35. Ransom
35
RANSOM
K ade's voice booms across the square again, "For fuck's sake, where the fuck is he?" and I sink lower in my seat. The second I saw the name of the band on that bus, I knew my fucking zoo was on board. It would be too much of a coincidence. Colton drank all of them under the table at some charity gala years ago, and they’ve been close ever since.
Pretty sure Colton’s puked on that bus more than once.
Blair's shoulders shake with laughter. "I take it you know him?"
"That's Kade. He loves the word fuck, in all its variations." I peek through the diner window. The massive tour bus takes up all the parking on the other side of the street, and my brothers pour out like clowns from a circus car. "I can't believe they actually came here."
"There are so many of them." Blair's eyes widen as she counts. "Jesus, how many came?"
"I'm thinking all of them." But I can't help grinning as Jonas trips getting off the bus and Colton catches him. Micah's got Holly's hand in his, and a diaper bag thrown over his shoulder.
"RANSOM! Get your fucking ass out here!"
"Oh my God," Blair mutters, actually snorting with laughter. "He doesn't look like he's going to stop yelling."
"Probably not." I stand and offer her my hand. "Fair warning—they're going to love you. And they have no concept of personal space." Her eyes widen as they swing from my family back to me.
Damn them for pushing this already. We were starting to build something this morning. That spark was coming back to her eyes. She was starting to look at me like I'm someone she cares about.
Someone she could love.
I toss a few bills onto the table, then gently pull her outside, hoping it's just my imagination that she's dragging her feet a bit.
We step outside into the crisp morning air, and Kade spots us immediately.
"There you fucking are! What the hell, man?" He strides over and pulls me into a crushing hug. "You can't just disappear on us like that."
"I texted Nick," I say, frustrated, but I'm hugging him back just as hard with one arm. I'm not letting go of Blair. I'm not risking her running off. Honestly, I wouldn't blame her.
"Yeah, cryptic-ass messages about some girl." Kade releases me and turns to Blair. His eyes widen. "Holy shit, you're her."
God, I've missed these idiots, and it's only been a few days.
Blair raises an eyebrow. "I'm me, yes."
The rest of my family surrounds us, and I watch Blair's face as she takes in the controlled chaos. This isn't exactly how I planned to introduce her to them. I wanted time for just us first, to give us time to learn each other again.
"Move it, you damn tree." Cara shoves past Kade and wraps her arms around me. "You couldn't have warned us?"
"Let him breathe," Jonas says, but he's next in line for a hug. Jonas hugs are pretty special. You never know what you're going to get, sometimes quick, sometimes long, but they always feel so fucking good because I know I earned it. This one is brief, but tight. "I learned to drive a bus," he whispers in my ear. "I feel like a god."
And now I'm laughing.
Bree touches my arm. "I tried to stop them, I swear. But you know how they get."
"Like herding cats," I agree, just as I spot two familiar figures at the bus door. My jaw drops. "Is that?—"
"Nan and Connie, get your butts down here!" Nick calls out, already moving to help them.
Maverick takes Connie's other arm. "Careful on the steps, Mrs. McCauley."
"Oh please, I've been climbing stairs since before you were born." But Connie lets them help anyway, her eyes twinkling at the attention.
I break away from the group and head for the two matriarchs of our weird family, tugging Blair with me. "What are you two doing here?"
"You think we'd miss this?" Nan cackles, patting my cheek. "This is a hell of a lot more fun than watching soap operas."
"It sure is," Connie agrees. "Though next time perhaps the boys could arrange transportation that doesn't require climbing down Mount Everest to exit?"
"I'll let them know that the next time they plan to crash my date, to do it in something more suitable."
"Lovely, dear." Nan's eyes find Blair. "Now, introduce us to this young lady properly."
"I think proper went out the window when Kade started yelling ‘fuck’ across the town square," I mutter.
"Watch your fucking language," both women scold in perfect unison, then dissolve into giggles. Because seriously, both of them could give Kade a run for his money in the swearing department.
Nick tugs me off to the side, and I reluctantly let go of Blair. Nan and Connie, both more thank six inches shorter, look up at her, chatting animatedly.
"So listen. This was not my idea. I just need that on record. Jonas overheard Mav and I talking at the office, and it just spiraled out of control from there. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. I knew you guys would have questions, I just didn't expect…this," I say, waving at the bus and all my family scattering around the square. They might have come for me, but now that they've laid eyes on me, they're starting to scatter. "A phone call would have worked too."
"Fuck a fucking phone call," Kade grumbles, bumping Nick out of the way. "You take off, don't tell anybody, and you expect us to just sit at home on our asses. Not likely. Seriously, dude. Why the fuck didn't you tell us what was going on? You're so fucking secretive. I don't get it."
"I was wrestling with some shit in my head."
"And?"
"And I needed some time to work it out."
He arches a brow and crosses his arms over his chest, sarcasm thick in his tone. "Really? 'Cause you always encourage us to keep shit to ourselves, and just fucking stew. Because that's really fucking healthy."
I really hate it when they make sense. Maybe I do like that Dad role because it's a fuck of a lot easier to deal with my brothers when they don't question me. Well, I think it would be. That's never fucking happened. But they gave me some leeway at least when it came to my personal life.
Apparently, they're done being patient.
Behind me, Jonas's voice rises above the chaos. "I was promised badgers. The town sign clearly indicated badgers."
"There are no badgers, Jonas," Colton calls back.
"Then why is it called Badger Falls?"
Laughing, I head back to Blair. She’s moved to the safety of the sidewalk, standing with her back against the diner window, eyes wide.
"This isn't how I planned on today going. But did you want to meet my family?"
Her gaze darts from one person to another, then she slowly shakes her head. "This is a lot. We were just going to have breakfast. That's all. We're supposed to be taking things easy and now…"
She's slipping through my fingers. Desperate to settle her before she decides to write me the fuck off, I cup her elbow. "You're absolutely right. We're a lot to take. A lot. Maybe give me an hour, then I'll come find you. I'd like to spend the day with you?"
She's still looking at everyone, looking a little like a deer in the headlights. "What about them?"
"They'll either climb back on that bus and head back home, or they'll spend the afternoon running amok in town. Either way, that's not our problem. They're grown adults."
"Uncle Ran!"
I drop Blair's elbow immediately, turning and crouching just in time to catch my little Mia. "Hi sweet girl. I missed you."
"I missed you too! You were gone sooo long!"
"I know. It's forever. But see, I had to come visit my friend. Would you like to meet her?"
Mia nods emphatically, her curls bouncing. Holding her tightly, I stand and turn back to Blair. Thankfully, Blair doesn't look like she's about to bolt anymore. Instead, she's smiling, eyes locked on my little princess. "Blair, this is Mia. Mia is my favorite niece. She's the prettiest, smartest, most amazing little girl in the world."
Mia grins, slaps my cheek—her version of a little love tap—then blows a raspberry on my neck. "Hi. You pretty," she says to Blair, then reaches out to her. Blair takes a step forward, and Mia's hand wraps around the thick braid laying on Blair's shoulder.
"Hi Mia. Nice to meet you."
"Meet you too," she mumbles, caressing the braid. She brings the end to her nose and tickles herself, then, laughing, she tickles me until I pretend growl at her.
"She's beautiful," Blair murmurs.
"She is. Inside and out."
Mia, still caressing the braid, suddenly shouts, "Puppy!" and squirms to get down. Janey's close by and takes Mia's hand as I put her down.
Blair is forced to crouch. "Um, Mia. Could I have my braid back?"
Mia grins, releases it, and tugs Janey down the sidewalk toward an older man I don't recognize and his very old, little dog wearing a sweater.
"Give me an hour," I say, stepping closer to Blair. "Let me get them settled and I'll come by the garage." I'm only guessing that's where she would head, but luckily, she nods.
She exhales and gives me a steady look. "An hour. See you then." She's slipping away, nodding at my family as she heads across the street.
"Ransom, look!" Kade's voice booms across the square. "They've got a fucking coffee shop! Am I smelling peaches?"
"I'm starving," Cara announces. "Let's grab some breakfast and talk."
"Badgers are nocturnal," Jonas informs everyone. "Perhaps we should return after dark."
"No one is staying until dark," I say, but half of them are already filing into the diner. The rest wander off, peering in store windows. Looks like we're doing this.
"Fine. Breakfast."
"Oh dear," the waitress, Macy, says, clutching her order pad to her chest as my family pours through the door.
"We got this." Nick grabs one end of a table while Zach takes the other. They start arranging furniture like they own the place.
"Sorry about this." I catch Macy's eye. "They're house-trained, I promise."
"Mostly," Cara adds, sliding into a chair and crossing her legs. The red sole of her high heel flashes as she idly swings her foot.
I take my usual spot at the head of the table, watching them settle in. Micah and Nick battle each other for a chair. Micah wins, seating Holly first then taking the chair next to her. Nick drags another one over while giving Micah the evil eye. Declan, Zach, Maverick, Bree, Cara, and Colton all settle in too. There's another little fight when Zach tries to take Noah from John, which leaves Zach sulking and John looking pretty fucking satisfied with himself.
I'm really fucking lucky to have all of them. But also, "I love you assholes, but you're all cockblocking me right now."
"Language," Bree scolds, but she's grinning.
"We had to make sure you were okay." Colton spreads his hands. "You disappeared."
"I texted Nick."
"Hey! You were really fucking cryptic," Nick snorts. "It didn't go over well."
Macy approaches cautiously. "Coffee?"
"Yes, please." I smile up at her. "For everyone. And maybe some menus?"
She nods and hurries away, muttering. I think I catch 'big' and 'woah.'
"So, spill." Cara leans forward. "What's going on with you and Blair?"
"Nothing yet. We're talking. Getting to know each other again."
"After twenty-five years," John rumbles. "Long time."
"Yeah. It is." I accept a mug of coffee from Macy. "Look, I appreciate you all coming here. But I need time to navigate this with her. Blair and I have history, complicated history, and all of you showing up at once isn't helping."
"We could help," Micah signs. "We could talk to her."
"I know you could. But this needs to be just us for now. She seems like she's willing to give me a chance. To see if what we had when we were kids was real, but we need time alone for that."
"Is it real?" Maya asks, resting her chin in her hands.
I think about Blair's laugh, about how she still bites her lip when she's thinking, about the spark that still lights between us. "Yeah, it is. I don't have a single doubt. But she does. And I want to give her all the time she needs."
Everyone at the table exchanges meaningful looks. The weight of my words settles over them.
"It's actually really pretty here." Bree breaks the silence, glancing out the window. "It’s a lot like home, isn’t it, Cara?"
"Smaller than our town was," Cara says, stirring sugar into her coffee. "But yeah, it has that same feel. We had a square a lot like this one, with flower shops and a diner and a movie theatre."
"And the ice cream parlor." Bree sighs. "Best rocky road ever."
"This place has potential," Nick observes, scanning the square. "Needs some TLC, though."
"Some of these storefronts are empty." Holly leans forward, peering down the street. "That's always hard on a small town."
"Same thing happened to some of the smaller towns around ours," Cara nods. "Once the mill closed, people had to leave for work. Then the stores start closing because there are no customers. Soon, everyone's gone."
"I loved growing up there." Bree's voice goes soft. "Everyone knew everyone. If you got in trouble, your Mama knew before you got home."
"That part sucked," Cara laughs.
"The community though." Bree shakes her head. "When Mom and Dad died, people brought food for weeks. Remember Mrs. Martinez? She cleaned our whole house."
"And Mr. Cooper mowed the lawn." Cara's eyes go distant. "You don't get that in the city."
"This place has that." I gesture toward the window, where people wave as they pass. "People paying for car repairs in produce or a side of beef. I'm sure it's still happening. Everyone takes care of each other here."
"That's sweet," Holly says.
"But they're struggling." Jonas's precise voice cuts through. "The demographics show significant population decline over the past decade. Median income is well below state average."
"Always with the statistics," Colton groans. "But yeah, you can see it. Empty stores, peeling paint. The place needs help."
"Doesn't have to stay that way, though," Micah signs. "Communities can come back."
"They're trying," I say. "Blair mentioned they're forming some kind of committee, planning events, trying to bring people in."
"Good." Cara nods approvingly. "Anything to bring people in. Tourism dollars are good, but keeping them here is the bigger issue."
I try not to. I do. But I snort into my coffee cup, and everyone stops talking to stare at me. "Sorry. But I fucking love you guys. You're sitting here thinking of ways to help this town, and you've never set foot here before."
"It matters to you. More than that, it matters to her," Cara says.
"It does. She loves this town and everyone in it."
They're all quiet again. The waitress comes around and takes our orders, and once coffee's topped up and menus handed in, all eyes are back on me. "Ask your questions."
Colton starts, but not with the question I expected. "Are you okay? Coming back here, I mean? I don't really know all the details, but you avoided this place for a long time. That makes me think there are some big feelings. Is it just Blair? Or is it the town, too?"
Colton was always sensitive. Always insightful. I think that's why he had such a hard time coping. Those feelings would rage through him, and his way of purging them was to get in a cage and beat on some motherfucker as big as he is. Thank God Evie put a stop to that. Every time he fought, I was there. I'd take a spot in a corner and keep an eye on him. It's an incredibly powerless feeling to know that someone you love is battling demons. And that you're the last person they want to share that with.
So I watched, phone in hand, backup around the corner, just in case.
Thank fuck he always managed to hold his own. Yeah, he'd come home battered, but not once did I have to call in the medics.
So even before getting his degree in head shrinking, him asking about feelings is totally on brand.
"This town saved me. Or maybe Robert did. Or maybe it was Blair. They're all rolled together into three years that helped me become the man I am now. I don't think I can separate them. But now, I'm here for her."
"She did not stay to meet us," Jonas says. His tone is level, but I think I hear just a hint of disappointment.
"Can you blame her?" Cara says. "We're a lot for anyone to take."
"Yeah, you fuckin' are." John pats the baby's back. Noah’s babbling, happily playing with a spoon. "You're always talking over each other, and you're all nosy as fuck."
We all stare at him. It's long and uncomfortable enough that John glares and spits out, "What!"
"WE," I say clearly, raising a brow at him. "We are always talking over each other. We are nosy as fuck. You're part of this shit show too, John. Don't forget it."
He grumbles again, but there's a hint of warmth on his face. He might try to deny it, but he's happy. Maybe happier than he's ever been. And a lot of that happiness is because of this loud, annoying family. Yeah, falling in love with Abby helped. So maybe it's fifty/fifty.
"When did you leave here exactly?" Jonas asks.
"A few weeks before school ended. Blair was almost eighteen, and I was fifteen." I stare into my coffee. How do I explain all that happened then? Where do I start?
Maybe with the big stuff. It's like ripping off a band-aid, right?
"Robert took me aside and explained that once Blair turned eighteen, we could get in serious trouble if we were intimate. That she'd end up on a sex offender registry, and her life would be over before it began."
"Fuck." Kade's coffee cup hits the table hard. "That's fucked up. You were both kids."
"Doesn't matter. The law's the law. Robert was a cop in the city before he moved back here. He knew what he was talking about. And I get it. If Mia were fifteen and dating an eighteen-year-old, we would lose our collective minds, wouldn't we?" There are grim faces and nods around the table.
"It's the same thing. Blair is… loyal. And stubborn. And so fucking beautiful. So I had to go, but I couldn't just disappear—Blair would have looked for me. So I took her into that park right there one night," I say, pointing into the town square. "And I said the worst things I could think of. I destroyed any feelings she might have for me. And on my way out of town, I broke the grocery store window to make damn sure I couldn't come back."
"You made her hate you. You made the whole town hate you," Bree whispers.
"I did. Robert drove me out of town that night. I never saw Blair again. Until now."
"It's like fucking Romeo and Juliet," Kade breathes.
Well, that's fucking disturbing. "Maybe if Romeo was a fucked-up foster kid, and Juliet had a mean right hook."
"That story sounds more interesting," Nick says. "No death, just Juliet beating the shit out of anyone who would keep them apart. Fuck of a lot less depressing, too."
"Maybe Romeo and Juliet would have gotten sick of each other if their parents had just let them be together. Fuckin’ Shakespeare," John says, looking all kinds of grumpy.
"Maybe. But that's not us. Every relationship I've had..." I shake my head. "They all fell short. Because they weren't her."
"But you were so young," Bree protests. "How could you know?—"
"I just did." I meet her eyes. "Some things you just know. Like you and Nick. Like Cara and Declan. It doesn't matter that we were young. I'd been through enough shit in my life and been around enough girls that I understood what we had was special. I looked for that special in every woman I've met since. And I didn't fucking find it. It would have been simpler if I had."
"So you guys never really got a shot," Micah signs.
"No. We didn't. But maybe now..." Maybe now is our time. Maybe now, she can be mine, and I can be hers. I want that label. I want to be Blair's.
"And Blair?" Cara asks gently. "Does she feel the same?"
"I don't know," I admit. "There's something there, but she just learned last night about her dad’s part in everything. She's got shit to process. And there's other stuff going on in life, other heavy stuff."
"I didn't ask you if it was complicated," she says, arching her brow. "It's always complicated. I asked if she feels the same."
"I don't know," I say again. "That's why I'm here. To see if she might be willing to love me again."
"Oh fuck," Colton says, rubbing his cheek. "You said the L word. This is fucking serious. We have to really meet her. You know that, right? We have to check her out and make sure she's good for you. You did the same thing with all of our women."
"I didn't meet Becca," I say. Admittedly, she's the only one I didn't meet. And I hated that fucking situation. But luckily, I pried information out of Micah, so I could try to figure her out and see if she was good for Kade.
"And that fucking killed you," Colton says. I don't deny it, since… facts.
"We're a fucking lot. Like a lot, a lot. You can't all descend on her. Especially not right now. It's not fair to her." I make eyes with everyone at the table, waiting for a smile or a nod before moving on. They have to get on board. We're doing this my way. I won't risk scaring her off.
"Okay," Cara says, patting my arm. "We won't all descend on her."
"Good. Wait. What do you mean 'all'?"
Cara pats my hand. "Don't worry about it, Boss. We won't chase off your girl." She lets go as plates are put down in front of us. "Let’s eat. Tell us more about what's going on here. I want to know more about this town and your woman.”