Chapter 5
Five
Adam
Rebekah sits ramrod straight and wrings her hands together in her lap as I pull the truck up the overgrown dirt road that leads to her childhood home. Last time I was here, this place was in very bad shape. It’s ten times worse today.
The front of it is covered in weeds and vines. It has not been painted since it was built—I suspect that was more than forty years ago. Richard Sharp is a second-generation owner. His parents owned this land before he was born.
Asher is leaning against his truck, waiting for me as I hop down from the driver’s side.
He marches toward me, brows furrowed, and hisses, “Please tell me you’re joking.
” He shifts his gaze to Rebekah, who has not moved an inch.
She’s staring at him, eyes narrowed. Her expression is a cross between wanting to fiercely go toe-to-toe with my brother and bursting into tears.
I close the door and get in Asher’s face. “Don’t be a dick. If you want to argue with me about my decisions, you may do so later, but don’t scowl at me in front of Rebekah.”
“Later?” His voice lifts. “After you’ve married that girl?”
“She’s a woman, and you owe her an apology for manhandling her and tying her to the fucking kitchen chair.”
“She was trespassing on our property,” he barks.
“She was curious and lonely. We were her only friends when she was growing up. She lost everything when we moved away. Look at how she’s been living.” I jerk my hand out to point at the dilapidated, piece-of-shit structure behind Asher. It looks like it would collapse in a stiff breeze.
“So you have some sort of savior complex, and you think you should marry her?” His teeth are gritted now as if that’s the only way he can control himself.
My brothers and I are close. We always have been. Sometimes we argue, as all brothers do, but we always work shit out, and at the end of the day, we’re a tight family. We were raised to respect each other and our differences. We have always done so, even after our parents’ passing.
I need to text the other four in our group chat, but I’ve been too busy to do so for the last few hours.
I narrow my gaze at him. “Don’t you dare lecture me, Asher. She’s mine. End of story. I’m not marrying her to save her. I’m marrying her because I feel a connection to her I’ve never felt before. I can’t help that it has happened fast. That’s just how it is. When you know, you know.”
“So date her. Or court her or whatever the fuck they call it up here in the mountains. Hold hands or some shit. Fuck her if you want to.”
I lift my hand and slap him so fast that I shock both of us.
He barely flinches, of course. We’re both built like brick walls.
His cheek turns slightly pink, but it’s not as though I’ve actually injured him.
I can feel the veins in my forehead bulging as I lean closer to him.
“Don’t you ever fucking talk about her like that.
She’s a kind and loving woman. This discussion is over.
I don’t want to waste time arguing with you.
I want to help her get her shit out of this fucking house and get her to the judge in town.
I’m marrying her before the sun goes down. You’ll have to get over yourself.”
At the sound of an approaching vehicle, I wheel around, expecting to find Sharp pulling up the dirt road. But it’s not Sharp. It’s Adrian. His truck, anyway. I see that Andrew, our oldest brother, is with him. Great.
As soon as they join us, Asher goes at it again. “Do you know what this asshole is planning?”
Behind me, a door slams, and I twist to find Rebekah stomping around the front of the truck. She looks fit to kill. She has her hands fisted at her sides, and her face is red.
“Stop it,” she shouts. “Stop fighting. I’m right here. If you have something to say, say it to my face.”
There’s my feisty girl, the one who was fired up earlier because Asher tied her to a chair.
Asher holds both hands up in defeat, taking a step back. It’s almost comical since she’s a tiny sprite of a woman and he’s gigantic. If she charged him and shoved him hard, her hands would land at his waist, and he wouldn’t even wobble.
“What’s going on?” Adrian asks. He turns toward my girl. “Hey, Rebekah. It’s good to see you. I see you’re still the same firecracker you were a decade ago.” He’s teasing, but not in a mean way.
“Tell them,” Asher demands.
I glare at him and face my brothers. I have no doubt that Asher asked them to join us here because he thought he could get them to talk some sense into me. I’ve got news for my brothers. This is the most sensible idea I’ve ever had, and nothing they say is going to change my mind.
“Rebekah and I are getting married.” I reach out a hand and beckon her forward.
She comes to me and flattens herself to my side.
My heart is full as I spread my hand on her back protectively.
Andrew smirks. “You don’t say.”
Adrian shrugs. “Not surprised. She was sweet on you even when she was a lanky kid. I always figured you two would get hitched.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Asher bellows. “Does anyone have a working brain cell?”
“Enough,” I growl. “This conversation is over.” I look down at Rebekah and guide her toward the house. I don’t want to be here one minute longer than necessary.
The moment we step inside, I want to punch something or someone.
It’s not dirty. It’s clean and tidy. As clean as it can be without proper supplies.
It’s just sparse and everything is worn.
Most of the contents need to be in the dump, including the house itself.
It creaks. I fear it might actually fall in. Perhaps the foundation isn’t stable.
“I’m sorry,” Rebekah murmurs.
I jerk my gaze down to her. “What for, sweetheart?”
She shrugs. “I do the best I can. I promise I’ll do better at your place.”
I turn to more fully face her and tip her chin back. “Don’t you apologize for anything. You’re not responsible for the contents of his house. You hear me?”
She nods.
“Let’s gather whatever you want to take with you and get out of here, okay?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s your room, Rebekah?”
She takes a deep breath and leads me toward the small hallway.
There are only two rooms and a small bathroom.
I assume the farther bedroom is Richard’s.
She leads me into the first one. It has two twin beds.
Or rather, it has two ratty old mattresses on equally old frames.
They look like they could collapse. She would have been better off putting her mattress on the floor.
I assume the second bed was Hannah’s. Rebekah has probably been very lonely without her sister. It breaks my heart. I wonder where Hannah is and why she really left. Maybe she ran away. Maybe she didn’t.
There is no furniture in this room. Just the two beds. Rebekah heads over to a pile of clothes on the floor and lifts them. Her cheeks are pink when she looks at me. “I don’t have anything to put them in.”
I step closer and take the meager items out of her hands. “You don’t need this, sweetheart,” I say gently. “I’ll get you new clothes. Grab what’s important to you.”
Her breath hitches as I set the pile on her mattress. “I can wear those. You don’t need to buy me anything. I don’t want to be a burden.”
I turn back to her and cup her face. “You will never be a burden. Don’t mention it again. I have plenty of money, sweetheart. Now, let me ask you something. Did your mother keep any important papers, like your birth certificate, perhaps?”
Her eyes widen. “Oh, I think so.” She takes my hand and leads me from the room.
I hate entering her father’s room. It’s pretty sparse, too, but it’s also messier. Empty moonshine bottles. Clothes. Shoes. He at least has a dresser. “Why don’t you have any furniture in your room, sweetheart?”
She has opened the closet and dropped to her knees to crawl into the back. “Dad burned them during the winter when we ran out of wood.”
I grit my teeth. We live in a fucking forest. How the fuck did he run out of wood? He’s just a lazy fuck who probably got a kick out of terrorizing Rebekah by burning her only furniture. The more I learn, the more I want to strangle him.
Rebekah pulls out a box and sets it on the floor to open it. “There are a lot of papers in here. And pictures. It might take me a while to find my birth certificate, but I know my mother mentioned it. Hannah’s should be in here, too.”
“Will your father notice if the entire box is missing?”
She tips her head back. She’s so small, sitting on the hardwood. Her red curls reach the floor behind her. “I don’t think so. I doubt if he even knows it exists.”
I bend down, put the lid back on, and pick it up. “Let’s take it. That way, you’ll have access to everything. If Hannah ever comes back, she might need something in here, too. What else do you want, sweetheart?”
She pops up and leans back into the closet, pushing aside all the clothes until she gets to the far back. What she pulls out takes my breath away. “It’s my mother’s wedding dress. Do you think she would mind if I wore it when we get married?” Her voice wobbles with indecision and emotion.
I’m choked up, too. “I think your mother would be so proud of you. She’ll be watching down on you from heaven this afternoon, smiling. I’ll say a prayer and promise her that you will always be loved and taken care of.”
Rebekah throws her arms around me and hugs me tight, the dress crushed between us.
I kiss the top of her head. “Let’s go, sweetheart.
” I don’t want to linger here. Even though three of my brothers are outside, I don’t want there to be a confrontation with her father here.
It’s inevitable. I will come back and talk to him so he knows where his daughter is, but I don’t want her to witness whatever might transpire between us because I have a feeling it won’t be polite.