Slow Ride Home (The Grady Legacy)

by Leah Braemel

  His mom had always teased how he’d been a handful, but he’d thought she’d said it with love. What if it hadn’t been? What if she’d thought him too much and he’d nearly driven her away? Ben wanted to go find her, demand answers, but he kept his butt planted in its seat. “So she had a hard time adjusting. That doesn’t explain why you say Pop cheated on her.”

  “I doubt you’d remember, Ben, but when you were almost two, Cissy’s ma got real sick. Your mother left you here with Ed while she went home to take care of her momma. At first she’d call every day, ask about you, ask about him. It wasn’t long before Ed noticed she started missing days. She started putting off visits where she was to come home or Ed was planning to bring you down to see her. So after a couple of months, your Pa went to visit her on his own. That’s when Cissy told him she didn’t want to come back. That she’d made a mistake about marrying him and she wanted to go to college like she’d always dreamed, but she couldn’t do that if she lived with him.”

  “No.” He forced a breath into lungs that were rapidly constricting—pressing on his stomach that roiled. He glanced over at Jake, but his brother didn’t seem to be reacting the same way. Why would he? Ben thought, bitterness creeping into his thoughts. Jake wasn’t responsible for his parents’ marriage imploding.

  “I wish I could sugarcoat it for you, son. I have no doubt Cissy would have asked for shared custody, but the truth is if it had come down to it, given that she’d left you at home for more than four months and that your grandparents could have hired better lawyers than your momma could afford, I reckon your father could have successfully won primary custody if they hadn’t reconciled.”

  They had to be yanking his chain. Except every time he figured they’d break out in smiles and yell “Ha, gotcha!” they looked even more somber. “Just get to the damned point.”

  Randy glanced at Jake who was staring at the table, not meeting anyone’s eyes but his leg was twitching so hard the whole floor shook. “Jake? You all right?”

  Jake roused, and nodded slowly. “Yup. Don’t worry about me.”

  The lawyer shot Jake another doubtful glance before he continued, “After your father came back from that visit, he was despondent. He thought he’d failed as a husband, as a father and even as a son. I won’t excuse what he did. I won’t blame him either since he thought his marriage was over, but he hooked up with Denise—that’s the girl your grandmother had hired to look after you during the day. I don’t think it was a great love affair. I think he was looking more for comfort than anything, if that’s any solace.”

  It wasn’t. He searched his memory for some trace of this Denise, but he couldn’t remember anyone other than his mother and grandmother caring for him. “How long did it go on?”

  “Less than a month. Then one day Denise told him she couldn’t keep going on the way they were and left.”

  “She didn’t tell him she was pregnant?”

  “She may not have known at the time. Anyway, a week after she left, your mother returned, ready to give their marriage another try. Then a year ago he discovered that your grandmother had paid for Denise to go away and to give the child up for adoption.”

  Unable to sit still any longer, Ben stood. All eyes turned to him. “What? I’m just getting myself a drink.”

  He opened the fridge door and stared in, not seeing the contents. All his life he’d had the Gradys look after their own hammered into him, and yet his grandparents had paid for their own grandchild to be given away? How could they be so hypocritical?

  Allie had left her place and slipped behind him, rubbing his back. “Ben? Are you okay?”

  He turned into her arms and rested his head on hers. Having her here both hurt because she was the messenger, and kept him grounded. And, to add to the mix, was she remembering how his grandfather had run her off the ranch. Had they treated Denise the same way?

  After a moment, she pulled away. “Come on, let’s go sit down and talk this out. Maybe we can make some sense out of it.”

  He followed her back to the table, but pulled his hand from hers when they sat. Hurt flashed over her face, but he couldn’t bear touching her. Couldn’t bear tainting her.

  “So who is he? Where is he? Why hasn’t he shown himself if he’s calling himself George Junior?” The words shredded his throat. “And why the hell does he think he has the right to sell our ranch?”

  “At this point, all we know is that you have a half brother who was born in Houston. We don’t know his name or if he’s involved in Tank’s claim,” Allie picked up the explanation. “Our investigators found a post your father put up on an adoption board, but—and this is really important, Ben—we believe that he may have been intending to leave part of Bull’s Hollow to him. I suspect that Tank misunderstood the conversation he overheard at the funeral home and thought she was talking about George having another child, not your father. At this point, our suspicions are just that, suspicions. I need to talk to your grandmother to get a confirmation of course, but if there is another child, he might have a claim against the ranch, even if he’s not named in the will.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t his kid,” Jake suggested hopefully. “I mean, maybe Denise was already pregnant or got pregnant after she left. It’s possible, right?”

  “It’s possible,” Randy conceded. “A DNA test would solve that issue. But Agnes believed it enough to pay a lot of money to get rid of Denise, so Ed was convinced it was his.”

  “Why didn’t he tell me? Or Jake?” Maybe Ma’s grief wasn’t just for his father’s death but the death of the marriage she’d thought she had. He bit down hard. Ma. If Pop hadn’t told her, this would destroy her. Here he was making it all about him, and he should have been worrying about her. It was her husband after all. How could he have been so blind? “Does Ma know?”

  “About the affair? I don’t know. She’s never said anything to me, and Ed never told me if they’d discussed it.”

  Which meant telling her would fall to him and Jake. Jesus. Ben scrubbed his hand over his face at the thought of having to break his mother’s heart all over again. His whole world reeling around him, Ben pushed himself to a stand. “I gotta get out of here. I need air.”

  * * *

  Allie chased after Ben as he stormed out the back door and around the house, catching him as he climbed into his truck. “Ben, talk to me. You don’t have to deal with this alone.”

  “Not right now. Just leave me alone.”

  Her heart aching at the pain in his eyes, she stepped back as he jammed the truck into reverse and swung it around in a wide arc, then peeled out of the driveway. As she was debating whether to go after him or give him some space, Logan appeared at her side.

  “If you’re thinking of going after him, don’t. He’ll need space.”

  She knew he was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to not hop in her car too. “Did you know anything about Ed having a kid, Lo?”

  “No. What makes you think I’d know?”

  “Because you work for Charles Carter.”

  Bitterness tinged his laugh. “Do you seriously think high-and-mighty my-shit-don’t-stink Charlie Carter is going to tell me diddly squat about his family secrets?”

  “He hired you based on Agnes’s recommendation,” she said slowly. Maybe that’s why he’d shown up at today’s meeting. Maybe he was trying to save his job. Maybe he was afraid Randy would convince Ben to return to his father and grandfather’s original choice. “You’ve worked for him for five years and you brought him Ben as a client. He hadn’t been able to convince George or Ed to retain him in over 50 years.”

  “Charlie hired me because his sister asked him to take pity on her grandson’s best friend, the son of a poor ranch hand. I was their pity pick.” He tossed the blade of grass he’d been toying with. “Despite the little show he put on for you the other day, Charlie hardly knows I’m alive. I’m just another fifth-year associate among a dozen others who are all willing to cut each other’s throats for th
e chance to hopefully be offered a partnership one day. Which is never going to happen for me. I’ll never make partner, not at Carter, Murphy & Scott.”

  “You don’t know that.” But he was probably right, she thought sadly. She’d seen similar choices made not only at Lewis’s firm, but heard stories from some of her fellow graduates.

  “Yeah. I do. I may have gone to UT and been on the law review, but I’m competing with guys from Harvard, Princeton and Yale. Guys who know which fork to use and can argue about what year’s wine goes best with Kobe steak. They’re the type Charlie and the other partners like to show off to the clients. Not me.”

  He stalked back to the porch and sat on the top step. “What am I doing, Allie? I don’t fit in there because I’m not in one of their fancy clubs, and I don’t fit in here either.”

  The irritation she’d felt for him earlier melted when his carefully crafted mask slipped and a hint of the nerdy outcast she’d once known peeked out. “You fit in pretty good at the restaurant the other day.”

  He snorted. “Are you kidding? I hated it almost as much as Ben.”

  “But you were the one who made the reservations at that place. Why not choose somewhere you liked better?” Not caring if she’d get her suit skirt dirty, Allie settled beside him.

  “Charlie’s assistant made the reservations—if I’d not shown up, I would have heard about it. I’d have rather gone to Forth Worth with you guys.”

  “To be honest, Lo, I’m glad you didn’t come with us.” Not the Logan who had sat in Randy Freeman’s office earlier. That Logan she didn’t like. Didn’t trust, though she couldn’t point to what made her distrust him. Maybe it was her experiences with Lewis, or maybe it was just being here, back on Bull’s Hollow surrounded by the shadows of George Grady’s manipulations coloring her judgment.

  “You should have answered his emails, Al. Ben would have stuck up for you. There was nothing he could have done about your father being fired—but you could have stayed in touch, gotten together at spring breaks and stuff. We’ve both missed you.”

  She cleared her throat against the ache gathering there. “I think it was for the best.” Did she really? Yes. She wouldn’t have been a lawyer now if she hadn’t been pushed. “I don’t know if we would have worked back then. What if I’d ended up like Cissy? Pregnant at eighteen, stuck here, having to deal with Agnes and George thinking I’m a gold digger. I’m not sure I would have come back like Cissy did. I wouldn’t have left my son with them,” she added, “but I don’t think either of us were ready to get married, despite what Ben thinks.”

  “And now? What’s happening between you?”

  “I wish I knew what was happening. All I can do is take things a day at a time.”

  “If things don’t work out with him, let me know?” He gave her a sheepish grin. “I used to really like you. I even fantasized that you were my girlfriend.”

  Part of her heart hurt that they’d never clicked back in high school, but law school had changed him so if she’d never met him before, she would have brushed him off. “I’ll keep it in mind, but honestly, Lo? You’re not my type. We can still be friends, though, right?”

  “Charlie wants me to keep you away from Agnes.”

  Interesting. Maybe she needed to pay ol’ Agnes another visit. “He’s afraid she’ll tell me about the kid. Or...” an idea formed, “or maybe she knows about the other will?”

  “I don’t know anything about that.” He placed his hand on her knee. “Whatever happens, don’t let Agnes or anyone get to you. Ben loves you. He may not have said it, but he does. And maybe you haven’t realized yet either, but you’re falling for him again too, aren’t you?”

  Her jaw dropped an inch and she made this weird sound in the back of her throat as she sought an answer. Was it so obvious?

  “Well, you decide while you wait for him to come back.” He patted her knee twice more then stood. “I’m going head down to my parents’ old place. Call me if Ben needs to talk to someone when he gets back.”

  “You’re a good friend.”

  A strange look appeared in his eyes for a second then disappeared. “I’ve tried.”

  When she returned, Randy sat at the table alone, staring at his hands laced on the table, or maybe he was staring at the half-full long-necked beer bottle that hadn’t been there before. “Did we just destroy a family?”

  “They had to know,” she replied quietly.

  “I’m not so sure. It might have been kinder to say there was someone claiming to be their father’s child, and you had to investigate further.”

  “Now or later, they were going to have to deal with it.” But would Ben want her to around as he dealt with the fall out? Or would he push her away?

  * * *

  Ben arrived at the Monstrosity just as Jake roared around the side of the house on his ATV. His brother had lost his hat and his hair stuck out behind him like he’d been dragged behind a bull.

  “Hey, slow down,” Jake called. “We need to talk before you go barging in on Ma.”

  “I’m going to fucking sue them all. Randy, SSTG, everyone. We’ll hit ’em with charges of libel or slander or defamation of character.”

  “We’re not going to sue them because if we do, then the proof that Pop had an affair will get entered as evidence in court. What do you think that would do to Ma? She doesn’t need that type of scandal right now. So we’re gonna discuss this like calm, rational adults, and you will keep a civil tongue in your mouth, you hear?”

  “Why are not just as pissed off as I am, huh? Did you hear what Randy accused Pop of? Do you believe a word of it?”

  Jake grabbed him in the foyer and slapped a hand on his brother’s chest and shoved him against the wall. “You calm yourself down before you upset Ma.”

  “What on earth is all this ruckus about?” Cissy appeared on the balcony overlooking the living area. “Ben, I shouldn’t be having to tell you to use your inside voice at your age, and Jake, let your brother go. For heaven’s sakes, you’re both behaving like children.”

  Plastering a fake everything’s great look on his face, Jake released Ben and called, “Hey, Ma, we need to talk. Can you come down for a minute?”

  “Of course, honey.”

  Even though she was approaching fifty and wearing a T-shirt and jeans, his mother was still pretty enough to turn heads. She descended the spiral staircase with the grace of the homecoming queen she’d once been. What the hell had gone wrong between them for his father to cheat on her?

  “Please sit down, Momma.” Ben paced between the couch and the fireplace then back again, mentally formulating how to start.

  Jake had no problems. “Randy told us about how Dad had an affair and has another kid out there.”

  His mother’s eyes widened and her skin looked like it had never been out a day in the sun; she pressed her fingers over her mouth. “Oh, dear Lord.”

  “Jake,” Ben snapped, “you could have eased into it.” He knelt in front of her. “Are you all right, Ma?”

  Her voice wavered as her gaze flitted between Ben and Jake. “Randy told you?”

  “Allie’s investigators discovered about...our brother and she met with Randy this morning to make sure that Pop hadn’t mention him in his will,” Jake explained. “I guess he thought it would be better if the news came from him.”

  Wishing he could ease the pain she must be feeling, wishing there was some way to avoid all this, Ben covered his mother’s hand with his own. “They’re trying to find the guy to see if he’s the one who thinks he has the right to sell even an inch of Bull’s Hollow to Tank. Allie says it will possibly affect the outcome of our claim if the guy can prove that we had any prior knowledge.”

  “You tell her that bastard isn’t entitled to anything on Bull’s Hollow. He’s not a Grady. He never will be.”

  Ben blinked both at his mother’s uncharacteristic language and her rancor.

  “I forgave your father for what he did. We were...having problem
s, I admit. But then I came home and discovered they’d done it in my bed. My bed. My house.” She spat the words out, bitterness twisting her expression. “On my sheets, with my baby only feet away in another room, listening to them.” She touched her fingers to Ben’s jaw. “Listening to your father making love to a woman who wasn’t your momma. Who would never love you like I did.”

  “I don’t remember anything about it, if that makes you feel better.” Thoughts of his parents making out made Ben want to scrub his brain, but the idea of his father with another woman would require a half barrel of brain bleach.

  “You were so young. And I know we have lots of good memories in that house, but I could never get over that image. That’s why I wasn’t in a hurry to move out of here when Gram moved to Dallas. As soulless as I find this place, I was the only woman Ed ever had in his bed here.”

  Jake sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her, laying his head on her shoulder to whisper, “It’s okay, Momma. We understand.”

  As much as Ben wanted to hug her just like Jake, to tell her everything was okay, that he understood, he couldn’t. Any more than he could stop resentment seeping into his thoughts.

  She’d been gone four months, hadn’t seen him, hadn’t asked to see him—her own son, who’d loved her and needed her—and he was supposed to feel sorry for her now? No wonder his father had turned to someone else, someone who was there for him.

  “I didn’t plan to stay away as long as I did, but it was so quiet at home.” Ben strained to hear her. “My stepfather was there to help out at night, and I had a chance to sit down and read, to talk on the phone to my friends. I got to be eighteen again. I got to pretend that I wasn’t a wife responsible for cooking dinner every night, doing piles of laundry every week, who at the end of the day had nothing to talk about other than how many pairs of underwear she’d washed or what a pretty picture Ben had drawn that day. I couldn’t think about going back to that life, so every time Ed called to ask when I was coming home, I’d just say soon and mention that Mom was scheduled to be on chemo for a while and she needed me.”