Home.What a joke.
Chapter Eight
The Bennet Ranch
Nate had notmanaged to fully get rid of the fury that pumped through him.He could excuse Cal with a million things, but it didn’t take away how much he wanted to punch some sense into his brother right now.
But he sat in the passenger seat of Sam’s cramped car, staring at headlights cutting through the dark, while he breathed.
He couldfeelSam’s gaze occasionally land on him, but he didn’t look her way.Maybe they’d have to talk about that, but not yet.
First, they had to get through this dinner.Three disparate parts and the unit that was Landon and Aly.
In a way, Nate was glad Cal had chosen him as the target.He understood.The need to lash out.The way violence could blot out grief and trauma.Or at least felt like it could momentarily.
Nate didn’t think Landon had that in him.Like it had skipped right over the middle brother.
Or maybe, because he’d been the favored golden child, he just wasn’t as warped.Maybe because he had Aly and a future, things didn’t fit inside of him in violent, jagged pieces.
Which wasn’t a fair thought, and it was one Dad would have planted in Nate’s head, watered and fed until all the bitterness in Nate’s life was Landon’s fault.
Nate wouldn’t let that work on him now.
Sam pulled to a stop in front of the ranch house.Aly and Landon had beat them up here thanks to Nate and Cal’s almost fight.Lights shone from inside, but the ranch was otherwise cloaked in a heavy darkness.
For a minute, they all just sat there.Like they all knew they didn’t belong in that warmth.
Sam was the first to break the spell.“Let’s go eat some fucking lasagna,” she muttered, pushing out of the car, cold air sweeping in.
So Nate forced himself out as well.He didn’t look back to see if Cal followed, but he heard the echo of another door slam.Then felt Cal’s presence move up next to him as they crossed the yard toward the door.“You don’t… have to tell them,” Cal said in a low, quiet voice that likely wouldn’t carry to Sam.
“Wasn’t planning on it.”And he hadn’t been.
What had happened in that parking lot was… not really a problem.It was a symptom.And Nate could be pissed off that Cal wanted to take it out on people who didn’t deserve it, but that didn’t change the fact Cal was hurting.
He was a fucking mess.And beating the hell out of each other wasn’t going to fix that.So no, Nate didn’t plan on sharing that with Landon or Aly, and hopefully none of the witnesses in the parking lot would gossip in the same circles Aly and Landon existed in.
But there were things he did have to tell Landon and Aly.And Cal.And something about Cal’s meltdown crystalized that fact and how he couldn’t afford to procrastinate.
Everything was shit anyway.Why not introduce Bo Lake?Better than telling them he and Cal had almost gotten into the stupidest fistfight of all time.
But somethinghadto be said, to put a finality to that moment.So it didn’t crop up again.Nate stopped moving, held Cal back with him as Sam moved forward not noticing.
“No one’s expecting you to behappy, Cal.Or even your usual irreverent self.We’re worried.”
“And why am I the recipient of all thisworryand none of you all are?”
The demand didn’t crackle with violence like it had back at the courthouse.Nate looked at his brother, just a shadow in all this dark.Since he’d been back, he’d used his directness honed in the army to make his brothers uncomfortable.Beingdirectwasn’t the Bennet way, and so Nate relished in it a bit sometimes.
So he chose that route.Because the Bennet way was over.“We didn’t see it.”
“He beat the hell out of you,” Cal grumbled, like Dad beating him after Mom’s funeral was comparable to Calseeingwhy there’d been a funeral.
“Yeah.Fucked me up good—physically.But I didn’t forget it.It drove me.For good or for ill.Yours fucked up your head.It’s different, and that’s why we worry.”
Cal didn’t say anything.
“Maybe Landon doesn’t understand, butIdo.I’ve seen people die, Cal.Some at my own hand.And I’ve spent some time wondering if I didn’t do that because something of Dad lurks there inside of me.”
