CHAPTER TEN – ELLIS #2
Tris begins, recounting how he stumbled on Rosie’s Blooms when he was scouting for locations.
He fell in love with the farm at first sight, and didn’t connect the dots to Lily until he recognized Leo.
Because he looks so much like me. I groan, but it’s a good feeling, knowing a little part of me has been with Lily all these years.
Otley picks up the story by giving a little more background, which can mostly be summed up as using all his contacts and influence to scope the town, confirm Lily’s identity, and then relocate our pack to Knotty Falls as fast as possible.
“I came so close,” I tell them, my hands gripping the arms of my chair. “I really was only a few towns away, but I was searching for a farm, not a place like Rosie’s Blooms…”
“You were looking for a cross between a prison and an abattoir,” Tristan muses and I give a rough laugh, because that’s exactly how I’d described some of the places I’d searched.
I should have squeezed Crest for the truth, instead of believing all his bullshit.
“It’s horrible it took so long to find them, but you did everything you could,” Tristan tells me, and I pull him onto my lap, burying my face in his hair.
“Tell me more about them,” I murmur, closing my eyes and breathing him in. “Anything. I don’t care how small.”
They spend the next hour filling me in on what they’ve discovered over the last few days. I don’t hide my frustration that I wasn’t here to experience it first hand, but it just means I’m more determined than ever to make up for lost time.
“So, Leo’s an artist,” I declare, when Otley tells me about a drawing he saw in the farm store. It was of a horse, as regal as Shadowfax by the sound of it, and Tristan smiles indulgently at the awe in my voice. “Like you,” I murmur, giving into temptation and stealing a kiss off his smirking lips.
“He’s definitely got talent,” Otley confirms, before giving me another of his careful looks. “Although, right now he’s more interested in playing soldier.”
“You mean because of the manly father figure living next door?” I quip, but I can’t help the hint of jealousy in my voice. “Are they close? I mean, they must be, since they’re getting bonded.” The word catches in my throat, and I rub a hand over my face. “Fuck. This is such a mess.”
Instead of disagreeing, Otley steers the conversation back to Leo. When he mentions the tiny saddle he saw in the barn, I perk up. One of my greatest childhood pleasures was riding my horses along Summerland Beach. “He has a horse?”
Otley shakes his head. “Not anymore. Lily said it died recently, and Leo took it badly.”
Pain pierces my chest, imagining the heartbreak he suffered if his connection to horses is anything like mine.
It’s silly, since right now the only thing I share with him is my genetics, but it doesn’t stop me from reaching for my phone.
I ignore all the missed calls and angry texts from my agent and the studio, scrolling through my contacts until I find the name I’m looking for.
I wait impatiently until a gruff voice answers, relieved I don’t have to waste time on small talk.
“Zander? It’s Ellis. I need you to get me the best horse breeder in Idaho. ”
There’s a fraction of a pause, and then my old riding teacher gives a heavy huff. “This better not be for some movie malarky.”
“No, it’s for my son. Leo.”
It’s the first time I’ve said it to someone outside the pack, and the bittersweetness of the moment makes me rub my chest. I wait for Zander to pepper me with questions, but instead I hear a scraping sound and the jingle of keys. “Where in Idaho?”
“Um. We’re in Knotty Falls.” I have to massage my brain now, trying to remember the route we took from the airport. “It’s a small town near Rockford, at the eastern end of Snake River.”
“I’ll find it.”
I blink. Zander Reece retired ten years ago and doesn’t leave his ranch for anything. “You’re coming here?”
“I’ll handle this in person.” I’m pretty sure I can hear him stuffing his feet into boots and the thud of his front door. “I’m not letting some bozo put your son on the back of a mismatched horse.”
Zander’s a firm believer that there are no bad horses, only poor matches between mount and rider. “Okay. Thanks, Zander.”
“I’ll call you when I roll into town.”
I know how much he dislikes driving, and I feel my eyes sting with gratitude. I’d offer him our jet, but Zander hates airplanes even more than he hates ‘tin cans on wheels.’
When I’ve ended the call, Otley and Tristan are watching me with careful eyes.
I know they’re worried about me, but now I have a plan, I finally feel like I can take a breath.
“We should make a list. Everything Leo needs, I want to get it. Everything they need,” I correct myself, thinking of Lily’s exhausted face.
“Do you think Lily would let me set her up with an assistant? Maybe I should talk to our team in Colorado and ask them what farm equipment to get her. Hmmm, I really need to read up on tractors. Otley, do you know someone at John Deere? I’ll definitely be upgrading whatever stables she has, but maybe she needs a new barn as well? ”
I don’t realize I’m pacing next to the table until Tristan catches my hand. “Babe, you’re in shock.” I stare at him dumbly, and he gives me a sympathetic look. “I know you want to help, but I don’t think rolling up with your checkbook is the answer.”
I wince, because it’s not the first time I’ve tried to fix things with money.
And Tristan is probably right. If Lily wanted financial help, she could have called a lawyer.
No firm in the country would turn down the chance to represent the abandoned offspring of Ellis Castle.
God, that makes me want to puke on my shoes.
“Okay… I’ll think of something else. But I’m still getting the horse. Leo deserves at least that much.”
“That seems reasonable,” Otley says, then frowns at my buzzing phone. I would silence the damn thing, except I don’t want to miss a call from Lily. “Agent or studio?”
“Both. Agent because they’re out of the loop and studio because I walked off set.” I shrug, not really giving a shit about either. They can scream all they want, but I’m not leaving when my entire existence is here in this town. “I told them it was a family emergency, and I needed a week.”
“That’s in your contract.” Otley should know, since he was the one who hashed out the details, and now he leans over and snatches up my phone. “I’ll handle it.”
“You’ve got enough on your plate,” I sigh, although handing this burden off to Ot is hugely appealing. “Besides, Tahlia hates you.”
“Mission accomplished, then.”
I huff out a laugh, amused by the way his nose always wrinkles when he talks about my agent.
Otley detested Crest, so Tahlia seemed like a good alternative, but over the last couple of years she’s proven to be just as demanding and obsessive as my uncle.
I know they kept in touch, even after I shunned Crest for trying to cut Tristan out of my life, and I have to wonder if he ever told her the truth about Lily and Leo.
If he did and she kept it from me, Crest won’t be the only agent in Hollywood whose career is as cold as a corpse.
I must look as pissed as I feel, because Tristan wraps his arms around me, and I melt into his embrace. “I hate dragging all this drama into their lives.”
“You’re worth it, Ellis.”
I pull back, dropping a kiss on his lips as I soak up his warmth.
For a long time after Lily disappeared, I couldn’t even look at anyone as a potential love interest. I was getting a lot of work, and every day I was making out with gorgeous co-stars and not feeling a thing.
I got a reputation for being the most committed, professional actor in the business, largely because I had zero interest in the off-screen antics that are so rife in our industry.
Crest was always tossing starlets into my path, but even when I dated, I kept it discreet.
Right up until Tristan rode his ten-speed into Otley’s Continental GT and became the heart of our pack.
“Are you okay with all of this?” I ask, smoothing back his wild brown curls. “You know we love you in every way.”
“I know.” His soft, red mouth curls up into an irresistible smile.
“And I’m more than okay with what’s happening.
Lily needs us, babe, and that little boy…
I just can’t believe there’s this piece of you walking around, living his own life.
I want you to know him, and for him to love you as much as I do. ”
My heart pinches at the devotion in his voice. Fuck, maybe fate took pity on me, giving me Tris because I’d fucked up so royally with Lily. Otley must be thinking the same thing, because he steps up and sandwiches our mate between us. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to us, sweetheart.”
“Luckily, there’s plenty of me to go around.” He presses his ass into Ot, while his hips rub against my thickening shaft. “More and more by the second, in fact.”
“It’s been too fucking long,” I growl, shoving down his collar and biting at my mating bite. “I need inside you, sweetheart.”
“I need you both,” he tells us, that soft, glazed look coming into his eyes that calls to my alpha instincts. “Can we skip dessert and go straight to the afternoon delight?”
I laugh, the first happy sound I feel like I’ve made in an age. “Come on, Ot. We have a hungry beta to feast on.”