As they exited their vehicles I quickly took them in.

Back in the day during my first stay in Mustang, I noticed Charlie had gone soft and carried extra weight. I had met and been around Olly when he was home during my cooking lessons with Macy but (wisely) he avoided the kitchen during those times and I only shared greetings, farewells and a handful of words in between. Olly, then and now, and the man who had to be Frank had not gone soft. They were tall, their burnished, dark blond hair only sprinkled with gray and they were still lean, fit and handsome. They wore their age, definitely, but they wore it well.

“Get gone,” I heard Gray growl dangerously, still striding toward them as they lined up a few feet in front of their vehicles.

It was Frank, eyes narrowed on the remains of the barn, his face carrying an easily read emotion of being extremely pissed off, who cut his gaze to Gray and asked weirdly, “What you doin’ ‘bout this shit, boy?” Then he gave an irate jerk of his chin toward the barn.

“I said, get gone,” Gray semi-repeated, stopping four feet in front of them and I hustled to his side.

“And I said,” Frank leaned in, “what you doin’ ‘bout this shit, boy?”

I did not have a good feeling about this.

“All right, guys, let’s all calm down, go inside, open a beer and talk calmly,” Macy, arriving at the pack, put in and I knew by her bossy yet soothing tone she trailed the brothers in her own car because she’d tried to talk them out of coming, failed but followed them in order to play peacemaker.

“Stay outta this, Macy,” Olly rumbled, not taking his eyes off Gray.

“You haven’t answered my question,” Frank prompted ominously.

“And you haven’t moved your ass off my goddamned land,” Gray shot back. “Now get… the fuck… gone.”

“Maybe you guys can come back in a day or two?” I suggested but none of them even looked at me.

“Bud Sharp needs to learn a lesson,” Charlie told Gray and I tensed.

“My problem, not yours. Get gone,” Gray returned.

“Sittin’ here, sittin’ on your hands when you got fucked?” Olly asked then went on to state, “That’s not Cody.”

“You wouldn’t know what Cody is, you asshole. Now get gone,” Gray clipped and all of them tensed and it was more than a little scary.

“Seems we know more ‘bout bein’ a Cody than you, boy. Fuck. Half a day’s gone and there’s no Sharp swingin’ from no tree,” Frank remarked and my tense went ultra tense.

Frank wasn’t done.

“Your Daddy, my Daddy, my Daddy’s Daddy would not get his goddamned barn burned down right under his fuckin’ nose and then delay to seein’ someone pays.”

And at that, something clicked in me. I felt it. I could swear I even heard it.

And when it did, I lost it.

“How dare you?” I whispered but that whisper vibrated with a feeling so strong it shimmered in the air and everyone present felt it. I knew this when all eyes came to me. “How dare you?” I repeated then I shrieked, “How fucking dare you?”

I took three fast steps to the Brothers Cody and got a steel band-like arm wrapped around my belly which hauled me back into Gray’s body and cut off my advance but it didn’t stop my tirade.

“Buddy Sharp’s been playing with Gray for years and you didn’t have his back then. I’ve been home for weeks and not a one of you,” my eyes moved to Macy, “even you, came to see me. You live in this town. You know what happened to us. And you know Gray nearly lost this land, this house, that barn,” I swung an arm out behind me, “because he was taking care of your mother,” I jabbed a finger at them, “and you didn’t do shit. His trees were poisoned, his horses were poisoned and where were you then? Now you have the balls to show up here when you left your nephew blowing in the breeze and try to tell him how to deal with a tragedy? How he should handle that sick, jealous piece of shit in town whose entire life focus is taking Grayson Cody down? You show up here after we spent a sleepless night after being in a barn that was collapsing around us, taking our lives in our hands to save your legacy, a legacy you have given nothing to for decades but still you have the nerve to drive up here and get in Gray’s face about it? How dare you?”

“Ivey –” Macy started, her voice placating but my eyes sliced to her.

“No,” I cut her off. “Actually, I don’t give a fuck how you dare. What I give a fuck about is that you, all of you,” I swung an arm out to indicate them all, “get out of my man’s space right now. He’s survived this. He’s survived the hits he took in his past. He’s bent over backward and twisted himself into knots making it so your mother survived and had as good a life as he could give her after her legs were taken and he’s still doing that. And he’s done all this without even a little help from you three.” I stabbed a finger in turn at the brothers three. “You don’t get this so I’ll give it to you. You have nothing to say to Grayson Cody, not about what he does or this land. So get in your cars and,” I strained against Gray’s arm and screeched, “go.”

“I see, little lady, that you don’t get when your Momma turns her back on you, that has consequences,” Frank informed me more than a little arrogantly.

“No, what I see is that Momma was disappointed in the sons she carried, she birthed and she raised when they acted like greedy jackasses after she lost her legs and her son and they didn’t set about doing everything they could to win back her trust, respect and affection. That shit was a result of your,” another finger jab, “actions and I find it laughable that you three would come here and demand Gray man up when not one of you has done that same thing for over a decade. Gray taking care of this land, that house and your mother while you lived your lives carrying your grudges makes him more man than the three of you combined and then some.”

“Ivey,” Gray murmured warningly with an arm squeeze.

I shook my head and didn’t tear my eyes off the Codys.

“You’ve lost her,” I said quietly. “The woman you know as mother is breathing but she’s gone. With the strength in her body went her fire. She doesn’t boss anymore. Doesn’t tell you what to do, doesn’t have an opinion about everything. You live just miles away from a mother who’s fading fast and soon everything, and that means everything about her will be a memory. Are you sure that in twenty, thirty years when you’ll be in the same place that she is now you’ll be secure in the knowledge you did the right thing by your mother? Because if you are then there’s something wrong with you and if you were real men, you’d take time to reflect on that and then you’d use the time you have left to mend bridges with your mother and give her what you’ve got to give in the time she’s got left.”

Although I was talking quietly and standing still, I ended my rant breathing heavily. And when I ended my rant, I had three Codys just staring at me.

When no one said anything for awhile, I noted, “You aren’t leaving.”

Frank tore his eyes from me to look over my shoulder at Gray.

“Ma’s not doin’ good?”

Jeez.

Seriously?

“Frank, she was, she wouldn’t be in that fuckin’ home,” Gray replied, sounding as exasperated as I felt and then some.

“You said she couldn’t take care ‘a her personal business,” Charlie put in.

“Yeah, I said that,” Gray agreed. “I also said she was deteriorating quickly.”

“How bad is it?” Olly asked.

“Bad,” I bit out and got all three Codys looking at me again.

Then Frank looked back at Gray and asked softly, “How much time’s she got?”

“Not much, God feels kind,” Gray answered.

These words spoke volumes and there was a moment of silence then some Cody men shuffling their feet. Then there was a very long moment of silence while all three Codys looked anywhere but at each other or Gray.

Men!

“God!” I cried, impatient and on edge. “Seriously?”

Again they all looked at me.

And again it was Frank who lifted his eyes to Gray but this time their blue depths were twinkling with something familiar, something I saw often in Gray, something I used to see in Grandma Miriam and he remarked, “Heard word, now see it’s true. Your girl’s quite the spitfire.”

I rolled my eyes to the nearly cloudless Colorado sky as Gray’s arm gave me a squeeze.

“’A course,” Charlie said and I rolled my eyes to him to see him grinning, “Gray’s a Cody.” He leaned a bit toward me and shared, “Cody men like fire and not a little bit of it.”

“You’re still here,” I noted.

Olly ignored my comment and asked Gray, “Ang drop off her chicken Mexican thing?”

Charlie’s back straightened as he shot to attention.

“Fuck, yeah, that casserole could win awards,” Charlie muttered, breaking off from the pack and, to my utter disbelief, heading toward the house. “Tragedy strikes, Ang breaks out the tortillas.”

“Does he really think he can go to my kitchen and eat the casserole Ang made for you and me?” I hissed but I should have saved my breath seeing as all the Codys, including the one by name only, started toward the house.

“Seems like it,” Gray muttered, I started to twist my neck to look back at him then I felt his arm and body tense around me and I knew why.

Coming down the lane was a police cruiser.

By the time Captain Lenny parked, got out of the car and approached a Gray who had wrapped his arm around my neck pulling me in close, front to his side, I felt the Codys all standing at our backs.