Chapter Seven
S he put the stew on to simmer, and the scent that filled the kitchen was heavenly. He was damned glad he had enlisted her to help make meals. Because this was making his house feel like a home in a way it hadn’t before. But there was also this...pull toward her. A pull that was not at all homey or in keeping with the conversation they’d had earlier.
He was actually pretty astonished to discover everything they had in common.
He hadn’t expected that.
But even deeper, harder, was the attraction he felt toward her.
She was beautiful. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know everything about her.
And that was... That was the dumbest thing in the world. He had just adopted three boys. She had her daughter, ready to go off to school. Their kids were dating, and there was no guidebook.
For any of this.
When he called the boys for dinner, they definitely made a big song and dance about the food being better quality than they were used to getting from him. That was fine. He couldn’t dispute that.
Marigold looked amused.
“Are you animals actually going to introduce yourselves?”
“Oh,” said Reggie between mouthfuls of bread. “I’m Reggie.”
“Marcus,” said Marcus, not looking up from his stew.
Colton treated Marigold to a smile that was a little bit too smart-assed to be called polite. “We’ve met.”
“Yes. We have. I’m Marigold. Lily’s mom.”
“We don’t have to call you Mrs.?”
“No,” she said. “First of all because I’m not a Mrs. and second of all because I like my first name just fine.”
“Fair enough,” said Marcus.
Lily looked marginally uncomfortable, but then, he couldn’t blame her. He could think of few things that would’ve horrified him more as a teenager than having to sit down at a table with the family of a girl he was making out with, and he imagined that unease transferred across gender lines pretty equally. Colton, for his part, didn’t seem to be having a problem at all, but Colton had an outsized amount of confidence for a boy of seventeen.
Likely, that was what attracted Lily to him. It was also what made Colton a potentially devastating heartbreaker. Buck also knew that from experience.
He had been a little bit too good at getting girls to fall in love with him. Not so good at getting anyone to stay in love with him, because he couldn’t back up that charm with actual substance. Not back then.
Not that he had any evidence he could do it now.
Not that he had ever tried.
The odd one-night stand didn’t exactly foster emotional maturity when it came to things like that. He liked to believe he had garnered maturity in other ways. But as far as romantic relationships went...
He looked up, his eyes connecting with Marigold’s. Yeah. He didn’t need to be looking at her when he thought about things like that.
“How are you settling into Lone Rock so far?” she asked brightly, looking around the table at all the boys.
“It sucks,” said Reggie, chewing loudly.
“Boring,” said Marcus, giving it a thumbs-down.
“I don’t mind it,” said Colton.
“Why do you think it’s boring?” she asked, looking directly at Marcus.
“Because it is,” Marcus said. “Respectfully.”
“Is there a respectful way to call something boring?” Marigold asked.
He shrugged. “I figured I would give it a try.”
“What kinds of things did you like to do back where you came from?”
Marcus squinted. “At the ranch? Or at home?”
He felt a small, strange kick in his stomach hearing Marcus refer to where he’d been before as home. But he supposed Marcus would feel that way. Because he had grown up in Cleveland, which was different from the ranch for troubled youth and different from Lone Rock, and Cleveland was what he thought of when he thought of home. Even if it had been inhospitable in a lot of ways. Even if he had spent years bouncing from house to house.
“Either place,” Marigold said.
“There were always kids to run around with at home,” Marcus said. “You could go out on the street and find whole group of them. Go play basketball.”
“You can do that here,” she pointed out.
“I guess. But I don’t know any of the kids here. And I don’t have a basketball.”
“I can get you one,” Buck said. “I didn’t know you wanted to play.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t play at the ranch.”
“Why not?” Marigold asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, looking down.
Buck had a feeling he did know. But he wasn’t going to push.
He realized then that while he had experience with loss and with pain, even with leaving home, he didn’t fully understand what it was like to be uprooted without your consent. To feel like everything was out of control. But these boys did.
Reggie’s mom was dead. He didn’t know his dad, and that made going home impossible. Maybe Reggie could get back to the house he had grown up in, but he would never be able to get back to the people. That was tragic. But Buck hadn’t really given a lot of thought to the fact that home, in the traditional sense, still existed for Marcus and Colton. Their parents were alive. The system had separated them. And yes, the addictions and flaws of their parents had separated them. But the grief it must have created inside them to have home out there somewhere, and yet still out of reach...
“Do you like baseball?” Marigold asked.
“I do,” said Reggie. “My mom used to take us to Fenway sometimes. When I was little.”
“My brother played baseball. He loved it.”
“Does he still play?” Reggie asked.
Buck’s stomach dropped. But Marigold didn’t look upset. She didn’t look at Buck either.
“No,” she said. “My brother died. But baseball is still a good memory.”
“Oh. My mom and sister died,” said Reggie. “But I think baseball is still a good memory for me too.”
“I’m sorry, Reggie,” Marigold said. “I know how hard it is to lose a sibling.”
Buck knew some people might feel like they were witnessing a sad moment, but the truth was, everybody at this table had experience with loss. That was why the boys had a solid sense of dark humor, and it was why Buck never scolded them for it. Because they had seen the real ugly things in the world, and there was no need to protect them from that. Not when they had lived it. With that in mind, he knew this was a profound moment. One that meant something.
Because Marigold was identifying with Reggie, not pitying him.
Because Reggie didn’t have to be afraid to talk about loss. It wasn’t bringing down the room. It was something they all understood.
Buck had talked to Reggie about how he had lost his sister when he was little. To have both adults in the room truly understand him on that level was probably a unique experience.
“Maybe we can play some baseball,” Buck said. “I’m bad at it. But there is a pretty good baseball team at the high school. The basketball team is terrible. But maybe they could use somebody who knows how to play.”
Marcus looked thoughtful. “I dunno. Maybe I could learn how to play baseball.”
Well. If you wanted a fresh start, that was fair enough.
“I don’t want to play sports,” Colton said. “There’s already too much homework. Anyway, I’m a senior. I’m not going to be here that long.”
“Do you have plans to go to college?”
“Buck says I have to go,” Colton said.
Buck couldn’t readily read the tone there. If Colton was happy about it or still annoyed. Colton had certainly never planned on going to college, not when he had been a kid in the system. But Buck was determined to give him the opportunity. If he didn’t like it, if he failed out, that was fine. Buck just wanted him to have the chance.
It was amazing just how much this felt like a family dinner, when that was... Ridiculous.
They finished up, and she thanked him for the invitation. He thanked her for dinner. They said goodbye like they hadn’t spent the last couple of hours having a deep conversation. Like they had just been adults interacting while their kids were studying.
“I’m meeting with a contractor tomorrow to discuss plans for the building,” she said. She looked down. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that without you. Considering you need to approve that...”
“Sure,” he said. “Sounds good.”
Now he was going to see her tomorrow.
But that was good. He was listening. To his intuition, which said there was something here. Something he needed to accomplish through his reconnection with Marigold.
And so he was bound and determined to do it.