by Tia Siren
She wiped her face with her hands. I jumped up and grabbed her a couple napkins, which she used to wipe her nose.
“I have to get to work,” she said, all business now.
“Maybe you can go in late or take the day off,” I suggested.
She shook her head. “No. I need every dollar, and I don’t want to give Brock any more reason to fire me. I need this job, and it is actually a good job. I like it.”
I smiled. I was glad Brock had given her the chance. I knew she could be surly and probably didn’t make the best assistant at times, but it showed he was willing to help out a woman down on her luck. It was one of the many reasons I had a little soft spot for him, even if he had tried to steal my family’s home.
“Are you okay now?” I asked.
She stood, and I followed her.
“Yeah. Sorry,” she mumbled. “I don’t know why I feel like I have to take all my crap out on you. It isn’t personal. I’ll try to contain it, but I make no guarantees.”
I laughed. “It’s okay, Anna. I’m glad you finally told me. We’ll get through this. You don’t have to carry this burden alone.”
She smiled. “You want to carry the baby for me?”
“Ha. Not a chance in hell. This will teach you to have unprotected sex, young lady,” I playfully scolded.
“I doubt it,” she shot back.
“Okay, fair enough. Are you sure you’re okay to go to work? I could call Brock. I’m sure he would understand, and he isn’t going to fire you. He needs you.”
“Yes. I’m fine. I just need to clean up and get going,” she said, dashing out of the kitchen.
I heard her in the bathroom and a minute later she was heading out the front door. I stood at the window, watching her leave. She reminded me of the Tasmanian devil. She blew in, created this crazy disaster, and then blew out just as fast. Her mood swings were no joke. She could make your head spin. I was afraid for that last month of pregnancy. Maybe we could send her away to some isolated camp.
“You can come out now, Dad,” I said in a sarcastic tone.
He’d been eavesdropping but chosen to let me handle the lunatic sister while he kept a safe distance. I probably would have made the same decision had I been given the chance. Things had been ugly in the beginning of our fight. He’d probably been debating whether to call the police or an ambulance.
He came to stand beside me at the window. “You’re a good sister.”
I laughed. “Please tell me we aren’t actually related.”
“Sorry. You two are sisters. Same blood. Hers is just a little more heated.”
“Acidic, you mean,” I shot back.
He chuckled. “You handled that like a pro. You are going to be an excellent mother to your own daughter one day.”
“Lord have mercy. I think I’ll stick with Jasper. He is so easy going and so good. I don’t want a girl that can grow up and turn into that. Or me for that matter.”
“It’s the spirited ones that are the most fun,” he joked.
“I think you’re lying.”
He winked.
“Ready for some breakfast?”
“Sure.”
I got busy making him some eggs and toast and made sure he took all his medicines. That alone required a full glass of water to get all the pills down. He didn’t complain. He swallowed the pills and then declared he was going into the fields.
“Not too long, Dad. It’s already hot out there. You have to take it easy. I know you’re feeling better, but I don’t want you overdoing it,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah. I know the drill.”
I watched him as he ambled outside and took long, deep breaths. It wasn’t even eight in the morning yet and I was already exhausted. Anna had a way of zapping my energy.
I headed to my room to get my laptop. I needed to finish editing the pictures of the property so I could get them back to Brock. As I flipped through the photos, I thought back to our time there. Whenever I was with him, I turned into a sex maniac. I couldn’t seem to get enough of him. I felt like a horny teenager with raging hormones. He didn’t seem to mind and even seemed to be experiencing the same affliction. I guessed as long as neither one of us was complaining, it was all good.
Chapter 32
Brock
I was going to do it. Anna had told me I needed to do this thing right with Ashley, and I had to agree. I didn’t know where the change in heart came from, but Anna was suddenly on board with Ashley and I starting a new relationship. It had been a bit weird, but I wasn’t going to question it. I closed my office door, not wanting my nosey secretary to listen in.
I took a deep breath and picked up my cell and dialed her number.
“Hi,” I said when she answered.
“Hi. Did you get the pictures?” she asked.
“I did. They were spectacular. I sent some to the client and am using the rest to put together the proposal. I’m confident they’re going to seal the deal. Your work is amazing.”
“Great. So, what’s up?”
I cleared my throat. “Well, I wanted to ask you something. Do you have a minute?”
I was stalling. I knew it, but I was nervous. It wasn’t like this was new for me, as I’d asked plenty of women out on a date in my day. Not to mention Ashley and I had had sex just a few short days ago. It wasn’t like we didn’t already know each other. Despite all that, I was nervous as could be.
“Did you want to go out for dinner tonight? I’ll pick you up. We can go someplace nice.”
I heard her inhale a sharp breath and suddenly got a bad feeling about the whole thing.
“Like a date?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yes. Like a real date. Two adults who are interested in each other, sharing a meal together. It doesn’t need to be anything more than that. I’m not expecting you to go all the way on the first date,” I teased, hoping to lighten the conversation. I could feel the tension through the phone.
There was a long pause, and I got nervous. When she spoke, my heart sank.
“No. I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said in a voice so quiet I could barely hear her.
“What?” I asked, not believing I had heard her clearly.
“No. I think we need to cool things down, Brock. We can’t go down this road again.”
“Ashely, what is there to cool down?” I hissed, not wanting Anna to overhear the conversation. “We’ve had sex. We have a kid together. What do you mean cool down? You’re the one who can’t keep yourself from crawling on top of me when we’re alone together.”
I knew it was crude, but I didn’t care.
“I don’t want to fall into that feeling of being comfortable and make all the same mistakes again. We have a son to think about. Sex is easy for us. We’re good at it and we both enjoy it, but sex doesn’t make a relationship.”
She had whispered the word sex, which told me either her dad or Jasper were nearby.
I scoffed. “Exactly, Ashley. It doesn’t. We have to actually try to make it work. You know there is something between us. It never went away after all these years.”
“Maybe there is, but I can’t risk giving our son false hope that we are going to be some happy family unit. It isn’t fair to him.”
I groaned. “What you’re doing isn’t fair to any of us. Why can’t you admit you have feelings for me? Don’t try to say you don’t. I can tell.”
“I’m not saying I don’t care about you, but I care about you in a different way than I did before. Everything has changed now. We aren’t young kids. We can’t make up and break up every other week. This is real life. We can’t yank our kid around like that,” she said in a strained voice.
“No, I guess we can’t. Oddly enough, that’s exactly what you’ve been doing these past couple weeks, yanking him and me around. I’m not a pet you can take out and play with when the mood strikes.”
“I know you’re not. I was wrong to do that. I’m going to go, Brock. I’m sorry,” she said, ending the call.
I dropped the phone on my desk. The woman was ridiculous. She ran hot and cold, and I never knew what the hell she was going to do next. I was tired of her toying with my emotions. I wasn’t some guy she could fuck whenever she felt like it. Well, I was apparently, but I wasn’t going to let her keep using me.
Standing up, I grabbed my keys and headed out of my office. “I’m going for a run,” I grouched to Anna as I stomped out the door.
She attempted to ask me something, but I didn’t stop to hear. I just kept walking to my truck, furious and hurt. I had to get the emotions out before I drove out to the farm and confronted the damn woman. I was sick and tired of her games.
I stopped at home, changed, and then drove straight to the trailhead. I began my run up the hill and wondered if she would be at our favorite spot. Maybe she had been playing coy. It wasn’t funny, but if she was waiting for me, I could forgive her. I reached the area and cut through the brush. She wasn’t there.
I stood there, put my face to the sky, and shouted in frustration.
She had done it again. She had made me fall in love with her and had no intention of loving me back. I was such an idiot. I was a grown man still acting like a lovesick schoolboy. I couldn’t blame her for this one. This was on me. I should have known better. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. It was a saying I had repeated to myself a million times, but that was clearly not enough. I still didn’t get it.
I had let her use me for sex, and I’d let my heart get involved. I should have kept my distance. I never should have let her get to me that first day in the office. I’d been such an idiot.
Never again. I vowed to show her what it was like to not have me as a friend. The benefits of that friendship would cease as well. No more quick fucks whenever she was in the mood. If she wanted to play games, I could play, too. Jasper was my son and I would have shared custody. I had a feeling that had been her ploy all along: distract me with sex so I wouldn’t have my lawyer draw up those custody papers.
It had worked. I could admit it. The woman was highly addicting. I was addicted to her body. I thought we could be mature adults and work out an agreement that benefited all of us. I thought back to her inviting herself to dinner. She had done all of it on purpose.
I laughed out loud as I slowly jogged down the hill. I had been such a fool. I had thought we were really starting something good. She was a smooth operator. I guessed she had gotten her revenge after all. She was pissed about her daddy’s farm and had found a way to get me back.
This wasn’t over. I would make her regret toying with my emotions.
By the time I got to my truck, I was sweating and in desperate need of a shower. I drove home, my mind still preoccupied with Ashley, and I almost didn’t notice the child on my doorstep.
I was about to the door before I saw him. At first I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. It was warm and I hadn’t taken any water with me in my rush to get to the trail. I had to be hallucinating.
“Jasper?” I asked in disbelief, looking around for Ashley.
“Hi, Dad,” he greeted.
“What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to visit.”
I checked the street, looking for Tanner’s truck, and didn’t see it. “How did you get here, Jasper?”
He shrugged his shoulders and pushed his glasses up his nose. “I walked.”
I blinked. Had he just said he had walked? That couldn’t have been right.
“Walked from where, Jasper?”
“The farm.”
“You walked from the farm? By yourself?” I said, my voice frantic with belated worry.
He nodded and stood up, dusting off his backside. “I’m thirsty. Can I have some water?”
I shook my head. Holy hell. The kid had walked from the farm. It had to be close to four miles from my house to the farm.
“Yes! Come inside. Does your mom know you left?”
He shrugged. I knew the lack of a yes or no answer meant a definite no. Ashley was going to be furious and freaked out.
“How did you know how to get here?” I asked him, realizing he had never been to my house.
“Grandpa showed me once. His friend lives nearby. We went there a couple days ago so I remembered the way.”
My mind was boggled. I didn’t know whether to hug him or spank him. It had been incredibly daring of him, and dangerous.
“I need to call your mom and grandpa. I have a feeling they are going to be very worried about you, young man,” I scolded.
“Oh, don’t tell Mom. She’s going to be mad I went for a walk,” he said, his eyes welling with tears.
“Jasper, she is going to be scared. I bet you she is searching that farm for you right now. We have to get you home. Here, drink some water, and I’m going to change really quick.”
I debated calling Ashley, but I had a feeling that conversation would not go well. A text message seemed a little inappropriate for the situation. My best bet was to get the kid home as quickly as possible.
“Feeling better?” I asked him, sitting down to put my shoes on.
He nodded his head. “You have to talk to Mom. I heard her tell Grandpa she didn’t want to see you no more. Why?”
I grimaced, not wanting to show him my frustration with his mother’s choices. “I don’t know, kid. I really don’t know.”
“How come you guys can’t be friends? How come we don’t all live in the same place?”
Both of those questions were loaded. The kid had to know it was normal to have parents who weren’t together in this day and age.
“I don’t know, buddy. I don’t think your mom wants to be friends.”
He eyed me carefully. “Do you want to be her friend?”
“I do, but it isn’t up to me. Both people have to want to be friends. It can’t just be one person.”
“I think you need to go tell her you want to be friends,” he said with authority.
I laughed. If only it were that easy. “I think we need to get you home and then me and your mom will worry about being friends. Right now she is going to be too worried about you to even think about friends.”
“Okay. She is going to be real mad. You have to go with me.”
“I’ll be right there. I’m the guy that has to drive you, remember?”
He grinned.
I got him buckled in the truck and knew Ashley would be pissed I didn’t have him in one of those booster seat things, but it wasn’t like I had been expecting to take the kid for a ride. I drove out to the farm, doing my best to be extra cautious. She would kill me if I got in a wreck on the way out there.
I turned down the dirt driveway and braced myself.
“You ready?” I asked Jasper.
He made a weird face. “I’m going to be in so much trouble.”
I bit back a laugh. Yes, he was, and I was glad Ashley would be the one doing the disciplining in this situation. I would probably put a leash on him and stake him to the front yard. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through—assuming she knew he was gone.
Chapter 33
Ashley
“Jasper!” I shouted again. I had walked into the corn, which had grown a great deal in the past couple weeks. It was definitely taller than Jasper and would hide him from me if he was out there playing in the field.
“Jasper!” I screamed again, trying to fight the panic racing through my body.
My legs felt like rubber as I pushed stalks aside, looking toward the ground, praying I would see his little feet. I had been all over the farm and not been able to find him. My dad had taken the truck into town early this morning, so I was by myself, trying to search the farm. It was a daunting task.
“Jasper Tanner Parks! This is not funny! Get your butt over here right now!” I shouted.
I stopped moving and waited for his response. Nothing.
“Okay, okay,” I said aloud. “Where would he go?”
The barn. I raced out of the corn and headed
for the barn, to his favorite stall. He wasn’t there. I wanted to collapse, but I couldn’t. I was the only one who knew he was missing. I had to keep looking. I debated calling the sheriff’s department but felt silly. He was probably playing and I just couldn’t find him. They would come out and he would walk right out from wherever he was as if nothing had happened. The deputies would look at me as if I were crazy and decide I was a bad mom.
Who let their kid wander off? I had been working on editing my landscape pictures now that I was done with those from the shoot over the weekend. Jasper always stayed close. I had been keeping an eye on him, but when he disappeared from the porch, I had assumed he had gone off to dig in the dirt. It was only after I realized I hadn’t seen him in a while that I thought to check on him. It had been incredibly stupid and neglectful. I would never forgive myself.
He was gone. Just like that he was gone. I checked my watch and realized I had been searching the farm for over an hour. It was time to call the police. My son was gone.
I heard a car coming up the driveway and turned to see Brock’s truck. Great. As if I needed anyone else to tell me what a horrible mother I was. As much as I didn’t want to tell him I had lost our son, I needed his help and support.
I ran toward the truck, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. Then I saw Jasper’s head in the back seat of the extended cab.
“What the hell!” I shouted, running to the passenger side. I tried to open the door while the truck was still moving, but the door was locked.
Brock threw the truck into park and jumped out.
“Brock! Are you serious? You can’t just come and take him whenever you feel like it!” I screamed, yanking the door open and frantically unbuckling Jasper’s belt.
“I didn’t,” he said in a calm voice.
His calm demeanor enraged me. I had been out of my mind with fear and here he was all calm, cool, and collected.
“You will pay for this. You will never see him.”
“Mom, calm down,” Jasper said, squirming in my arms.
I stomped toward the house, carrying my son as I went. The kid was getting too big for me to carry, but I couldn’t let him go.