26. Lennon
26
LENNON
“T
hank you, Chef,” Reed said with a tip of his chin as he moved through the buffet line I had set up at the bunkhouse. His plate was piled high with the summer menu items I had been playing around with.
I needed to plan the seasonal menu changes in the next few weeks so that my staff had time to learn them before we introduced them to the restaurant guests.
“Chef, you can stay here as long as you want,” Jackson said with a grin as he piled heaping scoops of summer corn salad on his plate.
I had turned everyone’s favorite soup into a cold salad for the summer and it was killer.
There were a few crisscrossing hours in the day when the bunkhouse was full. Morning, when everyone was going out to the fields or returning from a long night. And lunch, when the night crew woke up for a bite and the day crew stopped in for a break.
I smelled CJ before I saw him. “There’s my girl.” Hands slipped around my waist as he craned around and kissed my cheek.
“You reek,” I said with a laugh. I flicked my wrist. “Out of my kitchen.”
CJ chuckled as he took stock of the buffet covering the island. “Your kitchen?”
“That’s right. I cooked. Therefore, it’s my kitchen.”
His smile was playful as he grabbed a plate and started filling it up. “I like the sound of that. What’s this?”
I glanced over my shoulder as I washed my hands. “Smoked watermelon and feta on skewers.”
He took three.
“Thank you, Chef,” one of the older men said as he passed by.
“Are they treating you right?” CJ murmured in my ear as he slid behind me.
“Of course.”
“Any problems or attitudes I need to take care of?”
I pecked his cheek. “Nope. You know what they say. The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I’m pretty sure if I keep feeding them, they’ll let me hang around.”
CJ’s smile split wide across his face. “You don’t have to cook for them, you know. This is supposed to be your morning off.”
“They’re good test subjects, and the upside is that they don’t mind doing the dishes after.”
“That’s right, Miss Chef,” Cody said. “You cook, we clean.”
I snickered under my breath. “You’d better watch out. I might steal your guys to come over and work at the restaurant.”
The front door opened, ricocheting off the wall. “Well, there you are,” Cassandra said as she stood with her hands on her hips.
The ranch hands scattered, taking their plates with them.
I looked around at the empty kitchen and living room. “What just happened?”
CJ shrugged with a mouthful of food. “They’re scared of her.”
“Don’t know why,” Cassandra grumbled. “I’ve never been anything but nice.”
I snorted.
CJ laughed. “What are you doing, Cass?”
“Kidnapping your girlfriend, obviously,” she said as she perused the buffet and picked up one of the watermelon kebabs. “What’s this?”
“Fuckin’ delicious,” CJ said around his bite. “Try it.”
Cassandra stole a skewer and took the most ladylike bite I had ever seen. “Put it on the menu.”
I cackled. “We’ll see.”
Cassandra cut me an exacting glare. “I believe the proper response is ‘yes, Mrs. Griffith.’”
I lifted an eyebrow. “I’d recommend changing the tone you’re using with me, Cassandra ,” I clipped as I crossed my arms and rested my hip on the countertop. “What you actually mean is, ‘That was delicious, Chef Maddox. I’d love to see that on the summer menu of your restaurant.’ Shall we try that again?”
Cassandra paled, silently fuming.
Becks and Brooke had piled up at the door with their jaws on the floor.
“Holy shit,” CJ muttered as he abandoned his plate on the couch and crossed the room, planting a hard kiss squarely on my mouth.
I squealed and stumbled backward, catching the counter to stay upright.
“I had you pegged from day one, didn’t I, trouble?” CJ snickered.
I tipped my head back and laughed. “I may have just gotten myself fired.”
“You guys coming or what?” Brooke said. “I’m starving.”
“That jacket he gave you is the only reason you’re not fired,” Cassandra glowered. “But Brooke might kill you if she doesn’t get fed within the next half-hour. Let’s go.” She glanced at CJ. “You can grope your woman when you’re off work.”
I lifted an eyebrow as I stole a bite off CJ’s plate. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Come on,” Brooke whined. “It’s a rite of passage. Let us kidnap you.”
“We’ll have you back before you have to be at the restaurant,” Becks said.
“Did you know about this?” I asked CJ.
He shook his head. “I’m innocent. But I’ve gotta get back to work.” CJ pecked my lips. “I appreciate you.”
“Wha—” I watched as he waved to his sisters-in-law and walked right out the door. “You’re going to leave me with them?” I called after him.
“Getting kidnapped is fun,” Becks said. “There’s margaritas.”
“Sold,” I said as I grabbed CJ’s key to the bunkhouse and locked up.
I was unceremoniously stuffed into Brooke’s minivan and told to buckle up. Before I knew it, I was heading off of the ranch with the Griffith sisters.
“So, what’s this all about?” I asked as we bumped and bobbled over the dirt path that headed out to the service road. “Why am I being kidnapped? And I don’t think you’re supposed to tell someone when you’re kidnapping them. It kind of spoils the surprise.”
“It’s what we do,” Brooke chirped as she popped a curb. “Oops! Sorry!”
“I should have driven,” Cassandra muttered from the front seat.
Becks laughed from her spot beside me. “None of us want you driving, Miss Passenger Princess.”
“Someone wanna fill me in?” I asked as I watched the scenery fly by.
“We’re just getting lunch,” Becks said. “It’s what we do on Saturdays, so make sure you leave it open on your schedule.”
“I made lunch at the bunkhouse. You could’ve eaten there.”
“But then we wouldn’t get to interrogate you,” Brooke said like the cheeriest secret agent known to man. “Not with CJ around, anyway.”
“Interrogate me about what?” I groaned as she went full force over a speed bump. The startling jolt rattled my bones.
“CJ,” Cassandra said. “You finally showed up to a family dinner. That means you’re finally eligible to be interrogated.”
We came to a screeching halt in front of a Mexican restaurant, and I let out a terrified breath.
“Brooke, you’re parked on the line.”
Brooke peered out the window. “It’s close enough.”
“Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,” Becks said.
“Whatever,” Cassandra said as she hopped out. “I’m starving and far too sober. It’s been a damn week.”
I followed the parade of Griffith women into the restaurant and stole the spot in the booth that put my back to the wall and faced the front door. Becks squeezed in beside me, while Brooke and Cassandra slipped into the restroom.
“Best spot in the restaurant,” Becks said before thanking the server who dropped off a basket of chips and a dish of salsa. “Let me guess—you’ve already scoped out the exits, too.”
I had, but I didn’t think I was that obvious.
She let out a soft laugh. “Nate had you clocked the second you came up to the rooftop during the grand opening. Were you in the military?”
I took a chip from the basket and tried not to let my poker face slip. “Prison, actually.”
If she was fazed, she didn’t show it. Not in the slightest. “Not that big of a difference.”
Cassandra and Brooke weaved through the tables to get to us.
“It’s not a secret,” I said, trying to maintain the high ground. “Cassandra knows.”
“If Cassandra knows, then it’s still a secret. She’s a steel vault.”
“Christian and CJ know,” I clarified.
She smiled. “The boys are less reliable when it comes to secret keeping.”
I shrugged. “It’s public record.”
“How are you liking the ranch?” she asked as Cassandra and Brooke slid into the booth.
The server swung back by, taking our orders before disappearing again.
“It’s great. Chef DeRossi does a great job with his restaurant concepts,” I said evasively.
The ladies shared knowing looks, like they knew I was trying to get out of giving them a direct answer.
“Cool. So are you and CJ serious?” Brooke said as she munched on a tortilla chip.
“CJ and I aren’t anything,” I said with a cool neutrality in my voice.
It was the truth, whether I wanted it to be that way or not. We were...I didn’t know what we were. Fuck buddies? Frenemies with benefits? Accidental roommates?
I had never been in a place where I could allow myself to fall in love. Where I could slow down, stick around, and let myself breathe.
Stay.
Don’t run away.
Don’t go.
Every pleading word CJ had ever begged rang in my mind.
But those words didn’t mean a damn thing in the long run.
“Ooh, she’s quiet,” Cassandra said as her eyes flicked up and down, studying my body language.
“You have a jacket, don’t you?” Brooke said. “That’s a hop, skip, and a jump away from a ring.”
I also had a psycho brother and the boogeyman out to get me, but that wasn’t exactly proper lunch conversation.
“A jacket?” I snapped a tortilla chip in half so I wouldn’t double dip.
“Yeah, the ones with the ranch logo on them,” Brooke said.
“I have a chef’s coat with the ranch logo.”
Cassandra rolled her eyes. “Lennon’s been wearing CJ’s jacket, you adorable little moonbeam. But I have hers ordered so she can give his back. It should get here next week.”
Becks beamed. “I figured. Once she came to family dinner, I knew that was that. When did he ask you to order it?”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I snatched a margarita off the server’s tray. “You all realize I’m sitting right here, right?”
Brooke squeezed a lime wedge into her water and stirred it around with the straw. “You get used to it after a while. The first time I got kidnapped, it was awkward, too.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Look, I have no problem hitchhiking back to the ranch. So, if someone doesn’t fill me in on why I’ve been abducted for lunch, I’ll go wait on the side of the road.”
Becks shifted on our side of the booth and smiled. “CJ gave you his ranch jacket.”
“It was cold,” I said. “Isn’t that the southern gentleman thing to do? Or did the movies lie and oversell chivalry? I think it might be a scam.”
Cassandra snickered as she sipped on her margarita. “Sweet, innocent Lennon.”
I snorted.
“CJ didn’t tell you?” Brooke asked. “When you get a jacket, it means you’re part of the ranch. We all have one. They’re only for the family. Ranch hands have different jackets. The lodge and restaurant staff have their uniforms. Wearing the ranch jacket tells everyone you’re part of the family.” Her eyes softened. “I thought you knew. You’ve been wearing one forever.”
The server came and doled out sizzling plates of tacos and fajitas, but all I could taste was the bile in my mouth.
“Now that we’ve terrified her—” Cassandra reached in her bag and pulled out a giant three-ring binder “—let’s tell her how to handle a Griffith brother. Fun fact, cowboys are stubborn. But we’ve basically discovered the cheat code, so listen up. You’re going to want to hear this.”
They delivered me back to the bunkhouse like a pizza. My head swam, and it had nothing to do with the tequila I had imbibed to survive that lunch.
The Griffith sisters were nice. After I had been inundated with Griffith Brother management tactics, the conversation quickly shifted to Brooke’s baby. She and Ray had decided to name their little girl “Olivia.”
CJ was waiting for me in our bedroom— his bedroom—when I ran up to change into my uniform before work.
“Geez.” I clutched my hand to my chest when I opened the door and found him sitting on the edge of the mattress. “You scared the shit out of me. Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
His brows lifted in a kind sort of way. “Brooke texted me and said you might be in a mental spiral after lunch.”
“So that’s who she was texting while driving,” I grumbled as I pawed through the closet. “She almost hit an old lady trying to cross the street.”
He laughed. “I don’t know why the hell they let Brooke drive.” His hands slid up my hips as I dumped my chef’s coat off the hanger. “Talk to me, slugger. I can see the wheels turning in your mind.”
The bile returned, stinging my throat and tongue as acid ate away at everything good I had gleaned since I showed up on his doorstep. “You can have your jacket back.”
“I don’t want it,” CJ said with an unflappable calm. It was infuriating. “I gave it to you. It’s yours.”
I let out a caustic laugh. “Apparently, one has been ordered for me. Wanna fill me in on that?”
“Not until you look at me.” He pressed a kiss to the back of my head. “It’s too easy for you to put up walls when you’re not looking me in the eye while you build them. So turn around and look at me and I’ll tell you.”
I couldn’t look at him. Not with the tears that were already rolling down my cheeks.
Gentle hands turned me until I had no choice but to face him.
“Len,” he said with a smile as he cupped my cheeks and wiped my tears away. “Why are you crying, darling? This is a good thing.”
Every gut-wrenching thought and disparaging emotion I had silently worked through at lunch came crashing through all at once.
“No one’s ever wanted me before,” I admitted in a whimper.
CJ pressed his lips to the crown of my head. “That’s because you were always meant to be here, Len. It just took you a long time to find us.”
I wrapped my arms around him and held on for dear life. “You say that like it’s supposed to mean something to me, but it doesn’t. And I feel like shit over it because I know I’m supposed to have butterflies and fireworks, but I don’t. It makes me feel sick inside. Everything’s always been temporary for me. I don’t...I don’t know what staying looks like and that scares me. Uncertainty has always been my constant.”
“Can I tell you a story?” he murmured as he rocked between his feet, gently swaying with me. “My mom came to the ranch because my dad had asked her out over and over. She always rejected him because she didn’t want to date a cowboy. So, he sent her a job offer to be the ranch’s accountant. The ranch didn’t need a full-time accountant, so my granddad told my dad that her salary would have to come out of his. So, for a whole year, he lived on next to nothing, just so my mom would work at the ranch. He spent that year making her fall in love with him. Showing her around. Teaching her how to ride horses. Talking to her. Bringing her flowers he found in the fields.”
Something delicate tickled my palm. I looked down and saw that CJ had slipped a violet into my hand. Dirt and pollen still streaked the stem.
“When did your mom figure it out?” I asked as I fingered the soft petals.
He smiled. “When she asked my granddad for a raise. He told her to talk to my dad. The way he tells it, she was mad. But she had already fallen for him and the land, so she stayed. Since my dad had been giving her most of his salary, he didn’t have any money for an engagement ring. So, he gave her his ranch jacket. It was the best way he could think of to let everyone know that she was his. And ever since then, a woman getting a ranch jacket has been our way of bringing them in. Making it known that they carry the weight of the Griffith name, even before there’s a ring.”
His thumb ghosted over my bare ring finger. “My jacket’s yours, Len. I wasn’t waiting for Cass to order a new one for you. What’s mine is yours. That jacket. This land. My family. My name. I’m a prideful man, but I will lay it all down for you. Because you have me, too.”