"Mhm," he agreed. "Vi, Simmons got pictures of Luke and Cy on property. He got Cy's ex to flip. Meredith is on his side. What else do they know about us?"
"He knows about my mom," I admitted. "He's tossed that in my face a few times. Ash, that man is doing everything in his power to destroy Southwind. He thinks he's going to chase me off."
"No, he thinks he's going to chaseusoff," Ash corrected. "We're not going anywhere, and I don't just mean me. I'm talking about Cy, Luke, Darnell, Cessily, and every other color Gran named. You may be the puppet master, but you are not alone. You will never be alone."
"I know," I promised. "You'd never let me get lost." Then I pulled in a breath and made sure my hair was still put up like I wanted. "Oh, and did you know Indigo is pregnant?"
"What?" he gasped, sounding shocked. "No!"
"Mhm," I agreed. "Seems we letherget lost. Right about the time Gran died."
"That is not your fault," he warned me.
"I know," I assured him. "It's just that, all of this? It's made me realize something. Gran and Bea did this on their own. I have all three of you to help, plus Faith - and you know she's going to be a big part of the rainbow."
"She's adamant about it," he agreed.
"So, I'm going to scale back," I told him. "No, I haven't figured it all out, but Indi said something, and I think she's right. This isn't my rainbow. It's ours, and that's a big difference. I'll make sure the colors don't get lost and organize the school. You can worry about the money. Luke can worry about the property. Cy..." I trailed off because I wasn't sure which job would fall to him.
"He can worry about the colors too," Ash said. "He's a mental health professional. He's the best one to check in on them. You are the puppet master. He'll be the soft spot to land. The four of us are in this together," he promised. "Where you go, we go."
The buzzing of my phone kept me from responding. The thing was still in my hand, so I lifted it up and swiped to find a text message from Chartreuse telling me to get pictures. Cursing under my breath, I headed back to the door.
"What?" Ash asked.
"Pictures," I said. "Cess wants them before the cops get here."
"Shit," he breathed. "I'll go down and get some of the gate. The cops are on their way, Vi, but it doesn't sound like they really care."
He headed down towards the gate, so I began taking pictures of the door, getting it from a few angles just to make sure that the paint could be seen completely. I was snapping the last one when a disturbing thought slipped into my head. All of this was too easy. Tearing down the front gate just to leave a little paint? That didn't make sense. It was too much work for such little end result.
So I opened the door and stuck my head in. "Cy?" I called.
"Yeah?" he replied, the sound of his feet making it clear he was headed my way from the kitchen.
"We need to do a check of everything, to see what else they got to," I said just as he rounded the corner. "Inventory of the tools, check the horses and tractor, that sort of thing."
"I got it," Luke called back, jogging our way.
I tried to wave him down. "You need to worry about Faith right now," I told him.
His sensual lips just curled into a smile. "I will have you know she said when there's a problem, everything stops. She promised me her questions can wait."
"That child is thirteen going on thirty," Cy muttered. "I'll help, Luke."
"What is she doing?" I asked.
"Talking to Zeke," Luke said. "Last I heard, it sounded like she was telling him all about what happened in court - and yes, she asked if she could tell him about me. I told her that since the custody case is over, she can tell anyone she wants, because I'm tired of hiding who I am, and I am not ashamed of who I love."
I caught his hand. "That's not going to make this easy," I warned.
He caught my waist, stepping closer and moving us out of the doorway. "I am a bisexual man. I'm in love with two men and a woman. I'm in a relationship with the three sexiest people in Cats Peak, Texas. Violet, I really don't care if it's easy. I never once asked for easy, and I'm more than willing to work for what I want."
"Yeah," Cy drawled from behind him, "but what do you want this time, cowboy?"
Luke's beautiful green eyes never left mine. "I want to make sure that if Faith ever has a crush on a girl, she doesn't hesitate to admit it. I want to make sure that Zeke doesn't kill himself before he's eighteen. You know that's what the internet says? Gay and trans kids are less likely to die by suicide if they know they're accepted? Well, I'm going to make it damned clear that they're accepted, and if this town wants to take it out on someone, then they can take it out on us. We're grown-ass adults, and we have the tools to fight back."
Cy just stepped in, pinning Luke between us. "Knew there was a reason I fell in love with you. We may not have started this fight, but that?" He gestured back to the door. "They said the wrong thing."
