“Hey, Tuck! Guess who I saw in town by the feed store yesterday!” Mason yells from the breakfast nook where he’s cutting up a pancake for Beckett.
Pausing in my escape, I set my biscuit on the counter and fold my bacon onto the warm bread. I hate the guessing game, so I don’t answer; I just look at him.
His smile gets wider. “Mato! Can you believe it? He says he’s discharged and moving back to town.”
Mato is the son of our late Native American foreman. They lived in the cabin Dad eventually refurbished for Kinley’s art studio; they lived here from the time Mato was, well, as far back as I can remember, until he left to enlist not long after I did.
He and I were pretty thick, he was four years younger than me, but he was always immediately available to play since he lived on the ranch. But life sent us in different directions, and we lost touch. I can’t say Mason’s news hasn’t got my attention. I haven’t seen him since I enlisted fifteen years ago.
“Has he already moved back, or just looking for a place?” Maybe we could meet at Stony’s for a beer and catch up.
“He’s renting a small over the garage apartment right now until he can get a job and get something nicer. He asked about you.” Holding his hands up, he lifts his brows. “But I didn’t tell him much, I figured you could tell him what you want him to know.”
Good. I don’t like it when people know my business. Too bad he’s come back home just as I’m thinking about leaving again.
Jax walks in with Niki on his heels, looking like she dressed herself. She’s in a pink t-shirt with glitter hearts, a tiny sparkling pink tutu, and purple plastic princess shoes that are too big and loudly clopping on the hardwood. Her blond hair looks like she put it in pigtails in the dark, one above her ear and the other behind. He strides right to Marley at the stove and kisses hercheek, his hand sliding over her ass, which makes me look away. Damn it, that’s my sister. Fucking gross.
“Hey! The pink tutu is mine! The purple one is yours.” Sofi calls from the breakfast nook, where she’s drawing with crayons on colored paper.
Niki turns to her sister and sticks her tongue out. “The pink one matches my shirt.”
Marley’s free hand covers Niki’s mouth before she says, “Sofi, you’re not wearing it right now. You have to share.” Which only gets her a scowl from Sofi.
“So, Tuck.” Jax turns to me and grabs a piece of bacon from the island. “I heard Callum was in town to see you yesterday. Are you going to take Cody’s place on the team?”
The kitchen goes quiet except for the kids, and everyone’s head swivels in my direction. I cut my eyes at Jax and press my lips together.
Jax looks around the room, and his eyebrows fly to his hairline. “What? Was it a secret? I thought everyone knew.”
Marley steps up next to him, leaning her cheek on his arm, her big blue eyes looking up at him with humor. “We did, babe, but we were waiting for Tuck to bring it up.”
“Oh.” He looks at me and winces. “Sorry, man.”
Cutting my eyes to the back door, I pick up my bacon biscuit and slap my hat on my head to go outside. As I pull the door closed behind me, I hear Jax mumble, “I didn’t know.”
In the stables, I stuff the last bite of my bacon biscuit in my mouth and grab my gloves. It doesn’t take long before I hear a pair of boots clomping behind me, and I look over my shoulder to see Gray.
He hooks his thumbs in his pockets and shifts his weight onto one leg. “Were you going to say anything before you signed up to leave?
Keeping my back to him, I toss hay slivers into the wheelbarrow. “Didn’t know I needed permission.”
“You fucking know you don’t need permission, and you also know that it’s a goddamn courtesy to let the people who love you know what’s going on.” His deep voice gets more stern with each curse word. It’s the same voice I used to hear growing up when he was helping Dad keep me in line. “Just because your life got fucked up doesn’t mean that your family doesn’t matter anymore, Tucker! Because you don’t care doesn’t mean we don’t care.”
Before I got hurt, Gray was always the family grump who helped take care of us after Mom died. Not only is he habitually grumpy, but he’s also a hermit who lives and breathes this ranch. I think he would have lived the rest of his life alone after his first wife was killed in a car accident if his current wife, Elly, hadn’t been sent here by her father to try and take our land out from under us.
Turning on him with a glare, I say, “Why the fuck would I leave without letting all of you know what’s going on? That’s fucking stupid, Gray.”
He rears his head back with a huff-slash-laugh. “For the same reason you do all the things you never used to do before. You never smile, you barely talk, you just,” He throws his hands up and looks away, “You’re just not you.” He hangs his hands on his hips before he sheepishly looks down at the ground. “We just miss you.”
Guilt creeps up my spine, making me feel like an asshole as usual. I know I’ve changed a lot in the last year, and I hate that it affects my family like it does, but if I could shake this anger and go back to rainbows and roses, I would in a fucking second.
Gray also sucks at expressing emotion if it’s not his wife and kids. With a heavy sigh, I clear my throat. “Callum offered me a pilot position on his team. It’s a damn good offer, and it gets meback to what I’ve always done. What I love. I think I’m going to take it.”
He nods as he takes in what I just said. “Would you get to stay home like Mason and Jax?”
I shake my head. “No. I have to be close to the birds. They’re in Tennessee.”
Me, Gray, and Kinley all got Mom’s hazel eyes. His meet mine. “So, we get Mason back from Tennessee only to lose you.”
