Taming Clay

by Raeann Blake

  None of them missed that she had shifted the rifle to point directly at Charlie’s chest.

  “You shut-up. You stop talking. None of that is true. Clay, that’s not true. It’s her. She’s not right for you. She’s caused you nothing but trouble since she got here. It’s all her,” Lynn spat.

  Her eyes had shifted to Clay and Charlie slowly reached out his hand to grab the rifle. Just as he touched it, Lynn’s head turned farther away when she heard the whisper.

  “Lynn.”

  Hailey swung just as Charlie jerked the rifle away and Lynn hit the ground a split second after it.

  “You bitch. You stupid bitch,” Hailey snarled.

  “Lynn, you’re…”

  “Charlie…let me,” Clay said lowly. Shack and Laine finally let him go and he walked calmly over to Lynn and held out his hand. He helped her up, then stared down at her. The voice was cold and left no doubt in anybody’s mind that he meant what he said.

  “You’re fired. Get off my ranch. I promise you that you will regret it if I ever catch you back here. Some of you guys escort her and this other piece of trash over here off my property.”

  “Your day’s comin’, Cardell,” Anderson growled as two men grabbed him by each arm and shoved him backwards.

  “Maybe. But it’ll take a better man than you to bring it. Get them out of here,” he said then finally turned back to Hailey. Her shirt was torn and there was dirt on her face. He let out the ragged breath of relief and opened his arms then closed them gently around her when she ran into them.

  “I know. Please don’t say it. I know it was so stupid. I heard him and I just thought…it was so stupid,” she whispered hoarsely.

  Clay silently pressed his lips against her hair then finally smiled just a little when Shack snorted behind him.

  “Well, he might not say it, but I will. You might be the best business manager and smartest woman I know. But, girl…we gotta work on your common sense. How’s your hand?”

  “It hurts,” Hailey admitted without lifting her head from Clay’s chest.

  “Both of you come on back to the house. Charlie…you did good, man. Go find Jean Ann. She’s the best nurse we’ve got. Let’s get her to look at Hailey’s and Clay’s hands,” Laine said evenly.

  “I’m right here. Come on you two,” Jean Ann said from behind them.

  * * *

  Houston rapped sharply on the window of the truck and saw Ben Anderson jerk upright from where he’d been slumped against it, obviously asleep. He waited as the man glared at him slightly then rolled the window down a little.

  “What do you want?”

  Houston motioned down to the front left tire and said, “Seems you’ve got a flat. Thought you might need a hand.”

  “Not from you I don’t. Mind your own damn business,” the growl came back.

  Houston shrugged his shoulders slightly and said, “Okay. Just thought I’d offer. Sure hope you have a good night.”

  He silently turned and walked back to the truck, got in it then backed up and made a U-turn to start back to the ranch. Only after he glanced up in the rearview mirror and saw the man step out of the truck, walk all the way around it to look at the four flat tires then kick the side of it did he chuckle a little and glance at Davey when he laughed gleefully.

  “That was fun. Can we do it again?” Davey asked then grinned when Houston burst out laughing and reached over to slap him on the shoulder.

  “Well, son I’d let you, but four tires plus the spare is all he had. Besides, Charlie said to let him go. Seems some of the others are on the way with his brother and Lynn. I wanna get back to the ranch. I can’t wait to hear this. I knew that little bitch was involved somehow.”

  Clay had to flatten his lips to hide the small smile that wanted to show when he heard her breath hiss out as Jean Ann applied some antiseptic to the cut that had opened up on one knuckle of her hand. He hadn’t been able to let her go for a second. When Jean Ann was working on his hands, he kept Hailey’s tightly in his grip with whichever one she wasn’t working on. He had been so scared, more scared than he’d ever been in his entire life. And then when he had seen the man trying to drag her through the trees…most of his life had been lived in a constant state of anger. But he’d never felt a rage like that.

  He stayed silent until Jean Ann was finished before he thanked her quietly then waited until she was gone before he spoke to Shack and Laine without taking his eyes off of Hailey’s.

  “Guys, can you give me a couple of minutes with Hailey? We’ll be right out,” he said quietly.

  “Sure, buddy. We’ll go fix you both a drink,” Laine said then rose and followed Shack out the door.

  Clay tried to swallow around the lump in his throat and his heart was beating rapidly. He lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them gently before he finally let go then stood up and paced back and forth for a few seconds. When he stopped he faced her squarely and took a deep breath.

  “Hailey. I have something to say and I’m gonna try to say it right. If I don’t get it right, don’t say anything, just give me a chance to start over. I know that I’m hard to be with. My moods swing from one extreme to the other for no logical reason and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. More often than not, the first thing in my mind is what comes out of my mouth before I can stop to think about whether or not I should say it. But you said you wanted to stay here. And you already know what it’s like to try to live and work with me. So, maybe we could, uh…I mean maybe we should think about…uh…dammit,” he trailed off hoarsely then walked across the room to her then hit his knees right in front of her.

  “What I’m trying to say is that I love you. And I don’t ever want to lose you. Hailey, marry me. Stay here with me forever. Don’t ever go away. I know I’m still legally married, but I won’t be long. As soon as that’s done…will you marry me?” he asked quietly.

  Hailey’s breath caught as soon as he knelt in front of her, but it came out on a rush when he asked her. The smile spread slowly across her face, much more slowly than the tears filled and overflowed her eyes. She finally nodded just slightly and whispered, “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  She saw the small smile that looked almost like a little boy in awe of a present he’d been given. The voice was thick with emotion and he couldn’t have said a more perfect thing.

  “Really? Oh, God…really? You will? I love you so much. Hailey…can we have kids?”

  Hailey smiled brightly as she cupped his face in her hands and gazed down at him even though the tears wouldn’t stop. “I can’t think of one thing that I’d love more.”

  He couldn’t stop his eyes from watering any more than he could stop the wide smile. He pulled her down to him and kissed her gently then rose and lifted her into his arms as he turned her in a circle then set her back down and kissed her again.

  “We’ll go to town tomorrow and get some rings. Okay? Can we? I mean…Hailey we can get married any time you want, any way you want, anywhere you want. But I want real rings. And I want to put a ring on your finger that says I love you and I can’t wait to marry you. Can we get rings like that? One with an engagement ring?”

  Hailey immediately nodded. “Yes. We can get rings like that. I’d like that, baby. I’d like that a lot.”

  Clay’s smile broadened and he glanced at the door then back to her with a little smile. “Come with me. And watch my face. It’s time you learned how to do a real innocent act,” he said then grabbed her hand and pulled her to the living room.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Shack and Laine looked up and waited silently when they found the serious look on Clay’s face but he said nothing.

  “Son?” Shack asked cautiously.

  Clay frowned and said, “Do you think the two of you can get a free day sometime soon?”

  Laine and Shack looked at each other then back to Clay. “Well, sure we can. What do you have in mind?” Laine asked.

  Clay’s frown deepened even more and
he looked down at the floor a minute then back up to them. “Well, see…there’s this wedding and…I really want you to be there.”

  He finally had to grin when Hailey giggled as Shack and Laine both shot up out of their chairs as soon as the word ‘wedding’ came out.

  “Well, I’ll be a sonofabitch,” Laine shouted and rushed over to kiss Hailey on the cheek then shake Clay’s hand before he hugged him close then backed up still laughing.

  Clay met Shack’s eyes and found them filled with tears.

  “Shack…”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. Come here, little girl,” Shack whispered then held his arms wide and hugged Hailey tightly when she stepped into them. When he let her go he faced Clay and swallowed hard.

  Clay went to him and Shack hugged him close. “This is right up there with the day you were born. The two best days of my life,” Shack whispered hoarsely.

  Clay leaned back and put a hand on each of Shack’s shoulders. “Well, I don’t exactly remember the day I was born, but I remember another day. It was the first time I remember you puttin’ me up on a horse and then climbing up behind me. It ranks up there with that one.”

  Shack sniffled and wiped his eyes as he stepped back a little and nodded. “You were three. How do you remember that?”

  “I don’t know. But I remember it. I even remember what you said to Mama. You told her to go on and leave us alone. It was time for me to learn to ride and you were the one who was gonna teach me. And you did,” Clay said gently.

  Shack chuckled and then looked up at Clay and nodded again. “That’s right. I can still see her there wringing her hands and warning me if I let you get hurt that I’d be sorry.”

  Clay grinned and waited as Shack sank back down in the chair. He shot one glance at Hailey then sat down on the floor in front of the chair but turned enough that he could still see Shack. Laine motioned for Hailey to come with him and he went back to his chair and let Hailey sit down on the arm.

  “I remember that. I didn’t understand what that meant, but I remember her saying that.”

  “Yeah. It wasn’t six months after that when she started riding with you and Kathy. Never missed a day after that, did she?” Shack asked quietly.

  Clay shook his head and said, “No. Rain or shine. Didn’t matter. We went. Then after she went away, you went with me. I remember that day, too. You found me out there in the stables tryin’ to saddle that horse by myself. You came in the stall and helped me and you asked me where I was going. And you asked if I’d mind if you came along. It was you ridin’ beside me every day after that.”

  “Yeah. Until I just got so old I couldn’t do it every day,” Shack said sadly.

  “You’re not old, Shack. You’ve just had a hard life. Now look where we are. You and Laine are finally up here with me. I’m about to marry a woman I love. This is it, isn’t it? This is what you tried to always tell me it was supposed to be like…to have a family and people that love you,” Clay whispered.

  Shack laid a hand on his shoulder and nodded. “Yes, son. This is it. I’m so glad we found it.”

  Clay dragged in a ragged breath and nodded as he looked around at each one of them then back to Shack. “So am I.”

  Hailey wiped the one tear away that had managed to roll down the side of her cheek. Shack saw it then glanced back at Clay.

  “Almost didn’t get here. Could have turned out a lot different if that old cat had been hungry that day,” he said then smiled when Clay and Laine both started laughing.

  “What cat?” Hailey asked.

  Clay turned back to her and smiled. “The one that likes to sun himself up there on that ledge you were sittin’ on. That’s the spot I used to like to sit when I’d go up there. I’d go up there and sit there all day long. Jean Ann and her husband didn’t have as many cattle as we do now. About five hundred I guess, but it was still a sight to sit up there and watch them graze.

  “Then one day…what was I…fifteen, sixteen?” he asked as he looked up at Shack.

  “Sixteen, almost seventeen. It was right after you moved out to the bunkhouse.”

  Clay nodded and turned back to Hailey. “Sixteen. I’d been up there for a couple of days. And I climbed up on that ledge one morning to watch the herd. I’d left my horse down below and walked up there, and I had just barely sat down when I heard this sort of soft, low growl behind me. Sugar, you talk about the hair standing up on the back of your neck…” He trailed off and shook his head a little at the memory before he went on.

  “I turned my head just enough to see behind me…and there he was. Standing right between me and the path back down off that ledge. You know how a cat’s hindquarters will twitch right before he gets ready to pounce…his were doing that.”

  “Oh, my God. What did you do?” Hailey asked.

  “I sat real still for a little bit. Then I started to scoot back from that ledge just a little at a time. He took one step towards me and…have you ever heard a mountain lion roar? If you didn’t believe in the Devil before you hear that up close and personal, you will after that. I just knew I was dead. But, instead of comin’ right at me, he sort of circled around me so that he wasn’t in the path anymore. I eased back a little more without taking my eyes off of him and stood up as slow as I could. Truth be known, there was probably a whole lot of shaking going on, too, but I was tryin’ to look real calm,” he said then grinned sheepishly when Laine and Shack both laughed.

  “Anyway, he just stood there and watched me as I backed away from him real slow. Just about the time I got to head of the path, he started walkin’. When he started…I stopped. But he didn’t come after me. He got to that spot I’d just been sittin’ in…and laid down then gave me one of those condescending looks that only a cat has. I backed on down the trail until I was out of his sight. I looked back to make sure he wasn’t following me and eased on back down to the horse as quietly as I could. Got on him and rode like hell,” he finally finished.

  Hailey laughed and asked, “And was that your last day there for that trip?”

  Clay nodded seriously. “Damn right. Didn’t go back for a whole month. And I never went back up on that ledge again. But not one day goes by that I’m there early in the morning that I don’t see that cat. He’s there every day.”

  Hailey let out a slow hiss as she held Clay’s eyes steadily. “But…oh. Morning. I didn’t go up there until late. He’s only there in the mornings?”

  Clay shrugged his shoulders a little and shot Laine just the smallest of grins. “Well, now I didn’t say that. But he’s not up there in the afternoons as regular as he is in the mornings.”

  “Holy hell,” Hailey muttered then closed her eyes and shook her head when all three men laughed at her.

  “Look at her. Like she thinks there’s a mountain lion alive dumb enough to tangle with her,” Shack whispered to Clay then roared with laughter when the grin went across Hailey’s face before her eyes opened.

  “Yeah, well. I just don’t want to have to go to the trouble of proving it to him. That’s all.”

  “Hey, we forgot the drinks,” Laine said quickly then rose and went to the bar and came back with four glasses and poured bourbon into each one then held his up.

  “A toast,” he said then shifted his eyes around to each one before they went back to Clay and stopped. “To our family,” he said quietly.

  Clay’s eyes filled yet again but the smile was wide. “To our family,” he repeated with Shack and Hailey following him as they each took a swallow.

  Once that was done, Laine looked at Hailey as he sat back down beside her then said, “Shack, I think she needs to hear some more of these stories. Why don’t you tell her about the time Clay finally talked you into taking him into the bar and letting him have a drink?”

  Clay grunted and shook his head but lifted it back up when Shack laughed and started talking.

  Hailey sat back and watched them as they re-told that story and many others. She finally let ju
st the smallest frown crease her brow as she shifted her eyes from Shack down to Clay then back again. She did it several times before she realized Shack had stopped talking and was watching her warily. She could almost see the fear in his eyes and she quickly looked down.