Chapter Twelve #2
Jake rose to go, uncomfortable in the rural quiet of dusk. There were no car horns, no shouts, no constant hum. It had been a very long day, full of tension and frustration, and the relative silence was poking at him to move, to be busy.
“Wait a moment, Jake,” Peony said, and straightened from the couch, dropping the book to the seat.
Jake tensed, and she folded her fingers and gave him a stare that promptly put his butt back in the chair. Now he knew where Liz got that steely gaze from, because it was identical to the one she’d been glaring at Darren.
“I want you to know you’re welcome here. Brady mentioned to me this evening that Tanner hasn’t been very receptive. I’d like to say it isn’t like him, but he pushes people away when he’s upset. He’s incredibly protective of his family, always has been.”
“I can see that,” Jake said. “I don’t blame him.”
“When his mother died, Tanner took over this place for a time while Brett disappeared into himself. It wasn’t easy for him then, and he feels a very large sense of responsibility for this ranch.
I’ve known that boy long enough to know when he’s hurting, and my guess is he’s reconciling the sacrifices he made then to the outcome now. ”
“Sacrifices?” Jake asked.
Peony waved her hands. “Never mind that, it was a long time ago. You’ve got temper enough to stand up to him, so I know eventually he’ll come around and stop seeing you as a threat. You should know that he’s a good man, one of the best I’ve known. If push came to shove, he’d be there for you.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Jake said, but Peony held up her hand.
She sighed. “That said, Tanner needs a kick in the ass and to stow his attitude so that the two of you can keep things running.”
Jake doubted that a simple ass-kicking would help. He and Tanner were too much alike. Wounds like this didn’t heal easily. His brother needed time.
“Also, never mind my Liz’s tantrums. She’s feeling a bit mixed up, is likely a sounding board for Tanner in all this, and I’m sure she’s worried about what’s going to happen to us. When we came here, we had nothing except the clothes on our backs, and this place gave her the world.”
“This is your home and it’s been theoretically taken from you,” he said. “There will be worry from everyone.”
“Indeed,” Peony replied. “But it doesn’t mean anyone gets to treat you poorly while you’re our guest.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jake murmured. “We’ve all got to get used to this situation. I’m trying to process the fact that a father I didn’t know gave me this place with zero warning or—”
Peony made an irritated noise, interrupting him. She closed her eyes for a moment, drawing a big breath.
“I’ve known a bit more of the story, so this wild stunt Brett pulled may have been a shock, but after the fact, I should’ve seen it coming.
Brett told me about you and your mother near a year ago, confessed the entire thing one night as we were getting ready for bed.
I hadn’t thought about Heather in a long time.
I remembered she had a ‘rich beau’ that she’d brag about in town, but I had no idea who it was, nor was it important at the time.
I didn’t remember hearing if she’d had a baby, or that she’d left. It was so long ago.”
“Thirty years, give or take a couple,” Jake added.
“Surprised the heck out of me, to be honest, but life with Brett could be like that at times. I tried to take it in stride, the past is in the past, after all. But I think it was hard on him, he’d kept what happened with her bottled up like that for a very long time.
He said he’d never told Veronica that Heather had a son until long after he started seeing her, and Ronnie never mentioned anything about how Heather left with you.
No clue if she was part of it, or if she just kept quiet out of respect for Brett. ”
“I see,” Jake murmured. What did you say to that? Surely someone knew about him and his mother’s hasty exit. They certainly did now, and children in small towns weren’t hidden easily.
“Did he know where she went? I’m sure she talked about New York all the time, she said she’d grown up there,” Jake asked, curious.
His mother had been a true New Yorker. He’d discovered at an early age his love for the city through her, and what the city could give him if he worked hard.
It was a long time ago that he’d stopped caring about why she’d left the quieter country life.
It was obvious she was most at home in the back of kitchens, with rough language, rough people, and all that the restaurant kitchen culture heralded.
At least he’d experienced that side of her, had grown up that way.
“He didn’t know. Heather just up and vanished after she left him. He said the first place he checked was her parents’ place just outside Calgary, but she never turned up there. She wasn’t from New York City, Jake.”
“She wasn’t?” he asked. “I always wondered how she came to be all the way over here, but she never talked much about that, just that New York was her real home.”
“She was from here. I think her parents moved from the US when she was young. They both worked in the oil industry and transferred back—I think her father was from here originally, hence family close by.”
Jake’s skin prickled, and he forced himself to take a breath in. His mother had gone on and on about growing up in New York. Was everything a lie? He sat back, a bit stunned at that. She had parents. He had grandparents. Here.
“Oh.”
“Her parents are gone now, rest their souls. They helped Brett search for a while, but not long after she left he married Veronica, and it was unseemly for him to keep looking publicly when she had Tanner. But he did, continuing in private. Right up until not so long ago, when he found you.”
Jake drew a breath in, then out. Holy shit.
His father had wanted him. His mother had told him time and time again that his father didn’t want them, that her parents had left her high and dry and it was up to them to make it on their own.
But his father had looked. His grandparents had looked.
“He asked me not to tell the boys, and now, I wish I had. I think he was going to tell them about you, prepare them for what was coming, but—” She stopped and looked away from him again.
“But what?” Jake prodded.
“He sat on it too long and ran out of time. I think he told me because he needed to tell someone and was scared to tell anyone else. It was the culmination of a lot of years of searching, and I think that was when he got the fool notion to will the entire ranch to you. The regret of not knowing you pushed him to act rashly. Or the tumor was messing with his head.”
Anxiously, Jake shifted to his feet, wanting to be anywhere but with another person as he absorbed what Peony had just told him.
The urge to get into the kitchen, to do something to stop the tsunami of thoughts in his head and keep his hands busy roared into him, and he didn’t want to have it turn to anger and upset her.
“I can see this is a lot to take in,” Peony murmured, and put a hand on his forearm, the muscles corded as he attempted calm himself. Her hand was cool on his skin and sent prickles up his arm. “When Brett was at his limit, he looked just like you do. I’m so sorry, Jake. I truly am.”
Jake covered her hand with his and took a deep, cleansing breath in through his nose, looking down and away. “I think I’m going to go make something to eat. Are you hungry?”
“No, dear, I’m fine,” she replied, smiling at him knowingly. “Go cook. It will help.”
He headed for the door and turned just as he reached it. Peony was staring at the fireplace mantel, lost in thought.
“Peony, thank you for telling me,” he croaked, and strode away before he could let the emotion win.