When I squint and get a better look at him, I put my loose hand on my cocked hip. “Cletus Ray, I know that’s you,” I holler up at him. “Now get off your lazy, copper-lickin’ ass and let us in!”
Cletus blanches and looks at me through the scope of his rifle, which is just about the stupidest thing he can do, because that means he’s actively pointing his gun at me. In response to that threat,Madix drops my hand, whips uphisgun and sets his sights on Cletus Ray. “You point that gun away from her, or I’ll shoot out your kneecaps,” Madix informs him in that scary, dead tone of his.
I huff out a breath. “Cletus Ray, you drop that gun right now, or I’ll tell everyone about the time you tried to feel me up behind old Duke’s dog house when you had the measles and a girlfriend. You married her, right? How is Lily doing?” I ask with a smirk.
Cletus very wisely points the muzzle of his weapon down, and I look over at Madix. “He’s harmless,” I say. “Cletus can’t shoot a house five feet in front of him. He’s definitely not going to be able to hit me, even if he did pull the trigger, which he won’t.”
Madix grumbles something aggressive and threatening under his breath which is just as sexy as his bossy soldier tone, but he lowers his gun. I turn back to the idiot that I went to school with. “I’m not waiting around all day, Cletus Ray,” I tell him. “Open the damn gate so we can get in.”
“Are—are you sick?” he calls back down nervously.
I cross my arms. “Do we look sick?”
He mutters something that I can’t hear, and then itches his beer belly. “I’m not allowed to open the gate, Remi Francine. It’s protocol.”
I grit my teeth. “Fine. Then follow the damn protocol and get my daddy here to let us in.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, before quickly disappearing behind the metal monstrosity masquerading as a gate.
The guys all look at me in a mixture of surprise. “What?”
Brant chuckles and pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose while taking out a bowl and filling it with water for Puddles to lap up while we wait. “Your accent is way more prominent now.”
I inwardly groan, because he’s right. It’s like as soon as my feet touched down onto Endstone soil, the country girl in me comes out wearing plaid and chewing on a straw of wheat.
“I’m more interested to learn that your middle name is Francine,” Theo says with way more excitement than I like.
“Don’t even start on my name. Do you know how much I hated Remington Francine April growing up, when the rest of the world had classy, simple monikers like Charlotte or Elizabeth? How many girls do you know that are named after their father’s favorite gun?”
Madix looks over at me, his dark eyes assessing like always. “You shouldn’t hate your name. It suits you.”
His words bring a surprised, but happy smile out of me. “You got a big ol’ crush on me, Mady?”
He scoffs and walks past me to the metal wall so that he can lean up against it, but I don’t miss the way the corner of his mouth tilts up.
“Sheriff April hopefully won’t keep us waiting too long,” Brant says, taking up position alongside Madix.
I shake my head at the use of “sheriff.” My dad hasn’t served in that roll for probably seven years now, but apparently, the title is like president. Once you’re the president of the country, everyone just calls you that, regardless of how long you’ve been out of office. I take up the spot next to Madix and sit down, letting my back rest against the cool metal. The four of us wait for a good twenty minutes until we hear the squeal of brakes on the other side of the metal partition, and my stomach tightens.
Mumbled voices and the pounding of feet on metal rungs reach out to me, and my adrenaline spikes suddenly. I get to my feet, and we all back up from the wall so we have a better vantage point to see the people at the top. My heart beats wildly in my chest when a salt and pepper head comes into view, and then my dad is stepping out onto the parapet at the top of the gate.
My dad has more white in his hair and more worry lines in his face than the last time I saw him, but other than that, time has been kind to him. His denim-blue eyes immediately land on me, and when I catch the telltale quivering of his lip, I feel so much of my past anger and frustration suddenly feel like it just doesn’t matter so much anymore. My throat gets tight, and I blink back my emotions as my dad and I take each other in for the first time in years.
“How’s it going, Trouble?” he calls down to me, his voice heavy with emotion and yet somehow still casual, the way only my dad can pull off. I chuckle at the nickname he’s always called me. The guys around me snicker and Madix mumbles, “Accurate.”
“I’m good, Old Man,” I answer back with a smile. “Who’s winning thebest shotbattle this week, you or Zeke?”
“Do you even need to ask?” My dad tells me, and then promptly gives methe look.
“Of course she doesn’t, she knows it’s me!” I hear Zeke announce, right before he climbs into view next to my dad and slaps him on the back. He looks down at me, and I notice that he finally shaved his head like he always said he’d do if he lost any more hair. “You look good, sweetie,” Zeke says, and I don’t miss the hitch in his voice. “How’s business treating you?”
“It’s good,” I call up. “I was just getting ready to head back to Alaska to lead my next wilderness tour before these fools showed up on my porch.”
Man, I’ve missed Zeke and my dad. The truth of that slams into me, and I struggle with the fact that we’ve let this town drive a wedge between us that should have never been there. It was always Endstone that felt so suffocating and backwards. I had to leave. This place drove me nuts. But when I told my dad that, he flew off the handle; he said that this town was his family. I could never get past that.Iwas his family, and his loyalty should have been to me first.
We argued, both of us saying things we probably shouldn’t have, but I felt like he chose the town over me. He felt like I was abandoning him, and turning my nose up at my roots. In the end, we were both too stubborn to apologize. I left and refused to looked back, even sent letters to Zeke because I knew it would hurt my dad. I give a hollow chuckle and shake my head at myself. The ridiculous thing is, I left intent on becoming different and worldly, but I just ended up doing exactly what Endstone taught me to do.
Standing here, staring up at their faces, I realize how much I’ve missed having them in my life. It always felt like an impossible problem. This place was who they were, while I wanted nothing more than to separate from all of it. So I left, but now that I’m back, I wish I had found a different solution. One that didn’t cut the people who love me—the people I love—out of my life. As if he can sense the struggle inside of me, Madix steps up and re-takes my hand.
