Reuniting with the Rancher (Silver Creek Ranch)

13. Wings

13

WINGS

LILY

She stood on the porch, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her t-shirt damp against her skin as the wind picked up, blowing her curls every which way. Pulling her hair up into a bun, her skin prickled against the thick, humid air that always signaled a storm. The sky darkened far too quickly, and her gut twisted with unease.

Something wasn’t right.

She slipped her sunglasses to the top of her head and turned to Grey, who stood by the truck, his face tense as he glanced up at the swirling clouds overhead.

“Have you seen the kids?”

He shook his head, frowning. “Not since Ivy came back from her session. I’ll go check.”

Lily’s heart began to race, a sense of dread creeping up her spine. Ivy and Caleb had been inseparable since Ivy’s return, but she could sense her daughter’s struggles. The revelations about her true parentage were sometimes overwhelming, and Ivy was a firecracker of emotions, just like her.

Greyson pulled out his phone, dialing quickly. After a few tense moments, he cursed under his breath. “Neither of them is answering.”

Lily’s anxiety spiked. “We need to find them,” she said, her voice tight. “The weather’s turning.”

As if to punctuate her words, a low rumble of thunder rolled across the sky. Lily grabbed her jacket and started for the truck, but before she could get inside, a voice called out from behind them.

It was Mrs. Monroe, her eyes wide with panic as she hurried toward them. “Ivy... she’s upset,” she said breathlessly. “She ran off... and Caleb followed.”

Lily’s heart fell out of her shoes. “Why are you here? What do you mean, ran off? Where did they go?!”

“I—I don’t know,” his mother stammered, her face pale. “I…I gave her more information about you just so she’d be informed. She got upset and ran off with Caleb.”

A sick feeling churned in Lily’s stomach. “What did you say to her?” she demanded, her voice rising. “What?!”

“I was just trying to explain,” Greyson’s mother replied, wringing her hands. “She asked about why I kept you away from her when she was little, and I—I told her things... things I thought she should know, that everyone already knows…the drugs and rehab, all the wild parties.” She drew herself up and stared Lily in the eyes. “I told her the truth.”

Lily hauled off and slapped the shit out of Mrs. Monroe, putting her full strength into the hit. The older woman fell on her ass in front of the truck with a loud cry.

“You told her lies from a pop star’s PR machine rather than tell her YOU stole her life.” She didn’t have time for this shit. Lily ran around the hood of the truck, pushing past Grey to climb in. “You will burn in hell if anything happens to my babies and I will SEND YOU THERE.”

Grey woke from whatever stupor in time to jump into the passenger seat as she floored it. She would later admit that, fortunately for all of them, Grey yanked the steering wheel to the right, making sure Lily avoided running over Mrs. Monroe, but it was millimeters close.

“Where would they go?” Lily asked Greyson. “The music room or the old barn? This storm’s getting worse. We need to find them NOW.”

Greyson clenched his fists, his jaw tight with rage. “The old barn by the creek,” he said, his voice grim. “She’d associate the music room with you.”

That hurt.

Lily pressed the pedal to the floor, racing along the ranch roads while the wind howled around them, whipping dust and debris into the air. The sky turned a sickly green, and Lily’s heart raced faster with every passing second.

“They better be there,” she muttered, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “They better be okay.”

Greyson said nothing, his eyes focused straight ahead, but she could see the storm brewing inside him was just as fierce as the one outside.

When they reached the creek, she skidded to a stop, and both of them jumped out, running toward the old barn. The wind was so strong it nearly knocked Lily off her feet, painfully whipped her hair out of her bun and wildly around her face. She kept pushing forward, ignoring the protests of her leg with her heart pounding in her ears.

“Ivy! Caleb!” she shouted, her voice barely audible to her own ears over the roar of the wind. Between her yells and the dust her throat feeling like she’d swallowed glass.

Greyson was already at the barn door, yanking it open with a force that sent it swinging back wildly on its hinges. He looped a quick arm around her to pull her inside. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw them huddled in the corner, Caleb holding Ivy to him, their eyes wide with fear as the wind rattled the wooden structure.

A low growl rumbled across the sky as a funnel cloud touched down. It sounded just like people described it - a freight train. But not the tame, railroad crossing train, carefully tucked behind flashing lights and little barricades. No, this was as if the train was pissed off, coked out, and bearing down on them doing ninety in a school zone playing Death Metal. It had the kind of sound impact that reverberated through the body. The hand of God was delivering judgement on the whole of humanity and they were in a fucking barn.

Lily’s heart pounded in her chest as the barn creaked under the pressure, the walls shaking, threatening to come apart at any moment. She pulled her babies to her while turning to make the dash back to the truck.

Greyson wrapped his arms around them all, his face grim as herded them into the center of the barn. “It’s coming too fast. We won’t make it to the truck.” Without hesitating, Greyson shouted and motioned for them to “Lay down!” And with a great big heave, he pulled a large workbench over the top of them.

Lily pushed the kids down flat underneath the wide bench onto the floor. Caleb partially covered Ivy on one side. Lily tried covering them both with her trembling body, the intensity of the storm ratcheting up to hellish proportions. Finally, Grey got under and used his body as the last barrier before the table, covering the kids’ heads with one arm and hooking his other arm around her. His chest heaved with shallow breaths, and Lily could feel the weight of his fear. He brushed his lips brushing her ear. “I love you, Songbird,” he yelled into her ear. “I love you Ivy, I love you Caleb!” he yelled into their huddle.

Tears leaked from her eyes as she squeezed them shut. She was so fucking stupid. Why hadn’t she learned her lesson the first time or the second time she almost died? Grab love with both hands because it could disappear in a moment on the wind. Finally, in this moment, she understood—time had run out. Whatever they had, whatever they felt, this might be the last time to say it. “I never stopped,” she yelled. “Never. Stopped. Loving you.”

Greyson tightened his hold, pressing his forehead against hers as the tornado raged around them, tossing around debris around like straw, but having devastating impact on the walls of the barn. It continued togroan under the pressure; the wind screaming through the cracks in the walls. The kids yelled beneath them as the storm roared around them, violent and relentless, but they held on—together. Time stretched, every second was an eternity as they waited for the worst to pass.

Then suddenly, after years or mere moments, the wind died. The barn groaned one last time before falling silent, leaving behind only the sound of their ragged breathing and Ivy’s quiet whimpers.

Lily lay there for a moment, her chest heaving as the adrenaline slowly ebbed, leaving her shaking and weak. She lifted her head, looking down at Ivy and Caleb. They were shaken and shaking, but alive—thank God, they were alive.

“We’re okay,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone else. “We’re okay.”

Greyson pulled her closer, his forehead still pressed against hers. “We’re ok,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. He kissed Caleb’s forehead. “We’re okay.” He then kissed Ivy’s forehead. “We’re okay.”

GREYSON

Back at the house, Grey stood in front of his mother, his fists clenched at his sides. His eyes burned with anger, the tension in the room thick enough to cut through.

“You were her grandmother for ten years,” he began, his voice low and cold. “You got to be a part of Ivy’s life because of your lies. But because of you, Lily’s mother never had that chance. She has an aunt, a wonderful woman who raised an extraordinary young man, that she’ll never get to meet. That shame is on you, Mom.”

His mother opened her mouth to speak, but Greyson cut her off, his voice rising. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You almost cost me my family. AGAIN!”

He could still hear the screams in his head—the kids, Lily’s whimpers, all of them as they clung to each other, waiting for the storm to tear them apart. Grey had three core memories he always hoped to never add to - Lily’s empty hospital bed, Ivy hooked up to more machines than she had body space for and seeing his fellow Marines blow apart, burning alive. Now, because of his mother, he had a fourth–living through his family almost being swept away in a tornado.

“And for what?” his voice broke. “To fuel some sick need to be right all the time? To have me to yourself? Lily was going to leave me. Again. Because of you, because my stupid ass thought there might be something, somewhere, redeemable in you. That maybe you’d learned something in the ten years of lying, scheming, and manipulating us. That maybe you’d made a monstrous mistake and were simply too scared to get yourself out from under it…But you enjoyed this all the way until our children were in the path of a tornado. And honestly, I’m not even sure if it was Ivy you cared about or yourself.”

Her face paled, but Greyson didn’t stop. “You’re my mother, so I’m going to give you more courtesy than I wouldn’t give anyone else who pulled an eighth of what you’ve pulled. Man or beast, I would have given you your wings. Because you are my mother, today you get to leave here with your life. I don’t want to see you again and if I do, I will deal with you like any stranger on the street who endangered my family.”

The finality of his words hung in the air, a death sentence. And for the first time, his mother seemed to understand the gravity of what she had done.

“Son, I–”

Grey made a slashing motion with his hand, silencing her.

Without another word, she turned and walked out, leaving behind the wreckage of her manipulation and lies. As the door closed behind her, Greyson let out a shaky breath. The storm had passed, but the damage remained.

And now, they had to figure out how to rebuild.