Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
T he ride back to the ranch was quiet, both Chevy and his grandfather deep in thought, and Leni letting them be.
Who the hell was this guy?
Was Mack even his real name?
Ford and Elizabeth were sitting at the big, scarred oak table with Mack while Dodge and Maisie were putting together a cutting board full of sliced sausage and cheese in the kitchen when Duke, Chevy, and Leni came into the house. They were all laughing about something but stopped as they took in their subdued expressions.
Murphy got up from his dog bed by the fireplace and came running toward Chevy to rub against his leg. That dog could always read his emotions and must have felt the tension in the room.
Duke strode toward the table, a frown on his normally jovial face as he stared at Mack. “Son, I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”
The color drained from Mack’s face. His shoulders fell as he nodded solemnly at Duke. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
“What’s going on?” Ford asked, his body tensing as he stood and went to his grandfather’s side.
“We just ran into Bucky Ferguson outside of the hardware store,” Chevy said. “He said the guy his son was sending up from Texas got beat up by a bull last week and isn’t going to be able to come up here and help us out this fall.”
All eyes turned toward Mack.
“I swear, I didn’t mean to deceive anybody,” Mack said. “Honestly, when I first got here, Chevy said you all knew I was coming, so I somehow figured you knew who I was. It wasn’t until later that I realized you thought I was some guy from Texas sent here to be a farm hand. And by then, I’d spent time with you all, and you’d made me feel like I was already part of the family, and I really liked every one of you.” The volume of his voice lowered, and his shoulders fell even further as if the weight of a tractor had been set upon them. “And I guess I just didn’t want that to change when you found out who I really was.”
“So, who the hell are you?” Ford asked, moving closer to Elizabeth.
Mack’s wallet was sitting on the edge of the kitchen counter beside his phone and truck keys, and Dodge grabbed it and flipped it open. “I’ll tell you who he is,” he said, peering down at the driver’s license inside. Then all the color drained from his face as he looked at Mack then at Gramps then at each of his brothers. “Nah,” he said, his voice almost a whisper. “You couldn’t be.”
“What?” Ford said, striding over and snatching the wallet from his brother’s hand. “Holy shit,” he said, staring down at what Chevy assumed was the guy’s license. Ford’s face held a mix of hurt and anger as he looked up then waved the wallet at Duke. “Did you know about this? About him ?”
Chevy stood frozen…anxiety and fear filling his chest. It took a lot to rattle Ford, and his older brother was clearly rattled. Leni took his hand, and he drew strength from having her at his side as he squeezed her palm. “Would somebody please tell me what the ever-lovin’ shit is going on?”
Mack sat silent; his head lowered as he stared at a scar on the table.
Ford threw the wallet onto the table. “His driver’s license says his name is Mack Truck Lassiter.”
Chevy jerked his head back. “What the hell kind of name is Mack Truck ?” Then it hit him, all the pieces falling together. Mack’s blue eyes and dark build, so similar to Chevy’s. With his free hand, he gripped the back of the chair in front of him to steady himself.
“My dad drove a semi,” Mack said quietly, still not looking at any of them. “Or at least that’s what she told me. I never met him.”
The room was deadly still, as if every person in it were afraid to breathe.
Then Duke let out a weary sigh as he slowly shook his head. His voice was soft and sounded as if every word pained him. “June and I wondered if she might have been pregnant when she left. If that was part of why she’d taken off like she did. We figured it had to do with some new guy she’d met.” He sank into the chair in front of him. “She’d gotten a job at the diner out on the highway, so she was either leaving early or coming home late, and we were all busy with the boys and the cattle, so we probably weren’t paying enough attention. I remember she seemed to be sick a lot, and she’d put on some weight. But I swear, I didn’t know. She never said a word. All these years, she never told us about you.”
“She never told me about any of you either.” Mack finally looked up at Chevy. “Like you said the first day I met you. Our mother was a real piece of work.”
“Wait,” Dodge said, the hurt and betrayal plain on his face. “So, you grew up with her? She never left you behind?”
Mack huffed out a dry laugh. “In a sense. Yeah, I grew up living with her, but she left me behind plenty of times. She’d take off for days or weeks at a time, sometimes leaving me a fridge and cupboard full of food, sometimes leaving me with nothing but a box of cereal, an expired carton of milk, and a couple of crumpled twenty-dollar bills. We lived in a crappy apartment with more cockroaches than insulation, and I never knew when I woke up in the morning if she was going to be there or not.”
Chevy was torn between feeling sorry for the guy and then equally envious and angry at the fact that he still got to grow up with their mother. “But she always came back for you,” he said, his lips tight.
“She never came back for us,” Dodge said.
“We haven’t seen her in decades,” Ford added.
From the set of their shoulders and the wary way they were looking at Mack, Chevy knew that his brothers were feeling the same way he was.
“I just found out about you,” Mack told them. “She’d gotten a phone call—I think now it might have been from one of you all’s dads—then she got sloppy drunk and confessed that I had three half-brothers in Colorado. She said they grew up on a ranch with her parents. She made it sound like it was real nice here. But she told me she’d met a guy, a trucker who came into the diner where she worked, and when she got pregnant with me, he promised her this big life. But I guess he said he couldn’t take on four kids, he just wanted to raise his own, so the next time he came through town, she got in his truck with him and left. From what I could gather, she traveled around with him until I was born, then he dumped us in Texas and never came back.”
Dodge’s brow furrowed as an expression of pain crossed his face. “So, she left me behind so she could go off to raise you? I was still in diapers.”
Mack looked just as miserable. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop,” Duke said, slapping his hand on the table. “Don’t you dare apologize. This is not your fault . You were a child. Brandy Lynn is my daughter, and I will always love her, but I’ll never understand the way she treated you boys. She was an addict—booze and pills and I don’t know what all—so I know she was a prisoner to her addictions. Her mother and I prayed every day that she would break free of those chains, and Lord knows, we did everything we could to help her, but there came a point where we had to let her go and just focus on you boys. But that was on her. It had nothing to do with you boys…” He paused to look each of them in the eye. “You hear me, now? Her deciding to leave was none of your faults.”
Chevy heard his grandfather’s words, but the pain of knowing his mother had cared about alcohol, and herself, more than she’d cared about him, or his brothers, was something he’d lived with his whole life.
Leni still held tight to his hand, offering her silent support as she pressed the side of her body against his.
Duke turned back to Mack, his expression earnest as he focused his attention on him. “I swear, son, if I would known, I would have come for you.”
Mack’s eyes glistened with tears, but he pressed his lips together as he swallowed and nodded before looking away.
Ford sank back into his chair next to Elizabeth, and she took his hand as he regarded his new half-brother. “Why didn’t you just tell us?”
Mack sighed. “I swear I was going to. Every morning when I woke up, I’d swear to myself that I’d come clean and tell you that day, but…”
“But what?” Ford asked, his expression stern. “You decided instead to take advantage of us for one more day?”
“What? No. That was never my intention. And I’m not expecting to get paid or anything for the work I’ve done here. In fact, I’ll even reimburse you for the food I’ve eaten. I didn’t say anything, couldn’t tell you, because I’ve never been part of a family like this before. When I first got here, Chevy said you all had heard that I was coming, so I figured Mom…um, Brandy…must have somehow sent word or called Duke. Then I helped y’all out at the chili festival, and that was one of the best days of my life.”
Dodge let out a small huff as if the idea sounded crazy to him.
“I know it probably sounds stupid,” Mack went on. “But it’s always been just my mom and me. And the older I got and the better I could take care of myself, it was usually just me, sometimes for months at a time. I was always jealous of the other kids at school who had brothers and sisters and families who hung out with each other…eating meals together, going on vacations, or hell, even cleaning out the basement together. That day at the festival, you all took me in and treated me like one of your own. And it was just like I’d imagined a family would be…loud and messy and teasing each other and working together…and that day, I honestly thought you knew who I was and had already accepted me.
“By the time I realized you didn’t, I had already imagined myself as part of this family, as a brother and a grandson, and I knew once I told you all the truth, all that would disappear. I’m truly sorry I didn’t tell you or that you feel like I deceived you. I never meant to. Honestly, I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.” He pushed up from the table, his head hung low as he turned toward the hallway leading to the bedrooms.
“Where are you going?” Duke asked him.
“To pack my stuff,” he said. “I can’t imagine you want me here now.”
Chevy pointed to the empty chair he’d just vacated. “Sit your ass down. That’s not how we do things around here.”
“Oh.” Mack lowered himself back into the chair. “Do you want to take a vote or something?”
“No. This isn’t Survivor . We’re not gonna vote you off the ranch.” Chevy looked at Ford then at Dodge, who both gave him small nods. He knew they were all thinking the same thing, and he didn’t even have to ask Gramps. “We don’t want you to leave. We have some things to work out, sure, but you’re our brother, sure as that stupid name confirms, and this ranch has always been the only place we could all call home. Gramps and Gran took us in, no questions asked and treated us like their own. You are family, so this is your home, too.”
Mack looked amazed, like he’d just been offered the grand prize in a contest he hadn’t known he’d entered. He looked from Chevy to Dodge then to Ford and Duke. “Is that how you all feel?”
Ford, a man of few words anyway, nodded solemnly.
“Course it is, son,” Duke said, coming around the table to pull Mack into a bear hug.
Mack looked over at the youngest Lassiter brother. “Dodge? You okay if I stay?”
“’Course,” Dodge said, then smiled. “Besides, if you don’t stick around, how am I ever gonna get back that ten bucks you owe me for the cheeseburger I got you yesterday?”
That settled it.
So many changes , Chevy thought as he looked down at the woman standing beside him. A new brother. An old love back in his life.
It seemed like for the past several years, his life had felt like he was plodding along a straight dirt road. Sure, he ran into an occasional pothole or bump in the road, but for the most part, his life was a steady mix of ranch work, hanging out with his family, and some random dating here and there.
But now, his life and that road seemed to be full of twists and turns, up hills and down, rain and random forks and choices, and he couldn’t wait to see what was up ahead.