Chapter Seventeen
We had survived the fire.I had to keep reminding myself of that fact to keep my head straight in the days afterward, to keep myself from going down to the jail and killing Parker Radcliff with my bare hands. Ladd had been a wreck that first day, and I had been there for him as much as I could. He held me tight, never letting me out of his sight. And I held onto him as much for his comfort as my own piece of mind. After all of the action and craziness had settled down, the reality of how close we’d come to succumbing to the smoke and never waking up had hit me. So, I had clung to Ladd as tightly as I had on the day I kept him from falling. Yet again, I had the feeling that if I let him go, he’d be gone for good. It was an overwhelming feeling and a vivid realization of how strong my feelings had become.
The next day, James had taken it upon himself to research just what the hell Parker had been up to before he finally went over the edge into insanity. He called the building inspector, Jeff, and confronted him with the information we had gotten from Troy. Jeff had heard about the fire and Parker’s arrest, so he’d come clean with little persuasion. He was deeply sorry he had been any part of Parker’s plans. He swore he hadn’t known anything about a fire, just that Parker wanted to mess with Ladd and Connor a little bit and get a little of his own back after his humiliation at the restaurant. Jeff said he would have never done it if Parker hadn’t threatened him. Parker had found out Jeff was having an affair and warned him if he didn’t go along, he’d tell Jeff’s wife. James had called Dalton to give him the information he had and gave him Jeff’s contact information so he could get the evidence on record. With this information and evidence from the scene, let alone the statements Parker had made even after he’d been read his rights, it looked like Parker was going to be going away for quite a while. As far as I was concerned, it couldn’t be soon enough.
The weather in the days after the fire had been clear, cool and beautiful, so the whole family had gathered to go through the carriage house and pull out everything that could be salvaged and move out everything in the library so renovations could begin as soon as possible. The books and furniture that survived were stored in one of the apartments at the Mason building.
We had the local fire and smoke remediation guys come by to look at the damage, and the findings had been better than we thought. Since the accelerant Parker had used was slow burning, the fire damage and especially the smoke had been kept toward the back of the house. The smoke damage toward the front of the house had been minimal. The carriage house repairs would take a month or two depending on the weather. We were lucky, or as lucky as we could be in this type of situation.
It took a few days to get everything sorted and moved. After we had all gotten the hard work done, the family got back together at the main house to have an impromptu family dinner. James made a low-country boil with shrimp, corn on the cob, red skinned potatoes, and spicy sausage. Remy, Rhett, and I set out the picnic tables in the yard and spread newspaper over the table tops. When everything was cooked, Remy and I picked up the massive pot and dumped it out on the table top, and we all dug in. And damn could James cook! Everything was spicy, more warm than hot, and tasted so fresh. I had never had food so good. The shrimp had come straight from the bay, and the potatoes and corn had come from a local farm. Even the sausage had been made by a local company. I suddenly realized most of the food I had eaten since moving here had been locally sourced and fresh. I had found that living in the temperate climate on the coast, the growing season was year round, and the results were spectacular.
“Aunt Helen, I was wondering something.”
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
“What was it you were saying to Dalton’s partner when they were taking Parker to jail?”
Helen looked at me and smirked. “Well, I was hoping no one would ask, but since you did. I was asking him if I could have a private word with Parker before he took him away. He said no, and I kept trying, well until that toolbox Parker slammed his nose into something hard again. I was secretly happy that it had happened, but truth be told I had wished I was the one who broke it. But I got my revenge didn’t I?” Her chuckle was much more evil than an elegant gray-haired lady should have been able to carry off. She made it work though.
“Oh, yes, sister, that was a fine game of kick-balls you had going on there.” Lillian snickered her horse laugh, and all the rest of us joined in at the memory.
“Well, Lill, you didn’t do so bad either. I think you got him in the ribs.”
I looked around and was glad to see Ladd laughing along with everyone else. He seemed to be coming back to himself more each day. I knew it would be a while yet, but I was happy to be here for him while he got his feet under him again.
After dinner, I had helped clean everything up and move the table back to the porch. As I looked around, I noticed Ladd had disappeared. When I didn’t find him in the house or the yard, I began to panic, until I caught movement on the boat launch. Looking closely, I saw Ladd sitting on one of the lounge chairs placed on the upper sun deck of the pier. I overheard a conversation between the twins and James when I walked up to them.
“So what has you smiling all day today, Uncle James? You keep checking your phone, and every time you do, you smile like a cat who ate the canary.” Rhett was poking James in the ribs while James was once again checking his phone. While he was distracted by Rhett’s annoyance, Remy reached in and stole James’s phone to see what James had been looking at so intently.
“Oh, Fuck, who is this, Uncle James? Jesus, he’s beautiful.”
“Remy, I swear to God you better give me my phone back.”
Remy read one of the messages from the screen out loud as he ran around the yard, staying a few steps in front of James.
Ethan:Hey, Jay, I got a new eyeliner and lip gloss today, what do you think?
Then Remy held the phone up above his head so we could all see the picture. The man on the screen was stunning. He had high cheekbones, a sharp nose, thick dark, maybe black, hair pulled back into a top knot and smooth olive skin. But his eyes were utterly stunning. The color was the lightest green I’d ever seen, almost colorless, but surrounded by the dark outline of the eyeliner, they almost glowed. And his lips were just as pretty. They were glossed with a pale pink and made the fuller lower lip look like it was caught in a permanent pout. He was one of the prettiest men I’d ever seen.
“Shit, Remy, give me my phone back! If I don’t answer in a minute, Ethan’ll get worried. He knows I always answer as soon as I see a text. He’s a little insecure, and if I don’t answer back, he’ll start to second-guess himself. I don’t want him to feel bad.” Remy gave James the phone back, and as James typed his response, Remy and Rhett communicated in their silent twin-speak eyebrows raised and questions hanging in the air. I looked over to the water and decided I would leave them to their mystery. I wanted Ladd.
I said my goodbyes to everyone and followed the shoreline to the dock and climbed the stairs to the sun deck. Ladd was curled up on one of the lounge chairs—legs bent, chin resting on his raised knees, and hands lightly clasped around his shins staring out at the sunset over the calm water. The clouds looked like they had been painted in the most vibrant colors in the spectrum, wild pinks, burning oranges, fiery reds. I made my way over to Ladd, wedging myself behind him and he willingly nestled himself between my spread legs lying on my chest, snuggling back into my warm embrace.
“Mmmm, thank you, Conn, I was getting chilly out here. You’re like a real live electric blanket.” He wiggled deeper into my hold, rubbing his delicious backside against my growing cock.
I gave him a playful squeeze. “Quit that and be good, babe, I didn’t come out here to molest you while your family can still see us from the back porch.”
Ladd turned around and saw his uncle and brothers on the back porch talking and laughing. They did have the perfect view of us on the dock. “Oh, all right, but you’ve been warned. I miss you. I have missed you these last few days.” He gave a heavy sigh, “I know I’ve been a mess. I want to thank you for standing by me.” He placed his hands over mine clasped together over his belly, giving my hands a tight grip. “I don’t know what I would have done without you being there as my rock. You don’t know how I thank the powers that be every day that I have you.”
He was quiet after that. I had a feeling that he had more to say, so I remained silent, holding him and keeping the cold and wind at bay. We watched the sun set below the far horizon, and the vibrant colors slowly went from warm to cool with violets and purples, eventually turning into the clear blue and navy of the night sky. The cold air had the sky glowing with stars, and with no artificial lights near or on the water, the stars shone brightly above us.
“There’s Orion,” Ladd pointed up to the sky, and I could make out the constellation. “That was the first constellation I learned to find. Uncle James would bring me out here at night when I first moved here, and we would talk, or not, depending on my mood. But he would always show me the stars and pictures in the sky. I had told him not long after I moved here, that I had always liked the night sky, especially falling stars. I saw my first one when I was about ten. It was a time when Mom was okay for a day or two, and she saw it, too. She had told me to make a wish when I saw one, and it would come true. I had made a wish on that one that we could have a real family. I never gave up hope, and I knew when I came here, that it had finally come true.”
I held Ladd even tighter. He had been through so much in his life. He deserved every good thing in this world for not only surviving but thriving even with anxiety nipping at his heels every day.
“I admire you so much, Ladd. You survived such a hard young life and raised your brothers on top of it. You could have faltered or blamed the world and never thrived, but you took your future into your hands and became a wonderful, successful man.”
“I’m not that great, Conn. I’m a mess of anxiety and weird behavior traits that even annoy me most days. I have survived, and I’m proud of Remy and Rhett’s accomplishments, but I’m just me, quirks, awkwardness and all.” He ducked his head. I wouldn’t let him get away with thinking so little of himself though. I pulled one of my hands away and grasped his chin to turn his head around to meet my gaze.
