“That’s sweet, but I think we’ll stay where we are for now.” No way could I step foot back into that bedroom, not after what happened in there. It’s a shame that I have so many good memories of Hudson and me in there, and now they’re all overshadowed by that one terrible moment with Marco. “When does she get back? We can set up a dinner with all of us so she can formally meet Hudson.”
“She should be back by Saturday. You want to come over here around five?”
“Sounds good,” I agree, hanging up and looking over at Hudson.
“What?”
“Mom’s leaving Marco and moving into your old room at Brad’s. We’re going to have dinner with them Saturday night. Is that okay?”
“Absolutely,” he says, picking up my hand and pressing a kiss to the top.
Saturday rolls around, and Hudson and I get dressed and head over to Brad’s. I don’t bother knocking. I just walk right in like I still live there. Brad’s in the kitchen cooking dinner, so we go in there directly.
“Where’s Mom?” I ask, sitting down at the table.
“She’s in her room, unpacking and getting settled.” He brings over the salad and places it on the table. “What’s new with you guys?”
Hudson sits down next to me. “I bought a new truck.”
“Nice. I guess the fire department is paying you well then, huh?” Brad has no idea about how much money Hudson has, just like I didn’t.
“Not too bad,” he answers, not wanting to bring it up. I always thought that people didn’t talk about their money because they were greedy and didn’t want anyone to know, but now I know that isn’t true. Hudson doesn’t talk about his money because to him, it doesn’t matter. He’s still the same guy he’s always been, good, caring, and reliable.
Mom walks into the kitchen and sits down across from me and next to Hudson. “I had no idea you guys were here already. How are things?” she asks. “It’s nice to see you again, Hudson. You’ve grown so much since we moved away.” She flashes him a smile.
He nods. “It’s been a long time, ma’am.”
She laughs. “Oh, please. Call me Janel like you always used to. Deven, how are you doing, honey?”
I’m thrown off by her nice tone of voice, but I don’t mention it, wanting tonight to go smoothly. “Good, actually. We have some news.”
Brad looks over his shoulder at me just as I hold up my left hand, showing them both my engagement ring.
“We’re getting married!”
Brad laughs and comes over to hug Hudson, and my mom just gushes over how big the diamond is and how it had to cost a pretty penny. I don’t know how my mother has changed so much over time. When I was little, she was the best mom I could’ve asked for. She took care of me, made sure I had everything I needed, and she spoiled me rotten. I guess my years of misbehaving and then being with Marco ruined her. Now she seems to hold a grudge against me, and only cares about money. Looks like she has a rude awakening coming.
“We’re also building a house,” I continue on with the good news.
“Really? Where at?” Brad asks, coming to sit at the table with us.
“Well, you know my dad. When he split up the estate, he gave me and each of my brothers a chunk of property. I figured it was time to put it to good use. Now we’re smack dab in the middle of Colton and Drake.”
“We are?” I ask, looking over at him. I don’t remember seeing either of their houses.
He nods. “There’s miles and miles of forest between us, but yeah, they’re our neighbors.”
“Look at the sketch,” I say, pulling my phone out of my pocket. I pull up the picture that Clay sent to me to show off.
Brad takes it and looks over it. “Wow, that’s amazing,” he says, passing the phone over to my mom.
She looks at it and her mouth drops. She looks up at me, over to Hudson, then back to the screen. “This place is going to be beautiful, Deven. Looks like you’ve got yourself a good man here.” She flashes him a smile.
I nod. “I know,” I say, looking over at him and squeezing his thigh under the table.
My mom hands my phone back, and we all begin eating the dinner that Brad has prepared. Talk is easy among us. Brad talks about work and that girl Abby he’s been seeing. Hudson and I talk about our house and how we see our future going, and Mom just sits back and listens to it all, only adding in her opinion here and there. She never gives the conversation anything of her own, but what could she have that she actually wants to talk about? Her boyfriend of the last ten years has been arrested, pending charges, and she’s quit her job back in Denver to move all her things out of that big mansion into this tiny two-bedroom apartment she shares with her son. I can only hope that as time passes, she returns to the woman she used to be and not the woman before me.
After dinner, Mom and I offer to clean up while the guys move into the living room to watch TV and have a beer. Mom stands at the sink washing dishes while I’m cleaning off the table.
“Tell me what happened, Deven. What really lead to that final argument we had?”
I take a deep breath and tell her the story just as I told it to Hudson. I tell her about coming home from a party and being drunk. I tell her about how I thought Marco was the boyfriend I had at the time, but how I quickly realized my mistake and how I pushed him away.”
She hangs her head. “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you then, Dev. I just…was so confused. Marco didn’t seem like the type and not that I’m saying you did, but you were so troubled back then. You’ve really blossomed into a beautiful, smart, responsible young lady, you know?”
I offer up a smile. “Thanks, Mom. I have the suspicion that it’s thanks for Brad and Hudson. I really got my ass handed to me when I moved here. I suddenly had to get a job and provide for myself. It was my personal mission to recover from my past.”
She nods in understanding. “I can’t believe I brought him back into your life after you were doing so well.”
“You didn’t know,” I say.
“That’s because I didn’t trust you, Dev. All I had to do was listen, but I was convinced that you were a bad apple and that you couldn’t be trusted. I’m so sorry. I don’t know how you could ever forgive me, but I pray that one day you’ll be able to find it in your heart to do so.”
I place my hands on her shoulders. “I already have,” I promise, pulling her in for a hug.
I feel a sob run through her as I hold her.
“I miss your father,” she says, crying on my shoulder.
“I do too,” I whisper, feeling tears stinging at my own eyes.
“None of this would’ve happened had he been here with us, you know?”
“I do know, Mama, but we can’t change the past. We can only look to the future and make sure we don’t repeat the same mistakes. You have a long road ahead of you, but one of these days, you’ll be looking back at these times and you’ll be able to say, I made it. I know because that’s what I’m doing now. I look at how I used to be and look at everything I have now, and I’m amazed by the woman I’ve become and everything I have now: Hudson, getting married, building a house, and looking forward to starting family. I never thought I’d have any of that.”
She offers up a small smile. “You sure have grown up. Too bad that had very little to do with me. I swear, Deven, I will be a better grandma to your children than I was a mom to you. I failed you. I failed you and Brad and now look. You two are taking care of me.” She lets out a sound that sounds like a sob and a laugh at the same time.
I rub her back. “It’ll be okay. Everything will work out.”
“How do you know?” she asks, wiping away her tears.
I shrug. “It always does, doesn’t it?”
She laughs. “I guess so.”
I help Mama clean up the kitchen, and soon after, Hudson and I are leaving to go back to our room. I sit in the passenger side of his truck, staring off into the night. He places his hand on mine, and his thumb rubs back and forth.
I nod. “Yeah, I’m just…I don’t know what I am. Happy. Unbelievably happy. I talked with my mom, and I think we’ve put everything that happened between us in the past. We’re starting fresh. It just feels like after my life having been shit for so long, everything is starting to fall into place. Like I’m going to get my happy ending after all.”
He picks up my hand and presses a kiss to the top. “That’s because you are. We are. As long as we’re together, we have the world in the palms of our hands.”
I smile over at him in the darkness, and my chest swells with so much love, my heart races. I don’t know how I got so lucky. I don’t know how such a bad decision like sleeping with a stranger in a bar parking lot has led me here, but I’m glad it did. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I guess no matter how fucked up your life is, there’s always time to turn things around, to find the sun on a cloudy day, to have one more wish granted: just one more night with him.
Fifteen
Hudson
7 months later…
My phone rings early in the morning, and I roll to my side to answer it. “Hello?”
“It’s done,” Drake says.
“What? What’s done? What are you talking about, man?”
“He took the money and ran,” he says, and I can hear the hurt and the pain in his voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I know how badly you were looking forward to getting to know him.” I sit up, looking over at Deven, who is sound asleep beside me, her stomach swollen with our soon-to-be children.
It’s been months of negotiating the terms for this agreement. He was dead set on getting his hands on a piece of the brewery, and none of us were willing to let it go. Celeste sent over our first offer and it was denied immediately. Month after month, our offer was denied. The guy never had any contact with Celeste or Drake. He didn’t want anything but the money he felt he was owed. His lawyer dealt on his behalf. Finally, about a week ago, we made our final offer and told them such. If he didn’t accept it, we were done, and he’d have to sue to get anything. Celeste also reminded him that if that was the case, he’d more than likely get nothing at all considering he had no legal claim to anything. With that, the offer was snatched up, along with a handwritten note from Drake.
Before he walked away with the offer, Drake called us all into his barn bar one night and we all read over the letter. It basically said that he has more than just money here. He has a family that would love to meet him. It also mentioned that he could still get a piece of the brewery if he was willing to move here to be a part of our family and gain our trust. But nothing was ever sent back, and based on this call, nothing will ever be sent back. He took what he wanted and ran.
“We had an idea that this was how it was going to go, you know?” I remind him.
“I know. I was just hoping. I figured that if there was even a little Slade blood in him, that he would do what’s right. It’s not about the money. It’s about family.”
“Yeah, but…he’s not our family, Drake. You know family is more than blood. Don’t let this get you down. You did the right thing. You gave him money when you didn’t have to. You offered him a home and family. You can’t make him take it. He wasn’t raised with us. He wasn’t raised by Dad. You don’t know what kind of life or family he had. Family must not mean as much to him as it does us. But you know what? We’re the lucky ones here. We know what family means and we have more of it than most.”
“I know. You’re right. I’m just…bummed is all.”
“Well, try not to dwell on it. Hey, are you coming over to the house for the housewarming party?” I ask. The house is officially finished and just in the nick of time. Deven is ready to pop any day now, and we were dreading bringing three babies back to a single motel room.
Three babies. How in the hell did I manage that one? Colton likes to joke and say that we’re the strongest Slades since we managed to knock our women up with multiples while the rest could only get one at a time. Colton has twin boys while Deven and I are having two boys and a little girl. Finally, a girl. She’ll only be the second of the family, but I guess it will finally give Milly another girl to pick on the boys with when they get a little older.
“Yeah, we’ll all be there,” he promises.
“Good. I’ll see you then,” I say, hanging up.
I drop the phone back onto the bedside table and roll to my side to wrap my arms around my big, pregnant wife.
She stirs slightly. “Who was that?”
“Drake. He took the money and ran,” I tell her.
“I bet that’s killing him. He was really looking forward to meeting him.”
I nod. “I know, but I think I talked him down.”
She rolls to her back, and her big belly sticks up into the air. “God, could I get any bigger? I feel like I’m going to explode.”
I laugh. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m going to need reconstructive surgery!”
Again, I chuckle, and this time, she smacks the shit out of me.
I jump. “I’m sorry. I knew I was packing. but I never expected this.” I motion toward her stomach.
“Yeah, well, at least we’re getting three out of the way now. Maybe we can get twins on the next go around and we’ll have all five kids.” She smiles wide and so do I. On our honeymoon, we talked about how many children we wanted. I loved growing up with four brothers and convinced her that five was the only way to go. She gave in after realizing how lonely she was growing up with only one brother who was so much older than she was.
“Come on. We got a lot of packing and moving to do today. The party is tonight.”
“You mean, you have a lot of packing and moving. I’m lucky to move myself at this point.”
“You really are,” I agree. Deven has always been short and petite. Seeing her with such a big stomach is almost alarming. For the life of me, I have no idea how she manages to keep her balance.
I run a bath for Deven and get busy packing up our things and taking them all out to my truck and her new SUV. She’s so big now that she can’t drive. By the time she gets the seat back enough to accommodate her stomach, her feet can’t reach the peddles. Drake is already planning on getting dropped off here to drive it to the new house for us.
“Hudson, help me out of this death trap please,” she calls from the bathroom.
I rush into the bathroom and take both her hands in mine, lifting her up and out of the tub. I give her the only towel she’ll use. We had to go out and buy it special. It was the only one we could find big enough to wrap around her. She’s breathless by the time she’s dried off. She moves into the bedroom to sit down.
I get her clothes for her and move to help her get dressed.
“I hate that I can’t even dress myself correctly,” she whines.
“I know, but it’ll be over soon, and you’ll be back to normal size again in no time,” I tell her, pulling her white, cotton panties up her legs until she can reach them to do it herself.
She gets them on and sits back down on the bed to rest. She looks over to the box sitting beside her. On top is her red, lace thong. She picks it up and shows it to me. “God, I miss these.”
I wag my brows. “Me too. As soon as you can wear them again, I’m pulling them off with my teeth,” I promise.
She snorts. “That will be a long time if you think I’m letting you come near me with that thing again.”
I laugh. “What’s the chances we’ll get triplets twice?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not taking my chances.”
We manage to get her dressed, and just as we’re walking out of the motel, Drake is walking up, holding out his keys for my truck. He’s wearing a big smile and holding out his hand.
I drop the keys into his palm. “Don’t fucking wreck my truck,” I yell at him as I help Deven into the passenger side of her SUV. It’s easier to get her into her car than it is to lift her up into my truck.
&
nbsp; “Don’t tempt me,” Drake says, climbing behind the wheel and revving the engine loud.
I shake my head. “Fuck, he’s going to pay me back for the time I wrecked his brand-new Mustang.”
Deven laughs. “When did you do that?”
“I was a kid. He had just turned sixteen, and his dumbass left the keys in it while he ran into the house to change. Five seconds later, there was a loud crash and he ran out to find that I’d driven the damn thing into the side of the barn.”
She laughs loud. “How’s you manage that?”
I shake my head. “Who knows. I was just wanting to pretend like I was driving, not actually drive, but things got away from me.”
I close her door and go around to the driver’s side. I climb behind the wheel and start the car, shifting into reverse and following Drake. As soon as we hit the old dirt road that leads to the house, he hits the gas and opens her up, taking off ahead of me at the speed of light.
I grind my teeth together as Deven laughs. She knows I won’t drive like that with her in the car. I have no choice but to let Drake have his fun and kick his ass when we stop. I pull into the drive ten minutes later, and Drake is already parked and out of the truck, leaning against the side. He holds his arms out at his side. “What took ya so long? I was about to sit down and have a snack, I’ve been waiting so long.”
I park and climb out, heading for him, but he laughs and dodge me, running around the truck to put it between us.
“I’m going to kick your ass one of these days,” I threaten.
“Yeah, right. At least I didn’t run it into a damn barn,” he throws back.
I shake my head. I knew he was going to bring that up.
Deven opens her door and her hand comes flying out. “Forget about me?”
“Never,” I say, stepping up to her and taking her hand to help her out.
She stands up and closes the door, then looks up at our big, two-story home. “Wow, it’s even better than I remember it.”
The Slade Brothers: A Complete Small Town Contemporary Romance Collection Page 95
