems wrong to put him in daycare day and night, ya know? Although he mostly sleeps when I'm at work, I don't want him to always have people he doesn't know watching him." I shrug.
"You don't get much sleep, do you?" Declan barely puts on the brakes so we can come to a stop at a red light.
I laugh, shaking my head. "Not at all. I dream of the sleep I used to get when I do. Every once in a while, I use one of the empty rooms to get a nap when we aren't super busy. One of my co-workers looks out for me when I do."
"Does Jay's dad ever help? I don't remember him much."
"Neither does Jay, and no, he doesn't help. You saw what a joke it was for him to say he'd come to help me get out of the mess I was in with the car. That's what he does all the time, makes promises and never keeps them. He's supposed to pay child support. He did it twice and now he's so far behind that if he gets pulled over or a police officer runs his name, he'll go to jail. I don't hope he'll ever catch up or want to see Jay." I don't admit this to many people, but I can trust Declan. I must be careful because I did the same thing with Jay's dad. I'm the type of person who wants to see the good in others. It gets me in trouble more often than not.
"That's tough. I'm sorry," he mumbles.
"No, I'm sorry. You probably asked to be polite and I just unloaded all my irritation at another man on you." Now I'm an asshole to a guy who wanted to help us. It's rare someone asks me how things are going and includes Jay in the equation. My face flames with the embarrassment of letting my mouth speak more than it should have. Sweat beads on my forehead as I think about what I've said to Declan. I wish the passenger seat would open up and swallow me into a dark hole.
We pull up to the hospital and he parks. Fumbling with my seatbelt, I'm trying to get out of this car as quickly as possible.
"Hey." He reaches over, grabbing hold of my shaking hand to stop my motion. "I don't do anything to be polite."
Lifting my eyes, I catch the slight tilt of his lips. "Are you teasing me?"
"No, I'm being honest. If there's one thing I've learned working at the shop with Dad and his manager, G, is you can't be polite in that sense. If you do, you'll listen to people's sob stories and give them free service for the rest of their natural-born lives. I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know."
Rolling my lips together, I give him a small smile. "Thank you."
"There's no reason for you to thank me. There's absolutely no way I would've let the two of you be out in this by yourselves. What time do you get off work?"
My mind is blank as I try to figure out why he's asking. "I should get off at six a.m., but I wanna try and make up as much time as possible, so I'm going to push for eight. Why?"
"While I don't mind hoofing it home from here, I do mind you driving him home in this." He jerks his finger behind him to where Jay is still asleep in his car seat. "I'll be awake at five. I have to get things going for the shop anyway. You get off at six, let me know. You get off at eight, let me know. Either way, I'll be here."
Guilt washes over me, suffocating like a blanket. Since it's been Jay and me, I've had a lot of that.
Guilt.
It comes in different shapes and sizes and in waves. It's fluctuating, a living and breathing thing. I never know what might trigger it. It could be that I have him out in the middle of a snowstorm or that he has no dad to go to the father/son activities with at daycare. On the same token, it could be when I have to choose between a toy he wants or our electric bill. Working overtime so that I can give him both or put a little back into savings all weigh on me.
And that's just anything that has to do with Jay. Forget when I'm asking my mom to watch him on her day off so I can get a few things done, or when I'm forced to leave him with a babysitter he doesn't know.
Now I'm bringing my best friend's brother into it; a kid who has no worries in the world.
"I can't ask you to do that," I say with a shake of my head.
"You're not asking me, I'm insisting. Actually, I'm demanding. Not only will I lose respect for myself, but I'll also hear about it from Riley, my mom, and dad."
"Dec…"
The hand on mine reaches up until it gets to my chin. His thumb tilts my chin upward and back. His serious blue eyes meet mine. "What did I say to you? I don't do anything to be polite. You call me. While some people don't want the responsibility, I'm not one of them. If you need help, I'm the one who'll give it to you."
CHAPTER 3
DECLAN
I’m exhausted as I trudge up the steps to my apartment. A few years ago, Dad bought two more buildings on the same block so he could expand the shop. Each of those buildings has their own apartment on the top level, meaning Riley and I were able to move out, but still stay close. I’m going up the back way because I don’t want the cameras to go off, letting my dad know I’ve been out all night. Although I’m of age, both he and Mom still worry.
Judging by the amount of snow on the steps and landing, I’ll be shoveling before I do anything else. When I finally get upstairs and open the door, I’m greeted by the heat I left on. When I was growing up, Mom was going through menopause, and at some point, it became a running joke in our house that she couldn’t take off anymore clothes, but we could put them on. So many winter nights, my dad and I froze our asses off in the name of his love for her. I promised myself I wouldn’t do the same when I moved out. I will sweat and go down to shorts with no shirt before I cut the heat down, just out of principle.
I’m slipping my jacket off when there’s a knock at my door. Who the fuck is it at this time of night, or morning? When I open the door, I roll my eyes heavenward. “I already have a mom. I don’t need a second one.”
My sister tsks as she walks in. “What the hell are you doing coming in so late?”
“Not that I owe you any explanation since I’m a grown-ass man, but I was helping your BFF.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Why were you helping Claudia?”
I’m starving, so while we’re talking, I go about making myself a quick sandwich to eat. “I went to the bar tonight.”
She interrupts, snorting unapologetically. “Only you would go to the bar in the middle of a fucking blizzard.”
“I was bored,” I shrug. “Not all of us have the most perfect partner in the world. Some of us get lonely. Anyway, I was walking back because no way would I be driving in any of this bullshit, and she and Jay were stuck in an embankment. She was scared to give it enough gas to get out of there. I stopped and helped her.”
