“Not so much worried as sad that I’m not the one flying her. I can’t wait to get my cast off so I can be cleared to fly again. I miss work and my clients are depending on me,” he said. She hated the guilt she still felt about running him over with her car, but if she hadn’t, they would have never met. Ryder opened the trunk of the SUV and tossed in the bags he managed to carry while on his crutches. She had the rest of them and tossed them in after Ryder moved out of the way.
“You did hear your brother bark something about packing light, right?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. Tatum shrugged and he laughed. “You don’t like to do what he tells you to do.”
“Nope,” she said. “I’ll drive.” Tatum grabbed the keys from his hand before he could protest and rounded to the driver’s side of the SUV. When he shot her a look, she just smiled and shrugged again. “I know the way and you need to rest your leg.”
“Fine—but I’m only letting you drive because you know the way to the cabin. Plus, I’ll be able to keep an eye out to make sure that we haven’t been followed,” he said. Her stomach felt like it did a flip flop at the mention of them being followed. “Don’t worry, Baby. I made a promise to your brother that nothing and no one would touch you. I plan on keeping my promise,” he said.
“Thank you, Ryder,” she whispered.
“For?” he questioned.
“Everything,” she breathed. He nodded, not saying anything more. “We’ll be to the cabin in about an hour. Buckle up,” she ordered.
“Turn on the radio. Let’s see if we can get a local forecast. The app on my phone said it’s going to snow,” he said. She loved the snow. It had been years since she had seen a real snowfall. In Alabama, they didn’t usually get any significant snow.
“I remember coming here as a kid for Christmas and there was always snow on the ground. I loved coming up here and having a white Christmas,” she said. “But, when my dad died, my mom couldn’t afford to make this trip with us as often and we started missing years. My Grandma passed just before my mother did and well, it’s just going to be good to see the cabin again. When my mother died, she left everything to Jackson and me, including this old place.” She didn’t like thinking about the fact that she and her brother were the only ones left from their family.
“It must have been hard losing everyone you loved like that,” Ryder whispered. “You said that you moved in with your mother to take care of her?”
“Yes,” she breathed. “When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, I was still in high school, but then she went into remission. The second time it came back, I had been out living on my own and when we found out how bad it was, I didn’t even think twice about moving back in with her. Jackson had work and his hours were crazy, so he couldn’t stay with her. He made sure we had what we needed—food and her medications, he paid for it all and I took care of Mom. It gave me time with her—time I cherish now.”
“How about your dad?” he asked. Tatum didn’t remember her father very well.
“He died when I was just a kid,” she said. “I don’t remember a whole lot about him. He liked to play around a lot—you know like tease me and play pranks. Jackson likes to tell the story about when I was really little and my dad would pretend that I hurt his feelings. You know, like—‘Tatum doesn’t love me anymore,’ when I’d tell him that I didn’t want to watch television with him or play a game. He’d stomp off to the bathroom and slam the door and I’d feel bad and chase after him. I’d bang on the locked door and promise him that we could do whatever he wanted and he’d ignore me. Finally, he’d shout back through the door, ‘I’m going to just flush myself down the potty since my little girl doesn’t love me anymore.’ He’d flush the toilet, unlock the door, and hide behind the shower curtain before I could even push my way into the bathroom.” Tatum giggled at the memory, well partial memory. Jackson had told that story so many times that she wondered if she remembered it or if she just knew the story. “I was never smart enough to look behind the shower curtain,” she whispered.
“That’s kind of mean,” Ryder said. “I mean, it had to of upset you, right?”
She nodded, “Yeah,” she breathed. “Jackson said that I’d shut myself in my little bedroom upstairs and cry until my father appeared in my doorway and told me that he couldn’t stay away from me. He said that he loved me so much, he had to come home. Plus, he said the toilet was one stinky place to live and that always made me laugh.”
“Well, at least it ended well,” Ryder said. He was resting his hand on her thigh and she thought it was the sweetest gesture.
“Kind of,” she said. She covered his hand with her own, lacing their fingers together. “When he died, I was still so young. Jackson said I spent hours sitting in the bathroom, waiting for him to come home. My brother liked to tell me that he got in trouble for peeing outside because I wouldn’t give up the house’s only bathroom. Of course, my father never came back and I realized then that my life was going to change forever. Jackson stepped up to the plate, trying to keep everything running smoothly at home, but he was older and had to do his own thing. My mother convinced him to join the police force and he was away from home more often. I had to grow up pretty quickly, especially when my mother was first diagnosed.”
Tatum looked over at the sadness she saw in his eyes and regretted telling him her sad, sappy stories. “Enough about me,” she said, “how about you, Ryder? You have any sad childhood stories?”
“Not really,” he admitted. “My mom and dad are still around. But they live in New Hampshire and I don’t get to see them very often. I have three brothers and I’m the oldest. They are constantly arguing about something or other. I gave up trying to fit in with them a long time ago.”
“No sisters?” Tatum asked.
“Nope,” he said. “My mother said she threw in the towel when my brother Axel popped out.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that four boys would make me want to throw in the towel too,” Tatum teased. “I always wondered what it would be like to come from a big family,” she said.
“It’s fun, most of the time. Holiday’s and parties are a blast but then you have to deal with the bullshit of everyday life. You know—like when your youngest brother runs off to join the military and doesn’t tell anyone,” Ryder said.
“That happened?” she asked.
“Yep, and so much more,” he said. “My middle brother eloped with a woman he met in Atlantic City, on a trip he took with a couple of friends, for the weekend.”
“Shit,” Tatum said.
“Yeah—shit doesn’t even begin to cover how pissed off my mother was. She went on and on about how she was robbed from watching a daughter walk down the aisle but then my stupid brother, Finn went and eloped.”
“So, your brother’s names are Finn, Axel, and—” she paused and looked over to find Ryder smiling.
“Jackson,” he said, laughing.
“Oh my God, that’s too funny. But you call my brother Hart, so it shouldn’t get too confusing, right?” she asked. What were the odds that they both had brothers named Jackson?