Chapter 2 #2
Well, if nothing else, the assholes were right about one thing: the ten hour drive to Scottsboro, Alabama did Ghost a lot of good.
Even as exhausted as he and Ranger were as they tried to sneak quietly into his mother’s house, Ghost felt more relaxed than he had in a long, long time.
The weight of responsibility was a heavy one.
But as the SEALs were known to say, ‘the only easy day was yesterday’, and Ghost believed that even to this day.
Loretta and Andrew Fremont got married when Ranger was almost a preteen and his sister was preschool age, though they’d been together since before Becks had been born.
Ranger and Becks’ birth father had been an abusive bastard.
Even as young as he was when the man had gone to prison, Ranger had confided in Ghost that he could remember trying to take beatings to protect his pregnant mother.
Andrew was actually the police officer who had arrested Ranger’s father, and then kept an eye on Loretta and young Liam through the last few months of her pregnancy.
What had started out as a friendship turned into something more, and eventually Andrew proposed and adopted Loretta’s two children when their birth father gave up his parental rights in prison.
Both Ranger and Becks considered Andrew to be their father, not the man who had contributed half their DNA.
Once Ghost had asked where his birth father was now, but all Ranger had said was, “Where he deserves.” Ghost had never brought the subject up again.
Unfortunately, around the time that Ranger had left the Army, Andrew had been shot while on the job, and a few days later succumbed to his wounds. It was Andrew’s mother that Ghost had helped move into a senior home three years ago and who had recently passed.
Ghost liked Loretta, but being around her was bittersweet.
The woman had suffered and endured, coming out stronger on the other side.
No doubt, the abuse at the hands of her first husband had started before Ranger had been born.
Generally, people didn’t turn into abusers randomly one day.
She could have left, even abandoned her son and gotten herself out.
But she hadn’t. She stayed. She did everything she could to protect her young son until she became too vulnerable herself to continue doing it.
Ghost had stopped questioning a long time ago why he’d ended up in foster care or where his birth parents were. He’d moved on, become a man and a Navy SEAL. He was now the President of the Via Daemonia Motorcycle Club. He didn’t need parents.
But as Ranger and he slipped into Ranger’s childhood home, and he smelled the sweetness of fresh cookies and the crispness of dryer sheets, he felt a pang in his chest, a longing.
He’d never come home to this, of feeling a woman’s touch so completely that the house itself was saturated with her scent.
He’d only been here a few times with Ranger, and mostly for day trips.
The one time they’d been in the area longer than that they’d stayed at a hotel because Grumpy had been with them too.
Loretta was such a sweetheart, all four feet and nine inches of her.
And maybe it wasn’t the most manly of thoughts, but Ghost was really looking forward to seeing her in the morning and getting some of her maternal attention.
Not to mention some of her pies. Christ, that woman knew how to bake.
As if Ranger had the same idea, the two of them looked at each other in the dark before detouring quietly to the kitchen. Their goal was the fridge, but there on the counter was a large pie, two forks, and a stack of napkins.
Glad you made it safely, boys. Breakfast is at 7am. Get some sleep.
Love, Mom
Mom. It was such a simple word, only three letters. But it held such a weight, especially to someone who had never called anyone ‘Mom’ before.
As Ghost gathered up the pie—sweet potato from the smell of it—and supplies, Ranger cracked open the fridge.
He pulled out two beers by their longnecks.
Ghost approved of the IPA when he caught the label in the light of the closing fridge.
That would make for a nice nightcap, especially with the pie.
The two-story house itself was average in size, with a wraparound porch.
Ghost had never been on the second floor before, so Ranger led the way up the stairs.
Each of them had a saddlebag draped over their shoulder.
When Lucky and Ranger had forced this trip on him a few days ago, Ghost had asked where he would be sleeping, recalling the size of the Fremont house.
That was when Ranger informed him that he had two twin beds in his childhood bedroom.
As much as his sister Becks traveled for work and pleasure, it didn’t make sense for her to have her own house or apartment.
She lived in her mom’s house—or would until after the wedding.
As an adult, she’d wanted a bigger bed, and since there was nothing wrong with her old bed, they’d put it in Ranger’s old room in case there were any additional visitors.
The wedding itself wasn’t until Saturday, but Ranger wanted to arrive a couple days early to be able to help his mom and sister out with anything they might need.
He also spoke with his soon-to-be brother-in-law and got Ghost an invite to the bachelor party Friday night.
Ghost wasn’t really looking forward to that.
Like Becks, her fiancé was in his twenties, and Ghost had a feeling the event was going to be a night spent with drunken frat boys and strippers.
Then again, Ghost’s goal for this trip was to get himself laid so maybe going out for the night wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Ranger’s bedroom didn’t have a lot of extra room with the second bed, but it wasn’t like they needed a desk or massive closet space. Both had had much less room in the military.
As Ranger headed to the bathroom in the hall, Ghost toed off his boots and stripped down to his skivvies. It was the least he could do since they were sharing a room. Not knowing which bed to choose, he took the one by the open window. The April evening was cool, and the light breeze welcoming.
It took them less than twenty minutes to devour the pie as they sipped their beers.
Neither of them spoke much. They’d left later than anticipated, so it was well after midnight.
Ghost didn’t know if Becks was in the house too or if it was just their mom, but either way, it was polite to keep their noises down.
As he got ready to climb into bed, he noticed something by the pillow. It must have fallen down when he’d sat on the mattress to take off his boots. Reaching for it, he picked up the foiled candy. “Your mom puts chocolates on the bed? I knew I loved that woman.”
Ranger snorted, and grumbled in an equally low voice, “She never does when it’s just me.”
Ghost popped the candy that Scotty called a ‘chocolate volcano’ into his mouth and hummed. “The ol’ ladies have been asking when I’m going to settle down and get married. If your mom keeps this up, I might propose this weekend.”
Rather than eating his chocolate, Ranger chucked it at Ghost’s head. Ghost easily caught it, smiling as he opened the foil wrapping on that one too.
“Behave,” he warned in a tone he’d heard the others use on their kids, “or I’ll ground you.”
“You stay away from my mother,” Ranger snipped, climbing into the other bed. Like Ghost, he’d stripped down to his underwear.
Ghost settled down onto the mattress, feeling oddly mellow. “Your mom’s a beautiful woman, son. Who knows, I play my cards right this weekend and you could be calling me ‘Daddy’ soon.”
Ranger reached over and flicked off the lamp on the nightstand between the beds. The room fell into darkness except for the small glow the moon lent them.
It didn’t take long for Ghost to start dozing off.
Lucky had been on his ass the past couple of days as Ghost tried to check certain things off his to-do list before he left for the long weekend.
His stubbornness aside, he knew he needed to start delegating better.
They weren’t wrong about that, but he took his responsibilities seriously.
The club had placed their faith in him, and he didn’t want to risk letting them down.
“You know I used to masturbate in that bed, right?” Ranger’s voice didn’t snap Ghost awake, but his words certainly did. “Like a lot. Even got my first erection in that bed.”
Ghost stiffened, no longer on the verge of slumber. He debated ignoring his best friend’s crude words, but it didn’t take longer than a few seconds to realize he was not going to be able to get to sleep in this bed if he kept picturing a teenage Ranger jerking off under the covers.
“You’re such a fucking asshole,” Ghost growled. Throwing off the comforter, he grabbed the pillow and what looked to be a homemade quilt off the bottom of the bed. Storming out of the room, he just barely remembered not to slam the door closed.
After making his way down the stairs, Ghost settled himself onto the couch. He was just starting to relax into the soft cushion when his phone vibrated. Cracking an eye open, he read the message.
Ranger: Lost my virginity on that couch.
Motherfucker! Ghost groaned, and rolled onto the floor. Apparently the guy took joking about becoming his stepfather very seriously.
Duly noted.
It wasn’t until the next morning that Ghost remembered that Ranger had told him he’d lost his virginity in the janitor’s closet of his high school.
“Think he’s dead?”
Ghost shifted at the question, the hard, unforgiving ground below him rudely reminding him that he wasn’t nineteen anymore.
“Oh, he moved! He’s alive!”
Ghost frowned. In the haze of slumber, that second voice sounded extremely familiar to him. Like the first voice, it was young and feminine, but there was a low huskiness to it that had his morning wood twitching.