Cord’s Redemption by Jaxson Kidman

Chapter Three

When Josie Porterwas born at three-oh-one in the morning, her mother was desperate (and strung out) and fell asleep. A nurse wrapped the newborn baby with a thick head of dark hair and handed her off to her grandmother.

Her grandmother smiled, gently touched the newborn’s hair and told Josie two things.

The first thing was that no matter what was going to happen in life, Josie was going to need to fight. She was going to have to fight like hell. That was just how the cards were laid out for her. Sure, she didn’t ask to be born, but here she was. A quiet soon-to-be firecracker.

The second thing Josie’s grandmother told her was that this thick head of dark hair would end up as dark blonde hair with curls that any woman would be jealous of.

Both of those proclamations came true.

As did most things Josie’s grandmother said throughout her years.

Now, as Josie stood in front of an old mirror, carefully fighting a brush through her dark blonde curls, the room was silent.

Just like the rest of the house.

Every now and again Josie’s ears would pick up on the tick tock sound from the grandfather clock that stood in the corner of the dining room that hadn’t been used since her grandmother had died.

Josie yanked the brush out of her hair and sighed in pain.

“Fuck,” she muttered.

She dropped the brush to the dresser and a picture from the mirror jumped away and began to float through the air.

Josie stuck her hand out and the picture landed in her palm.

“Just wanting to say hello, huh?” she whispered.

She glanced over her shoulder.

Her grandmother used to stand in the doorway, forever beaming with pride.

Whether it was something silly like bringing home a macaroni project from school when she was in kindergarten or when she graduated from nursing school, every single moment of Josie’s life had been cherished by her grandmother.

That was why coming back to care for her in her final years was the easiest decision for Josie.

Sure, the valley didn’t need a nurse and there wasn’t much for Josie to do other than work at the country club, but that was okay. She couldn’t take on a full time job anyway. Her grandmother needed full time care and that was what Josie wanted to give to her.

That country club was more like a curse than help though.

Josie knew she could have gone to the other side of the valley.

Back to the ranch where she first experienced love, lost her innocence, and so much more.

“I miss you, Na,” Josie said as her thumb stroked the picture.

Josie’s first word was Na.

Nobody really knew what the word meant. It could have been a simple no to the mushed-up sweet potatoes her grandmother was trying to feed her. Or it could have been Josie trying to say grandma or some variation.

The moment she spoke Na, her grandmother announced that from forever on, that was her name.

Na.

The picture in Josie’s hand was from years ago.

Na sitting in a lawn chair out in the front yard, holding up a large can of beer in her right hand. A big smile on her face. Not a care in the world.

For all the memories that slipped through the cracks, that picture lived in Josie’s head clear as day.

That was the day Na decided to go beer for beer with some rough and tough bikers and ranch hands, drinking all their beer and then getting into their whiskey.

She left every one of them either passed out or running to a private place in the woods to throw up.

That night Na slept right outside in that lawn chair.

She woke the next morning at sunrise, then made coffee and breakfast for a bunch of hungover men.

She told Josie that was the reason why men couldn’t give birth.

They can’t even shoot whiskey and keep standing. How in the world would they bring another life into this world?

Josie took a deep breath and nodded at the picture.

She returned it back to its rightful place on her mirror.

There were several pictures scattered along the mirror.

From a different time and life.

Pictures that Josie had hung there when she was just a teenager.

Including the one at the top right corner.

The picture of someone who was a man when other guys were just teenagers.

He was eighteen in the picture.

Walking out of Kaigne creek wearing soaked jeans and a black t-shirt. A rare picture of him without his cowboy hat on his head. A tough jawline with a few scars that would be hidden now by his scruff.

It was always the eyes that did it.

Josie smiled and turned away from the dresser.

The past was the past.

Everyone had moved on.

She left town.

He stayed.

That was that.

Josie had someone else in her life.

In fact, he was someone who saved her grandmother’s house.

Sent from what everyone around here called the big damn city.

Billionaires.

The one thing Josie was sure she’d never see near the Salis Valley.

Now she was seen holding hands with one of them herself.

It wasn’t really much of a relationship, more of an agreement. More one sided than the other, for sure, but Josie stuck to the words her grandmother spoke to her at birth.

She fought for what she wanted.

Even if that meant working as much as she could at the country club, hiding money, preparing herself to own her grandmother’s house once and for all.

Josie wasn’t sure if that was possible.

But again, she knew how to fight.

Whether it was present circumstances or past feelings.

The past hung on her mirror.

The present was waiting for her.

Josie gave up on trying to mess with her hair and pulled it back.

At the last second she hurried back to the dresser and splashed some expensive perfume onto her wrists, then she dabbed her neck.

She wasn’t a fan of the smell.

Wade loved it though.

The dark redpickup truck was the first vehicle Josie ever drove.

Stick shift with terrible traction and control, her grandmother told her it was the right way to learn how to drive.

The first lesson Josie got was when her grandmother stopped the truck in the middle of a hill, climbed out and told Josie to drive.

She also taught Josie how to put bags of rocks in the bed of the truck to get a little better traction from the back of the truck.

As far as that hill lesson went, life had a funny way of coming full circle.

That hill led to the top of a ridge that stood untouched from the time the world popped up into existence. Right up until Wade Ain and his family somehow got their hands on the land and built what they considered to be a small cabin.

To Josie, the place was nothing short of a mansion.

Anyone who wanted to debate that fact could be reminded that this little family getaway had ten bedrooms, twelve bathrooms, a wine cellar, two dining rooms, a great room, living room, a den, a study, and a kitchen that was bigger than the entire square footage of Josie’s grandmother’s house.

When driving up the hill, the house seemed to grow out of the ground.

Josie’s truck protested a little and she gently patted the dashboard.

“Come on, Beckster, we got this,” she said.

She named the truck Beckster the day she got the keys.

Her grandmother won the truck at a rodeo, but it wouldn’t run. So she had it towed up to the house and had Morsey Beau and Felix Canutt work on the truck. They were from the Lynot ranch and were more than happy to help in exchange for whiskey and home cooked meals.

Josie always teased her grandmother that Morsey had a crush on her.

Her grandmother warned Josie about falling for a cowboy though.

As tough as they were, their hearts were twice as tough.

Treat a cowboy or a rancher like a rodeo.

One night of wild fun, then move on.

The total opposite of that?

The Ain family.

Josie parked Beckster, pulled the emergency brake and turned off the engine.

She checked herself in the mirror, wanting to look good enough for Wade and his siblings.

They were the only ones who lived out there.

Wade ran it all out here with his sister Tess.

There was also his sister Bonnie and brother Riley, but they were more about acting spoiled than anything else.

Today Wade requested Josie’s presence at the house.

That usually meant someone was visiting or there was a meal being cooked.

Wade needed a woman hanging off his arm to show some kind of stability.

Lately some of the conversations Josie overhead worried her.

What Wade’s plans really were…

As she rushed up the thick, heavy steps toward the large, money-green door, a voice echoed from next to her.

“Put your hair down.”

Josie gasped, stopped and turned.

Tess Ain stood in a stunning dress with her dark hair down to one side.

She looked ready for an elegant party.

But that was Tess.

She dressed to match the family bank account.

Her eyes shone bright yet they were dark as evil. Her lipstick color of choice was always the same.

Blood freaking red.

“You look like a poor pile of shit right now, Josie,” Tess said.

Josie flexed her jaw and swallowed hard. “I always love the way we greet each other. One day I’m going to be shocked when you say hello or even hug me.”

Tess laughed. “Such simple dreams for such a simple girl.”

“Do I have your permission to knock on the door now?”

“Take the hair down. Trust me on this one.”

Josie shook her head and reached back for the cheap clip that held her curly hair in place.

Her hair fell down.

“The curls,” Tess said. “As if I need to hate you even more.”

“My grandmother told me women would always want my curls.”

“How’d that work for your grandmother? Sitting around in a moldy house and never enjoying her life.”

Josie swallowed hard.

She promised herself one day she would take a swing at Tess Ain. And she wouldn’t miss. And then the blood red lipstick would actually be blood.

Josie reached for the door and Tess moved in front of her.

“Well, here goes nothing, Josie,” Tess whispered. “I guess you’re going to get a shot at a decent life now.”

Tess opened the door and moved out of the way as quickly as she could.

That left Josie to see Wade Ain standing in a black suit, looking dapper.

Behind him stood Bonnie and Riley.

Each held a laptop in their hands, the screen opened, connected to video calls.

Wade reached into his suit jacket and took out a small, black box.

Oh… shit.

That was Josie’s only thought as Wade moved to one knee and opened the box to reveal a large diamond ring.

Josie stood frozen.

This can’t be happening to me, she thought. We were together just… He was going to get rid of Na’s house. He wanted to knock it all down. I really didn’t have a choice, did I? I had to be interested. We had it worked out. I was someone to hang off his arm and he was going to let me live in the house until I saved up enough to buy it from him.

“She’s in shock,” Bonnie said.

Her voice slurred just enough to let everyone know that she was three drinks deep.

“Dude, ask her,” Riley said.

“Say the word dude again and I’ll cut your tongue out,” Tess said.

Riley didn’t have the balls to look at his own sister.

Mostly because things Tess said were true or came true.

“Come here, Josie,” Wade said. “Come on. Everyone is watching us.”

Josie forced herself to shuffle her feet toward Wade.

Once close enough, he grabbed her right hand.

Josie looked down at him and felt herself wanting to shake her head.

No.

No fucking way.

She knew she couldn’t embarrass him in front of his family.

His billionaire parents and grandparents were on the screens.

“I can’t hear a thing!” his grandfather yelled.

“They aren’t talking yet,” Riley said.

“Josie,” Wade said.

Josie blinked fast. She swallowed hard. She knew she wasn’t showing a happy and excited face.

It wasn’t a shocked face either.

It was a face of terror.

Wade knew it.

With his back to his family, he curled his lip a little and squeezed Josie’s hand tighter.

Then he gave her a quick tug.

Hard enough that her wrist let out a quick pop sound.

Josie tumbled forward and crouched down.

Wade’s hand slid up to her wrist and he had a very tight grip on her.

“Listen to me, Josie,” Wade whispered as he leaned closer to her. He brushed his lips to her left ear. “Stand the fuck up and say yes to me if you want to go back to that dilapidated shit box you call your grandmother’s house. I’ll have the fucking place torched in ten minutes if you don’t.”

Josie’s eyes welled with tears.

Wade inched back and Josie stood up.

Tears fell from her eyes to her cheeks.

She began to nod before Wade even spoke.

“Will you marry me, Josie?” Wade asked in a strong voice.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Say it louder,” Wade said.

“Yes,” Josie said. “Yes!”

Wade slipped the diamond ring on her finger.

“How fucking beautiful,” Tess said.

On the laptop screens, Wade’s parents and grandparents smiled and nodded with approval.

Wade stood up and cupped Josie’s face.

As he moved in for a kiss, she closed her eyes.

Wade’s soft lips touched hers and his cologne engulfed her.

She suddenly thought about someone else.

Someone from a different time.

Someone who could have saved her from this mess.

If she had asked him to.

Josie Porter was thinking about her first love - Cord Lynot.