Page 11 of The Awakening
“It’s about time you joined the land of the living again,” he teased, reaching for the aluminum can in front of me. “Drink some ginger ale.”
“Thank you. It was sweet of you to make me feel comfortable. I guess it worked a little too well. How long was I out?” I asked before taking a sip of the almost flat soda. It felt good in my dry mouth.
“An hour or so. Have you had a lot of morning sickness?”
His question threw me for a loop. Why was he worried about that? “The plane made me nauseous, not the baby.”
He frowned at my reply, adjusting the bookmark in the book he’d been reading. “I’m trying to get to know you better, Ellie. These are things people are going to expect me to know about my pregnant wife. I’d like to answer them with some confidence.”
“Oh. No, not really. Today was the worst, but I’m not sure if it was morning sickness or nerves. I was so busy up until now I hadn’t thought of it.” I peeked over at him and fiddled with thepillow I’d been using. “You know, aside from Ray, you’re the only other person I’ve told.” That made the pregnancy feel more real.
He nodded and silence filled the plane as he looked back at the book in his lap. “Gavin, if I’d told you last night, would you have handled my father differently?” Looking down at the pillow I held tight to my chest, I waited for his answer.
“No. If anything, the opposite of that would’ve been true. The rumors about how hard your life had been were enough to make me fight for you, but if I had known about the…” He paused. “… your baby, I would have been even more determined to make sure you didn’t go back with them.”
Turning to look at him, I couldn’t help but smile. “You were pretty determined as it was. It has to be said. You truly are a good man, Gavin.”
“Not always.” He winked and I couldn’t help but laugh.
I took another sip of ginger ale before setting it back on the table. “Tell me about your family?”
He clicked his tongue. “That isn’t fair to you while you’re stuck on a plane. You should be free to run away once I tell you about them.”
The ominous way he spoke of his family confused me. He was so kind and wonderful. How could his family be any different? I didn’t press him any further. He’d extended me the courtesy of dodging some of his questions. It was only fair I did the same for him.
“All right, sleepyhead, we have a lot of ground to cover and not much time. So let’s get down to business.”
Chapter Six
Gavin
The Morton ranch sign loomed out in the distance, flanked by two massive redwood logs on either side of the private road that led to the ranch. Ellie gasped and leaned forward, looking up as we passed under the sign.
“Welcome home,” I muttered to myself. This was the last thing I had imagined myself doing, and I hadn’t had the time to prepare any of them for our arrival. There was no way to know what we were about to walk in to.
“I’m sorry for making you do this, Gavin.” Ellie’s voice was quiet, and she rested her palm on my leg gently.
I placed my hand over hers and held it tight as we drove deeper into the compound. I pointed to her right. “If you take that road, you’ll get to my brother Tyler’s house. He lives there with his wife and their son.” He smiled. “You’ll like Kate. She’s a good woman. She whipped my brother into shape. Their son, TJ, is four now.”
Ellie craned her neck, catching what glimpse of their house she could between the trees. “Ty and Kate’s marriage wasarranged by our father and hers. It wasn’t good for a while, but they made it work.” I guess in a sense their marriage had been fake too, though the circumstances behind it were very different, but now they had the kind of marriage that most people could only dream of.
A smile crossed my face at the idea of being here to watch my nephew grow. Spending time with him and teaching him some of my old tricks gave me hope that being back home again wouldn’t suck the life out of me.
Ellie gasped. No doubt spotting the main house in the distance. I was almost embarrassed by its size. I pointed over at the dash. “My other brother Rob and his wife live in the house across from the big house. Rob was a single dad for a long time. Out of the three of us, he’s never strayed far from Mom and Dad. Then Jessica came back, and they rekindled their high school romance. Addie, my niece, is twelve and keeps this family on their toes.”
As we closed in on the big house, and I looked over at Ellie. I thought her eyes were going to bug out of her head. I swear I could almost see the wheels turning in her head, and they were about to fall off.
“You grew up here?”
“No, I grew up in Montana. We moved here when I was in high school. My mom’s dad had this ranch and left it to her in his will. My parents built this house before we moved here.”
I pulled the truck to a stop, and took in my family home, my stomach falling to the floorboards as realization sank in.
Why was I doing this?
I could have put Ellie on a plane and sent her anywhere in the world she wanted to go with enough cash to keep her comfortable while she figured herself out. But no, for some reason, I’m carrying on with this ridiculous scheme and bringing her home to meet my family. I sighed. Something about herbeing all alone in the world didn’t sit right with me. But was I doing right by her bringing her home with me? What she didn’t know was that all the money in the world couldn’t buy happiness. And though the ranch was pristine in appearance, there was plenty of dirt lurking beneath the surface.
“If you don’t want me here, Gavin, we can turn around and leave. Or I’ll leave; you can stay. Whatever you think is right.” Ellie looked down at her hands.
