by Linda Seed
Colin called Ryan and set it up, and before he knew it, Drew was mounted atop a big chestnut mare, following Ryan out into a golden brown pasture.
The fences in the northeast pasture needed checking, and they’d been doing that for the better part of an hour when Ryan got a call on his cell phone that Megan was here, wanting to examine the heifer.
Ryan told her he’d meet her, and he turned his horse around to head back toward the barn.
“I’ll go,” Drew offered, trying not to sound obvious. “I mean, if you want. It’d give you a chance to finish with the fences.”
Ryan looked at him appraisingly. “You don’t know much about cattle,” he observed mildly.
“I don’t know anything about cattle,” Drew said. “But I figure Megan knows enough for both of us. All I have to do is be there, right?”
“Well, I guess that’s about right,” Ryan said.
“I can call you if anything comes up. If there’s a problem.” To himself, he sounded like a thirteen-year-old making a case for why he was old enough to babysit his younger brother.
After a moment, Ryan nodded. “All right, then. I wouldn’t mind finishing up with this. It’ll save me having to come back out here later.”
As Drew rode back toward the barn, he felt the giddy anticipation of seeing Megan again. The events that took place inside the utility closet the day before ran over and over in his mind—which made sitting in the saddle a little uncomfortable.
He still didn’t know what he was going to tell her about his plans, though. He decided to stay flexible until he spoke to her. He would pack up his place on Salt Spring Island and move down here without hesitation if she wanted him to. But things between them were so new, he wasn’t sure that was what she wanted.
He’d have to feel her out—hopefully, in more ways than one.
When he got to the barn, she was already there with her veterinary bag in her hand, looking ridiculously sexy in jeans, battered boots, and a T-shirt that hugged the same curves he’d so recently become intimately acquainted with.
She’d been expecting to see Ryan, so when Drew came into the barn instead, her eyes widened.
“Where’s Ryan?” she said.
“He’s out in the pasture. He sent me.”
A slow grin spread across her face. “Really.”
“Really. You’ll just have to make do.”
He didn’t even pretend to be there for the sake of the post-operative cow. Instead, he went to her and laid his hands lightly on her hips.
“I was wondering when I’d get to see you,” he said, his voice low.
He leaned in for a kiss, and she melted into him as though she’d done it a thousand times, as though her body were made for it.
Neither of them was aware of anything but each other. If they had been, they’d have heard the sound of someone coming into the barn—or, more accurately, someone hobbling into the barn on crutches.
“We can find another goddamned vet if you can’t keep your mind on the job.”
At the sound of Liam’s voice, Drew and Megan pulled apart as though they’d been electrocuted. Megan stared at Liam, and her hand flew to cover her mouth.
“Liam.”
He turned around on the crutches and went back out the door and into the bright afternoon.
“Oh, no,” Megan moaned, and ran out the door after him.
Only then did Drew notice Orin standing just inside the barn door. Of course Liam wasn’t alone; he’d have needed someone to drive him here from the house.
“Well,” Orin said. He rubbed the back of his neck with his thick hands and looked at Drew with more than a little discomfort. “This doesn’t look good, son.”
When Megan got to Liam, he was sitting in the passenger seat of Orin’s truck, concentrating on the task of not looking at her. She ran to his side of the truck and pleaded with him through the open window, her hands grasping the door frame.
“Liam. I can explain.”
Even as she said it, she felt like a fool. How exactly could she explain what he’d just seen? Was there anything—truth or fiction—she could say that would make him feel better about seeing her kissing Drew?
“How are you gonna explain that?” he said, as though he’d read her thoughts. “You’re gonna tell me he wasn’t really kissing you? And you weren’t really kissing him back? You had something in your eye maybe, and he was just trying to help? Is that what you’re going to tell me, Megan?” He still refused to look at her, focusing instead on a spot on the dashboard.
Her eyes filled with hot tears. “No.”
She’d thought that if he found out about her and Drew, he’d react with explosive anger, that he would yell or throw things, or try to hit Drew. Instead, he just sat there speaking to her in a tone that was cold and controlled. His face looked stricken, and that was so much worse than the anger would have been.
“I suppose you’re also going to tell me that this didn’t start until after we broke up.” He finally turned his cold gaze on her. “Don’t you dare say that, Megan. Because it’s bullshit, and we both know it.”
The tears that had been gathering in her eyes began to fall.
Orin came out, climbed into the driver’s side of the truck, and started the engine.
“You’re gonna want to step back from the truck, Dr. Scott,” Orin said.
She did, and he drove away from the barn and back toward the house, a cloud of dust rising up behind them.
Dr. Scott.
She’d thought of the Delaneys as her family—had thought of Orin as a kind of second father. Hearing him address her that way made her realize just how much damage she’d done.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Drew had never much liked Liam. Everybody knew that; it was pretty much accepted as a fact of life.
But he hadn’t meant for Liam to see what he’d seen, and he hadn’t meant for the man to feel the way he probably felt.
He got back to the house a little after Liam to find Orin sitting in his usual chair by the fireplace, staring grimly at the wall, and Liam nowhere in sight.
“Where is he?” Drew said.
Sandra came out of the kitchen, and the stern look she gave him told him that Orin had already filled her in.
“I don’t think he much wants to see you right now, boy,” she said.
“I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles. “I need to talk to him. I need to make it right.”
Orin scoffed. “You move in on a man’s girl, there’s no way to make that right.” He still didn’t make eye contact with Drew.
“Sandra, where is he?” Drew said.
She crossed her arms over her chest and grunted, then gestured with her chin toward the back hallway. “Downstairs bedroom, first door on the right.”
“Now, Sandra …” Orin started to protest.
“The boy wants to face him like a man. I figure he’s got a right to do that, and Liam’s got a right to have his say.” She looked at Drew. “Go on, now.”
Drew’s heart was hammering when he came to the door. He knocked softly, and when there was no answer, he eased open the door and peeked in.
“What the fuck do you want?” Liam barked at him. He was stretched out on a twin-sized bed in a small bedroom that was sparsely furnished with a bookcase and a chest of drawers.
Drew had come here determined to talk to Liam, but now that he was here, he didn’t know what to say.
What strategy had he planned for this moment? An excuse? An explanation? Some sort of rationale for why Liam hadn’t really seen what he thought he’d seen?
He figured there was only one thing Liam really needed to hear.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Liam glared at him from his spot on the bed, his injured leg stretched out in front of him, his head propped up on a pillow.
“Ah, just … fuck off.”
Drew stood there a moment, then went out and started
to close the door. It was almost closed when Liam said, “I knew it. I fuckin’ knew it.”
Drew opened the door again and waited.
“Ryan called to tell Dad that you and Megan were out in the barn. Wanted him to check on you, make sure you had things under control with the heifer.” He let out an angry puff of air through his teeth. “I was pretty sure what I’d see if I went out there. And I was goddamned right.” He shot a glare at Drew. “Predictable son of a bitch.”
Drew blinked in surprise. “You knew?”
“Of course I goddamned knew. Everybody knew. I’m not blind or stupid.”
Drew felt like a fool, and more than that, he felt the shame of having been needlessly cruel.
“Liam … ”
“Just get the hell out.” Liam leaned back and put his forearm over his eyes, a clear signal that this conversation was over.
Drew didn’t know what he was going to do now, but he figured he wasn’t welcome in the Delaney house at the moment. He headed through the front room and out the door without talking to anyone.
He was all the way down the front steps and halfway to his car when Sandra called to him from the front porch.
“Drew.”
He turned around and faced her without a word.
“Well, it looks like you’ve made a mess of things,” she said.
“Looks like.”
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
If she was suggesting that he shouldn’t leave, that he shouldn’t drive away from the ranch and never come back, then there was no accounting for it.
“I figure I’m pretty unwanted here around now,” he told her.
“Oh, that’s so much bullshit, and you know it.” She came down the porch stairs and stood in front of him, her hands on her narrow hips, face tight and hard like a fist. “I won’t pretend you didn’t make things harder for yourself with Liam, because by God, you did. But if you’re planning to run out of here and flee back to Canada, then you’re not the man I thought you were.”
He rubbed his eyes with the fingers of one hand. “Sandra …”
“Don’t pretend you weren’t thinking it. You run and hide—it’s what you do. But Liam’s your family, and family doesn’t stop just because you’re off hiding out in a hole somewhere.”
“I wasn’t—”
“And what do you think’s going to happen between you and Megan if you run away like a scared rabbit?” She grunted. “You may be willing to pretend you never knew any of us, but are you going to do the same thing with her?”
“I … no.” The truth was, he hadn’t known what he was going to do when he rushed out of the house moments before. His first instinct had been to head to the airport and get on a plane.
“I thought …” He sighed and looked at the brown earth that stood between him and Sandra. “I really thought it was time to make peace with everything. I was going to try. But Liam …”
“Liam’s hurt and angry, and he’s got his pride,” Sandra said, her voice softer now. “But he knew things weren’t working between him and Megan, son. He already knew that much.”
“He’s never going to forgive me,” Drew said.
Sandra grunted. “Well, he might not. But he didn’t throw a lamp at your head. I figure that’s gotta count for something.”
Megan knew better than to try to talk to Liam this soon after what had happened. So she spent a couple of minutes crying about it in the barn, and then she wiped her face and got on with the job she’d come here to do.
The heifer was being kept in a stall until her incision healed, and Megan went in, determined to focus on her work.
She was pleased with what she saw. The animal was up and allowing her calf to nurse. The incision looked good, with no signs of infection.
Megan went through the steps of a post-op exam, then crossed to the sink at one end of the big barn and washed her hands.
Where was Drew?
She wanted to think that he wouldn’t run away after what had happened, but she knew he had a history of hiding out when things got difficult. She wasn’t one hundred percent confident that he would stay to work things out. And that realization made her wonder—not for the first time—if she’d lost her mind, falling for him so quickly.
She loaded her veterinary bag into her truck and thought about what to do. She couldn’t talk to Liam, not yet. But what about Drew? Should she call him? Should she try to find him, maybe at his hotel?
She thought about it as she drove off of the ranch property and back toward town. She was still contemplating her choices when a call came in over the Bluetooth in her truck.
When Megan answered the call, Breanna launched into it.
“Holy crap, Megan. What happened? Liam’s got himself closed up in the downstairs room, Dad’s pissed, and Mom is walking around grumbling and banging pots. Nobody’s talking, but I got the sense it’s got something to do with you.”
“It does.” Megan turned the truck onto Highway 1 south toward Main Street. As she drove, she told Breanna about what had happened at the barn.
“Oh, crap.” Breanna sounded equal parts horrified and impressed at the sheer size of the shitstorm Megan and Drew had created.
“And now I don’t know what to do!” Megan moaned. “I can’t talk to Liam yet, because he’s probably too hurt and pissed. And I’m not even sure what to do about Drew! He’s going to run, I just know it. He’s going to hop on a plane without even saying goodbye, and he’s going to disappear into the wilds of British Columbia, never to be heard from again.”
“Oh, come on. I’m sure he won’t—”
“It’s what he does!” Megan wailed. “When he found out about Redmond, he ran away! And then, when Colin found him and told him about the inheritance, he got out of here as fast as he could and didn’t come back for two years! He wouldn’t have ever come back if it hadn’t been for Julia and the wedding. He runs! When he feels trapped, or confused, or overwhelmed … he hides like a rabbit in a damned burrow!”
Saying it all out loud, Megan realized maybe for the first time how true it was—and how much it didn’t bode well for any future relationship.
Breanna let out a sigh. “I want to tell you you’re wrong, but … you’re not.”
“I’m not! I know I’m not!”
As she drove toward her clinic, Megan suddenly understood what she had to do.
Nothing.
If Drew was going to run away from Cambria, from the Delaneys—from her, it was better to know now than later. Better to understand that he wouldn’t stick right now, before she upended her life for him any more than she already had.
Otherwise, they might be living together or even married before something came up—an argument over money, or living arrangements, or exes, or children—that would prompt him to go back into his hole and leave her alone and devastated.
It was better to know now. It was better to stand back quietly and wait to see what he was going to do.
“Megan? You got quiet,” Breanna said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she said finally. “Yes. I’m okay. This sucks, but I’m okay.”
“What are you going to do about Drew?” Breanna asked. “I mean … do you really think he’s going to just leave? Just like that?”
“We’ll see.”
“Oh, boy,” Breanna said, her voice full of dread.
Chapter Thirty
Julia heard about what Drew thought of as The Barn Incident sooner than he’d expected. He’d thought she would be somewhat out of the loop because of the inevitable post-wedding fog, but he’d been wrong.
She called him just as he was getting back to his hotel. He thought about ignoring the call, but she would just keep calling until he picked up. Might as well get it over with now.
“You idiot,” she said. “Damn it, Drew.”
“You heard,” he said mildly.
“Yes, I heard! I heard that you got caught making out with Liam’s girlfriend, and now my whole n
ew family of in-laws is upset, and this is not what I had in mind as I pack for my honeymoon!”
His shoulders slumped as he let himself into his room. “I’m sorry, Jules.”
“Are you? Are you really? Because I’m pretty sure I warned you that something like this was going to happen.”
“I don’t think you did, actually.”
“Well, I was thinking it!”
What she’d told him was to keep his pants on at the reception—which he hadn’t done. But what she’d meant was, Don’t do anything stupid. If failing to be stupid had been his goal, then he’d failed spectacularly.
He sat down heavily on the bed, the phone to his ear.
“Listen, Julia …”
He’d meant to reassure her somehow, to give her reasons why she need not be alarmed by the blowup between him and her new family. But the reasons wouldn't come. When it came time to offer them, he had nothing.
“What?” she demanded. “What, Drew?”
“Hell, I don’t know.” He lay back on the bed, feeling defeated.
“What are you going to do?” she said. “Are you and Megan a couple now? How are you going to face Liam? You two already didn’t get along. Did you know that his last girlfriend—the one before Megan—cheated on him? And he caught her with somebody else? That was years ago, Drew, and he still hasn’t gotten over it! But he trusted Megan. And now this.”
She sounded as disgusted with him as he felt with himself.
“I’m sorry, Julia.”
Her voice softened a little, probably in response to how miserable he sounded.
“You should probably spend less time being sorry and more time figuring out how you’re going to fix all this.”
“I don’t know that it can be fixed.”
“I don’t either. But you’re going to try.”
The thing was, it would make so much more sense to deal with this after everything settled down. Right now, emotions were high. Feelings were raw. People were going to be irrational. But if he gave it a little time—a couple of months, say—then everyone would have gained some perspective.