by Flora Burgos
"Extenuating circumstances? I-I've got to go to bed. I can't. I need to think." She raced from the room, never touching her milk, and slammed the door to her room shut in a panic. Her mind was a raging whirlwind. She slid down the wall and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to process everything her father had said, and dozed off in that position.
When she woke several hours later, it was already well past daylight and well past time for her to do her chores. Even though fall was creeping into winter, Texas had yet to get the memo, and it was a warm, sunny day. She knew there was a cold front in the forecast for that day, which meant rain and cooling weather, but for the time being, shorts and boots would be appropriate to muck stalls and gather eggs, so she washed her face, got dressed, and grabbed the key to the La Barron Ranch house before rushing downstairs. Her mom was standing in the kitchen when she skidded to a halt in the doorway. "Court, slow your roll. Your daddy is up and getting the chores done. He's feeling better, and he's feeling a bit guilty for laying so much on you last night in a not nice way."
"Mama, that's not cool. If he's not feeling well, I can take care of things."
"Court, let your dad do this. He needs to work through his own emotions right now, too, darling girl. He's hurting for you, and he's lost on how to navigate this situation without losing his only daughter."
Courtney stiffened where she had leaned against the doorjamb. "That's just ridiculous. Why on earth would he lose me? Besides, aren't you the one I'm supposed to be upset with?"
Her mama started to laugh and walked her way, pausing in front of her to rest a hand on her cheek. "Baby, you feel your emotions strongly, and you lead with them, but you're logical and you know neither of us meant any harm, so I figured you were over it. But your dad has felt it pretty hard not having you here when he was certain that you would always be his shadow, so now he's worried you're gonna take off again today and he will lose you for another eight years."
"Are you saying you didn't miss me?" Courtney asked with a laugh.
"Nope, I've missed you every single day you've been away, but you are your mother’s daughter. I knew you would need to stretch your wings before you could settle. If your dad had taken the time to remember how hard he had to chase me, he would have known that it wouldn't be that easy either. Now, then, you have an unpleasant chore to take care of this morning, and weather is coming in. Looks like it’s going to be sooner rather than later, so you need to grab a bite to eat and get the unpleasantness out of the way."
"Oh, Mom, nothing like your no-nonsense go-get-em attitude."
"Well, have a seat and at least eat a biscuit while I go get the ring and an envelope."
Great. The ring.
Courtney took a bite of the biscuit and swallowed, but it felt like lead in her stomach, so she tossed the rest in the trash, sacrilege in her mothers' kitchen but unavoidable now that her mind was on her task at hand. She heard her mom coming back into the room as she heard the wind outside start to pick up and saw the clouds were darkening.
I mean, could the weather be any more perfect for the situation?
She sat back down at the table and was focused on deep breathing to stay calm while her mom made her way toward her. She set the ring on the table in front of Courtney, and she could swear that she felt her heart rip even further. There it was in all its glory. All the hopes and dreams she had held close to her heart, yet now it was just a gold band with a solitaire diamond. Hesitantly, she reached just one finger out to touch it, prepared to jerk back, almost as if she expected it to shock her. She gently touched it and then pulled her hand back and reached into her pocket, pulling out the key to hand to her mother. "Can you put them both in the envelope? I'll go grab my keys and take them over now."
She didn't look back on her way to grab her keys, and she was thankful when she came back that her mom had put them in the envelope and sealed it, writing Cole's name in her scrawling handwriting. Courtney stopped to kiss her mom’s cheek and shoved the envelope in her back pocket before going out to her car to make the journey one final time.
Chapter 7
THE RAIN WAS POURING, which was appropriate given her frame of mind, but it sucked out loud because her little Audi wasn't built for ranch roads that were washed out from the torrential rain. The sky hadn't just opened up, but it was currently doing what Dev called 'raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock.'
When her wheel jerked out of her hand and she hit the ditch, she only groaned. After all, things like this happened, and as long as she didn't do any major damage to her car, her dad could more than likely take care of any damage. Nope, what set her to cussing was that there was no signal on her phone. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. And the damn rain wasn't showing any sign of letting up, so for the time being, she was stuck like Chuck.
She had sat there for a good twenty minutes until she saw headlights in her rearview mirror, but she couldn't make out the person or form an idea of who the truck belonged to because her windows were fogged up from lack of air ventilation. But she figured it was her dad since he would know where she was going and that she was in her car. She didn't even think about it when she opened her door and hopped out into the pouring rain. And then she froze as her whole world came to a screeching stop.
It can’t be.
But it is.
There he is. Cole La Barron up close and in person.
As her heart seized in her chest, she wondered vaguely if she was too young to have a heart attack because that is certainly what it felt like as she stood there watching him make his way toward her. His steps didn't falter, and his gaze didn't waver from her as he came closer and closer. She still hadn't taken a breath and couldn't even feel the rain falling anymore as he drew to a stop in front of her. She noticed that the rain was bouncing off his cowboy hat and that he had dark circles under his eyes. And there was certainly more of him than there had been before, but she couldn't tell if she still had legs or if she was drawing in a breath, so surreal was the situation. Finally, he stopped in front of her, and they stared at one another for the first time in years, neither speaking for long moments until he broke their silence. “Christ, Baby Girl, you are soaked. What the hell are you doing out here in that death trap of a car in this weather? It's stuck until this shit clears up, at the earliest. Get in my truck and let’s get you to the house and warmed up.”
Suddenly, she freaked out and started yelling, “Cole, I am not going back to your damn house! Just... just go the hell away, crawl back into whatever hole you left, and leave me alone! I’ll sit here until the rain slows and call a wrecker.”
Her yelling rubbed him the wrong way, and he snapped, “The hell you will. You’re done. You aren’t running off and hiding anymore, and you sure as FUCK are not sitting here in this storm by yourself. I ain’t telling you again, Court. Get. Your. Ass. In. The. Truck.”
Standing there in cut-off shorts, her boots getting more and more flooded by the second and her tee now stuck to her in a way that left nothing to the imagination—not that he needed it since he knew every inch of her body—she knew her bra was visible as her chest heaved. And she knew she looked like a drowned rat, her blonde hair straggly and soaked, yet all Courtney could feel was panic. She couldn’t be alone with him. She didn’t want to see him.
She closed her eyes as her heart squeezed. God, why couldn’t this all be a dream?
I would have happily lived the rest of my life never laying eyes on him again. All I was supposed to do was leave the envelope and move on with my life. This isn’t some fairy tale where I run into him and we live happily ever after. This is life, and he was supposed to be anywhere but here.
Opening her eyes, she knew she didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t stand out here in this storm. The whip of the wind and the lashing rain matched the way she felt inside, and she could only imagine he felt the same. With a sigh of resignation, she nodded, and the fight drained out of her.
“Ok, alright," he sighed. "Let’s get you back to the h
ouse and go from there.” Cole walked around her and held open the door, so she could climb into the warm cab. She could feel the temperature of her body slowly rising, but her heart and her soul felt frozen, coated in ice and brittle, on the verge of shattering if she so much as trembled. Cole climbed into the truck and rubbed his hands together, blowing into them a couple of times before holding them up to the vent and letting the heat warm him. “Ba—”
“Cole? Can you please, please not call me that? I’m sorry. I just can’t handle it.”
Cole's posture dropped, and his shoulders were set in the same defeat as hers. “Sure, Court.” Whatever else he was going to say, he dropped it and put the truck into gear. They made the rest of the trip down the road to his house in silence, and it wasn't until he pulled into the drive that he asked, "Can I ask what brought you out this way in this weather? I didn't even know you were in town."
"I, uh, well, I didn't know you were in town either. I was coming by to drop some stuff off before I take off again. Mama reminded me that she still had some of your things."
The air in the cab of the truck went electric when he asked carefully, "Some of my things?" He put the truck in park and killed the engine. "What kind of things does your mama have of mine, Courtney?"
Suddenly, she was hesitant to tell him. She couldn't see a graceful way to have this conversation and still stay at his house until the weather calmed. Hoping that he would go with it, at least temporarily, she said instead, "Cole, do you happen to have a cell phone on you? Mine didn't have any service, and anyway, I forgot it in the car and need to give Dad a call to let him know about my car."
"Got a house phone inside with service, Court, but that doesn't answer my question. What stuff of mine does your mama have?"
"Well, she doesn't have it anymore. I have it. And, uh, well, let’s go inside so I can give my folks a call, and then we can talk, yeah?"
Cole laughed bitterly. "Yeah, Courtney, let's go inside and fucking talk." He got out of the truck and slammed the door. Before he had a chance to cross to her side, she hurried out of the cab as well and slammed her door behind her. Now, she found that she was angry and no longer had any desire whatsoever to tread carefully. Therefore, she proceeded to lose her ever-loving mind when she met him at the front of the truck. Neither seemed to notice or care about the rain as she ranted, "Alright, asshole, you wanna know what it is? Your fucking ring and your stupid, stupid house key. There's no point in me having either when the promises they were made with are LIES and you are married to someone ELSE." When she yanked the envelope out of her shorts, it was damp and water-damaged. She stomped through the mud and slammed it against his chest. "So, take your empty promises and all of your lies and do me one last favor and let me use your PHONE!"
He crumpled the envelope in his fist and practically growled at her, "I divorced the bitch a long time ago, Courtney."
"Oh great! Awesome. Then, by all means, let me line up so I can finally get my turn. And a divorce? That wouldn't have been necessary if you hadn't slept with her, COLE. I was supposed to be the mother of your children. ME, not her. Not anyone else. Me. I was supposed to love you every day of your life and give you babies and help you run this"—she threw a hand wide to encompass the ranch they stood on—"ranch, but you threw that and me away. You were supposed to love me every day of your life, but only one of us actually did that, right? And it sure as FUCK wasn't you."
His face was ravaged, and he looked shattered as tears mixed with the rain and Courtney's voice broke as she screamed at him. He could see up close the damage he had caused, and it was instinctual when he grabbed her arm and yanked her inside. When Courtney screeched those three earth-shattering words, he lost his grip on control and was desperate to do anything he could to disprove the words she screeched. "I. HATE. YOU."
The intensity of their passion took them both by surprise, and before they realized it, they were tearing clothes off one another. It was Cole who pulled back first, and as if she were in a dream reality, one where she had no clue about their past, she heard herself saying to him, "Cole La Barron, I swear to heaven above that if you stop now, I really will kill you!"
He laughed softly, and even though he knew there would be a battle and explanations to be made as well as years and years to make up for, for the first time in almost a decade, he had some hope.
He should have taken the time to explain everything to her. He should have stayed on alert. He should have done anything other than what he did, because that carelessness almost cost a woman her life and changed everyone else’s lives from that moment forward. Dozing off, the woman he loved naked in his arms, he didn't consider the repercussions. He didn't notice that her eyes never closed, that tears silently tracked down her cheeks. He should have. But instead, he fell asleep feeling peace for the first time in years.
Chapter 8
COURTNEY LAY AS STILL as she could until she was certain that he was asleep. It was surprising that after all these years, she was still so attuned to him, but given what had just happened, maybe not. Once she heard the soft snores coming from him and his grip loosened just a bit, she eased his arm up and off her and quickly grabbed her clothes before running out of the room and dressing in the hall. Desperate, she searched for the landline phone, and when she found it, she covered the phone with her palm to quiet the beeping of the digits. She was grateful that her dad answered on the barn phone, and quickly she said, "Daddy, I went by the La Barron place to drop off the stuff and got my car stuck. Can you come help me get it out of the ditch?"
"Sure thing, Firecracker. I'll be there in about ten minutes."
"Ok, Dad, thanks."
She hung up the phone and looked out the kitchen window to see that the rain had stopped, so she hurried to the door. On her way there, the envelope she had thrown into Cole's chest outside caught her attention. She picked it up off the floor, where he must have dropped it in their frenzy to undress one another and took it to the bar, carefully straightening the wrinkles in the paper where it was creased from his fist, and she set it down and put the phone on top of it so he would find it. Then, without looking back, she walked out the door of the house that she had once planned to call home and began the long walk to her car in soaked clothes and squeaky boots.
By the time she got to her car, her dad had just hooked it up to his hitch and was about to pull it loose, but he quickly threw his truck into park and jumped out, shrugging out of his jacket and nearly jogging to his daughter. "Jesus H. Christ, girl. What the hell? Why are you so soaked? It's frigid out here. That rain brought the weather in, and it's supposed to freeze tonight. What are you thinking? I'm sure those boys wouldn't have minded if you had hung out at their house until I could come get you."
She walked right into him, ignoring the jacket, and said, "D-d-dad, Cole is there. I couldn't stay."
"Oh, man. Ok. Courtney, get in the truck. After I pull your car loose, we'll head home."
She didn't say anything else, just took the jacket he still held, climbed into his truck, and waited until he had her car loose and had taken her keys and started it. He pulled down the road and turned the car around before bringing it back pointing in the opposite direction. That was when she climbed out of his truck and walked toward him. "I'm gonna turn this truck around and head that way. You get on home and get warmed up. No need to wait on me."
She was so shell-shocked that she just nodded and didn't question him. She climbed into her car and drove home as quickly as she dared, and as soon as she got there, she hurried to the shower and changed. She didn't think anything of the fact that her dad still hadn't made it home as she threw an overnight bag together and planned on the fly to drop in on Ev. He wouldn't mind, and even if he was in the thick of fixing things with Katherine, she could at least stay at his place while she got her head together and called her brother. She didn't know, couldn't have known, that when she walked away from Katherine Dunlap's house, she would be a changed woman. Nearly causing the death of anoth
er human being would do that to a person.
While Courtney was planning her runner, she had no idea that her dad was beating on Cole's door, who woke up alone and finally got a taste of what she had felt for the last several years. It was eye-opening for him, which was when he made a decision once and for all.
Chapter 9
IT WAS COMING ON DUSK when Courtney pulled into Katherine's driveway and parked. It was a tad warmer there, which was a little further north than where Courtney's parents lived, but it was nowhere near as warm as the day had started out. Courtney climbed out of her car and knocked on the door. She was relieved that Ev was the one who opened the door. She didn't even take in his state of undress; she just threw herself into his arms.
"Ev, I've missed you, darlin'!"
He hugged her even though she could hear the annoyance in his voice when he said, "Court, I told you the other day that I'd be down there in a week or two. Couldn't this have waited? I'm kind of in the middle of something right now."
She sniffled quietly, but he must have caught it because when she said, "Or someone. Are you trying to make me jealous, Ev?" his tone changed, and he played along for a minute.
"As if you'd be jealous of an old cowboy like me. We both know you've got your eye on someone else, and I don’t have a chance.”
She was eternally grateful for his playfulness, and in the same vein, she responded, "Buddy, I'd marry you in a second. Let's get out of here."
He stiffened, and she knew she had taken it too far when he said, "Oh, yeah, well, I like being on friendly terms with your brother and your ex, so let's keep it our little secret, yeah?"