29. Cara
Chapter twenty-nine
Cara
The day before Christmas, my cast was scheduled to come off. I had to ask my neighbor and friend Leah to take me to the hospital because Ellis had excused himself because of an urgent appointment. When I asked him about details, he just smiled mysteriously.
“You will find out soon enough,” he said.
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
“I’m sorry I can’t accompany you to the hospital, but I promise you it’s worth it,” he said before kissing me on the forehead and driving off in his car.
Leah and I speculated wildly on the way to the hospital, but I stopped her when she suggested Ellis was buying an amusement park for Riley.
“Don’t give him any ideas,” I said. “If I would let him, he would spoil the boy rotten.”
“Don’t be too strict,” Leah said. “They both have a lot of catching up to do. And Ellis seems like a good man. I’m sure he just wants to make Riley happy.”
I couldn’t argue with that. For a total beginner at parenting, Ellis was doing a stellar job at being a father.
The appointment at the hospital took nearly two hours, but after a scary encounter with the cast saw, I was finally freed from my heavy, itchy cast. I had to wear an ankle brace for another two weeks, and my foot was still tender, but being able to walk freely again was a relief. And since I had my mobility back, the first order of business was something Riley had been dreading: apologizing to Terry and Annette.
I shooed him into the car as soon as Leah and I returned from the hospital, ignoring his half-hearted complaints that it wasn’t a good day for such a conversation.
“Today is as good as any day,” I said.
“How angry do you think they are?” he asked me, sitting on the passenger seat of my car, clasping the painting he had made for them to his chest. I could tell he was scared. He loved Terry and Annette as if they were his real grandparents, and the fact that he’d done something to upset them was troubling him deeply.
“Probably more disappointed than angry.”
“That’s worse,” he mumbled.
Riley went quiet after that, so we finished the drive in silence.
When I parked the car, he eyed the ranch house nervously. I gave him an encouraging push. “You need to get it over with, the sooner the better.”
Riley took a deep breath before climbing out of the car.
We walked up to the house together. His hand shaking a little when he pressed the doorbell, but when Annette opened the door with a smile, he relaxed visibly.
I gave him another nudge.
“I’m here to apologize,” Riley said, eyes fixed on his shoes. His words came rushing out like a waterfall. “For taking Atticus without asking you first and for causing you worry and a whole lot of other stuff, and I made this painting for you, and I hope you can forgive me, and I’m really, really, really sorry.”
Annette took the painting from him. “Oh, this is beautiful, Riley. I think we might hang it up in the sunroom. Why don’t you guys come in?”
Riley breathed a sigh of relief and nodded enthusiastically.
When we entered the kitchen, I noticed four empty coffee mugs on the table.
“Do you have a visitor? Are we interrupting something? I’m sorry. I should have called before coming.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine, honey. But yes, we do have a visitor. He’s upstairs in Terry’s office.”
Just as she said that, we could hear footsteps on the stairs, and a moment later, Terry appeared, followed by Ellis, who held a folder in his hands.
My stomach clenched. Terry and Ellis doing business in his office couldn’t be good. The only explanation was that the worst had finally happened, the moment we’d all been dreading—and the day before Christmas, too, for added cruelty.
Ellis had a big smile on his face, adding insult to injury. I understood the deal was a professional success for him, but he knew how much the ranch meant to Riley and me, so I’d expected he would at least look guilty.
“Thank you again, Terry. It was a pleasure doing business with you,” he said before noticing me. “Oh, Cara. I didn’t expect you here.”
I gave him an icy glare. “So you finally won? You finally got your land, hm?”
The room instantly went silent. Terry and Annette exchanged a look I couldn’t quite place, and even Riley tried to make himself invisible.
Ellis was still smiling, seemingly unfazed by my anger. “I did buy land from Terry. That’s true.”
I crossed my arms. I loved Ellis, but even my love for him couldn’t dampen my anger. One day, I would be able to forgive Ellis for this, but today was not that day. “You must feel very proud of yourself. Destroying someone’s home so you can ruin our community with a big, ugly, toxic waste–producing chip factory. I bet your father is happy.”
Riley snickered. “I doubt it.”
When I looked at my son, he was grinning. Ellis was still smiling, and even Terry and Annette seemed to be giddy.
I squinted my eyes, confused. “What is going on here?”
“Stop torturing her, boys. Tell her!” Annette said.
Ellis opened the folder and showed me a piece of paper. “I bought some land from Terry—that much is true. But only eight acres.”
“Eight acres?” I asked. “What do you want with eight acres? That’s not big enough for a factory.”
“No, but it’s big enough for a nice, spacious house and a small stable. Which I’m going to need because I own three horses now.”
He handed me the folder so that I could look at it myself, but I was too confused and overwhelmed to focus on the words. “You own three horses?”
“He bought Atticus, Jupiter, and Marigold from me,” Terry explained. “And the land, of course. A nice plot over at the creek. You’ll love it, Cara.”
“I don’t understand… You want to build a house in Brightwater?”
Ellis nodded. “I’m going to move here. I want to be closer to Riley so I can see him as often as possible. Or at least as often as he wants. And I’m sick and tired of Stenton in general and my father’s presence specifically.”
“But your work? The company?”
“Most of my work can be done remotely.”
“Wow… that’s…”
I needed to sit down. My head was spinning. Ellis was going to stay in Brightwater—forever. That meant we had a future together. We could finally be a proper couple, a proper family. The ranch was safe. Wait … was the ranch safe?
“Is that money enough to pay your bills?” I asked Terry.
Terry smiled. “Ellis grossly overpaid, so… yes.”
“It’s a beautiful piece of land,” Ellis interjected. “I paid a fair price.”
“It’s enough to get us out of debt and then some. We will be able to make some much-needed investments, and that will hopefully help us to keep our heads above water in the future. Especially since your Ellis had another trick in his pocket.”
“Another trick in his pocket? What is that supposed to mean?”
Annette stepped next to Ellis and gave his arm a motherly squeeze. “This handsome young man is now my boss.”
“I hired her as a personal assistant,” Ellis explained. “It’s only a part-time job, but—”
“It comes with benefits,” Annette said with a big grin on her face. “I can get health insurance.”
“Taking her medication off our bill will help us a lot,” Terry said.
I was speechless. There I was, ready to launch into a tirade, completely in the dark that Ellis had just solved all my friends’ problems, on top of stepping up as a father for Riley.
A laugh bubbled out of me, and despite the audience, I couldn’t help kissing Ellis.
“Happy?” Ellis asked.
“As long as you will allow us to visit Atticus and Marigold.”
Ellis exhaled, and I noticed he exchanged a glance with Riley over my shoulder. When I turned around, I saw my son grinning from ear to ear and nodding encouragingly.
“Cara, I… of course, it does not have to be right away, but I was hoping you and Riley could move into this new house too.”
I leaned back to look up at him. “Moving in with you?”
“I know it’s early to ask something like this, but it will be a while until the house is built and ready to move into. The plot is in the middle of nowhere, so we need a road and pipes, electricity cables and so on. It will take at least nine months until everything is ready. But once it is, I want you there. You and Riley. I want it to be our home.”
I looked at Riley, who was still beaming with joy.
“You were in on this, huh?”
He nodded. “Yeah, he told me first before he even talked to Terry.”
“I needed to make sure Riley was on board,” Ellis said.
“And are you on board?” I asked my son.
“Hell yes!”
Ellis leaned in closer, looking at me hopefully. “What do you say?”
“What do I say?” I was speechless. My face flushed, and big bubbles of happiness bounced around in my belly. “Yes! Yes, yes, yes. A hundred times yes, Ellis.”
I rested my forehead against his, pressing another kiss on his lips. “Let’s make it our home.”