Chapter Forty-two: Growing Old With You

Ryder

GROWING OLD WITH YOU

Performed by Restless Road

Gia insisted on picking up our things from the hotel and driving straight through to Willow Creek. I wanted her to go to the hospital, but she demanded we see Addy first, that we get home first. And the fact that she was so desperate to reach my home and my daughter, along with the I love you she’d given me, did something funny to my heart. Sealed it. Healed it. Branded it. I wasn’t sure which. Maybe it was all three. All I knew was that I loved her.

I loved her and was in awe of what she’d accomplished tonight.

The cool she’d maintained while I’d thought I was falling apart at the seams.

She’d taken some over-the-counter pain meds offered by the EMTs but nothing more. I knew she was still hurting when she winced as I took the turns too fast in my hurry to get us to our family.

I took my foot off the gas, easing the speedometer down a notch. There was no fire anymore, no piano waiting to fall on our heads. There was just a long future strolling ahead of us that we still had to figure out, but it was there, waiting.

“You should sleep,” I told her.

“Too wound up,” she said. “I need to call my family before they see something on the news. Do you mind?”

“You don’t ever have to ask something like that. Family always comes first.”

Her eyes glimmered at me the same way they had when she’d said she loved me. My heart swelled. I listened while she called her brother and then her dad, giving them a very condensed version of what had happened, letting them know it would probably break with the morning news. Then, I’d listened as her mother came on and chewed her out for keeping her job a secret. But the lecture was followed by love and a deep relief that Gia was okay.

When she hung up, she closed her eyes, resting her head against the back of the seat. The sun was creeping over the horizon as we reached the mountains twenty minutes from Willow Creek. For a moment, I thought she’d actually fallen asleep, but then she turned those amber eyes flashing with hints of green in my direction and said, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

My heart sank. Part of me knew she didn’t mean me…us…and yet a moment of panic still snuck over me. Old habits. Lack of trust that wasn’t caused by her but by those old wounds that, while healed, could still flicker back to life occasionally. It would be a work in progress for a long time.

“Do what?” I finally asked.

“This job. I don’t want my mom and dad to get a call that says they lost me in some jungle in South America. I don’t want you and Addy to lose someone else you love.”

I swallowed hard, throat bobbing. “I told you before, and I’ll say it again. I’d never ask you to give up what you do. That isn’t who I am.”

She smiled, and it lit up the entirety of the darkened car even more than the weak sunrise. “I know. It’s part of why I love you. That you don’t expect me to just walk away.” She extended a hand as if to caress my shoulder, and pain drifted across her face again.

“I’m calling Maddox. I’ll have McKenna meet us at the hospital.” After I did that, she returned to the conversation as if we hadn’t stopped.

“I don’t have a back-up plan.” There was a whisper of sadness in that tone. She’d told me she didn’t sit still well, and I’d witnessed that myself ever since she’d rolled into town. She’d need action. Something meaty and gritty to keep her occupied. Puzzles to solve.

“It’s not the same—not the same at all—but Maddox is shorthanded at the station.”

She winced again, and this time, I wasn’t sure if it was because of the pain or because of the job I’d suggested.

“Your boss is right. You don’t need to figure it out right now. Take the vacation he suggested. Rest and recover. That should be your primary focus right now.”

“Shall I call your mama for a reservation?”

Even though I knew she was teasing, eyes flashing with humor, I still growled out my response, “You stay at the ranch, and we will have a problem. There’s only one place you’re sleeping while you’re in Willow Creek.”

“So bossy.”

“You love it.”

“From you…I do.”

Those two little words sank into me. I do. I wanted her to say I do in a very formal way. I wanted her to let me slip a ring on her finger in front of our families and declare to the world that we were forever. The ring I’d taken from Jaime’s safe was burning a hole in my pocket. I wouldn’t give that one to Gia. It had too many tainted memories now, but I’d give her another one—one that was just about us.

The moment I’d closed my fist around my great-grandmother’s ring, I’d been overwhelmed with relief at having back the family heirloom Ravyn had stolen. Mama had tried to hide how sad she was that it was gone, because she knew I was already carrying around enough remorse, but losing the ring had felt like losing part of us. While Granny had never married, she’d worn the ring on her right hand until she died and then passed it down to Mama. By that time, Mama already had a ring Dad had bought for her, and she didn’t want to trade one for the other, so she’d saved it for whichever of us kids got engaged first and wanted to use it. I’d had the dumb luck of being that sibling.

Having it back felt a bit like saving our land from being auctioned off piece by piece, as if I was setting right our family history. Restoring it. Keeping it whole.

Gia had allowed me to do that.

She’d brought me gifts I’d never expected to have again.

Addy. Her. They were the most important ones.

Everything else was like adding whipped cream to one of Mama’s pies—sweet but unnecessary.

? ? ?

When we got to the hospital and McKenna reviewed the X-rays with us, it was clear that not only had the asshole broken Gia’s wrist, but he’d twisted it so the bones had been shifted out of alignment. This meant Gia needed a cast. So, it was almost lunchtime by the time we actually headed out to the ranch where Addy was waiting for us with the rest of my family.

I’d barely helped Gia out of the car and turned toward the porch before a tiny body was flinging itself at us. My heart rushed, pounding fiercely as I picked Addy up, wrapping her in one arm and tugging Gia close with the other.

Addy buried her face in the crook of my neck, and her little body quivered. It took a rush of water hitting my skin for me to realize she was crying.

I kissed her temple, squeezed her even tighter, and did my best to try to comfort her. “It’s all over, sweetheart. We’re here. We’re all safe. And no one is coming after you again.”

Addy lifted her face, tears flowing down her cheeks as she looked from me down to the bandage on Gia’s neck and then the cast. “You’re hurt!”

“Nothing big. In six to eight weeks, I’ll be good as new.”

Addy stared at the bandage amidst the purple bruising on Gia’s neck. The blood stains trailed down onto the bodice of the evening gown. Addy’s eyes were big as she reached out tiny fingers to touch the bandage.

Gia grabbed her fingers and kissed them. “I swear, Addy, I’m going to be okay.”

“Was it a knife?” The question was whispered so quietly the wind almost took it away.

“Yes,” Gia said, throat bobbing and eyes filling with tears. “But they’re all gone, Addy. All the bad men. They aren’t going to be able to hurt any of us ever again.” Gia’s words were sure and confident, and even if I hadn’t seen the end of the Lovatos with my own eyes, I would have believed her.

“They died?”

Gia nodded, and I loved her for being honest even when it was hard to hear. The truth was always better.

“Mama died too.” Addy’s little voice was so sad it almost broke my heart all over again.

“She did,” I acknowledged. “But we’re going to bring her here. To the ranch. We’ll bury her with the rest of my family in the Hatley plot, and you’ll be able to walk over and talk to her whenever you want.”

“She can’t talk back.”

“No, but I believe she’ll hear you,” I told her. We stood that way for several minutes, hugging each other and reveling in the fact that we could, until Mama hollered out at us from the back porch.

“I need some of my own damn hugs, you three. So shuffle those feet on over here.”

And we did what we all did when Mama gave an order. We followed it.

? ? ?

That first night, we stayed at the ranch to be close to family. The three of us slept together in Maddox’s old room that Mama had made into a guest room with a king-sized bed for nights just like this when some or all of her kids stayed there. I wasn’t sure what had forced my eyes open. Maybe nothing more than the dawn starting to creep through the blinds, as I’d always been an early riser and working on the ranch meant even earlier starts. But the first thing I saw was Addy’s tiny body snuggled up between Gia and me.

My heart felt like it grew and expanded until it threatened to leap from my chest. This was all I needed. Family. This little unit I’d never believed I’d have again and that I was going to cherish until death knocked at my door in another hundred years. And even then, it would be too soon.

Addy’s sweet face was completely relaxed, and her lips were curved upward, as if she were dreaming of only good things. I promised myself I’d give her a lifetime full of just that. She’d earned it in her first seven years, suffering more than most grown adults had. I ran a hand over her hair, amazed that she was there. That she existed. That I got to touch her.

When I moved my hand back to Gia’s waist, warm eyes greeted me. A slow smile took over my face, and I leaned over the top of Addy to give her a gentle kiss, a welcome-to-the-day kind of kiss. What I really wanted was to give her a kiss that would leave her gasping and calling my name.

There’d be time for that. Time for all the things I wanted to do to Gia’s body.

And that thought made my heart grow and expand a bit more. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to contain it for much longer.

“Morning, darlin’. How you feeling?” I asked, glancing down at the bandage on her neck and then the cast on her arm.

“All I feel right now is lucky and loved.”

I ran a finger along her cheek. “That’s a mighty good way to start the day.”

? ? ?

The next night, we went back home. Gia and I watched Addy carefully, worried the events that had taken all of us from there would make her feel unsafe and scared. It helped that Dad and Shawn had replaced the broken window, and Mama and Sadie had helped them clean up. No sign of anything bad having happened remained, even though I could still see it in my mind like a horror movie on repeat.

As soon as we’d set our bags down, Addy asked to play Pac-Man.

So, we spent the day in the game room, where nothing bad had ever happened. We played video games and board games and taught Addy how to play pool. Gia promised she could beat me with her eyes closed once she had use of both hands, and I was pretty sure she could, even though I was the undefeated billiard player in my family. It wouldn’t bother me at all to lose to her. It only added to her sexiness and my desire to take control in other ways once our bedroom door closed.

The three of us collapsed at the end of the day on the sofas in front of the entertainment center with pizza and movies that Addy picked out. When Addy’s eyes started to droop, we headed upstairs where Gia helped Addy get ready for bed. I read her a couple stories until her eyes closed, and then, we quietly left, shutting the lights off behind us.

It had been a good day. Good memories. Moments I would always cherish because I’d already missed too many of them with Addy, and yet, I hesitated outside her door, suddenly panicked at the thought of leaving her on her own after all that had happened. I’d lost her once before she’d been born and thought I’d lost her again when I’d seen her things next to that cot on the video at Jaime’s.

Gia pulled my hand into hers. “If we don’t believe she’s safe, she won’t ever feel it.” I tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear but didn’t say anything, and she let out a breath, as if she’d been holding it for a century, before saying, “She’s safe, Ryder. We’re all safe.”

My throat bobbed. I hated that her voice was still raw and rough. Hated what had happened to her as much as I hated what had happened to my daughter. But Gia was right. Nothing was coming after us anymore.

All we needed to do now was let our bodies heal while we loved on each other.

And loving on people…I was good at that. I’d once been great at it.

For Gia and Addy, I would become a world-champion lover and dad.

I whisked Gia into my arms, and she gave out a startled little cry as I marched her down the hall to my room. I kicked the door shut behind me, punched the button by the light switch to shut the blinds, and tossed her onto my bed, being as careful with her arm as I could while still getting my point across.

She laughed but didn’t move. Instead, she just directed a long, slow gaze over me from head to toe, slowing along the expanse of my chest and settling on my jeans, where my hard-on pressed against my zipper.

I returned the favor, taking in her dark hair spread across my sheets, skimming over the hard tips pushing against her thin sweater and the black leggings that were clinging to her hips. The cast and bandages sliced into me, but when my eyes found hers again, the unconditional love there eased that pain. There were no more secrets. No hidden agendas. Just love. My heart exploded, sending a burst of confetti of passion and devotion into the air. It spread over us, coating everything with a hazy glow.

I didn’t remember moving, but I found myself devouring her like I’d consumed her at Phil’s. She met me stroke for stroke, not yet surrendering control to me, determined to do just like she’d said that first night and give as much as she received. Hands and mouths nipped and glided over each other. Clothes were shed, and I’d settled in between her thighs just as the moonlight shifted out from behind a cloud and shone on her through the skylight. It made her look ethereal. Fairylike. If Ravyn had been Eowyn, Gia was absolutely Arwen, giving up her way of life to be part of mine.

I’d never let her regret it now that she’d chosen to stay.

Our gazes locked, and she brushed a soft palm along the stubble on my jaw, which was already turning back into a beard.

“Make love to me, Ryder,” she said. “Make love to me in a way that screams this is where I belong. That proves to my heart and body they belong to you. Make me feel it with every touch and caress. And I promise, I’ll do the same. I’ll write myself onto your soul and never let go.”

I let out a low, guttural moan, half pleasure and half pain, before I captured her mouth with mine, searing into us the promises we were making to one another. Fingers trailed over hot skin, lips following the same path. Her movements echoed mine, every touch and caress returned with equal fervor. A battle to see who could show who how much they cared most. A battle to prove this was the only place we belonged. We slid together, the sweet glide of silk against silk. Two souls merging as the moonlight surrounded us and the rest of the world disappeared.