25. Nova
25
nova
Thanksgiving and Christmas were one of the busiest times for hair, at least I always felt that when I was in Denver. Here in Sterling Ridge, it was always cool, calm and collected. I missed the rush of the busy season, which meant more money.
I was a dumbass who wished for and got what she wanted. This holiday season was so busy I was exhausted every night, and that meant less time with the guys. It was also the first holiday season I didn’t have to work for the Boozy Bandit. I came home tired, but at least I was home with Sol and we had stayed a few weekends with the guys too.
I think Sol was starting to wonder what was going on with us. She lightened up a little more now that we would go over more and the guys would pick her up a few times a week. Life had been surprisingly good, even though a part of me wondered how this was going to last. The guys had exceeded all my expectations and each week we were together, Sol was always a priority. It melted my heart that it felt like it was barely coming out of hibernation.
I was shampooing Iris’ hair; she was my last client before I was off for one whole week. Christmas was in two days, and I was ready to spend it with the guys and Theo’s family.
“Men are assholes,” she said under her breath, as she typed away furiously on her phone.
“Boy troubles?” I asked her, as I gave one last rinse.
“Yeah, I shouldn't have married this asshole,” Iris snapped.
My eyes widened as I processed her response. She kept typing, not realizing her mistake. Should I say something? I didn’t need to say anything because Iris sat up with her hair dripping.
“Fuck, I’m dripping.” She tried to lean back, but had already wet her entire back.
I put her hair back into the bowl, not sure how to proceed.
“You can’t say anything to my brothers,” she whispered, looking terrified.
“I promise I won’t. Girl Code.” I wrung out her hair, then wrapped it in a towel. “I’ll meet you at the chair. I’m gonna clean up.”
“Let me help.” She grabbed the towel from me, cleaning up as much water as she could.
We walked back to my chair in silence as I decided how to handle this.
“I won’t pressure you to talk about it, but if you need to, I’m here,” I said, releasing the towel and adding product to her hair.
She took a deep breath as she looked down at her lap.
“I did it to save our farm, but it's not going how I imagined,” she said, her lip trembling. “They aren’t adhering to the terms and I’m being pushed out. I was supposed to help run the farm and by marrying one of their boys, it technically would stay in the family. There's four boys and I got the cocky one who never answers his damn phone and is running from his family, so he’s hard to get a hold of.”
“Do we need to make him disappear?” I asked, grabbing my blow dryer.
“It might be hard to make him disappear, he’s a big Bronc rider.” She crossed her arms. “That’s why we haven’t gotten married because he's out and about on the rodeo circuit.”
“Then don’t marry him,” I said, hoping that was still an option.
“I don’t want to give up my family farm,” she sighed. “I’m hoping that once we get married it will be different and I will be brought in, and I can see my parent’s legacy live on.”
“So, you think marrying this guy is gonna do it?”
She shrugged. “I’m out of options here, but I have to at least try.”
“But what if this was all in vain and you marry him for nothing,” I said, playing devil's advocate.
“Then, I don’t know,” she whispered, looking defeated.
“Are you going to tell your brothers anything?” I put my hands on her shoulder for comfort.
“God, no. They would have a shit fit if they found out what I was doing,” she said, looking up. “My stupid naive brain thought I could marry one of the brothers, then live at the farm and keep working like nothing happened. The oldest was sweet. Hell, I would take the hockey player at this point and he’s younger than me.”
“I hear hockey players are hot,” I said, trying to ease the tension of the conversation.
“They are all gorgeous, unfortunately,” she grumbled.
“The audacity.” I rolled my eyes.
“I know!” She cracked a smile.
“Well, if you need to vent anymore, let me know. We can go get dinner and trash talk this family,” I chuckled.
“Deal, but thank you for listening. It feels good to tell someone and not keep it to myself.” She smiled. “I just gotta be patient and figure out what the hell I can do.”
“I’m gonna say it again, but you don’t have to do this,” I said.
“I know, but I really do,” she said sadly.
“Then, I’ll help you anyway I can.” I turned the blow dryer on and gave her the best blow dry I could.
Life might be hard, but it was always a little easier when you had great hair.
“I don’t know if I like riding with my eyes covered,” I said feeling nervous.
“We are almost there,” Theo said, leading all of us blindfolded to god knows where.
“Oh my god, are we getting one of those furry cows?!” I squealed.
I mentioned getting one last month and Sol was all for it. I was not above using my child to get a cute cow.
“I'd be down for a cow as our Christmas present,” Atlas said next to me.
“If it's a cow we have to get a bigger barn,” Colt added. “I doubt the ladies will let the cow out with the herd.”
“Yes!! Moooo!” Sol yelled, and we laughed.
My horse suddenly stopped and I listened, wondering if I heard a cow.
“I think it's better than a cow, but go ahead and take off your blindfolds,” Theo said, and I ripped mine off quickly.
A beautiful home was right in front of us and my heart raced at what this meant.
“What the fuck is this, Theo?” Colt said, getting off his horse.
“Merry Christmas,” Theo said, with an enormous smile. “We've been talking about making a house and I wanted to have it done by the time Atlas got home, but finding builders is hard.”
“You got us a house for Christmas?!” Atlas also got off his horse.
I felt uncomfortable being here. I didn’t know if he was expecting us to move in or what had happened, but this was too soon. Why was he doing this in front of Sol? She could be getting the wrong idea and what if?—
“Darlin’?”
I snapped out of my downward spiral as Theo looked up at me expectantly.
“Yeah?” I tried to sound normal and not at all what my brain was feeling.
“Are you ok?” He looked worried as he tapped his fingers.
I nodded, not knowing what to say.
“This isn’t what you think it is. I won’t lie and say I thought about it, but I brought you here because this is where we are staying for the holidays and I wanted to include you guys,” he said, rubbing my leg. “There's also a little surprise for Sol and I couldn’t wait to have her see it.”
I didn’t know what to say. The fear still lingered that this was more than I was planning for, and I wasn’t ready for that step, but I also loved that he knew me well enough that he knew I would freak out.
“If this is too much, we can leave,” he said immediately, when I stayed quiet.
“No,” I mumbled. “I’m ok.”
I swung my leg over, letting Theo help me down as I scolded myself to get over my shit. This was a house he built for his boyfriends before I came along, this wasn’t a damn proposal, but why did a piece of me feel jealous. Who builds a house for their boyfriends? It was romantic and stunning and god, it made me love Theo even more.
We walked into the house in silence and I realized we were alone. I glanced at Theo who gave me a small smile as we walked into the house. Holy shit, it was gorgeous and we entered into what looked to be like a really nice mudroom. The guys and Sol’s boots were left here, so I followed suit.
To say the house was gorgeous, was an understatement and Theo had thought of everything. The kitchen was well planned out as was the pantry and laundry room. There was a gorgeous fireplace in the living room and the main bedroom.
Sol screamed and I instantly went looking for her, worried that something had fallen on her, but nope, she was hugging Theo in a small bedroom. I was confused until I saw the bed and everything made sense.
“It’s only here for a few days for Christmas, but the guys and I will set it up at your mama’s house,” Theo said. I admired the bed Sol had picked out of a Pottery Barn catalog, but I couldn’t afford it and I tried to find a cheaper alternative.
It was gorgeous and equipped with a canopy that screamed princess. Sol threw herself on the bed looking so happy. It extinguished all of my anxiety from my earlier freak out.
Theo looked up at me as I mouthed a thank you. Colt rubbed my back as we watched Sol roll on her bed and squeal excitedly.
“So now that everyone knows we are staying here for the holidays, let’s go pack and we can have dinner here,” Theo said excitedly. “We can get a tree tomorrow morning and then decorate before my family gets here.”
“A house full of Malone’s, lord help us,” Atlas chuckled.
The guys joked as I followed them out with Sol, who was bouncing around. I knew Jude and Iris were coming over, but it hadn’t been confirmed that his oldest brother was coming with his wife and his girlfriend or should I say their girlfriend. It was intimidating and what if they asked questions about us? I was not prepared for this.
The doorbell rang and I was ready to vomit or pass out. Yesterday the guys reassured me, verbally and physically, that everything was going to go smoothly. They basically fucked me into a coma so I would stop worrying. The aftereffects of last night still lingered in my slightly sore pussy. They each fucked me, even though I was hoping to see them together more.
“Theodore.” A man with a slight Texas twang said, hugging Theo.
This man was enormous, at least a few inches taller than Theo and Colt. He had a gorgeous smile, an all-American look to him and it was no surprise that his wife and their girlfriend were as stunning. I smoothed out my plaid button-down, feeling a little plain as these two women said hi to Theo and the guys.
Sol watched them in fascination, and she bounced up and down waiting to get introduced. She was such a social butterfly and there was a point in my life when I was just like her.
“This is our friend and neighbor, Nova, and her daughter, Sol,” Theo said. “This is my brother, Luke, his wife, Camila, and their girlfriend, Genevieve.”
“Hi, nice to meet you,” I said, waving and pulling Sol in front of me.
“Dude, you're so big,” Sol blurted.
Everyone laughed.
“Nice to meet you,” Luke said, shaking my hand as Camila gave me a hug and Genevieve shook my hand.
“Sorry, I’m used to hugging, I grew up in a big Mexican family,” Camila said shrugging.
“Momma and I are Mexican too!” Sol looked excited.
“?Enserio!?” Camila acted shocked.
“Si! Nuestra familia es de Chihuahua,” Sol said, shocking almost everyone. “Quiero visitar un día para ver el país de México.”
“Mi familia es de Guanajuato y Durango,” Camila said, and they quickly started speaking in Spanish.
“Wow, I didn’t know she spoke Spanish,” Atlas said, admiring Sol.
“We try to speak it as much as we can at home, even though I forget to. It also helps that Ms. Stevens speaks Spanish to Sol at school,” I said, feeling myself blush.
“That’s amazing,” Luke said, looking at his wife and my daughter with hearts in his eyes.
“Come on, let me show you to your room,” Theo said, picking up a bag.
Sol was excited to have another person to talk Spanish with. It took a while to convince her that Camila needed to get settled in.
“She’s cool, momma,” Sol said, as we walked into the kitchen to start making some dinner.
“I like her too,” I said, bringing out ingredients for tacos.
I already had some beans cooking and the meat had been marinating for a few hours. Cooking was a good way to keep my distance, but when the guys went outside to grill the meat, I felt extremely nervous. Sol decided to leave me to play with Hula Hoop and hang out with the guys.
Camila and Genevieve sat at the island, drinking some wine as I cooked the rice and refried the beans.
“So, are you just their neighbor?” Genevieve asked, making me blush.
“Evie,” Camila rolled her eyes. “At least wait a few hours before you start asking questions.”
“I was just creating some conversations,” she said with a shrug.
I chuckled. “I think we are seeing where this goes, but we haven’t told Sol anything because I don’t want her to get her hopes up.”
“That makes sense,” Camila said. “You sure you don’t need help?”
“I’m good.” I smiled as I cut some onions. “Cooking makes me feel less nervous.”
“No need to be nervous, we are all adults, apparently fucking multiple people,” Genevieve said, taking a sip of her glass. “I’m honestly curious how you came into the mix.”
“I think we've always had this attraction and when I hurt myself, they let Sol and me stay with them,” I said, stirring the onions in with the toasted rice. “I think that was the catalyst.”
“That's sweet of them,” Camila said, rounding the island, stirring the beans for me. “Theo talks a lot about Sol, it sounds like they are all smitten with her.”
I chuckled. “I think she's got them all wrapped around her little finger.”
“She seems like a smart girl,” Genevieve said. “I’m surprised she hasn’t caught on.”
“I’m surprised too, but we've been careful and it helped that we kind of hung out before we started seeing each other.” I put tomato paste into the rice. “I know it’s only a matter of time, but I don’t want to break her tiny heart.”
“You're a good mom,” Genevieve said, catching me off guard. “My mom was always looking for the next husband and didn’t think about my sister or me a lot. Not that she ever introduced us, but dating is complicated when you have kids.”
Genevive and I shared a look, and I felt for her.
“Thanks for saying that. It feels like no matter what, I’ll never get the hang of this or no matter what I do, it’s going to be wrong,” I admitted.
“We are always too hard on ourselves,” Camila said. “If a man was raising Sol, he would be praised for being an amazing dad, when a woman does it on her own, it’s expected of her. It’s such a weird double standard and annoying as hell. Just from speaking with her for a moment, I can tell she’s incredible and you are doing an amazing job.”
I didn’t know what to say and why the hell I was so nervous to meet these women. I swallowed the rising emotions.
“Thank you,” I said, as we all exchanged a look.
“That’s what we are here for, sisters-in-law who support each other,” Genevieve said, lifting her glass to me.
“A little early to call me that,” I chuckled.
“Nah, just making a damn good prediction,” she smirked.
And just like that all my nervousness went away as I enjoyed girl time. Not too long after, Iris showed up with Jude and Jude’s best friend Webber. We spent the night talking, eating, drinking and enjoying each other’s company. They felt like family, and it had been so long since I had had a family.