by Hanna Hart
“How did you find out you were pregnant?” he asked, suddenly realizing that despite all of their long talks, he’d never heard the story before.
“I peed on a stick,” she grinned.
“Ha-ha,” he said flatly. “Were you surprised?”
“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” she said, then swallowed nervously. “I was, you know,” she widened her eyes pointedly, “late. I thought it was stress, but then I took a test and it was definitely not stress.”
“It was Ember,” he concluded.
“Yep,” she nodded. “She was ready to make her way into the world.”
“Did you tell Lincoln right away?”
June licked her lips. “Pretty much, yeah. He was supportive. I uh, I wanted to call you, actually.”
“Me?” he asked curiously. “Why?”
June’s demeanor seemed to shift. It was subtle, but he could feel it. She turned to face him and visibly straightened. She was playing with her fingers nervously as she began, “Well, the thing is, we had just broken up and everything was so new still and—”
Bennett’s phone rang through the speakers of his car, picking up through the Bluetooth. He stared at the widescreen dashboard. Upon seeing it was his mother, he dismissed the call.
“I really missed you and I wasn’t sure if…” June started up again unsurely. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that when I found out—”
His phone began ringing again—his mother. June laughed nervously and said, “You may as well pick it up or she’s just going to keep calling.”
“Probably wants to know what time I’m going to be home,” he said with a playful roll of his eyes. “It’s like I’m a kid with a curfew again. Living at her house is like jumping in a time machine and not in the cool sci-fi way.”
With that, Bennett leaned forward and answered the call. “Ma?” he said, louder than he would of if he’d had the phone to his ear.
“Bennett, where are you?” she said quickly.
“I’m just leaving the movies. What’s up?”
“It’s your sister,” she said, and he instantly recognized the panic in her voice. “How close are you to the Lynnwood Campus?”
“About fifteen minutes,” he said. “Why? What happened?”
“She called me. She’s an absolute mess. She was at a party, some…” Shannon said, sounding distracted or distressed, he couldn’t tell which. “Some campus party?”
He watched June’s eyes go wide, and she threw a hand over her mouth. Clearly, she was picking up on something he wasn’t.
“What happened?” he asked. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” his mother said quickly. “She wouldn’t tell me, but something happened. I think she was in a fight.” Shannon took a shaky breath and stammered, “This is why I don’t want her going out with these people! Her friends are not good associations. I need you to pick her up and call me as soon as you’re with her.”
She went on to explain that being out in the country, she and his father were farther away from the campus than Bennett was. She gave him the address of the party—it was in some student rental not far from the college—and said she would be there as soon as she could.
“Okay, I’m on my way,” he said and ended the call.
He and June rode to the campus in a discomforting silence. When he finally asked, “What do you think happened?” June didn’t answer. She knew what happened, he thought. Somehow, she just knew.
When they reached the house, they could see clear evidence of a party happening. Heavy bass and music thumped down the road and either side of the neighborhood was lined with cars.
June texted Kennedy to say they were out front, but his sister either chose to ignore them or she didn’t get the message.
After a few minutes of waiting, Bennett got out of the car, slamming the door firmly behind him.
At first, he thought this was just going to be a case of Kennedy being drunk and that he’d find her on the side of the road losing her lunch somewhere, but when he got inside the house party, he had an unsettling flood of nerves overwhelm him.
What if she was hurt?
What if something serious happened to her?
Out of the corner of his eye, Bennett spotted Kennedy’s friend Brit. He walked up to her, and she looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Her eyes went as wide as saucers and she pressed her lips thin.
“Where is she?” he asked when he walked up to her.
She didn’t answer. The closer he got, the more he could see the stress on her face.
“Brit, where is she?” he repeated.
Brit didn’t say a word. She just stood there shaking. The girl pulled in a ragged breath and looked skyward, wiping stray tears away. Brit was a crier, he’d heard, but something about the expression on her face told Bennett this wasn’t a juvenile “we got caught drinking by mom and dad and now I’m scared” type of fear.
“Take me to her,” Bennett insisted, urging the girl.
Brit tried to calm down and nodded her head toward the back yard. “This way,” she said.
The three of them walked into the backyard of the property. It was lit up with string lights that hung over a small in-ground pool. There were no teens in the yard, but he could hear the thumping music from within the house.
On one of the plastic pool chairs sat Kennedy, nursing an ice cube against her split lip.
Her expression was hard until she caught sight of Bennett—then she turned into a mess of tears.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” June said quickly, rushing to Kennedy’s side.
“What happened?” he asked.
Bennett walked closer to her and grabbed her chin. Her head was tilted up toward the light, allowing him a better look at her.
“Can we just go?” Kennedy said impatiently. “I want to go.”
He examined her face and saw the bottom half her mouth was red and swollen with a bloody crack creasing down the right side. He couldn’t be entirely certain, but it looked like she’d been slapped or hit in the face.
The thought that someone landed a hand on his little sister sent a rush of adrenaline through his body—an unrested fury he couldn’t seem to quell.
His sister refused to talk, so he turned his profile to her friend and said, “Brit, what happened?”
Both girls remained silent and Bennett pulled in a panicked breath. “Somebody better start talking, NOW.”
“I was upstairs with Dereck and his friends,” Kennedy said after heaping in a steadying breath.
Bennett swallowed nervously. “And?”
“And he was trying to do stuff with me, and I told him I didn’t want to do that anymore if he still had a girlfriend,” she said, her voice shaky as she tried to control her tears.
“His friend came up and was trying stuff with her,” Brit added.
“And I pulled away and I was trying to get down the stairs,” his sister continued, avoiding his eyes.
He set his jaw impatiently. “Who hit you?”
Kennedy wouldn’t say and outright refused to look at him, but her friend wasn’t so shy.
“It was Dereck,” Brit said.
“Call the cops, Brit. Tell them we have an assault, college party; drinking, possibly drugs. Tell them everything,” he instructed, and Brit immediately pulled her phone out and started dialing.
“The kid hosting the party,” Kennedy protested, “his parents are gonna kill him when they find out!”
“Too bad for him,” Bennett snarled.
“He isn’t even the one who did this!” his sister said.
Brit extended her arm, pointing to the side door of the house at a guy coming out with a yellow beanie on. She kept pointing as she said, “There. That’s the guy!”
“That’s Dereck?” Bennett said swiftly, jumping up from where he had knelt beside his sister.
“Yeah, that’s him,” her friend confirmed.
“Bennett, don’t. Please!
” Kennedy insisted, but it was too late. Bennett was already running.
He picked up speed, and the kid must have known Bennett was coming for him because he started running in the opposite direction.
Bennett pushed Dereck. The kid charged him, but Bennett grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt.
Dereck took a swing at Bennett and the two stumbled back further into the yard.
“Bennett!” June yelled.
“You touched my sister?” he yelled, pushing the kid backward.
He could feel June come up to him as she called out, “Bennett, the cops are here; come on!”
The two men continued to struggle. Dereck had both of his hands firmly clasped to Bennett’s shoulders. It took everything he had not to beat the living daylights out of the kid. Instead, he gripped his fingers into the kid’s arms so hard he knew they would leave bruises and he pushed him back into the pool.
He couldn’t beat the daylights out of the loser, but hopefully, he managed to ruin his cellphone.
The events that played out afterward seemed like a blur. Kennedy, Brit, June, and Bennett all gave statements to the police, as did a few other kids from the party. Dereck was apprehended and put in the back of a cop car.
Bennett knew his parents had all the money in the world to take the kid to court. They would bury him in legal fees, and no doubt, Dereck would be charged with assault.
But it wasn’t Dereck Bennett was worried about. It was his sister.
She was checked out by the ambulance that had arrived, who suggested she come to the hospital to get x-rays and make sure she didn’t have a concussion.
The drive to the hospital was long.
Very long.
Bennett had never had a real crisis in his family—not like this. Save for Jett’s broken leg when they were teenagers and a few scrapes here and there from horsing around, he’d never seen one of his siblings in trouble like this before.
They waited in the emergency room for hours until Kennedy was finally called in.
June slept in one of the plush hospital chairs while Bennett followed Kennedy to see the doctor.
The two were brought to a smaller, slightly more private area. He sat in a new chair next to his sister hunched over with his head between his legs.
He thought about the night, turning small moments over in his mind. He was angry and exhausted and couldn’t stop thinking about how his mother would feel after he told her what had transpired.
Bennett’s thoughts twisted to June and Ember. He wondered, as a mother, how June felt about seeing Kennedy in trouble like that. Did it strike a chord with her? He thought how terrifying it must be to have kids—to bring them in the world, giving them all you have, hoping for the best, and then seeing them get hurt.
His mother had to see plenty in her time raising children.
She saw her son skyrocket to superstardom and then crash under the weight of his fame.
Shannon also saw her third eldest child, Colt, lose his wife in death and raise their two children all alone.
She saw defiance from Hunter and Jaxon and now saw Kennedy following in the same path.
But she also got to experience the good things with her children. She watched them fall in love, get married, start families, and launch careers that she gifted to them.
It must be terrifying having kids.
Bennett was still hunched over as he looked up at Kennedy. He gave a tired blink and said, “You gotta stop doin’ this.”
Kennedy didn’t protest. Her eyes searched his, then she stared upward and pushed her bottom lip out. “I know,” she said quietly.
“I don’t want to parent you, Kennedy. I can’t tell you what to do and I don’t want to. I don’t want to be the older brother who harps on your friends and your education and keeps telling you to do something with your life, but I’ve had enough,” he said, his voice betraying how upset he was. “Look at you. You’re my sister. You deserve better than to be treated like somebody’s secret—somebody’s punching bag.”
He felt his whole body seize with anger, then snapped, “He’s lucky I let him go.”
“I know,” she said.
Bennett watched her for a moment, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. He couldn’t imagine what she must be feeling like right now.
Stretching his arm around her shoulder, he said, “You’re not worthless.”
Kennedy’s brow shot up, and she gave him a curious stare. “I know that,” she said with mild indignance.
“Do you?” he asked. “Because that’s not how you’re acting. I look at you and I see this great, fun, sweet girl with so much to offer. What do you see?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Try.”
“I see someone who’s...” she trailed off, shrugging. “Lost, I guess. I feel like I don’t belong anywhere.”
He could sympathize. He may have been much older than his sister, but he still remembered what it felt like to be in his teenage years and wonder what the future held.
“I know we don’t get to spend a lot of time together, but I like you, Kennedy,” he said.
She smirked, but there was no life behind it. “Bull,” she said quietly.
“It’s the truth,” he insisted. “I love you, kid. I know there’s always a lot going on at home. Trust me, I see the good in our parents, but I see the bad, too.”
He knew Kennedy would need no explanation for his statement. It was fun to be in a big family. There was certainly always something to do and someone to lean on, but being part of a larger family also meant reduced quality time with their parents.
Each child strived to be bigger and better than the last, looking for new and unique ways to be noticed—to make their parents proud—but somewhere in the mix, Kennedy had gotten left behind.
“You’re self-destructing, and I don’t know why,” he said, rubbing her back with his hand. “But I want to help. Will you let me help?”
“How?”
“I want you to come back to Montana with me,” he offered.
Kennedy frowned. “To do what? Work at the ranch?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “And to be with me. Get away from Mom and Dad, get away from your trust-fund friends, and make a real-life for yourself.”
She scoffed, “In Montana?”
“Three months. That’s all I want from you. Give me three months to show you what life on the ranch could mean for you, and if you don’t like it, I’ll have you back in Texas by December.”
Kennedy’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Okay,” she said, sounding resigned to the idea. She hadn’t even hesitated to answer him, which was how he knew she was in deep trouble.
“Yeah?” he asked, surprised.
“Yeah,” she reiterated.
Bennett felt a wave of relief wash over him. “When we get home tonight, I want you to pack, okay? We’re leaving Wednesday.”
“That soon?” she blinked. “And who is ‘we?’”
“Me, you, June, and Ember,” he said, and Kennedy seemed to brighten.
“Okay,” she said, sounding more confident then. “You’ve got three months.”
Chapter Twelve
June
Bennett booked a first-class flight for the journey from Texas to Montana, and June had butterflies in her stomach just thinking about it. The last time she’d come to see him in Montana, she insisted on buying her own flight and it was on a budget airline. She appreciated the affordable prices, but her legs ached and cramped by the time she landed from the lack of space.
June had never taken a first-class flight before, and considering she would be in the air for nearly six hours with an easily bored five-year-old, she more than appreciated the extra space.
The cabin was luxurious, to say the least. It was more like a mini-apartment with forty-five feet of living space. It had a plush couch that folded down into the softest bed she had ever been on, two reclining chairs, a flat-screen television, a private bathroom, a personal attendant, and a menu t
hat was allegedly cooked “to order.”
June didn’t know how they did this. Wasn’t all airplane food pre-packaged and heated in some kind of microwave in the back cabin?
She ordered a bowl of fruit, chickpea salad, and mashed potatoes for her and Ember to split for lunch.
Bennett and Kennedy were in another cabin, but they often swapped roommates to keep the flight interesting.
June was excited to see the ranch. She’d only seen it a handful of times since he’d done the renovations on it all those years ago, and she was looking forward to seeing where he spent all of his time. She wanted to continue their stroll down memory lane and see the animals, eat at their favorite Montana restaurants, go do the ranch-related experiences. More than anything, she was excited to show Ember where her daddy was from.
June had spent years pushing the thoughts of June’s biological father to the back of her mind. She had downright tried to pretend those memories didn’t exist. But as she watched Ember sleeping in Bennett’s lap, reclined and comfortable in her little cabin, she couldn’t help but be struck
Apparently, the flight attendant couldn’t, either.
Bringing in a hot blanket, the cheery attendant leaned down to Bennett and whispered, “Your daughter is adorable.”
“Thanks,” he said, wrapping the blanket around himself and Ember. When the flight attended exited the cabin, he looked at June and winked.
June’s heart fluttered. It wasn’t the first time somebody had mistaken them for a family, but it was the first time she let it sink in. She studied the shape of Ember’s dark eyes, her broad build, and her perfect little nose, and was overcome by how much she looked like Bennett. It seemed with every year that passed, Ember was becoming his little clone.
These were the thoughts that made her nervous, because of course, if all went well between June and Bennett this week, she would have to tell him.
Would he hate her for it? That was her biggest fear. He’d say she robbed him of the pregnancy and five years of Ember’s life. He never got a say in her name, her school, her health. He had been excluded all because she was too hurt and too proud to tell him she was pregnant.
Beyond Bennett’s reaction, what would she tell Ember?
