by Raeann Blake
“I know. But I want one of these first,” he whispered back as he lifted his head then hooked a thumb under her chin to lift hers. He held her eyes for just a heartbeat then lowered his lips to hers in a soft kiss. He knew that she felt the arousal that started growing with the first touch and that was okay. He didn’t care if she knew. He ended the kiss with several soft ones then lifted his head and brushed the side of her face.
“Go wash your face and get your hat and gloves. Let’s go ride, sugar.”
He finally eased his arms from around her and let her step back. He followed her into the bedroom and waited as she went in to the adjoining bathroom to wash her face before he flipped his phone open and made the call.
“Where is she? Perfect. Saddle Ringo and Soldier for us. We’re gonna ride to Mystery Creek. We’ll be right there,” he said then flipped the phone closed as he looked up and saw Hailey watching him with a frown.
“Just wanted to know where she was. They’re having a meeting in the main aisle. They do that once a week to go over any problems or issues. Everybody not out on the range somewhere will be there. That’s exactly what I want. Let’s give him a minute to get the horses out then we’ll head that way.
“I know that tomorrow’s the supply run and Saturday you’re going into town with Isobell. Do you think we could take off Sunday morning and head for the herd? We’d be there by late Sunday. Spend a couple of nights before we head back, maybe. Are you at a point where we could do that? Do you want to do that?” he asked as he pulled her back into his arms again and gazed down at her.
“I’d love to do that. I’ve got a few bills that need to be in the mail by Monday. We could take care of those tonight and I’ll mail them tomorrow while I’m in town. The payroll is done and we were able to get all of the things for Charlie’s office today so I don’t have to go in to pick up any more of them. To tell you the truth, I’m tempted to postpone the shopping trip if we could go a day earlier.”
Clay smiled broadly and shook his head. “And miss out on those belt buckles? Really?”
Hailey smiled slightly and nodded. “I would. Okay. Sunday then. I just…I just feel like…I’m sure something will happen. Something will come up and we won’t go.”
Clay swallowed hard and shook his head as he pulled her tighter. “No damn way, sugar. We’re goin’. Don’t you worry about that. I promise you that we’re goin’. Come on now. Let’s head on out there.”
He smiled down at her and for once kept all of those doubts and worries from coming out of his mouth. Was he convinced she wasn’t working for Yates? No. Was he worried now that she and Lynn were both working for him? Yes. But he wasn’t going to let her know that. And he wasn’t going to let Lynn know that he suspected her and Hailey of working together either. If he was wrong, then he was wrong. But if he was right then at least he’d be prepared. Right or wrong, he was beginning to wonder if Hailey hadn’t gotten in a little deep herself. Maybe that was why she’d gotten so upset at what Yates said. Maybe he said it because he suspected her of getting too involved. He didn’t have any answers. And he was determined that she wasn’t going to see that he had any questions either. He was just as determined that Lynn was about to get a very public dose of her own medicine.
He held onto her as they went across the yard but then stopped before they went in. “Hailey, do you mind if they know?”
She immediately shook her head. “No. I’m sure they’ve all heard it by now. But that wouldn’t matter. I wouldn’t mind anyway, Clay.”
Clay smiled slightly and nodded. “Okay. Come on,” he said then pulled the door open, letting her walk in ahead of him but immediately slipping his arm around her waist and grinning down at her when hers went around his.
“There you are. Just finishing up,” Laine said quietly as Charlie talked to the hands behind them.
“Good deal. Are they about done?”
Laine nodded and cut his eyes to Lynn. “Well, you’ve got her attention already,” he whispered then walked around the horses and checked the cinch on Ringo’s saddle. Clay tightened his arm around Hailey and walked past the horses just as Charlie told them all to go back to work.
“Hold up. I’ve got something I want to say,” Clay called before any of them could walk away. He looked down at Hailey then back to the group, silently scanning along them until he reached Lynn and stopped on her with a steady, cold gaze.
“I’m gonna say this one time. Anybody who’s not here, one of you make sure they get the word. I’ve heard that somebody on this ranch is pretending to be concerned about what happens outside these fences. Something about other people’s behavior reflecting poorly on me or the ranch. I believe I’ve made it plain enough that what other people do on or off this ranch is nobody’s business but their own. Imagine my surprise to find out that this same party has been doing a lot of talking on their own.”
He didn’t let his gaze shift from Lynn even for a second. Nobody in the place could miss who he was talking to.
“Let me spell it out. The next time that I hear that something that happens or doesn’t happen on this ranch crosses the lips of any one person in town…the next time that I hear that somebody on this ranch is whispering things to people they’ve got not business talking to in the first place…that will be the day that I discover that we are overstaffed…by one. Is that perfectly clear?”
Not one person answered the cold question. They were all too busy focusing their own hard gazes directly at Lynn. If Hailey’s eyes hadn’t been bored into her as well, she would have known it was Houston that snorted in disgust then spat loudly on the ground. And she wouldn’t have seen Lynn’s hard gaze lifted back to her just as Clay turned his head to look down at her and smiled.
“Come on, sugar. Let’s go ride.”
Neither of them saw Lynn look quietly around the group, finding nothing but hard stares or disgusted sneers everywhere she looked. And they didn’t see even Jean Ann meet her eyes steadily for several seconds before she shook her head and turned her back to walk away.
* * *
Hailey was leaned back against the log with Clay half-sitting and half-lying in front of her, his head leaned back against her shoulder with her arms wrapped around him as they watched the water flow down through the creek.
“Hailey, have you ever been on a date? I mean a real date?” Clay asked thoughtfully.
“No. Have you?”
Clay shook his head then waited several seconds before he spoke again. “Maybe we should. I mean, would you like that?”
“I don’t know. I know you’ll think I’m lying, but…I don’t think I’m like most girls,” she said softly as she tried not to let the grin turn up the corners of her lips as Clay slowly turned his head to look up at her.
“No kidding,” he said then laughed when she finally smiled.
“I used to hear the girls talk in school, you know. I heard all about the flowers and fancy restaurants. Pick you up at your door and carry you back home, kiss you goodnight. But why? What flowers could compare to this?” she asked as she motioned to the area around them.
“Why get dressed up and go into a fancy restaurant that’s going to overcharge you for a meal that wouldn’t even come close to comparing to a bowl of beans and beef or chili cooked over a campfire? I guess I just never got it. Maybe if I’d been more inclined to date back then I might have figured it out, but I don’t see how what other people would consider a real date could possibly compare to where we are right now and what we’re doing right now. Not that I wouldn’t go if you want to, but what could be more special than this, Clay?”
Clay had looked back at the creek but found himself looking back up at her again before she was through. He stayed silent for several seconds as he struggled with whatever it was that shifted inside of him a little. He wasn’t about to try to define it, but he felt it. He wouldn’t let himself think about it because he was pretty sure that it was nothing more than Shack and Laine planting the idea in his mind. But no
matter what they thought he just could not let it grow. Still, the speed with which it moved through him forced out the one hoarse word.
“Wow.” He held her eyes for several seconds then finally made himself speak again. “Okay. Maybe that’s our kind of date. So we have a date Sunday, right?”
The bright smile that flashed across her face and lit up her eyes had him suddenly feeling like he could fly.
“I guess we do, yes. It’s a date. Oh I wish we didn’t have to go back. I’d like to just stay out here,” she said as she settled her cheek against his hair when he turned back to the creek.
“So would I. Laine and I talked about that when we were riding night herd the other night. Sometimes we just wish it was just the three of us…him and me and Shack. Just a little place without too much pressure. Find a girl and settle down. Raise some babies for Shack to spoil. Like a real family,” he said then trailed off in a whisper when he realized what he was saying.
Hailey tightened her arms around him and nodded. “That sounds nice. It’s funny but I never thought about settling down or having kids. Don’t get me wrong. I love kids. But I guess I just never saw myself as anything but alone. Just me and a little place somewhere. That place out back to build a little campfire that I told you about. I guess it’s sort of sad that I never thought about not being alone before. Now, after being here, I’m not sure that I’ll know how to be alone anymore.”
Clay shook his head without looking up at her and his voice was very soft. “Hailey, I don’t have much experience at all with women. But even I know that you’re not meant to be alone. Honey, who would you talk to?”
Hailey chuckled in surprise and shrugged her shoulders a little. “My horse, I guess. That’s assuming I could afford a horse.”
Clay grinned and said, “Well, I guess I can’t say much about that. I do have some pretty long-winded, one-sided conversations with Ringo myself.”
Hailey laughed and said, “Oh, I know you do. How else would he have explained to you that you were wrong about Soldier?”
Clay laughed quietly before they both fell silent. It was several minutes before Hailey spoke again.
“Clay, what do you think she hoped to accomplish? She couldn’t possibly think that telling him that or him saying what he did would cause me to rush back out here and pack up to run away.”
Clay sighed and stayed silent as he thought it through. “Well, Hailey, I’m not sure. I guess she could have thought that whoever was with you hearing it that way would piss me off. Maybe she thought it would piss the guys off to find out. She could have thought I would assume that he could have only known from you. Or maybe she thought you would just deck her and get fired. I just don’t know. What I do know is that she should have been smarter about the words she chose. For him to have said almost the exact same thing she did was a straight trail right back to her.”
“Even that’s a little strange. First, I still don’t see her purpose. But it’s more than that. I can’t see her going to a man like Yates and saying ‘you should tell her that he won’t keep her just because he’s screwing her’. She’d be more likely to just say, ‘oh by the way…she’s got him screwing her’. I just find it odd that they both pretty much said the same thing. It just doesn’t make sense that they both came up with the same words without planning it that way. And what would be the point of making sure they said the same thing?”
Clay sat up and turned to face her as she talked. The longer she did, the more his frown deepened as his suspicions started to grow. This was the last thing he expected.
“You’re defending her now?” he asked quietly.
Hailey immediately shook her head. “No. But I am wondering if somebody’s setting her up. Somebody who heard what she said and told Yates about it. Maybe because they knew if he said it the same way that we would assume it came from her. But I can’t think of any reason why anybody would set her up. What’s the point? Even if they got her fired, why? What could be any possible reason that it would be to their benefit to have her off the ranch?”
Clay flexed his jaw several times and looked away as he tried to decide whether or not he should say what was on the tip of his tongue. If he could talk to Laine first, he could tell him whether or not he should say it.
Hailey watched him silently. The change in his eyes had been quick, almost as quick as his jaw settling back into that hard line. When he finally turned back to look at her, he held her eyes for several seconds before he spoke.
“Hailey, there are only two people on this ranch that would benefit from her not being here. You and me. I know I didn’t tell him,” he said lowly.
“But you’re wondering if I did. What benefit would it be to me, Clay? She goes out of her way to irritate me and try to make me look bad. I don’t see that stopping whether she’s on the ranch or not. It’s not like I see her or run into her every day even though she’s only a few hundred yards away from me most of the time. In fact it would probably be easier for her to do if she wasn’t here where she’s under scrutiny pretty much twenty-four hours a day. You can’t very well control who she talks to or what she says if she’s not on this ranch. So you tell me how it would benefit me to point the finger at her,” Hailey said quietly. Her chin was up in a defiant gesture and what she hoped was a show of strength that she wasn’t feeling inside.
Clay didn’t hesitate for even a second. He knew without a doubt which was the right path this time. He lifted his hands and slipped them along her neck, letting his thumbs rest along her jaw as held her gaze steadily.
“Don’t put words in my mouth, Hailey. God knows I say the wrong things enough as it is. Don’t help me out. I never said that I thought you told him. I was just trying to figure out why it sounded like you were trying to defend her. Let me explain something to you. I couldn’t care less that he knows unless you care. I just don’t want him saying stuff like that to you. Nobody should talk to you that way.”
None of those were lies. He did usually say the wrong thing. And he didn’t say that he thought she told him. He was trying to figure out why she was suddenly defending her. That only added to his suspicions about them working together. It was even true that he didn’t want anybody talking to her that way. What he didn’t say was true, too. What he didn’t say was something he was determined he wouldn’t say. He wouldn’t tell her that the more he searched her face, the more he listened to her talk, the less he believed that she could ever do anything underhanded or deceitful. And he couldn’t tell her that just minutes spent with her made him want to believe everything that Shack and Laine both had told him. He wanted to believe that she loved him. He wanted to…
“Clay?”
Clay blinked a couple of times as he focused on her. “What? Did you say something?”
She shook her head slightly and said, “No. I just wondered where you went.”
“I…I don’t know. It’s getting late, sugar. We should head back. Can I just…” He trailed off as he let his thumbs that were still along her jaw rub back and forth slightly as he leaned forward and brushed her lips softly with his. He started to lift his head, but her lips were just like magnets that pulled him back again.
“That taste. I can’t get enough of that taste,” he murmured against her lips as he settled his back against hers firmly and then pulled her to him.
Chapter Twenty-three
She only glanced towards the living room as she was headed to the kitchen for another cup of coffee. When she found him standing in front of the fireplace, she shifted directions. He had a drink in one hand but the fingers of the other were gently laid against the front of the picture of the two boys. His head turned just slightly when he heard her but looked right back at it again.
“Hey. Are you done for the night?” he asked quietly as she stopped beside him.
“I can be. I’m just entering details on the old bills. You miss them don’t you?” Hailey asked softly.
“Yes. I didn’t know it was gonna be so hard to watch them
leave earlier. And now it’s so quiet. There are no little boys laughing. Shack’s not telling them stories. Laine’s not sitting beside me and listening to Shack but watching the kids. And you’re not there listening so intently but smiling and laughing. I want kids, Hailey. If I’d just gone with her that day I’d have a son or a daughter now. Then there’d be laughter in here every day. And I know Kat would come out more because she’d want to see him or her. She’d want the boys to know their cousin. And…” He finally trailed off and sighed slightly and shook off the thoughts of how much he wanted to have a family the way Kathy did.
“Come sit down with me. I never sit in here. Do you want a drink or some more coffee?”
“How about a sip of yours?” Hailey asked. Clay immediately held it out to her and waited as she took a sip then handed it right back to him.
Hailey frowned slightly as she watched just the slightest grin tug at the corners of his mouth. It almost looked a little shy.