Chapter 10
CHAPTER
TEN
Rain
Pulling up outside of my new home, I’m not surprised to see him waiting for me. He told me he would be, no matter how long I took.
“You made it,” Ridge says as soon as I step out of my truck.
Things have been awkward between us. We haven’t really talked much since the night we got married, other than a few texts here and there.
Yet here I am, ready to move in with the man.
“I made it. Did you think I wouldn’t?” I sass.
He smirks at me. “Well, you were supposed to come yesterday, so yeah, it was a concern.”
I roll my eyes at him. “I don’t need another father. One was more than enough. I’m allowed to hang out with my friends.”
“I never said you couldn’t. You asked a question, and I answered. You know, this doesn’t have to be so difficult,” he informs me.
I deflate. Isn’t that what Aspen and Maggie had told me last night? I dictate how this goes. The way I act will change how comfortable I am here.
I smile. “I know. I’m sorry.”
He doesn’t say anything. Instead, he moves to the back of my truck and grabs a box. It’s on the edge of my tongue to tell him I can handle it, but I don’t.
“So this is where you live?” I say, grabbing my own box.
“You’ve been here before. With Mustang.”
I shrug. “I barely remember it. I don’t think I stayed long,” I mumble.
“You left after five minutes. You said you left the stove on.” He gives me a look over his shoulder as I follow him inside the house.
“Okay, so I didn’t want to spend time with you. Sue me,” I jest.
“That’s all going to change now, huh? I hope not all of it, though. I actually enjoyed some of your antics.”
I snort. “Yeah? Like what?”
He sets the box down, waiting for me to do the same.
“Remember the Fourth of July parade when you hid from me inside the Kellman’s trunk?” he asks.
I frown. I do remember it, but I didn’t know he knew about it.
Then it dawns on me.
“You are the reason the keys went missing? I was stuck in that trunk for three hours while Jimmy and Ron tried to get me out.”
He chuckles, wiping his hand down his face. “You were so desperate not to see me, so I thought I’d take care of it for the rest of the night.”
I smack his chest. “You asshole. I missed the fireworks.”
He shrugs. “Yeah, but you weren’t down at the bonfire drinking with those so-called friends of yours either. You know Gerald got third-degree burns that night jumping over the fire drunk.”
I vaguely remembered hearing that.
“So? I’m not dumb enough to jump over the fire,” I remind him.
“No, but sometimes the people you hang out with can influence the things you do without knowing it.”
I think back to that group of friends. Three of them are in jail, while two went to college but flunked out. I never considered it before, but would I have ended up the same had I kept in touch?
“Maybe. Or maybe you were a buzz kill. It’s why I avoided you, you know. I was sick of you dragging me out of parties.”
He heads back outside to grab another box, so I do the same.
“You still hate me for that? Did you never catch on to when I would show up?”
“What do you mean?” I inquire as I drop my box in his living room.
“I didn’t show up to every party, now did I?”
I think back. He showed up often, but not to all of them.
“Yeah? So? I figured you had club business those nights.”
He shakes his head. “No, those nights the cops weren’t called. I only ever dragged you out when I heard the call come over the radio about a house party. I didn’t want to ruin your fun. I wanted to keep you out of trouble.”
I frown, looking down at my hands. “Because my dad asked you to?”
“Fuck no. He would have lost his shit if he knew about half the times I saved your ass. No, I did that because I didn’t want anything on your record. That and Mustang was my mentor. That meant my protection extended to you.”
“Oh. I had no idea.”
He nods. “I know. I didn’t want you to know. Go ahead and start unpacking. I’m going to grab the last couple of boxes.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to respond as he heads back out the door. I consider what he said to me. I go back through my memories and think about all of those nights, and each time he would come and pull me away.
I always thought I was a smart person, but I never connected the dots.
I remember the first time Jimmy got arrested.
It was for underage drinking at Chelsea Whitmore’s sixteenth birthday party.
I was angry because an hour before the cops showed up, Ridge came and told me I needed to go home.
That night, I went willingly, thinking my father sent him, only to find my dad not even home.
I cussed and threw a fit at Ridge, but he accepted it all without complaint.
When I heard about Jimmy the next day, I was grateful to have missed the cops, but still angry that I didn’t have a cool story to tell like the rest of them.
Little did I know that all along I had a guardian angel watching over me.
I didn’t want to start seeing Ridge in a different way, but slowly, I am. He’s not the man I made him out to be in my head. He’s something different. Special even. He is the man everyone else always told me he was, but I didn’t want to see it then. My eyes are wide open now.
And for now, he is all mine.
Ridge
I look around the living room at all the boxes.
I only count six total, and none of them were really heavy.
I don’t like that she didn’t bring a lot of her things here.
It’s like she doesn’t plan to be here long.
Doesn’t she realize she needs to think of this as her home?
Or is she planning to spend as little time here as possible?
The lawyer only said she needed to live here.
He didn’t say she had to be here all the time.
“You didn’t bring very much. Are you sure this is all you need?” I ask Rain as I set down the last box.
She looks up from the box she is going through. She gives me an odd look before she finally responds.
“I didn’t want to move my whole life in here. I figured if it was only for a couple of years, the rest can stay at Dad’s.”
I nod, not liking her answer. I want this to feel like her home. Sure, she might not live here forever, but two years is a long time. Longer than I think she realizes. It won’t go by in a blink like she seems to think.
“Well, we can always go grab more things if you need them, I suppose,” I mutter.
“My thoughts too.” I hear her echo in a low tone.
“Do you need any help unpacking?”
She looks up and snorts. “So you can go through my underwear drawer? No, thank you. I can unpack myself.”
“You really think I would be a perv and go through your shit?” I raise a brow.
She shrugs. “Never truly know someone. Maybe you are a secret freak. I guess I have two years to figure it out.”
With that, she grabs a box and heads down the hall into the room I allocated to her.
What she doesn’t know is that it used to be my personal gym. The bed in there? Brand new.
I didn’t want her to know I went out of my way to set it up for her, though, so I lied and told her that it had been there for anyone who needed to crash over.
I didn’t miss the way she sprayed it down with disinfectant before taking boxes in there either.
She probably thinks one of my brothers was in there.
She would be pissed if she knew. Little Miss “I don’t need help from anyone” would lose her shit. So she will never know. I will never tell her.
I look down the hall one last time before I head into the kitchen. She might not want me to help her unpack, but at least I can make us dinner.
Standing at the fridge, I look at all the items I took out to prepare. This can either piss her off or make her feel at home. It’s worth a shot either way.
It doesn’t take me long to chop the onion and bell pepper. I’m rinsing the cutting board when she comes into the kitchen.
“I was going to get a glass of water,” she mumbles.
“You don’t need to explain yourself. This is your home too. If you want water, you get water. Want food? The pantry is yours. I’m not labeling food and shit. You take what you want,” I inform her as I mix the spices I pulled out with the wet mixture I started.
“I don’t want to take advantage of you. I will contribute to the household. I can pay half the bills or the mortgage. I’ll bring home food. I’ll clean.”
I let out a sigh. “Rain, I don’t need you to pay bills.
The house is paid off, so there is no mortgage.
The bills? Covered. If you want to buy groceries, I won’t stop you, and I sure as hell don’t expect you to clean up after me.
You aren’t here as my maid. You are my wife.
This home is mine, but it is also yours, and I would really like you to think of it that way. ”
She comes and leans next to me on the counter as I add the meat to the bowl before grabbing gloves for my hands.
“Dad always mixed it with his bare hands,” she murmurs.
“He did. I never could stand the greasy feeling on my skin afterward, so I use gloves.”
I see a small smile form on her face before she turns and grabs a glass.
“He always loved meatloaf. I didn’t know you knew how to make it.”
I listen as she fills up her glass with water while I mix the meat with my hands.
“I spent many nights at your house watching your dad cook. Of course I would learn how to make his favorites,” I remind her.
“It seems surreal to me. I barely saw or spent time with you over the years, but you had as close a relationship with my dad as I did. You knew him like I did, yet it almost feels like an alternate reality.” She makes her way over to me, leaning her hip against the counter once more.
“You meant the world to him. He always talked about you.”
She lets out a soft laugh. “So that’s how you know so much about me.”
No. It’s because I pay attention.
I don’t say that, though. I don’t respond at all.
After several moments of silence, she speaks again. “So I can watch whatever I want on TV?”
“Yep. All my streaming services are on there. Feel free to make yourself a profile.”
“Cool. I’m taking a break then.”
I glance over in time to see her saunter from the room. It’s then that I realize she has changed. No longer is she in jeans, but now she is wearing the tiniest shorts I have ever seen.
I try to look away, but I can’t. Not when I can see bits of her skin as her hips sway.
I swallow hard.
I can’t go there with her. Not unless she wants to. It’s only day one, and the temptation is already at a new high.
What the fuck have I gotten myself into?