by Imani King
“You can do this,” he said with certainty.
She took a deep breath and told herself he was right. This had to be done; there were no two ways about it. The gentleman that he was, Logan went around to hold the door open for her, but she got it for herself and boldly stepped out into the sun. Logan smiled at her and she returned his smile, albeit weakly.
Together, they entered the law office of Green and Cooper. The building was a simple one-story with a veranda and a wide, sloping roof. The inside looked clean with an airy feel to it, which Ari attributed to the bright yellow color of the walls. Someone in the office must have known that most of their clients were the depressed sort and so thought to cheer them up some with the paint.
“Morning, Mary,” Logan said to the middle-aged woman at the front desk with a name tag pinned to her chest. “We’re here to see Austen Green. We called to confirm our appointment about an hour ago.”
The woman looked through her records on the computer and waved them towards a paneled door just beyond the corridor behind her. “Go on in.”
They murmured their thanks to her and did as she instructed. Just when they reached the door, Ari felt a sense of urgency to flee, to turn and run and never stop. She felt as though she might open the door and see Dan, standing there in the room and waiting to mock her for falling for such a ruse.
“Ready?” Logan asked, jarring her from her thoughts.
I have to do this. ‘If you really want to be through with him, you need to get this taken care of. That part of your life is over, Ari; now make sure it stays that way!’ “Yes,” she told Logan.
He smiled at her and turned the door knob.
She wiped her sweaty palms on her dress and followed.
The lawyer was a young man, most probably in his mid thirties. As soon as she saw him, Ari lost her confidence. He seemed far too young to deal with such a horrible thing as a divorce. How would this young man be able to relate to what she would have to tell him? How much experience practicing the law could he even have?
“Howdy, Mr. Green,” Logan extended his hand. “I brought Miss Ari Jackson, your client.”
The lawyer got to his feet and shook Logan’s hands. “Welcome. I have been expecting you. Please have a seat, both of you.”
Ari tried to keep her expression carefully bland so the disappointment wouldn’t show on her face. She saw that both of the men were looking at her expectantly.
When she didn’t move to take the chair that Logan pulled out for her, he reached out and touched her lightly on her shoulder, to reassure her that everything was going to be okay.
Ari was too overcome with emotion to recognize it. She stared at him in dismay, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I, uh—I don’t…”
Logan gestured with his hand for her to sit, his eyes still on her. Evidently, he had no intention of taking her back to the ranch yet.
Ari had no choice but to take the chair but she couldn’t help the feeling of helplessness that washed over her.
“I understand you’re looking to file a divorce, Mrs. Jackson,” Green said in a quietly reassuring voice.
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“So Graham and Logan came by a couple of days ago and gave me the details of your situation,” Green explained.
Ari turned to Logan, eyes narrowed, arms crossed as she looked at him. “You talked to him already?” she asked. “I haven’t given you any information.”
“Well.” Logan shifted in his seat, looking uneasily at Green. “We got your husband’s name and your hometown from Val. Things is, there’s no secret in a small town.”
“Wish I’d known that earlier,” she said bitterly, but she knew there was nothing she could do now but turn back to the lawyer.
Green looked as calm as the morning breeze. “And after hearing about your circumstances, I spoke with your husband.”
Now her heartbeat was heavy, sluggish. She hadn’t expected that.
“I told him, well a bit of a white lie… I said you’d already hired me.”
Her hands tightened on her the fabric of her dress. She could easily imagine her husband’s wrath. How livid he must have been at the mere mention that she’d spoken to someone else about what he did to her! The last time she’d gone visiting her father and stepmother and he heard she told her family he hit her, he’d hit her harder. It didn’t matter that her father had supported him, blaming his own daughter for not doing the will of her husband. He would have been outraged that she’d spoken at all; and to a lawyer, no less. Looking at Green’s face now, she could tell he’d gotten the brunt of that anger. She was sorry for that. Yet, at the same time, there was a strange sense of relief to know someone in an official position had been made aware of what he’d been doing to her. He’d stolen her resolve, her will, and her ability to do just about anything. And now she would get it all back.
Suddenly, Ari felt infinitely better.
She forced her voice to be steady as she asked, “What did he say?”
“He wasn’t thrilled,” Green said with a roll of his eyes. “Apparently, he spent a day looking for you.”
Her skin crawled at the thought of him finding her, but when she remembered that she was here and he hadn’t, she sneered. “I bet he didn’t move off his ass. Probably thought I would come back crying within a couple days.”
It’d happened before. She’d tried to go to her parents’ house a few times, but it only made things worse. Her father was a stern man with a lot of pent up displeasure, especially after her mother passed away. Then her stepmother was the sickest bitch who ever lived. She’d given Ari and her older sister, Emily, a tough time. Their unhappy home had largely been responsible for the life both girls had chosen for themselves. Ari’s father always told her that a good wife wouldn’t get herself hit. She must have done something to deserve it. When Ari saw the gloating on her stepmother’s face, she’d forced a big smile and said her daddy was right; it could only be her mistakes and she was going to return to Dan and make things right again. But things had really gotten worse.
“Well, not anymore,” she muttered to herself.
Green cleared his throat. “He was more than a little upset to hear you were filing for a divorce. I told him he could make it easy or hard. I could send over the papers, he could sign them, and we would file them and save him the hassle. Or else we could do it in court.”
“He wouldn’t ever make it easy,” Ari said bitterly.
Green nodded with some sympathy. “I got the impression he was the sort of man to do things the hard way.” He tapped his fingers on his desk. “Going to him is for him to know you’re alive and well. If not, he could actually accuse you of deserting him and that would have made it tough in court. We’re going to file for alimony and for assets so…”
“I don’t want anything.”
Logan turned to her and Green stopped in mid-sentence.
“I don’t want anything,” she repeated and she truly didn’t. In fact, anything of Daniel Jackson was the last thing she wanted when this was all over. If she’d ever been sure of anything, she was sure she wanted to sever all ties with him. She wanted a clean break. More so, she’d gone into the marriage without anything of her own, she wanted to come out the same way. Let him keep everything, All she wanted was a chance to start over for herself, and thanks to the generosity of Val and her family, she’d already gotten it. She didn’t need Dan for anything and she wasn’t about to begin her second chance by getting into a legal battle with him.
Both men were staring at her as if she’d just announced that she intended to take a hike to the moon.
“I don’t want him to have that kind of leverage over me,” she explained. “I don’t need anything from him.”
“Are you sure?” Green asked.
“One hundred percent,” she said, smiling now at the flabbergasted look on his face.
Logan leaned closer to whisper, “It would make things a little easier than starting out wi
th nothing.”
“I insist,” she said loudly, ignoring his quiet tone. “I don’t want anything from him. Plus, I’m already earning money at the ranch. That, along with the little I brought with me should pay your fees, right?” Her last statement was directed at Mr. Green.
Slowly, he nodded. “That’s all well and good, but I am more concerned with the fact that…” He shrugged. “He owes you.”
Ari shrugged, too. “The only thing he owes me is to cut all ties and get out of my life. Permanently. I want to be done with him.” She couldn’t help but emphasize. “Can you do that for me?”
She thought she saw admiration in Mr. Green’s eyes, but it became obvious the lawyer wasn’t the sort to dwell on such trivialities. However, Ari hugged the admiration to her heart. It did feel nice to know she was doing this for herself. She owed it to herself. She wasn’t used to being a victim and she didn’t want to be one now. Fighting with Dan over pitiful assets would make her a victim all over again and she certainly couldn’t bear the thought of that.
Green nodded. “I can do that. It will make this very easy. I bet we can finish this off in a couple of months.”
“That’s great.”
They discussed the details for a while and then it was time to go. Ari asked how much his fee was and to her surprise, the lawyer became uneasy.
“Let’s just get things sorted out first,” he edged.
Ari had come prepared to pay him some advance from what she’d saved up and now, she didn’t understand why he wouldn’t accept one. Before she could query further, his secretary called. Ari surmised that he had another client visiting him soon. She thought she heard Logan sigh in relief, but she couldn’t be sure. Despite this, she left the office feeling much lighter on her feet. It felt good to take care of this matter. Of course, things wouldn’t be resolved overnight, but Green had assured her that he could manage things quickly and without too much fuss. Despite her first impressions, she now felt happy to place her trust in him. He seemed like a good, honest man.
Logan said nothing as they drove out of the parking lot.
With a grateful smile on her lips, she turned to him. “Thank you.”
He glanced at her briefly, before putting his attention back on the road ahead of him. “You’re welcome.”
“I don’t think I would’ve had the guts to go in there on my own. It seemed like such an uphill battle, but you were with me all the way and I can’t thank you enough.”
He kept looking at her warily as if he knew there was more.
There was.
“But you shouldn’t have talked to the lawyer without first informing me,” she said quietly, trying to keep the accusation out of her voice.
He nodded. “I know and I am sorry.” He winced. “I just…thought I’d help lighten your load a bit. I see how you skirt around the topic at the ranch and I thought you wouldn’t have time to heal if I bothered you with things like that. You seem to be enjoying yourself so much I hated to bring reality crashing down on you.”
As twisted as his logic was, Ari understood that he meant good. Still, she’d had enough of men treating her like an infant. She wanted to be responsible for her own life. She might act cowardly at times, but she would get up on her own two feet. What she needed was support, not pampering.
“I know you’re trying to help,” Ari said. “But you have to realize how difficult this is for me. It was hard enough to confess this was happening at all, even to Val. And then to find out that news just travels easy as the breeze and people are talking about my business without my knowledge…”
“I’m sorry,” Logan said earnestly. “It won’t happen again.”
Ari sighed. “Thank you.” Feeling fully satisfied with the way things turned out, she leaned against the seat and closed her eyes, letting her body relax.
It’s going to be over soon. In only a matter of months, she would be free. Freedom was knowing there would be no husband looking for her; freedom was knowing she had a paying job to get her by such that she didn’t have to depend on her husband for every little thing. Freedom was knowing she had the choice to be who she wanted to be, with whom she wanted to be with. Ari could taste it already— freedom.
“You should smile more often, it becomes you.”
Ari opened her eyes.
Logan was watching her. He’d stopped the car at a red light and was now staring at her openly.
Ari cursed her trembling chin, a dead giveaway of her embarrassment. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m just happy to know I’ll soon get the chance to start all over again.”
“As you should.” Logan nodded. “Most women in your position don’t get the chance. Many did not think of leaving or taking their own fate in their hands. You did good, Miss Ari.”
Beaming at the praise, Ari unconsciously reached out with a hand to cover his on the steering wheel. “Call me Ari,” she told him.
Just then, something happened that Ari couldn’t explain. A slow sizzling began from her hand which rested on top of his and traveled up her arm, down to her chest, tingling her nipples and settling in her belly. The sensation unfurled and became a huge, breathing feeling in her stomach that made her feel dizzy and out of breath.
She should snatch her hand away, wonder what was happening to her but her senses were slow to react. She was held in place by his eyes, the color of faded denim. Since he brought her to the farm, they scarcely had alone time together and this was their first. She’d almost forgotten his denim blue eyes, the strength of his jaw and the build of his body. No, that was a lie. She remembered everything. And now, she noticed everything all at once. Her nostrils flared and she smelled his cologne; it smelled like sandalwood. Her gaze slowly drifted to his chest and she found herself entranced by the slow up and down movement. One wild part of her wanted to run a hand along his wide, wide chest.
“Ari,” he murmured.
Her gaze traveled right up to his eyes again and in them, she found what she didn’t know she was looking for. And finding it, she didn’t know what it was. All she knew was that she felt safe, secure and she didn’t want to look away.
The persistent sound of a horn jarred her out of her thoughts. She moved her hand away and broke their gaze by glancing away from his mesmerizing depths. They both stared out in the street in front of them and found that the traffic had cleared. The drivers in the vehicles behind them were impatient to leave.
It didn’t help that Logan was blocking the lane. Quickly, Logan grabbed the wheel, stepped gently on the accelerator, and drove the car, turning at the next exit then driving down the road that would take them to the ranch. His knuckles were white against the wheel and he had a tightness around his mouth.
Ari drew in a ragged breath.
What the hell was that all about?
*****
When they got to the ranch, Ari couldn’t seem to wait to get inside.
With an almost inaudible ‘thank you’, she’d rushed into the house as soon as Logan parked the car in front of the house. There was no need to go into the house after her. It was past lunch already and she could do the job of telling the ladies all about their visit with the lawyer. More so, he didn’t doubt that one look at both of them and the ladies would know something was amiss.
He hadn’t bothered to hide his interest in Ari and he knew the ladies had caught on real quick. His object of fascination seemed to be the only person on the ranch who seemed to have no idea about how he felt toward her and so far, that had worked fine. In the past few days, she’d started to relax around him.
He now felt afraid that he’d just given himself away.
Why the hell did I just have to go and botch things up all over again?
The last time when he pinched her, it’d taken days of retreating from her, keeping things really cordial and friendly so she wouldn’t think too much of him coming on to her. Slowly, he’d won her trust again, only to spoil it all within the twinkle of an eye.
“Damn it!”
Grunting in dismay, Logan put the car in reverse and drove off. He needed a strong drink to calm his nerves and perhaps, a cold bath.
Chapter Seven
“You don’t like me much, do you?”
Ari smirked as she imagined the horse rolled its eyes at her. Of all the horses in the stable, Arrow was the most difficult female and she wouldn’t allow anybody to touch, feed or groom her. Val just brought her in last week, beaming proudly like a proud mother. Ari heard Val paid quite a bit for it, but the horse was worth every single penny. She was a rare beauty, a thoroughbred palomino with such strong body and lean muscles that Ari couldn’t help but fall in love.
In addition to this, the beautiful thing knew its worth because it held everybody in regal disdain, even Val who didn’t mind as long as she could breed other thoroughbreds for her. Since the horse arrived on the farm, it’d kicked two stable boys who’d attempted to groom her. Even now, Ari stood a respectful distance away. Only one person on the entire ranch could come near her.
Logan
He’d gone to bring the horse in all the way from Philadelphia and even named the animal.
“You’ve gone and fallen in love with Logan, haven’t you?” Ari smiled at the horse. “You wench, of course you have.”
The horse snickered in response.
Ari sighed. For the past three days, she’d been coming to the stable, bringing treats and generally talking to the horse, when no one else was around, but the damn horse remained stubborn. It wouldn’t even spare her a glance. Ari didn’t even know why she still bothered.