Reuniting with the Rancher (Silver Creek Ranch)

6. Beautiful and Healthy

6

BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY

GREYSON

Whatever he’d braced for Logan to say, it sure as fuck wasn’t that and it took him way too long to process it.

He couldn’t remember anything from the moment Logan uttered the sentence that rocked his world until now. It was like he didn’t connect with anything other than pain until his eyes settled on her sleeping face. She grimaced as she adjusted on the air mattress that seemed as expensive and fancy as a proper bed.

“Don’t say that…Mari! Don’t say goodbye…PLEASE! SOMEBODY! HELP US, God help us…Ivy…”

It took everything in him not to go to Lily’s side. When she called for their daughter… the reality of the situation crashed down on him again, threatening to break his back in two. Greyson just sat in the chair across from her bed and kept watch over her.

A small knock on the door brought her out of her nightmare.

“I’m ok Boogie,” she called hoarsely.

“You sure?”

“I promise kiddo.”

Caleb hovered for a few moments longer, listening for his aunt. Such a good kid.

Eventually, Caleb shuffled back to his room and Lily let out a slow breath, her hand on her chest. If she saw him now, she’d scream and frighten Caleb. His body wasn’t what it used to be, but he was happy he could still move through darkness like a shadow. He had his hand over her mouth before she could react. It was overdramatic, but he felt like sanity had left him hours ago.

“It’s me, Grey. I’m not here to hurt you. I have something important to tell you, and I didn’t want you to scare Caleb. Okay? Nod twice if you understand.”

She dropped her head, and he relaxed his hand. Then the crazy woman head butted him with the back of her head. He saw stars shooting around the dark room and felt the gush of warm, wet fluid that followed.

“You broke my nose Lily!” He whispered yelled. Holding his nose between his hands, he adjusted it back in place with a muffled grunt. While he fixed his nose, she rolled across the air mattress like a pissed off armadillo and hopped, limped across the room.

“Ok, I had that coming,” he sighed, digging into his pocket for a kerchief and holding his face over the side of the bed so he wouldn’t drip on it. “And I deserve so much more.” He got up and headed toward the bathroom. “Don’t go anywhere, ok? It’s about Ivy.”

LILY

“Don’t go anywhere, ok? It’s about Ivy.”

Well, that froze her right where she stood.

Lily’s heart thrummed in her head, making her lightheaded. She had gone from a nightmare, soothing Caleb, to having the strange feeling of being watched, to the horror of discovering someone in her room, and finally, the anger of realizing it was Greyson.

Boy, I miss having a security team.

She thought she’d taken a calculated risk in leaving them to escort her body double, but these two nighttime encounters with very big cowboys (and not in a good way) had her thinking otherwise.

She flipped on the light, breathed in the warm mist of her humidifier, and sucked on a honey drop while she waited for the water in the bathroom to turn off. When he reemerged, she almost felt bad for him. She’d definitely broken his nose. The swelling and bruising bloomed across his face, his light chambray shirt dotted with a good amount of blood.

“You have two minutes.”

“This is bigger than two minutes Lily,” Grey said as he sat his heavy, muscular self on her bed.

Her mouth pressed in tight - outside clothes on the bed. She hated it. Now wherever Greyson had sat, his ass on all day was in her bed. Horses, public chairs…

God, I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.

He took off his cowboy hat and stared at it. “Where do you think Ivy is now?”

The question had her spinning her ring again, but the look on his face? The pain on his face brought back all the guilt.

“If I hadn’t insisted on giving birth at home… If she hadn’t…” She took a deep breath and looked out the window. “I like to imagine she’d be planning her eleventh birthday party and fighting for the Tetris champion title with Boogie… My faith tells me she’s with people that love her like Mari and Mom. And I carry her with me always, here,” she pointed to that sore spot in her chest, “and here,” Lily held out the ring she never took off. “Mari had jewelry made with her ashes for me, mom and for herself. We never talked about her, not really, but we carried her with us. Always.”

“My mother gave you those ashes?”

The anger in his voice cut. Deep. She quickly pulled her hand back to her, protectively covering it with her left hand as he looked like he wanted to rip the ring off of her finger.

“I have every right to her too Greyson,” she hated the way her voice shook. “I didn’t want to be treated like gum on someone’s shoe the way the hospital treated Mari when she had Caleb. At home with a midwife seemed better, healthier for both of us. I’ll carry that guilt for the rest of my life, no matter how many hours of therapy I endure. But I’ve learned enough to know I don’t deserve your scorn. I didn’t then and I don’t now. And your two minutes are up.”

She moved to leave when suddenly he was at her back, his hand pressing the door closed.

“Please…Lily…”

Moisture dripped on her shoulder and tank. She whipped around. “Your blood is–”

He was crying. It was the second time she’d seen him cry. The first was when he learned his father died while they were in grad school.

“I’m so sorry Lily. I fucked up. I fucked up so bad. I–she–, Jesus Lily,” he took a deep breath and blew it out. “Ivy is alive. Our baby girl is alive, beautiful, and healthy. I didn’t know you thought…She lied to us… I’m so…sorry.”

He searched her eyes and waited and she? Well, she LOST. HER. SHIT.

GREYSON

“Ivy?” she whispered in disbelief. “Ivy’s alive?”

“Yes, she’s–”

“Who took her? How did you find her? HOW–”

He took a chance she wouldn’t clock him and placed his hands on her arms to brace her and move her to the bed, helping her sit. “She wasn’t kidnapped. I’ve raised her best as I could with mom’s help. She’ll be home from boarding school in a month and–”

“I’m sorry. I think I’m having delusions. WHAT did you say?”

“Auntie?”

“You knew my daughter was alive for TEN YEARS and you never told me? You let me believe, grieve for a decade–”

Caleb slipped the door open, his eyes wide as he took in the both of them. He lingered on Grey’s broken nose. “Mr. Monroe, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”

Dammit. This was turning to shit.

“ I appreciate you takin’ up for your aunt Caleb, but we’re working through something and..”

Lily stood and paced damn near hyperventilating until suddenly she picked up her suitcase near the window and threw it. The big bay window cracked. She picked the suitcase up again and threw it again.

“MY BABY!”

Chink! The window splintered more.

“MY BABY!”

Chink! Chink! Spiderwebs of crack ricocheted as the glass shook under the force of Lily’s assault.

“ALL THIS TIME!

CRASH!

The window shattered and so did she, falling to her knees in tears and rage.

“WHOSE ASHES AM I WEARING? WHO DID I BURY WITH MY MOTHER , MY SISTER ?!”

“I don’t know…” he admitted as he sank to the floor next to her.