Bound to You

by Vanessa Holland

  Ethan ran into the kitchen and they followed him. Jenna pressed on her stomach, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe. The part of her brain that had shut off earlier, the part that handled responsibilities, turned back on now. Painfully.

  Her stomach tightened with fear. She’d lost her job. A steady income and benefits. Health care for Ethan.

  Sam draped his arm around her neck bouncing the food bag off her chest. “We’ll be fine. Everything will be fine. You’ll see. Don’t worry.”

  “I’ll try.” She found Ethan’s booster seat among the things she’d brought and left on the floor by the wall. She set him in a chair and went to look through the bags of food she’d brought from the house. She found the oatmeal Ethan liked in one of the bags, and the milk in the fridge she’d unpacked from the cooler last night. Glad to see a microwave, she found a bowl and spoon and set that to work then went back to the table for her coffee.

  Ethan was already munching on hash browns Sam had given him. Sam sat back with a smug look on his face and pushed a wrapped breakfast sandwich toward her. She remembered then that someone had made an offer on the house. A full-price offer. More than the house was worth and enough to pay off the mortgages.

  She took Ethan’s oatmeal out of the microwave and stirred it as she carried the bowl to the table. She wanted to clear up the situation with her house. She was glad for the offer but didn’t like Sam going behind her back to do it.

  “I got an offer on the house today,” she said to check his reaction.

  He was in the middle of a bite, but his eyebrows shot up. “That’s good,” he said as soon as he’d swallowed.

  She held out the spoon to Ethan when she noticed he was ignoring the oatmeal in favor of the hash brown patty. He ignored the spoon, as well, so she gave up. “It’s great.” She shook her head, remembering she’d decided to trust Sam. But she wasn’t trusting him now, she was interrogating him. “Did you do it?”

  “Me? No.” When she raised an eyebrow at him, he held up his hands. “I swear. I would have. I thought about it, but figured that was the kind of thing we’d need to talk about.” He loosely pointed at her. “I know you better than you think I do.”

  She opened her sandwich wrapper, a little confused, but happy the offer was an honest one. She sent him an apologetic smile. “Okay. Sorry. I’d given up hope of ever selling that place.”

  He gave her wrist a squeeze. “So, what’s on the schedule for today?”

  She sat back. “Nothing. Whatever.” She was on vacation. Actually, once she thought about it, she wasn’t. She had business to attend to. “I have to go by the real estate office and sign the papers, and then I have to go by the office and get my things. I need to pick up more things from the house. I want to get Ethan’s room set up so he’ll feel at home here.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Sam said.

  Brianna strolled into the kitchen, fully dressed but seeming only half awake. “Hungry, hungry,” she said, plopping down at the table. “I smell food.”

  Sam pushed the fast food bag toward her, she pulled out two sandwiches, and two more hash brown patties. Sam grabbed another sandwich. “Didn’t know if you drank coffee,” he said.

  Bri unwrapped her sandwich, mumbling, “Yum, yum, yum. And yuck to the coffee.” She took a big bite then went to the fridge for a soft drink, quickly darting past Jenna probably expecting to be scolded.

  But Jenna had decided not to fuss and worry and scold. Not today. She’d get dressed and take care of business before lunch and then, then, she would be on vacation for the rest of the day. She’d take Ethan horse riding with Sam. She’d meet his family.

  Tomorrow, she would start organizing her new life.

  She would do what she wanted to do for a change, and see what she could accomplish.

  Voices and movement came from the living room and they all stopped moving to listen.

  “Think they’re up yet?” a woman said, keeping her voice down.

  “Maybe we came too early,” said another woman.

  “Hey,” Sam said, getting up, smiling. “The folks are here.” He headed to the living room.

  Bri jumped up and followed him.

  Jenna tiptoed to the doorway and peaked around. At least half a dozen people stood in the living room. People she’d never seen before. She quickly stepped back, feeling unbearably shy suddenly.

  She forced herself to breathe, then turned to Ethan when he started fussing. He’d heard the voices and wanted down from the table. He was about to topple himself trying push the chair back. She lifted him down and he ran away, toward the living room. Feeling braver with Ethan leading the way, Jenna followed him.

  He ran to a woman of about thirty with short auburn hair and hugged her leg. Jenna stopped in surprise, unable to hear the voices speaking to her, or see the bodies moving in on her. All she could see was another woman lifting her son with familiarity and hugging him, and Ethan welcoming the hug.

  An older woman hugged her, forcing her thoughts off Ethan.

  “I’m Samson’s mother, honey,” the woman told her. “You can call me Sunny. I know it’s early but we couldn’t wait to meet you.”

  She was passed to a pregnant woman who introduced herself as Sam’s sister, Frankie. Then she found herself in a bear hug, almost lifted off the floor by Sam’s father.

  “Welcome to the family, honey,” he whispered in her ear. He stepped back and smiled a bright smile with straight white teeth – a smile almost exactly like Sam’s.

  “Thank you,” she said, forcing herself to relax, but wondered what to do next. She couldn’t be sure, but thought he was one of the men she’d seen in the post office all those years ago. He didn’t seem particularly threatening this morning, especially when he smiled like that. Despite his age, she could clearly see Sam in his face.

  The woman holding Ethan came over smiling. “I’m Becky. Boone’s wife, if you know who the devil that is. He’s at work but he wants to meet you later.”

  Another woman and a man stood near the back each holding a baby, surrounded by children ranging in ages from three or so to a boy of nine or ten. Becky introduced them as Crystal and Mike, who both came up to give her hug. She was then introduced to ‘the kids.’ Ethan squirmed free from Becky when he saw the kids and ran to greet them - more like Brianna than Jenna had ever been, eager to welcome new people into his life.

  Bri had made the rounds and was already holding one of the babies.

  Sam came over and put his arm around Jenna, making her feel as if she actually belonged there. “It’s nice to meet you all,” she said, though her voice came out more of a whisper.

  “Sorry,” Sam said to her, chuckling. “I didn’t know they’d all show up at once.”

  “Look at this boy!” Sam’s father bellowed, startling everyone. He scooped up Ethan and held him high in the air before settling him on his hip and planting a kiss on his cheek. “I swear, he’s gonna be a giant. Look at this boy’s parents.”

  That lightened the mood considerably and everyone smiled, several of the adults looked at Jenna and nodded in agreement. Jenna shifted uncomfortably, still a little self-conscious about her height after the merciless teasing she’d endured as a freakishly tall adolescent.

  Knox grinned all around. “We’re gonna have to raise all the roofs for this boy.”

  “Froggy!” Ethan yelled, kicking his legs, overexcited by all the commotion and attention.

  “There he goes again,” Knox said as he walked toward the front door with Ethan. “Trying to steal my horse. I might as well give up.”

  The man walked right out the door with Ethan, without an explanation. Several of the kids chased after him. Jenna looked to Sam who only ran his hand down her back, smiling pleasantly, not at all worried.

  That was when it hit her. She’d once thought she was all her son had in the world. The only person he could truly rely on, and she’d worried what would become of him if something ever happened to her, knowing Brianna wasn’t prep
ared to cope with a child, still a child herself. But Ethan was a Strickland, too, not just a Morgan, and he was surrounded by family. Real family. He had more family than she could even name. He would never be left on his own.

  The world made much more sense now.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Sam had discovered it wasn’t easy to play with a two-year-old. Ethan kept losing interest in the activities Sam tried to engage him in. He seemed to prefer playing with his cousins and exploring things Sam couldn’t see on the ground, so Sam found himself mostly chatting with his dad and watching the kids.

  “Give it time,” his dad said, chuckling and giving Sam a pat on the back. “Toddlers are notoriously bad playmates. I heard you called Tad.”

  He’d forgotten how gossip spread inside the family. He couldn’t trust anyone to keep secrets anymore. “Yeah, I needed him to look into something for me. It’s nothing serious.”

  But it was nice to have a PI in the family. Though, his Uncle Tad hadn’t uncovered anything interesting yet. Just the basics of Brandon Stewart’s life. Sam hoped the annoyances with Brandon Stewart were over, but where the safety of his family was concerned, he wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. He wanted to know more about the guy and Uncle Tad was good at his job.

  Knox picked up a beach ball that rolled his way and rolled it back to Mike’s six-year-old, Collin. “Your mom’s got us booked on some kind of damn two-week cruise. I hope you know this is all your fault. No telling what she’s got planned after that. I saw a brochure about Paris.”

  Sam couldn’t help but laugh, imagining his dad pacing the decks of a ship and staring at the Eiffel Tower dreaming about horses. “Sorry. But it was your idea.”

  “Well,” his dad said, giving him another pat on the back. “I’ve got things to do. Come out later. You’ve got some hard training to do if you think you can take on my farm.”

  “You know I grew up there, right?” Sam said. And had been forced to get up at dawn almost every morning of his youth to work on the farm.

  “Yeah, well, you don’t know everything,” Knox said, walking away.

  Sam found Jenna and his mother sitting on the back porch chatting and watching the children play near the pond. Jenna was rocking Becky’s six-month-old girl, Riley, who was crashed-out asleep.

  He climbed the steps slowly, wondering if his mother was grilling Jenna or maybe saying something she probably shouldn’t be saying.

  But they both smiled at him. Jenna looked so natural with the small baby in her arms.

  His mother stood, giving up her rocking chair. “Your dad and I need to get going,” she said, giving Jenna a one-armed hug and the baby a kiss. She patted Sam on the arm. “Come out and see us later. We’ll all go riding.”

  Sam sat down and waved to his parents as they left. Then he turned to Jenna to make sure she was okay. “If we plan to live here, you’ll have to get used to this,” he told her, giving her a kiss and petting the baby’s head. “This place is a hotspot during the summers. They’ll be in and out of the house and all around. They all have keys.”

  “No, I like it,” she said, still smiling. “I’m glad. I like your family. I really, really, do.”

  He checked to make sure she wasn’t saying that for his benefit. “She wasn’t giving you a hard time, was she?” he asked.

  Jenna frowned at him. “Who? Your mother? No. I like her. She’s so nice and really funny.”

  His mother, funny? “Well… good.” In fact, he was relieved.

  Jenna chuckled. “She told me all about how she and your dad met. She grew up on a ranch but she had a big crush on him so she pretended not to know how to ride a horse so your dad could teach her. She told me all about you when you were little and all the trouble you got into. And all about her family and your dad’s family and all you kids. You’re so lucky to have a big family.”

  A thought suddenly came to him. “Don’t you have any grandparents, Jen? Family of some sort out there?”

  Her smile instantly vanished. “Dad’s parents died years ago,” she said in a small voice. “Mom’s parents live in Idaho, I think. Or Iowa? We’re not… close. I’ve never actually met them. They didn’t even come to her funeral. There was some kind of disagreement when she was young. Maybe about marrying my father? I don’t really know the details.”

  She’d never even met her own grandparents? He couldn’t imagine such a thing. He’d assumed she’d had family. Her father had died recently and all she’d had was her young sister and small child for comfort? The image of two lost orphan girls standing over an open grave almost brought tears to his eyes.

  He could almost see her, as if he’d been there. She’d surely kept a face of stone, comforting her sister, taking responsibility, forcing her own feelings aside to tend to the ones who needed her.

  She glanced at him then pursed her lips and turned her head to stare out toward the pond again. But she smiled suddenly and pointed.

  Ethan ran up to the pond and threw dog food into the water. Ducks swarmed and Ethan turned around to make sure someone had seen. Becky knelt down and handed him more food, and he turned and threw it, then hopped up and down excitedly when the ducks went for the food.

  Sam chuckled softly, stroking her back. “We’ll build him a playground over there. And your dog will love this pond. Labs love to swim.”

  “That would be nice,” she said, but her tone didn’t quite match his enthusiasm.

  He studied her a moment, realizing he’d ruined her good mood. “I didn’t mean to bring you down.”

  “No,” she said, gazing down at the baby. “I was just thinking it won’t be long until I can’t rock Ethan anymore.” She leaned down, smelled the baby’s head, and made a murmuring sound. “I’ve missed this.”

  Was that a hint that she wanted more children? His stomach clenched in fear for a moment, then he sat back and relaxed - reminding himself the fear wasn’t real. This was what he wanted, this life, with Jenna by his side, his family nearby, and kids running around.

  They watched Ethan chase the beach ball one of his cousins rolled for him. The beach ball turned down the slope toward the water and Jenna stiffened and leaned forward, but Crystal scooped up Ethan as the ball rolled into the water.

  She let out a hard breath. “If we stay here, we need a fence. Ethan can’t swim yet.”

  He gave her a reassuring rub on the back. “We’ll teach him. We’ll put up a fence. It’s not a problem. That’s one of those little, unimportant things.”

  She nodded.

  He moved his rocking chair closer and put his arm around her because a dark mood had come over her. “You’ve got lots of family now, you know. More than you can probably handle. They’ll be around so much they’ll drive you nuts.”

  She chuckled softly. “I don’t think you can have too much family. I always wished I had family like you do. Aunts and uncles and cousins. Big holiday gatherings.”

  “Well, you’ll have that now. Wait till you see what my parents do for Christmas. They go all out. Trees in every room, decorations everywhere, so many lights outside you can see the house from half a mile away.”

  “Like this place at night?”

  “Better.”

  Her smile slowly faded as she looked down at the baby, then stared off toward the pond. He wondered if she was having second thoughts about marrying him, maybe not sure if they would still be together by Christmas. He wished his mother would hurry with the ring. Once he had that on her finger maybe she would believe he planned to stick around.

  “I have to go to the office and get my things,” she said. “Pictures of Ethan and Bri, and some other things.”

  Ah, so that was what was bothering her. To him, her job had been a nuisance, something he knew she didn’t really want to do. But to her it had probably meant survival while they were on the verge of losing everything.

  Sam ran a comforting hand over her head and gave her a kiss on the temple. “You’re free now,” he said, watching her closely.
“Think of it that way. You have to break off with the old to start the new.”

  The genuine smile returned. “You were right. Ethan needs this. Kids his own age to play with. Family around. I can’t believe the things my dad told me about you and your family. It was all just… lies.”

  “Yeah,” he said, “I found out something. Your dad and my uncles had a feud going in high school. That thing my cousins did to Brandon Stewart, making him muck out stalls, was the same thing my uncles did to your dad after he put manure in my uncle’s truck. I think that’s why he hated us so much. That’s probably why you had to fight to put my name on the birth certificate. I’m sorry about that. The Stricklands can be a little wild sometimes. But I’ve never known any of them to actually do anything violent. I just wanted to get that out in the open. And my dad didn’t have anything to do with it. He was older than they were. He made them let your dad go.”

  She stared at him as he spoke, her lips parted in surprise. She sat back and stared toward the pond again. “It’s all so stupid, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it is. You see why I don’t like grudges?”

  “My dad put manure in your uncle’s truck? Good grief.”

  “Kids. Speaking of,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about your sister’s college.”

  Jenna immediately shook her head. “I can’t let you pay for that.”

  “And I wasn’t offering,” he continued. “But several of the corporations I told you about, on my mom’s side, offer scholarships and I think she could probably qualify. I called my uncle and he’s checking on it. Both her parents are deceased and she told me last night that your dad spent her college fund. She made excellent scores on her SATs and she’s already been accepted at Vanderbilt. It’s for kids like her those scholarships were created.”

  Jenna turned toward him, shifting the sleeping baby as she moved. “Seriously?”

  “She’ll probably still have to get a job, but it might make it possible. Don’t say anything until I find out for sure.”

  Jenna’s cheeks darkened and she turned to stare out at the kids playing again. “You’re a good luck charm.” She glanced at him, smiling even though he could see tears building in her eyes. “Without you, I just don’t know….”