by Kim Fox
“Yes, sir,” Eddie said and was off.
“Mad Max?” Ava said, her face lighting up. “He sounds fast.”
“He was fast,” Julius said with a smirk. “Twenty years ago. He’s a little past his prime now.”
Julius laughed as Eddie came back with a horse that had one hoof over the grave and his other three on a banana peel. His back was drooped in a U shape and his head hung low.
He was expecting her to protest but she ran over and pet the horses’ face and body. “He’s adorable,” she said as she gazed into his eye. “Hi, Max!”
Mad Max neighed contently as she stroked his head.
They saddled up and trotted out of the stable. Julius was riding on his horse, Gambit. After his father, Julius had missed Gambit the most while fighting overseas. He loved being on the strong horse’s back and exploring the land that was his birthright, the land that he would lose if he couldn’t make the woman beside him fall in love with him.
They trotted to the river at a brisk pace. He laughed in surprise as Mad Max kept up and even tried to outrun Gambit. The old stallion still had some fight in him left.
Julius pointed out the different areas of the land, enthusiastically answering a million questions that shot out of Ava’s mouth as they rode. He explained how they hired shifters to come and let out the cattle, field the crops and take care of the animals.
She asked a ton of questions about his bear and shifters in general. She was insanely curious and wanted to know everything.
“What does it feel like when you shift?” she asked.
“Like every bone in your body is snapping and every muscle is tearing.”
Ava grimaced. “That sounds horrible.”
Julius chuckled. “It’s not. It’s hard at first when you’re a kid, but after a few phases, it actually starts to become enjoyable.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Enjoyable?”
“Shifters can handle a lot more pain than humans,” he explained. “It’s really not that bad.”
After two hours of riding, they arrived at the river and they hopped off their horses at Julius’ favorite spot. He pulled out two sandwiches and two lemonades out of his backpack and they sat on the large flat rock that overlooked the river.
It was a lazy river full of fat trout that tasted amazing on the barbecue in human form and even better raw, in bear form. He spent countless summer days in this spot swimming with his brothers in the river, fishing with his father, and hunting for fish in his grizzly bear form.
Tall dense forest lined the opposite side of the river and a broken frayed rope hung from one of the thick branches that hung over the water. Khan had climbed up there when they were kids and tied the rope swing. They played with it for years until Alexander hit puberty and his massive weight snapped it in two.
Ava squealed in delight as a large trout jumped out of the water and belly flopped back in. He loved watching her. Her face was always so full of wonder and he could tell that she was taking it all in with an enthusiastic happiness that most people could never have.
It was all good but he still had a job to do. He had to marry someone by the end of the month and he had to feel her out to see if he was wasting valuable time with her.
He waited until she took a bite of her sandwich and then he asked her. “What do you think about what Khan said this morning?” he asked.
She raised an eyebrow. “About the eggs?”
Julius shook his head. “No, about getting married.”
“We haven’t even known each other for twenty-four hours,” she said. “But maybe one day.”
He smiled his best smile at her. “Haven’t you ever done something wild?”
“I drove eleven hours yesterday for a blind date. What do you think?”
He laughed. “I’d be up for it if you are.”
She smiled and then turned back to the river. “Take it easy cowboy,” she said. “Let’s just see what happens.”
Julius took a tight breath. That wasn’t the answer that he was hoping for.
Ava pet the mane of her horse as he trotted back to the stables. This day had been incredible. The Vega Ranch was a real Montana dream. She never thought she’d ever move out of the city but after experiencing this she wondered how she could ever go back.
Julius was a few yards ahead and he glanced over his shoulder with a smile. She felt her chest flood with warmth like it had been doing all day.
“What’s over there?” she asked pointing to a huge log structure behind the main house and to the side.
“The garage,” he answered, pulling on the reins and letting her catch up. “Want to go see?”
“Sure!” she said. She was up for anything.
They handed off the horses to Eddie, and Ava stood on her toes and kissed the side of Mad Max’s face. “Thanks, Maxy. I’ll come visit you soon.”
She turned and waved to the horse as they walked away. “Hey, that’s my car,” she said, pointing at the driveway. “How did it get here?”
Julius smiled. “I had Khan and Hannibal go fetch it.”
“Wow,” she said, shaking her head. “You Vega boys really know how to treat a woman.”
They walked to the garage and Julius slipped his hand into hers. “The garage is a bit of a mess. It’s full of my Dad’s stuff,” he said. “He was a bit of a pack rat.”
“Did he pass?”
Julius’ lips pinched together as he held his breath and nodded.
“I’m sorry,” she said, covering the back of his hand with her other hand. “I lost my parents too. It sucks.”
“The funeral was two days ago,” he said with a sadness in his voice.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
He began to open up and tell her how he was excited to see him after four years of being away only to lose him two days before coming home. Ava listened attentively as he opened up to her. Something told her that Julius wasn’t the type of guy to usually talk about his feelings. She felt honored and special that he was confiding in her.
“So this is the garage,” he said opening the door. Ava chuckled. It was hardly a garage. A garage in her world barely fit a small car and was filled with paint cans, tools and other junk that didn’t belong in the house. This was the size of a small soccer field.
“Nice bike,” she said when she spotted an old motorcycle out in the open. “What is that a nineteen forty-nine Harley Tourig?”
Julius looked at her in shock. “You like motorcycles?”
Ava nodded. She definitely knew her bikes. Her father had been obsessed with them and she spent countless afternoons sitting in the garage watching him restore old vintage bikes on the weekends. He loved it and did it on the side. It was his passion and it helped pay a bill or two.
“This would look nice fixed up,” she said, walking around it. “It needs new lights, the exhaust is rusted. We can change that. And a new battery for sure. This is a classic. It would be a crime not to restore it.” Her father would have sold Ava herself for a chance to restore a bike like this.
“I want to,” Julius said, rubbing his cute chin. “I just don’t know where to start.”
Ava shook out her hands and grinned. “Grab that tool box over there and bring it to me,” she said. “That’s where we start.”
“I’m sorry I’m not much help,” Julius said as he sat on a stool and watched Ava work. She was a natural at this. She already had the handlebars off, sanded down most of the rust and took most of the engine apart.
“You’re doing just fine,” she said, grinning at him from where she was sitting on the floor with a part that Julius couldn’t name in her hand. “Just keep sitting there looking pretty.”
He let out a laugh. “I’ll do my best.”
“Well, in that case, you might want to take your shirt off,” she said with a smirk. “That would help even more.”
He reached down and was about to pull it off when Khan called out for
dinner. His voice was so loud and deep that Julius could hear it from inside the garage.
“Dinner is ready,” he said, dropping his shirt.
“That’s right,” she said leering at him. “Dinner is about to be ready once you take those clothes off.”
“After,” he said, giving her a hand to help her up. “Let’s go eat first.”
They walked to the house and Julius’ stomach grumbled when he could smell the food cooking. Khan had cooked baby back ribs on the smoker. It was his specialty.
“I hope you’re hungry,” he said with a smile.
“Starving.”
“Well, you’re in for a treat.”
She stood on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek making his heart skip a beat. “These past two days has been a treat. Thank you.”
“Yeah,” he said, “but these ribs are a real treat.”
They walked into the kitchen and Ava let out an audible gasp when she saw the mountain of ribs on the kitchen table. It was fit for two whole crews of bear shifters. When Khan cooked he went all out.
“That looks incredible,” she said, walking to the table without taking her eyes off the plate of steaming ribs. She didn’t even look out the windows at the gorgeous pink sky as the sun was setting behind the mountains. Their kitchen always had the best sunset views and they always scheduled dinner to eat at the exact time that the sun would light up the sky in a colorful fire.
Hannibal walked over from the fridge with two armfuls of cold beers. He placed two in front of each seat. Julius grabbed two rolls of paper towels and dropped them on the table as Khan and Hannibal sat down. They were all slobs when eating ribs and always went through at least one and a half rolls.
Julius stiffened when Alexander thundered into the kitchen. He glared at Ava, stuffed his two beers in his pockets, shoved some ribs onto his plate and stormed out of the kitchen without saying a word.
Julius’ heart panged as he saw Ava look down at her plate. His brother was clearly making her uncomfortable. He would have to talk to him later and by ‘talk’ he meant knock him out.
“He doesn’t like me very much, does he?” Ava asked.
“Of course he does!” Hannibal said.
“He loves you!” Khan replied.
Julius shook his head. “He’s got a million issues and none of them have to do with you. Just ignore him. I’ll talk to him later.”
“No,” Hannibal said. “I’ll talk to him later.”
Julius huffed a breath. “Fine.”
They dug into the ribs and spent the next five minutes scarfing the food down in silence. This meal was great for taste but horrible for conversation. Nobody wanted to stop eating the fall-off-the-bone tender ribs for the two seconds that it took to say a word.
“What were you guys doing in the garage?” Hannibal finally asked as he took a breather. There was a mountain of bones in front of him that looked like the crumpled skeleton of a T-Rex.
“Ava is helping me restore Grandpa’s bike,” Julius said. “She’s a natural.”
“By helping,” she said, “he means I’m doing all of the work.”
“I’m offering moral support,” Julius said with his chin in the air.
Khan chuckled. “I remember when I was a little kid, Grandpa let me sit on his lap one time and steer the bike. I drove it right into the barn. He never let me drive it again.”
“Is that how you got the scar on your face?” Ava asked. Her hands flew up to her mouth and she looked panicked. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me and I ask questions before I think them through.”
Khan frowned as he traced his scar with his fingertips. Julius and Hannibal just laughed.
“Yeah, Khan,” Julius said chuckling. “Is that how you got your scar?”
Hannibal was trying unsuccessfully to hold in his laugh. “She’s going to find out eventually.”
“Fine,” Khan grunted. He took a long sip of beer that emptied half the bottle. “Tell her.”
“You’d think that he got that dangerous looking scar in any one of the many battles that we had over the past three years. We were in some of the worst places on the planet fighting the evilest people in existence. So, you’d think it was from that. But you would be wrong.”
Ava was leaning forward on the edge of her seat. Hannibal was smirking and Khan just rolled his eyes and kept eating.
“We were heading from one war-zone to the other and had an overnight layover in Spain. We ended up at some college party somehow and Khan got really drunk doing keg stands. On his last one the frat boys, who were pretty drunk themselves, couldn’t hold him up any longer and they dropped him. He split his face open on the keg and got that nice little scar that you see today.”
Ava covered her mouth with her hand. “Is that true?” she asked letting out a giggle.
Khan just shrugged. “I like beer.”
The four of them spent the rest of the dinner laughing and telling stories about their youth. Ava had a constant smile on her face and it warmed Julius’ heart to see her getting along with his brothers. At least his good brothers.
“I’ll do the dishes,” she said standing up when the last rib was turned into polished bone.
“No, you won’t,” Khan said, taking the plates out of her hand. “You two go fall in love so you can get married.”
Julius and Hannibal both gave him an are-you-fucking-serious look.
“Why do you keep talking about us getting married?” Ava asked. “Do you want to be a bridesmaid or something?”
“That’s it,” Hannibal said, rushing her out of the kitchen before Khan could say anything else to give away their plan. “The big guy loves to wear dresses.”
Julius walked up to her and handed her a fresh beer. “Go sit by the fire pit outside while I clean up with the boys. You can still catch the end of the sunset.”
She took the beer and smiled. “I can’t argue with that.” She looked past Julius to where Khan was dumping a pile of bones into the garbage. “And for the record Khan, you’d look smoking hot in a bridesmaid dress.”
Hannibal smacked Khan’s shoulder. “Always the bridesmaid, Khan, and never the bride.”
Julius watched Ava walk out of the front door with his heart beating fast. He never took his eyes off her until she closed the door, and even then his eyes darted to the side window and he waited until she walked past it. I could stare at her for hours.
“Julius,” Hannibal called out. “Look what I found.”
Hannibal pulled out a little purple box from a kitchen drawer and opened it. A gorgeous diamond ring with a golden band was staring back at Julius.
“This was Grandma’s ring,” Hannibal said. He slid the box across the counter to where Julius was standing. He stared at it with his heart thumping.
“Get her drunk,” Khan said, “and then ask her tonight.”
Julius felt his stomach rolling. He really liked Ava and for the first time in his life he could see the possibility of taking on a mate and getting married. But this felt so wrong all of a sudden. This was the plan and it was all going well but he never expected to grow feelings for this amazing woman and now he had no idea what to do.
Khan picked up the box and shoved it into Julius’ hand. “Do it.”
“How come I’m the one who has to get married?” Julius snapped.
“You drew the burnt match,” Khan said.
“You didn’t even pick a match,” Julius said, feeling his voice rising. “You don’t even get a say!”
Hannibal sighed. “We all have to take mates and get married,” he said. “One of us has to do it by the end of the month and you’re in the best position to do it. She likes you, she’s cool. If you don’t go for it, all of this will be lost.”
Julius hated the position that he was in. The position that his brothers put him in, the position that his father had put him in. But if Dad didn’t do this then I would never have met Ava.
He swallo
wed hard as he picked up the ring with sweaty hands. This felt all wrong. Not asking Ava to marry him, that surprisingly felt right, but for the reasons why he was asking.
“Do it,” Khan said. “Ask her.”
Julius sighed and slipped the ring into his pocket.
eight
Ava waved to the ranch workers as they jumped into their pickup trucks after a long day on the job. They smiled at her and drove off, leaving her all alone in this gorgeous scenery.
She strolled over to the fire pit where there was a giant fire roaring. Ava plopped down in an Adirondack chair and took a sip of cold beer.
How am I supposed to go back to the city now?
She got a taste of big sky country and she was loving it. The sky above her was a wicked shade of purple with hues of pink, orange red and blue wisping through it, reflecting off the clouds as the sun set over the mountains. She breathed in a breath of fresh air and closed her eyes.
She didn’t care about losing her job anymore and her ex, Karl, never even popped up in her mind once she had been out here.
“Hey pretty lady,” a familiar voice called out. She smiled as she opened her eyes and saw Julius walking towards her. He shook out a folded blanket in his hands and placed it on her lap.
“It gets cold at night,” he said as he leaned in to give her a soft kiss on the forehead.
“Thank you,” she said although she didn’t need the blanket. He was so hot that sitting beside him would keep her warm.
He tossed a log onto the crackling fire and sat down in a chair beside her.
“I should be getting home soon,” she said out of the blue.
He jerked his head towards her. “Why?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”
Julius shook his head. “Look at me.” His eyes were a glowing green. “You are welcome to stay as long as you’d like. Trust me.”
“Okay,” she whispered smiling into the blanket. “Maybe another day or two.”