Her mom sucked in a quivering breath before accepting the embrace. Then they were all there, Elle and Paul as well, wrapped tight like a cocoon. Crying and struggling to find the way to go forward.
Go forward into the unnumbered days ahead of them.
Paul was the first to pull away. “I need to…I need time.”
“You want to do something violent, there’s a load of firewood in the backyard that needs chopping,” Maisey suggested.
“Firewood? Right now?” Elle sniffed and wiped her hand over her eyes.
“Why not? It needs to be split.”
Paul left without another word. Allison watched out the window, and he did head to the back rather than to his car. An hour or so of swinging an axe wasn’t a bad idea, really.
“You kids want to come back for a while after you’ve dealt with the supper crowd at the restaurant?” Maisey asked. “You can get someone else to close.”
Elle nodded. “I’ll make the calls. I love you, Mom.” She coughed through the final word. She straightened her shoulders as she turned to face Allison. “You stink, by the way. What happened to your clothes?”
Shoot. This was not a conversation she wanted to have in front of her mom. “I…fell in the creek.”
Her sister raised a brow. “You fell in? Really?”
“Why didn’t you change at home?” her mom asked.
Why indeed. Of all the times for her mind to completely blank on excuses. “I was coming over and just figured I’d get cleaned up here.”
Elle frowned. “Did you and Gabe have a fight?”
The thought of him going down on her, his blond head buried between her legs as she writhed on the tree stump made Allison smile in spite of the past moment’s tears. “No, we didn’t have a fight.”
Elle lifted a brow. “Did he fall in the creek with you as well?”
Allison bit back a groan, darting a glance at their mom. Little sisters could be a pain in the ass. “I think I need to go get changed, since I smell so bad and all.”
Her sister wrinkled her nose, her teasing smile fading as her gaze skimmed over their mom. The taunts and jokes between them might be instinctive, but the reality of Mom’s news, fresh and raw, broke into the familiar patterns and tainted everything with sadness.
Maisey patted Allison’s shoulder. “You go ahead and have a shower. I’ll pop your things in the laundry. You have some old clothes in the bottom dresser in the guest room.”
Great. She fled the room as quickly as she could, but not before Elle shook a finger her direction.
It seems there would be a sisterly inquisition in the near future.
Travis was passed out on the couch and Cassidy asleep in the guest room when Gabe snuck in to shower and dress for the afternoon’s work. He stopped at the main ranch house to give his ma a quick hug and kiss, determinedly avoided his father, then joined Rafe to go haul feed to the cattle.
His kid brother eyed him with a twisted grin. “You already on your honeymoon or what?”
“Fuck off.”
Rafe laughed and tossed the truck keys to him. “Whatever. You seem happy though.”
Blowjobs would do that to a guy. Gabe reconsidered. It was a damn sight more than just that, and he knew it. In spite of whatever the hell was going on with Travis, the morning had been really good.
His idea of making what he and Allison had real looked like the right thing to pursue.
“When you guys getting married?” Rafe dragged a couple sticks of beef jerky from his pocket and offered Gabe one.
Before this morning he would have gotten around that question without coming right out and answering it, but now he thought about it. If their engagement were real, when would they get hitched?
“Not until the fall for sure. After harvest, maybe early winter.”
“She’s going to want a big fancy do, won’t she?” Rafe slapped his hand on his knee repetitively.
“Why you say that?”
Rafe shrugged. “Ma was thinking that with the classy restaurant and all, she’s probably more used to the fancy stuff. Ben said—”
His kid brother stopped mid-sentence, and Gabe sighed. “Yeah, I can imagine what Ben said. Ignore him.”
“It’s kind of tough, Gabe. He’s not very ignorable when he’s at the goddamn table spouting shit all the time.”
“Then move out.”
Rafe groaned in frustration. “I can’t, and you know it. Barely finished high school, I’m not going to make a living with hours at the Home Hardware or something.”
“I didn’t mean that. I know you want to stay on the ranch. And I’m working on fixing it so we can really make a go of it.”
“You said that a couple years back. Things haven’t gotten much better.”
Gabe knew. To his regret. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t trying, and the kid needed to know that as well.
“Move over the garage. Make a few meals yourself. Ben is…” Jerk, asshole, bastard—none of the words were the right ones. True, but not the right ones for this time and conversation. “Ben is damn difficult, but he does the job at hand. At some point in the future, who the hell knows, but there might be a miracle and he’ll change.”
Rafe snorted. “Into the Easter bunny? Or the tooth fairy? Because him changing sounds like a damn fairy tale.”
Gabe agreed which made it all the worse. “Move out. I told you that before. Did you talk to Mom?”
“No.”
“Did you haul your shit into the place and settle in?”
“No.”
Gabe pulled to a stop and faced his brother squarely. “Then stop complaining. Either it’s bad enough you want to change it, or you’re just flapping your jaw to flap your jaw. Don’t be like Ben.”
Rafe’s face flushed red. “Fuck you. I’m not like him.”
Gabe understood the response all too well. “No, you’re not. So stop acting like him. Change the things you don’t like. Got it?”
His brother leaned back and eased off the dirty stare. “I get it. You’re still an asshole.”
Gabe laughed.
It was late before he parked the tractor. Rafe took off so he would make it to the dinner table in time, but Gabe carried on to make up for his lazy morning.
He was on the way home before he checked his phone to discover Allison had left him a message. It didn’t sound good, and he put through the return call regretful he’d missed her the first time.
She spoke softly. Tired maybe. “Hey, Gabe.”
“Hey, yourself. What’s this you said about not coming home night?”
“Everyone is crashing here. We need a little family time. Mom told them.”
Relief and concern flashed simultaneously. “Ah, hell. How’d that go?”
Allison sighed. “It went.”
“How you doing?”
“Better now than earlier. And nowhere near as good as this morning.” Her sadness and frustration came through loud and clear. “I feel guilty for thinking about how much fun this morning was, but damn, at the same time thinking back sure has been a good mental break from the other things we’re dealing with.”
“You don’t need to feel guilty.” Gabe pulled into his driveway, noting the empty parking space beside the house. “You want me to bring you anything?”
“You don’t need to. I’ll be fine.”
Of course he didn’t need to. But he wanted to. More than that, he wanted to be with her and help support her right now. The revelation was more powerful than the one he’d had that morning. She’d been sneaking under his skin, and it wasn’t just the good things he wanted to enjoy.
Allison’s voice perked up again. Patently fake. “You go ahead and hit the Coleman gathering at Traders. Say hi to everyone from me, give Puss in Boots a cuddle and I’ll see you on Saturday.”
They spoke for a few more minutes, but the entire time Gabe was making plans. Bullshit on going out drinking with the guys when she needed him.