* * *
“I filled up the tank on the car before we came home.”
Jake found Peony in the massive living room after he’d stowed the car back in the garage. It had been interesting to drive that land yacht, the size and thrum of the motor very different from any car he’d ever driven. As he’d slid in behind the wheel, he’d caught a whiff of cigar, stale in the interior. His father, no doubt. With Liz angrily avoiding talking, both all the way there and all the way home, he’d been able to simply listen to the car, the wheels on the road, and wonder about the man who drove it.
Another dose of Brett’s presence. He had so many questions echoing out into this place where he felt so foreign, and it seemed like there was no one to answer them. New places were supposed to feel strange, but not with the edges of personal history he didn’t know. His entire life had been in one city, and now he was reconciling another part of it that he had absolutely no memory of. A life he’d been taken from, and been told was awful.
As he had driven home in the last of the day’s light, eyes following the tar-filled cracks on the highway, he wished he could be somewhere familiar so he could process it all better. The newness of his situation at every turn was muddling it all up.
He leaned on the door frame and Peony looked up from her book, her legs curled under her on the couch, slippers forgotten on the floor. She was the picture of comfort, and it drew him in, wanting the same relaxation after a tense evening. He lowered himself into one of the chairs, and she placed her bookmark between the pages with care. Peony could be a ballbuster, he decided; everything she did was precise and careful, with complete confidence. He wondered how much of it right now was out of wanting control over their situation.
“Thank you. Before she stomped off to her house, she told me she was fine and to not bother her,” she replied, and then smiled. “She’s headstrong and stubborn, my girl.”
“Her ex was the on-call,” Jake said.
“Well, now. That can’t have been fun.”
“Nope,” he replied. Silence enveloped them, and the clock on the mantel quietly ticked away. He could hear the birds outside, evening settling over the gardens around the house, putting the day to bed.
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.
