by Tara Rose
“No,” said her mother. “He’s met someone and is spending Christmas and New Year’s with her family.”
Rowena raised her eyebrows. “Wow. That’s a first. Who is she?”
Her mother passed the bowl of mashed potatoes to Van, leaning across him to answer Rowena. “Her name is Jayne and she works in human resources.” Jake was a senior account rep at an advertising agency with offices in New York, Chicago, and London.
“So when do we get to meet her?”
“No clue. I was as stunned to hear this as you are.”
“Must be serious. He’s been here for Christmas or New Year’s every year since going away to college, right?”
“Tell me about it,” said her father, peering at her over the tops of his glasses. Rowena held her breath. That gesture usually meant he was about to bring up her four years in California, when she hadn’t come home at all. “It’s a good thing you and Van decided to fix up Aunt Looney’s house or pretty soon Kat and I wouldn’t have any of our children left in town.”
Rowena decided to ignore his barb. “I’m just glad Aunt Looney left it to one of us. I’d have hated to see that beautiful home in ruins one day.”
Van smiled at her. “And if she hadn’t left it to you, you might not have come home at all.” He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. Shivers ran up and down Rowena’s spine, and she began to wish they’d skipped this family dinner entirely.
Cindi glared at her father-in-law. “Well, even if Rowena hadn’t come back to Colorado, you’d still have us. We’re certainly not going anywhere.”
Her sarcastic tone obviously hadn’t escaped her husband’s notice, because Tom shot her a dirty look. “We may have to leave if I don’t find a better job soon.”
Van fixed Tom with a pointed stare. “The Walmart in Meeker is hiring.” It was an old conversation, and Rowena couldn’t fault her husband for being angry at Tom’s sullen tone. Van had given him more chances on his crew than any man deserved, but when Tom couldn’t stay sober long enough to complete even one project, he’d had no choice but to fire him, each time.
“Oh, ha-ha. That’s funny.”
Van put down his fork, and Rowena reached under the table to place her hand on his thigh, hoping he would correctly interpret the gesture as one of support, not admonition. “Why is it funny? They are hiring. It’s steady, honest work, and Meeker isn’t that far away. Beats shoveling driveways and mowing lawns, no?”
Cindi shot him a droll look. “I have a job, remember?”
“Yeah,” said Tom. “And I take care of the boys when she’s working.”
“Then why did you say you need a better job soon or you might have to move?” Van’s voice was quiet, but Rowena recognized the barely controlled anger in it. She rubbed his thigh, but his muscles were taut. The last time he’d fired her brother, Tom had gone into The Saloon and complained for four hours straight, getting drunker each minute, until Dan Jeffries, the owner, had finally called the cops.
Tom shrugged and averted his gaze. He had no more balls to stand up to Van than Cindi did. “Because. No decent jobs in this town.”
Rowena glanced at Van. A muscle under his left eye twitched and he would no doubt have jaw pain later from the way he clenched his teeth right now. Van’s company had steady work in Passion Peak and the surrounding towns, and he always needed more help. Tom would have all the work he could handle if he wasn’t such an asshole. Van looked like he was going to say something, but finally he began to eat again. Rowena gave his left thigh a final squeeze and then resumed eating as well.
Emma gave her father a sideways glance. “You might have one more child and your granddaughter here permanently.” Emma’s voice was quiet, and Rowena glanced up when she realized it also shook slightly. “Dave and I have finally decided to divorce.”
No one spoke, but neither did anyone look surprised. This had been coming for a long time. Emma and Sasha had lived here, at her parents’ house, for six months now. The time before that it had been for three months. Rowena felt uncomfortable that nobody had at least acknowledged the comment, so she took the high road. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you two.”
Her sister stared at her with barely controlled disdain in her green eyes. “Thanks.” She and Emma had never gotten along. She was the oldest of them, and had already been married and divorced for the first time when Rowena took off for California after high school. Emma called her “the charmed one,” citing every bad luck thing that happened to her as Rowena’s doing, even when they hadn’t lived in the same house.
Emma poured a second glass of wine and drained it. “What a bunch we are, eh? Jake only comes home once a year, I’m headed for my third divorce and I’m only forty-two, Andy is in prison for life, and Kevin is still hiding out in Mexico, we think, from drug dealers.”
“That’s enough. Your daughter is here.” Her father’s voice was more sad than full of warning.
Emma barely glanced at him. “She’s heard all this before.”
Sasha was busy doing something on her phone, but Rowena knew she was listening. The girl’s cheeks were bright pink. Emma had only been married to Sasha’s biological father for a year, and he never saw her. They weren’t even sure where he was.
“Rowena is the only one who has a normal life.”
“What is that?” asked Rowena. “What is a ‘normal life’? We make choices and we live with the consequences. I’ve made my share of mistakes as well.”
Emma leaned forward, and Rowena knew it was pointless to argue with her. She was three sheets to the wind already. How early had she started drinking this morning? “But you haven’t made one now, have you? You have the career you always wanted, you have the house, and you have a husband who isn’t an asshole. Good for you.”
“I’ve worked hard for what I have.”
Van put his arm around her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Emma averted her gaze and shook her head. Sasha finally looked up from her phone, frowning. “Chill, mom. Okay? You want me to go get you a pill?”
Emma gave her daughter a droll look. “No. Eat your dinner.”
“I’m not hungry now.”
“Eat it anyway. Grandma and I worked hard making it all morning.”
Cindi reached across the table and tried to hand Sasha a bowl of stuffing. “Did you try this? I made it with oysters this year.”
Sasha made a face that had Rowena working hard to hold back a laugh. Cindi might as well have told Sasha there was dog shit in the bowl. “I hate oysters, and I don’t eat stuffing. It was in the turkey’s ass, for God’s sake.”
“Watch your language.” Emma’s nonchalant expression didn’t match her stern tone.
As Rowena kept eating and tried to pretend the silence wasn’t horribly uncomfortable right now, she also tried not to wish she’d never come home twelve years ago. But if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be living in Aunt Looney’s home, and she wouldn’t be married to Van.
She’d spent almost as much time in Aunt Looney’s house while growing up as she’d spent in this one. The front tower room, where she and Van now slept, had been her room away from home, and Aunt Looney had allowed her to stay in it as often as she needed to in order to get away from Emma.
“Aunt Rowena, are you and Uncle Van going to have kids?” Sasha’s blunt question pulled her out of her reverie. “Because if you don’t, I’ll only have boy cousins to play with if we move here for good.” Sasha made a face in the general direction of Chuck, Gary, and Keith, all three of whom ignored her completely in favor of building what appeared to be a fort out of their turkey drumsticks and silverware.
Rowena smiled at her. She’d always like Sasha, and felt sorry for her with Emma as a mother. “Well, honey, even if we do, and even if you’re lucky enough to have a girl cousin, by the time she was old enough to play with, you’d be all grown up and off to college.”
Sasha plopped her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands, frowning.
“
Elbows off the table.”
She shot her mother an exasperated look and went back to moving her food around on her plate. “You should have had kids with him a long time ago.”
Van and Rowena exchanged a glance. “I’ve got nothing in response to that one,” he said, shrugging.
She shook her head, wondering how she was going to get through New Year’s without murdering Cindi or Emma.
Chapter Four
Van’s crew normally took off work the week between Christmas and New Year’s, but they were finishing up a local job so he didn’t feel too badly about asking the guys to make an exception. As Van pulled up to the main gate of Mystic Ridge Enterprises, he smiled. His crew was already there. Most of them had played ball with him in high school, and he honestly couldn’t have hand-picked a better team. He’d known all these men his entire life. The only times they hadn’t worked this well together had been when Tom was on the crew.
Mateo Alvarado co-owned Mystic Ridge Enterprises with his brother Pedro. The sheep ranch had been in their family for over one hundred years, and it perched on the edge of the hills on Apache Street, overseen by the majestic Belle Meade Hotel. Mateo was updating the cozy homes where his ranch hands lived, and he was building a new fitness and community center for their exclusive use. Mateo took care of his employees. If Tom hadn’t been such an asshole, he’d have had a steady job here on the ranch as well. Mateo and Van shared several employees between the two companies.
Rowena had told Van a long time ago not to give her brother special treatment. She didn’t believe in looking the other way when it came to people engaging in self-destructive behavior. She’d stuck by Van’s side when his uncle had nearly ruined the company in an embezzlement scandal, and she wasn’t about to ask him to give her brother a job when he couldn’t stay sober or work as hard as the rest of the crew. That was one of the many reasons he adored her. She didn’t take any shit from people and she expected them to act like adults and take responsibility for their actions.
Van parked his truck and got out to walk over and shake Mateo’s hand. He looked happy. Carma was good for him. He and his best friend from their collage days together, Blaine Peterson, both lived with her in the main house at the ranch. The two were Carma’s Doms now, and the three were one of five triads that Van and Rowena knew and were good friends with. To say they usually felt like the oddballs among their peers was an understatement.
“I hear your wife is also going on this road trip to Racy that Carma begged me and Blaine to let her take,” said Mateo, walking with him toward where the crew waited to start working. “Eve is visiting a cousin or something?”
Van nodded. “Yep. That’s their plan. They’re visiting Eve’s second cousin, Evan Rydell. She stayed with him there in Indiana three years ago after she left Darrin.”
“Ah yes. Darrin Gardner. Who could forget the only dirty cop Passion Peak ever had?”
“Rowena told me he was dirty. And she told me he was abusing Eve, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
“I’m just glad Eve finally screwed up the courage to call the cops on him.”
“Not an easy thing for a woman to do when her husband is on the force. Rowena and Carma were both instrumental in that, you know.”
“I didn’t realize that. Carma doesn’t talk about it much. It’s painful for her to think about because of her own past.”
Van nodded. “I can understand that.”
Mateo clapped Van on the back. “And now Eve is another of those kinky friends you and Rowena have.”
Van gave him a droll look. “She and Phil were already kinky before Knox moved in with them. What do you all do? Give out toaster ovens or something? I know Phil was a Dom even before he became a cop or asked Eve to marry him, but how did you all talk his cousin into this?”
Mateo chuckled. “We didn’t talk him into anything. Knox was invited to join him and Eve in a scene, and it led to much more than that.”
“Rowena and I were at the ceremony, remember?”
Mateo nodded. “I remember. You said you were going to buy her a flogger for Christmas. How did that work out?”
Van cleared his throat. “Fabulous. So…Knox’s ex-wife did a number on him in that divorce. I’m glad he’s found happiness with Phil and Eve.”
“Changing the subject, Van?”
“Fuck you, sheep boy.”
Mateo laughed loudly and shook his head. “Okay. I got the message. Loud and clear. The girls leave for Racy in two weeks, right? Will Eve be ready to travel by then?”
“The cast came off last week. Rowena said they’re going to set her up with a physical therapist in Racy so she doesn’t lose any progress she’s made while they’re gone.”
“How is Eve doing psychologically?”
“As well as can be expected, I guess. It’ll take time to get over it.” A serial rapist named Clay Martin from Wyoming that Phil had helped put in jail five years earlier had broken parole in October and targeted Eve. The police got to her before Martin raped her, but Eve broke her left arm in the process.
Mateo nodded. “Sometimes you never get over things like that. You only learn to live with them. I think this trip will be good for Eve, and for all of them.”
Carma, Eve, and Rowena, along with their friends Summer Andrews, Angela Davidson, and Felicity Featherstone were taking this trip together. Van thought they were nuts to drive from Colorado to Indiana in January, but he knew how much Rowena needed this time with her girlfriends. They’d be in a large group and had a place to stay when they arrived, so he knew she’d be safe. Plus, it would make her homecoming that much sweeter, because Van planned on filling their bedroom with new sex toys for them to try out as soon as she returned.
They walked into the shell of the new fitness center, followed by Van’s crew. Mateo and Van talked briefly about what they hoped to accomplish today, with his crew listening, and then the guys went to work while Van took Mateo aside. “How was your Christmas?”
“Fun, actually. Carma’s entire family came here for dinner.”
“Oh wow.”
Mateo laughed. “Yeah. Nothing quite like Sicilians and Mexicans at the same table, all trying to outdo each other on dramatic family stories.” Both men laughed. “Blaine just sat back and smiled the entire time, taking it all in.”
“He has no family left in Chicago, is that right?”
Mateo shook his head. “A few cousins he never talks to, but that’s about it. How was yours, or should I even ask?”
Van chuckled and gave Mateo the short version of Tom and Cindi’s boys, plus Emma’s news.
Mateo frowned. “You know, I would give Tom a job in a heartbeat. But I can’t trust him. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Rowena won’t let me hire him for the same reason. He’s made his own bed. I gave him more chances than he deserved over the years, and he fucked up every single one of them.”
“I feel the same way about Jonas. He’s a damn fuckup. I only keep giving him chances because he’s Carma’s cousin.”
Van nodded. “You’re a better man than me, then.” He’d heard Rowena say more than once how upset Carma was about something Jonas had done. He was the only one of her great aunt Rosario’s grandsons still living in Passion Peak, and she’d kicked him out of her house more times than anyone could count. Van knew it was out of pity only that Mateo kept him on at the ranch.
“No, not better. It’s a different situation. Jonas only fucks up half the time Tom did.” Mateo and Van walked back toward the crew. “Are you and Rowena coming to the New Year’s Eve party at Indulgence?”
“Ah, probably not, since it’s a play party.”
“How is that going? Seriously? Was she happy with the Christmas present? Just tell me to mind my own fucking business if you want.”
Van laughed. “No, it’s cool. It’s going well I think. I’ll let you know in about six months.”
Mateo stopped walking and gave Van a thoughtful look. “It takes time. And Rowena may n
ever progress beyond where she is right now.” He cut his gaze toward the guys, but they were working and not paying attention to their boss. “Carma fainted the first time Blaine and I took her to Indulgence. The bondage scene we watched was a huge trigger for her, only we didn’t know it at the time. You and Rowena have the advantage that we didn’t in that you’ve had a relationship with her for a long time now.”
“I know. And she has to want this or it won’t work, no matter what. I get that. I really do. Hell. I’m not even sure what I want, you know?”
“Well, I can totally relate to that. Neither was I at first.”
Van nodded. “That’s good to know. I guess I thought I’d wake up one day and be all alpha Dom-like or something.”
Mateo smiled and shook his head. “No. It doesn’t work that way. Believe me. This is a journey. A process. Just be grateful that you and Rowena have such a rock-solid relationship. Keep communicating, and you’ll figure it out together. Remember, there are no set rules. The two of you get to define what this is, and what it is not.”
Van shook Mateo’s hand again. “Thanks for the insight. I really appreciate it.”
“Hey, anytime. I mean that. If you ever need to talk, Blaine and I are here. And, he has a lot more experience at this than I do. He won’t bullshit you. He’ll just give it to you straight.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Van wasn’t without friends in the lifestyle that he could talk to, that was for certain. He simply wasn’t as comfortable discussing the intimate details of his sex life with any of them. In that respect, he was an old-fashioned kind of man, and he knew it.
Rowena, on the other hand, discussed anything and everything with her friends. It would be good for her to go on this trip. She could talk about this with her kinky friends, and maybe visit the club in Racy as well. He’d heard from Nash that Maddox McCree, who owned and operated it, was a straight-shooter who didn’t allow creeps or posers inside his club, just like Nash didn’t. She’d be safe there, and would be in good hands.
