Chapter Fourteen

“Do you think it’s safe for them to be on the Pranger’s property?” Ashleigh asked Christopher as they drove home with Stella and Adam following behind.

Christopher glanced at the rearview mirror and Ashleigh followed his line of sight to Brianna who was listening intently. Yeah, it was best to table this conversation.

When Stella pulled up to the large A-frame house she instantly fell in love with it. She and Ashleigh stood outside for a few moments talking about how it had been built as a near replica of one built by Christopher’s uncle Ray.

“A lot of the homes are like that on the hill.” Ashleigh explained. “Including the gingerbread house.”

“Yes, Riley told me the story about how his dad and grandfather had built it for his grandparents.”

Ashleigh was surprised that he’d revealed so much. She’d seen Riley often enough but had never seen him string together more than a few words.

“We’ll show you around,” Christopher said while holding his son on his hip. “Brianna, baby, you can show Adam around.”

It was clear to Stella that Christopher truly loved his family. It wasn’t long before she even forgot that Ashleigh and Christopher were different races. They went together so well.

She loved the house. Even though it was a new construction, every room felt quaint. She had the feeling of being in an old French villa, weird but true. The furniture and décor was stylish and modern but it still fit in perfectly with the hand hued wooden floors and old-fashioned character.

Chris Jr. had fallen asleep so Christopher left the women to themselves while he put him down for his nap. He was happy that Ashleigh had something new to take her mind off things. With Kendra and Lance back in Cincinnati she tended to keep things bottled in. He knew that she was depressed but wouldn’t admit it, especially not to him. It was because she didn’t want him to stop going on the missions, knowing that they were more than just his job—besides his family it was the most important part of his life. He had one coming at the end of summer and when he told her he had seen the way her eyes had changed, the way she was mentally preparing for him to die.

He couldn’t explain to her that he wouldn’t allow himself to die, not when he finally had all of the things that he could have ever wished for. She didn’t understand what happened to him during the Special Missions. He was a machine—no, he was the Beast that they all knew him to be. He was ruthless, because he couldn’t afford to be anything less. There was blood on his hands—buckets of it but when he looked into the eyes of those that loved him it was all worth it.

 

 

“Grandma,” Brianna said to the older woman who was in the kitchen preparing lunch.

“Yes, baby?” She saw Adam. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Adam. He’s going to be up here for the summer.”

“Oh that’s nice.”

“Grandma, can we make some ice cream? Adam never had it homemade before.”

“Oh that’s a good idea.” The older woman turned to Adam.

“Adam, what’s your favorite flavor?”

“Chocolate.” He said shyly.

“Then chocolate it is.”

They were making the base when Ashleigh and Stella came in. Stella noticed that Ashleigh called her mother-in-law Mom and she wondered what it would be like if she had a traditional family with a husband and in-laws. Maybe she should try in earnest to be in a relationship. At the rate things were going, it appeared that was the only way that Adam would have a father in his life.

While the ice cream went into the freezer Brianna took Adam out back to the tree house that her daddy and uncle Butch had built.

“Wow!” He exclaimed, his eyes growing big. He’d never seen a real life tree house before. There was a rope ladder as well as planks nailed to the tree that you could use to climb.

Once inside he saw that it was decorated with a lot of pink things but he didn’t mind. There were beanbag chairs, and books and even a dollhouse. He saw the string of lights running the circumference of the room and scratched his head.

“You have lights?” He asked.

“Yes. There’s electricity.” She pulled out a box fan from a crate and plugged it into the wall. “It gets hot up here.”

“You can play video games up here…well if you had a television.”

“I use my IPad here all the time.” Adam suddenly wished that he had a tree house. But they lived in the suburbs so there was no way that he could ask for one of his own.

For the next half an hour they talked about everything from their favorite games, the latest Marvel Super hero movie, their best friends, and even about school and teachers. Very quickly they got to know each other, becoming fast friends.

“Where’s your dad?” Brianna asked.

“I don’t have one.” Adam replied. He thought about Brianna’s dad and how nice he seemed. There were days when he wished that he had a father like other kids, but for the most part his mother filled in all the blanks for him.

Brianna gave him a long look, as if she had questions but was too polite to ask. The silence dragged out a bit.

“I have two mothers,” he finally said.

Brianna’s eyes lit up. “Oh! That’s like one of my best friends. He has two dads; my uncle Lance and uncle Rick.”

Adam shook his head. “Not like that. I’m adopted. There’s my birth mother and then my real mother.”

“Your real mother?”

Adam nodded. He didn’t talk about it much. His best friends knew but now that Brianna was one of his best friends he figured it was okay to tell her.

“Well my birth mother had me, but my real mother raises me. And she loves me.”

Brianna smiled. “Yeah. Chad is adopted too. So he doesn’t have a mother either—other than a birth mother, and I guess a birth father. So really he has one mom and three dads.”

Adam smiled at that, but no, it didn’t work like that. He explained that when you are put up for adoption those birth parents are no longer your mom and dad, the people that raise you are.

“That makes sense. But don’t you think about who they are?”

He thought about lying but friends shouldn’t lie. “Yeah. But I can find out when I turn eighteen. My birth mother has a letter for me. My mom told me about it.”

“What’s in the letter? I would go crazy wondering.” Brianna said, her grey eyes going bright at the prospect of Princess’s and millionaires.

“My mom already told me what’s in it. It’s basically her name and how to locate her—if I ever want to know that.”

“Do you want to know?”

Adam shrugged. He truly wasn’t sure. He just hoped that she would keep her distance.

 

 

Stella, Ashleigh, Christopher and his mother sat out on the sun porch. There was a large ceiling fan that kept them relatively cool and Mrs. Jameson, Christopher’s mother, had brought out a pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade. Stella confessed that it was the best lemonade she’d ever had. And with a proud smile Mrs. Jameson revealed that it was sweetened with honey instead of sugar.

“What brings you to vacation on Cobb Hill?” Christopher asked while getting relaxed in his chair.

“I read an article about the ginger bread house once and I always thought about taking Adam to the country. This was pretty close considering that we don’t have any family down south.”

Christopher noted that Stella averted her eyes frequently while giving her explanation. But at other times during the conversation she had looked at them squarely, even inquisitively. She was lying. But it didn’t matter that much to him. Maybe she thought that it just wasn’t any of his business, which it wasn’t.

It’s really pretty here.” Ashleigh stated. “But the true appeal is the simplicity of life here in Cobb Hill. Our kids can run around and be loud without worrying about the neighbors hearing everything they do.”

“It smells good, too.” Stella said. She had noticed that right away. “I mean the air smells sweet. Even that water coming out of the spring is the best water I’ve ever had. And everyone is very nice…” she shrugged, “with the exception of Riley’s cousin.”

She relaxed against her chair and Christopher thought that she seemed to be thinking hard.

“You all know Riley—better than me.” Stella finally said. “What kind of a man is he?” She looked away for a moment, staring out at the tree house where Adam and Brianna were playing. “I need to make sure that Adam’s in a safe place.”

Christopher leaned forward. “Did Adam hear any of the filth spewing from Sully? Because he and I have something of an agreement. If my children witness any of his stupidity I stomp him into the ground. I’m extending that to any child. If his bigotry is extended into bullying children I will have to hurt him.” Christopher practically growled this statement out.

Stella believed every word. She didn’t get the sense that he was some tough guy, but he was a protector. His wife rubbed his white knuckles because his fists were balled tight.

“He’ll do it too.” Christopher’s mother stated. “And Sully will deserve every bit of it. He’s very bad news. You stay away from that one. Riley’s not a bad guy, but Sully is.”

“Thankfully Adam didn’t hear anything too bad.” Stella stated.

Ashleigh leaned forward. “I don’t like gossiping and spreading rumors. But you do have your son on that property so I’ll tell you what I know. Sully killed a man a few years back.”

Stella’s mouth parted while her heart pounded in her chest. She finally let out a long breath.

Ashleigh continued. “He went to jail and got out a short time later because he claimed self defense. And in truth, it might have been. Both were pretty bad news.”

“Oh my God…” Stella said with a shaky voice. She hadn’t considered that she had been in the vicinity of a criminal that had taken another man’s life. She suddenly felt cold. She looked over at where Adam was playing and chills ran over her skin.

Being in the Pranger family wouldn’t be a good choice for Adam. Racists and murderers…She’d had all the best intentions of telling Riley that he was Adam’s biological father, but there was a reason that Adam’s birth mother hadn’t told him. Maybe she needed to keep it that way…

Christopher’s mother was watching the emotions that played across Stella’s face. There was more there than the young woman had revealed. She didn’t know what it was about but there was something.

“Stella,” she said. “You could judge Riley by his family but it wouldn’t be fair. In my family we have bootleggers, and philanderers and even some wannabe Klans people.  I wouldn’t want anybody to judge me on them.

“Riley’s never gotten into trouble and he’s a good person. He goes to church every Sunday, he visits his grandmother once a week and when everyone else took off he was the one to take care of her. I like Riley. I can’t say that about any other Pranger including his mama and daddy. But somehow he turned out better than any of them.”

Christopher shrugged. “He ain’t all good. Bodie fired him for some reason, mama. And if Bodie fired him than there’s a good reason for it.”

Ashleigh was shaking her head. “Nobody knows the real reason he got fired.”

“So Riley doesn’t have a job?” Stella interrupted.

“He just got fired about a week ago,” Ashleigh replied. “Before that he’d been working for the last four or five years at a garage owned by Bodie. If Riley was a redneck than there’s no way that Bodie Matthews would have ever let him within a foot of Shaun and the girls.” Christopher conceded to that point with a nod. Ashleigh continued. “Bodie is white and Shaun’s black. So you see, he’s the best judge of character. He’s worked with him up close for years.”

“Until he fired him a week ago. Blood’s been bad between them every since.” Christopher had heard the rumors just like everybody else.

“There’s a lot of speculation about the reason,” Mrs. Jameson took over the story. “But one of the other employees was undocumented and got deported. Rumor has it that Riley said something to that no-good cousin of his who then informed the authorities. The rest is known by only Riley and Bodie.”

“He got fired over something that someone else might have done?” Stella asked incredulously.

“I know, right?” Ashleigh said.

“We don’t know the reason. But Bodie is one of the most level headed men that I know.” Christopher wasn’t sure what to think but he was inclined to side with Bodie over Riley. “If he let him go after Pete got deported than he must have had a good reason.”

Stella listened quietly to their conversation as it went back and forth from person to person. Christopher just didn’t like the Prangers at all while Mrs. Jameson and Ashleigh seemed to see Riley in a different light. She could understand that. No one should be judged on anything other than his or her own merit.

Telling Riley about Adam was too important for her to dismiss him so quickly. She would have to put more thought into it.