Crash (Brazen Bulls MC #1)(98)

She set her hand on his and tried to prepare herself for home being something she didn’t know.



oOo



Her family’s land was nothing special—not quite a hundred acres on which they farmed cotton rotated with sorghum, an ordinary one-story house, a big garage, a couple of barns, a couple of sheds, and a motley assortment of farm animals: goats that served as lawn maintenance, a flock of chickens for eggs, usually some ducks on the pond, horses for everybody, and a pack of lazy dogs and mouse-fat cats. It hadn’t been a glamorous life, and there hadn’t been a lot of extra anything, but it had been a good life. It still was, Willa supposed, for the people who’d stayed.

When Rad pulled up and parked his truck, Willa sat back and stared out the window. It looked exactly like home. She could have been pulling up in Jesse’s truck after school.

“You need a minute?” Rad asked, brushing his fingers through her hair.

A big, black dog Willa didn’t know stood in the middle of the yard. It barked the kind of hailing bark dogs had, several syllables, then stopped and trotted toward the back of the house. Ollie sat in perfect alertness, his body vibrating with wary curiosity. Willa snapped his lead on his collar. She’d have to hold him until he got the lay of this land.

“No, I’m okay. They know we’re here now, anyway.”

It was Saturday evening. Willa hadn’t told anyone they were coming, because she wanted the opportunity to turn around at the last minute. After so many years of being mortally afraid of being seen in Duchy, it was hard to shake that fear, despite the threat being gone. But she missed home. She’d missed it all this time, and the ache had grown more acute with each passing day after Jesse’s death.

She knew that her family—her whole family—had dinner together on Saturday. So she knew she could surprise everybody at once showing up like this. Considering the number of vehicles parked near the garage, that hadn’t changed, though they were all grown up now. In the summer, they’d be eating outside, under the big oak tree.

Willa hadn’t been out of touch in all this time. Her people knew she was with Rad, and they knew she was pregnant. They knew that Jesse was dead—not the way he died but that he had. They’d heard it the same way everybody else had heard it: when Jesse’s mother had been informed.

Now, three weeks after Rad had been shot, with things quiet again in Tulsa and their life finding, for the first time, a place that seemed normal, Willa felt like she could go home. Maybe not again, but anew.

The black dog came back around, this time with Willa’s father in tow.

She turned and kissed Rad’s cheek. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Rad got out, and Willa came out after him on the driver’s side, so that she could bring Ollie down last. He was a perfectly-behaved good boy, but if he got it in his head to break away, there was no way Willa could hold him, so she wanted to be in firm control when he came down among all these news things, new animals.

The black dog barked more ferociously upon seeing Ollie, who moved directly in front of Willa and took his protective stance, the fur rising up across his neck and shoulders like spikes.

“Easy, Ollie, easy.”

Willa’s father had stopped in the middle of the yard as soon as she’d come out of the truck. He stood there, his head cocked, his hands limp at his sides as if he couldn’t understand what he was seeing.

She handed Ollie’s lead to Rad and went to him.

“Willy?”

“Hi, Papa.”

“You’re home. You came home. It’s okay now.”

“Yeah, it is.”

She’d seen him in Houston a few months earlier, but when he wrapped her up in his arms, Willa felt like it was the first time in years.



oOo



Willa had been right—the whole family was in the yard for supper. She was welcomed like a conquering hero, and Rad got hugs from everybody. Her parents, her brother Ken, his wife Harmony—who was also pregnant—her brother Tad, her little sister Kelly, they all brought Rad into the circle as if he’d always been there. No judgments, no reservations, just joy for the completion of their family.

And Rad slid in like he’d known them all their lives, too. It wasn’t even fifteen minutes before he was immersed in a lively discussion about Harley mods with her father and brothers.

Ollie had taken a bit longer to relax among so many animals, but after a couple of hours, he could be seen tussling over a big stick with Bowser, the black dog who’d announced their arrival. Rocky, a little mutt of a hound, stayed under the picnic table, not sure what to make of the new dog or the new people.

Watching these people she loved, she understood that nothing had changed. Nothing at all but the surface. The love, the bond—that was eternal. Willa felt a pang for all those years isolating herself from this feeling, this fulfillment. She’d had this. Her family had always been there, had always loved her, had been as close as she could keep them. Jesse had kept her away from this. Or, more true, her fear of Jesse had kept her away.

Now she had her place in two families. This one that was hers, and the Bulls. One to ground her, and one to surround her. Both to keep her safe and loved. She set her hand on her belly. To keep them safe and loved.



oOo



“I keep trying to decide which of your parents you favor most, but I can’t figure it out. You’re both of them. And they’re nothin’ alike, are they?”