He felt as if he’d been trampled by a thousand wild broncos as his shoulders slumped forward. He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose as Abby spoke.
“Yeah, she left. She went for a job somewhere. I didn’t get all the details from her mom, but Judy said it has to do with a man and a job and Treya is out of here.” Abby glanced between Titus and Jasper, softening her tone as she reached out and placed her fingers on the back of Jasper’s hand. “I don’t know what happened, Jasper, but it sounds serious.”
Jasper nodded slowly. Abby had no idea. He stood from the stool and turned, walking slowly toward the front door. He just needed a minute to himself. Or a lot of minutes.
He really had hurt Treya irrevocably. That hadn’t been his intention and now…
He wasn’t sure he wanted to stay in Bailey any more.
Chapter 16
Treya
The morning skyline from a hotel in Seattle left Treya with a jumble of nerves knotted in her stomach. Oranges and pinks seemed to lack the luster of the Montana sky.
She shook off her melancholy as she turned from the window of her hotel room. It shouldn’t be so easy to slip into a slight depression when she was finally in a big city. She shouldn’t miss Jasper like she did, the way his hair curled around the edge of his Stetson, the broad manliness of his hands, or the easy way he smiled when Treya said something silly. She shouldn’t miss the small-town atmosphere of Bailey when she’d dreamt of escape for as long as she could remember.
Shaking off her thoughts, she plastered a smile on her lips and reminded herself that Seattle was exciting. She could feel the energy in the city when she got off the plane the night before. The hotel room that the recruitment offices provided for her was a welcome relief after getting lost somewhere near a place called Pike Place Market.
Her face-to-face interview would take place in just a few hours and Treya couldn’t sleep. Sounds from the street and the rest of the city worked to keep her up. How could anyone rest in that place? The bright lights made it necessary to close the blackout style curtains completely. Even then, slivers of light broke through and Treya had never longed for Montana stars as hard as she did then.
She checked her phone for the thousandth time since leaving home. No one had called or texted and no one was going to at five-thirty in the morning. All the sane people of the world were in bed or in the fields. There was no in between like the city of Seattle suggested.
More importantly, she hadn’t heard from Jasper. Not that she expected to. He was a Bailey. She was a Smythe. They couldn’t be together. There was nothing there for her. Dreams, though, had a way of burrowing into one’s heart and leaving an empty hole when they weren’t realized. Jasper had somehow worked his way into her heart and Treya didn’t want to admit it.
So, she wouldn’t.
Instead, she needed to focus on Seattle and her future. Jasper wasn’t her future. He couldn’t be. He’d lied anyway. Yes, she had to focus on that.
No. She shook her head as she sat on the edge of the hotel bed. She needed to focus on Seattle and the dreams she’d flown all that way for.
Could she see herself living there? She had to first see herself working there. As soon as she got a peek at the potential job place, she’d know if she was supposed to be there. As it was, her heart longed to go home while her stubbornness demanded that she stick it out.
~~~
“Treya Smythe? Come with me.” The perky red-head motioned for Treya to follow her from the poshly decorated reception area. In a pencil skirt and button-up blouse, Treya stood from the cushioned chair and hiked her purse higher up her shoulder. She’d opted to leave her cowboy boots at the hotel room and carefully walked in the heels she’d found in the back of her closet as she followed after the woman.
Moving at a clipped pace, Treya scanned the inner office for some sign that was where she would be working, but the people in cubicles didn’t look up or even acknowledge the shift in the air around them.
The gray ceiling seemed to press down and Treya’s chest tightened.
A good-looking man with a strong jaw and brown eyes stood at the door to a corner office. He smiled warmly at the red-haired woman who brought Treya back and then reached out and shook Treya’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, finally, Treya. I’m Jonathan Hayes. I own the company and sometimes manage it.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She grasped the strap of her purse with both hands after shaking Jonathan’s and followed him into the office.
He closed the door and motioned toward a chair in front of a modest desk. “Please, have a seat. I was impressed with your resume. We’re looking for more medical technicians to offer on our roster of temps and you could always be hired with more of a full-time position, if one of the companies likes you.” He sat down, tucking his tie against his torso as he sat and then steepled his fingers on the top of his desk.
Medical technician. She could do that in Taylor Falls. She didn’t have to leave Montana to have that kind of job and the cost of living was better in Montana, too.
“I was hoping more for an office job or something with the potential for advancement.” Treya crossed her ankles and tucked them under the front of the chair. She set her purse in her lap, holding onto the vinyl piece like her life depended on it.
Disappointment knitted Jonathan’s eyebrows and his forehead creased as he pulled papers in front of him. “Yes, most people do. Those jobs are few and far between at this point. I have a list of medical technician jobs that could start you tomorrow and you’d be making about twenty-five an hour. The closest desk job I have to that is a receptionist position that has forty-five of my temps more qualified than you applying for it.”
“How many temps do you have for the med tech positions?” Twenty-five dollars an hour was a lot of money, but she’d already checked on cost of living and the hike in wages was offset by the even higher hike in expenses. Treya would be losing money, if she did it.
“Two and neither of them actually have any experience. They’ll probably only get sixteen an hour.” He raised his eyebrows, looking from the papers to Treya. “I thought you understood in the application process that your experience determines your placement?” He said it as a question as if she might not have understood the steps she’d taken to apply.
“I understood that, but it also said to note other areas of interest.” Treya’s stomach had tightened past the point of painful and into the realm of nauseous. She could feel the walls pressing in on her and she had the distinct impression that it wouldn’t get better if she went outside. No matter where she went, the big city was there to crowd in on her personal space.
Would that claustrophobic feeling ever go away? If she didn’t get outside soon, her head might cave in from the pressure of being inside, trapped in a cage.
“Yes, I understand. Well, we would like to have you on the team, but I’ll give you some time to think about it. Remember, we can have you working as soon as tomorrow, if you decide to go with us.” He smiled and stood.
Treya was being excused and she couldn’t help the rush of relief as it flooded through her as she left.
Outside the building, she stepped back and leaned against the jagged wall beside the doors. She closed her eyes for a moment as she took a handful of deep breaths. What was she doing? Why was she there?
The sounds of the city surrounded her like a cacophony of rage. Shouldn’t she enjoy the city life? Hadn’t she been waiting for years to escape the calm and quiet of Montana? Nothing about the bustle around her was appealing.
A group of people walked by, ignoring Treya as they passed. Was it possible that in a place that big, she’d be even more invisible than she actually was? Experiencing it for the first time, Treya wasn’t sure she really wanted to fade into the background of any place she lived. At least in Bailey and Taylor Falls every person was smiled at or acknowledged in some way.
She pushed off the wall as a cab pulled up to the curb. Treya needed to get to
the hotel. Climbing from the backseat, a man with curling blond hair and a well-tailored suit disembarked, smiling at her with a wink. He scanned her from head to toe and his grin widened. His forwardness disenchanted her and she couldn’t help wishing Jasper were there. He would make some kind of teasing joke about the entire situation and then agree that they needed some quiet time.
Why couldn’t they have been happy together? Not for the first time Treya wondered why he hadn’t told her he was a Bailey – and not just any Bailey. He was Titus’s brother. There wasn’t another man in the clan who was more Bailey than Titus.
Ignoring the man’s brazen assessment of her and obvious invitation in his eyes, Treya brought a hand up to her temple and then waved down the cab before it could leave. She wasn’t sure what she was doing anymore, but she suddenly couldn’t handle Seattle.
As she climbed into the back of the yellow car and gave the driver the name of the hotel, she realized that as much as she’d planned on living there and thriving, she didn’t think she could do it with such a big part of her soul belonging to Montana. She needed wide open spaces, clean air, and the slow pace of a town where people knew her name.
The fact that her heart belonged to a Bailey couldn’t matter since she had no possibilities with him. None of that mattered. She’d deal with her broken heart later, when she had time to break down what had happened.
As it was, she just needed to get out of that city and get back home.
Chapter 17
Jasper
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I understand. What do you mean she’s not here? Is she sick?” Jasper braced his hands on the edge of the counter and studied the receptionist he’d talked to the last time he’d visited Treya’s work. He’d come in close to lunch time in the hopes he could convince her to ignore the fact that he was a Bailey. He just wanted a chance to be friends with her, if nothing else was possible.
Jasper refused to believe that she’d actually left Bailey. He couldn’t believe it. He refused to.
He missed her and he wasn’t used to feeling loneliness so acutely.
“I’m sorry, sir. She’s not in today. That’s all I can say.” The woman watched him with narrowed eyes and Jasper had the distinct feeling she knew Treya’s feelings had been hurt. One more fact that supported Abby’s statement Treya had left.
How long had Treya been absent from work? What if she were sick or what if her feelings were so hurt that she’d stayed home for a few days. No, he already knew she wasn’t there. Jasper thanked the woman and shook his head as he turned from the receptionist area. He didn’t have to be so egotistical as to think he’d destroyed her life and made it so she couldn’t leave her bed from depression.
Just because that’s how he felt, didn’t mean that’s how she should feel. It would definitely make him feel better, if he knew she was affected by their fight like he was.
He slowly pushed open the doors to get outside. Once there, he paused under the awning and folded his arms as he stared across the street. Where would she be? He already knew she wasn’t home, he’d stopped there the night before and none of the lights had been on.
There was no way Abby was right. Treya couldn’t have left. She’d spoken of leaving, but she wasn’t rash. She wouldn’t leave that fast, would she?
A shift in the weather had pushed the clouds from the sky sometime over the last couple days and the rain that had so becomingly made Treya’s hair darken had left. The sun was back and Jasper didn’t care. Without Treya in his life, it just didn’t matter. Nothing seemed to matter and that irritated him. He hadn’t wanted to become so attached.
“You look like a Bailey.” A woman sitting on a bench in front of the clinic studied him intently as she held onto a sandwich that was easily four inches thick. A turquoise shirt with a deli logo on it and a white and pink nametag reading Judy suggested she was on a lunch break – that and the sandwich. She cocked her head to the side, narrowing her eyes. “The question is, why is a Bailey in Taylor Falls?”
Her blonde hair and blue eyes gave away her Smythe heritage. Most likely she was a relative of Treya’s which urged Jasper to strike up some kind of conversation with her, regardless of the outcome.
“I am. I’m Jasper Bailey, and you are?” He moved back a bit to see her more fully. He didn’t want to be presumptuous and sit on the bench beside her or ignore her by keeping his back toward her.
“I’m Judy Smythe. It’s nice to meet you.” She held up her paper plate with an untouched sandwich half sitting beside a crisp pickle spear. “I’m not going to eat this; would you like it? I usually share with my daughter, but she’s not here.” She studied him. “I think you already know that.”
Jasper moved to sit beside Judy, tilting his hat back on his head to see her better. “Treya is your daughter?” Why wasn’t Judy being more hostile toward him? Instead she offered him a sandwich. He slowly reached out and accepted the plate. “Thank you.”
“She is.” Jerking her thumb over her shoulder toward the clinic, she shook her head. “My girl isn’t in there. She’s in Seattle.” She took a bite of her sandwich, a bacon slice half coming out before she pulled away.
“Seattle?” Jasper couldn’t believe it. She’d done it. She’d left Montana behind. Somehow Jasper couldn’t help feeling responsible. His shoulders slumped forward. “Is she moving there?” Somehow, he’d let her slip through his fingers because he’d been more interested in keeping things easy and convenient. Life shouldn’t be easy or convenient.
“Are you the man?” The way she phrased it left little doubt as to what she was talking about.
“I’m a Bailey. We… well, we dated for a while in secret. I’m not sure who wanted to keep it quiet at this point. I just know we both spent a lot of time together and the town would have frowned on it.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he hung his head. Would that he could go back in time and convince Treya to date him without caring about the town.
Judy placed her hand on his shoulder and waited until he turned his head to look at her before commenting. “I’m a Smythe and I don’t care about that ridiculous feud. I know Treya didn’t either. I think you were the catalyst to finally get her to follow her dreams. She’s been longing to leave Clearwater for quite some time and she never thought she could do it on her own. She doesn’t think she’s very strong.”
“She’s wrong. She sticks to her values and doesn’t sway from them. I’m sorry to push her away from home.” Jasper had no way to fix it with Treya with her gone in a big city. Leaving, she’d declared she didn’t want anything to do with him, Bailey, or anything else in that area.
A buzzing sound came from Judy’s pocket and she wiped her fingers on a napkin sitting beside her on the bench. She pulled a phone out of her front pocket and swiped the screen, raising her eyebrows. “Well, well. Seems Seattle isn’t as appealing as she’d thought.” Judy raised her eyes to pierce Jasper with her gaze. “Looks like Montana gets a second chance.”
Judging by the look in her eyes, Jasper was the one who might be able to benefit from the second chance. He wasn’t going to mess this one up.
Chapter 18
Treya
Treya only had a carryon for her luggage. She struggled to pull the small rectangular piece from the overhead bin, sighing as it finally popped down to land at her feet.
She was the last passenger to leave the plane, smiling apologetically to the stewardess who stood at the front of the seats and waited for Treya. The short ride from Seattle to Spokane was the last one of the day. Treya had fallen asleep while looking at the clouds and stars from the window seat.
Hoping for something to change regarding Jasper wasn’t in her cards. She wasn’t stupid. Smythes and Baileys didn’t mix. Maybe Abby and Titus were doing okay since their marriage a month ago, but for how long?
Plus, Jasper had never insinuated he wanted marriage. No, he’d made a point to tell Treya that he only wanted short term. A fling. Treya might have wanted him
to fall for her so they could escape together, but she’d never have disrespected him so much as to suggest he get her out of town and then leave him.
Stretching the luggage handle up so she could roll the piece behind her, Treya walked off the plane and up the ramp with its accordion sides protecting her from the Spokane winds. She’d borrowed the luggage from her mom and she didn’t want to give it back. Treya had never been anywhere and now she could say she’d been on a plane as well as gone to Seattle.
While that was enough traveling for a bit, she liked to think one day she’d go somewhere else. For now, she’d be happy getting home to the quiet of the mountains and the routine of her job.
Not tonight, though. She had to find a hotel room and then she’d head out for Bailey in the morning.
She yawned, careful to ignore the exhaustion demanding some kind of release. She’d been on the verge of tears since realizing her dream wasn’t her dream anymore. While she was happy she’d learned that Seattle wasn’t for her, she was sad to let the dream go. What would she hope for now? What could she aim for since her plans for a family were dashed?
Loving someone else wasn’t an option. The attachment she had to Jasper was enough to keep her from loving again. Maybe she’d move to Taylor Falls with her mom. Seeing Jasper around town with a wife and kids some day was not her idea of thriving or even surviving.
They would never be allowed to be together. He knew it. She knew it. And besides… he’d lied to her. She couldn’t be with someone who wouldn’t be honest.
But deep down, Treya knew, if she was given the chance, she’d forgive him and face the scorn of the townspeople for another chance with him.
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