Taming Clay

by Raeann Blake

  Hailey immediately shook her head and said, “No. It’s not me. I think it’s a lot of things.”

  “Hmmm. I’m not sure why you do that, try to convince yourself that you didn’t have a hand in the change that’s taken place in him, but you’re not going to convince me. I should probably go and let you get back to work,” she said, then drifted off when she heard the horses coming and the free and easy laughter that rang out through the air.

  “I’ve never heard him laugh before. Thank you,” she whispered then went through the door.

  Hailey watched the door for several seconds then finally turned her head to watch as they rode into the yard. She wondered how many people in his life had never heard him laugh. It was a wonderful sound and no matter what else was going on, no matter how bad it was bound to get, she couldn’t help letting it seep through her and lift her heart.

  She went back to work and it was some time after they had come inside before Gage filled her doorway. The laughter that filled the house had raised her spirits so much that it was impossible to keep the smile off of her face. Laine was right. Little boys’ laughter was the best sound in the world. Big boys’ laughter, too.

  “Are you busy?”

  “Nothing that won’t wait. Do you need something?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Come with me,” he said as he walked to the desk and held out his hand. Hailey looked at it then up to him and hesitated until he jerked his head slightly towards the door.

  She put her hand in his and let him lead her out of the office and into the living room. He led her straight to a chair and pointed to it.

  “Sit. I know Isobell has a big feast planned for tonight but for lunch all you ladies are going to sit and we men will cook for you. Gossip, sleep, laugh…whatever you want. We’ll be back,” he said then turned and started for the kitchen with the other men following him. Hailey looked up at Clay only to find a slight smile but his eyes seemed to be a little shaded like he was studying something and didn’t quite have the answer yet. She finally turned to the wide smiles on the other two faces in the living room and laughed out loud.

  “Well, okay,” she said then grinned when the others laughed.

  “I just love it when he pampers me. Then again, that’s pretty much every day,” Kathy said then looked out the back to make sure the boys were still in the back yard.

  The men talked as they worked but Clay was pretty quiet. When Gage glanced at him once he stopped for a few seconds then asked, “Clay, why are you frowning?”

  “Huh? Oh, well…I was wondering. Do you do this all the time?”

  “Do what all the time? You mean cook for her? A lot, yeah. I mean a lot of days I come home tired, but with my job there are days when we don’t do anything except just whatever needs doing around the firehouse. But especially in the summer time, she’s chasing four little feet around all day. It’s hard work trying to keep up with those boys. Why do you ask?”

  “Ummm…” He trailed off and looked at Shack then Laine before he looked back to what he was doing. “It’s just that…I mean I’ve never been around couples much…any. I just sort of wondered if that’s how it’s supposed to work,” he finally pushed out.

  Gage glanced at him in surprise then looked to Shack. When he saw Shack nod slightly he turned back to what he was doing as well. “Well, yeah pretty much. I mean some days I’m so tired I can’t see straight and she pampers me. Some days I’m not and I try to pamper her. But we share stuff, too. Like most days we cook together and clean up together. Other days if she cooks, I’ll clean up or if I cook, she’ll clean up. It’s nothing set or written in stone; just whatever’s right for that day. I help her around the house, vacuum, do laundry, get the boys ready for bed or get them up and ready for school in the mornings, whatever needs doing. Other days she won’t let me lift a finger. She’ll push me in a chair, bring me a drink and a book. No one day is ever exactly like any other. And I love it. I love her.”

  When he was still frowning long after that, Gage asked him why.

  “Uh—I’m just thinking…about what you said.”

  “Uh-huh. Hailey’s nice. I really like her.”

  That didn’t make the frown go away but deepened it instead. “Yeah. She is nice. And I like her, too. I have to admit that she’s the first one I’ve hired I could say that about.”

  “Hey,” Laine grumbled.

  The frown finally went away and was replaced by a smile. “I meant for that job. Besides, I didn’t hire you.”

  “Oh. Well. Okay,” Laine said then nodded smartly before they all started laughing and went back to work.

  Kathy closed her eyes and sighed with the smile on her face growing. “Isobell, did you ever think you would hear that? All of them laughing? Clay laughing?”

  “No. In all the years I’ve known him, I’d never heard him laugh before Hailey came here.”

  “Laine said the same thing. Hasn’t anyone ever heard him laugh?” Hailey asked.

  “Well, I guess I have but it was a very long time ago. Mama could make him laugh when we were away from this place. But I haven’t heard it since.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Come out and sit down, Hailey,” Isobell said when she noticed Hailey standing in the back doorway.

  “Maybe for a few minutes. I’m just taking a break,” she said as she walked to the porch steps and sank down beside her. “Anybody wanna bet whether the kids give out first or the men?”

  “No,” Kathy said laughing as they watched the men chase the boys around the yard. “I know how much energy they have. I doubt there’s anybody who could keep up with them except maybe another kid and probably not some of them.”

  “They are full of life, and make this place full of life,” Isobell said innocently. Hailey let her mouth twitch once before she pulled it back down. She was pretty sure that Isobell was trying to lay the groundwork for Clay to get them to move out to the ranch.

  Hailey grinned when she saw Clay slip away and keep checking behind him to make sure the boys didn’t notice. When he reached the steps he turned around and sank tiredly down on the step below her and settled between her legs and leaned back against her chest, breathing hard.

  “Water,” he whispered. “I need water.”

  All three women burst out laughing in spite of their surprise that he had sat down where he did, much less that he had leaned back against Hailey that way. He gratefully grabbed the bottle Kathy handed him and he took a long drink before he spoke again.

  “Goddamn, Kathy. How do you keep up with them all day?” he asked.

  She had just opened her mouth to say something when she saw him reach up and take Hailey’s hand that was on his shoulder and pull it in front of him and against his chest as he glanced up at her. She could read the question in her brother’s eyes. He was asking her if it was alright. She glanced up at Hailey’s face and couldn’t stop the smile that went across her face when she saw her hesitate but then nod slightly and pull him tighter back against her.

  “I pace myself. I play with them that way, but I can’t stay with it for long or I’ll be passed out on the floor somewhere and they’ll be running wild,” she said easily.

  Hailey’s heart had nearly stopped when he leaned back against her and then again when he pulled her hand down then leaned his head back to look up at her. She saw the question in his eyes. He wanted to know if it was okay and he wanted her to know that he wanted the others to know. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep her heart from filling a little more. The arm that he had pulled over him was joined by the other one as she pulled him tighter back against her automatically. If she had thought about it, maybe she wouldn’t have done it. But she wasn’t sure she could have stopped it.

  “You know you’re gonna get caught, right?” Hailey whispered as she leaned her head down close to his ear.

  “I know. I’m just hoping I’ve got my breath back before they…oh shoot,” he said then laughed out loud when Laine picked Timothy up and
swung him around in a circle and pointed to the porch. When he set the boy down, he was off like a shot.

  “Uncle Clay, you’re it,” he said as he reached him and touched him on the knee then spun and took off running.

  “Oh, Lord,” Clay muttered and lifted Hailey’s hand just long enough to kiss the back of it and handed Kathy the water as he launched himself off the steps and started after him.

  They all heard Laine laugh in glee and they couldn’t help but laugh themselves when Clay spent almost as much time trying to trip Laine in retaliation as he did acting like he was going to catch one of the boys. Shack was the first one to give up and head for the porch. He sank down tiredly but with a wide grin directly beside Kathy and wrapped an arm around her shoulders then kissed her on the cheek.

  “I’m so proud of you, Kat. Those are two fine young boys. You did good, girl.”

  Kathy leaned her head against his shoulder and said, “Like you didn’t have a hand in it. You were just as big an influence in my life as you were Clay’s. We wouldn’t have made it without you.”

  “Oh, I think you would have. You’re a strong woman, you were a strong girl. But I have to admit that God blessed my life the day I drove onto this ranch. I couldn’t love you two kids more if you were my own,” Shack said then grinned when Clay grabbed Timothy and Laine grabbed Taylor, both of them falling back on the ground in exhaustion while Gage laughed at them but sank down to the ground himself.

  “And we love you just as much. Isobell said that Clay asked you and Laine to move into the house finally. He’s wanted to for so long. I’m glad he finally did.”

  Shack nodded slightly as he shifted his gaze back to Clay again. “Yeah, he did. Why didn’t he ever say anything before if he wanted that?”

  “He was worried about the way it would look with three guys living in the house alone together. You know Clay. He couldn’t care less what anybody thinks about him. He was worried about the two of you. And he couldn’t keep anybody in that job long enough to feel like they might stay and that maybe it wouldn’t look so bad, but now he’s got Hailey. So maybe now he thinks it’ll be okay since she’s here.”

  Shack cut his eyes over to Hailey and smiled slightly then nodded. “Well I have to agree with at least part of that. I think it’ll be okay since she’s here, too.”

  Hailey drug in a slow breath and met his eyes but lifted her chin in a show of strength that she didn’t really feel. “I can tell you that I’ll be here until the day he fires me…or strings me up somewhere when I jump down his throat about something.”

  The others on the porch all laughed and Isobell nudged her arm with her elbow. “Like you don’t know for all of his complaining that every time you stop talking he tries to get you to start again just so he can complain some more.”

  When Gage, Clay, and Laine all three burst out laughing about something one of the boys said she couldn’t help but smile right along with the others. His laughter was free and easy, so full of life. If those two women who had been discussing that ad that first morning could see him like this, she was sure they wouldn’t think he was the same man. She wasn’t sure that she thought he was.

  “Listen to that, Shack. Did you ever think you would hear that?” Kathy said in a voice that still conveyed all of the awe she felt to hear her brother laugh.

  “No, baby. I can’t say that I did. But I thank the good Lord that I’m getting to hear it now. And Hailey, too.”

  “It’s not me. It’s those kids. He loves those kids,” Hailey said softly. All three men were stretched out on their sides now with the heads propped on upturned hands and the two little boys sat right in the middle, both of them talking ninety miles an hour.

  “She does that. I’m not sure why. But she always says it’s not her. Maybe not completely. And he does love those kids. She just won’t admit that she had something to do with opening up a spot inside of him that let him admit that he does and let him show it.”

  Hailey cleared her throat and shook her head. “You know I can hear you, right?”

  They all laughed again and Hailey’s head turned just in time to see Shack tighten his arms around Kathy and lean his cheek against hers.

  “Kathy, I have to tell you something. I should tell him, too. But I wanna tell you now. I’m sorry, baby. I should have taken the two of you away from here all those years ago. I shouldn’t have let you and him grow up with that bastard. I should have taken you and gone as far away as we needed to go to get you away from him. I’m sorry I didn’t,” he said softly.

  Hailey blinked back the tears in her eyes and saw Isobell doing the same thing as Kathy snuggled closer to him and shook her head.

  “You couldn’t do that. But you did what you could to help us get through. You protected us and you loved us. You made sure that we always had somebody to go to when we needed it. On the run with kids wouldn’t have been any way for you to have to live. It wouldn’t have been any way for us to have to live.”

  “It couldn’t have been any worse than the way you did have to live. I wish I could go back. I wish I could make different choices. But I can’t. Wishing doesn’t make it so. But I’m so proud of the two of you. And I love you very much. Please come out here more. Not just for me. For him,” Shack said hoarsely.

  Hailey couldn’t take anymore. The regret in the expression on his face was so evident that it made her hurt inside. She finally had to turn her head and slip a hand up to fold against her lips to keep them from quivering and then tried to dry her face without anybody seeing. But Clay did. She wasn’t watching him, but Isobell was. When he shoved himself upright and locked his eyes on her as he strode towards the porch she whispered under her breath to her.

  “Hailey…Clay.”

  That was all she had to say. She finished drying her face and turned to watch him. Her mind frantically searched for something to say and then finally settled on the truth.

  “What’s wrong?” Clay asked quietly as he reached her then knelt on the step below her. He lifted her chin and made her look up at him.

  “Just…Shack and Kathy were talking. It was just so touching that…I couldn’t help it. The more my eyes watered, the more I wanted to cry. The more I wanted to cry, the more my eyes watered, and….”

  They all heard the slight breath of relief push out of his lungs as he just nodded slightly then pulled her close to him, leaning her head against his chest.

  “Okay. Hush now,” he said softly. His heart had been in his throat. He didn’t know if his sitting in front of her the way he had earlier had upset her or if it had been something somebody said. He even wondered if she had just kept everything inside as long as she could and it was slipping out before she could stop it. The only thing he did know is that he hated seeing her cry.

  “Shack, what’d you say, man?” Laine asked quietly.

  Shack looked at him then up to Clay and repeated to him what he had told Kathy. They all saw Clay’s jaw work back and forth several times as he held Shack’s gaze steadily then nodded slightly before he could find his voice.

  “And we love you just as much, Shack. You know that.”

  “Sure, I do, son. Why don’t you…uh-oh.” He had intended to tell Clay to take Hailey inside and get her some water. That was before he realized that the two boys were sitting out in the yard alone with their heads close together. Timothy was talking rapidly and Taylor was nodding in agreement.

  “Now what do you suppose they’re up to?” he asked with a little grin.

  Kathy chuckled first as the others turned that way. Just as they all turned and Hailey had leaned out to look around Clay in the same direction, the two boys realized they were all watching them. They stopped talking and looked at the porch but then giggled the way only little boys can.

  Every one of the adults started laughing and Kathy finally managed, “I’m not sure. But I bet you men are gonna find out.”

  * * *

  Hailey sighed and leaned back in the chair then turned her head to loo
k at the window. She couldn’t seem to concentrate today. They had learned what the boys had been plotting when they both came rushing to the porch and started begging to go riding again. They had even come up with a whole list of reasons why it was so important for them to go. The list was long and funny, but didn’t include the real reason, that they just wanted to. None of the three men who had left with them had needed any excuses. They all saw the same light in their eyes that shone in the eyes of two little boys. They’d been gone a while now. Isobell was in the kitchen. Gage and Kathy were on the back porch. She’d seen them when she came back from getting the last cup of coffee. Gage was sitting exactly the way Kathy had expected him to be earlier. He was leaned back in a chair with his feet propped up on the railing, completely engrossed in the book in his lap. But Kathy was beside him and he was holding her hand in his as he read.