Chapter 15

(***Rylan***)

During the entire drive to Aaron’s house, I was full of nervous energy. What I told him about never meeting the parents of anyone I have dated wasn’t entirely true. There was one man I dated while I was still on active duty.

Tucker Lowell was a captain in the unit I was with after leaving Quinn and Aaron’s unit. He was sweet, at least at first he was. We dated for six months and spent as much time together as our schedules would allow.

I thought at the time that there was something there. The chemistry was amazing; we shared a lot of the same interests, and his views on the future aligned quite well with what I wanted too. He was someone I was starting to be able to see myself with for the foreseeable future.

It shocked me when I realized that. I had been in love with Aaron for so long by then that I didn’t think there was anyone else that could make my heart pound the way it did when I was around Aaron. Tucker proved me wrong.

When he asked me to come home with him to Montana on a weekend we both had downtime, I panicked and said I had prior commitments with my family, even though I would have rather walked on broken glass than spend time with any of my family.

He understood, but when he asked me a few months later and made another excuse, he got irritated with me. We had a huge argument about me running from commitment, and I promised I would go the next time he asked if I had the downtime available.

A month later, I went with him to the horse ranch his parents owned in Montana. The first night we were there, his mother made it quite obvious that she didn’t really like me because she thought I had a boy’s name, my hair was too short, and I dressed like a man.

I wasn’t woman enough for her son, according to what she told me when Tucker was outside with his dad. That hurt more than I wanted to admit at the time. I wore jeans and flannel shirts like Tucker suggested because we would be riding horses and it could get cold. My hair was short because I just felt like switching up my style.

She made my time with them such a nightmare that I left early without telling Tucker that I was leaving. When he tried to call me, I declined the call. I just felt too raw after dealing with his mother and needed time to decompress.

He cornered me in the medical building on base a few days after he got back. It was an ugly scene. He accused me of flirting with his brother, the stable hand, and two of the ranch hands while I was there. His mother told him that she watched me do it, so of course he believed her over me when I told him that never happened.

The way he acted was vile, and I wanted no part of a man who would believe the word of others before he even got my side of the story. She was his mother, so everything she said had to be true. It was disgusting, so I ended our relationship right there on the spot.

Tucker didn’t take that well, and he stalked me for the next six months before I reported him to our commanding officer. After I reported him to our commanding officer and provided evidence of some of his intimidation tactics, he was transferred a week later.

After that disastrous relationship, I never let myself get that attached to any of the men I dated. I ended things with the first red flag I saw. Just like I recently did with Heath. Look where that got me. Attacked in a hospital storage room.

Thankfully, Aaron heard the commotion and saved me. Thankfully, the camera recorded the entire incident within the storeroom. There is no refuting what that dickhead tried to do to me.

“Hey, are you okay?” Rosalie asks from the passenger seat. “You have been quiet and tapping the steering wheel constantly the entire drive.”

“Just lost in thought. I am nervous about taking this trip and my new relationship status.”

“Rylan, that man adores you, and it shows in the way he looks at you. What is there to be nervous about?”

“We have known each other for so long, and there isn’t much that we don’t know about each other. What if we have nothing to talk about?”

Rosalie laughs.

“What?”

“I highly doubt you will be doing much talking if the smoldering looks you give each other are anything to go on.”

She isn’t wrong. There was once a point in time that I convinced myself that if we just had sex, I would get him out of my system. Now that I have had him, I know that will never happen. I can’t wait to be alone with him again, just to have more of what I had last night.

He is like a drug to me right now. I am scared that it will fade quickly, and I don’t want that at all. I have loved him for so long, and now that I have a chance to make something out of it, I don’t want to let go. Let’s just hope that I don’t let my insecurities get the better of me.

“You already know his family and friends, so that takes some of the stress of meeting them off your shoulders. What more is there to be nervous about?” Rosalie asks as we pull into Aaron’s.

Unlike my house, Aaron’s is walled off but has a high wrought-iron fence lined with thick hedges and a gate with fingerprint access. In the back of the house, the fence is higher to give privacy to anything he does back there. I love this house; it is everything I ever dreamed of in a home.

“That is what makes me nervous. I have met his parents, but what if now that he and I are an item, they decide I am not good enough?”

“Ry, stop overthinking it. Go with the flow. That is something I wish to do for once in my life. Just go with it.”

We end the conversation so we can get out of the car. Each of us grabs our bags from the back seat, then we walk to the front door. Tori opens the door to greet us, and there is genuine warmth in her smile when she looks at me. I feel those butterflies in my stomach settle down as she ushers us into the house.

Aaron walks up to me from behind his mom. He leans in to kiss me soundly on the lips, then grabs our bags. “Mom has dinner in the oven; follow me and I will show you to your rooms.”

I follow him, and Rosalie is right behind us. We walk up the curving staircase in the large foyer that leads to the second floor, then he takes a left at the top of the stairs. He stops at the second door on the right of the hall and opens it.

“This is where you will be staying, Rosalie.”

I follow her into the room and am suitably impressed. The walls are a light cream color, and the carpet is plush-looking white. The furniture looks expensive, but tasteful. Rosalie walks to the bed and flops down after Aaron sits her bag on the bench at the end of the bed.

“Your house is beautiful, Aaron. Thank you for letting us stay tonight and for going with us tomorrow,” she says softly.

“It is no trouble at all, and I am happy to help.” He turns to me with a mischievous smirk on his face. “I set up the room next door for you, unless you want to sleep in mine.”

Relief washes through me that he gave me the choice to choose where I sleep rather than just deciding for me. “Show me the room next door.”

He nods his head, then walks out of the room, leaving me to follow him. I glance at Rosalie before I leave, and she just gives me a thumbs up but doesn’t move. I follow Aaron to the room next door.

“There is a bathroom between the two rooms with connecting doors to each. I figured it would suit you two. The bedroom across the hall is my parents’, and they have an ensuite bathroom.” He tells me this as he steps into the room I will sleep in tonight.

It is set up the same way as Rosalie’s room, but the color scheme is different. This room is pale yellow with a cream-colored carpet. I like it, but I highly doubt I will spend the night here.

Aaron sits my bag down on the bench at the end of the bed, then looks at me. I can tell he is annoyed by my choice to have him show me this room instead of his, so I close the distance between us quickly. His eyes are guarded, like they get when he doesn’t want to show how he is feeling.

“I picked this room and will have my bag in here to appease your mother, even if she doesn’t care where I sleep or don’t sleep tonight. Don’t pull away from me because of this.”

He sighs, then pulls me into his arms. “It was a knee-jerk reaction. To be fully honest with you, Rys, this is my first attempt at a relationship since before I ever joined the army. I am very nervous that I will fuck it up and a tad sensitive to being rejected.”

To say that I am stunned is an understatement for what I am feeling at that truth bomb. His first relationship ever? Holy crap.

“Am I your first girlfriend?”

“Well, no, that would be Megan O’Malley when I was thirteen. We dated for a full two weeks, then she dumped me for the new kid, Tommy. My first heartbreak was brief.”

A laugh bubbles up my throat as he shakes his head.

“Seriously though, am I really your first relationship?”

“Rylan, you are the only woman I want to take the chance with.” He gives me a quick kiss, then pulls me towards the door. “We can talk more about that later tonight when you come to my room when you can’t sleep. For now, let’s grab your sister and head back downstairs for dinner.”

“So sure of yourself, aren’t you?” I laugh when he just nods his head, then I follow him to get Rosalie.

The next few hours are filled with helping his mother embarrass the crap out of Aaron. She told me stories from his childhood, and I shared some from our time together in the army. Shenanigans that we got up to during lulls in missions. It was nice to hear his mother laugh at the stories I told her.

I could see the grateful look on Aaron’s face when I didn’t tell her anything other than the fun times we had. She asked questions, and I answered what I could while keeping some of the darker details to myself. Overall, I would say it was a very enjoyable experience with his parents.

Even Rosalie asked some questions. I was expecting her to not really be interested in that time of my life since she has never been in the past. She quoted our mother once by telling me that joining the army was a man’s job. I didn’t hold it against her because I knew she got that mentality from our mom.

After dinner, my nerves came back as we were all sitting out by the fire pit with some wine. Aaron is going to meet my mother for the first time, and there will be nothing I will be able to do to prevent her from being the narcissist that she is.

I can just imagine how she will react to me bringing my boyfriend home. Her husband will know who Aaron is because he follows business news. My mom will have no clue, but she will judge him, anyway.

“So, Rylan, where are you from originally?” Tori asks when there is a lull in conversation.

I take a deep breath as I prepare to answer her questions. I knew this was coming because it was inevitable after Aaron announced to his parents that we were an item. Now to explain my messed-up family tree.

“I was born in Florida and lived there until I was five, when my mother moved us back to South Carolina, where she was from. That is where she lives now with her second husband, Rosalie’s father.”

“Oh, you two are half-siblings. You look so much alike. What about your father? Do he and your mother still get along after their divorce?”

Rosalie chokes on her wine after Tori asks this question. I squirm in my seat because telling people that I am the product of an affair makes me a tad uncomfortable. Also, this is something I have never really told Aaron or Quinn.

I just told them my parents were no longer together.

“Oh, are you okay, dear?” Tori asks Rosalie.

“Yes, thank you. I think I just swallowed wrong.”

Tori turns her attention back to me, and I sigh inwardly. How much do I actually tell her? How much does she deserve to know? I will be telling Aaron all of it anyway, so fuck it, here goes nothing.

“My parents were never married. They met in a bar while my father was on a business trip. They had a six-month-long affair, hooking up whenever he was in town for work. That ended when he came clean to his wife.”

I paused to take a sip of my wine, then finished the rest of the story.

“A few weeks after he ended their affair, my mother found out she was pregnant with me. Her husband demanded a paternity test because he knew she had been cheating on him. He wasn’t my father, and he forced her to tell him who was. Then he filed for divorce and left her. She showed up on my father’s doorstep with me in tow when I was six.”

The surprise on Tori’s face was equally mirrored in Aaron’s. Neither said a word. Rosalie looked embarrassed, but she now knows the full story of how I came to be.

“I have three half-siblings. Rosalie from my mother, and Andrew and Juanita from my father and stepmother. Andrew is older than me.”

“Wow. Do your parents talk at all after all that?”

“Not since I was thirteen. My father insisted that all their co-parent duties be done through his lawyer or a mediator. It made for an interesting childhood, that is for sure.”

It was a nightmare.