“I was actually hoping to talk to you and your brothers tonight about something, too” he said, sliding a hand in the pocket of his khakis. He was wearing another loud Hawaiian shirt tonight. This one had pink and blue surfboards on it.
“Well, you first,” Beckett said.
Franklin pulled his hand out of his pocket clutching a black velvet jewelers box. Beckett’s mouth fell open.
“Holy shit.” Jax and Carter were frozen in the doorway between the dining room and parlor. The bowl of chips Jax held tumbled to the floor.
“Anybody home?” Gianna with Evan and Aurora in tow poked her head into the parlor from the foyer.
She took in the scene in about two seconds flat and recovered even faster. “Can I see you three in the kitchen?” she asked through gritted teeth, pointing at Beckett and his brothers.
When no one moved she gave them all an icy glare. “Now!”
“I’ll just stay out here with Evan and Aurora?” Franklin looked at Beckett with a mix of pity and relief. “Good luck,” he whispered.
They filed past Gianna into Beckett’s kitchen.
“This has gone on long enough,” Gianna snapped. She stationed herself in front of the door, legs braced and hands on hips. “Talk.”
“Talk about what?” Beckett growled.
“About why you don’t want your mother and my father together.” She was still mad. Beckett considered that a good sign. She still had strong feelings for him, even if they all were rage-related.
“Gia’s right. They seem happy,” Carter started. “Why don’t you want her with him?”
Beckett remained sullenly silent and Gia actually stomped her foot.
“You took your issues here out on me, but I swear to God if you try to do that to my father — the man who loves your mother, the man who defended you to me after you were a complete and utter asshole.” Her finger drilled into his chest. “I will destroy you. No one hurts my family and walks away from it.”
Beckett shoved her hand out of the way and fought the overwhelming urge to shove her back against the door. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to shake her or kiss her. Probably both. She’d always had that ability to stir him up, to shake his control.
“Exactly what issues are you accusing me of taking out on you?” he asked.
She didn’t even flinch at the tone that had been known to terrify others. The finger was back in his chest, sharper than ever. “That you were the only one here to pick up the pieces after your father died. And that’s why —”
“Whoa, whoa. Hold on there —” Carter started.
“Shut up, Carter,” Gia ordered without taking her eyes off of Beckett. “Tell them. Tell them why you’d stand in the way of a good man who loves your mother.”
“You weren’t here.” Beckett’s tone was cold, sharp. But he was talking to his brothers now. “You didn’t see her after Dad died. After everyone else went back to their lives and she was left here. Alone.”
“She wasn’t alone,” Jax argued.
“Aunt Rose and Uncle Melvin left a few days after you two did. I went back to school. The man that she had spent every day with for twenty-six years was gone. She was alone, grieving and facing the loss of the only thing she had left.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Carter demanded.
“We almost lost the farm. Dad had been sick for so long, we were falling behind on everything. If it wasn’t for Rainbow at the bank, you both would have come home to nothing,” he snapped. “She gave me a loan when there was no way in hell that I could have qualified for one. I was over my head in law school loans. But she gave me just enough to get us by.”
“If you needed money why didn’t —” Carter began.
“Mom wanted to do this by herself. She was so pissed when she found out about the loan,” Beckett crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. His lips turned up a little. “It had been so long since I saw anything but sad on her face. We had ourselves a good, long screaming battle in the kitchen.”
“The transom,” Jax said suddenly.
Beckett nodded, a sad smile played on his lips. “She threw a cast iron skillet through the window above the kitchen door.”
“You two were so vague about how it broke,” Carter remembered.
“Made me swear never to tell anyone. It was the first night that she didn’t cry herself to sleep.”
Carter stared at the floor.
“So don’t fucking tell me you know what it was like. You had the Army and you had your big-time career,” he said pointing to his brothers. “Mom and I had the land and each other. Even with the help from town, she worked herself to exhaustion every single day until you came home, Carter.”
“Why didn’t she tell us to come home?” Jax kicked at the leg of a barstool.
Beckett shrugged. “I don’t know. She wanted you to live your own lives, make your own choices.”
“Why didn’t she just let the farm go?” Carter swiped a hand through his hair, guilt radiating off of him. “Start over?”
“Because it was the only thing we had left of him,” Beckett said, his voice breaking. “She didn’t want all of us to lose the last thing we had.”
Gianna laid a hand on his back, but said nothing.