Dylan (Bachelors of the Ridge #1) (2 page)

“
I
saiah
! Do not throw that back at him!” I leaned to the left, my dad leaned the right; both of us trying to see the Tigers game around my sister-in-law Jen who was mid-disciplinary action. Something with glue paste and an ear, but I couldn’t be sure. Jen pinned both of the boys with a rock-hard stare.

“Jen, do you think you could move this a foot to the left?” I asked, pushing my bottom lip out in pout, batting my eyelids.

“Only because you asked so nicely. Now put that lip back in before you hook it on something.” She smacked me on the side of the head and stalked after her kids. I wish I could say all of the insanity fazed me, but it really didn’t. I was one of five kids and I had six nephews under the age of ten. Nothing short of someone rubbing shit into my hair made me blink.

My dad slapped me on the leg. “Well done. You don’t have to work today? Your mom was so happy you could make it.”

We both groaned when something happened on the field, nothing out of the ordinary for the Tigers, and I nodded. “Yeah, I need to go in after dinner, but I switched some hours with Maggie. She wanted to be able to see her kid sing in church tonight.”

He started to ask me something else and peals of laughter came from the kitchen, drawing my dad’s attention. It was a relief to not be his sole focus, because I was only one week from giving my notice at work. I’d already told my landlord I was moving, but my family? Knew nothing. They had no idea that I’d dropped one truck-full of household items off at Goodwill, and had spent hours researching what would be entailed in a cross country move.

Even while we all moved from the various spots around my parents’ house to sit down at their long farm-style table, I couldn’t look at everyone’s faces and really understand the fact that in less than a month, I’d be thousands of miles away. My dad prayed before we ate, Rachel told a funny story about my brother, Casey snuggled into her husband’s side, the kids threw food at each other across the table, and I just sat there, unable to finish a single bite due to the fact that it turned to sawdust the moment it touched my tongue.

No one had noticed yet, amongst all the commotion and laughter and chatter, that I was one touching family moment away from a complete and utter breakdown. I might
cry.

Oh no. No no no no. That couldn’t happen. If I didn’t come clean soon, I’d be sobbing into someone’s mashed potatoes.

“I have something I need to tell you guys,” I began.

“Jake and I have an announcement,” Casey said at the exact same time. Casey looked over at me, lifting an eyebrow. “You
cannot
be stealing my thunder right now.”

“I don’t know what thunder I’m stealing. You could have made a pre-announcement, then I would have known to keep my mouth shut. You know, like, ‘hey everyone! In a few minutes, nobody else better have anything to say because I’m going to need the floor.’”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. You go.”

I lifted my hands up. “No way. And deal with your wrath when everyone cares more about my news?”

When a slow smile spread across her face, I
knew
. I fricken knew. Because her face was all glowey. And her eyes, the same blue-green that mine were, were all sparkling and shit. Yup. Little sister was gonna kill me when I said
my
thing after
her
thing. She took her husband Jake’s hand and smiled at him before turning to face everyone. Jake was damn near beaming, which should have tipped everyone off because the guy was not smiley.

“Jake and I,” she cleared her throat, “well, I’m pregnant.”

“I knew it!” Rachel yelled from across the table while everyone else erupted in cheers and applause. Well, the kids didn’t. They kept eating and chucking things at each other. I sipped my water, because the cheers just might die down in a second when it was my turn. But I winked at Casey when she looked over at me.

“You’ll be a great mom,” I told her just loud enough that only she could hear me through the thumping backs and cooing women.

Her eyes misted, but she grinned. “Duh. And my child will have the greatest wardrobe ever.”

“Lord help me,” Jake said as he sat back down and wrapped an arm around my sister.

“Oh my goodness,” my mom said on a sigh, her cheeks flushed and happy. “Oh, another grandchild, I can hardly stand it.”

I smiled at my plate, pushing the roast into the mashed potatoes while their voices bubbled with happiness. The baby of the family was having a baby. It would most likely be another boy, because that’s just what Steadmans did. My brain wasn’t focused on what was happening around me, because all I could think about was how much things would change, how much I might miss. But the stronger part was excitement, the desire to go, to see, to climb a fricken
mountain
on my lunch break if I wanted to.

“Dylan?”

I looked up and, surprisingly, everyone’s attention was focused on me. Even Asher, who was gumming Rachel’s necklace and staring at the broccoli that hung from my fork. “Yeah?”

“What did you want to tell us?” my mom asked.

“Oh,” I pushed my plate away and steepled my hands in front of me. “It, uh, may seem anticlimactic in light of the blessed news over there.” I cleared my throat and cracked my neck to the side, not meeting anyone’s eyes, but the weight of them was so heavy on me. “I’m moving.” Nothing. Silence. Finally, I looked up. “To Colorado. In a month.”

Casey burst into tears. Asher sneezed and got snot all over Rachel’s chest, and my mom and dad just stared at me with jaws hanging down.

“Well, shit,” my brother Caleb finally said.

“Daddy,” Caleb’s son Mason said around a mouthful of rolls, “you always tell Mommy not to say that around us.”

My sister-in-law smiled at her son, then looked to me with sad eyes. “It’s okay this one time, Mase. Why don’t you boys take your plates to the sink and go play downstairs. The grown-ups probably want to talk a little.”

* * *

I
t took
about thirty minutes to get the children corralled downstairs, the kitchen to be picked up in the minimal accepted state for my mother to walk away, and for Rachel to get Asher settled in the crib that my parents kept in Tate’s old bedroom.

I sat on the couch, waiting for them all to sit there and stare at me, waiting for an explanation, feeling like a rock was pulling down my stomach. Nobody in our family had ever moved away.

Ever.

We all lived less than thirty minutes from each other, and even when Tate and the twins, Caleb and Michael had gone off to college, it was within driving distance.

My dad turned the TV off and sat opposite of me, pretending very hard like he didn’t want to ask me a million questions, but my mom had decreed that we wait until the kids were settled and out of the room.

A flippin’ family meeting all because I was taking a new job. Not that they’d need to give me permission–I was a grown man–but I knew they were curious. Casey and Jake wandered in from the backyard and she gave me a smile, an encouraging smile that I returned easily. Her eyes were dry, but her cheeks still looked a little splotchy from crying. Jake whispered something in her ear and she laughed up at him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

My mom finally came in with Rachel, Jen and Melissa, my brothers all following right behind their wives. When they were settled, I felt like someone had dropped me onto a stage that I wasn’t expecting to be on.

“Okay,” my mom began, grabbing my dad’s hand with her own, “talk to me, son. We’re a little surprised here.”

“I know. And maybe I should have found a better way to tell you guys, but it’s all been a little sudden.” I smoothed my hands down my thighs, warming the denim of my jeans. “I got a job offer from a customer at work. He was here visiting family with his wife, but owns some upscale sports bars in the Denver area. I talked to him that night, and he offered me a job managing his newest location that hasn’t even opened yet. It’s better pay–much better than what I get now–and he’s got three full-time managers at each place so the schedule isn’t as insane.”

Nobody said anything right away, obviously deferring to Mom and Dad for the line of questioning. My dad cleared his throat. “And this is something you’ve wanted to do? To move?”

I shrugged, swallowing back some joke or sarcastic comment like I might normally give for an answer. “I don’t think I knew I wanted to until I talked to Bill again–that’s his name. But I’m thirty-four and single. I rarely go on vacation and I’ve lived in the same place my entire life. If I’m ever going to do something like this, experience a new thing, isn’t this the best and most logical time for me to do it?”

He nodded slightly, eyes warming. “Colorado is a wonderful place to visit, I suppose.”

“That it is,” I replied, sinking back into the chair with no small amount of relief. Casey sniffed from where she was tucked into Jake’s side so I threw a pillow at her.

“I’m sorry,” she wailed, tears falling down her face again. Rachel rolled her eyes from the other side of Casey, earning a hard elbow in her side from my sister. They’d been friends for like, twenty years or something so they were allowed to treat each other like that. “But you won’t be here when our baby is born! And I hardly see you as it is. If you go off and live in the mountains and grow a beard or something, my child won’t even know you!”

“Casey,” her husband said in a low voice, “it’ll be okay. I’m sure Dylan won’t be living off the grid or anything. It’s a good thing to experience the world.” He looked up at me, still rubbing my sister’s back. “I’m happy for you, man.”

“Thanks, Jake. I appreciate it.”

But like I expected, Casey couldn’t drop it. “It’s just so like you, Dylan. You never say a single word about possibly wanting to live somewhere else, and as soon as the idea pops in your head? Boom. Decision made, no one is even allowed to discuss it with you because you’re so freaking stubborn.”

“I didn’t talk to you about it beforehand because I don’t need your permission,” I replied gently. Normally I’d push back harder, it’s what Casey and I did, but she was knocked up now. It was like she’d just bought herself a ‘get out of jail free card’ for
everything
. “And I’ve given this a lot of thought over the last couple weeks. I’m not doing this on a whim. I’m sure it seems like it right now, but I promise, I’ve thought this through.”

I could see in her face that she was slightly mollified, because she nodded and let Caleb ask a question.

“So the pay is more,” Caleb said. “Is it enough to make up for the higher cost of living? The real estate market in Denver is crazy right now. They can’t build fast enough.”

Caleb and Michael co-owned a construction company, so it wasn’t a surprise that his first thoughts would go there. I leaned forward and braced my arms on my knees. “I know. But I’m not in a rush to buy just yet. And Garrett said I could stay with him until I figure out where I want to live.”

I wasn’t stupid, and throwing his name in there, reminding them that I had a friend in the area would definitely make them feel better.

Tate wanted to know about the job and what area of Denver that the bar was in. It wasn’t hard to see my mom was trying to keep her shit together; her smile was wobbly at best as I answered all their questions.

All of a sudden, Casey perked up, a huge grin spreading across her face. Pregnancy hormones honestly freaked me out a little bit.

“I changed my mind,” she said, bouncing in place a little.

“Why?” I asked, not even attempting to mask the suspicion in my voice.

She waggled her eyebrows. “Because I can almost guarantee that you’ll move there and meet some awesome Colorado chick and fall madly in love and get married and have babies.”

“Come on, Casey.” I raised my eyebrows. “I have no problem with a cold pillow next to me and you know it.”

My mom cleared her throat, suddenly not looking like she was going to cry anymore and my dad winked.

“Excellent, I love thinking about the possibility of you
having
someone to warm the pillow.” She rolled her eyes.

“I’m serious. It’s not that I don’t want all of that someday, what all of you have, but I’m not willing to be in any relationship just so I can have someone. And that’s what I mean, having a cold pillow next to me in bed isn’t a bad thing. I’m not moving to find someone. I’m moving because it feels like the right thing to do. Like it’s the best chance I’ll have to try out an adventure like this.”

She just held my stare with a stupid little smirk on her face, and I finally rolled my eyes.

“Fine. Yes, that’s why, Casey. There’s no woman for me in Michigan, certainly not that can compare to the soul mate that waits for me in Colorado. The job? Oh, that’s secondary to meeting the love of my life and falling madly in love with her the moment I meet her.”

“Geez,” she drawled. “No need to get dramatic. But I always love when people come around to my way of thinking.”

“We know,” everyone in the room said in unison.

When the laughter quieted down, my dad gave me a long look, and a sad enough one, that I had to blink a few times.