No Refunds No Exchanges: A Hudson Family Series- Book 4- Matt and Ali

by Chontelle Brison

I was so deep in my own thoughts about how to go about getting Alison’s address that I barely acknowledged him

  “Shit Matt, you like this chick!”

  His statement broke my train of thought I whipped around to look at his stunned face.

  “Do not, fucker!” I insisted as I checked my pants for my wallet. I did, though, I did like Alison. So much so, that I was starting to feel obsessive about her. Was she okay? Did her leg hurt on the drive back to wherever she lived?

  “Aw man, put a fork in your fucking gigolo career because you are done!” Dev prodded while grinning.

  I was trying to decide if I wanted to punch him in the mouth or the stomach when his face turned serious.

  “Listen Dev, I’ll give you all the gory details about my night on the way back to the office, I want to check-in, and since I took a cab from the penthouse apartment to here, you can drop me off.”

  I checked around the suite to make sure I had everything. I inhaled and could swear I still smelled the perfume I had given her. The very perfume that she had left behind, along with her dress and shoes that I had bought for her. It didn’t matter, I had gathered it all up and was going to make sure she got took everything back that I had purchased for her. There was no way she was getting away from me that easy!

  Ali

  It had been two weeks, one day and twelve hours since I had left Matt Wolf tied to a bed at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Of course, in my grand exit I forgot my recorder and my all my notes. I remembered grabbing the recorder off the night stand then throwing it in my messenger bag by the desk, but after that, I couldn’t recall grabbing it or packing into my truck. I had called the Venetian, but they had politely told me that they hadn’t found anything in my room.

  I was dreading call Taylor, the last thing I wanted to do was tell her I had lost over three months worth of research material in a hotel room because I was bolting from a hot guy I had tied to a bed. I had no idea where the damn thing could be. I had even called the escort service on the off chance that Matt had found it and gave it to the receptionist there. Although Matt Wolf was probably so pissed, he would have just as soon burned all of my notes rather than give them back.

  “Uggggh!” I moaned out loud.

  “Problems Auntie?” I immediately whirled around in my desk chair and scowled at the owner of the sweet voice.

  ‘Pepper? What are you doing here? Where’s your mom?” I asked even though I knew from the look on my niece’s face that my flaky sister had struck again.

  “Mom and I took a cab here, but she had to turn around to catch a plane to Milan,” the unkempt teenager shrugged. “She said you knew I was coming and you’d take me to my court ordered prison.” I watched her try to pretend that she wasn’t hurt by her mother’s indifference.

  “First, it’s not prison. It’s a camp for kids who need a little reminding about rules,” I explained hating the fact that my sister had dumped this responsibility on me.

  “When you’re fifteen they call it camp, if I were eighteen they would call it a prison,” she snorted as she grabbed a handful of mints out of a candy dish and starting throwing them in her mouth. Missing the mark horribly I stood up and grabbed her hand to stop the carnage.

  “I’m not good at sugar coating Pepper, you know this,” I groaned as I pried the rest of my sacred mints out of her hands. I loved those mints, I ordered them from Amazon because you couldn’t get pastel butter mints from just anywhere. They had been my dad’s favorite, and when I missed him, I just popped one in my mouth and instantly felt better. Pepper knew this, my ranch hand Trevor knew this, my next door neighbor John knew this, so the fact that she was deliberately trying to tick me off…well…ticked me off.

  “Yes, your mother, my sister, was too busy to be bothered with dates or pesky details like, where this camp was and when you’re supposed to be there, did she mention it to me?” I laughed bitterly,. “Yeah, she threw it into the conversation, during a three-minute phone call three weeks ago.”

  Pepper, didn’t look surprised that her mother had left out details or didn’t seem concerned. I never lied to Pepper or tried to make my sister out to be more than she was. I knew that Lela loved Pepper, but I also know that because she’d had Pepper so young that she felt she’d been denied her right to carefree life.

  As much as I loved my sister, we didn’t really see eye to eye on many things. Lela was my father’s daughter from an affair he’d had with an Italian women, three years before I was born. My parents had never lied to me about the relationship or tried to pretend that it hadn’t been anything short of a hellish journey or forgiveness, anger, resentment and finally acceptance to get past it.

  My father told me the story when I was six and finally asked the reason why my sister, Lela, only came to visit us in the summertime or during Christmas. Up until that point, I had been under the impression that families all lived together, the fact that Lela had a mother that wasn’t mine had been beyond my understanding at the time. It wasn’t until I was twelve and Lela had gotten angry at me because I had lost track of time playing with Baloo and had missed her arrival. It was the first time she’d called me her half-sister. It had never dawned on me that we weren’t full sisters. Even with her living in Italy most of the time with her mother and her mother’s multiple husbands.I had always seen her as, just my sister. It was evident that she didn’t see us the same way.

  “Why did she say I was only half her sister, dad? She told me she could only love me half way because we’re not full sisters?” I had cried to my father, hurt by Lela’s angry words.

  He had grabbed me up and placed me square on his lap, just like he used to when I was little. He picked up the ball I had been tossing to Baloo and chucked it into the pond by the fence. We both laughed as Baloo happily chased after the ball by jumping into the pond and splashing us both.

  “You consider Baloo family right?” My father asked as we both wiped the water from our faces.

  “Of course,” I answered without hesitation. Baloo was my buddy, my pal when other kids made fun of me because I didn’t dress like a clothing model, Baloo just loved me.

  “Even though Baloo only comes to ranch on the weekends, and has to go home for his shows during the week?” I wasn’t sure what my father was getting at. My mother worked as the Head Veterinarian for all of the exotic performing animals in Vegas. She brought Baloo and sometimes others home with her, and we all spent time together. Of course, my mother had told me, that at no point, was I to forget that these were wild animals with animal instincts. Still, I had never feared Baloo or any of the animals my mother cared for.

  “No, it doesn’t change that I love him and he loves me, just because he’s a bear doesn’t mean he can’t love me. I don’t care that he doesn’t live here all the time, he’s family.” I insisted.

  My father smiled and his dark eyes that mirrored my own had a look of sadness.

  “Well, that’s how you and Lela are, only you two have the same father but different mothers. Just because she doesn’t live her doesn’t make her less family, or the fact that you have different mothers doesn’t make you any less a sister to her. Lela is just angry, baby. She’s mad at me, not you Ali.”

  I hugged my father tightly, I hated the regret in his voice, I just wanted him to laugh and smile like he used to. However, it seemed whenever Lela was here, or her name was spoken, my father would smile, but it would never quite reach his eyes. My mother was another story. She made a point to include Lela in everything we did. Even though Lela didn’t like the animals and wouldn’t interact with them, my mother would always try to find something to do with Lela that she enjoyed. In fact, even though my mom hated beauty salons and shopping malls, she always made hair and nails appointments for Lela and me when Lela was staying with us.

  “Baby, before you were born I was still in the Navy. I had been gone on assignment for over a year, and I missed your mother terribly. She had asked me to retire and stay home, but I wasn’t re
ady to leave the traveling, the missions and the rush of it all behind. Your mother being the wonderful woman that she was, settled out here on Mt. Charleston and took the job with the animals she loved so much. Your mother and I had a terrible fight when I told her I had agreed to stay three more months in Italy, as a consultant to the head of security at the embassy there. She accused me of breaking my promise to come home as soon as my last assignment was completed.”

  I was stunned. My father had always told me that promises were unbreakable, and a genuine measure of someone’s character was their ability to keep their word.

  “But you came home, right dad?” For some reason, I felt like my whole world rested on his answer. When his dark eyes couldn’t meet mine, I knew I had my answer.

  “No, Ali I didn’t come home. That night I was at the bar and got very drunk and ended up spending the night with a woman I’d met there.”

  My eyes flooded with tears. Even at twelve, I knew what sex was, I also knew you weren’t supposed to be having it with someone other than your wife! I pushed off his lap and whirled on him in anger. There was no explanation necessary, I had known where babies came from since I was seven years old and had asked my mother what the monkeys were doing all lumped over each other in the primate habitat!

  My father had hurt my mom, broke his promise and gotten Lela’s mom pregnant! It was one of the rare times where I hated the fact that my parents never hid things from me about life.

  “How could you do that? Why? Mom loved you, she waited for you, she always talks about how proud she is of all you’ve done for this country!” I screamed. I had never raised my voice to my father before, but I felt like my world had just caved in on me and I couldn’t breathe.

  I turned to go, but he grabbed my small hand in his and wouldn’t let go. He pulled me into a hug. I struggled as I shouted at him. I told him he was a terrible father, a horrible man, I told him he broke mom’s heart, my heart and he didn’t deserve anyone to love him. I didn’t mean any of it, I was just so angry that I couldn’t stop.

  “Alison Renee Collins, you will stop that right now. What have I said about that temper young lady!” My mother scolded from the doorway of my room.

  My mom was the opposite of me, she was tall, blonde and had the most beautiful sea-green eyes. Her hands on her hips told me she was not happy that I’d let my temper get the best of me. Mom was the kind of person that didn’t yell often, and I had rarely seen her lose her temper with anyone. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that particular talent, and she was always after me to turn the other cheek in an argument, not to fight with the mean kids in school because I was better than that. Sadly, I wasn’t…I really wasn’t.

  “Your father made a mistake, one we worked very hard to get past. Love isn’t simple Alison. Love can be like a rollercoaster, but if you love the person enough, and you want to make a relationship work, you can get past many things. You have to decide what those lines are you aren’t willing to let someone cross in your relationship. Sometimes you can’t work things out because the hurt is too much, but I’m not sorry that we didn’t give up on our marriage. We got you baby girl.”

  I ran to my mother’s open arms, and she stroked my hair while I cried. I looked at my dad and saw the grief-stricken look on his face. I rushed back to him and threw my arms around his thick neck.

  “I’m sorry dad, I didn’t mean it!” I sobbed into his shirt.

  “I know you didn’t baby, sometimes people say things they don’t mean when they’re mad, or scared or hurt.”

  I looked up at him, and it finally dawned on me what he meant. “You mean like Lela? Does she say those things because she’s mad that you don’t live with her mother?” It all made sense now. Lela was always going around complaining how much dirt she got all over herself around the ranch, how lacking in our clothes and material possessions we were. Now, I saw it for what it was. Lela only got to see her father part time and from what I had heard, never got along with any of her mother’s husbands’.

  “Yeah, Lela has a hard time figuring out where she belongs. She bounces between two very different households in two very different countries, so let’s cut her a little slack. Try to keep in mind why she might lash out.” My dad suggested as I tucked my head into his shoulder.

  “Like when Fergus the tiger scratched Richard when she had a torn claw nail?” I asked.

  At the time Richard Taggart was a God to me. He trained the animals for the Vegas shows, and I wanted to be just like him. Of course, I was young and would later come to realize Richard was an enormous, egocentric, twit, but at that moment the man hung the moon.

  “Yes, just like that, although I suspect Richard probably had it coming,” my father grumbled.

  It was a few summers later that one of my dad’s good friend’s from the Navy had contacted him to ask if his son Jake could stay with us for awhile. His wife had died suddenly, and he needed some time to get himself together and the new business he had just started. Apparently, he felt that Jake could do with a change of scenery.

  Jake was awesome, he was the big brother I never even knew I wanted and for one year he lived with us. At first, he was quiet and sullen, refusing to actually talk to any of us. Then one day, I was playing in the woods like I always did when a mountain lion cornered me.

  One look in those wild gold eyes that were watching my every move told me that she was going to pounce. I tried to make myself as big as possible; as my mother had taught me, I tripped as I was backing up and screamed as she leaped toward me with her claws out.

  I braced for the impact but instead all I heard was a loud thump. I opened my eyes, and not more than two inches from me lay the mountain lion, her golden fur shone in the warm sun, and her eyes were closed. For a moment I panicked, I hadn’t heard a gunshot, but there was a long dart sticking out of her neck. I immediately went for her pulse, feeling for a heartbeat like I had seen my mother do before. I exhaled a breath of relief when I felt a strong, steady heartbeat.

  “Unbelievable, that animal almost killed you, and you’re worried if it’s okay or not?” Came a familiar testy tone.

  I looked up to see Jake holding my mother’s dart gun, I knew those darts could take down an elephant so the mountain lion never stood a chance.

  I stood up and was about to blast him for following me, which I’m sure my mother put him up to since she was convinced I always wandered too far from the ranch, when suddenly he dropped the dart gun and pulled me into a tight hug. Jake and I had never hugged before. Sure we joked, watched television or helped my mom with the animals but we’d never actually touched. It felt nice, and he smelled of sweat and pine, but I didn’t care. It was my first hug from someone I wasn’t related to.

  “You silly kid,” he grumbled as I squirmed to get away from his angry tone. “She would have killed you!” he shouted.

  Angry that he was always treating me like I was ten years younger than him instead of four, I shoved him away as hard as I could.

  “It’s not her fault, she was doing what a typical mountain lion would do, Jake. I’m in her world out here. Blaming her is like a scuba diver being pissed off when a shark tries to bite him, it’s not personal it’s instinct,” I scolded as he attempted to dust the dirt off my jeans and pick pine needles out of my hair.

  Jake laughed, and his blue eyes danced with amusement. His dirty blonde hair had lightened somewhat since coming to stay with us, probably because he spent so much time outdoors. Luckily, he had traded the vans and skater shirts for hiking boots and shorts. I had teased him when he had first arrived and had stubbornly refused to dress appropriately for a mountain ranch. It had taken a few weeks and me finally hiding his damn shoes before he would touch the boots my father had gotten for him.

  Now, eight months later and standing at just shy of six feet, his long skinny arms and stick legs were so white they practically blinded me.

  “Geez, you are just like your mother, she told me you were gonna wander too far from the ranch and
handed me the dart gun, just in case.”

  “Yeah, yeah, just help me move her behind this boulder,” I demanded as I pet her large head.

  “Why are we moving this cat’s huge ass after it tried to kill you?”

  I ignored his snarky tone and cradled the cat’s massive head in my lap. “The dart will knock her out for a few hours, and I don’t want her baking in the sun or being vulnerable to wolves or any other predators,” I explained as we struggled to drag the big cat into the shade behind the boulder.

  Once done, he tweaked my nose, and I swatted his hand.

  “Come on squirt, let’s get back to the house and watch some MTV.” he suggested.

  Just like that, Jake and I were good again. It was always like that with us. We would fight, and I would accuse him of treating me like a baby, and he would laugh and call me some other infantile name. It was great having a brother around, at least until Lela showed up.

  That Christmas she had come to the ranch to spend her school holiday with us. Jake was immediately smitten, and since they were so close in age, I was suddenly a third wheel. The two were like peas in a pod. Jake followed her around like a puppy and literally whatever she wanted he would jump up to fetch it.

  Then suddenly, he was gone. I woke up to loud voice downstairs on Christmas Eve. By the time I got to where everyone was, Jake was being led out by his father to a large pickup truck. My dad was yelling at Jake’s dad about them needing to talk, shouting that this wasn’t the way to handle things. I had no idea what was happening, but Lela was sitting on the sofa curled into a ball, and Jake was fighting back the tears as he turned back to look at me as I stood on our front porch.

  I didn’t care how angry his father looked, I ran and threw my arms around his waist and tried to dig my heels into the ground to slow his progress.

  “You can’t take him, he’s my brother, you can’t have him back…he’s family!” I yelled into Jakes shirt as I held on for all I was worth.

  “You let him go…run back to your daddy, Ali. Jake needs to come home. If he wants to act like a randy man, then he can work like one too.” Jakes father said in an angry voice. I had no idea what he was talking about, I didn’t even care. All I knew was that Jake was being taken away from me, and I couldn’t bear it.