Rook and Ronin Company Box Set: Books 6-9 (JA Huss Box Set Series Order Book 2)

by JA Huss

  The Santa here in downtown FoCo is pretty realistic. Genuine white beard and everything. “Ho, ho, ho,” Santa says. “What kind of bicycle does your daddy have, son?”

  Oliver screws up his face. “Bicycle? My dad makes Shrike Bikes. I don’t want a bicycle, I want a motorcycle! I want one with white skulls and black ravens. I want the tank to be scarlet red, just like the one my dad rides to work in the summer. I want leather seats and cool pegs. And I want a jacket to go with it. And tattoos, just like the ones my mommy drew on my dad. And I want—”

  “Little boy, you can’t have a motorcycle for Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!”

  “What?” Oliver squeaks, like his dream is being crushed. “Yes, I can. My dad made all the girls a Shrike Bike. Ask my sister!” He points to Rory and we get a stern look from Santa.

  “Trikes,” I correct Oliver. “He gives the kids Shrike Trikes. Not bikes.”

  “Yeah.” Rory laughs. “Are you kidding? My dad wouldn’t give us motorcycles!”

  “Ho, ho, ho,” Santa says again, setting Oliver down and shaking his head a little. “Well, a trike I might be able to manage. Now hurry along and don’t forget to put out cookies for me tonight! Ho, ho, ho!”

  Oliver shoots Santa a look, but reluctantly walks over to Rory and me. He lets off a huge sigh. “He wasn’t even listening to me.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Ollie,” Rory says, taking his hand in her free one. “Santa can’t afford a Shrike Bike. Only Daddy can give us Shrike presents. And I’m sure he’s got something special for you under the tree.”

  “If it fits under the tree, then it’s not a real Shrike Bike.”

  “Come on,” I say. “It’s almost dark. Let’s go look at the lights before we have to get home.”

  “Yeah, what time is it? We need to go grab the present and Uber back to Vail soon,” Rory says.

  “Plenty of time,” I tell her. It’s already four thirty, so we’re going to be late, but I don’t care. I’m not ending our date until we have that perfect moment.

  Now it’s Rory’s turn to sigh. She stops walking just as we reach the huge community Christmas tree and looks up at me with a smile. “This was the best day ever, Five.”

  It really was. Fantastic lunch at Anna Ameci’s, ice skating—even though Oliver ate shit like six times and then wanted to stop. The carriage ride, window-shopping, and then the art gallery. We had to sneak by Sick Boyz, which was open until one today, to avoid all Rory’s uncles. But they’re closed down now, and we can enjoy the walk back over to the Shrike showroom where she insists she has the perfect present for her mom stashed away in the back of Spencer’s office.

  I look down at Rory. Her sapphire-blue eyes and her sweet, sweet face. She’s the perfect girl for me. She’s been the perfect girl for me since I laid eyes on her. And even though most of my thoughts growing up were about how to get her to join me in my delusional dreams of science fair domination at Saint Joseph’s, the past year or so I’ve been starting to think of what we might become instead of what we already are.

  We’re friends now, but somewhere in the back of my head, I’ve always wanted to marry her. Even if it was just the little-kid version of marriage. And now I’m leaving. Just as we get to the age where we might start imagining about the more adult version of our relationship.

  I’m going to lose her. I realize this. There is no way to make time stand still. There is no reasonable way to ask her to wait for me. There is no possibility of me not going to Oxford. And I don’t even want to stay, either. I want her, but I want to start moving forward too. I’ve been holding myself back just to stick around. But I can’t do it anymore.

  We have to grow up some time.

  “This was the best day of my life as well, Rory.” I mean it too. And she knows I mean it.

  She frowns a little, her face lit up by the brightly colored lights of the tree. “I’m gonna miss you so much, you know.”

  I nod. “I’m gonna miss you too.”

  “I know I play girl games with you. Pretending not to notice you looking at me. Or pretending not to look at you back. But Five, I’ve counted on you to be there for me my whole life. I cannot even imagine you leaving.”

  I feel a little sad all of a sudden. “I go away to school all the time, but I always come back, Rory.”

  She nods. “I know. But this is different. You were a kid. And you might only be fifteen, but you’re not a kid anymore, Five. You’re going to be thousands of miles away this time. There will be an ocean and so many time zones between us, we’ll never even chat on the phone. We can’t even text unless we figure out the time difference beforehand. It’s going to be different. Everything is going to change.”

  “We can just…” I sigh now too. “We can just make a pact, you know? Like, we’ll promise each other that we’ll talk all the time. Make an effort.”

  “I don’t want our friendship to be an effort. It’s never been an effort before. You were just there. You were always just there. And now you won’t be anymore. I’m going to be all alone.”

  “You have Sparrow. And Kate.”

  “I know.” She looks up at me, her sapphire eyes watering like she might cry. “But I want you.”

  I pull her into a hug, wrapping my arms around her tightly. “Don’t be sad, OK? I promise I’ll be back for Spring Break. And all summer too.”

  She shakes her head as she buries her face in my coat. “You always do geeky stuff in the summer. You go to special places for geniuses and think about things that will change the world. You’re going to meet people over there who are just like you, and you might even come back a few times, but then…” She looks up at me. “But then one day, you’ll be like, I’m too busy to go home this time. I’m just going to stay. And that will be it for us, Five. We’ll never recover from that. Because we’re still kids right now, but we won’t be kids forever. We’re going to grow up.”

  God, she’s so right. Everything she just said is right. And I’m not even sure there’s a way to stop it. Life just… goes on. I want to make it better. Make her stop being sad and be happy. Make her smile again. I don’t want her last memory of this day to be all the things we will regret in the future.

  So I lean down. My heart beats faster. I lean down and she leans up, and we are so close. Our lips are so close.

  “Rory?” A deep voice makes us pull apart unexpectedly. “Five? Oliver?” Vic Vaughn—Veronica’s older, massive, built-like-a-monster, and tatted-up-in-scary-ways brother—is looming over us with a scowl on his face. “I thought you guys were in Vail for Christmas? What the hell are you doing down here in Fort Collins?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Don’t glower at me,” Ford says.

  “I’m not glowering,” I say back. But it comes off as defensive, and irritable, and glowering. “I’m just saying he should know better.”

  “Spencer,” Ash says. “We’ll talk to him, OK? He doesn’t mean any harm and I’m sure they were never in danger or they’d have called. All of them know that we’re on their side, no matter what happens, and they can call us for anything.”

  “That’s not—” I soften my tone with Ashleigh. Not just because Ford won’t tolerate me taking out my anger with Five on her, but because Ashleigh is a soft sort of woman and shouldn’t be spoken to the way I started speaking to her. So I take a deep breath. “It’s not that I think she’s in danger, Ashleigh. It’s that my daughter is fourteen, she looks like my wife, and I’m getting the urge to keep a shotgun on my person.” I sigh. “If you get my drift.” I catch a small chuckle from Veronica, which makes me stop and smile at her. It might be the first sign today that she’s feeling better. “Right, Ronnie?”

  She sighs heavily, reminding me that things are not OK. “I think they’re fine. I think Five was wrong to take them so far away, but Five is Five. And his last name is Aston, so even if something did happen, he’d know what to do about it. I think Oliver probably had the time of his life and Rory finally got a chance to say what’s o
n her mind. What’s been on her mind for months now.”

  “What?” I ask. “What’s on her mind?”

  “OK,” Ford says, looking at his phone. “I just got a text. They’re getting off the freeway now and they’ll be here in a few minutes. I’ll talk to Five.” With that Ford takes Ashleigh’s hand and they walk out of the library and back to the party going on in the great room.

  “Come on, Spencer,” Ronnie says. “You know what’s going on. Five is leaving in a few weeks and she’s sad.”

  I scrunch up my brows. “Define sad.”

  “Sad,” Ronnie stresses. “Like first crush, broken-hearted kind of sad.”

  “Sad like you,” I say, not even meaning to.

  She frowns so heavily, it makes me sad too. “I’m not really… sad, Spencer. I’m just feeling… undesirable. And tired. And this is new for me, you know?”

  When she lifts her eyes up to meet mine, I see tears. “Ronnie,” I say, crossing the few steps that separate us so I can bring her into a hug. “I fucking hate this. You’re so goddamned desirable to me, it drives me crazy.”

  “I love being a mom, Spencer. You know I do. But six kids…” She shakes her head. “It changes a person. I feel lost. I feel like I don’t even recognize myself anymore. I feel… old. And then Ashleigh is sad about not having any more babies, so that makes me feel ungrateful.”

  I hold her tight. I have all the words ready to say. All the words she needs to hear. But words might not be enough. “I love you. I know that’s not what will fix the way you feel, but Veronica, I love you. And if I knew how to take this feeling away, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

  “I know that, Spence.” She sniffs away the tears and rests her head against my chest. “It’s just a little setback. I just need to find myself again, that’s all.”

  We hear the bustle of activity as Rory, Oliver, and Five come home and the dogs go crazy. Then the booming voice of Vic as he greets Ford and Ronin.

  “I’ll send Rory in so you can talk to her before dinner, Spencer. But don’t be harsh. It’s Christmas Eve and I just want everyone to be happy.”

  She tries to pull away, but I keep a tight hold. “That’s all I want too, Veronica.”

  Her head tilts upward and she smiles. “I know.” She pulls away and walks out, leaving the library door open behind her.

  I turn to the windows and look out at the snow. It’s just starting to fall, but the flakes are the big, heavy kind that pile up quick and make perfect snowballs for a fight.

  “Daddy?” Rory says, a few minutes later.

  “Close the door, Princess,” I say, without turning around.

  The door squeaks and then taps closed. “I’m sorry, Daddy. We shouldn’t have gone off like that.”

  When I turn she’s standing straight and tall, her head tipped up to look me in the eyes. Her long blonde hair is slightly wet from outside, the big heavy flakes nothing but spots of water now. She smiles.

  I laugh.

  “Really, Daddy. I’m sorry. But I’d like you to know…” She takes a deep, deep breath and a smile lights up her face. “I had the most perfect day with Five.”

  But just as quick as the smile appeared, it disappears. And then she looks just like Ronnie did a few minutes ago. Sad.

  “What did you guys do?” I ask, waving her towards the couch and taking a seat. She follows, sitting down next to me.

  “I caught a bouquet of flowers at a Saint Joseph’s wedding, and we went to eat at Anna Ameci’s, and then…”

  She tells me about her whole day. Every last moment of it, right up to the part where she thought Five was going to kiss her as they stood in front of the city Christmas tree in downtown. She smiles for every second of her tale. Until that last part. She swallows hard and the silent tears stream down her face. “I always thought things would stay the same, you know?”

  I know. I thought that too.

  “I always thought that no matter what happened, Five Aston was my knight. And all I had to do was press his face on my phone and he’d come rescue me. But he’s not going to be here anymore, Dad. He’s going to be so far away, he’ll forget everything he loves about me before next summer.”

  I pull her into a big Daddy hug and hold her tight. “He won’t, Princess. I promise. Five Aston is your forever guy. He’s always going to be your knight, I promise.”

  “I want to believe it, Dad, but I just don’t.” She pulls away, sniffing just the way Veronica did. “I just don’t have it in me to pretend that this is a fairy tale and love is magic. It’s not. It’s real life and he’s leaving. And he’s a genius. He’s going to go to Oxford and do all these important things, and he’s never coming back.”

  Maybe she’s a little bit dramatic, but maybe she’s a little bit right too. It would be one thing if Five was normal. If he was in high school with her. If he took her to all those high-school things and they grew into adulthood together. But he’s not. He’s Five. And he’s been an adult since he was… well, born. I almost laugh at that thought.

  “Well,” I say, letting out a sigh of defeat, “you two still have a few weeks together. So don’t give up on that kiss, OK?”

  She tips her head up to see if she heard me correctly.

  I shrug. She knows what that means.

  “I got a present for Mommy. To make her feel better. Do you want to see it?”

  “Yes,” I say. “I’m desperate to make her happy tonight, Princess. So if you can help me do that, I’d even let Five take you on another date.”

  “Really?” she almost squeals.

  “With Oliver as chaperone.”

  “Deal! I’m so going on that second date. Because I know exactly what Mommy needs.” And then she gets up and takes my hand, pulling me to my feet. “But let’s sneak out the library door so I can show you. It’s in Uncle Vic’s truck.”

  We walk out the doors, down the pathway to the front of the house, and she stops at the truck door, smiling like she’s got the secret of the century.

  And when she opens it up and shows me the present, I smile that way too.

  Because my daughter’s unauthorized date with Five Aston just might fix everything.

  Rory Shrike is a genius.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sparrow is… like a bird flying in the wind. That’s how I pictured her when she was born. Some free-flying spirit with her mother’s beauty and her father’s… well, I’m not sure she’s got anything of value from me. That makes me smile as I watch her flit around on stage, playing the part of one of the party kids in act one of The Nutcracker.

  She’s danced in this production up here in Vail since she was four and down in Denver since she was seven. Well, it wasn’t dancing way back then. It was sitting on stage dressed up like a piece of candy. But she stuck it out. She did the work, took all the classes, and got the pointe shoes.

  So this year it pays off. Party kid in act one and a Chinese dancer in act two. That’s one of the songs everyone thinks of when you say Nutcracker.

  Sparrow was beyond thrilled.

  Hell, I’m beyond thrilled. Even if I didn’t realize it until this very second.

  During intermission we get up and mingle, but I know Rook’s mind is only on Sparrow. I walk up to her and Starling with drinks from the bar. Ford and Spencer come with us to this show every year. It’s become a tradition. Like decorating the cookies afterward. Like coming up here to the mountains for Christmas every year. We only stay the two nights. Spencer and Ronnie take the kids to the grandparents down in Park Hill on Christmas Day. Rook and I see Elise, Antoine, and their three kids, who are all the right ages to play with my brood. And Ford and Ash take their kids to Mrs. Aston’s where Sasha and Jax turn up with Lauren and little Matthew for the family party at night.

  But Christmas Eve has always been a day in the life of the Team. An epilogue to the stories we wrote all year. A time to just be ourselves. To take stock of what we did, how big our kids got, where we’re headed.

  I know w
here I’m headed. Home.

  I don’t know if I work too much, but clearly I’m not paying enough attention. Clearly I’m taking for granted the one thing I have as an adult that I never had as a kid.

  A traditional family.

  How did it become so easy to take it all for granted?

  After intermission we all pile back into the Team row in the theatre.

  Rook is practically crying before the lights even go out. But it’s a happy, happy cry. I reach over and squeeze her hand just as the second act begins. She looks up at me and breathes in deeply. “God, Ronin. How did she get so big, so fast?”

  I shrug and give her hand another squeeze as my answer. She leans her head against my shoulder as we watch, eagerly waiting for Sparrow to come on stage again.

  Starling climbs over the armrest, leaving the bouquet of roses we brought for Sparrow in her empty seat, and settles in my lap. She’s tired from skiing. Ballet is not her thing. Oh, she loves to see Sparrow do it. But she doesn’t dream of sugarplums. She dreams of, well… skiing, I guess.

  “Tired, Star?” I ask.

  “Mmm-hmm,” she moans into my tux.

  Sparrow’s dance goes perfectly in my eyes, but I know her well enough to anticipate the critique of her performance afterward. She’s a perfectionist.

  Maybe that’s what she gets from me? Maybe that’s what drives Star to that daredevil stuff she does out on the slopes? Maybe I did have a hand in all this success even though I let work become a priority and I’ve missed some of it the past year.

  Rook squeezes my hand this time. “She looks just like you, Ronin. Just like you.” Her eyes find mine and she leans up, ever so slightly, and her lips brush my cheek. “Mr. Flynn,” she says in a deep throaty voice. “I think we should skip out on cookie decorating. I have a surprise for you.”

  I waggle my eyebrows at her. I know what that means. I laugh out loud a little and Starling wakes up long enough to say, “Shush, Daddy.”

  We watch the rest of the performance and when an exhilarated, but very tired, Sparrow comes out the lobby after all the post-show festivities are done, we give her the roses and then walk hand in hand as a family back to our car.