#kaycejdutton

Her tattoos painted her arms and places under her shirt he couldn’t see. She came from a different world where tattoos were more commonplace. She saw he had a couple on his forearms but couldn’t see more. Either way, the ink on porcelain skin was dark like paint; her body, the canvas. “I’m sure. If you’d like to.” She stepped forward, pairing the distance between them down to nothing, reaching up. Soft fingertip pads slid over his cheekbone, back toward his ear and then down to his jaw. The action displaced some of his long hair but it was ghostly soft, slight. She didn’t want to scare him right out of here but…God, she never did this. A shoulder shrugged up at the final question. “She hasn’t ever woken up to any man in my bed but her father…and that’s dead and gone for me. I can’t ever go back there. For myself. For her. For the future.” Her eyes never left him. They vacillated looking between his dark eyes and his mouth, his hair and his body from the chest up. “But we don’t have to do anything.” Her hand that had been at his face rested easily against his shoulder now. “We can just talk until the sun comes up. Whatever’s comfortable… I just want to know you… And I want you here.”

“It’s getting dark, too!” She was still looking up at Kayce, Mister Dutton, with awe. She’d never actually seen snow like this before. In person. “It never gets this dark in the days in Oceanside. Is it because of the snow?” The girl is basically a genius level intellect without the typical mental deficit that comes with the title. And she’d probably graduate college before she turned 22. Not that any of that was of a concern to her. Casey takes his hand as he promised to get her all decked out for the snowman building. And she giggles merrily. “KC Club strikes again! Bet ya we’re gonna make the biggest one!” He was a nice man. She could see why her mama liked him so much.

"I don't give trust easy." She fidgets with her fingers at her middle. "I've either been a victim or made a victim of someone else my entire life. Not always by my deciding it, so..." Brows furrow as she steps closer to him, putting her hand on his stomach. Warmth. "That said... I can't help but trust you. You've been so...welcoming and kind to my daughter. To me." She smiles, her eyes taking on a bit of the smile's genuine light. "You better be careful. I might get used to this 'kindness' thing y'all are sellin' out here." It was a tease, with her voice taking off a soft south western twang on purpose. But gosh, did she think she really loved it out here, now. More than before...

Jamie's eyes sank to the table. He wasn't sure he could survive his brother seeing him this way. He remained stoic in the face of it, at the moment. "I'm not your brother, Kayce. I mean...not really, like we always thought." Jamie's throat constricts as the tears threaten and his voice comes off strangled. Words slightly garbled. "You're good to want to make this easier... But it's not...not ever, going to be easy."

"Yer my fam'ly, too, son." John Dutton didn't get choked up. "That's why we keep coming back to this, you and I. We make mistakes and we fight and we...we scratch, claw, all manner of it, but we'll always be blood. Fam'ly. Bonded. Tha's why 'sorry's' just a word we sometimes feel. There's never any love lost. Not really. My love fer you, son, is...it'll outlive me."

"M'really happy t'know yer always gonna have my back, too, Kace. I love you, brother."

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