Chapter 14

(***Aaron***)

After she expresses her frustration with me and not getting her way, I try to speak up, but my father signals me to be silent by holding up his hand. He turns to look at my mother in disbelief. It is like he can’t believe she is making this about her wants rather than what I need.

“To be here when he needs us instead of two states away, Tori. I would rather be in a house down the street when he needs us for anything right now than at home in Washington. Stop fighting him on this, for fucks sake. Stop trying to control everything for once and just let him be.”

My dad shocks us both with his angry outburst. Mom bursts into tears, then stands up and rushes from the room, leaving us staring after her. Dad’s eyes are glittering with his anger, but he doesn’t get up right away to go after her.

“Are things between you two alright, or is it just what is going on with me causing problems? I didn’t mean to cause this drama.”

He sighs, then pinches the bridge of his nose. When he looks at me, there is understanding in his eyes. “I completely understand why you chose to hide this from us. I’m hurt because you felt the need to do so, but I get why you did. We are fine; your mother is just having a hard time dealing with it.”

“Does she think I chose to keep it from you both because I didn’t want your help or you two in my life? That is not it at all.”

He shakes his head. “Both you and Quinn went through hell, and neither of you told us how bad it really got afterwards. I get why, well, some of the reasons, but she is feeling rejected by both of you.”

Well shit.

It looks like I have some work to do to repair my relationship with my mother. The thought of her feeling rejected never crossed my mind. Now I understand why she is fighting me so hard. Well, she would have put up a fight anyway, but I get her motives for wanting to live here with me more than I did before.

“Should I go talk to her?”

He shakes his head and says, “Give her some space. It would do us all a bit of good right now so that none of us say anything we can’t take back.”

“That reminds me, I will be going out-of-town tomorrow. Rylan and her sister are going to South Carolina to get Rosalie’s stuff and sort out what she needs to do from there. Her husband is a major douchebag. Rylan asked me to go with them as backup in case he tried anything stupid.”

“That is good that you will be there for both of them. Your mother and I will leave in the morning to go back home. There is a lot to do there in order to move out here while you need us.”

“Have you ever thought of moving here permanently?” I have thought about that for a few years now. Moving them both out here.

He shakes his head again. “No. Our small town is just right. Coming here for a visit now and then is fine, but living here full time is not something I want.”

“Fair. Okay, I have travel plans to arrange and packing to do. I am sure we will only be gone for a few days. I will make things right with mom before you guys leave.”

He gives me a nod, then picks up the book he was reading when I came in the room earlier. I leave him to that and head to my office to call the pilot. Once he files the flight plan, I text Ryan about the time we will be leaving. I make sure it will be after my parents leave so that I know they are on their way home.

Before I leave my office, I also send a text to Quinn asking if he can swing by to have a chat. I think we both need to be here for this conversation with our mother. We need to let her know that we both love her, and we didn't mean to hurt her by keeping her in the dark.

It did anyway; it seems.

I head up to my room after he tells me that he is on his way. After pulling out my suitcase, I stared at my closet for a few minutes as I debated what to pack. I haven’t been to South Carolina in years, so I forgot what the weather was like there.

Fuck it, I pack a few days’ worth of clothing that I would normally wear when I am not working. Anything I need that I don’t pack, I can always buy when I get there. After shoving my toiletry bag and extra phone charger, I debated strongly about adding the small gun I travel with.

That is the biggest perk of having a private jet: no airport security to scan my luggage. I like to be armed in any city I travel to, unless it is out of the country. Knowing that I will be dealing with a wife beater, I want to have a weapon to use for intimidation in case he doesn’t get the message otherwise.

After a few minutes of debating, I walk to the safe in my closet, put in the code, then pull out my travel gun and the holster for it. The holster is designed to go at the small of my back and I can easily conceal it with my shirt or a jacket. I walk to the bed, toss it in, then zip the bag closed.

I am ready to travel.

Thirty minutes later, I hear the doorbell ring, signaling Quinn’s arrival. He is in the living room with my dad when I walk in the room. My mom is nowhere to be seen.

“Where is mom?”

“Out back, sitting by the pool, I asked her to come in a few minutes ago, but she is refusing to talk to me now. Stand up for myself and my son for the first time in years, and I get the silent treatment.” Dad huffs out a breath and then leaves the room.

Quinn gives me a questioning look.

“He basically told her to stop hovering and trying to control everything for once.”

“Ouch. Let’s go out there and defuse that bomb.” Quinn chuckles, then heads towards the back of the house.

The pool is in a room where one entire wall is glass, but it is on sliders, almost like pocket doors. It opens the room up and allows lots of sun into the room. When I walk in, I see my mother sitting on one of the padded gray lounge chairs with her back to the door. I can tell by the way her shoulders are moving that she is crying.

Hurting her in any way was never my intention.

I walk quietly to where she is sitting, with Quinn right at my back. Without saying a word, we flank her and sit on either side of her. She lifts her head and looks to her left and then to her right. We both reach out for her hands at the same time.

This is not the first time the three of us have sat like this, and I know it won’t be the last. What we lack in common sense, sometimes we make up for with our unwavering love for this woman. A woman who gave birth to one of us and chose to raise the other when he needed someone to love him.

“Called in back up, I see,” she says in a slightly bitter tone.

“Not at all. Quinn is here to tell you the same thing I am about to.”

“Tag teaming like always. It was cute when you were younger, but it isn’t right now.”

I sigh but continue on. “Do you really want to know why we didn’t want to tell you about how bad things were and can still be with our PTSD?”

She looks at me and nods her head. Her eyes are red from crying, and I know that I really hurt her. This is not just her being melodramatic. My heart constricts painfully, making me let go of her hand so I can stand up to pace.

“Shame, guilt, and feeling unclean and unworthy,” Quinn says quietly.

I nod my head at him. “Shame for some things we had to do to survive during combat.”

“Guilt for surviving when some of our fellow brothers and sisters didn’t come home,” Quinn says.

“Feeling unclean after killing people in the name of peace and feeling unworthy of the things we want to have that peace.”

My mother looks at me in surprise.

“The reason I didn’t tell you any of the things I did or saw while doing my job was because I never wanted you or dad to be touched by those images of me. I didn’t want to taint the one thing that always made me feel better just by you not knowing those things about me.”

“Quinn, is that the way you saw it too?”

“Yes. I am only now sharing some of that stuff with Annie. She has gone with me to see Dr. West, and it is going well.”

“That is the same therapist that Aaron is seeing? Is he good?”

“He is one of the best, and I wish I had started seeing him years ago instead of...” He lets his words trail off rather than say that horrible woman’s name.

I walk back over to them and sit back down. “West has a plan for some family sessions when I am ready. He wants me to be able to speak freely with you and dad about some of what I went through over there. I am not closing you out or rejecting you, momma.”

She lets out a little sob, and I close my arms around her. I feel Quinn hug us both. We sit like that until she pulls away from us to stand up. I have a feeling that some of this could have been avoided if we hadn’t closed ourselves off from her.

“You had each other, and I will be forever grateful for that. Now you both have your father and me, along with Annie and Rylan. No more keeping us in the dark.”

“We will not share everything that we went through. Some things are just too hard to talk about with certain people. I know you want that, but I can promise to share what I can.”

“Fine. Now I need to pack so we can be ready in the morning to go home.” She leans in to kiss Quinn on the cheek, then pats my head before she walks out of the room.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Quinn asked what I knew he would.

“Rylan? Why did mom mention her like...”

“That is a funny story and one that will need some privacy to tell. Come to my office, and I will tell you what you have been eagerly wanting to know.”

He laughs, then follows me to my office.

Thirty minutes later, after I have filled him in on what happened last night with Rylan, Quinn leaves to go home. He was happy that I finally stopped letting my fear get in my way. He also told me to take things a bit slower than I have been to give us each a chance to get used to the idea of finally being a couple after all those years of yearning.

That is my plan, but I am not sure I will be able to keep my hands off her after so many years of pent-up sexual frustration where she is concerned. Yes, I have fucked many women over the years, but none of them has what Rylan has.

None of them were her.  

Only one woman came close to that same fiery spirit that Rylan has, and that was Charlie. A woman that I was going to fuck but didn’t because that wasn’t what either of us wanted when she showed up in my room. Like Rylan, I respect Charlie.

Maybe one day I can introduce the two of them. I think they will get along great, or they will hate each other on site. Women are fickle creatures, and I learned that from my mother.

The sound of my phone ringing pulls me away from my thoughts. I pull it out of my pocket and glance at the screen, then smile. Speaking of Rylan. 

“Hey, baby, I was just thinking about you.” My voice is huskier than I intended, but it has the desired effect.

Rylan’s sultry laugh sounds through the phone. “Oh, really now? Mind in the gutter, is it?”

“Always where you are concerned. What’s up?”

“Can Rosalie and I come stay there tonight? It will save time in the morning if we are all in one place.”

“You can’t stay away from me, can you?”

“It is the pool I am after,” she laughs.

“You wound me, woman. Yes, come over. I will let my mom know, and she will no doubt want to cook for us all. I told her about us, not what we did, but about you now being my girl.”

“Oh. How did that go?”

I could hear the nerves in her voice. She has nothing to be nervous about with my parents. They already think she is amazing. They got to spend more time with her at Quinn’s wedding, and my mother spent a lot of time with her while she helped Annie plan everything.

“Ry, my mom thinks you are a lovely woman, and my father gave me a wink. You have their approval. Not that you need it at all. You are it for me, with or without their approval.”

“This is all new to me, Aaron. I mean, I have dated, but it was only serious enough to meet their parents once. I met yours before we became a thing. I want to make a good impression.”

“You do that just by being who you are. Your authentic self. Keep being the woman I can’t resist, and my mother will adore you.”

She lets out a laugh. “I am going to need some reassurance in the form of kisses when I get there.”

“That I can do. Now hurry up and get here.”

“Okay, see you in a bit,” she disconnects the call, leaving me with a shit-eating-grin on my face.

Now to make the second guest room presentable and to inform my mom that we will have overnight guests. Tonight will be a test of my willpower to behave myself while Rylan is in my bed with my parents down the hall. It is a good thing that all the bedrooms and my office are soundproof.

I may not be able to resist her if I get to see her in a bathing suit later.