Dear Bad Boy || Ransom Drysdale

Dear Bad Boy|| Reluctantly Compromising

Linda's face falls even more stern than usual, and if I were able to get close enough I'm sure there was a tear sitting in her waterline.
But the question is, was it a sentimental tear?
Or was she hurt?
Her face reddens, filling with more rage...not a tear in sight.
"OH! So you knew?" She burls back around to face Ransom who has decided to pour himself a healthy measure of Harlans finest scotch.
"My only son...twice you have done this to me. Twice, didn't you stop to think that I would have liked to have been involved?"
Ransom swallows the glass in one, "actually, Linda. No. I didn't, because you've never shown any interest in me or Eva, unless it was to make her or us uncomfortable." He fills himself another glass, "actually thats a lie, isn't it? There's been a lot of manipulating and meddling but for what? What did you want from us? From me? Because honestly Linda, I can't keep up."

It was at this stage in the fight that I decided to make myself scarce. I felt like I was an intruder, trespassing on this moment that wasn't meant to be seen by anyone else.
Fran slipped into the kitchen while I wandered around the mansion, trying my best to drown out the sound of the Drysdale Twins yelling. I just hope they don't wake Harlan, he had retired to bed for a nap before dinner.  And by the sounds of it there won't be anyone left to have dinner with.
At the very top of the stairs on the third floor, tucked behind a large dusty bookshelf is a large bay window that looked out onto the grounds of the estate.  I wasn't always a reader, I always preferred music to books but something about the quaintness of this little nook hidden amongst the mansion pulled me in.  I grabbed a random book from one of the shelves and settled myself on the windowsill, I glanced down at the cover to see which one I had picked.
'The Shining.'
I open the first page.
Nope.
I look out of the window across the grass and not so far in the distance I see my house, well no. It wasn't my house any more, it belonged to someone else. From this cosy little place you could see right onto my roof, and into my window. It was too far away to make anything out thankfully, but I had no idea that it was so visible. 
"I used to sit here and watch Ransom climb up that trellis and through your window you know."
"FUCK! Harlan, you scared the shit out of me." I slap my hand across my mouth forgetting my manners.
He chuckles heartily, turning his head towards the stairs as the battle continues, "I used to watch him creep in and out of that window and wonder why he wanted to keep you a secret. Then he brought you here that night, the night of the break in and I knew then that he loved you."
At that time he had a funny way of showing it.
"What are the new owners like?"  I hated that someone else lived there, filling it with their own story.  I wish I hadn't sold it, I had wished that from the moment I put pen to paper and signed it all away that I hadn't done it, that I had held on and stopped being so rash.
I told myself that the thought of it lying empty was worse than selling it, but it wasn't.

I imagine a young girl, the opposite of me laughing with her mom and dad in the kitchen cooking dinner. I see her growing from a toddler playing hide and seek, to a teenager dancing around the rooms, and I'm jealous of her. I wanted that. I wanted to give someone that. And being in any other house, in any other home I would only feel like an imposter.
But it's done now.
That house was not a house you buy to sell, that house is a forever home. It just wouldn't be mine.
"Eva," Harlan touched my arm bringing me back, "you are being summoned."
Just at that Ransom appears at the top of the staircase his cheeks flushed, he looks directly at Harlan, "Your daughter is impossible."
He walks over to me, a sort of sorry smile peeking in the corner of his mouth, "Hi." He kisses my forehead, "we need to speak with you, and by 'we' I mean my mother. Who by the way, turns out to have at least one feeling which has been hurt." I place my hand in his and allow him to lead me back to the battle field.
"By the way, she is crying."
"What?" Harlan stops dead on the staircase.
"Yeah I know." Ransom scoffs.
"Wait who is crying?" I ask.
Ransom holds back a laugh, "my mother."
"I didn't know she could do that." I look to Harlan who's face is going a deep shade of purple as he holds back more laughter.
"You're as surprised as we are." Ransom places his hand on my back giving me a gentle shove into the lounge, I turn to see him help his grandfather down the final step.

Ransom was telling the truth, she had been crying. Her eyes were blurred, and skin blotchy. Whatever words had been exchanged between these two had really affected her. I just hope Ransom had given her, her just desserts because Linda Drysdale needed to be taken down a peg or two.
"Eva, we want to run something past you." Ransom places both hands on my shoulders.
Oh boy. "And you can say no at any time, and we will move on with our original plan."
But...
"But...and it pains me to say this believe me it truly does, my mother had an idea for us to get married at the lake.  In two days." Ransom shuffles his feet, his eyes roaming my face for a reaction, "I know it isn't what you wanted." He looks across at Linda, "but I agree with her, it would be nice. And you can have Emily and Roger, and Sophie. It'll still be small, intimate."
I nod, it's all I can do.  I feel sort of ambushed.
The lake is where it all began. But two days, a lot can happen in two days.
"I will take care of everything, I know you don't like extravagance." Linda finally steps forward, "and Fran will keep me in check." She curls her lip giving poor Fran the side eye.

"If you don't want this, Eva. I will take you tomorrow and we'll get married at the court house.  But I kind of agree, the lake would be perfect." I can hear in it Ransoms voice that it's what he wants.

I would marry him anywhere, I would do it right now in front of Linda and her cigarette. I just want us to be official, something about the security of marriage it makes the relationship feel iron clad. And I need that with Ransom, I know I shouldn't but I just do. We've had so many near misses that every time I have him within my grasp I always feel like I'm going to lose him.  And I don't have another heartbreak in me.

"As long as I end the day with your last name, that's all that matters to me."
I pull back the curtain trying to see the lake between the trees, "only one problem though, none of us own the lake any more"
Ransom presses himself behind me, snaking his arms around my waist resting his chin gently on the top of my head.
"I'll speak with the owners." His arms tighten, filling me with warmth.
"Leave it to us." Harlan bangs his cane on the wooden floor, "there's a lot of work to do." He shuffles off into his study slamming the door behind him.
"I should call Sophie, she'll be pacing." I chuckle.
Ransom meets me with a huge grin, "go do bride stuff, I'll take care of everything."
Linda clears her throat abruptly, Ransom rolls his eyes.
"We'll take care of everything."

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A/N
HELLO! This has taken me so long to update because i am so critical of my work on it. I must write and delete a thousand times, and it's still not perfect.
But please, leave a little feedback and a vote.
This story is everything to me.

Looks likes we're getting a wedding.