Second Chance At the Ranch

by Maxine Morrey

  ‘I don’t think that! I—’

  Nick cut her off, the dark eyes flashing with anger once more. ‘You need to decide. You’re either in or you’re out. There are no half measures. You’ve spent the last five years playing with emotions out here and it needs to stop! You need to decide on something for once and stick with it, not run away every time something spooks you!’

  She threw her hands up. ‘Why does everyone keep telling me I’m running away?’

  Nick gave a mirthless laugh and shook his head. ‘I know you’re not stupid, Hero. Have you stopped to think that maybe if everyone is telling you the same thing, it might mean that it’s true?’

  ‘No. Because it’s not!’

  ‘Right,’ Nick replied through gritted teeth as he struggled to rein in his temper.

  ‘You don’t get it. Just because everyone is saying the same thing doesn’t mean that it’s true. If that were the case, I’ve been pregnant, engaged and on drugs at least three times!’

  Nick narrowed his eyes at her. ‘Are you seriously comparing your family to the media?’

  ‘No. I …’

  He stepped back, his expression icy. ‘You know what? Never mind. That actually explains a hell of a lot. Good to know where we stand in your eyes.’

  ‘Nick! I didn’t mean …’ She caught his arm, but he shook off her hand as quickly as he would a scorpion. Hero flinched.

  ‘Don’t,’ he snapped. ‘Just … don’t.’ He didn’t look at her, instead he lifted his wrist, glancing quickly at his watch. ‘You should get on. We wouldn’t want you to miss your bus and force you to stay one more godforsaken day out here.’

  ‘You know that’s not how I feel about it here! That’s not fair!’

  Nick threw up his hands. ‘For fuck’s sake, Hero! Life isn’t fair! And if you want to know the truth, not one of us know how you feel about being here. Nobody has a bloody clue about what you feel about anything! Or even if you feel anything at all. And you know what? We’re all pretty tired of trying to work it out. Your world might put up with this shit, but out here in the real one, we don’t have time to tiptoe around you, trying to work out what it is you want from us. We have real lives, and real things demanding our attention. The last thing we need is you pulling this act every time you come out!’ He let out a sigh as he rammed his hat on, before looking back at her. ‘The best thing you can do for all of us now is just go back to London. Go back where you’re supposed to be.’

  Chapter 9

  Pete and Nick walked up to the car, the dust settling gently in the still of the early evening. In the end, Juliet had decided to take Hero all the way to the airport, enabling them to have a little extra time together. As she was heading to the city anyway, she picked the children from their grandparents on the way back, saving them the drive.

  ‘Heya rugrats!’ Pete laughed as the children ran into his legs. ‘Everything all right?’ he asked as he bent and kissed his wife.

  She nodded. ‘Yes. I think so.’

  Pete tilted his head in question.

  Juliet shrugged. ‘She seemed … I don’t know. A little quieter than usual, I guess.’

  ‘Probably just thinking about work.’

  She smiled. ‘Yes. I expect so. Are you two done?’

  Nick, who was now giving Marcus a piggy back, nodded. His mind was turning over what his sister-in-law had just said about Hero. He felt a twist in his stomach. He hadn’t meant for it to end the way it had, but she just made him so mad! As they got to the porch, Nick bent his knees and Marcus slid off.

  ‘Dinner should be ready any time. I just need to get these two to wash their hands and faces and then I’ll dish it up.’

  ‘I can do that,’ Nick replied, herding the children through the kitchen.

  Juliet tossed a smile over her shoulder. ‘Thank you.’

  Nick nodded, feeling undeserving of her smile. Hero obviously hadn’t told her sister about their argument, and clearly she hadn’t guessed. But he knew his words had got through. She might not have shown it on her face, but he’d seen her knuckles whitening as she’d kept her fists at her side. Had he said too much? Or had he not said enough?

  After supervising his godchildren into being mostly clean for dinner, Nick took a seat at the table, gratefully accepting the cold beer his brother poured him. Staring down into the golden liquid, the words he’d thrown at Hero this morning rang around his head. He shouldn’t have let her go like that, not with those damning words in her ears. He should have gone after her. Told her why she made him crazy, and why he wanted her to stay. Told her, finally, that he’d fallen in love with her that night, the night of the wedding, and no matter what he did, who he dated, or how cool they acted with each other, that feeling refused to go away. And, despite everything being against it, each time she visited, it only got stronger. It was frustration that had driven him to act the way he had, say the things he’d said. Frustration because he knew what was beneath that layer of protection and it drove him crazy when she shut him – and everyone else – out.

  Nick picked up the glass and swirled its contents. The conversation replayed over and over in his mind like a broken record. If there had ever been a possibility of something blossoming with Hero Scott, he was pretty sure he’d now blown it to smithereens.

  ‘What’s wrong, Uncle Nick?’ Bridie’s high sing-song voice broke into his thoughts. ‘You look sad.’ His niece glanced at her mother.

  Juliet nodded and Bridie climbed down from the table. The little girl walked over and stood next to Nick, looking up expectantly. Her uncle smiled and pushed his chair back so that Bridie could climb up onto his lap. Getting herself comfortable, she then studied his face, her own serious. Nick looked down into the striking green cat-like eyes, replicas of her mother’s. And her aunt’s.

  ‘Are you sad because Auntie Hero left?’

  ‘She had to go back to work, sweetheart.’

  Bridie let out an impatient sigh. ‘I know, but is that why you’re sad?’

  Nick studied the open, honest little face. It was amazing how astute kids could be without even trying. It was all black and white to them; no greys, no slight shading. Just one or the other.

  He threw a glance at the clock. ‘It’s pretty late. Isn’t it about time you two munchkins had a bath?’ Bridie screwed her head around to look at the clock, delicate little arms still clinging around his neck. She turned her head back and tilted it at him.

  ‘Will you read us a story after?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘OK.’ Bridie slid off his lap and ran around the table to her mother as Nick got up and headed to the back door.

  ‘Let me know when you’re ready for your story,’ he called. There was a click as the door closed behind him.

  Juliet rose from the table. She took Bridie’s hand and ushered her and her brother out towards the stairs and the children’s bathroom. As she left, she shared a glance with her husband. Neither of them had missed the fact that Nick had studiously avoided answering his niece’s question.

  Later that night, Pete and Nick sat out together on the verandah. Juliet had turned in early, tired after the long drive, and a little tearful as she always was for a couple of days after her sister left. The brothers sat in companionable silence, drinking their cold beers as warmth radiated from the land. Above them, stars began to push through the fabric of the twilight to glint and sparkle. Nick stared up at them, thinking of a previous time he’d sat and gazed at them.

  ‘So, did you tell her?’ Pete asked, his tone casual, conversational.

  ‘Tell whom what?’

  ‘Hero. Did you finally get around to telling her that you like her?’

  Nick threw a look at his brother before turning back to the stars. ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about, mate.’

  ‘If you pull the other one, it’ll play “Oranges and Lemons”.’

  Nick closed his eyes.

  ‘I’ve nowhere else to be, so I can wait all night,’ Pete added. />
  His brother turned to look at him. Pete gave him a palms up gesture. Sometimes it annoyed the hell out of Nick that he could be read like a book by those in his family.

  ‘Right-oh,’ he said on a long exhalation. ‘Potted version. She knows I like her. God knows why any of us bother to though with that bloody mask of control she wears most of the time.’ He swigged at his bottle.

  ‘That what you fell out over?’

  ‘She tell Juliet that?’

  ‘Nope. She hasn’t told anyone anything, from what I can see,’ Pete said, quietly. ‘But you just did.’

  Nick met his brother’s eyes. They were calm, with a hint of a smile in them. Nick held the gaze for a moment, shook his head slowly and returned his attention to the midnight blue sky. He was caught and he knew it.

  ‘Does Juliet know?’

  ‘We’ve both just put two and two together.’ Pete shrugged, taking another swig of his beer. ‘Something happened at the wedding, but you told me you didn’t sleep with her—’

  ‘I didn’t,’ Nick broke in.

  ‘I believe you. But something happened. Hero took off the next day and you were like a bear with a sore head for weeks. You’re a pretty easy-going bloke these days but she really seems to know how to push your buttons. Logical thinking means either you can’t stand her, or you really like her. I might not say much, but I’ve got eyes and I know my little brother.’

  Nick let out a long sigh. Strangely, it was almost a relief that Pete knew. ‘Every time I’ve thought about it, something happens. It’s like … she’s afraid.’

  ‘Maybe she is.’

  Nick thought about that. Thought about the secret she’d told him that night. Maybe Pete was right. Could it be that she did care about him but she was afraid that, if she made a step towards him, held out her hand to him as she had done to her mother all those years ago, he’d crush her in the same way? How could he make her believe that he’d never do that, not to her. Never to her.

  ‘I’m not sure she wants to hear it. She’s not exactly a fan of people getting too close.’

  ‘Couldn’t get much closer than she is with Joe and the kids.’

  ‘That’s different. She …’ How could Nick explain something to his brother that he didn’t understand himself. ‘Joe, and the kids, they’re innocent. She knows they’ll never hurt her, so she lets them in.’

  ‘What about you?’

  Nick dropped his eyes from the heavens, fixing his gaze somewhere out in the darkness of the land stretching away in front of him. ‘That night? Your wedding. You were giving me gip about dancing with her, so I asked her. Honestly, I expected her to send me packing but she didn’t. She gave me this look … I can’t explain it … it was like …’ He paused, remembering the moment, trying to find the right words. ‘It was like she was drowning in quicksand and I was throwing her a lifeline. For a few hours she was this completely different person to the one she’d been up to then. All we see is this stunning, confident, kind of snooty woman but that night I got to see someone even more special, more beautiful.’ He took a last swig of his beer then let it rest on his thigh, worrying the label with his fingernails.

  ‘I guess she regretted opening up to me because she left the next day and she’s never let me anywhere near that close again. I wish to God she would. I know she lives in a different world, not to mention the other side of it, but …’ He didn’t need to finish the sentence. Pete understood.

  ‘I’ve been trying to take it easy, play along, but that bloody mask doesn’t crack. All this time and I’m still no nearer to her. I tried to just forget, chalk it up to experience and move on, but I can’t. I just end up comparing everyone to her and no one comes up to scratch.’ He raked a hand through his hair before tipping his head back, exhaling a long, low breath. ‘I said stuff I probably shouldn’t have, but I was just so bloody frustrated. I just wanted a reaction!’

  ‘Well, it looks like you got your wish.’

  Nick pulled a face. ‘Thanks for your support.’

  Pete shrugged.

  ‘Does Juliet still think Hero went back early for a work thing?’

  ‘For the moment.’ Low light filtered through from the dining room and Pete used it to study his beer bottle. ‘Hero did a pretty good job of convincing her whilst she was busy defending you.’

  ‘She only defended me because she didn’t want Juliet and I to fall out. Hero may be selfish but she’s not stupid. She knows we all have to live and work here together.’

  ‘She’s not selfish, Nick, and you know it.’

  Nick turned at the serious tone his brother’s voice had taken on.

  ‘We were lucky. We had a loving, stable childhood. Those two girls were put in boarding schools whenever possible and farmed out to distant relatives when it wasn’t. That’s going to leave anyone with a scar. People deal with things differently. Juliet’s managed things a little better than Hero, maybe because she was older, but the truth is, sometimes we need to make allowances.’

  Nick moved his attention back to the swathes of dark land in front of him. Juliet had managed things better than her sister, that was true, but only he and Hero knew the true reason for that. And as much as she drove him up the wall, she’d confided in him and he would take that secret to the grave.

  ‘Look, I’m not saying Hero’s perfect.’ Pete shrugged. ‘Who is? And yes, she can be hard to figure out at times, but I think she’s worth the effort. And you do too, or you wouldn’t be getting so worked up about it.’

  Nick tipped his head back and stretched his neck, rolling his head first to one side, then the other.

  ‘Just give her a break, mate. OK? Next time she comes, start again. She’s never had anyone but Juliet and then I stole her all the way out here. It’s a strange kind of world she lives in, being judged on nothing but purely how she looks. It’s no wonder she’s built up some defences.’

  Nick winced as he cast his mind back to the parting words he had fired at Hero earlier.

  Pete turned, catching his brother’s expression. ‘Oh, no. I know that look. What did you do?’

  Nick gave him the highlights of the argument he’d had with Hero earlier that day.

  Pete rolled his eyes. ‘Oh bloody hell, mate. I thought you’d calmed down as you got older.’

  ‘I know, I know.’ Nick held up his hands, palms out. ‘She just makes me so … argh!’

  ‘Yeah, I know. And that’s exactly why it bothers you so much.’ Pete stood, his arms reaching for the sky as he stretched. ‘Don’t worry, mate.’ He clapped his brother’s shoulder as he headed for the door. ‘She’ll be all right. Don’t worry. Juliet got her to promise to visit again soon. Just start again then.’

  ***

  ‘We totally should have done this ages ago,’ Anya said, tossing her bag into the boot of Hero’s classic MG Midget.

  ‘We should.’ Hero agreed, hurriedly shutting the boot and scooting around to the driver’s side, trying to get out of the teeming rain as quick as possible. Every time she came back to London after staying with her sister out on the station, it seemed colder and greyer. She’d walked out of Heathrow Airport a few days before New Year’s into torrential rain, and it had barely stopped since.

  ‘I’m sorry I’ve not spent as much time with you as I should have lately. I am a bad friend.’

  ‘Oh, don’t be silly,’ Hero replied, plugging in her seatbelt. ‘We’ve both been busy, and you have a very good excuse in that you’re planning a wedding, as well as getting things in place to open your restaurant, not to mention house hunting back in Sweden.’

  Hero checked her mirrors and pulled out into the busy London traffic. Rain hammered on the roof and windscreen as its little wipers swished on double speed.

  ‘You do promise to come and visit when I go back?’

  Hero flashed her a brief glance of acknowledgement before returning her eyes and concentration on the road in front of them. ‘Just try and stop me. Anyway, we’re going to be together more fo
r a while with this new contract. You might be sick of me once we’ve got all these shoots done.’ Hero grinned.

  ‘Ha! Never. I think it’s going to be fun doing this together.’

  ‘Me too.’

  The contract with Sacha Cosmetics was a huge deal with both women signed up for the next three years. Sacha had broken away from the mould with this new planned campaign, opting for two looks instead of the traditional association of one face for the brand. Anya, with her blonde, fair Nordic looks was to be their spring/summer/daytime face whilst Hero’s dark hair and jewel-green eyes made her perfect to carry the mantle of the autumn/winter/evening look. Top names had been vying for the contract, but a twist of fate had intervened. One of Sacha’s executives, stepping out of a meeting to take a telephone call, let her gaze drift as she listened to the caller drone. Further down the hall, she noticed two women enter an adjoining office together. The shining dark hair of one had contrasted with her colleague’s fair looks and a lightbulb pinged bright in the exec’s brain.

  The security of the deal gave Anya the freedom she’d been aiming for to concentrate on other areas of her life which were now taking precedence. Modelling had funded her true dream and this joint contract alongside Hero would keep finances topped up as she began a new stage of life. For Hero, not only did it give her the same guarantee of security as Anya, but even more than that, it meant the joy of working alongside her friend.

  Anya looked around, her bright smile a contrast to the miserable winter weather outside. ‘I love this little car. It’s so cosy!’

  ‘Isn’t that just another word for small?’

  ‘No! It’s super cute. I’m so glad you bought it.’