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* * *
Blake
I forced myself to push back the jealousy that came so naturally at the thought of Slade being the one to go get her. The truth was that it didn't matter how we got her here. It only mattered that she came.
It was time to right the wrongs of the past. Merry deserved to feel welcome at the only place she had ever truly called home, Nan deserved a Christmas that was everything she ever wanted, and Slade and I deserved a second chance. Or, at least, we wanted one. Whether or not we deserved one, I wasn't as certain.
"Fence is fixed, Nan." I took off my boots at the door, as was the rule, and padded over to where she stood at the stove, stirring a pot of soup large enough to feed an army. She stopped when I got close and turned to me, pulling herself onto her tiptoes to kiss me on the cheek.
"Thank you, Blake. You're such a good boy."
Masking my pleasure at the term of endearment, I nodded quickly and tried to distract her by stealing a taste of soup. Twenty-six-years-old and six feet tall and Nan still kissed my cheek and told me I was a good boy, just like she had been doing for the last twelve years. She smacked my hand away as I reached for the spoon. "Blake, can you get Merry down here to help me with the salad and set the table? I called for her, but she didn't answer. Probably studying with her headphones on or some such thing."
"Sure thing, Nan." I was quick to answer, turning on my heel and heading towards the stairs, where all the bedrooms were. Truth be told, I could have just as easily set the table and thrown together a salad, but Nan was very strict that chores were divided equally and everyone did their fair share. Even at twenty-six and grown, as a paid employee at the ranch, I knew better than to go against Nan's wishes. Besides, it would give me an opportunity to steal a kiss.
Merry and I had been seeing each other for several months, and our relationship was a unique one. It mostly took place outside of the house, so Nan wouldn't find out about it. We were both of age, but there were a good seven years between us, and while Nan loved us both, it didn't mean she would want us dating.
If you were brought to Second Chance Ranch and placed in Nan's care, the other teens there were your siblings, whether they had been there at the same time as you or ten years prior. That was just how it was.
I didn't dare cross Nan on most things, but Merry had stolen my heart and made me lose my mind. I pounded up the stairs and had my hand on her doorknob as I knocked, ready to enter as soon as she gave permission, another rule of Nan's, of course.
My knuckles hit the thin wood three times in succession. "Rap, rap, rap."
"Owwwww!" I heard her cry out in response. My eyebrows creased with worry at the odd response, and I pushed the door open, knowing it wouldn't be locked. Another rule.
I'll never forget the way my heart lurched at the sight that greeted me—of Merry, naked from the waist down, turned over Slade's knee, her bottom already a hearty shade of pink under his ministrations.
They both looked up at me in shock. Merry scrambled off his lap and rushed toward me, shaking her head furiously at me with pleading eyes. I knew what she wanted. She wanted me to keep our secret. It would have been a smart move, for all of us. After all, I had walked in on them engaged in a spanking, not intercourse. God knows the temptation to turn Merry over your knee and whoop her sass right out of her at times was a strong one; after all, that's how we had ended up together.
I wasn't feeling very smart at the moment. I was feeling angry. To see my sub and my best friend in such an intimate situation without my knowledge infuriated me.
With Merry off his lap, Slade stood, looking annoyed at the interruption, and began to walk toward me, with a confident older brother smile. I wanted to punch him.
Instead, things escalated into a yelling match. So many things were said in such a short amount of time, and each one was a punch in the gut that I hadn't been expecting.
The only thing I remembered clearly was walking out the door and telling her she had to choose, and Slade saying the same thing. Choose. Between best friends. Brothers. Her Daddy and her Dom.
I ran out the front door, got in my truck, and tore off to town. I heard Slade did the same. I don't know for sure. When we woke up the next morning, barely speaking to each other, she was already gone.
Ifwe managed to get her here, it would be the first time we had seen her in five years. Hell, it was the first time we had been able to track down so much as an address. It was normal that we would both want to be the one to see her first and begin to right past wrongs. We were only human. But there was no room for jealousy in our solution. If she came back, things would be different, this time. Slade and I had learned to share.
* * *
Merry
The thin black chicken scratch handwriting didn't match the thick mottled pink stationary, but I knew one thing for certain. I recognized both and would, until my dying day. The pink stationery was Nan's trademark, but the handwriting belonged to Slade. My breath hitched in my throat, as memories, long since repressed, pushed their way to the forefront of my brain and threatened to make an appearance.
I had left Second Chance Ranch, five years ago, and hadn't looked back. Not because I didn't want to, but because it hurt too much. Nan had called in the beginning, until I changed my number to an unlisted one. My heart had broken every single time I had to ignore her calls, but I was too ashamed.
And now, she had my address. That was new. I wondered how she had pulled that off. Actually, I only wondered why it had taken this long. Everyone loved Nan, and she had connections out the wazoo.
I flipped the envelope over and ran my finger along the seal crease. There was no return address, but I didn't need one. Nan, Slade, and Blake were the only people in my life who had ever called me Merry. They had coined it during my first Christmas at the ranch. My first real Christmas, ever.
I hated Christmas before the ranch, and I hated it after. It was December first, and true to form, this one was shaping up to suck, just like the others before it.
My most current boyfriend had dumped me last week. Of course, that was after he stole the envelope containing my rent payment and had an affair with my boss. I had no job, no boyfriend, and soon, no apartment. Merry freaking Christmas to me.
Life after the ranch had been a rollercoaster of suckiness, followed by weeks of false hope and then major level suckiness when that hope came crashing into reality, which, somehow, it always did.
