18. Called Home

Amonth later, Lilian and Braylon were boarding the plane to see her family for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Normally Quinn would pick her up and she'd just borrow her sister's car if she was going anywhere, but Braylon wanted to rent a car and they'd drive the forty-five minutes from Saranac Lake.

If it wasn't for Max, she'd never realize she could fly out on this small private plane that made trips only from Boston and New York City to Saranac for those who wanted to visit the Adirondacks.

A straight two-hour flight and not a lot of congestion. She didn't like to fly and these small planes weren't always as smooth, but you weren't surrounded by as many people or screaming kids either.

"I'm sure West's private jet is bigger than this," she said, laughing when he ducked down to get in. They found their seats and sat together. No reason they couldn't as it didn't look as if it'd be a full flight.

"It is," he said. "He offered it to us for today. He needs it tomorrow for him, Abby, Laken and Foster."

Her jaw dropped. "What?" she said. "He was going to let you take his jet to fly me home?"

Talk about unheard of.

"Yes," he said. "But you got so bent over me wanting to upgrade to first class."

"Because then we'd have to land in Plattsburg," she said. "And that is an hour away."

"Oh," he said. "So it wasn't the fact that I wanted to pay for it?"

"That too," she said. She watched as he tried to adjust in the seat and move his legs but he didn't have much room. Now she felt somewhat bad about this and understood why he might have wanted first class.

But she didn't want him paying for anything.

It bothered her that he always wanted to pay now and that was why they didn't go out much.

Even the rental car, she didn't want to do it but knew that with him being with her for over three days that they wouldn't stay in the house nonstop.

He'd told her he knew she wanted to visit with family and wouldn't take her away from that, but she did want to show him around the area she'd called home for years.

She'd assured him they'd have privacy at Max's house when he brought up maybe getting a hotel.

She wanted to be annoyed, but she did understand too. She'd never brought anyone home with her to Max's overnight. Though it was her sister's husband, it was still Max's house. He owned it before he met Quinn.

"It's hard to break down your pride," he said, laughing.

"Get used to it," she said. "I don't want anyone to ever think I'm with you for what you can give me."

He sighed next to her and grabbed her hand, their fingers lacing together and they sat quietly until take off.

It gave her time to think.

She wasn't sure what the kids had been told about her boyfriend. She tried to keep things as simple as she could, but there was nothing simple about any of this.

"Are you excited to see your niece and nephew again? Or all of them. Sorry. I know you said Davy and Lara are family too."

"I am," she said. "Davy and Lara are more like siblings. Davy is flying home today too from college, so this actually worked out as Quinn is going to get him at the airport in Plattsburg and Max has surgery scheduled, then was leaving after."

"See," he said. "One victory for me getting the rental."

"I know," she said. "I do have to think it through at times."

"It's fine," he said. "What about Lara? You said you're close."

"She's sixteen. To her I'm an older sister rather than an aunt. She texts me a lot and we talk when I call Quinn, but it's more texts with her. She's at that age where sometimes she butts heads with her parents."

"You never said anything about Davy and Lara's mother," he said.

"She's in New York City. She works as some fashion buyer or something. I don't know the whole story, but her career was more important to her than her kids. They might see her once a year if that. The kids never ask to see her and she barely communicates with them. Max lets the kids make those decisions. He long since stopped forcing them to visit and his ex doesn't push it."

"Then I'm glad they've got your sister."

"That's a sweet thing to say. They love her more than their mother. I know it sounds horrible, but…"

"Not horrible if they are cared for and get the attention and affection they need," he said.

"Thanks for that. I feel the same way. Just because someone fathered or birthed you doesn't give them the right to actually be your parent or tell you what to do."

When he angled his head at her she wished she hadn't said that. She didn't bring up her mother or brothers often.

Brett and Annie had their life with their kids. They were worn down and working more than one job each while trying to make ends meet. Quinn helped when Annie accepted it behind Brett's back. Karl, he was trying to get his shit together after finally being released early from prison last year. Her mother was still locked up and Lilian was fine with that.

Armed robbery and the last guy she hooked up with was holding Quinn hostage with a gun while the police were outside.

Trevor Miles was the Chief of Police back then and, in an odd twist of fate, the man who helped get Quinn back when she stupidly walked into their mother's hotel room ended up marrying Max's sister, Riley, years later.

Karl had been coaxed into the robberies with their mother, thinking he was going to visit Quinn. He'd gotten a lighter sentence for cooperating and Quinn had footed the bill for the attorney.

Their mother could rot in prison for the rest of her life in Lilian's eyes, but she doubted that would happen. Rae Baker would get out at some point, she was sure.

"That's true," he said. "What about Jocelyn and Carson?"

She liked that he wasn't pushing her on her mother.

"Jocelyn is a doll. Carson too, but Carson is attached to his father at the hip. I think he was upset and didn't understand why Davy had to go away to college. And then I left too. So his world got turned upside down. Quinn said he struggled at first and cried when Max left for work each day."

"That's hard," he said. "When my father died, we had that problem with Talia and Nelson. Talia was four and Nelson six. I mean, it's not like they saw my father much. He was always gone, and to them, West and I were the men of the house being the oldest."

"That is a lot of responsibility on your shoulders," she said. "You were fifteen?"

"I was. So though it wasn't like they understood our father was never coming back, it was more that West had left for college. He wasn't that far away. Just under two hours but not enough to commute daily. Though he came home on the weekends to help out as much as he could."

"What about you?" she asked. "Where did you go to college?"

"I went to Wake Forest like West did," he said. "Just under two hours away. I went to law school there too."

She always thought Braylon tried to be like West. That he looked up to him so much but didn't realize they went to college together too.

"That's not an easy college to get into, is it?" she asked.

"No. We both got good grades, but then add on my father's career and we got all sorts of aid and grants. It made sense for us to go together. We didn't live together though. He was in senior dorms and I was a freshman. He got his MBA there so he was there one extra year for that. But it helped that we both went home together on the weekends. It's not like there were a lot of cars and West had one."

"You guys all worked together," she said. "I know the world probably looks at West as this hardass."

"Which he can be," he said.

"But he's not," she said. "I've seen a different side to him."

"Not many do," he said. "I'm glad you can see it."

She did wonder if West went out of his way to be a little different with her, but Abby had told her that it was who these siblings were, but the world just saw them differently.

"I can. I do. I was so intimidated by Max when I met him," she said. "Quinn was too. But he was great. I mean it was this world I never knew. Living in this quiet town on the water. I almost couldn't sleep at night because it was only nature around me."

"I thought you were from the area," he said.

Shit. Too late she let that slip.

"No," she said. "Not originally. We moved around a lot."

"I know how that is," he said, laughing.

She let out a breath. "Yeah. Anyway, Max is like a big kid. I was stunned. Here I was expecting this uptight rich doctor from the big city and he's on the floor hiding behind the couch with Davy as they blast Quinn and me with Nerf bullets."

He grinned. "We had a lot of wars like that in our house growing up."

"I bet, with all those boys."

"I'll never forget one day my mother came home and there must have been over a hundred of those darts all over the living room. We'd had an all out war. Furniture was moved around, maybe a chair overturned. It was the best day ever, but all my mom saw when she came home was a mess. West and I felt like shit and we picked it all up and then made our siblings each tackle other rooms in the house to clean. The bathroom, the kitchen, their rooms. Within hours the whole house was clean and she didn't have to do anything."

"That is the sweetest thing ever," she said. "Whose idea was that?"

"Mine," he said proudly.

"What a good son you are," she said.

"We all tried to be. Or, well, the older ones. The younger ones just had a different life than us."

She nodded her head. Nothing she could say to that.

The rest of the flight was taken in silence. She was listening to music and he was on his laptop as best as he could be.

When the plane landed, they got their luggage, found his rental SUV and she gave him directions to Quinn's.

"I guess it's a good thing there is no snow here. It's touch and go this time of year, but it's nice out."

"That's why I got an SUV," he said. "Just in case it does snow."

They drove to Quinn's and when she pointed out the hidden driveway, he pulled in and down toward the house on the lake. She felt this calmness come over that she did each time she returned.

"I've never felt like I had much of a home," she said. "But I do here. It came later in life, but I'm glad I got to experience it."

"I can understand that too. We moved so much and the houses were small. We never had a lot of money to decorate or anything. The things or touches you put on a place. My condo now is the first I can say I feel as if it's the place for me. But West's house in the Hamptons takes the cake. I'd love something like that, but it's not realistic to live daily with where we work."

"Your brother makes it work, but it's still a lot of time commuting back and forth," she said.

"Even by air it is time. He tried to go a few times a month before Abby, but now is there more. She's not a huge fan of Manhattan."

They parked and he got their bags out of the back, her going to the front door, and before she could open it, Lara was standing there. "Lily, you're home!"

"I am," she said, going into Lara's arms.

"Lily?" he asked. "I've never heard you called that."

"Her name is Lily. I'm Lara. She wanted to sound more professional when she moved so she told us all we had to call her Lilian, but I said no way. She's always going to be Lily to me and I'm not changing it."

She rolled her eyes. "Lara is a chatterbox and has no problem telling you like it is. But as I've told my family, I get it. It's hard for them to call me anything different."

"I like it," he said. "I think it almost suits you more than Lilian."

She let out a sigh. "You don't think I'm professional?"

"I think at work you are, but who you are at work isn't who you are around me," he said. "At least not now."

There was a throat clearing and she turned to see Quinn standing there. "Welcome home," Quinn said. "You must be Braylon. Please come in. Lilian has lost her manners."

She laughed. "You can call me Lily. It's fine. I get it. Maybe I don't mind it coming from those I'm closest to."

It got her thinking that she was trying to be this person she wasn't. Even in her job that wasn't always going her way, was it because she wasn't Lilian and was Lily? But they didn't know that person. They only knew the one she was trying to portray.

The fake one.

Just like the damn fake engagement ring that she no longer wore but not one person had said one word to her about it.

Even though people saw her and Braylon still together or she talked about him, no one questioned her not wearing her ring.

"I am Braylon," he said, moving forward and shaking her sister's hand. "You two look alike."

"Funny, considering we don't have the same father," Lilian said. "But we do look alike more than we did when we were younger."

"Aunt Lily," Jocelyn said, running into the room and hugging her. "Mom said I couldn't attack you at the door, but you are taking too long to come in the back. Davy is back there with Carson and he's crying because he wants to see you."

"I'm sorry," she said, hugging Jocelyn. "Let's go in the back so I can see you all and give Carson a big hug. Come on, Braylon, let's meet the rest of the family."

For as nervous as she was about introducing him, she realized how silly and stupid it was to feel that way.

And, boy, it did feel good to be home, but she realized that it felt even better to just be with Braylon.