Fire and Love

by Erin Wright

  Somethingwrongsomethingwrongsomethi—

  “Tennessee,” he said, his voice breaking on her name. He sounded panicked? Angry? Worried? She couldn’t tell. She couldn’t read his tone, and that made her even more uptight. “Tenny, you gotta come in.” He pulled her inside and practically pushed her towards the couch. “Sit,” he ordered gruffly. “You’re gonna wanna be sitting for this one.”

  Moose was at one end of the couch and she sent him a bemused smile as she settled down on the other end. Instead of giving her an encouraging smile in return, he looked…just as panicked as Levi?

  What the hell is going on?!

  “Tenny,” Levi blurted out, “we think we’re half brothers. Moose and I. We’re related.”

  Chapter 23

  Levi

  The look on Tennessee’s face…

  Well, it probably mirrored the look on his own, honestly.

  “Moose,” he said, turning back to his best friend – his brother?! – “we gotta go talk to your parents. Our dad? Oh God, I think I’m gonna puke.”

  It wasn’t that the idea of being half brothers with Moose was such an awful idea, of course – if he could choose any person in the world to be his brother, it’d be Moose, hands down – but just that everything he knew was a lie.

  Everything.

  Was his name even Levi Scranton?

  He felt the bile rising up further in his throat, making it hard to breathe. It was all too much. A small part of his brain told him that he was going into shock, but he couldn’t figure out how to stop it.

  He knew Tennessee must be dying inside, wanting to know what the hell was going on, but he wasn’t sure if he had it in him to tell this story twice in ten minutes, let alone yet again to Rocky Garrett. And he sure as shit had to tell Rocky, if only because he wanted some answers.

  Well, not Rocky. His father.

  Rocky was his father. Not just his boss.

  His stomach roiled.

  He’d tell Tenny and Rocky at the same time. Two stones, one bird, and all that shit. Two birds, one stone? Maybe there’s birds in the bushes. Or birds in his hand? Or maybe it’s stones in his hand. It could be–

  Tennessee laid her hand on his arm, jerking him out of his quickly spiraling panic. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” she said soothingly. “Let’s go over to…uhhh…Rocky’s house. Talk to him. Get this all straightened out.”

  She said it so reasonably and calmly, as if talking about whether to go out to eat at a Chinese or pizza restaurant. He felt his body begin to shake.

  Instinctively, protectively, like a momma bear protecting her cubs, his mind shut down and his body went into auto-pilot. He couldn’t let his nerves get to him. He had to keep it together. One step at a time.

  They walked out of his house and into the bright sunshine. He climbed numbly into the backseat of Moose’s truck, not trusting himself to drive. He’d probably drive right into the side of a building without even noticing it was there. Moose and Tennessee chatted quietly on the way over to the Garrett house but Levi couldn’t make his brain concentrate enough to understand what they were saying.

  Words were everywhere but they had no meaning.

  Rocky is my father. Rocky Garrett is my father.

  Who the hell is my mother?

  It couldn’t be Linda Garrett, that was for damn sure. Levi was two and a half months younger than Moose. Unless they were some bizarre medical miracle, he was pretty sure Linda didn’t give birth to Moose in August and then give birth again to Levi in October.

  Oh, and then choose to hand Levi off to the town drunk.

  So who the hell is my mother?

  They pulled up in front of the Garrett house and even through the haze and pain and overwhelmedness washing over him in waves, a small part of Levi’s mind realized that Moose was probably about to see his father for the first time since he’d walked out in the middle of May and had started sleeping on Levi’s couch.

  What would it be like for Moose to see his dad after all this time? Levi reached out and put his hand on Moose’s shoulder. Moose looked over at him, and they shared a look that said it all, guy style. No frills, no emotion, just the facts.

  You ready for this?

  Yeah.

  Okay, let’s do it.

  Moose knocked lightly on the imposing front door and then opened it up. “Hey, it’s Deere,” he called out, pushing the door open all the way and ushering Levi and Tenny in behind him.

  “Deere?” Zara gasped. She came sprinting in from the living room and threw her arms around her older brother.

  Except, I guess I’m her older brother too.

  Levi was beginning to suspect that eating lunch had been a bad idea.

  “What are you doing here?” Zara demanded half-accusingly, pulling away and glaring up at him. In typical teenage girl fashion, she couldn’t seem to decide if she was pissed or excited. “I didn’t think I’d see you again…well, not for a while, anyway.”

  Moose patted her shoulder awkwardly. “Hey, are the parents home?” he asked, completely ignoring her question.

  “Oh yeah. Mom’s up in her sewing room and I think Dad’s out back.”

  “Can you go get…Dad?” Moose asked, stumbling over the words. Levi’s heart hurt. Last time the two of them had spoken, Rocky had disinherited Moose. He probably didn’t know if he should even be calling him “Dad.”

  It was a really strange comment on the state of the universe that in that moment, Levi could honestly say that he was facing the same conundrum.

  “Sure,” she said slowly. Millions of questions were dancing over her face, but she bit her tongue. “Be right back,” she said and took off for the backdoor.

  “I better go get my mom,” Moose said, the words coming out much easier than when he’d called Rocky “Dad.” “You two just hang out here.”

  He disappeared up the stairs, leaving Levi and Tennessee in the living room alone.

  “Remember all the Saturday nights that we spent here?” Tenny asked quietly, breaking the silence. “I always thought of Linda and Rocky as being a second set of parents. I had no idea how true that was for…for you.”

  He gave her a wry smile that hurt to even push into place. “You and me both,” he murmured.

  “Levi?” Rocky said, coming in through the backdoor, pulling his gloves off as he came walking over, Zara trailing in behind him. He was sweaty and grass-stained – he’d obviously been working on the yard before they’d interrupted him. “How’s it goin’?”

  His boss reached out to shake hands.

  “Dad,” Levi said softly as he clasped Rocky’s hand in his.

  Linda, coming down the stairs, gasped as the world froze around them.

  Chapter 24

  Tennessee

  It was so obvious, looking at the three of them. She felt stupid for having missed it before. Of course, everyone else had missed it too, but still…

  She’d always joked that Moose and Levi looked like they could be brothers, but now, looking between Levi, Moose, and Rocky, she realized that Levi actually looked more like Rocky than Moose did. Moose had his mother’s nose and eye color, while Levi…

  Well, add on a few pounds, add in some gray hair and a couple of wrinkles, and he was Rocky. The same thick eyebrows, the same square jaw, the same dark eyes, the same deep, rumbly voice…

  It was painfully, stupidly, ridiculously obvious, now that she was looking for it.

  Rocky’s gaze was darting between his sons and his wife, clearly trying to decide what to say; what to admit to. Finally, he turned back to Levi.

  “You’re right.”

  The air was gone from the room, Tenny would swear it on a stack of Bibles. Or, at least, she was completely incapable of breathing. The world was going a little dark around the edges. Don’t pass out, Tenny, don’t pass out. This is not the time or place for it. Breathe. Just breathe.

  “You are my son,” he continued quietly. “I had an affair with my secretary, Jennifer Scranton – di
d Steve ever tell you her name?”

  Levi just shook his head, not saying a word, his eyes trained on his father.

  “I’m not proud of it, but…” He hesitated, and Tenny was just sure he was debating how much to admit to. As little as possible, if he thought he could get away with it. “Well anyway, once she figured out that she was pregnant – and based on some math, she was pretty damn sure I was the father – she wanted us both to get divorced and marry each other. Divorcing Linda…I may’ve been an idiot, but I’d never do that. I confessed to Linda what had happened, fired Jenn from the dealership, and then for good measure, I paid her some hush money to keep it quiet.”

  Rocky shrugged, glancing up towards the stairs where Moose and Linda were still frozen in place, and then back to Levi with an ashamed smile. “She was tall with dark brown hair…it would be easy to just assume that you took after her instead of Steve. It could’ve all worked out, except she ran through that money, and two years later, she was back on my doorstep. She wanted another bribe to keep it all a secret. I knew it’d never end if I kept paying her – she’d just keep coming back for more hush money – so the second time, I would only give her the money if she agreed to leave town and never come back. She was supposed to take you with her, of course, but she didn’t. She left you behind with Steve. I don’t know…I have no idea if Steve knows the truth or not.”

  He let out a long sigh. “I couldn’t claim you as mine publicly; I couldn’t get involved with Jennifer skipping town without people wanting to know why, so…I just kept quiet. When Deere first came home from school with you in tow…I’ll admit, it was a little awkward at first, but we soon realized that you had no idea, so after a while, it was easy enough to just start taking care of you however we could. Linda may not be your momma, and she may have choice words for your biological momma and for me for my stupidity, but over the years, she’s learned to love you as her own.”

  Tenny watched as Levi looked over at Linda standing at the base of the stairs, her hand over her mouth, her eyes filling with tears. She gave Levi a little smile and shrug that said without words, Yeah, your biological dad’s a bastard; what’re ya gonna do?

  Tenny thought back to the years and years of Levi practically living at the Garrett home – the home-cooked meals, sleepovers, camp-outs; they had even sponsored him for high school football along with Moose because they knew Steve wouldn’t pony up the dough so his son could play.

  Except, he wasn’t Steve’s son.

  Does Steve know? The question kept swirling around and around in her mind.

  Jennifer had been married to him when she got pregnant. Maybe he really had no idea; maybe he truly believed Levi was his, and had still treated him that godawful all these years.

  Tennessee looked back at the diminutive woman standing at the base of the stairs, Moose towering over her, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist. There had always been a special bond between Moose and his mom, and watching them in this moment, probably one of the worst moments of Linda’s life…Tenny could see the love between them. Moose would stand up for his mom every time. She wasn’t good at standing up for herself, even Tenny could see that, so she needed a champion in her corner. Tenny was glad that Moose was there for her.

  Tenny watched as Levi turned back to his father – oh, what a weird thought that is! – and asked quietly, “So, is this why you paid for my schooling to become a welder?”

  Rocky nodded. “Smart boy,” he said with an approving chuckle. “Yeah, I couldn’t claim you publicly, but I didn’t want Steve’s drinkin’ to mean that you didn’t have a chance in life. Paying for you to become a welder was easy enough to justify – after all, the official story was that I was just lookin’ for a loyal and talented employee and since you was Moose’s best friend, it wasn’t real hard to make people think that that’s how I got to know you. And in a way…they’d be right, anyway. All that time you spent at my house growin’ up – that is how I got to know you.” He paused for a moment, stroking his chin as he thought. “I have to ask – how’d you finally figure it out?”

  “Your younger sister, Florence.” Levi looked Rocky straight in the eye as he said it. No flinching, no accusations, just stating the facts.

  Tenny couldn’t be more proud of him than she was in that moment. In his shoes, she sure as hell wouldn’t be keeping it together like he was. In fact, she wasn’t in his shoes and she still wasn’t keeping it together as well as he was.

  “Flo? But…but she’s dead.” Now Rocky looked genuinely confused.

  “You know how she was always doing genealogy stuff?” Moose asked, speaking up for the first time since his dad came walking inside. “Turns out, she liked taking DNA tests, too.”

  “DNA tests?” This did not seem to clarify anything at all for Rocky. Tenny almost felt sorry for the man in that moment, despite the fact that he’d done his best to force Moose to marry her and make both of their lives miserable.

  The keyword being almost.

  “Several weeks ago,” Levi said, “I ordered one of those new DNA tests you see advertised everywhere ‘cause…well, ‘cause my da–Steve just don’t look a damn thing like me.” Levi shrugged, looking supremely uncomfortable. “I, at least, wanted to know what my heritage was. The results came back and they didn’t make a lick of sense – no Scandinavian blood, but plenty of English, Italian, and Spanish.”

  “Yeah, Grandpa on my dad’s side came from Italy; Grandma was from Spain,” Rocky said, as way of explanation. “English was the other half of the family. I guess Jennifer must’ve come from the same places. I can’t say as we ever sat and talked about it.” He let out an uneasy chuckle and looked over at Linda, his face flushed.

  Discussing your ex-mistress and mother of your illegitimate child in front of your wife couldn’t be the easiest thing in the world to do. Tenny still found herself running short on pity, though. Maybe she just wasn’t that nice of a person, but she couldn’t look past him trying to force her into marriage with his son.

  No, she wasn’t overlooking that anytime soon.

  “When the results came in,” Levi continued, “they also said that I had a relative in the area who’d taken the test. That’s when I was really confused because my parents were supposed to be from Colorado, not from around here. When it pulled up Florence Garrett…” He shrugged. “Y’all are the only Garretts I know, so I called Moose and asked him. At first, I thought that maybe Florence was my mom, but Moose told me that wasn’t possible.”

  “No, Flo didn’t have any kids,” Rocky said, shaking his head sadly. “Never did get married. Had some heart problems and knew she wouldn’t be long for this earth. I think she tried to make up for it by researching our family history as far back as possible. She was obsessed with genealogy. I should’ve known she’d do somethin’ like take a DNA test – it sounds just like her.”

  “Why hadn’t I heard about Florence before today?” Levi asked. “I’ve been over here more times than I could count. How could you have a sister I’d never heard of?”

  Rocky shrugged nonchalantly. “She didn’t get out much, except to go stare at headstones or somethin’. When she passed, we had a little graveside funeral but she’d always been a pretty private person, so she didn’t have many friends to come attend. We didn’t hide her from you on purpose – why would we? She was just this quiet, retiring thing.”

  It was hard for Tenny to imagine Rocky having a younger sister who was a quiet, retiring, housebound ill woman. It was the exact opposite of the man in front of her. And yet…she was the key to forcing all of this out in the open. Tenny wondered for a moment what Florence would’ve had to say about that, if she’d been alive to see it. Would she have been happy to have found another branch of the Garrett family tree? Or would she have been horrified that her older brother had cheated on his wife and had fathered an illegitimate child?

  Rocky shook his head again, this time with a small laugh. “Well, now that it’s all out in the open, why not do what
I’ve always wanted to do from the get-go, right? Son, you oughta change your last name to Garrett, and then take over the John Deere dealership from me.”

  And just like that, all of the oxygen was gone from the room again.

  Chapter 25

  Levi

  “Rocky!” Linda gasped, horrified. “You can’t—”

  “What?!” Levi stared at his father, horrified, just sure he hadn’t heard right. The universe had thrown a lot at him in the last three hours – understatement of the century – so maybe his brain was startin’ to make shit up, wholesale.

  Next, he was going to imagine that Rocky was actually the King of England and Levi was his heir.

  Totally seemed possible in that moment.

  “I always thought God had a real sense of humor,” Rocky said, chuckling, seemingly oblivious to the astonishment swirling through the room at his idea. “I get three sons.” He began ticking it off on his fingers. “One runs off and joins the military, one refuses to marry a beautiful woman, and one is a hard worker who says ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘No, sir,’ ‘Right away, sir.’ And guess which one I can’t claim publicly.” He shook his head ruefully. “And then the hard-working one is the one who ends up falling in love with the beautiful woman!” Involuntarily, Levi shot a glance over at Tennessee. How did Rocky know they were dating? Before he could reason that out or ask any questions, Rocky continued on. “You couldn’t make this shit up if ya tried. So, as I figure it, God wants you to have the dealership.”

  Levi blinked, and then blinked again.

  He was in shock again.

  A small part of his brain knew it, even though it didn’t exactly help to know it. His mind just spun around and around.

  I’m in shock. I have a father and it isn’t Steve Scranton. Rocky wants me to change my name. Rocky wants me to take over the dealership. I’m in shock. Is this what Alice felt when she fell down the rabbit hole? Why am I thinking about Alice in Wonderland right now? I’m in shock.