Reuniting with the Rancher (Silver Creek Ranch)

5. Megabitch

5

MEGABITCH

GREYSON

She began her descent like a queen on high, in a pauper’s wardrobe of well broken in jeans and a crop top that showed off a nice curve of smooth, grab-able, brown skin and somehow ended up in his arms as warm gravy pooled in his lap.

Typical .

She’d left him with a mess before. At least this time it was gravy and not a sick baby and a broken heart.

Disoriented, she stared up at him with those damn beautiful brown eyes and as she focused; they narrowed and fuck him if she didn’t growl at him like some feral cat.

“Auntie, are you ok? Did you hit your head? They said you can’t hit your head? DID YOU HIT YOUR HEAD?!”

As soon as she heard the panic rising in his voice, her focus shifted to immediately trying to soothe Caleb while he continued to spiral.

“Boogie Bear, I just missed the step, I’m ok baby,” she said as shrugged herself out of his arms with more force than needed sending him back on his ass as his own leg gave way. Now warm mashed potatoes were sticking to his ass.

“PLEASE BE OK, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE BE OK.” Caleb shook his hand as he stared at her unseeing.

“Bear,” she whispered as she limped quickly to him and took his face in her hands. “Bear, look at me. I’m fine. CALEB!”

Caleb finally connected, locking eyes with her.

“I’m fine honey, see? I didn’t hit my head. I’m perfectly fine. Right here with you,” she nodded to him, never breaking eye contact. “I’m here. I’m okay. Okay?”

Caleb started nodding with her. “Okay. You’re okay.” He sniffed long before his face cracked and tears of relief flooded his eyes and overflowed down his cheeks.

“Oh Boogie…” she cooed, bringing him tight to her and hugging him as he continued to break down.

Once he was sure they were stable, Greyson looked at the mess of dinner on the ground and busied himself with cleaning it up. Caleb didn’t need an audience for this tough moment. He made his way to the kitchen of the cottage, salvaging what he could until they both came in, eyes red and looking exhausted.

“I was able to save some of the food,” he said as he finished plating the food for the two of them. Caleb avoided his eyes as he mumbled a thanks and took a plate from his outstretched hands. He kissed his aunt on the cheek before he shuffled off to one of the bedrooms off the living room.

LaLa watched him as he went, her lip trembling. Once he closed the door, she wiped away the wet from her eyes and took a couple deep breaths, tapping her hand against her thigh as she breathed.

Feelings he didn’t want to feel surfaced as he watched her, a protectiveness over her and Caleb and profound sadness for all of them. Anger was a more familiar beast, in some ways a safer one. Still, Lily was a human being, and she was hurtin’.

“I’m sorry to hear about Marigold. I knew about the accident, but not who died. She was a good woman and judging by Bryson, I mean Caleb, continued to be a phenomenal mom,” he said and he meant it. LaLa and her sister were inseparable when he met both of them in college. LaLa spent practically every weekend in Marigold’s dorm until she graduated from NYU and joined them as an official grad student.

When Marigold fell pregnant, it was LaLa who moved them into an apartment and started singing in nightclubs to support Mari and baby Caleb, then called Bryson, when the professor that had gotten Mari pregnant went back to his wife. Before she was LaLa, she was Lily, a woman who loved kids and was quick to toss him the diaper bag and snag Caleb’s car seat, turning their dates into a moment of rest for Mari.

Shaking off the memories, he grabbed the second plate, set it on the half counter separating the great room from the kitchen, and moved to stride past her. His heart stopped, then painfully kicked over again when she reached out and touched his arm. He moved slightly out of her reach.

LaLa pursed her lips and crossed her arms, withdrawing into herself. “I had a concussion from the accident. They were worried about a secondary concussion. That’s why…Anyway, not for me, I know you wouldn’t do shit for me, but for Caleb, please don’t tell anyone we are here. The pressure of LaLa Fair is too much and no kid should have to live in that after what he’s been through. He needs to heal. We only use his middle name and mom’s maiden name to keep him safe, to let him have a good life…So..”

Her reaching for him created a longing that he hated, and he barked a little. “I have no interest in bringing the LaLa Fair Circus to my ranch.”

“Your–”

He crossed his arms in satisfaction as understanding, then horror bloomed across her face.

“Yes, LaLa, I’m your boss.”

“I quit.”

Lily

She must’ve been a mega bitch in another life because the level of bullshit splattering against the windowpane of her life was more than should be allowed.

Lily flipped through messages from her body double in Europe, LaTavia.

Ms. LaLa, thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity to travel the world and dedicate myself to my studies. I am ready for the bar and after I am starting a new job in housing legal aid. You have made it possible for me to see the most amazing things and live an extraordinary life, but I’m ready to be me now and I can afford to use my degree to really help people. Because of you, I’m debt free and have a nest egg. That means I can do this important work for years. I can honor my mom and work to make sure that families don’t experience homelessness like we did because they didn’t have access to people who could help them. I wish you’d let me out of the NDA so I could tell the world about the REAL you.

- LaTavia

Just what she needed. Resisting the urge to throw her phone, she fired off an appropriately kind response. She really liked LaTavia and was happy for her, but selfishly she just didn’t want to deal with one more issue. And she really didn’t want to put LaLa Fair back in rehab.

“I tithe, I donate to a host of do gooding organizations, I’ve tried to be a good person in this life so what the fuck God?” she asked as she limped back and forth in front of Crystal Fountain. She tipped her head back and looked up to the heavens, even though she didn’t expect a response.

“Perhaps it’s the ‘what the fuck part’ in the same sentence as His name,” a deep voice rumbled behind her.

For the second time in one day, she almost fell on her ass. She caught herself in time and hid her cane behind her back. Better this stranger thought she was clumsy rather than a hobbled target.

After Greyson’s smug declaration, she promptly quit and kicked him out of the cottage. Then she placed several, increasingly frantic, phone calls to her lawyers. At some point, she left the house so Caleb wouldn’t overhear and ended up here at the fountain. She should have been more responsible than to be out walking the property this late.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, Ms. Fair. I’m here on behalf of Greyson.”

“So much for no interest in the circus,” she grumbled, mentally calculating how quickly the press could descend on this place. “How much does he want? Or does he want me to counter a tabloid offer?”

The tall, powerfully built man put up his hands in a gesture of submissive peace and stepped closer so that the lights around the fountain caught his objectively handsome face. He smiled, showing off a prominent eye tooth that gave him a wolfish appearance, but something about his smile made her take a second, then a third step back.

“I’m Logan Kahale and I mean you no harm...”

There was an unspoken “yet” they both heard loud and clear. That earned two more steps back and her cane brought to the front.

“I’m here to find out your intentions toward the Monroe family.”

Lily kept her posture straighter than the pain radiating through her leg up to her hip should’ve allowed and spoke with a bravery she certainly didn’t feel. She raised her voice above the soft, damn near whisper speak she’d adopted to save what was left of her voice. She had the distinct feeling the voice she used tonight would either save or end her life.

“I have no intentions of anything toward that family. If I never come across them again, I’d be too glad. I came here to get my nephew away from LaLa Fair’s life. I’ve got shit luck lately, and it keeps getting worse. Greyson isn’t listed on any of the company’s information and supposedly the foundation funding this place has a great reputation. Obviously, I was mistaken. There is not a single reason for me to ever cross paths with Greyson Monroe, and I certainly wouldn’t seek him out and drag my nephew along. Greyson told me exactly where to go ten years ago.”

Something flashed in the man’s face, but it was gone before she could figure it out. Maybe he was trying to figure out where to put her body. A man like him struck her as someone who had plenty of places to hide them.

“Ms. Fair, what about your daughter?”

Ivy.

No one ever talked about Ivy. Lily would’ve preferred if he’d just punched her in the face instead. She rubbed the spot on her chest where the pain sat, too deep to ever really soothe.

“No one ever asks me about her,” she whispered. “It makes sense…the number of people alive who know about Ivy can be counted on one hand. Mari and our mother are gone. The midwife who delivered Ivy retired and shit, Greyson and his mother made it clear they blamed me.”

She gave up on being brave and sank onto the edge of the fountain. If this man was going to do her harm, he would do it. She set the cane next to her and began spinning the ring on her right ring finger around. “I grieved so hard those first few birthdays they thought about involuntarily admitting me… Eventually, I learned to hide the pain. Existing in this dance where the broken pieces of your heart are too painful for everyone else, so you brutalize yourself in silence to keep everyone else ok. Is that what you wanted to know? How I’ve suffered for ten years? How I’ll never be okay until the day I see her again? Is that enough for your employer?”

Greyson stormed out of the shadows, dark brown eyes made darker by his apparent rage. “So you do plan on being with her? Was this job your way of circumventing my rights?!”

Her head snapped back at his anger and odd question. “What fucking rights would you have over whether I see Ivy again? I know you’ve always thought you controlled the sun as it rose and set, but even you don’t have control over that, you fucking weirdo.”

“Grey, I told you to hang back and let me talk to her.”

“Intimidate me, you mean?” Lily shot back at Logan before turning back to Greyson. “I have as much right to Lily as you do! I did the best I COULD!”

“You gave up all rights ten years ago, LaLa,” he growled back.

“STOP BLAMING ME! I TRIED! I did everything I was supposed to do!”

“Everything but stick around, Lily! YOU DID EVERYTHING BUT BE WHAT SHE NEEDED! SHE NEEDED HER MOMMA ALL THOSE DAYS IN THE NICU, ALL THE DAYS SINCE, SHE NEEDED YOU TOO!”

Greyson stormed away along the road, back toward the main house.

She sat weeping on the side of the fountain for several moments as Greyson’s footsteps faded into the distance and the venom of his words coursed through her veins, killing her with each heartbeat.

“From now on, I’ll be your contact regarding this matter until Grey’s lawyers reach out,” Logan said.

“Idaho is an at will state and I quit. I’m taking Caleb as far away from here as I can get first thing tomorrow morning.”

“You’re giving up, just like that? What about all the suffering?”

“What is there to give up? I–” Greyson’s words, the actual words, not the venom of them, suddenly hit her. “Days. He said days in the NICU. How long was she in the NICU?”

“I don’t see why that–”

“TELL ME! How long did she survive? Mrs. Monroe said she died shortly after she was born, before I woke up, but Greyson said days. Why would he say days in the NICU?”

“He misspoke, Ms. Fair. I’m sorry. Let me walk you back to the cabin.”

Lily didn’t know what to feel. Grief, her steady companion, mixed with the guilt she had tried to exorcise from her life. Somewhere there was a moment of horror at the thought that she’d gotten the wrong information and missed the chance to say goodbye to her little girl when she left the hospital against medical advice. There was the moment of relief that wasn’t the case, then self-recrimination at feeling relief.

She had to get the hell out of this place. Like Greyson, it was deceptive. It looked like a place where you anchor your heart, but once you committed, it delivered blow after blow of pain.

“Grey, you’ve got a big fucking problem,” Logan said as he glanced at his watch.

“So what she has more money than I do. She signed away her rights ten years ago and did not establish contact with Ivy since. There is not a judge in the state that will side with her. Especially cutting out on a sick baby.”

“That’s the thing man, I don’t think she signed anything. At least not knowingly… You may want to sit down.”

“Cut the dramatics, man. What the fuck did she tell you?”

Logan scrubbed his hand down his face, looking all of his forty-plus years. His dark eyes were wary.

“She thinks Ivy died as an infant, because that’s what your mother told her.”