Chapter 8 #2
“Come on, assholes.”
I passed around extra beers and opened another for myself.
The kitchen lights reflected off the fixtures, casting warm halos against plaster walls that had seen more history than any of us combined.
East had brought in a specialist to repair spots that needed attention before they were given fresh coats of paint.
Like everything in the house, its history was clear, and I hadn’t wanted to mess with it.
Restoring and retaining as much as I could was the goal.
Well, modernizing the bathrooms and kitchens had been a necessity.
They eagerly traipsed after me, even East, who was more acquainted with the place than I was.
Castleton was a sprawling house built in the late 1800s for a large family.
There had been smaller rooms on the main floor, but I’d had East knock down some walls, expanding the great room into a more modern concept and connecting it to the kitchen so I could see Opal at all times.
We didn’t go upstairs to the bedrooms, but those had been renovated, and the attic space had been turned into a large play area. Maybe one day it’d be a spot where she hung out with friends and painted nails, but right now there was a couch for her dad and all her favorite toys.
“So,” Kipp said, dropping into one of the chairs and stretching his long legs out in front of him. “You want to tell us how you ended up with a permanent address in our town?”
Wade shot him a look. “Subtle.”
Kipp shrugged. “He invited us for drinks. That’s practically an interrogation request.”
“I don’t think I invited you dicks out here.”
Kipp put his hand over his heart in mock outrage. “Wade, is that true? We don’t have an invitation? Did you lie?” He widened his eyes and batted his eyelashes like a tool.
“He wanted us here.” My friend was confident, and as always, Wade wasn’t wrong. Since it was my first night here, having them show up to welcome me was nice.
“So? What’s the story?” Kipp pressed. “Invitation or not, you’re basically family, so that means interrogations are mandatory. You have to share information, especially if you’re going to be neighbors with us.”
“Seattle stopped making sense,” I said, choosing my words carefully.
East lifted his brows. “That vague, huh?” He gave me a critical look that told me my answer wasn’t going to be nearly enough.
Wade tapped his fingers against his bottle. “Rhodes, you’re a planner. Always have been. We’re happy as fuck you’re here, but tell us why.”
I exhaled slowly, peeling the corner of the label before meeting their eyes.
“Wade knows a little.” Very little. The whole Catherine deal was kept just to a few select people.
Briggs knew. He’d called me a fool for putting up with it, especially since I had planned to dump her that night.
“I was married to Opal’s mother, but we were finished before we started.
She wanted different things. Catherine never wanted kids.
My work is…” I trailed off again, looking into space.
It was hard to even explain the whole relationship/non-relationship with Opal’s mother. Frankly, I was ashamed by the entire ordeal with Catherine.
“I get it, man,” Wade began, trying to be helpful. “In the service, there are women who say they understand you’ll be gone without warning or that you won’t show up for important things, but in practice? Well… that’s a different kind of thing, isn’t it?”
That wasn’t wrong. We had seen plenty of women chase after the Spec Ops men from all branches when we gathered at the bars around the bases.
Most were looking to get laid, but a few hoped to get hitched to a military man with solid pay and benefits.
They didn’t complain about the not-so-stellar parts that came with us.
The shitty hours, the inability to call home or tell your loved ones about your work.
Not to mention the mental health problems that came with the work.
But that wasn’t what happened with Catherine.
“Catherine told me she was pregnant the night I was planning to break things off with her. She never wanted kids, but she knew that I did, so she was ready to make a deal.” The thought was bitter.
Catherine was nothing if not practical about money.
“I wanted to keep the baby, and she wanted a ring and a penthouse.” The men’s eyes were saucer-like now, but I shrugged.
Kipp’s grin faded. “She was going to get an abortion?” He looked properly appalled.
It had been threatened multiple times. It wasn’t that I had any issues with a woman’s right to choose, but I’d always had an issue with how Catherine wielded the threats. To her, the pregnancy was an opportunity and nothing else.
“I knew in advance that she wasn’t interested in being part of Opal’s life.
I’d hoped that she might change her mind after Opal was born, but that isn’t who she is.
Even when we all lived in the same place, she wasn’t involved.
” Admitting it to myself was hard. “I shouldn’t have expected her to be a different person. ”
I didn’t want to really go into why Catherine was just a shitty person. I would have walked over coals for her and into the fire if she’d given me my baby with no strings. Instead, she’d tied me in a complicated agreement for years.
The look on Kipp’s face was murderous, but I knew that he and Hattie were trying to conceive, so I didn’t share my thoughts on the subject.
“We had more of an agreement than a marriage. I worked a lot at Redhawk, trying to make it successful. A lot of missions took me out of the country, but I tried to be home as much as possible.” Even as I said it, it sounded stupid.
East shook his head once. “That’s not how that works.”
I set my glass down and crossed my arms, before uncrossing them, self-consciously, finally giving them another piece of the puzzle.
It was something I knew they’d understand.
“She slept around,” I said, keeping my tone level.
“She was typically discreet until recently, when she brought someone home and scared Opal.”
That wasn’t the whole truth of it, but it was most of it. Catherine and I had a five-year time limit on our “marriage”. We hit that date, and I immediately had readied my lawyers to start extricating myself. It had been a little harder than I thought.
Wade’s gaze sharpened. “You want me to—”
“No,” I cut in with a laugh, knowing exactly where that sentence was headed.
Wade was a solid friend for offering, but I wasn’t that much of a dick to kill a man because he slept with my ex-wife, especially when it was Catherine’s choice.
The list would be long, and I didn’t give a fuck.
“It’s not worth it. She can do what she wants.
I mean obviously.” I shrugged. “An open marriage was part of the agreement anyway. Not that I was fucking her.”
The thought turned my stomach. I hadn’t touched her once in our entire marriage.
Kipp tipped his bottle back and took a long swallow. “She fight you on custody?”
“She did, but only to drive the price up. That sums up Catherine in a nutshell. I have full custody, but she does have visitation.” That was a bitter pill, only because it meant she could show up if she wanted, and we’d have to deal with the fallout.
“She doesn’t want the responsibility of raising her full-time.
She said she wasn’t built for it.” I blew out a breath and rubbed a hand over my face.
“There’s nothing wrong with her wanting what she wants or being who she is.
Catherine has always been upfront about things, but God, she’s an absolute bitch. ”
Too bad Opal and I were connected to her, but the one thing that I’d learned in life was that sometimes what you thought were choices were out of your hands. Control was an illusion.
East blew out a breath. “That’s rough.”
“I’d rather she be honest,” I said. “Opal deserves someone who’s all in.”
Wade’s eyes held mine. “And that’s you.”
“Absolutely. No matter what it takes, I’ll give up Redhawk if I need to.
Right now, I’m working part-time and handling logistics.
Briggs has taken over the day-to-day for now, but I’ll help him on the side.
I won’t be handling any assignments, but I’m willing to let that go if necessary, too.
She’ll start school next week, so I’ll have time during the day. ”
Giving up Redhawk and the men that belonged to it would be rough, but it was a step I was prepared to make if that was how it needed to go down.
A real home for Opal was what came first. If I had to sell, then I would.
Redhawk had kept me sane when I got out of the military, but for Opal, I’d do anything.
The house creaked faintly overhead, and all four of us glanced toward the ceiling out of instinct. I listened for the soft shuffle of Opal’s footsteps, ready to move if she called out, but the sound didn’t come.
“I think we both needed somewhere different,” I said after a moment. “Somewhere she could learn to ride a bike and have a yard.”
“And you picked this place,” Kipp said, gesturing vaguely toward the walls. “It definitely has a yard.” He snorted.
“It does. I remembered the last time I was here. We’d driven around a little, and I might have started getting the idea about what it might be like to live around here. Near good people.” They snorted. “Not you assholes obviously.”
“Obviously not Kipp.” Wade chipped in.
“Dick. I’m putting that raccoon back in your office.”
I chuckled. Wade’s terror of raccoons was pretty hilarious, given how nonplussed he was about so many other things.
We were all quiet for a moment before East glanced toward the stairs. “Did your daughter like her new bedroom? How’s she handling things?”
Frowning, I thought about the answer and how to explain it.
“She and her mother had a complicated relationship, even at their best. Opal misses her nanny more than she misses Catherine. She’s relieved, which is a kick in the pants.
I should have done all of this sooner, but she’s doing good.
She misses her school, but she’s already talking about starting somewhere new.
Opal is…” I paused, trying to find the right words to describe my daughter. “The best.”
“It’s normal for her to be nervous about starting a new school,” Wade offered.
“But she’s not. She’s excited about it even as she’s missing what she lost; she’s embracing what she’ll find.
You’ll meet her and understand what I mean.
Today she wanted to know if Catherine would ever come here.
” The question had caught me a little off guard, even though I should have known Opal would wonder.
It was natural for kids to want to know things when their whole world was changing.
“She hadn’t been upset that her mother was leaving, just curious. ”
“And what’d you tell her?” Kipp asked.
“I told her that she might. I’m not going to make Catherine the villain. That’s not going to be the parent I’m going to play. She’ll always be Opal’s mother. Biologically anyway. That won’t change. I don’t think Opal wants her to come, though.”
Kipp’s jaw flexed. “She kind of is the villain. She did cheat on you. And she won’t be a mother.” The words were venomous.
I understood, though, because for Kipp at least, that was an egregious sin. His own childhood experiences before the Holts had been traumatic. Talking about being unwanted was a trigger.
I met his eyes. “Opal doesn’t need to carry that load, and I want her.”
East nodded slowly. “That’s fair. You’re a bigger man than Kipp, giving Catherine an out.” Kipp shot him a dark look while we all laughed awkwardly and changed the subject. “Literally.”
The Holts were cool that way, with their banter and camaraderie.
It was like the military in a sense—a real family vibe.
That was part of why I came. A small town, a sense of family for Opal, and somewhere steady.
Somewhere that wasn’t convenient for Catherine to just pop by.
Not that she’d do it to see her daughter, but she’d sure come by to ask for cash or to say something cutting that would eat at me for days.
She’d never turned her words on Opal, but that was only a matter of time with a woman like her, and I wasn’t going to put Opal in those situations.
I was going to keep that woman away from us.
The porch light flickered once outside, briefly catching my eye on the dark outline of the greenhouses in the distance. Even in shadow, I could see their jagged rooflines and how the glass reflected faint light from the house.
“Your sister is something. You know she barged up here today all mad about those greenhouses.”
“Sage? Yeah, she’s always loved this place.” East snorted. “Anything with plants and dirt.”
“She offered Opal a plant,” I said before I could stop myself.
“Of course she did,” Kipp replied. “Sage probably has a fern with your kid’s name on it already.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said.
Wade arched a brow. “You worried about plant-related espionage?”
“I don’t want Opal getting attached to something that might not survive,” I answered, more sharply than intended.
East’s expression softened. “That’s life, man. Sometimes shit just gets attached. You can’t help how it gets tangled up.” He slapped my shoulder. “Loosen up.”