WILLOW
After the conversation with Grey, we fell back into our normal silence for the flight home.
I had a bunch of work to catch up on for the businesses to pass the time.
Opening two businesses at the same time is a pain in the ass, but at least it is almost to the part where I can hand the big parts off to the managers.
I like to be in the background as much as possible.
Only the people that work for me know that I am the owner, but I found the best managers to run them, so I never have to be hands-on when they are up and running.
John manages the garage. When I wanted to start one in Hidden Hills, he was the only person that I would trust with it.
He has been my stand-in grandpa since I was never able to meet my actual grandparents.
He met us the first day we moved to Tennessee to live in my dad’s family home.
There are pictures of him and all of us growing up through the years because he took his role as “Grandpa” seriously.
He even stayed with me while I was in the hospital for my parents to have a break and spend some time together. He took care of my brothers while my parents were with me, giving them extra time and attention, making sure that they didn’t feel like the focus was always on me.
John decided to teach me about fixing the vehicles around the property when I was in remission for the first time.
Dad started training me, but John was the only one that saw that Dad was helping me physically work out my problems with not trusting my body not to kill me.
But John said that I needed to learn how to be in silence with my thoughts to be able to face them.
Understanding that it’s one thing to work through frustrations when you are doing something physical, you can almost push the thoughts to the background, and they quiet down.
But he showed me that when you are still, and your thoughts are the loudest, you need to do something to keep your mind centered, before they run out of control.
When he finally retired and I told him about my idea to open a garage, he jumped on board the second that the words left my mouth.
We decided that we would only hire the guys that retired from Vital.
They usually continued to live on the property because once they were part of our family, they were stuck with us until they wanted to move on.
Usually, they would just be on control room duty, but I wanted to give them another option if that wasn’t enough for them.
These men helped look out for me while growing up, and I would look out for them now.
They all love my brothers and I, and they look at us like their grandkids, but I would never want to manage a bunch of grumpy, old, retired soldiers, so I left that fun task in John’s hands.
The plane lands, and I exit with Grey following behind me.
It’s John I see standing by my Mustang with his arms folded over his chest. A smile lights up his face the second that he sees me.
John is another giant—we all joke that it’s a family trait that skipped me.
He has dark, mocha-shaded skin that makes his comforting smile shine whenever I’m around him.
The neatly trimmed beard he started growing when he retired is mostly salt and pepper.
His rich brown eyes are framed with lines that only show when he smiles.
When he was still a mercenary, he walked around with a stoic look, until he came around me, my brothers, or our mom.
He came to Vital when my dad was six and saw him grow up, but John looks like he could still pass for early fifties.
I run up to him to give him a hug, and he catches me when I reach him, lifting me off my feet so he doesn’t have to bend down.
I know that he was just as worried about me as my dad and brothers were.
He knew that I could handle myself, but he also had to watch me take care of my mom as her sickness slowly and painfully took her, and saw me struggle when she was gone.
He texted me every day that I was away to check in on me and to remind me not to get too distracted that I forget to eat.
“Put me down, old man! You don’t want to bust a hip. You probably forgot your Life Alert,” I say after a moment of hugging him, but not releasing the hug, either.
“Girl, I lift more than two of you every day in the gym as a warm-up,” he chuckles, giving me one more squeeze before setting me down.
Looking down at me, he smiles but raises one eyebrow in question.
“You feel lighter than when you left. Did you eat while you were gone? I feel like after all this time, we don’t need to have the conversation that coffee is not a food group just because it is made from beans. ”
I give him an offended look. “I ate and everything! I even cooked!”
He looks over my head at Grey with a questioning look. I hear Grey grunt, feeling better that he uses them as a form of communication with more people than just me, and he elaborates, “She cooked, but it takes her hours to eat one fuckin’ plate of food.”
“She always did have a problem focusing on more than one thing at a time,” John replies in an exasperated voice.
“I didn’t realize that this job was going to involve so much childcare when I accepted the assignment,” Grey says in his condescending tone that makes me want to stab him.
To my horror, John replies with a simple, “She definitely can keep you on your toes. You’re new, and we didn’t think to warn you ahead of time. Reining her in is like trying to cut off a wildfire,” while chuckling. “She’s been that way since she started crawling.”
“This is fun. Well, now Grey knows not to pull the short stick and come with me. Kaiser should be able to go next time. He knows the boundaries, and I don’t have to take the time teaching him how things work on my jobs.
I don’t have to worry about a mother hen getting in the way of my plan,” I say with a huff, looking at John, whose eyes are moving back and forth between Grey and me.
It probably threw him off since he has never seen me get sassy with any of the soldiers before.
I smile up at him and give him another hug.
“I’m going to head home. I want to shower and put some stuff away before I have my idiots, Jackson, and my dad over for dinner,” I say as I hold out my hand for the keys to my baby.
“Okay, girl, come around tomorrow so we can all catch up, and bring Jackson if you can. We are all waiting to meet Lilly’s boy,” he says as he hands me the keys, and I head towards the car.
I shoot Jackson a text, telling him that we landed and what time dinner should be done.
I already warned him that it’ll be another family meal when I invited him, giving him the opportunity to back out if he wasn’t ready to deal with the Russo family shit show so soon after the first time.
We can be a lot if you aren’t used to it, so I try to give fair warning.
Surprisingly, he said he was fine with it.
I look out the window as I start my car and see John and Grey get into the company car that will take them back to the base. My phone vibrates in my hand with a new text notification.
LL-Not-Cool-J
Sounds good. Is it cool if I invite Flame? We are both at the shop.
I read the message again and sigh, throwing my head back in exasperation.
Do I want to see the hot biker again? Yes.
If it weren’t for the fact that I can’t seem to not make an ass of myself or control the stupid blush that creeps on my face any time he looks at me with those haunting black eyes.
Between that and the fact that I look like absolute shit from traveling, and that my dad, the idiots, and my new brother are going to be there sounds like the worst kind of torture.
I torture people more than the average person, and even I can’t think of anything worse than having Knox have dinner with my overprotective and embarrassing family.
After staring at the roof of my car for another second, I make up my mind.
Me
Fine with me. There will be plenty of food :)
LL-Not-Cool-J
Thanks. We have been avoiding the clubhouse and I felt bad about leaving him there to fend for himself.
Me
Yup, because clearly it’s way less intimidating to have dinner with some mercenaries and a contract killer than to hang out where you live. I feel like you need to reevaluate your priorities.
LL-Not-Cool-J
Ehh, what would I talk about if I found ‘normal’ people to hang around?
Me
Maybe you should get a hobby. Meet some nice new people. I hear there are some knitting circles in town that get a little crazy. I’m talking Bailey’s-in-coffee crazy! That’s the ultimate danger, drunk old ladies with giant ass needles that have horrible vision. Go live on the edge.
LL-Not-Cool-J
… Still don’t understand how your brothers keep up on conversations with you sometimes.
Me
This is your training. When you have proved that you can keep up with me, there is a possibility of being added to the group chat. Don’t get too excited, though. You aren’t there yet.
LL-Not-Cool-J
… Can’t wait. I have to get back to work, but Flame and I will be there at 7.
Me
See you then!
I smile down at my phone before hooking it up to Bluetooth in my car and starting my music.
Even if Jackson is still on the fence about hanging out with my family, he fits in perfectly.
I didn’t expect us to have a lot in common, but I guess nature versus nurture and all that shit.
When he was texting me while I was gone, I got a little more insight about his life.
It always came up in conversation naturally because I would never push him to talk about something that he couldn’t.