“Mase, I didn’t think you were coming home till tomorrow afternoon!”
Mason was grinning from ear to ear, obviously just as excited to see her and she was him. “Daddy has to go back to work early. He’s really busy.”
Chad stayed silent as he rounded the corner, only giving Katie a brief nod and grin as he set to work making a coffee for himself. He was a bit surprised at the matter-of-fact way Mason explained it to her, sounding wise beyond his years. Unfortunately, it also sounded like this wasn’t the first time he’d had to give such an explanation. The screen door slammed again, announcing Jay’s arrival, and Katie looked up to meet his gaze.
“Of course he is, Mase.” The remark was laden with bitterness. As though reining it in and holding herself in check, Katie returned her stare to her son and smiled widely. “Well, good. Now we have all day to hang out here together.”
“Can I search for the kittens at the barn?” Mason asked hopefully. Katie had mentioned a few days ago that one of the barn cats had delivered kittens, but she wasn’t sure where, and Chad had a pretty good clue where they were after spending the night out at the barn, but he remained quiet, focusing his attention on the gently swaying trees outside the window above the sink, not wanting to intrude any more than he already felt he was. Jay, however, obviously didn’t feel like he was intruding at all.
“Katie, I need to talk to you, if you don’t mind.” His words were sharp, and when his gaze flitted momentarily to him, Chad knew exactly what that talk was going to be about.
“How about you go get changed into some old clothes and we’ll head out to the barn in a few minutes to look for them, okay? I have to check on the horses, anyway.” Content with her answer, Mason took off in a sprint toward his bedroom. With him out of earshot, the expressions on both Katie’s and Jay’s faces turned murderous, giving Chad every desire to escape the room, too. He pushed away from the counter and headed toward the door, intent on sitting on the porch with his coffee until Mason’s parents had the time needed to talk amongst themselves. Jay surprised him by holding his arm out, blocking Chad’s way.
“You can stay. I want you to hear what I have to say, and I want you to hear it loud and clear.” A long stare resulted between the two men, and Chad inhaled deeply, struggling to remain indifferent to the disrespectful tone Jay was conveying toward him. He merely nodded in response.
“I don’t know what you two have going on—” Jay began.
Katie stood swiftly. “Excuse me? I don’t know what you think you know, but—”
“I know exactly what this looks like, Katie—”
“You know absolutely nothing!”
“It’s not good for our son to have some guy you don’t—”
“Good for our son? What exactly would you know about that?” Katie spat at him.
Jay ignored her remark, pointing toward Chad. He pushed the middle of his chest with his outstretched finger. Chad arched an eyebrow, his aggravation growing stronger with each passing moment.
Jay continued. “This guy shouldn’t be—”
“He helps me around here. That’s more than—”
“Oh, I’ll bet he does.”
The way Jay said it, so ignorantly and blatantly disrespectfully toward Katie, the woman he’d once wanted to marry, ignited a fire in Chad that he could no longer control.
Silently, he set his coffee on top of the fridge, the only flat surface close by, and then swiftly grabbed Jay by the throat, pushing him against the wall behind him. The phone clattered to the floor, dangling by its spiraled cord.
“You want to rephrase that, Jay?” Chad hissed the question at him, ignoring Katie’s gasps behind him, his eyes never wavering as he held him in place. Jay struggled against the pressure Chad held on him, but it was a futile effort. Jay might have been the taller of the two, but Chad was easily the stronger one, and both men knew it.
“I work here, that’s it.” Chad took the muffled silence in the room as an opportunity to set the record straight, tired already of the wicked back-and-forth cattiness that’d taken place just moments before. Only the steel guitar from the radio speakers filled the room. “There’s nothing going on between Katie and me that isn’t purely business, and I’m not a hindrance to your son. If anything, the only thing around here that’s going to have detrimental effects on that kid is the tension and downright meanness between the two of you. So, if you won’t do it for yourself, do it for him. Be respectful to Katie, if nothing else. I don’t know about her, but I won’t tolerate anything less. Got it?”
A weak nod was felt under Chad’s fingers. As though reaching some kind of mutual understanding, Chad nodded back, releasing his hold on Jay’s throat. He turned around to see Katie standing in the middle of the kitchen, wide-eyed with her arms wrapped tightly around her. He wasn’t sure if it was fear or shock in her eyes, and he didn’t want to know. Instead, he retrieved his coffee mug from the top of the fridge and headed toward the door.
“I’ll go check on those horses for you, Katie.”
This time, Jay let him pass by without a word.
***
He almost collapsed onto the top step of the front porch after the screen door banged shut behind him. A deep breath escaped from his lungs as he tried to calm himself down, but he shook his head, frustrated at how riled he’d become.
What if Mason had come around the corner when I had his father in a chokehold?
It pained Chad to even contemplate it. He hadn’t meant to get so involved, but seeing Katie and Jay, two grown adults, treating their son like a pawn in a vindictive game had just been too much for him. And, if you added Jay’s snarky innuendo and ridiculous accusations toward Katie, then no one could blame him for intervening. Admittedly, he hadn’t realized he was so fond of Mason, fond enough to want to protect him in such an aggressive manner. But, if he was honest with himself, it wasn’t just Mason he wanted to protect.
It was Katie.
She didn’t deserve to be left alone, especially not after the heartbreaking ordeals she’d already been through. And she sure as hell didn’t deserve to be disrespected in her own home by the man who’d left her. She’d had to hire help, for God’s sake, because the man who promised to be there for her couldn’t even provide that kind of help to her. Chad tightened his grip on the coffee mug between his fingers, growing more anxious again just thinking about it.
It wasn’t his place to get involved in Jay’s matters; those didn’t concern him. However, from now on, he was going to be involved in Katie’s, offering her help in any way she sought fit.
Why?
The tightening in his chest at the thought of standing by her side and taking on the world gave him the answer, but he knew he wasn’t ready yet to admit what that answer was.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
KATIE
Katie stood on the front porch, watching the dust cloud up behind Jay’s car as it disappeared out the laneway, swerving slowly from left to right to avoid the potholes. Normally, she would have chastised herself for not having had the laneway grated properly to fix those problems, but today it was the furthest thing from her mind. Thankfully, after a quick hug and kiss on the forehead from his father, Mason had disappeared into the barn to search out the litter of kittens hidden inside. She presumed Chad was in the same general vicinity, judging by the rollicking melodies of Eric Church wafting out of the opened barn doors. Still on edge, she followed the music into the barn, the lyrics getting progressively louder as she entered.
“Chad? Mase?” She saw no one, save for the horses that stared quizzically back at her. Suddenly, a shrill shriek of laughter met her ears, and she turned her head toward the other end of the breezeway where the sound had come from. She took the few steps toward the back door and peered out around the corner. Five little furballs with various markings in black and white bobbed up and down around Mason, who sat cross-legged on the ground outside the feed supply room. Chad knelt beside him, waving his finger from side to side in f
ront of Mason, which caused the kittens to follow, tripping and toppling over one another as they went. Mason squealed with delight again, laughing so hard that Katie was sure she could see the glint of joyful tears on the brims of his eyelids.
Instead of joining in, she withdrew back into the barn, content to fill the hay feeders and muck out the horse stalls alone. Jay may have left relatively uneventfully, but she still wasn’t yet prepared to face Chad after the altercation he’d been a part of in the kitchen.
She knew she should be angry with him, that he’d ever lay a hand on someone, let alone her ex-fiancé, in her own home. He’d also done it while Mason was there, which should have been even worse.
However, right now, all her mind and body were telling her to do was wrap that man in the tightest of hugs and thank him for what he did. It’d been ages since she could recall anyone standing up for her or taking her side regarding anything, and for Chad to have done it so readily and so feverishly...well, it had made an impact on all parties standing in that room.
Some were more happy about it than others, she thought wryly. It was just nice to have someone around who wanted to defend her, even if his efforts had been mildly overstated.
A smug smirk played on her lips as she worked from stall to stall, getting lost in the rhythmic comfort that the music provided. The radio announcer spoke between songs, but she let his words fade into the background, slowly beginning to feel calmed enough to push Jay’s parting words from her mind. She didn’t need to think about him right now and, frankly, she didn’t want to. The first few chords played in her ears as the next song began, its intro sounding familiar to her. The singer began to croon his testament of finding love in an unexpected place in a way that only country music could allow. She sang along with the lyrics she knew and hummed the parts she didn’t, all the while working away and letting her mind drift—away from the tense situation that was her life, and the bitter attitude that she’d become accustomed to harboring.
For a moment, she felt almost peaceful. At least, until she whirled around, a pitchfork full of hay still in her hands, and saw Chad and Mason standing there watching her. Mason looked amused, probably because of her horrid singing voice. Chad, on the other hand, looked as though he’d seen a ghost, the color drained from his face as he stared at her, unblinking.
“What’s wrong?” She stood still as she stared back at the two of them.
“I-I just didn’t expect you to be singing, I guess.”
“What? You mean you didn’t think I could sing so well?”
“You consider tone-deaf and singing to be interchangeable?” He flashed a sly grin at her, the tension easing slightly in his shoulders.
As much as she wanted to know what his problem was, she could tell that he was trying to recover from whatever had caught his attention. So, instead of pushing the issue, she shrugged it off. “I like that song, so excuse me if I sing along in all my tone-deaf glory.” She stuck her tongue out, and Mason laughed at her childishness.
“You like that song?”
“You sound shocked. It’s good, solid country. So, yeah, I like it.” Until that moment, Katie hadn’t noticed the kitten tucked in her son’s arms, squirming as he struggled to hold it still. “That kitten needs to go back with the rest of them, Mase. It has a mom who won’t be able to find it if you’re carting it around.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine for a few minutes, Katie.” Chad’s voice pleaded with her to let him keep it. But a second later, when he recognized the shadow crossing Katie’s face, his jaw clenched and she knew he’d realized his mistake.
“Mason, take the kitten back out to its family,” she said more sternly than she meant to. “Please,” she added with a fake smile, hoping to prevent her son from thinking he’d done something wrong. She watched as he looked up at Chad, but when the older man nodded in confirmation of Katie’s request, Mason sighed loudly and headed back toward the back of the barn, dragging his feet as he went.
“Sorry, Katie,” Chad breathed after he was out of earshot. He removed his hat and ran his hand through his hair, replacing the cap as he bowed his head apologetically.
“You’re good with him.” She fought back the urge to grin when his eyebrows shot up in surprise. Obviously, those weren’t the words he’d expected her to toss at him. She crossed her arms, leaning against the wooden beam of the stall. “But, don’t undermine me when it comes to him, all right? He likes you, and if you question what I tell him, he will as well.” She didn’t want to scold him; he was already sheepish enough about it to begin with. She just hoped she was leveling the playing field, which was her only intent, trying to keep the edge out of her tone.
Chad nodded again. “Of course. I’m sorry, Katie. He’s a good kid.”
“He is,” she agreed. “But he can get a stubborn attitude. Honestly, I don’t know where he gets it from.” The humor broke out across her face, then, and Chad seemed visibly relieved that she wasn’t angry with him.
Frankly, Katie was a tad surprised at her lack of frustration as well. Maybe her brain was still reeling from his heroic stance against Jay earlier.
Yes, that had to be it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAD
Walking into the barn and bearing witness to Katie singing along with the one song he’d written, sung, and performed all the way into the Billboard charts’ Top 10 was unsettling, to say the least. To see the old life he’d walked away from collide so easily into his current one—the notion hadn’t really occurred to him…until now.
Then again, he was a fool to believe he could keep up such pretenses for much longer. Katie wasn’t an idiot, and she picked up on discrepancies and inconsistencies in his stories every time he even mentioned any time before the last week or so. As much as he tried to just forget, to just not talk about it, minute details somehow slipped through the ever-widening cracks of his memory, invading his thoughts and his conversations regardless of his efforts to keep them at bay. The problem was that Katie could see how much it affected him, even though she didn’t fully comprehend why. She would figure it all out sooner or later, and then what? She’d been hurt and betrayed already, more than anyone possibly deserved. It pained him to even think about it, but he knew that his lies of omission and vagueness would just be the last straw for her. He would hurt her, even after he swore to her that he wouldn’t.
He had to come clean about who he actually was.
When he really thought about it, what did it matter? It’s not like Katie would have even cared that he was a country singer, with a little money in the bank, playing gigs at night, just chasing his lifelong dream. She knew the real him, the one he’d meant to finally let shine through—the guy he’d seemed to forget all about for the past ten years.
With Liz, in Nashville, he knew now how caught up he’d been in the lifestyle and the constant craziness of always wanting...more. Yes, he and Liz had been chasing a common goal for years, and he’d even succeeded in turning Take Me Home into a Top 10 single. But, when that finally happened, had it been enough? No. Instead of rejoicing over the fact their efforts and creative collaborations were finally paying off, they’d immediately headed back into the studio to record countless songs in hopes of following up with another one that would be even better received than its predecessor. It wasn’t until he’d stepped away from the honky-tonk craziness that he realized just how far he’d removed himself from life, too busy rushing around trying to build it into something more, unable to actually enjoy it. Constantly battling to one-up his own previous successes and to do even better than the last time, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d given himself the time to relish in his milestones without automatically trying to figure out how he could have done better. While creating the life he’d wanted, he’d forgotten how to live.
Tonight. When Mason was safely tucked in bed, after Chad finished hauling the hay into the barn for the morning feedings, he would tell Katie the truth.
Everything.
They’d both become accustomed to sitting on the front porch, the sun disappearing behind the trees as they each sipped a glass of homemade iced tea and planned the next day’s work tasks. In only a little more than a week, he’d begun to look forward to it—the only relaxing moment all day that either of them allowed themselves. During that hour or so each night was when he saw Katie’s demeanor change as well, leading him to believe that she enjoyed that part of their day together, too. His stomach tightened anxiously at the thought of it, and that in itself was the reason he felt he needed to be completely honest with her.
When Katie allowed herself to lessen the tension in her shoulders, giving herself the leeway to step away from the business side of things, she had the capability to smile, laugh, and even light up a room for those around her—but the hardest part was catching her at a time when she would permit herself to do so. It was obvious that she’d built up her defenses, sky high walls around her heart and her emotions—in an attempt to avoid pain and hurt again. Instead, only seriousness remained, shrouded in a veil of anger and bitterness.
He could see now, though, that wasn’t the real Katie at all, and it was only during those sunsets and glasses of iced tea that she let him realize it. Therefore, he waited for those moments each day, the ones where he could sit beside the Katie who radiated with content smiles and an easy manner, even for just a short while. It was a shame that Mason didn’t get to see her in such a way, but Chad couldn’t deny it—he felt a source of pride at being able to witness it on his own.
Katie’s true identity was a secret that she’d chosen to reveal to him, and the thought of it made the corners of his mouth turn upwards.
He would reveal his own secret tonight, and though the thought of it filled him with anxiety about the potential repercussions, he sent a glance toward the cloudless sky, silently praying that she would see beyond his mistake of lying to her and see him in the flawed-but-beautiful way he saw her.
My Kind Of Country: The Complete Series Page 7