Chapter 20

[Clay]

“Weekly family dinner today,” I announce during breakfast the next morning.

Mavis has been with me for more than a month, and I’ve only been to one Sylver Sunday meal in all that time. I missed the rest because I was sick, she was present, and the festival happened.

Stone will surely have words for me after last night, and Vale’s been harping on me in the family group text about my absence. She only met Mavis for a few seconds at the festival and then again last night, and my sister wants to give her stamp of approval on the woman in my life, as she calls Mavis.

“I don’t know,” Mavis hedges, adding another pile of pancakes to the stack already on my plate. I pick up her plate which hasn’t been filled yet and dump half my pile onto the dish.

“Mavis. Sit.” I catch her wrist as she turns back to the griddle on the stove.

“I still have more batter.”

“Eat these while they’re hot.”

Dutton has a stack of pancakes large enough for a lumberjack, and I’m sensing Mavis is cooking because she’s still upset and anxious. Holding her breath on Dutton’s emotions today.

“Will Winnie be there?” he quietly asks, his personality somber this morning as he pokes at the pancakes with his fork.

“She will. And I bet she’d like to see you.” I don’t know what my niece witnessed last night. I still don’t know all the particulars of what happened, but my imagination holds visions that will haunt me for the rest of my days. A grown ass man holding a child’s head face down in the water of an apple-bobbing barrel.

My phone blew up overnight with apologies from Halle and messages from Knox. Sebastian checked in, and I checked on Ford and the girls. Judd was his quiet self, not explaining where he came from or where he learned to punch like that. Out of all of us, he might have taken the insults from our dad to heart the most.

“So. Sylver Sunday around noon,” I confirm, not letting either Mavis or Dutton out of today.

My family wants to know more about this family, and I’m looking to bring Mavis and Dutton into the Sylver fold.

+ + +

When we arrive at the house I grew up in, Winnie rushes Dutton, hugging him gleefully, as if relieved to see her new friend. She coos over him, asking if he’s okay, and then quickly distracts him from last night’s incident by tugging him to a low table covered with coloring sheets.

In a household of mostly men, Vale is thrilled to have another woman around in addition to Enya and Halle. Soon enough Cadence, Ford’s girlfriend will be home. For now, Vale loops her arm through Mavis’s and leads her toward the kitchen.

Typically, these Sunday meals are a cookout, hosting the family in the backyard as long as the weather holds out, especially as the family expands. But today is gloomy and dull, kind of like my mood, so we gather inside the house that’s had a huge makeover since I lived here.

When Stone went off to college, I didn’t last much longer in this place, deciding I needed my own space somewhere else if I was going to face our father every day at the Seed & Soil. Unfortunately, that left Judd next in command of our younger siblings as our father grew worse and worse in his drunken insults and physical abuse. For years, I’d bounced around in apartments, which I found too confining, and then rental houses before finally finding my plot of land and building my small dream home.

As for this house, it still looks like something out of a classic television program with its white clapboard siding and green roof filled with dormers, plus a wide front porch. A few years ago, the once weather-beaten exterior was brightened by fresh paint and the roof was replaced, restoring the place to its original glory. Perhaps even making the house better. The inside has been remodeled in stages as well, especially the kitchen which is rather open and airy now.

As the kids remain in the living room coloring, and most adults converge in the kitchen around the large island or the newish table, I need a minute with Stone. He isn’t surprised by the nod of my head signaling a former bedroom off the kitchen that’s been converted to an office for him, nor does he hesitate to follow me.

“I’m assuming you heard about last night,” I begin when he closes the door behind him. The dark paneling in the space adds to the dimness of the day and the shadow of yesterday evening’s happenings.

“Halle called me. She was worried Knox would get into it with that man. More worried Sebastian would, and then be arrested again.” Stone runs a hand over his head and softly chuckles. “Who’d a thought Judd would be the one to clock a man?”

I chuckle as well, although it isn’t funny ha-ha. “He was defending Dutton.”

Stone peers at me with eyes a shade deeper than mine. A little kinder, I imagine. The color of his matches our mother’s while I have the icier shade of our dad’s.

Stone leans on the edge of his desk while I take a seat in a leather chair that’s seen better days.

“You know a little bit about Mavis, don’t you?” Concern fills my voice. I hardly slept last night considering what she told me. How she came about Dutton. How her family has some sketchy connections.

“What all are you worried about?” Stone casually asks, crossing his ankles and his arms, rubbing his forefinger and thumb around the thicker hairs at the corner of his mouth.

“What should I be concerned about?”

“If it’s Wesley, I doubt he’ll show his face around here again. There is a warrant out for his arrest. Attempted double homicide.”

The words alone send a shiver down my spine.

I don’t want to expose too much of what Mavis shared with me, but she admitted she told Stone about Wesley’s wife and the suspected other girlfriend.

“Plus, his wife wants to file for divorce.” Stone continues. “Abandonment. He had a year to show, and it’s about time that petition will be granted with or without him present. As for any girlfriends, only one was found. She hadn’t dated him long and hadn’t seen him since a week before the fire.”

Stone and I exchange a look before he speaks, “Speaking of. The rubble has sat there long enough.”

“She’s going to sell the property.”

Stone’s brows lift. “She should talk to Trudy Wallace.”

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of Trudy myself. She handles most of the real estate deals around the county. Hopefully she could get Mavis at least a little money for the loss of her place.

“Good idea.” I hoist myself upright to stand and Stone presses off the desk at the same time, stopping me from exiting.

“You know what you’re doing with her?”

It isn’t like my brother to pry into any of our lives, but concern is etched in the fine lines of his forty-four-year-old face. He’s worried about me .

“I got her.” I’m keeping her, I just don’t know how to convince her to stay yet.

Stone nods once, not exactly liking my answer but he doesn’t have to like it. We’re both grown men, who have been alone for a long, long time. I want him to be happy for me, but if he can’t, or won’t, that’s on him.

He moves around his desk and pulls forward a stuffed animal.

“What’s that?”

“We’re calling them bravery bears.” Stone chuckles at the brown animal in his hands with a star near its heart. “I thought Dutton might like one. I heard about his costume.” Stone tips up one brow but doesn’t expand. “Thought he might appreciate being recognized for his bravery, especially after what happened to him last night.”

“Marcie come up with this idea?” The dispatcher in the sheriff’s department was always coming up with new concepts to soften the gruff officers.

“Actually, Emerson did.”

“ Oh . Emerson, huh?” The town’s mayor and my brother the sheriff’s on-again, off-again, publicly acknowledged, friends with benefits situation. While her mother makes it her mission to broadcast that Emerson and Stone intend to marry someday, I’m not certain Stone has gotten the memo. Personally, I don’t see Stone ever settling down. He was burned by love once before and carries the branding of that failed relationship like the badge he wears to work.

Plus, Emerson has never attended a Sylver Sunday meal. The fact comes to me only now as I’ve brought Mavis. Stone’s rule has always been no outsiders. Only family. Very rarely has a friend been included, but as Sylvers keep falling in love lately, the number of attendees grows.

Does that mean I love Mavis? I almost admitted such a thing last night, confessing how those three words fight for release when I’m around her. Because I feel rather passionate about Mavis and Dutton, and this isn’t some savior complex happening. Like I told Mavis, she’s doing more for me than I might be doing for her.

Stone doesn’t answer me about Emerson but holds out the bear for me to give to Dutton. “Thanks, man. I’ll give it to him later. For now, I just want him to forget about last night and hang with Winnie.”

“They’ve become fast friends,” Stone chuckles. “Like Hudson and Zelle.” My eleven-year-old nephew has been teaching a thing or two to my nine-year-old niece, and the pair have turned into double trouble especially when it comes to collecting money for their swear jars from their uncles.

Stone and I grin. We didn’t know any of our cousins. Our mother was an only child. Our father’s family moved away from Sterling Falls. As far as we knew, he didn’t have contact with them as an adult. Or maybe he let any relationship he had dissolve like he did with his kids. As for the next generation of Sylvers, the cousins are close and an extension of their own families.

The grin Stone and I share is full of pride. Sometimes, we marvel at the fact we pulled it off. Sometimes, we still question how the fuck we did it. Only one of us got into trouble, that person being Sebastian, but even he’s had a turnaround. He’s definitely a reformed bad boy, and with his new wife and daughter, and another child on the way, he’s transforming into a great dad and husband.

“Think Judd will be here,” I ask as Stone and I step into the hallway leading to the kitchen.

“I should probably talk to him.” Stone, still playing father-figure even though we’re crossing into our forties.

“Let me,” I offer as we enter the kitchen. I have questions and I can relay the answers to Stone later.

He claps me once on the shoulder like tagging me to be it, and we separate in the kitchen. He’ll still play grill master for today’s meal.

As for me, I need a beer.