The bat connected with a metallic noise, and energy raced down her arms as she swung through.
It was clearly a foul ball, but it had some good distance on it.
"Nice!" Nate shouted.
She glanced at the two males. Miles was staring at her with interest. "I guess that was okay—for a girl."
Nate winked at her. "It was more than okay. Too bad. I was hoping I’d have to come in there and give you some pointers on your form."
Her face flamed again. Nate could tease and flirt all he wanted, but she was going to hold strong. They weren't right for each other. And Miles had reminded her that they had to get things figured out with the social worker, for his sake.
She couldn't afford to let him down.
Chapter 5
Kayla was still trying to figure out a solution as they drove home.
They were on the freeway, only a mile from the Taylor Hills exit, when Miles spoke for the first time in a half hour.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing to something off the road.
Nate slowed the truck before she'd even spotted the splotch of red on the pavement off the shoulder of the road. Just beyond it lay a small golden dog lying in a pool of blood.
Nate said, "It's probably—"
"It's moving!" Miles exclaimed.
Her insides tightened into a ball of anxiety, hurt, and fear. She and Nate exchanged a quick glance as he slowed the truck and came to a stop well past the animal.
"If it was hit on the highway, there's a good chance the dog is so badly injured it won't make it," she said quietly. She knew it, but knowing the reality didn't soothe the ache that came from seeing the injured animal. Had the car that hit it even slowed or just kept going?
Miles's expression tightened, shadows chasing behind his eyes. "Can we check on it? Please?"
The plea was the most open piece of communication he'd offered since his arrival.
Nate recognized it, too, because he rested a big, gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. "It can be dangerous pulling off to the side of the road," he said. "Will you promise to stay in the truck and let me and Kayla check it out?"
Miles nodded gravely.
Kayla shoved open her door and climbed out as Nate shut off the truck and pocketed the keys on his way out the driver's side.
They hustled toward the injured dog.
"Injured animals are sensitive," she said. "It might be inclined to bite, and it's probably scared."
They drew near, and she could see one of its back legs was completely useless as it dragged itself along the ground. Blood was visible at the corners of its mouth.
She knelt just out of reach of bite, just in case. "Hey, there, baby."
She couldn't help that her eyes welled up with tears as the animal whined in pain. It panted heavily, in obvious distress.
"It's probably got internal bleeding," Nate said, concern in his voice. "Even if we can get it to the vet, it's not going to make it."
"You can't think like that." She swiped of fingers beneath her eyes. "Maybe it's not that bad."
"Honey, he can't move that leg."
She blinked hard again. "Can we get him in the truck?"
"I've got an old blanket in the cab."
He rushed away as she edged closer to the dog. He returned a moment later.
They wrapped it and put it in the truck bed, and all the while, the animal yelped and whined.
The sounds hit her right in the heart, and she had to wipe her face again as she stepped back from the vehicle. She pretended Nate couldn't see and thankfully, he did, too.
"We can't just leave it to slide around," she said, the thought just now occurring to her. There wasn't really room in the single cab for it to ride up front.
"You drive." He tossed her his keys, and she fumbled them but caught them before they hit the ground. "Call your sister on the way."
She well knew how a cowboy's truck was more than just a ride. Nate was handing over his keys, just like that?
It was probably because Sarah wouldn't know what to make of it if he called. That’s what she told herself, anyway.
Kayla touched the small golden dog, fondling its ear.
It was unresponsive, out from the anesthesia Sarah had administered upon her arrival. Sarah and Kayla had worked in the ranch house kitchen, which looked more like a surgical suite now than the room where she so often burned bacon and scrambled eggs. Nate had taken Miles and the dogs on a long walk, promising to stay away from the house until Kayla or Sarah gave him the all-clear.
"I'll need you to steady her, here. Tightly," Sarah instructed.
Kayla blinked back tears, knowing Sarah would kick her out if she broke down. She was thankful her sister had been on a house call near the Triple H and Kayla's property.
Sarah was a large-animal doctor. Dogs weren't her specialty, though she'd scrubbed in for surgeries with the partners at her vet practice when needed. She must've heard the desperation and fear in Kayla's voice, because she'd agreed to see the animal at Kayla's place instead of advising them to take it in to the practice. It was after hours, anyway, and the clinic would be closed.
"Once we get the joint back in place, I'll tape it up and put on a sling. Then we can look at some of the road rash."
Sarah's first order of business had been checking for internal bleeding. She hadn't found anything worrisome and thought the blood at the dog's mouth had perhaps been from a bitten tongue. The dislocated hip was still worrisome. If it didn't heal properly, the entire limb could be unusable.
Kayla held the dog steady as Sarah manipulated the leg with laser focus.
"You want to tell me what the Triple H foreman is doing hanging around you and Miles?"
Kayla could play dumb, but her sister was too smart for that. Plus, she was in enough hot water with the slight fib about her situation to the social worker. It had to be the truth for her sister.
"Do you remember—I think you were in your first year of vet school—when I took a long weekend trip to Vegas?"
Sarah grunted as she pulled the dog's leg with both hands. "Do I remember the weekend you disappeared and didn't tell me you'd been to Vegas until after the fact? The weekend I called the cops three times to file a missing persons report? That weekend?"
Heat flared into Kayla's cheeks. Sarah shifted, moving around the dog's body to attempt the limb at a different angle.
"Um... I might've done something really stupid that weekend."
Sarah didn't speak for several moments. "Stupid, like blowing an entire month's paycheck on blackjack? Or stupid, like getting married?"
Kayla's stomach swooped low. "Um, the second one. To Nate."
Sarah didn't stop what she was doing, but Kayla could feel her sister's energy change. Maybe it was a cop-out, telling her sister when she couldn't fully react. Too bad. Sarah fairly vibrated, but Kayla couldn't tell whether it was curiosity or anger that had her sister wired. Suddenly, the dog's hip and leg shifted, and the ball of the hip slid back into place with a click. Sarah palpitated the joint, her fingers pressing into fur and flesh.
"How in the heck did that happen?" Sarah asked. "You weren't even dating. Wait—I need to do an x-ray. But we're not done with this. Not by a long shot."
Sarah shooed Kayla out of the room while she operated the portable x-ray machine. Kayla stood in the living room, hands hanging uselessly by her sides. She and Sarah had always had a good relationship. Why was she so scared of Sarah finding out about her past mistake?
Sarah’d always been the smart one. The one with the plans. Plans that she executed with skillful precision.
Kayla was the screw up. Always had been.
When she called Kayla back into the room, the machine was off and resting on the floor and Sarah was taping up the hip.
"So...?" Sarah asked.
Kayla stood near the table and wished she could do something useful, something to focus her attention on. She shifted her feet. "Nate and I had been casual friends during my senior year
. He was a year older."
Sarah nodded as if she remembered, her attention on the dog.
"But I'd always had a crush on him, and he did ask me out a few weeks before we took off that weekend. It was kind of a whirlwind. We saw each other every day and talked all night on the phone—twice. I thought I was in love, but…"
Sarah finished with the wrap and moved to examine a gash on the dog's shoulder, maybe where it had met the pavement when the car had hit it. She was silent for a long time. Did she think Kayla had been stupid for doing what she'd done?
Finally, Sarah spoke. "I can't believe Chase never mentioned it."
"No one knew." At least, she'd never told anyone. She hadn't asked Nate outright, but she had the sense he hadn't told anyone either.
"Well, that makes me feel slightly better," Sarah muttered. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
Something hot and hard lodged in Kayla's throat. She cleared her throat. "I don't know. I was...ashamed at first. For having made this giant mistake." Her hand fluttered in the air. It was mostly true. There was a part of her, a huge part, that had secretly hoped Nate would care enough to come after her, to fight for her. She shrugged, pushing that thought into the deep recesses of her heart. "And then it was over. Or, it was supposed to be. Apparently, the marriage was never annulled. Legally, we're still married."
Chapter 6
Later that night, Kayla sat on the floor in the semi-dark kitchen with the injured dog by her side. The Chihuahua was curled up in her box with her pups, resting but not asleep.
The golden dog had come out of the anesthesia. and Sarah seemed happy with his immediate recovery. She'd given orders to keep the boy as immobile as possible for a week and suggested Kayla crate him at night.
But Kayla wanted to watch over him, at least for these first few hours. Nate and Miles had gone to bed around ten, but she couldn't face her pillow. Not yet.
Talking about what had happened between her and Nate a decade ago had brought everything back to the surface with startling clarity.
She could still vividly remember waking up in the Vegas hotel room. With Nate.
She'd been self-conscious in the light of day, aware of her bed-head and morning breath. She’d hurriedly dressed even as he was waking up. Awkward didn't begin to describe it.
And then there was the weight of his ring on her finger. A tangible connection to him.
He'd rolled over in the big bed and smiled a lazy, warm smile that had her stomach rolling over like a puppy begging for a belly scratch.
She was helpless against his charm, unable to respond with anything other than a silly answering smile. He crooked a finger, inviting her back to the bed, but she hesitated.
His phone rang, buzzing noisily from the nightstand, interrupting them with reality.
He picked it up and glanced quickly at the display. And was instantly distracted. "I have to take this."
He stood and wrapped the sheet around his lower half as he crossed the room, raising the phone to his ear. "Dad. What's up?" He lowered his voice, but the hotel room was small.
"No, I'm not on campus yet." He shot a quick glance her way and offered a smile that, for the first time since they'd begun their courtship, felt false. He turned his back to her, faced the window. "Classes don't start until Wednesday."
Her stomach swooped low, a warning. They hadn't talked through logistics. They'd been in Taylor Hills yesterday when he'd blurted, "Let's get married." Two plane tickets, a rented dress, and a licensed minister later, and here they were. In the whirlwind of excitement and the crazy high of wanting to belong to someone, she hadn't even thought about where they might live. She'd driven up to Taylor Hills for the weekend to visit a high school friend, and she'd been living with her sister Sarah in the city in a cheap apartment near Sarah's vet school. She hadn’t planed to enroll in college and instead wanted to take a gap year and sock away money.
But reality was intruding. Nate's dad was paying for his college education. She'd only met the oil mogul twice, but she knew he was hard-nosed and had expectations of his son. Ones that likely didn't involve a hasty marriage or a dirt-poor wife with no connections.
"No, I'm not in Taylor Hills again." Nate's voice had gone low and had an edge of stubbornness in it that almost made him sound like a little kid doing something he knew was wrong.
"Why is it so important for you to know? ...Fine. I'm in Las Vegas. No, it's not a guy's weekend. No, I didn't do something stupid."
But the last words had the slightest inflection, as if he were lying...
And sudden fear shivered through her.
He hung up moments later and turned to toss the phone onto the bed. He gave her another of those false smiles. Tiny stress lines fanned out from the corners of his eyes.
"You're still under his thumb." She sat on the edge of the bed because her suddenly numb knees wanted to buckle.
"No, I'm not." His jaw clenched, though, and she heard that same little-kid stubborn tone in his voice. Denial.
"You'll do whatever he tells you to do. Or he'll what...cut your allowance?"
She suffered a tiny flare of jealousy. It must be nice to have enough money not to worry about expenses that exceeded a paycheck.
Nate's expression cooled. "I try to be respectful. He's paying for my schooling."
She hated not being able to read him. What was he feeling? What emotions was he hiding from her?
She really hated feeling like she could ruin things for him.
She knew how expensive college was. Sarah'd scraped by with scholarships and loans. But Kayla also knew it was more than that for Nate. Hadn't he mentioned before how his father had his life planned out for him? A college degree, join the family oil business, probably live wherever daddy told him to.
"What's he going to say when you tell him about me?" Her voice was weak as she forced the question out. "I notice you didn't tell him we got married."
His wince was slight, but it was there. "We'll figure it out."
We'll figure it out. It wasn't much to go on. She'd done an impulsive thing last night, and now she was good and scared about what was coming next.
"Am I supposed to move into your dorm room? Are you going to get a job?"
All the details she hadn't thought about when she’d been caught up in the blush of love.
He ran both hands through his hair. "I don't know."
"Is he going to cut you off because of me?"
"No." But he didn't sound sure. "I said, he doesn't run my life."
Nervous energy pushed her off the bed. "What if he tells you to annul the marriage?"
"He won't. Kayla, calm down. You're blowing things out of proportion."
She was nineteen and on her own. She’d always been on her own, and she desperately craved security. Craved the home she'd never had. Craved a man to love her, just her. For one bright, shining moment, she'd thought she'd found all of that.
But she wouldn’t ruin his life to satisfy her cravings.
"We can't do this," she said.
"Honey, we already did."
His joke fell flat, and the half smile faded when she didn't respond.
"I think we should have it annulled." The words dropped from her lips before she'd really thought them through. Impulsiveness, meet impulsiveness. Her voice was shaking as badly as she was. "Maybe we can talk again when you've figured out how to make your own way in life."
Kayla started and woke up, her present circumstances as hard and cold as the floor where she sat. How had she dozed in the wake of her memories? She ran one hand along the dog's back. Still breathing, still asleep.
It was Kayla's heart that was pounding against her breastbone.
What a mistake the whole thing had been.
She'd gone back to Sarah's tiny city apartment to find her sister frantic that she'd been out of touch for two days.
She hadn't told Sarah or anyone else. Had assumed Nate filed the annulment paperwork after she'd demanded it.
She
hadn't slept for three days, her focus on her silent phone.
He never called. Maybe she'd wounded his pride, or maybe he hadn't really loved her after all.
She still didn't know, and she had no idea why he was in her life now.
Nate stood in the darkened hallway outside the kitchen, hesitating because he was a chicken butt.
Only the bulb above the stove was on in the kitchen, but between the dim light and the moon shining through the window, it was enough for him to see Kayla sitting on the floor next to the dog, which was laid out on a folded blanket. The border collie and Lab had been banished to Miles's room for the night, but the Chihuahua remained, tucked in her basket with her sleeping pups.
He needed to make a decision. Go in there, or go to bed. Where he wouldn't sleep.
Because...
I thought I was in love with him...ashamed of making such a giant mistake.
Kayla's words from earlier reverberated through his skull, bouncing around until he had to grit his teeth against the pain of them.
He shouldn't be hurt. Hadn't she already said she believed their quickie wedding was a mistake? She'd said it that next morning, and several times when she'd driven out to the Triple H the other day to berate him.
There was a part of him that had hoped she’d been lying.
Maybe he was the one lying to himself, believing she might still have feelings for him in some dormant part of her heart.
That's what he got for eavesdropping—a whole lot of turmoil.
He might've shifted, or maybe the floorboard beneath his sock feet creaked, but she lifted her head. He didn't know if she could see into the hall, but maybe she was sensitive, like he was. He was certainly aware when she was near.
So he went in. Because he wasn't going to sleep anyway, even if he went to his makeshift pallet on the floor of her bedroom.
"How is he?" He settled on the floor beside her, his knees popping like an old man's, thanks to one too many spills from the back of a horse. The cabinet knob bit into his back and he adjusted slightly, his shoulder brushing hers.
Keeping Kayla: a Cowboy Fairytales spin-off (Triple H Brides Book 4) Page 5