by Raeann Blake
Hailey sat back in the chair and stared at him for a few seconds then shook her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter. You should have stayed here. You should have asked me. You should have been here demanding an explanation instead of going off to look for somebody else to touch and hold and…”
She stopped when her voice broke and she stood up quickly. Clay grabbed her arm and turned her back around.
“I didn’t go to look for anybody. I left here to get away from here. I didn’t go there looking for her. I never intended to be with anybody.”
“And I’m just supposed to believe that?” Hailey asked quietly.
“Hailey, goddammit. What about you? You didn’t wait here for me when she called. Why didn’t you stay here? Why weren’t you here demanding an explanation? Why is it okay for you and not for me?”
Hailey caught her breath and held his eyes for a long time before she nodded. “You’re right. Maybe we both did what we had to do. It doesn’t matter now, does it? You don’t believe me. I don’t believe you. Doesn’t leave much, does it?” she said as evenly as she could then pulled her arm out of his grasp and went through the door.
“Goddammit,” Clay muttered. He looked back at the screen then walked to it and closed the picture that was still displayed there. He sat down tiredly and closed his eyes for a few seconds then opened the pictures where she was looking at them. He gazed at her face with the hurt racing through him. It was several minutes before he made himself pull the picture out of his pocket and slowly lowered his eyes to it.
The quick groan was out and his eyes squeezed shut. It was one Kathy had taken of them together. He remembered that she had just teased him about something and he had caught her and pulled her down to the couch beside him. They were both laughing and her head was tilted up as she looked up at him. He forced his eyes back open and he let his fingers brush against the image of her face as he studied it intently, trying to memorize every inch of it.
He finally shook his head slightly and lifted his eyes back to the screen. He looked at it for several seconds then back down to the picture again. He spent the next several minutes looking back and forth between them with the frown on his face growing deeper. The way she looked in the picture in his hand was…it was…different. It was like the smile was brighter but softer. And her face glowed, like it came from a light deep inside of her. What did that mean? Was Laine right? He looked back at the screen for several minutes until he turned and started searching for where he had put the rest of the pictures. He opened each envelope and went through each one until he found the shot he was looking for. The one of her and Gage together. He held it up close to the screen. She was looking directly at Gage and teasing him about what he had said about riding merry-go-round horses. The look on her face was the same. She was looking at Gage exactly like she looked at the cop. And why hadn’t he noticed before that she did look a little irritated in the first pictures with Yates?
“Was I wrong?” he whispered.
None of that mattered when he heard her. “I’m going into town. Do either of you need anything?”
“No, sugar. We’re fine. Where are you going?” Laine asked.
“Just to the store. I’ll be back soon,” Hailey said quietly. She turned and started for the door but stopped when she heard the low voice from his doorway.
“Which one?”
She turned her head slightly and said, “Which store?”
“No. You know what I’m talking about. Which one are you going to see?”
She finally met his eyes in disbelief then finally shook her head slightly and turned away again. “What difference does it make? I’m a big girl. I can see who I want.
As soon as she disappeared through the door Clay’s head dropped.
“Dammit,” he whispered.
“Stop her, Clay. If you love her, don’t let her go. Go stop her, right now. If you don’t, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,” Shack said quietly.
He raised his head and looked at the door then over to Shack. It only took a few seconds for him to push away from where he had leaned against the doorframe and stride towards the front. She had just come out of the stables and started for the truck when he went down the steps. He reached her just as she opened the door and he quickly shoved it closed then jerked the keys out of her hand.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled as he spun her around and pushed her back against the door.
“Let me go,” Hailey snapped.
“You’re not leaving this ranch. You’re not gonna see one of them. You’re not gonna see anybody,” Clay barked.
“What do you care? What difference does it make? Why does it matter?” Hailey shouted.
Clay grabbed her roughly and shook her just a little. “It matters because I love you,” he shouted back at her.
Both of them stopped moving for a few long seconds until he loosed his grip on her arms and moved one hand up to brush the backs of his fingers across her cheek. His voice came out in a hoarse whisper when he spoke again.
“It matters because I love you. You’re not supposed to see them. You’re supposed to be here with me.”
Her heart was trying to fly and she was so afraid to let it go. “Okay,” said softly.
Clay swallowed hard as he lifted his eyes from where his fingers were still against her skin to meet hers and found tears in them.
“Okay?”
Hailey nodded mutely and it was a few more seconds before he let his arms go around her and dipped his head enough to brush his lips gently against hers. It only lasted a few seconds before he lifted his head then took a step back. He held her eyes for a few more seconds before he let his hand trail down her arm until it wrapped around hers and tugged as he turned and started back to the house, pulling her along behind him.
“Clay?” Hailey whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I love you, too.”
Clay’s steps immediately stopped and he slowly turned to face her. He wasn’t sure he could speak at first but he finally managed one word.
“Yeah?”
When she nodded silently again but didn’t let her eyes waver from his, he took the one step back towards her as he pulled her to him until she was tightly against him. This kiss wasn’t soft and it wasn’t short, but it held everything that they were both feeling.
Shack nudged Laine’s shoulder where they’d been watching hopefully from the front window.
“Thank God,” he whispered.
Laine nodded but didn’t smile. “Yeah. But do you see what I see?”
Shack frowned and looked at him then shifted his gaze to the direction he pointed. He blew out a short breath of disgust when he could just barely make out Lynn in the shadows at the corner of the corral.
“I told Jean Ann that wasn’t goin’ away. She kept saying if we left them alone that Hailey and Lynn would work out their differences. I told her it wasn’t happening.”
“Look farther out,” Laine said quietly as he pointed out to the back of the corral where Charlie was standing and watching Lynn.
“Huh. I guess after what he heard this morning between her and Hailey, maybe he decided she needed watching?”
“Yeah. When I talked to him, he said he was going to start watching her closer. He did check with Davey and Houston. She really was with them all day. She couldn’t have taken those pictures, but she damn sure knows who did. I’m suddenly not so sure it was Pepper who did the talking after all.”
Shack nodded slightly then turned to Laine again. “You know you’re gonna have to find a reason to fire her, right?”
“Yeah, I know. I should fire her just for standing out there and watching them that way after I warned her about it. But she’s just going to claim she was out there to get some air then didn’t want to disturb them once they came out or some crap like that. She’s good with the excuses. Given everything else that’s been going on, I don’t want to give her a reason to file any kind of complaint against the r
anch.”
When Shack saw Clay and Hailey start to the house he pulled Laine away from the window and motioned back to the living room.
“Talk to Charlie. Find out how long he was standing out there watching her and what she was doing before they came out. Let’s sit down before they get in here,” he said then quickly walked to his room and came back. He had just settled in the chair when the front door opened.
He glanced up casually at them then right back down to the book he’d pulled into his lap. He tried not to smile when he realized it was upside down, but he didn’t move it.
“Change your mind, little girl? Here you go,” he said easily as he slipped a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and held it up without looking back at her again.
Hailey narrowed her eyes at him for a few seconds then walked over to him and reached out to take it.
“And how did you know that was what I was going to town for?”
“Saw you walk behind the bar and look for the pack he’s been keepin’ there. Coulda just asked,” he said then casually turned a page.
Hailey cut her eyes to Laine then back to Clay before she looked back at Shack again.
“You’re a man of many talents, Shack. But I don’t believe I’ve ever met one who could read a book upside and backwards before,” she said with the smile growing by the second.
When Shack’s chin dropped to his chest Laine and Clay both burst out laughing and Clay walked to him and pushed him on the shoulder.
“I guess I forgot to tell you that your innocent face isn’t any better than hers. Come on outside and smoke one of these with us.”
* * *
It still amazed him that something as simple as walking in the dim light of the moon just holding her hand filled him with a sense of everything being right. He’d never felt like everything was right at any other time in his life…not until Hailey.
He stopped and turned her around to face him then turned their hands so that their palms were against each other.
“Know what I think?” he asked softly.
“What do you think?”
He looked at their hands and spread her fingers enough for his to lace between them. “I think this is why God gave us spaces between our fingers, just so they would fit together just like this.”
Hailey had to swallow twice before she lifted her eyes from their hands back up to his. “Clay, sometimes you can say the sweetest things.”
Clay tilted his head and looked at her for a few seconds then grinned slightly. “That was sweet, too? “
“Very,” Hailey said without hesitating.
“Huh. Hey, do sweet things erase some off that long list of all the things I’ve done wrong?” he asked.
Hailey almost laughed until she saw the serious look on his face. She shook her head a little and lifted her other hand to touch his cheek.
“Clay, there is no list. You erased them all with just three words,” she whispered then raised up on her toes to press her lips against his.
“Hey, Clay. Kathy’s on the phone,” Laine called from the house.
“Be right there,” he said then turned back to Hailey and kissed her once more.
“Light us a cigarette, sugar. I’ll be right back,” he said then handed her the pack and lighter.
“Tell her I said hello,” Hailey said then watched him walk across the yard. She had to smile slightly when she wondered where that music went that she’d heard the first day. It was probably silly, but all she could hear now were love songs. She had tried for a few seconds not to let herself believe him. But she knew that those words would have never crossed his lips if he didn’t mean them. There was no blissful ignorance that they would have a smooth road ahead of them. Between the two of them, there was no shortage of temper and they were sure to clash again, probably many times. But they’d get through it as long as they loved each other. Right?
She sighed slightly when he disappeared through the door and she finally shook out a cigarette and had just stuck it in her mouth when she heard it. She hesitated for a second then turned just slightly when she heard it again. She went ahead and lit the cigarette then seemingly ambled across the yard a short distance before she turned to go back the other way, letting her eyes sweep across the nearby tree line as she did. She didn’t see anybody but she heard it again. It was slight, a leather sole against pine needles, or maybe the brush of a garment against a tree trunk. Either way, somebody was there.
She calmly turned again to walk back in the opposite direction but moved closer to the trees as she did. She thought if she was a little closer, the dim light of the moon that was almost gone wouldn’t keep her eyes from adjusting to the darkness of the trees quite as much. She listened carefully as she walked and had just started to turn again when she heard it clearly enough to pinpoint the direction. Instead of following the path she had intended, she stopped and turned to face the woods squarely and walked purposely toward the sound.
Clay stopped long enough to explain to Laine and Shack what Kathy had called to ask him then started for the back. He stopped in the doorway and looked around the yard with a frown then back inside.
“Where’s Hailey?”
“What do you mean where’s Hailey? She was outside with you,” Laine said as he immediately rose and walked to the door.
“She didn’t come inside?” Clay asked.
“No, buddy. Shack…”
“Got it,” Shack said as he immediately rose and started for his room. He opened his phone on the way and made one call then came back with a rifle.
“Let’s go. Call her, Clay,” he said quietly as they all three stepped off the porch together.
“Hailey? Hailey!” Clay shouted. His heart was in his throat. Where could she have gone? They kept walking with him calling her as they went.
“Oh, God,” he whispered when they reached the tree line and found the still burning cigarette on the ground.
“Hailey! Hailey, where are you?”
Clay spun when they heard a sharp grunt to their left and started that way. They’d gone about a hundred yards before they caught up with them, but Hailey’s elbows to the ribs and kicks against the man’s shin as she fought him brought enough responses from him that the sound was easy to follow.
Clay lunged for them as soon as they were within reach and jerked Hailey out of his grasp, shoving her backwards before he swung the first time. He didn’t know how many times he had hit him before he fell. He didn’t know how many times he’d hit him after he fell. But the fear that had grown into a panic quickly solidified into rage when he saw the man’s hands on her. Only Shack and Laine pulling him off of the man had stopped him.
“Get him up. Get a light on him,” Shack snapped to some of the men who had caught up with them.
When the light hit Ken Anderson’s bruised and bloodied face, Clay lunged against the strong hold Laine and Shack still had on him.
“You sonofabitch. I’ll kill you if you ever touch her again. Who sent you here?” Clay hissed.
When he didn’t answer, he shouted the question again.
“You’d do well to answer him, boy. We’re gonna turn him loose if you don’t,” Shack said easily.
Anderson wiped some of the blood off his face and sneered at him until he saw Shack shrug his shoulders and start to let Clay go.
“Yates. It was Yates,” he muttered.
“Which one?” Clay snapped.
“The old man.”
Charlie stepped out from behind the group and up to Laine’s side. “How do you know when to come? Who tells you when to come?”
Anderson stared at him mutely for a few seconds. Just as his mouth opened, the quiet of the night was split by the lever action of a rifle. Charlie spoke a second later.
“That’s what I thought. Put the rifle down, Lynn. There’s no point in killing him to keep him from telling me what I already know. See I heard you out by the corral earlier. I heard you make a phone call when Hailey came in and got those keys
. I heard you say she was leaving the ranch. And I heard you make another call to say she hadn’t left after all and for him to come on in. You’re the one who’s been making a phone call every time she sets foot off this ranch so they’ll know she’s coming into town. That’s how Yates managed to always knows when she was there. You knew what happened at the bar that night. You knew they’d be eager to get revenge on her and Clay for spoiling the night they had planned. You were talking to them and they were talking to Yates,” Charlie said quietly as he slowly advanced on her.