The arrival at the ranch.

After the hassle of getting Britney's trunk on the roof of the car, we're finally on our way to my parents. "Why don't you just rent a bigger car?" I look at Britney and smile. "Because I don't want to. We're not gonna use the car much." "But you can afford it." "Still, why would I?" Bryan snorts and looks outside. I look in the rearview mirror at my son and inhale deeply. I wonder why she is making drama about the little things. I enter town and slow down. I look around and smile. Literally nothing has changed here. I look at the cinema as we are passing by, getting memories flooding into my head. Bryan looks outside with a smile. It's a totally different world from what he's used to.

Britney watches a few women walking on the sidewalk. She looks at their outfits and snorts. "No style at all." I look at her. "What are you looking at?" "Those women, they've got no fashion style or sense at all." She points. I slow down and stop at the traffic light as I look at the women. I chuckle a little and look back at Britney with a smile. "Welcome to Texas." She didn't react to it but spouts her lips a little as she chews on the inner side of her cheek. I look at the traffic light, it turns green and I drive on. At the next traffic lights, I turn left. "Your parents don't live in the town center?" "They live on a ranch."

About a mile further I turn right onto a dirt path. Bryan looks at the cattle on the field. He sees someone on a horse riding towards them. I smile as I look at the house. It really feels like coming home. "We're going to live here for a week?" I didn't reply immediately as I park the car next to the Dodge Ram. I turn the engine off and look at her. "Yeah, this is where I was born and raised. So, please, do me a favor, be nice. I know they can come across as strange, but it's my family." I step out. Bryan steps out as well. "Johnny?" I look at the house and see my mother. She's standing on the porch. "Ma." I start to smile. Bryan quickly went to her.

"Bryan! You've grown so much." Bryan hugs her. She smiles and gives him a little kiss on his head. "I've missed you mawmaw." "I've missed you too, it's so good to see you again." She let him go and then look at me. "Son, I thought you would come next weekend for the anniversary." I smile and hug her. She hugs me tightly. I can feel how her hand strokes my hair. "I'm so happy to have you here already. I've missed you so much." I close my eyes for a moment. I've really missed these hugs. "I've missed you too, ma." Mom pushes me back and looks at my face with a frown. "Where's your accent?" I inhale deeply. "Guess Hollywood got to me." Mom sees Britney and I see a frown appearing on her face.

"Ma, I want you to meet my girlfriend." Mom looks back at me. "Girlfriend?" Britney steps closer. "Fiancée." Britney corrects mom. I see mom's face changing, and not in a good way. "I'm Britney Martins. It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am." Britney extends her hand. Mom looks at Bryan who is not looking at Britney. She then looks at me and I could see what she is thinking, I exhale through my nose and put my hands in my pockets. It became a little awkward. Then mom takes Britney's hand and shakes it. "Nice to meet you, Britney Martins, I'm Catherine." She look at me again. "Why didn't you told me that you're engaged?" I look at her face and then look away. "I'm sorry, ma."

She sighs lightly and starts to smile and grabs my head, making me look at her. She gives me a kiss on my forehead. "If you're happy, then I'm happy, but if there's something you wanna tell me, please do, okay?" I nod. She looks at my bare chest. "You came like this?" "No, I got juice all over me in the plane. I had to take it off." Mom starts to laugh. "Or you just wanted to make the girls drool. You always did that." Mom turns her head to look at Bryan. "Shall we look for pawpaw? He's busy with the cattle." Bryan nods with a grin. Mom let me go. They walk to the field. I inhale deeply. "Your mother seems really sweet." I look at Britney. "My mother is the sweetest… if you get on her good side." "What do you mean?"

I walk to the car. "I think you already know what I mean. I'm going to bring the suitcases inside." I open the trunk and take the suitcases out. I look at the trunk on the roof. Britney looks around when someone came from around the house. "Dancer! I didn't know you would be here already." I recognize that voice from afar. I start to grin as I turn around. "Skittles! How are you?" He chuckles as he came closer. We hug tightly. Skittles is the nickname of my adopted brother. He was thirteen when he came here, his parents died in Afghanistan during a terrorist attack. We call him Skittles because he loves eating Skittles. "I'm great, brother, how about you? How's your son? Where is he?" I chuckle about his excitement. "You look good, Skittles. I'd thought you would run your own ranch by now."

"Yeah, that's always been a big dream, but you know, family stays together." I smile as I put my hands in my pockets. "Can you handle it with dad and Jamie?" "Jamie has his own ranch at the other side of town, but he works together with dad." He looks at my face. He chuckles and pats my chest a few times. "Franny is finally pregnant, your sister will be incredibly happy to see you again, brother… she has been talking about you a lot lately. Is it true that you're engaged?" I smile widely about the news. This is big news. I'm so happy for my sister, she always has wanted children. Britney came closer. My brother starts to smile and licks his lips.

"Are you talking to the help, baby?" I start to frown. Did she just presume that because my brother is black, he's the help? "What did you just say?" Britney looks at him up and down. "Brit, this is my brother, Jamaal." I quickly interfere. I'm shocked about her judgment. "Brother? But he's black." I hear Jamaal growling. "Who cares what skin color he has? He's my brother." I'm trying to hide my anger. Jamaal looks at me and sees me struggling. "Who are you?" Jamaal looks back at her. "I'm Britney Martins, Johnny's fiancée." "So, Franny is right?" I only nod. "Franny?" Britney looks at me. "Yeah, Franny is my sister." Jamaal looks at Bella. "I didn't saw you're holding a dog, what's her name?" He steps closer to her, but she steps back. My brother is an excessively big guy. He starts to smile at Britney.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want to meet…" As he points. "Bella, this is Bella." Jamaal steps closer again, extending his hand to Bella. She sniffs and licks his hand. "She's cute." Britney looks surprised at the situation. I could have known this would happen. My brother has an effect on animals. "She normally doesn't like strangers." Jamaal looks at Britney with a smile. "We're no strangers no more." Jamaal turns to me. "Dancer, you need help?" "Yeah, if you could help me with this trunk?" He came closer and looks at the trunk on the roof. "How long to you plan to stay?" I chuckle. "It's not mine. I only got that suitcase packed." I point at my suitcase. Jamaal looks at Britney and then back at me and starts to laugh out loud. I couldn't help but laugh with him. "Women." He whispers and grabs the trunk.

"You know what room we stay in?" "In your old room. Bryan stays in one of the guest rooms. Ma has been preparing it for him." Jamaal lifts the trunk from the roof. I take the suitcases. Britney gasps as she looks at him as if the trunk doesn't weight anything. We went upstairs. I open the door to my old bedroom. I look around and see that mom hasn't change a thing in here. "It's still the same." Jamaal looks at me as he put the trunk down at the end of the bed. "Yeah, she can't change it. She said that it would make her feel that she has lost you for good if she would do that. She sometimes comes in here." I look at him and see his face. I drew out a deep breath. "Ma loves you the most, Dancer, she always has." I quickly rub a tear away.

"I thought that she loved Jack more than me." Jamaal's eyebrows went up. "She does love him very much, but she never could love him more than any of us." I start to frown. "Where's Jack?" Jamaal starts to smile. "He has his own franchise to run." "Franchise?" "Yeah, it's called Lucky Tires." "I didn't know." Britney comes inside and looks around. "He has three stores, one here in Pampa, and two are in other towns… he's expanding again." Jamaal looks at Bella and smiles. "I'm gonna leave you two for now. I think dad will be happy to see you again." "Thanks, Skittles." "No problem, Dancer." He walks outside and closes the door behind him. Britney sits down on the bed and is still looking around.

"This was your room?" I look at her as I take my suitcase. "Is my room." She looks at me and frowns. "What do you mean with that?" I sit down next to her. I look at the wall with my old pictures. "Ma never changed the room because she couldn't change it. That's what I understood from my brother." Britney looks at my face. "It's so weird that he's your brother." I take a quick deep breath through my nose. "Because he's black? He has been adopted when he was thirteen, he always has been my brother." She can see that I didn't like how she reacted. "I'm sorry, I know I came across a little harsh." I take her hand. "It's okay, but he doesn't like to be addressed as if he would be different. He never has been different to me."

Britney starts to smile. "You're cute." I look at her again as she leans in, giving me a little kiss. "I'm going to arrange my stuff. Will you put a shirt on?" I've forgotten that I'm bare chested. I stand up and open my suitcase. I take my black tank top and put it on. "You mind if I'm gonna look for my father?" She shakes her head no. "Will you come down soon too? I would like to introduce you to him." She tries to give me a smile as she puts Bella down on the bed. "I'll be down in about ten minutes." "All right." I went downstairs and smile as I look around. It feels so familiar and so good to be here. I inhale deeply and smell cake as I walk into the kitchen. Mom is baking a cake. She makes the best cakes in this world. I went outside and see Bryan with Jamaal. They're talking and laughing. Bryan shows him something on his phone. I didn't notice that my father came to me and stands still next to me.

"Son." I jump a little and look to my left. He's not smiling. I look back at my son. "You've finally decided to come?" I turn to him and look at his face. "Yeah." Dad looks at me up and down. "Still a sissy boy I see, but I'm happy you came. You made your mother really happy again… I haven't seen her so happy since the last time you were here." I look at mom and see how she gives Jamaal a kiss on his cheek and takes Bryan with her to us. "Dad…" He crosses his arms as he keeps watching me. I look back at him. "I'm so sorry, for staying away for so long." He looks at my face. I become a little nervous somehow. Then he starts to smile. I keep watching his face. He starts to chuckle and grabs me into a tight hug. "Apology accepted, but please don't do it again… your mother wouldn't be able to handle that. Do it for her." "I promise, pa." I close my eyes as I hug him back. "Glad you're getting the accent back."

I chuckle as I let him go. Mom and Bryan look at us. "I'm so happy, I'll be making a roast today." I chuckle and give her a kiss on her cheek. "Your favorite, and I'm baking a cake." She lays her hand on my cheek. She looks at dad who smiles at her. She went inside. I look at my son. I see his smile. "It's amazing here, dad… pawpaw showed me how to herd the cattle and he'll teach me to ride." I look back at dad. He nods and went inside. "You want to ride?" He nods. I smile as I let my hand go through his hair, but he ducks away. "Is that okay with you?" I see his hopeful face. "Sure." He hugs me. I hug him back, giving him a kiss on his head. "I love you, son." "I love you too, dad. I'm gonna get something to drink." He went inside. I put my hands in my pockets and inhale deeply.

"Don't you have work to do, son?" I look at mom as I came inside and sit down. "No, in two weeks my new show starts. I only need to prepare some bits, but that's for next week." Mom looks at me and smiles. She opens the fridge and takes two beers out. She gives one to dad and one to me. I haven't had beer in a long time. She sees my face. "You're not gonna tell me your fiancée is keeping you off the beer?" Dad snorts. "What else is she keeping you off, son?" Bryan looks at me as he drinks some soda. "Meat, she's a vegan and she expects me to follow her in it." Dad starts to laugh out loud. I sip some beer. I feel so frustrated right now. "I don't like her, mawmaw. She's changing dad too much." Mom looks at Bryan and then back at me. "I don't like this one bit." She points at me. "Oh no! Changing my son?!"

"Calm down, Cath. I told you many times, our son is a sissy boy." Bryan starts to frown when he looks at dad. I drink my beer again. "Dad is not a sissy boy." Dad looks at him. "Why do you call him like that? Because he loves to dance? Because dad wants to help others by teaching them to dance, making their wishes come true?" Dad sighs, he sips his beer and rubs his face. "I've always presumed that my son was gay when he said he wanted to dance." "Why, pawpaw?" "Because he wanted to have ballet lessons, and for me that was really strange. I come from a line of strong men, my father, my grandfather, they were strong men. I wanted my son to be one too. Jamie is a strong man, and so is Jamaal. But then my youngest comes to me, asking me if he could have ballet lessons."

I stand up as I keep watching him. I knew my father was disappointed in me, but he never told me how deep his disappointment went. "I didn't know how bad it would make you feel, pa." Dad stands up and I see how serious he is about this. "All I wanted was to learn the classic form of dancing so I could use the techniques in the dancing I do today." I explain. Dad keeps looking at me, not responding. "Ballet is the classic form of dancing. It has the best techniques for everything, that's why I wanted to learn it. I wanted to make you proud." Mom smiles as she looks at my face. I see a tear appearing on his face as I keep watching him.

Then he starts to smile and grabs me in a tight hug, nearly choking me. I smile as I hug him back. "I've seen you dancing on tv, your mother hasn't missed a single episode of the show you were in, and she's looking forward to your new show." I look at mom. She only nods while having her hands over her mouth. I can see the tears in her eyes. "She made me watch the show as well, much against my own will, but I did…" I let dad go. Britney came into the kitchen. "And I want you to know that I'm proud of you, son. I may not always show you, but I am." I start to smile and hug him again. It's the only thing I ever wanted to hear from him. "I'm glad that your mother is so persistent. She wanted you to follow your dreams, if it were me to decide than you would still live here, and you would inherit the ranch when I die."

I sit down, looking at him a little dumbstruck. Would he really do that? I sip my beer. "Baby, stop drinking beer." I turn my head and see Britney with Bella on her arms. I take another sip. I'm not in the mood to react to her. "You're gonna introduce me, son?" I look at dad and inhale deeply. "Dad, this is my fiancée Britney Martins." Britney came closer and holds her left hand up. Dad looks at the ring and pulls his eyebrows up. "That's one hell of a stone, missy, my son must really love you." Britney giggles. Bryan sighs. Mom looks at him and then at me. I sip my beer again. "Brit, this is my father, John." "You're named after your father?" Mom smiles. "He sure is." Britney looks at her. Mom looks at the ring. She's not smiling.

"Dad is going to help a boy." Bryan says with a smile to break the tension. She looks at him for a second. She then looks back at me. "Is that true, son?" "Yeah, he delivered our food last night and he told me that his mother couldn't pay for his dance lessons anymore, and that's why he's having a job, so he can pay them himself. He told me that dancing is his passion, so I offered him that I would teach him. I gave him my business card and told him to call me next week." "You hear that, pa? Our son has a good heart." Dad looks at her and sees how proud she is. He smiles and takes her hand. "Yeah, he has. I need to get back to the field. I've moved the herd so I can fix the fences." He takes one more sip from his beer. "You need help, pa?" He stops at the door. He turns and looks at me. After a long moment, he smiles and nods his head. I follow him outside.

"Can I go and have a look, mawmaw?" "Sure, but don't you want to know where you'll be sleeping?" "Later, mawmaw." He quickly went outside. Britney sits down, caressing Bella's head. Mom looks at her. "You want something to drink, dear? You look like you haven't drink anything in a long time." "I normally drink a smoothie around this time." Mom frowns as she opens the fridge. "I don't know what that is, but I can give you some orange juice." She takes a jug. "Oh, there's too much sugar in orange juice, so I pass." Britney holds up her hand. Mom takes a glass and turns to the table. "You mean the fake orange juice from the store?" Britney nods. "Sweetie, I never buy that stuff. That's unhealthy, this…" Mom holds up the jug and smiles. "Is fresh, I squeezed the oranges this morning."

She pours some in the glass and gives Britney the glass. Mom sits down again and smiles as she watches how carefully Britney takes a sip. "This taste really good, Mrs. Castle." "Call me Cath, and you're welcome… now I've got a few questions." Britney looks at her face. "Since you're a vegan, and I'm going to make a roast today because it's Johnny's favorite… what should I make you? Everyone eats meat, so I don't know what to give you besides the side salad, but I can't imagine that's enough." Britney inhales deeply and mom is watching her carefully.

"I'll eat the side salad. I can make myself a smoothie if I tell you what I need and if you have a blender." "I've got a blender, you can use it, but are you sure that's enough?" Britney smiles, Bella barks once. "Yes, a smoothie is very nutritional and healthy." "All right, I take your word for it, but you shouldn't mind the glares you'll get, okay?" "Okay." "Now, next question. Why do you call my son baby?" Mom isn't smiling, she entwines her fingers. "I think it's cute." "Well… as cute as it may be, please don't call him like that." Britney frowns. "He told me that as well. I thought he was joking." Mom inhales through her nose as she keeps looking at Britney.

"This is not about you, okay? But I can tell you that my son wasn't joking when he said that." Britney drinks some juice. She puts the glass down and caress Bella's head again. "Can I ask why I may not call him like that?" Mom thinks in how to answer that. "Did he ever tell you about his childhood crush?" "Oh, you mean Bianca. Who works at the airport?" Mom snorts. "No, not Bianca. That wasn't really a crush, they were just eight and they were being cute." "You want to tell me?" "Only if you promise me not to use this against him, it wouldn't be fair." "I promise." Britney quickly replies with a smile.

Mom gets a bad feeling about this but pushes it away. Maybe it's not a good thing to tell, but this will come out eventually. "When Johnny was ten, he went to elementary school… a girl has just moved here. Her father was a doctor who came to take over the business of the town's doctor who went with retirement." Britney only listens. "When she went to school the first time, she became the center of attention, just because she was new. Every boy in town wanted to ask her out, especially for homecoming." Mom inhales deeply and looks at the door as she thinks. "Did she go with Johnny?" Mom looks back at her.

"No, because my nephew asked her before my son could. I know my son and I know Baby as if she's my own daughter." Britney gets confused about the last sentence. "What do you mean?" Mom stands up. "I know about their feelings. I don't know if the feelings still are there, but you got to know this. The girl's name is Frances, but everyone in town calls her Baby. No one else gets to be called like that, it's like a silent agreement. So, when someone says the name Baby, people assume you're talking about the town's doctor." Britney tries to smile but is failing miserably. "I understand. I won't call your son like that anymore." Mom stands up with a little smile. "Just finish your juice and go outside. I won't tell you what to do since you're new here, but we don't allow pets in the kitchen." Mom opens the door and walks outside. Britney keeps thinking about what mom told her.