Chapter Twenty-Six
Corinne checked her watch. “We can leave it at that for today. You don’t want to be late getting to school. How’s he settling in?”
Everly smiled. “He’s loving it so far. I know it’s only been a couple of days, but he’s much happier here than he was at the school in Napa. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Mateo and Ruby are in his class.”
Corinne laughed. “You know what Ruby’s like; she’s all protective, wanting to look out for him.”
“I think he’s a little bit in awe of her.”
“I don’t blame him, I feel that way myself sometimes, she’s a lot to take,” said Corinne.
“She’s awesome. And Mateo’s a sweetheart, too. He seems so serious, the way he and Ashton giggle together might do him some good.”
“It will, no doubt about it. We should get them all together outside of school one day soon.”
“We should. We’ll figure it out. And I know I keep saying it but thanks, Corinne. I love the way this worked out, and if it weren’t for you…”
Corinne laughed. “I love the way it’s worked out, too. And I hate to say it, but you can’t say, if it weren’t for me. We have to be honest and say, if it weren’t for Cash.”
Everly shook her head. “That man!”
“Yep, but you know for all the engineering – I don’t want to call it interfering – that he does, it’s all for the good. I think he’s intervened in every one of his siblings’ love lives, there’s no reason that Tanner would be the exception.”
“I get that, but I feel like he interfered in your life on my behalf, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
“Then I’ll tell you how to feel – you should be happy. I am. Beau and I had gone around and around about when I should start maternity leave – and more importantly, about whether I’d come back to work afterward. After my little chat with Cash, it all seemed so easy, and so obvious. As soon as we get you trained up to take over, I’ll go part-time until the baby comes. Then, I’ll be happy to be a stay-at-home mom for a while.”
“Will you? Will you be happy to do that?”
“I will. I never thought that it’d be an option for me, but it is now. And Cash made me see that I’d be a fool not to take that option. Not to mention that it helps you out, too.”
Everly hugged her old friend. “It does, thank you.”
Corinne leaned in briefly before stepping back. “You’re welcome, you know that. But go on, you’d better scoot and get to school. I hope he’s had a good day.”
“Thanks, I do, too.”
As she sat in the pickup line at school, Everly adjusted the cushion that she was sitting on. She was going to have to do something about getting a vehicle of her own. She liked driving Tanner’s truck, but it was too big for her.
She and Ashton were settling in well, but whenever she got a moment alone to herself like this, little details started to creep in around the edges – details that she still needed to take care of. Her car was still sitting outside the townhouse – she needed to figure out whether she should accept Grady’s kind offer to get it sold for her, or whether she’d need to go back and collect it. Ashton wanted her to get a pickup truck of her own – there were smaller ones, and she quite liked that idea. She wasn’t ready to start wearing a cowboy hat just yet, but having her own mid-sized truck seemed like a practical step in adjusting to life here.
She pulled forward a little as the line moved up. She could see Shayna in one of the ranch trucks a couple of vehicles behind her. The plan was that she would pick Ashton up next week with Mateo and Maya, but Everly had wanted to come for him herself to start with.
She scanned the line of kids who were waiting and frowned when she spotted Ashton. He was standing with Mateo, and two bigger kids were talking to them. It looked to her like the big kids were taunting them. She gripped the steering wheel tighter, hoping that she was just being paranoid. She’d been worried about how he would settle in. He’d had trouble with bullies in the past, and she could only hope that he wasn’t going to have problems here. That was the last thing they needed.
She watched closely as she crawled forward until it was her turn. One of the bigger boys pushed Ashton, and he stumbled forward. The teacher who was supervising pickup called Ashton forward when she spotted Everly.
When she pulled the door open for him to get in, Everly called, “Did you see that? Those boys?”
The teacher gave her a puzzled smile. “You’re Ashton’s mom, aren’t you? It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too, but did you see that?”
Ashton scrambled up into the back seat and fastened his seatbelt. “It was nothing, Mom. Let’s go. You’re holding up the line.”
“I don’t care. Did you see…?”
The teacher smiled at her. “Boys will be boys. I didn’t see anything, but the boys like to mess around in the pickup line.”
“But…”
“I really need you to move along.”
Everly scowled when vehicles behind her started to honk their horns impatiently.
The teacher smiled again. “See what I mean? You’re from California, aren’t you? I’m sure you’ll get used to things around here soon enough.” With that, she closed the door and waved Everly on.
Everly pulled forward, intending to go and park in the teacher’s lot so that she could have a word with someone.
“Are you okay?”
Ashton met her gaze in the rearview mirror and scowled. “I’m fine. It’s like she said – we were just messing around.”
“It didn’t look that way to me.”
Ashton heaved a big sigh. “Well, it was. Stop trying to make a big deal out of it, would you? Can we just go home?”
Everly was torn. She didn’t want to let it go but at the same time, she didn’t know if she was being too protective. It was clear that the teacher thought so. Everly had already learned that while most folks in the valley were welcoming, there were some who resented the recent transplants like herself – especially those from California.
When the vehicle behind her honked its horn again, she blew out a frustrated sigh and pulled away from the school. She wasn’t going to let it go, but she’d see what she could get out of Ashton – or maybe Mateo – before she took it any further.
Once they were out on the highway, headed back to the ranch, she glanced over her shoulder to check on him.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
He nodded but didn’t meet her gaze. “I told you it was nothing.”
She had to admit defeat for now, she knew she wouldn’t get any more out of him on the subject. “Okay, so how was the rest of your day?”
“It was good. Is Tanner working late tonight?”
“No, he said that he wants to finish early. He wants us to go down to the barn. Apparently, there’s something he wants to show us.”
She was relieved to see him perk up at that. “What does he want to show us? Do you know? Do you think I can ride Houdini?”
“I don’t know what he wants to show us, but I don’t think it’s about you riding – you guys have your lesson set up for tomorrow morning.”
Ashton made a face. “Cowboys ride every day.”
She had to laugh. “You’re right, I suppose they do. All I can tell you is that Tanner didn’t mention anything about that. He just said that he wanted us to come down to the barn because he has something to show us.”
She was relieved to see him smile. “It’ll be cool, whatever it is.”
“I’m sure it will.”
~ ~ ~
“They’re coming,” called Luke.
Tanner looked out through the dusty window and smiled when he saw Everly and Ashton walking down the path from the big house. “Shit! I was hoping that they’d be a while longer.” He looked around at the dusty furniture, piles of boxes, and all the spare tack and tools that had been stored up here.
He and Luke had made a start, but the place still looked more like a forgotten storeroom than the apartment it was originally intended to be.
Luke grinned at him. “Do you think they’ll care? It might not look like much right now, but it has potential. We can all help you get it cleaned up. I bet Everly will enjoy furnishing it however you guys want it, and Ashton will be thrilled to be down here at the barn. No matter how it looks right now, it’s a place of your own. It means that you don’t have to leave the ranch, and you don’t have to share space with Ford. Nothing against him, he’s been great with them. But you guys are your own little family. You need your own space.”
Tanner grinned back at his friend. “You’re right. It’s not like I can present them with a show home that’s all ready to go. This is better anyway; it’s a mess, but we can work on it together – the three of us. I like that – we can put the work in to make our home into what we want it to be while we work on solidifying our little family.”
He looked out through the window again and headed for the stairs when he saw that Everly and Ashton were almost here.
He wiped his hands on his jeans when he noticed how dirty they were, then gave them a little wave when they spotted him.
Ashton broke into a run and didn’t stop until he crashed into Tanner, wrapping his arms around his waist and hugging him tight.
“Hey! It’s good to see you, too.” Tanner wrapped his arms around the kid’s shoulders and gave Everly a puzzled look. He was thrilled that Ashton seemed so pleased to see him, but it also seemed that something was wrong.
She gave him a slight shake of her head. Okay, so there was something wrong, and they’d talk about it later.
“How was your day, bud?”
Ashton let go of him and looked kind of sullen as he stepped away. “It was fine . What did you want to show us?”
There was definitely something going on with him, but Tanner felt like he needed to follow Everly’s lead.
“I had an idea…” He chuckled. “Well, to tell you the truth, Uncle Cash had an idea, and when he told me about it, I felt pretty dumb – I should have thought of it myself.”
“What idea?”
Tanner was relieved to see that whatever was going on with Ashton, it wasn’t bad enough to keep him down for long. He looked hopeful as he said, “Go on, tell us!”
Tanner cocked an eyebrow at Everly, and she laughed. “I think I want to know what it is, but…”
He went to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I think you’ll like it.”
“So, tell us!” Ashton said with a laugh. “We can’t know if we like it until you tell us – or even better, show us.”
“Okay, follow me.” He led them into the tack room and through the door in the back corner.
“Oh wow! I thought this was just a storeroom; I didn’t know that there was an upstairs,” Ashton said when he saw the staircase.
Tanner walked backwards up the stairs so that he could watch their faces. “That’s the thing, I’ve always treated this place as a storeroom, but that’s not what it was built for.”
“What’s up there?” Everly asked. “Do I need to come? I haven’t changed out of my work clothes yet.”
Ashton laughed. “What you really mean is that you’re scared there might be spiders, right?”
Tanner had to laugh with him at the look on Everly’s face. She was far from the prissy city girl he’d once feared that she might be. She’d done well with pretty much everything she’d been faced with on the ranch, but she drew the line when it came to spiders – at least, when it came to big, hairy-ass spiders like the one that had cornered her in the bathroom the other morning.
She shuddered. “I’m always scared that there might be spiders. You know that.”
Tanner looked back over his shoulder when he reached the top of the stairs. “I can’t guarantee that there aren’t any spiders in here right now. But I promise that we’ll clear them all out before we move in – if you want to live here.”
“Is it an apartment?” Ashton asked excitedly as he reached the top of the stairs and ran past Tanner. “Come on, Mom. Come see. This is going to be awesome. Don’t say no – I’ll help clean it.”
Tanner wrapped his arm around her shoulders when she reached the top of the stairs. “It doesn’t look like much right now – like I said I’ve been using it as a storeroom. It was built as accommodation for a horse trainer my dad hired while I was in the Navy.” He shook his head. “The old bastard figured that if life here was comfortable enough, the guy would never leave – and by the time I came home there’d be no room for me. As it turned out, the trainer was a decent guy – he didn’t last more than a year around my dad.”
He realized his mistake when Everly reached for his hand and squeezed it; she was more concerned about him and how his father had treated him than she was about the apartment. That hadn’t been his intention.
“Come on, let me show you around. I know it doesn’t look like much right now, but we could make it nice – if you want to, it’s totally your call. It’s plenty big enough; there are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We can furnish it and decorate it however you want. Most of all, it’ll be our own space.”
“Wow!” She looked around.
He chuckled. “Is that a wow, what a mess ?”
“No! It’s a wow, this is amazing ! I can see past the mess.” She wandered around, picking her way carefully between the piles of boxes and everything else. “Let me look around, I’ll be back.”
Luke got up from the spot where he’d been perched on the window ledge in the corner. “I’m out of here, see you later.”
“Thanks, bud. Thanks for helping me clear enough space that we can at least look around.”
“My pleasure. I’m yours for as long as you need me – I’ll help you do the heavy lifting and with getting it clean and ready.”
Tanner grinned. “We should probably negotiate with Laney how much of your time I can take up.”
Luke laughed. “Already done. I have her blessing to spend as much time over here with you as you need – things are quieter at our place at the moment. She said to let you know that she’s happy to help if we want her, too.”
“Tell her thanks.”
When Luke had gone, Tanner hurried toward the bathroom when he heard Everly and Ashton laughing.
Everly came running out into the hallway shrieking, and Ashton laughed even harder.
“It’s not a spider, Mom!” he called after her.
His reassurances didn’t slow her down. She barreled straight into Tanner and shuddered as he wrapped his arms around her.
He had to laugh. “What do you think? Have you seen enough? Do we need to get you out of here?”
She butted her forehead against his chest. “No, just give me a minute.” She took a couple of deep breaths before looking up into his eyes. “Give me a minute and promise that you won’t let them get me.”
He chuckled. “You have my word; I’ll protect you – from big, hairy-ass spiders and anything else that might try to get you.”
Her eyes widened, and she looked around warily. “What else do you think might be in here?”
He kissed her forehead. “I didn’t mean that. I meant in general – you know, I’ll be your knight in shining armor; protect you from whatever life tries to throw at you.”
He loved the way she relaxed against him. “Aww. I love you.”
He looked down into her eyes and nodded. “That’s what I just said, only it took me a few more words to say it.”
She tightened her arms around his waist for a moment before stepping back. “Okay, I can do this. Let’s finish exploring, then we can head up to the house. And take a shower,” she added with another shudder.
“Can this be my bedroom?”
They smiled at each other and picked their way to the end of the hall. Ashton was standing by the window in the room that Tanner had thought would be the best one for him.
He pointed out the window. “Look at the mountains! And look, you can see the pasture – Houdini’s out there.”
“Do you like this room best? Everly asked.
Ashton laughed. “I like the big one with its own bathroom best, but I bet you guys are going to take that one.”
“You bet right,” said Tanner. “But I thought you’d like being able to see the mountains and the horses from here.”
“I love it,” said Ashton. “When can we move in, Dad?”
Tanner froze. He didn’t have a problem with Ashton calling him that. He and Everly had touched on the subject a couple of times, but they hadn’t discussed it yet.
He looked from Ashton to her and back again. “It’s going to take us a while to clean it up first.”
Everly nodded. “A long while by the look of it. And even once it’s clean, we’ll need furniture and everything.”
Ashton was frowning at them, and Tanner got the impression that it wasn’t about how long it might be before the house was ready.
He turned to Everly and cocked an eyebrow. They needed to talk about it – he needed to know how she felt before he waded in. She gave him a slight nod, but Ashton spoke first.
Tanner’s heart felt as though someone was trying to rip it out of his chest when the little guy’s shoulders sagged as he said, “I know you’re not my dad. You can say if you don’t want me to call you that.”
Tanner covered the distance between them in two strides, all his concerns forgotten. He wrapped his arms around the kid and scooped him up. Ashton clung to him, and the feel of his hot little hands on his shoulder, and warm, ragged breath against his ear, made Tanner love him even more – and he hadn’t believed that was possible.
He hugged the kid tightly and met Everly’s gaze over his shoulder. What he had to say was for the both of them.
“I want to be your dad, Ash. I love you. I already feel like I am your dad. Don’t ever go thinking that I don’t want to be. I’ve been trying to take my time. Everything’s happened so fast between the three of us. Fast isn’t a bad thing, but I wanted to make sure that we were all happy about it before…”
Bands of pressure tightened around his chest when Ashton lifted his tear-stained face and looked up into his eyes. “Do you mean it?”
“I do. In my heart, you’re already my boy – my son.” He glanced over at Everly again, and Ashton did the same.
“Can I? Can I call him Dad?”
Tears shone in her eyes as she nodded. “Yes. If that’s what you both want…”
“Don’t you want that?”
She came to them and wrapped her arms around them. “I want it more than anything in the world; what I don’t want is for either of you to get hurt.”
Ashton rubbed his hand over his face, smearing dirt across his wet cheek. “It hurts when people say that Tanner’s not my dad.”
Everly’s eyebrows shot up.
“Who said that?” Tanner asked.
Ashton shrugged and laid his head back down on his shoulder. “No one. Can I get down now? Can I go and see Houdini?”
Tanner looked at Everly, and Ashton laughed. “You know she’s going to want to see the kitchen, and I don’t.”
Everly ruffled his hair. “Okay, go and see Houdini, but don’t go too far. We won’t be long, and you need to take a shower before dinner.”
Tanner watched the kid run for the stairs. Everly breathed out a big sigh.
“What did I miss?” he asked.
“I might be wrong, but when I picked him up from school today, I thought some boys were picking on him. I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess that’s at the root of whatever’s going on.”
Tanner clenched his hand into a fist at his side. “Can I do the school run next week?”
“Shayna said that she’s happy to help and…” Everly’s words trailed off when she noticed the look on his face. “Oh.”
Tanner nodded grimly. “Yeah. Oh. I need to sort this out.”
“What are you going to do?”
He shook his head. “I won’t know until I get to the bottom of it. Do you trust me?”
She only hesitated for a moment before she nodded. “I do; we wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”