Rip - Trust (Completed)

Beth

"Right, where is that new baby brother of ours, that turned our grizzly bear of a father into a squishy old teddy bear?" she asked Jacob, after she had said hello to her father.

Jacob pointed her to the table and chairs below the old chestnut oak. "The other boy is Taylor by the way, Lee's eldest," he informed her.

"Oh my, has it really been that long?" she asked and made her way over to the boys, a guitar case in the one hand and a cigarette in the other.

"Right you cuties, which one of you is my new baby brother!" she asked.

Rip didn't know why but he liked her instantly. Maybe it was her audacious forward way of approaching him so confidently, with neither fear of offending him nor worry of hurting him or maybe it was her laugh that reminded him of his mother. "That'll be me I suppose," he grinned.

"Here" she handed him the guitar case, "Happy Birthday, little brother!"

"It's not my birthday," Rip said with a grin. She shrugged her shoulders, "No? Oh well, I believe I missed thirteen of them! We're good" she told him with a big smile.

She asked Taylor if his father was home as well and when he informed her that his parents were expected tomorrow, having been away on holidays, she told him sympathetically, "well for some and they abandoned you here in the middle of nowhere amongst the wolves, poor thing!" She squeezed his cheek and Taylor didn't know where to look, but Rip was laughing with her.

"Can I have one?" Rip asked pointing at her cigarette. He hadn't smoked a single cigarette since they'd taken him out of the boys' home, but he suddenly got the urge for one seeing Beth smoke. She shrugged her shoulders and handed him a cigarette. She offered one to Taylor as well who declined telling her that his father would skin him alive if he caught him smoking. "I thought he's not here, she said", laughing at him.

"Boys can I have minute with my sister on my own, please" Jamie said, pulling the unlit cigarette out of Rip's mouth, crumbling it up and throwing it on the ground.

Rip wanted to protest but changed his mind when he saw how Beth's eyes became hateful as she looked at her brother, so he quickly grabbed Taylor and got out of their way. As he walked away Rip turned around and shouted "thanks!" lifting the guitar case up in the air. She grinned at him and shouted back "you're welcome sweetheart!"

"They are both just thirteen Beth!" Jamie said.

"Relax I wasn't going to let him light up!" she replied rolling her eyes. They both knew that it wasn't true.

Jamie sat down beside her. "I wasn't going to, but Father asked me to stay for dinner," Jamie started the conversation.

"Yeah right, he didn't ask you, he told you to," she laughed at him.

"I don't want to fight, Beth. For Rip' sake can we please keep it civil. He's been through a lot and doesn't need us bickering with each other. I disappear right after dinner," he suggested.

"Oh please, he looks just fine to me. Stop making excuses you chicken shit, you are just scared I rat you out to daddy and tell him what you've done!" she spat.

"Beth, father knows. I've told him everything when I moved back in here after my divorce," he told her.

She looked at him in disbelief. "I had no choice. I had to come clean on everything or else he would not let me come home," he explained.

"He welcomed you home even though he knows? And now he wants you to stay for dinner today when I am here? I don't believe that, not for a second. What did you tell him?" she challenged him.