Chapter Eighteen: Opposites Attract

Ryder

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Performed by Jake Bush

As I pulled into the ranch, my emotions were still ping-ponging all over the place. If the kiss with Gia hadn’t already shaken me to my core, holding Addy and feeling her little sobs as she’d explained what had happened in the hotel room with Ravyn had shattered what was left of my calm. I felt shaky and unstable. Things I hated. I wanted control and peace. Not the chaos and disorder Gia had thrust into my life just by showing up.

And yet, at the same time, I wouldn’t go back and undo it if I could.

Regardless of whether Addy was really mine or not, she was here. She was in my life, and I didn’t want that to change. All I wanted was to make her life better. I wanted to make sure she never again lived through anything even close to what she’d experienced hiding under a goddamn bed while her mother was killed.

It made me want to throw up.

I looked over to where Addy sat in the booster on the far side of the bench seat in my truck. We’d left Gia at my house, working to find the murderer. She hadn’t wanted to let Addy out of her sight, but we both knew the little girl needed a distraction, an escape from the nightmare she’d walked us through with halted words.

I helped Addy out of the truck, and she reached inside to grab her backpack and put it on again before turning and tucking her hand into mine. Every time she did it, I felt an overwhelming sense of rightness but also an overwhelming sense of responsibility. I couldn’t fuck this up, and yet I wasn’t sure what the hell I was doing. It continued that ping-ponging in my chest until I thought my rib cage might burst open.

We made our way over to the barn. It hadn’t snowed, but the temperature was in the thirties. The leftover puddles had a thin layer of ice, easily broken. The fields beyond the barn were covered with the shimmer of frozen dew. Gray and white clouds blew through the sky, the sun barely getting a chance to warm the earth before it was covered again.

The barn doors were already partially opened, and as we got closer, Mila’s and Sadie’s voices wafted out to us over the frigid air, accompanied by a soft neigh.

Addy’s feet slowed, and I came to a stop, looking down at her.

“It’s Mila and Sadie. You met them both last night.”

Her face went blank again, tucking her emotions away. It shouldn’t be possible for someone so little to be able to do that, and yet she was exceptional at it.

Another gust of wind hit us, and Addy shivered next to me.

“It’s warmer in the barn. You can meet the kittens and the horses. Have you ever ridden one?” She shook her head. “Well, we can fix that easily enough.”

I pushed open the door some more, the scrape of it echoing through the rafters. The smell of hay and horses hit me. Familiar and soothing. We’d installed solar panels and storage batteries to warm the barn enough that it kept the cold to a minimum. It helped entice the guests into the barn in the early part of the season when we might still have snowy weather, and the animals seemed to appreciate it too.

Sadie’s and Mila’s voices drifted down from the loft, and my horse, an all-black mustang, stomped loudly to get my attention. I walked over to her stall, sliding a hand down her neck, and she pushed her nose into me. “Morning, girl. I know you’re getting antsy. I hope to take you for a ride soon. But in the meantime, I have someone I’d like you to meet.” I gently pulled Addy’s hand up to place it on the mare’s nose. “Addy, this is Arwen. Arwen, this is Addy.”

Addy stilled, and then she let her fingers relax under mine, petting Arwen before withdrawing. “My name,” Addy said, and when I didn’t seem to understand, she continued, “Adelaide Arwen. My name.”

Her words shoved me right back in time to arguing with Ravyn about The Lord of the Rings and its epic qualities. Half the horses on the ranch were named after characters and animals in the trilogy. Ravyn had thought it was silly to name the horses after the books. She’d thought the series was boring and overrated. The only thing we’d agreed upon was Liv Tyler’s portrayal of Arwen. When I’d teasingly said we could name our daughter after her, she’d given me a flat-lipped, single-syllable answer—a resounding no.

And yet she’d gone and done it anyway.

I cleared my throat. “Well, then, it was fated for you two ladies to meet and get along.”

Addy smiled and reached out a hand to pet Arwen again. My horse stood there silently, taking it all in, as if she could read our minds and was trying to soothe us both.

“Addy! You’re here!” Mila shouted down from the loft.

We turned to see her peeking over the rail with blades of hay in her hair and clinging to her clothes. In her arms, she had an all-gray kitten who was squirming and wiggling as if determined to escape. Sadie’s head appeared behind her, lips turning upward in a smile. “Come on up, and meet the babies.”

I led Addy over to the ladder and watched as she carefully pulled herself up. I followed behind her, stooping out of reflex to miss the low rafters. Sadie and Mila had retreated to the back corner. Dust drifted through a single beam of light from the round window in the barn’s peak, turning the loft into a collage of hazy shadows.

My sister and niece sat by a crate filled with old rags and blankets from which mews could be heard. Addy and I made our way over. The mama was a gray tabby just like the one Mila was holding, but her kittens were all shades. There was a pure-black one, a white-and-gray one that reminded me of the dapple downstairs, an orange tabby, and a fawn-colored one. They were six weeks old, and I’d have to arrange to get them neutered soon, or we’d have another pile of kittens before we blinked.

“Here.” Mila shoved the gray kitten toward Addy, who barely had a chance to stick her hands out and catch the little thing. It wiggled and squirmed, and Addy looked up at me with wide eyes. I helped her adjust it so it was tucked into her arms better.

Mila sat next to Sadie, who was playing with a pipe cleaner the orange tabby was trying desperately to catch.

“Auntie Sadie and I were trying to name them. Do you want to help?”

Addy looked at me, those big round eyes of hers getting even larger, but then she shrugged. My niece didn’t even seem to realize Addy hadn’t responded.

“Auntie Sadie says we need to understand their personality to find the right name, so we have to play with them first. I really want to name the black one Arturo, after the king dragon in The Day the Dragons Saved the Universe. I mean, he even looks like a dragon, don’t you think? And maybe we can name the—”

“Breathe, Mila,” Sadie and I said at the same time. Mila rolled her eyes, but I swore I saw Addy’s lips twitch, and it eased my heart a little bit after the intensity of our morning.

Addy lowered herself to the straw-covered planks next to the crate. The little gray cat escaped, and Addy looked panicked, but Sadie simply picked it up and stuck her in the box with the others. Addy scooted, looking inside. A smile burst over her face as she watched the kittens tumble over each other.

When my gaze met my sister’s, we were both grinning too.

“You need to check on the cabins?” Sadie asked, tilting her head toward the area behind the barn where the construction was taking place.

“I should. Shawn sent me some updates yesterday, but I want to make sure the roof kept the worst of the rain out. We were supposed to have the plumbing and electrical finished by next week.”

“Go. I’ll stay here with the girls.”

Addy looked up at me, over to Sadie and Mila, and then back.

I pointed to the round window in the rafters. “I’ll just be right out there. You’ll be able to see me through that window. You okay with that?”

“Uncle Ryder!” Mila all but screamed. “She’s going to be fine. She has me and Auntie Sadie and the kitties. She’s not a baby!”

“Mila,” Sadie said, warning. “Not everyone is comfortable around strangers like you.”

Even after all she’d been through, Mila was still the least-shy kid I’d ever met. She could talk to a statue and make it talk back.

My niece turned her head to look at Addy, as if seeing her for the first time. “But I’m not a stranger. I’m your friend. We decided last night, remember?”

I held back a little huff of a laugh. I squatted to look Addy in the eyes. “You going to be okay? It’ll just be for a few minutes. You can stay right here. No need to go anywhere.”

She looked at the cats and Mila and Sadie and then nodded ever so slowly.

“Okay.” I backed up and headed for the ladder. “I’ll make it real quick. And if you need me, just have Mila scream. She’s got a voice loud enough to wake a dead raccoon a county away.”

“Uncle Ryder!” Mila objected.

I was smiling as my boots hit the ground. I listened for a minute. Mila was doing all the talking, Sadie adding something here and there. It was good the girls were getting to know each other. Mila had friends, but it wasn’t the same as having family at that age. Brothers and sisters…cousins. My heart squeezed. They were cousins. I had a daughter.

Chills coasted up my arms and back.

I was a father.

Even though I’d known it and thought about it ever since walking into the station, it still kept hitting me in the chest at the most random moments. If Ravyn’s letter hadn’t already convinced me, Addy’s middle name certainly had. Maddox had offered to get a DNA test done off the books, and I’d still go through with it, but it wouldn’t change anything.

Addy was mine.

? ? ?

It took me longer than I’d planned to check on the build. Shawn and Ramon were hard at work when I walked into the newest cabin.

Shawn had grown up in Willow Creek. He was a brown-haired, blue-eyed cowboy who was popular down at my uncle’s bar with the locals and the tourists. He was a jack-of-all-trades on the ranch, and I trusted him as far as I trusted anyone but family.

Ramon had been in town for a year or so, moving out of Nashville after trying to make it as a country singer with his down-home, country-star looks and decent voice. He’d said the city life, the pace, the desperation had all been too much for him.

The two men paused their work to walk me through what they’d done over the last two days. Then, we hovered over the plans on a makeshift table built from two sawhorses and a piece of plywood. We talked through the tasks we had to get done before the next inspection, and I felt guilty for leaving them on their own again today.

Building the cabins wasn’t a two-man job. Hell, it wasn’t even a three-man job. We were already pushed to the limits, but I couldn’t leave Addy for long. Not yet. When I explained to them I had some personal stuff going on and hoped to be back at it full time in a day or two, they just brushed it off and told me to take care of whatever I needed to, and they’d be fine. And they would, but the truth was, I liked shaping what I’d designed into reality.

The temperature seemed to have dropped instead of risen as I stepped out of the cabin and headed for the barn again, where Gia was just parking next to my truck. She stepped out, pulling her leather jacket tighter over the lilac-colored flannel she’d had on this morning. It had been soft under my hands, but not nearly as soft as the skin at her waist. Or those silky lips. Those had turned to butter underneath mine.

My pulse picked up at the sight of her.

The second taste of her I’d gotten this morning only had me craving more.

She tucked her hair under a gray knit beanie and headed my way.

“Anything?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not yet, but we barely released the photo. My coworker, Rory, got a hit on a van she saw at the scene, and they followed that to a suburb of Denver. The local PD is going door-to-door, flashing the picture around to see if we get any leads that way.” She looked around. “Where’s Addy?”

I tilted my head toward the barn. “I was just heading back in.”

As we made our way over, our shoulders brushed, and my body prickled with awareness. There was plenty of space for me to move away, to break the contact, but I didn’t. What I really wanted was to grab her hand, push her up against the barn, and continue what we’d started. Instead, I tried to satisfy myself by barely grazing her arm with mine.

We stepped inside to find Sadie filling feed bags for the horses. She waved and then put her fingers to her lips. She pointed upward, and Gia and I stopped and listened.

Mila’s voice was the one I heard first, loud and talkative as always, but then, I heard Addy’s quiet response. Not just one word. Not even two stuttered ones, but an entire sentence. Several sentences. Shock filled me. I turned to Gia, and her face registered the same surprise.

I moved closer to the ladder, skipping the first creaky rung and pulling myself up until I could peek over the edge. Addy had the gray kitten in her hands again, stroking its fur, a soft smile on her face. She was mid-sentence as I focused on her words. “But the dragons can fly into space, and the unicorns can’t, which is why I like the dragons more. They can take you anywhere you need to go. Fly far, far away.”

“I don’t want to go far away. I would miss McKenna and Daddy and Nana and Papa and my aunts and uncles. Don’t you have family that you’d miss?”

“My mama died.” Her smile disappeared.

Mila scrabbled to put the kitten she was holding back into the crate and then sat down next to Addy, wrapping her arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry. You can share my family. You can read about them in the stories I’ve written. There’s one called The Day the Hatleys Saved Each Other and The Day the Hatleys Got Married. Except, my daddy and McKenna haven’t gotten married yet, but they will soon.” Mila’s head tilted sideways, then she asked, “Is that why you’re living with Uncle Ryder? Is he making you his family like my daddy made me his? Because Daddy says Uncle Ryder wouldn’t know a—”

“Mila,” I warned pulling myself up farther onto the loft. I hadn’t wanted to interrupt them. I’d wanted to hear another flurry of complete sentences spoken in Addy’s little voice. But who knew what my niece would have said if I’d let her keep going?

She looked at me sheepishly. “Hi, Uncle Ryder. Did you know that Addy’s mama died? Are you going to take care of her now? Is she going to live with you?” Her entire face went slack for a moment before joy took over, and she screamed, “Is she going to be my cousin?”

Well, hell. That had gone just swimmingly. When I looked over at Addy, her eyes were wide and curious, but there wasn’t any fear or sadness.

I swallowed hard, knowing I couldn’t lie. I didn’t want to. “Yes.”

Mila screamed, jumping up and dancing around. She pulled the gray kitten away from Addy, set it in the crate, and then dragged her up and started spinning the two of them around in a chaotic dance.

I slowed them down, hands to shoulders, and squatted before them.

“Mila. This has to be a secret for now. Our family knows, but no one else can.”

“But why?” Mila whined.

“Because of what happened to Addy’s mama. We need to make sure she’s safe.”

Mila stilled. Then, she whispered, “Does she have bad men looking for her…like that man…the one who tried to take me and shot Aunt Sadie?”

Addy’s eyes turned wide, the fear darting back into them, and I’d never wanted to rewind time faster than I did at that moment. I wanted her relaxed face from moments ago. I wanted the smile and the joy she’d been sharing.

“She’s safe here,” I said instead of answering my niece directly. I took Addy’s hand and tugged her a little closer. “You’re safe here.”

She didn’t respond at all.

Behind the two girls, in the view from the round window, a red Porsche Cayman appeared through the trees on the drive. It stood out amongst the SUVs and trucks that normally littered our yard in the off-season. It would stand out in Willow Creek period, where trucks were the common denominator, the more beat up the better.

“Stay here,” I said, and when Addy looked frightened, I nudged her chin with a knuckle. “It’s okay. Nothing to worry about.”

Then, I hustled down the ladder, jumping down the last few feet and hurrying toward the open barn doors. Sadie and Gia had already turned to watch a tall, dark-haired man unfold himself from the driver’s seat of the sports car.

I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or not when it was Jaime Laredo’s face that turned to meet mine. I was glad it was someone I knew showing up and not someone from Ravyn’s shadowy past. But I also knew he’d use his powers of persuasion to get me on board with his plans for the Eastern Dude Ranchers’ Association.

I turned to Sadie. “Can you make sure Addy doesn’t freak out?”

My sister nodded and turned back into the barn.

“Is that Jaime Laredo?” Gia asked.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that she knew him with the research she’d done on dude ranches. I just gave her a curt nod as the man headed toward us. His hair was thick and black, his eyes dark and narrow under finely shaped brows that were almost too thin for the rest of his features. His face was lean and rectangular, his jaw always cleanly shaven. He was tall with a thin build that belied the muscles I knew he had as I’d seen him slinging hay in a T-shirt when I’d gone to his ranch over a decade ago.

The man had been open and generous in sharing his knowledge of dude ranching and luxury resort management when I’d met him. Even though he hadn’t gone to college, he was one of the savviest businessmen I knew. Our lack of higher education had been a commonality we’d shared and discussed over whiskey and a good meal. It had become a badge of honor for both of us when we’d turned our family land into wildly successful resorts. His was just five levels up from ours.

“Well, hell, if it isn’t Jaime Laredo in the flesh,” I said, stepping toward him.

He raised a brow, one side of his mouth easing upward. “You’ve been ignoring me, old friend.”

I reached out and shook his hand. “Not ignoring as much as holding you off.”

Jaime looked from me to Gia with a slow smirk. “I can see you’ve been busy.”

“Jaime Laredo, Gia Kent.”

When she offered her hand to shake, he brought it to his lips, and the feral objection that flew through me at that simple motion caught me by surprise. I barely held back a snarl and had to tuck my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t rip the two of them apart. And when Gia’s voice turned light and flirtatious, every inch of my body objected.

Never in my life had I felt jealousy the way I did then.

Not even Ravyn had left my inner animal howling with such rabid possessiveness.