Page 13 of Twister

Daniel

“So…,” Marshall said reluctantly as he crouched down to love on Bucky. “That was my mother.”

Glaring at Rose’s locked bedroom door, I snorted before I turned away and headed back down the corridor. “I kind of got that, yeah.”

“I’m sorry about her questions.”

I raised an eyebrow at him as I walked past. “I’m sorry about Rose stealing your phone. I think it’s fair to say that we’re even.”

“If it’s any consolation,” he said, getting up to follow me, Bucky happily on his heels, “I think they’ll get along. Mom has always had the same sense of humor as a teenager, and Rose seems older….”

“So it’ll be a meeting of like minds?” I asked, swallowing a chuckle.

“Could be, yeah.”

I headed for the sofa that I’d been sitting in before Rose had taken off and collapsed onto it.

“She’ll come out when she’s good and ready.

” With my head resting comfortably on the back cushion, I watched Marshall sink into the couch opposite me, appearing a little dazed.

“Is your whole family like that? Or just your mom?”

He chuckled. “Just her. Dad is the more serious of the pair.”

“Opposites attract, huh?”

He nodded absently before glancing down the hallway toward Rose’s closed door.

“Any siblings?”

He wiped his hands down his cheeks. “An older brother. Anderson.”

“Are you two close?” I found myself wanting to hear everything about Marshall’s family. The very short conversation with his mom had piqued my curiosity, and now I needed more.

He hummed as he tilted his head from side to side. “Kind of? Less now than we were when we were growing up. He’s two years older than me, and the older he gets, the more like Dad he’s getting.”

That sounded familiar. “I’ve got three brothers. The middle one, James? I could say the same thing about him and my dad.”

Marshall’s eyebrows rose in challenge. “Is he following in your father’s footsteps to take over the family business and expects you to drop everything to do the same just so you can wither away in an office cubicle and report to him for the rest of your working life even though you hate what your family does? ”

My jaw snapped shut, surprised at the sudden shift in tone. “Um… no?”

He sighed bitterly and wiped his hands down his cheeks again before tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling.

“Sorry. I do love my brother, but he’s what you’d call the golden child of the family, and ever since he graduated college a couple of years ago, he’s been insufferable.

” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing.

“Mom is the only one who really understands how much I don’t want to work for Anderson.

It feels like Dad’s got his head stuck in the sand because he keeps saying everything will work out the way it’s supposed to. ”

Hmm. That was a loaded statement. I mean, technically, his dad wasn’t wrong, because that was how life rolled, but if he wasn’t supporting Marshall the way he should’ve been because all his focus was on the eldest son, no wonder Marshall felt unheard. “What does your family do?”

“Finance.”

“Is that why you studied…?”

“Yup.”

“And you hate…?”

“Yup.”

I grimaced. “That feels… somewhat counterintuitive.”

“Dad wanted me to get a degree.” He shrugged.

“As soon as I finished my first semester, I split my major to focus on finance and management. I couldn’t swap my major out entirely because of my scholarships, but there was enough wiggle room in the fine print that I could bring in management.

” He raised his head enough to grin cheekily at me.

“Anderson wasn’t happy, but Dad didn’t mind as long as I didn’t flunk or drop out. ”

“Your own personal act of rebellion.”

“Got it in one.” He raised his hand and pointed at me before letting it drop back onto the couch cushion.

“That’s actually where I was headed yesterday before I got caught up in the tornado drama.

Anderson wanted me to start working for him as soon as I finished my final exam, but I delayed leaving college for as long as I could with every excuse I could think of.

He probably thinks this is all just another delaying tactic.

I’m waiting for him to blow up my phone before I send him pics of the damage.

” He chanced another look toward Rose’s still-closed door.

“That’s why I didn’t mind you talking to Mom too much.

It’s easy enough for Anderson to dismiss me, but it’s much harder to dismiss someone he doesn’t know.

With Mom talking to you and Rose, it’ll hopefully prove that I’m not ‘blowing smoke up his ass.’” He tiredly crooked his fingers for the emphasis.

Understanding dawned a little more about why Evelyn, his mom, had been the way she was when I was talking to her.

Sure, she’d been a riot of laughs, but there’d also been real concern simmering underneath, and not just about Marshall’s accommodations predicament or his Jeep needing to be fixed.

It almost seemed like she was trying to find another escape for Marshall, to help him avoid a future she knew he didn’t want.

Idly, I wondered if I could find a job here in Rockdale for him so he didn’t have to go home. Maybe, just maybe, if we looked hard enough, he could make a home here instead.

Maybe his dad was right? Maybe everything would work out the way it was supposed to. Marshall deserved a chance at making his own destiny, not being subjected to the whims of his older brother.

Maybe Marshall was always meant to get stopped here in Rockdale?

And a small but growing part of me wondered if that meant he was always supposed to meet me and Rose. To live not only in the town of Rockdale but here in this house with us.

I still wasn’t convinced that our age gap wouldn’t be what destroyed anything between us before it even had a chance to start, but he’d felt so right, so very right, in my arms earlier. That gravitational pull I’d felt last night toward him had bloomed when we’d kissed.

I wanted more of that. Desperately.

The click of Rose’s door opening had us both turning our heads to look down the hallway. She emerged with a Cheshire cat grin on her face and Marshall’s phone still attached to her ear. “Thanks, Grandma Cougar.”

I groaned and glared at Rose when I heard the nickname. Marshall’s mom had been adopted, just like Marshall yesterday. We were never getting rid of either of them now if Rose had her way.

“Yes, I’ll do what you suggested.” She laughed as she sauntered lazily toward us. “Yeah, they’re both giving me death stares. Okay. Talk to you soon. Bye!” Without ending the call, she handed the phone over to Marshall. “Your mom’s awesome !”

“Yes, I know,” he deadpanned as he took the phone from her.

He sighed as he lifted the phone to his ear.

“All right, what’s the damage?” He shuffled himself around until he could lever himself off the couch, and then he walked over to the kitchen.

“No, I refuse to put you back on speaker until you tell me what you and Rose talked about.”

I raised an eyebrow at Rose as she took his seat, still grinning from ear to ear. “Do I want to know what you two talked about?”

Without dropping her smile, she shook her head. “Probably not, no.”

“Oh, dear God.” I threw my head back and sighed long and loud. The perils of raising a daughter. No one ever warned me about this. When I’d expelled enough air to take another breath in, I looked up enough to narrow my eyes at her. “ Grandma Cougar ?”

She shrugged. “She’s cool. Like a cucumber. But I wasn’t going to call her Grandma Cucumber. That’d just be weird.”

I let my brow furrow. “And Grandma Cougar isn’t?”

She shrugged again but remained silent, although her smile stayed wide and toothy.

“I should probably punish you or something for running off with Marshall’s phone…

.” Scrubbing at my face, I sighed wearily, sat up, and rested my elbows on my knees, deciding to ignore it all until it became a bigger problem.

“Okay. Let’s do this. For your punishment, you need to finish all your pending weekly chores before four today, then wash up quickly enough to be out of here by four thirty.

We need to pick up the rest of Marshall’s belongings from Kajir’s before he shuts for the day. ”

“Okay.” She nodded seriously. She knew it was going to be tough for her to get everything done by the time I’d given her. That would do for a punishment, right?

I swallowed uncertainly. “And then you, me, and Marshall are going to go have dinner at Malone’s.”

Her face lit up in excitement. She knew that me suggesting that was a big deal, because Malone’s was a local restaurant that sold old-style, classic fare with recipes that had been passed down over the generations and was beloved by everyone in Rockdale.

It was the place in town to take a date, but it was also a bit of a risk.

Everyone in town knew everyone else and their secrets.

To take someone to Malone’s was declaring your interest in them publicly.

For us all to eat there together? Rose knew just how significant that was.

I hadn’t set foot in Malone’s with anyone other than Rose since Jackson left us.

If or, more likely, when everything fell apart after Marshall left Rockdale next week, the mere fact that I was willing to take someone other than Rose there was declaring to the town that I was officially back on the market.

Yes, I was beyond nervous.

Was I ready? Probably not. But I’d promised Marshall a date, and come hell or high water, I was going to do it.

God, help me make sure I didn’t fuck this up.