Chapter Eight #2
me and took me to the hospital in Monte Vista. We didn’t have a clinic back
then. Mel was surprisingly good at field dressing a wound.”
“How did Max handle that?” Shane asked as though waiting for
her to tell a story of epic rage.
Her brother had been mad, but mostly she remembered how he’d
hugged her, his hands shaking. He might be known for his temper, but Max tended
to be a flashfire when it came to irritation. He could be quite understanding
about a lot of things, and he’d been far more scared than angry with her.
“Well, he didn’t realize I was gone until he called me in for dinner. Mel was
excellent at getting me help. He was not so great at calling my brothers and
letting them know what happened to me, so Rye was a deputy at the time and he
had the entire police force looking for me. Oh, also, did I mention that I was
in a lot of pain? Yeah, Mel had something for that.”
Shane’s eyes went wide. “His tonic?”
It was infamous around these parts. Mel’s tonic was brewed
to keep aliens away. Apparently only some of the bad aliens were driven off
with beets. The rest required rot gut whiskey. There were probably more alien
home cures, but she only knew about the two. “He didn’t know what else to do,”
Brooke admitted. “I was sixteen. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had a nip or two, and
it helped. Compound fractures hurt. And that is why I don’t ever ride
motorcycles.”
She could remember how worried her brothers had been. How
Rye looked pale, and Max’s eyes had been red rimmed.
“What are you thinking right now?” Bay had a hand on her
head, stroking her hair.
“I was thinking about how close I came to going into the
system,” she said quietly. “It wasn’t good for you. I wouldn’t have even had a
sibling. You know I never really thought about what could have happened after
our dad walked away and didn’t leave a forwarding address.”
“I’m still shocked that he walked out after your mom died.”
Bay sounded outraged.
It was funny, but that was the least worst thing that
happened at that time. “It wasn’t like he was around much anyway. By that time
he mostly drank and complained about whatever we were doing. I don’t remember a
lot about him. Just that I used to call him the angry man instead of Dad.”
When she thought about her bio dad, all she remembered was
how angry he was. With her for being a kid. With her brothers for not doing
enough. With her mother for not being enough. Her father leaving was nothing
but an afterthought in her mother’s death.
“Wow. I can’t imagine taking on a kid at eighteen,” Shane
said with a shake of his head.
She glanced up at him, loving the way his longish hair
curled slightly at the ends and how broad his shoulders were. He was a
beautiful man, and his sweet smile belied his history. Would she still smile
like that if she’d been through what he’d been through? “No, sweetie, you were
literally tossed out into the cold at eighteen and forced to find your way with
nothing.”
They were remarkable men. The truth was they’d survived a
lot. Survived and stuck together, and Bay was having his first big art show and
Shane… Shane held everything together. He didn’t understand how important he
was.
Shane leaned over and kissed her forehead. “We had each
other, at least.”
“They gave us some money and offered to help us find jobs,
but we had already decided to rodeo,” Bay said. “Shane was an excellent rider,
and he was everyone’s favorite because he would go around fixing things for
them. He’s always been handy and able to organize things. Shane’s always found
a way to make us somewhat comfortable.”
Because he had to make himself valuable. Her heart
constricted because he’d done it today. He’d spent his day off organizing a
house for them to live in, a room for her to work in. He was offering her
everything he could.
This was so not what she’d expected, but she had to go with
it. All she could think about was how Gemma had found herself when she let go,
when she lost the world she thought she wanted and found a place to call home.
“How did your brothers make it work?” Shane asked. “I can
imagine it would be hard to survive. They were kids and you were practically a
baby.”
He wasn’t exactly wrong. She’d been so young, and she’d
clung to them. Instead of resenting her, they’d changed their lives so they
could keep her with them. “Rye took a job as a deputy, and Max did odd jobs
while trying to keep the business running. He’d worked as a trainer for years
by that time, but our dad had never taught him how to keep the books.”
“Who did?” Bay shook his head. “I bet it was Stella.”
“Marie,” Brooke replied. When she thought about it, raising
her had been a town project. “Stella came out a couple of times a week with
food, and she would clean and teach us how to run a house. She would make sure
I had everything I needed. Since my dad wasn’t dead, CPS assumed he was taking
care of me. The whole town got together and pitched in. The man who was our
mayor for a long time was basically my grandfather, though we didn’t share an
ounce of blood. He taught me how to fish and took me and some of the other kids
camping. He came to all my school events and cheered at my volleyball games.
For the first couple of years, Mel posed as my father. That was fun. Then one
of my teachers turned out to be from a planetary system we’re at war with. That
was when CPS got called in but…” She grimaced. “Stef took care of it. Damn it.
I want to stay mad at him.”
But it was hard when her body felt so good, when her soul
felt oddly at peace.
Something about a naked picnic did it for her.
Or it was about the men she was with.
Either way, she didn’t want to wreck it by being angry.
Shane’s expression went soft. “You don’t have to be mad at
anyone. I want you to know that we’re on your side and we’ll stand by you. You
want us to fuck with someone, we can do it.”
Bay kept up his stroking, seeming to enjoy lying around on a
blanket in the middle of a stage with her. “I’m going to explain to him that
the show is off. I’m not working with someone who doesn’t respect my… Who
doesn’t respect you.”
She looked up at him. She knew it should be weird because
his dick was right there, but it felt oddly normal to be like this with them.
“I’m their kid sister. They put a lot into me. And I’m not merely talking about
Max and Rye. Stef and Callie, too. Stella and Mel and Hiram and Teeny and
Marie. Logan was practically my brother growing up. You know he calls me at
least once a week to see if I’ll have lunch with him or come to dinner with his
family, and I always turn him down.”
“Why?” Shane asked. “You live in the same city.”
She huffed out a laugh. “No, I lived in an apartment that
barely qualifies as a two bedroom, and Logan lives in a penthouse on the Upper
East Side. We were in two different worlds. Logan is going to have a thriving
practice when he graduates. I don’t have a job or an apartment anymore.”
“I don’t understand why that means you shouldn’t spend time
with a guy you grew up with,” Shane replied quietly. “Look, Brooke, I grew up
with a woman who constantly told me what a failure I was.”
Again, not the same. “You were a kid. I’m a whole, grown-ass
adult who had everything she could want handed to her.”
“I don’t know about that. I think you probably would have
liked to have a dad who loved you, a mom who lived,” Bay pointed out.
“I had my brothers,” she said with a sigh.
“That doesn’t give them a pass to spy on you and make you
feel small,” Shane replied with quiet surety. “Even if they gave you
everything.” He frowned for a moment. “Baby, are you worried they’re going to
be disappointed in you?”
She sniffled and found herself being dragged into Shane’s
arms. He tugged her until she was sitting on his lap, his arms wrapped around
her. “How can they not be? My degree wasn’t cheap, and they didn’t have to pay
for it.”
“Of course they did. You’re their sister.” Bay shifted so he
could lean against her back.
She loved how warm she felt when she was caught between
them. Safe. She felt safe with them and that wasn’t what she was supposed to be
looking for. Especially not when she would have to leave them. But she wasn’t
thinking about that now. “They could have easily turned me over to Teeny and
Marie. I know they offered to take me in. Marie went so far as to look for a
bigger cabin. Stella said I could live with her. My brothers wouldn’t hear of
it. There was a whole town hall and everything. I remember Logan and I sitting
together playing Uno and drinking root beer. There was popcorn, too. And Rye
stood up and said if anyone tried to take his sister away, he would leave the
town and never look back. Max said he would go, too. He would leave everything
he knew behind so we could stay together as a family, and I yelled at him this
morning.”
Shane held her tighter. “Baby, families fight. At least I
think they do. I think part of what makes a good family is being able to
disagree and still love each other. No one’s perfect. I think that phrase was
invented for Max.”
She could feel Bay shrug behind her. “Max is obnoxious, but
he’s actually reasonable. Rye seems reasonable, but he’s a hard-ass. She’s way
more worried about what Rye thinks. Max is fine as long as the people he loves
are happy and someone gives him bacon his wife doesn’t know about. Rye is
trickier. He’ll hide what he feels. I’ve always known we can handle Max. It’s
Rye who might take real offense to us dating his sister.”
“Rye is a sweetheart,” she countered.
“Rye wants you to think that. Believe me. I know how sibling
relationships work. Especially when you have to bond the way me and Shane did.
I know for your brothers it’s in their DNA, but Shane and I had to do something
similar in order to survive our childhood.”
“You would have been fine without me,” Shane insisted.
“No, I wouldn’t, and you know it. You think I don’t know all