I waved goodbye and jogged to Johnny’s. I pounded on the door. I had to hurry. I didn’t want to leave Riley alone with Frank and Tia.
Johnny opened the door a crack. “Oh, it’s you, Nate.”
He opened the door wide, tugging at his shirt gently, as though he were trying to hide something.
“I need your expertise.”
“Sure, what seems to be the trouble? I don’t know much about Jeeps, but I’m sure I can figure it out.”
I stared at him. Oh, that’s right. His cover story was that he was a motorcycle mechanic. “No, I need your legal help.”
Johnny took a step closer. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I wish I had time to explain, but I could really use a police officer on my side right now.”
Johnny’s complexion turned unnaturally white. “What? How did you know that? Who told you that?”
“The whole trailer park knows that, but right now we have more pressing problems. Frank’s trying to take Wren. He’s at Riley’s right now.”
Johnny nodded, his face becoming stoic. “Lead the way.” I jogged down the street because I didn’t want to waste time. When we got to the front of Riley’s house, we were greeted with the sight of Tia screaming at the top of her lungs, one short action away from being decked by Riley.
“I’ll be sharing your face and blasting the trailer park you live in all over the Internet! Everyone will see you for the phony that you are!”
I watched as Riley turned ashen. Tia might have been right; the Instagram account might have been fake, but Riley was anything but fake. I knew the two weeks of silence were too good to be true. Tia had only been using it as a chance to find leverage. Before I could jump to her rescue, Wren spoke up.
“No, you can’t do that. I’ll live with you. Leave Riley alone. You want me? You can have me, but you don’t get to do anything to Riley.” Wren leaned forward with each finger jab, causing Tia to take a step back. “And trust me when I say, if you do anything to Riley—anything at all—I’ll make you wish you’d never laid eyes on me.” Wren’s eyes looked like granite as she stared at Tia.
Tia stepped back, flustered. Finally, she shook her head and said, “Get in the car.”
Frank stood to the side, his hands shoved in his pockets.
Riley latched onto Wren’s arm. “You are not taking her. You want to ruin my career? Go for it. But you can’t have Wren. You don’t have any legal authority.”
I stepped next to Riley, reaching down and holding her other hand. She looked up and nodded at me.
Johnny stepped between Tia and Riley. “What court gave you guardianship of Wren?”
“No one,” Frank finally spoke up. He seemed quieter when he was around his fiancée. Maybe he’d been browbeaten by her as well. He was a different man than the coffee-cup-stealing-toilet-selling-man I’d met.
“My lawyer is going to make sure we have it. And this girl is going to happily give up her rights, or I’m going to ruin her little influencer hustle she has going on.” Her smile was disgustingly smug.
Johnny looked at Riley. Riley said quietly, “I will do what I need to do to protect my sister.”
Wren looked relieved. And I was prouder than proud could be.
Tia sputtered and took a step toward Riley. I stepped in between them. “Ma’am, whatever you do next, I would think carefully about it.” I glanced over her head at Johnny who jerked his chin at me in assent.
“Johnny, here, is an officer of the law, and as such, he is prepared to arrest you for attempted kidnapping. I hope you don’t mind a mug shot plastered all over the newspaper.” I couldn’t stop the smile at the look of horror on her face.
Wren looked positively gleeful from where she stood next to Frank.
Tia sputtered. Frank rubbed a hand over his face.
“Get in the car, Frank. We’ll fight this in court and destroy that fake career of Riley’s.”
Everyone visibly relaxed as they watched the pair walk toward the white car. Tia took short, stamping steps while Frank trudged behind. They climbed into the car and slammed the doors.
Riley let go of my hand and wrapped Wren in a hug. “You sweetheart, offering to go live with that witch to help me.”
“I don’t know how she knew about your work, but I don’t want to let her ruin you.”
I kept staring at the SUV that was still parked in the driveway. I’d hoped the threat of kidnapping would drive them off and that they would leave Riley and Wren alone. Didn’t that woman have enough kids? She didn’t need another one. And Frank seemed indifferent to it all. Riley was probably right—he was only after any money Tia could provide.
My phone rang, and I answered it. “Hello?”
“Your mother and I are on the way. Nola and Bane climbed in the backseat. They refused to be left at home. I called my lawyer, and he’s ready to take on their case if it ends up going to court. How are things there?”
“I’m not sure yet. They left under threat of attempted kidnapping, but now they’re sitting in their car, arguing.”
“Whatever you do, don’t let them leave there with the girl. They sound unstable.”
“I think we’ll be okay.” I glanced at where Riley stood chatting with Wren, and Johnny stood beside me, glaring at the car.
The passenger door opened, and Frank stepped out of the car. “Well, here we go again. I’ve got to go, Dad.”
I hung up, bracing myself to field any arguments with Frank. Then, something strange happened. Tia slammed the car in reverse and drove away, leaving Frank standing in the driveway, shuffling back and forth.
Wren and Riley stepped forward. “Frank, your fiancée left without you,” Riley pointed out the obvious.
He glanced over his shoulder and watched until the car turned out of the trailer park. “She’s not my fiancée anymore.”
“What?” Wren asked in a dry voice.
“Wren, I know I’m not good at showing it, but I care about you.” He patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “And I couldn’t bear to make you live with that woman. I know I’ve dragged you into my life more than I should have, but I couldn’t bring that onto the two of you. I’m just sorry for the trouble it might cause Riley.”
So, toilet-sellers could have a change of heart. I was glad he wasn’t the kind of man who would use his daughter as a bargaining chip for money.
Riley nodded and smiled sadly. “It’s okay. If she decides to blast me, it’s probably what I deserve. I’ve been lying to my followers. I can figure out something else to do.”
“So, you’re not pursuing custody of Wren?” I asked him.
Frank shook his head. “She’s my kid. But even I know she’s better off with Riley than with me.”
Wren launched herself at Frank, wrapping her arms around his neck. She was the same height as him but much thinner. I could have sworn I saw a hint of moisture in Frank’s eyes, but it might have been the light of the setting sun.
Riley grabbed my hand and whispered to me, “I’ve never seen her hug him before.”
It wasn’t a pretty hug. Frank didn’t know what to do with his hands, so he ended up patting her back with both of them. It was oddly touching. I’d wondered why Riley had bothered to let the man keep visiting his daughter, but obviously, she’d seen something I hadn’t—some level of affection on both their parts.
Wren let him go and smiled. “I’ve got to go text Macy! She’s going to be so happy! I’ve been worried ever since Tia’s last visit.”
She ran inside the trailer, leaving the door wide open when she did.
“Thank you.” Riley nodded to him.
“Don’t know why you’re thanking me. I was the one who brought her around. She seemed so friendly at first.”
“Meh, we know your taste in women. Usually, they’re greedy. This is the first time you found one who was greedy for someone else’s kid.”
Frank nodded. “I think I’m going to need a ride home.”
Johnny
narrowed his eyes at him. “After the problems you caused, call a taxi.”
Frank looked horrified. “And pay those exorbitant prices?”
Riley shook with laughter next to me, the stress finally catching up with her. “Careful,” I warned her. “You’re going to get hysterical.”
“Who is that?” She pointed at a car pulling into the driveway behind Frank.
Dad and Mom stepped out with Bane and Nola climbing out of the backseat.
“June! Sebastian!” Riley gasped.
Mom was already after her, wrapping her up in a hug. “We’re here! Everything’s going to be okay. We already have the lawyer on call. You and Wren can just come live with us, and we’ll help with anything. You’ll have permanent custody; we’ll help with the finances, and school drop-offs, college—“
“Mom!” I cut in. My mother suffered from a superhero complex with the need to save anyone and anything. It especially applied to people she loved. “Everything’s okay now. Frank made sure Riley gets to keep Wren.”
“Thank goodness!” And now she was crying. It was a wonder I hadn’t turned into a crier with her as a mother. Of course, things were looking a little hazy right when I looked into Riley’s eyes. But she was the one crying...not me. Not even a little mist.
I swiped angrily at my eyes. “Are you crying?” Riley asked as she jabbed my side.
“I’m a sympathetic crier, okay?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Riley
Sebastian, June, Nola, and Bane stayed for a couple of hours, visiting and catching up on life, meeting Wren and getting to know her. When they left, they volunteered to drop Frank off at his house—bless their hearts. Nate and I fell asleep on my futon together.
Nothing beat waking up to him next to me, the morning light shining through my windows. I never shut the blinds in my trailer because I loved the light so much.
Nate pressed a kiss against my temple, letting me know that he was awake.
I wrapped my arms around him. “Please don’t let me go.”
“I’m not going to let you go.”
“Please don’t let me go, even when I tell you to.”
He kissed my forehead. “That didn’t seem to stop me in the past.”
“I didn’t want you to let me go. I wanted you. I wanted you to be there with me.”
“I know. Why do you think I stayed?”
“Well, at first I thought it was because you liked to be a big ol’ pest, as usual.”
“Well, I’m your pest, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“You don’t even know how much I needed you. I didn’t know how much I needed you. Shoot, even Wren admitted to needing you, and that’s not an easy feat. That girl doesn’t need anybody. Sometimes I think that she’s raised me more than I’ve raised her. You know?”
“Yes, I do know. She’s incredible. But she’s softer than she pretends to be.”
“Yes, she’s pretty special. I’m glad your mom is wanting to spend time with her. She’s so much better at guiding kindly. I’m not good at guiding Wren.”
“You don’t think so? Because what I saw yesterday was a fifteen-year-old emulating her older sister’s selfless behavior. I saw a girl who loved her older sister so much that she was willing to go live with a crazy lady. If that isn’t doing a good job raising someone, then I don’t know what is.”
“Stop it right now. You’re going to make me cry, and I was planning on doing a review on Instagram tonight.”
“I thought you were going to give up the fake aspect of your Instagram.”
“What? Me?”
When he looked at me ominously, I laughed. “I am. I’m moving on to strictly home decor and plants. I realized most of my engagement is in those things anyway. I’m going to do a review of my hanging planter above my kitchen sink and how it’s held up my plants really well and collects the mess. Isn’t that great?”
My mini speech didn’t deter him. “Have you made any kind of announcement about it?”
I traced a figure eight on his chest with my index finger. “I have. I shared a picture of the park. And the hot tub night. So far, all of my followers have been really supportive. A lot of them commented, saying they were encouraged to see such cute decor come out of a trailer park. They felt like it was something achievable for them. I took a poll, and the travel posts are everyone’s least favorite. I guess all that stuff felt forced.”
“You think?” he asked sarcastically. “Was it the fake backdrop, or the fact that you had to have Trailer Park Tim take your picture?”
“His name is Tony. Now be quiet and let me thank you.”
He mimed zipping his lips as I continued. “Thank you for standing with me against Frank and Tia. Thank you for doing all the research and having that lawyer on call. That was so reassuring to me and took so much pressure off.”
“You know I love you, right?” he said as he brushed a stray lock of blonde hair from my face. “I would do anything to make you happy.”
“I think there are a lot of things you do because you’re a good person.”
“It’s you I love. It’s you who I want to spend the rest of my life with. Do you understand? I don’t care if we spend the rest of our lives in a hut on top of that mountain with the bears, but I want to spend it with you.”
“Well, I can share this hut with you. I think I’ll pass on those bears, though.” I reached up and cupped his face between my hands. “I love you, Nate. You mean the world to me. I feel as though I’ve been searching for the last few years. When you showed up, I knew I’d found the piece that had been missing. I just hadn’t realized it yet.”
A couple minutes went by before I asked, “Want to make some breakfast with me?” I tugged on the front of his shirt and dragged him off the futon.
“Twist my arm.” He winked.
“I will if I have to.”
I opened the cupboard and pulled out the coffee.
“Oooh, lemonade!” he said as he scanned the fridge. He poured himself a glass and downed it in one gulp.
“Who drinks lemonade first thing in the morning?” I gagged as I poured the water into the coffee pot.
Nate slammed the fridge door and set the cream on the counter next to the coffee pot, along with two mugs. After I hit start on the coffee pot, I spun around to face him. He grinned and scooped me up in his arms so he could kiss me. He tasted like lemonade and sexy.
The bedroom door opened.
“That’s it. I really will go live with Frank if this is what I’m going to have to put up with,” Wren joked as she walked into the living room.
I touched my swollen lips. “Oh, come on, we were about to make some breakfast. How about a coffee cake?”
“Make it that cinnamon roll cake, and then that will be a yes,” she said.
My kitchen was small, and when there were three people trying to make a breakfast cake in it, it felt even smaller. By the time we were done, no one had escaped getting covered in flour or sugar. Wren had managed to drop an egg on her foot.
Nate finished washing the last of the dishes while I poured three cups of coffee for us. The tiny oven beeped, telling us our messy creation was done.
I carried the coffee pot and mugs to the table. Nate brought the cake.
Wren sat down with us, and Nate made my heart melt a little further when he said, “Wren, that was a brave thing you did yesterday.”
Wren blushed—a rare thing for her—and ducked her head. “Oh, you know. Just your typical greedy biological father. What’s new.”
“You don’t even know how lucky I am to have you,” I told her as I leaned across the table to give her the world’s most awkward hug.
“Oh, trust me, I know how lucky you are. If it weren’t for me, you’d still be moping in a pile of chips, letting this one get away,” she said as she jerked a thumb in Nate’s direction.
“Whoa, hold on. Moping around in a pile of chips?” Nate asked with a grin. “I haven’t heard about this yet.”
A loud knock sounded. Did miracles never cease? I did not want to admit what a disgusting person I’d turned into when I thought Nate and I didn’t have a future together.
“Come in!” I called.
The door opened, and we were treated to the neighborhood eye-candy.
“I stopped by to say goodbye,” Johnny said as he leaned around the door.
“Come in and have some coffee.”
He nodded, dropped his bag on the ground, and stepped inside to take the seat next to Wren. “How you doing, squirt?”
“Just fine, po-po.”
He chuckled and took the mug that I poured for him.
“So, what were you here investigating?”
“Gun-running.”
“Ah, Gabe. How’d he make out of the deal?”
“Turns out the only thing he’s smuggling is fireworks. Makes all his cash selling illegal fireworks here in Oregon.”
I laughed as Johnny took a sip of his coffee.
“Gabe the Gunrunner is selling fireworks. That’s actually funny. Are you arresting him?”
“No. I have more important things to do than that. But I will say I’ve learned some valuable lessons from this whole thing.”
“Oh really, and what’s that?” Nate asked.
He smirked behind his mug. “Don’t try to date Louis Nathaniel Mercier’s girl...”
We all laughed a little too loud at that—all of us except Nate.
Johnny continued, “And that, sometimes, things are exactly what they look like.”
“What does that mean?”
“That sometimes you meet someone, and what you see is what you get. A lot of the people in this trailer park have taught me that. There seems to be an open-book policy here when you belong. It’s nice.” He drained the last of his coffee. “But now that we know Gabe is a dead end, I have to move out of here and head back to some real work.”
Nate stood up and followed him to the door. He reached out and shook Johnny’s hand. “Good luck. Wish we could have gotten that chance to take that hike together.”
Miss Trailerhood Page 17