Chapter Sixteen
Laramie smiled at the framed shading of their initials that had taken the place of the picture of Stellan’s cold-eyed mother.
There were yellow flowers in a vase on the table, just because.
Stellan finished washing his hands in the bathroom and came out, filling the entire hallway with his enormous frame and presence.
His eyes weren’t glowing but instead were a muted and soft brown. He’d been quiet all morning.
“What’s going on?” she asked, gripping the sides of his t-shirt.
Stellan pressed his forehead to hers and said, “I don’t want them to leave.”
She’d already known he was feeling that, but Stellan would do better if he gave his feelings a voice.
“One tiny year and they will be back. And you can do video calls and actually text him back this time.”
“It’s not the same.” Stellan eased away and made his way to the living room. “They’re here.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “It’s early.”
“I can hear Mars’s truck engine. He’s turning onto my street now. Dame’s truck is right behind him.”
“Are you nervous?”
“About what?” he asked, pulling the butter out of the fridge to start seasoning the steaks he’d let settle to room temperature.
“About letting them see your home for the first time. You were so protective of your privacy when I first met you. You didn’t even want Mars to know where you worked.”
Stellan paused and frowned. “I haven’t thought about it. I guess if I had a feeling about it, I just feel ready.”
And she understood. He was ready to let them in. Ready to let his brothers see him more clearly.
She was so damn proud of him.
Laramie went and opened the door and waited outside for them as the two trucks backed into the parking spaces in the empty lot across the street.
She leaned on the doorframe of Stellan’s home as Dame and Misty got out, carrying plastic storage containers of food. Mars and Ren did the same, and together, the Ledger Ambush crossed the street, waving and smiling at Laramie.
Stellan’s fingers brushed her hip as he leaned down and kissed her cheek, and then he moved past her to give his brothers rough hugs before he shoved them away.
“Last Ambush dinner for a while,” Dame said.
Ren and Mars exchanged sad looks. Sure, Laramie and Stellan would still meet up with Dame and Misty, but it wouldn’t be the same without Mars and Ren. The Ambush would be incomplete.
“Let me get that for you,” Laramie offered Misty, reaching for the huge container of homemade macaroni and cheese.
“It’s so crazy being in Stellan’s home,” Ren murmured as she stepped inside. “I feel like we are breaking the rules right now.”
The boys followed them inside, and as beers were passed around, and canned margaritas for her and Ren and Misty, and food was prepared, the conversation stayed light and happy.
All but for Stellan. He was very quiet. Laramie wanted to be right by him.
He was going to miss Mars, and she had this feeling it was a new thing for him to cope with.
Whatever complicated dynamics they’d had growing up, and being Turned, and navigating the tension between their animals…something had changed for Stellan over the past few days.
They all drifted outside as Stellan put the steaks on his grill on the small back porch of his duplex. He’d sat six camp chairs out here, and a little bin of trash, just like they’d sat around the other day in Dame’s barn.
He cooked in silence as they all sat around chatting.
There was a tension growing though, and she couldn’t stop looking over at him.
When he snapped, it didn’t shock her. It didn’t surprise her. She’d expected it.
“This is stupid,” Stellan told Mars, his eyes flashing gold.
The light conversation faded to nothing as Stellan held Mars’s gaze.
“What is stupid?” Mars asked low. His blue eyes were lightening now.
“It was stupid when you left us after the Turn. It was stupid staying away for so long. It was stupid committing to this fuckin’ once-a-year bullshit.” A snarl rattled his throat, and he forced himself to turn back to the grill to flip the steaks. “I just think everything you do is stupid.”
Ren reached across the arms of their camp chairs and squeezed her mate’s hand. “It’s enough,” she said. “Tell him.”
Stellan offered his profile and froze. “Tell me what?”
“We weren’t just here for the reunion,” Mars said.
Stellan turned and exposed the confusion etched into his face.
“Yeah, I’m curious as hell now too,” Dame said, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward. “What’s going on?”
Mars cleared his throat. “We’ve been looking at apartments here.”
“Oh my God,” Dame yelled, and stood. He paced off the porch and back, hands linked behind his head. “Are you serious right now? This better not be a joke, Mars, or I swear to everything I will gut you.”
“He’s not messing with you,” Ren assured them.
“We’ve been talking about it for a while.
I’ve been looking at spaces to open up a record store here, and Mars wants to open up his detailing company here.
Near the Ambush. My real dad lives just an hour away.
We met up on the way here, and it’s his turn to be a part of my life.
And I want to get to know him. And we want to be close to you.
To this place. Your mom is gone, boys. Your stepdad?
Dead. The bad is gone. I know we can fill this place with so much good. We can take it back. Home is here now.”
Laramie couldn’t stop looking at Stellan’s face. Handsome man. Handsome mate. His heart was in his eyes right now.
“Look,” Ren continued softly. “We wanted to get through my Turn and see if everything you guys found out about Half-Cats was true. And so far, everything has been true. So, the next thing is…” She looked over at Mars.
“We want to try for a baby,” Mars murmured. “And if we get lucky, we want to raise him—”
“Or her,” Ren said.
“Or her,” Mars corrected. “We want to raise babies near you guys. In the Ambush. In the family.”
“Plus, we freaking missed you guys this past year. That sucked,” Ren said through a laugh. “Zero stars, do not recommend. I want girls’ nights. I want random family dinners. I want to know that if something goes down, we are with our people.”
“Hell yeah!” Dame whooped, pacing away again.
Misty was full-on crying as she watched her mate’s happiness. She pulled Ren from her chair and crushed her to her in a hug.
Slowly, Mars stood and made his way over to his frozen brother. Stellan hadn’t moved a muscle. “I’m staying near you, brother. No more running. I’m coming back home.”
Stellan tipped his head onto Mars’s shoulder, and Mars cupped the back of his head with his left hand. He looked up at the sky and wiped his eye with the sleeve of his hoodie.
Dame crashed into them and started jumping up and down roughly, jostling both Mars and Stellan until they shoved him off them.
And oh, Stellan’s smile.
Laramie pulled up her phone and took a quick picture of the Ledger brothers. She would print it for Stellan to hang in his home.
Stellan looked over at her and disengaged with his brothers to pull her out of her chair. He pulled her to her feet and hugged her so tightly. He just seemed to need a minute, and she had come to realize she was a safe place for Stellan, as he was a safe place for her.
She clutched her fists around handfuls of his t-shirt and hugged him as hard as she could, and he pulled her up until her feet were off the ground.
She couldn’t recall a moment when she’d ever been happier and that’s how she knew this was real. Stellan’s happiness was her happiness.
The family was staying together.
The Ledger Ambush was staying together.
Someday, with a little luck, it would grow, and they would be together to experience it, not separated by state lines and distance.
Whatever Ren and Mars needed with their move, Laramie and Stellan would help. Dame and Misty would too. It was just the type of people they were. They would be their team.
She was so proud of this family. They’d been through hell and had still come back together in the end.
No. Not the end.
They’d come together for the beginning.
Stellan eased back and kissed her and then searched her eyes. He said so much with just a look.
It didn’t matter that he couldn’t find his words right now. She understood him. She saw him.
She knew him.
And then Dame was griping about the steaks burning on the grill as he took them off the heat, and Mars knocked over a beer on the table, and Misty and Ren were trying to coax the guys into taking a posed picture, and it was chaos.
Beautiful chaos.
And this was it, right?
This was what it felt like to really be alive. This was what it felt like when everything finally came together, where all the difficult moments and jagged roads in a life finally made sense, because they’d all led to this.
This Ambush was exactly where it was supposed to be.