My Kind Of Country: The Complete Series

by Michelle Thomas

“I was going to tell you, Katie. Just not like this.” Chad’s features softened as he broke eye contact with Jay and turned to her.

  Katie said nothing, convinced her throat was closing as she fought to breathe normally. Where the hell had she heard that name before, Chad Ashton? It sounded so familiar, so...

  Her eyes searched his face for answers as the puzzle pieces began to fall into place. “You lied to me. And you—”

  “I swear, I tried to tell you—” Chad explained.

  “Go.”

  “Katie—”

  “I said, leave.” She held her hands up, the sureness in her voice surprising even herself. Katie felt her heart tearing open once again as the fear and pain appeared across Chad’s face. “Now,” she insisted. “Take the truck. I’ll get a ride home with someone else.”

  “Katie—” Chad started once more, but she wasn’t hearing any of it.

  “Chad, I can barely look at them right now,” she struggled to say, pointing in Jay and Liz’s direction. “So, do me a favor and go, so I don’t have to face every last betrayal all at once, okay? Go. Please.”

  She swallowed her emotions, holding back the tidal wave of tears on the brink of spilling over her lower eyelids. She wasn’t being fair, and she knew it. However, life wasn’t fair. It never was. For once, she didn’t want to be the only one hurting, and judging by the dejected and broken expression on Chad’s face as he turned away from her and headed for the truck, she’d gotten her wish.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAD

  He’d sat on the edge of the fence at Rustic Acres longer than he expected to, yet he still hadn’t come to terms with how his secret had come out. Immediately, Chad hated himself, knowing full well none of this would’ve even been an issue had he just told Katie the truth the moment he’d set foot on her property.

  You’ve got no one to blame but yourself. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the rail beneath him, flakes of faded white paint fluttering off where his fingers dug in. It had been well over two hours since the party, and there’d been no sign of Katie and Mason. The idea nagged at his subconscious that perhaps they weren’t going to come back here tonight. Maybe Katie couldn’t stand to see him at all. Maybe, right now, she was advising Mason that he was no longer going to see Chad around at home, that he had to go away. Maybe he would never...

  The downward spiral of his thoughts was interrupted by the crunch of gravel under tires, and Chad whipped his body around to see which vehicle was responsible for the sound. His stomach clenched at the sight of the red Mitsubishi, Mason’s tiny face poking out from the backseat passenger side window. The little boy’s face lit up in a satisfied grin, and Chad relaxed a bit. So, Katie hadn’t turned the boy against him...yet.

  He didn’t move from the fence, unsure whether Katie would want to see him, talk to him, or even be near him at all. This morning, he’d felt as though the universe was finally making sense, allowing both of them a second chance in the aftermath of despair.

  Now, Chad wasn’t even sure he knew where they stood with each other. And, seeing as Katie had got a ride home with her ex-fiancé and his wife, both of which knew more about him than he’d allowed Katie to know, he was pretty confident that the conversation in that Mitsubishi hadn’t helped his cause much.

  Mason sprang from the car the moment it stopped moving and took a few steps in Chad’s direction. Katie, however, had other plans for him and, with a loud clearing of her throat, Mason turned reluctantly on his heel, gave his father a quick hug—Jay hadn’t even bothered to undo his seatbelt, Chad noticed—and disappeared into the house with both of his hands filled with brightly colored gift bags he’d obviously been intending to show him.

  Chad stiffened slightly, then, knowing that Mason was the only buffer he had between himself, two exes he was coming to loathe, and the betrayed woman he never meant to hurt. Jay’s face was stone-like, expressionless, and Chad wondered if he somehow was viewing himself as a victim in this whole ordeal.

  Too damn bad, Chad thought. You don’t get to be the victim this time, too.

  Liz, however, had locked her gaze on him through the windshield, and the faint smile she wore spoke volumes. This wasn’t over between them; he would see her again. Chad breathed a sigh of relief when Katie slammed the car door, not bothering to wave at them as the car backed up and quickly retreated back down the laneway. Good, he wouldn’t have to deal with all of them at once.

  She stood there, staring down at the covered half-eaten cake in her hands, and Chad could tell she was torn. Her gaze flickered up to meet his momentarily and he held his breath. Anger and sadness darkened her features, but it was the pain emanating from deep within her, beyond her eyes, that ripped apart Chad’s insides. She was dealing with hurt that he had caused her, that he could have prevented had he not been so set on closing the door on the name he’d made for himself in the music industry.

  “Katie, I’m so sorry.” Though he was sure the whispered apology had been lost in the breeze that blew gently from the east, he saw her posture change, giving in to the breath she’d been holding as well. When she turned away from him and headed toward the house, Chad climbed from his perch on the fence, fear rushing through him that he wouldn’t even get the chance to plead with her to listen to his explanation. However, she set the cake pan down on the porch and turned back toward him, making his racing heart calm slightly.

  Calm down, he warned himself silently. Or you will lose her for good.

  She came toward him, and he took the last few steps in return to close the gap between them. He didn’t dare reach out to touch her, though he wanted nothing more than to hold her against him and promise over and over that he would never keep the truth from her again. “Katie, I know—”

  She held her hands up, cutting him off mid sentence. “Stop, Chad. Please. Just listen to me. You’ve had all the time in the world to talk to me, yet you chose not to. So, it’s my turn to speak, all right?”

  Her words stung as though she’d reached out and slapped him, but he couldn’t blame her. She was right, absolutely right. Therefore, he nodded, scared out of his mind of the words that might come next. Katie seemed unsure where to begin, but he didn’t try to bridge the silence. When her gaze rose to meet his, he braced himself.

  “I really don’t give a damn who you are, Chad.”

  Chad stood there, unable to respond. Whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t that.

  “However,” she continued, her eyes never wavering from him. “I do care that you felt you couldn’t tell me.”

  “I’ll tell you—”

  “Everything?” Katie cut him off. “Oh, so now you’ll be honest?”

  The venom in her tone poisoned Chad’s resolve, but he remained silent. He knew she wasn’t finished, anyway.

  “Your lovely ex-wife—or wife, whatever she is—was all too keen to bring your real identity and motives to light, Chad. That’s quite the life you walked away from.” She crossed her arms. “And it’s very intriguing that your wife left you for my fiancé, and somehow you just ended up waltzing onto my property without knowledge of who I was at all. So, tell me, Chad, have you been playing me just as badly as Jay has?”

  He stood there, dumbfounded. “No, Katie, wait. Motives? I didn’t know Liz left me for your fiancé! She told me his name was Jonathan.”

  For weeks, that name had circled countless times through his mind, haunting him and taunting him, the man who’d taken Chad’s world and tossed it into the gutter.

  “His name is Jonathan, but so was his father’s. He was called J.J. growing up, but it was shortened to Jay once he got older. But you already knew that.” Her steely stare spoke the truth that her words merely danced around.

  Katie didn’t trust him anymore.

  “Katie, my God! No, I swear, I didn’t—” He made to reach out for her, anything to convince her of how misguided her presumptions were.

  She stepped away from him, holding her hands up to keep him at a distanc
e. “You’re honestly going to stand there and lie? You’re telling me you had no idea my ex-fiancé worked in Nashville, too? That he was the music executive, Jonathan Khunes, the one your girlfriend left you for? You’re going to tell me you didn’t show up here just to prove to them that you could move on, too? And maybe, just maybe, do that moving on with someone who might hurt them a little bit, just the same way they hurt you? Admit it, Chad, you used me.”

  His jaw went slack, his mouth gaping at the scene spiraling out of control before him. “Katie, no. I didn’t plan this. I didn’t plan on you. I swear to God, I never knew!” Desperation tainted his voice, causing it to crack and become hoarse as it constricted with emotion. “You’ve got to believe me, Katie. Please.” His mind was spinning, unable to sort his thoughts. All there was left to do was plead, and, damn it, he wasn’t above doing it.

  Katie exhaled audibly, the conversation obviously wearing on her as well. “Do me a favor, Chad. Take your stuff from here, and go.”

  “Katie, you’re wrong—”

  “Wrong? No. Wrong was when I opened my home up to you. Wrong was when I opened my son up to being hurt by your lies. Wrong was when I let my guard down and opened my...my heart. We’re done here, Chad.”

  He opened his mouth to call out her name once more, to beg for her to believe what a huge misunderstanding this all was. Katie had already turned away from him, though, not looking back as she picked the cake pan up from the porch steps and disappeared through the screen door. The audible click of the lock carried through the air and hit his ears with the loudness of a bomb, the finality of the sound deafening him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  KATIE

  Katie wanted to slam the door in anger and slide her back down it to the floor, where she would do nothing but cry the tears that might rid her of her brokenness and anguish. She wanted to scream, a loud and desperate release of the pent-up energy and betrayal that gnawed away at her. Mostly, she wanted to be able to go back outside, stomp down the porch steps with such defiance and power that Chad wouldn’t even see the hurt in her eyes, and announce to him that none of this mattered, that she knew better than to actually trust someone ever again and that he, in fact, didn’t just shatter the heart she thought she’d perhaps been in the process of mending.

  There was only one problem.

  Nothing Katie wanted mattered anymore. Not to anyone else, and not to herself. Why should it?

  She could want things to turn out a certain way, want people to be who she truly thought they were, and want her life to veer onto a path that would lead her to something that resembled happiness. Time and time again, however, things seemed to backfire on her. Katie never thought she’d wanted too much out of life; a healthy family, a job she loved, and a life she could be proud of. It turned out, though, that her life had led her down a road that included a family that was either broken or dead, a job she’d left because of that family, and a life she was living that wasn’t, in fact, hers.

  The truth was, Katie had given it all up for her family and, in response, they’d given up on her. Her father had passed away, Jay had decided she wasn’t worth the time and effort he’d spent on her, and Chad had...

  Chad had broken her battered and bruised heart, that’s what he’d done. She had confided in him, opened up to him, and trusted him. In return, he had spent the whole time setting up a façade that was purely a ruse to get back at the wife he’d lost to Jay, not giving a damn about Katie in the process of it all.

  She’d thought he cared about her. Christ, she’d believed him when he alluded to wanting her. Evidently, she had learned nothing from the pain and bitterness Jay had left her with.

  Now, the truth was out. Chad wasn’t who he had portrayed himself to be. Oddly enough, of all the lies built up around the person she thought he was, the fact that he was a known singer in the country music capital of the world actually meant very little. When it came down to it, lying about your career choice was easily trumped by lying about your motives for making someone think they meant something to you.

  And I’d believed him, Katie thought again, her lip trembling.

  From the beginning, she’d known he was lying about his job, and she’d let him. Secrets had their way of surfacing, and if no one was being hurt by keeping them, then she had been content to let Chad withhold information. Not once, however, did she ever think he was purely playing a role in a game that starred their exes.

  Katie slammed her fist against the locked door in frustration. She was right; she knew better than to trust him, to put herself out there and think there was something good between the two of them.

  It was her own fault for falling for it. For falling for him.

  It was true; she wanted to melt into an emotional puddle and let the pieces of her heart cascade in fragments all around her.

  But she couldn’t.

  Instead, Katie pushed her weight from the door, wiped away the stray tears that streaked her cheeks, and swallowed every toxic emotion she felt. There was a little boy in the other room, and right now, it was up to her to make sure he wasn’t hurting after the scene made at his birthday party. She had to see to it that he was okay, that they would be fine.

  Just the two of them.

  ***

  The persistent knocking reverberated throughout the old farmhouse, the noise echoing from room to room. Katie was startled awake, her heavy eyes reluctant to open fully. When her mind finally caught up, orientating itself to place and time, she bolted from the couch she’d fallen asleep on and fought to make her way around the corner to the door, immediately upset that the insistent visitor was going to wake Mason up. A quick glance at the clock revealed it was only six o’clock, and there was no way her son needed to be awakened at that time of day. As vivid memories flashed through her mind, Katie, quite frankly, didn’t want to be awake, either.

  Up most of the night, she’d finally given up on sleep and retreated to the living room long after midnight, staring aimlessly through the window up at the pale moon that peeked out from behind steadily moving clouds. Her mind had twisted and turned every thought as it came to her, as though each of them were tangible, malleable entities. Unfortunately, her efforts resulted in being no better off and waking in a groggy stupor, still dressed in her silly dress from the day before.

  The knocking sounded again, this time rattling the screen door just as Katie reached it.

  She swung the door open. “For the love of God, what—” Heat rose instantly in her cheeks. Whether it was from embarrassment or anger, she wasn’t sure, but both emotions were welling up inside her. “I’ve said all I need to say to you,” she snapped, meeting Chad’s eyes squarely.

  He stood in the doorway, leaning his elbow against one side. His gaze was just as direct. “That might be true, Katie, but I haven’t. Not even close.”

  The way patience emanated from him, like he had all the time in the world to explain, caused her throat to constrict slightly. Undeniably, she wanted to hear what he had to say, wanted him to explain away all the lies and coincidences that had plagued her in the darkest moments of last night, the things she herself couldn’t seem to comprehend on her own.

  But no, she couldn’t let him. It would be just one more chance to sugar-coat what happened and brush the truth of it under the rug. Not again, she swore silently, gripping the door and swinging it closed.

  Unfortunately, she’d moved too slowly, and Chad’s hand darted out, clamping down on the door. Katie swung it hard enough, however, that the momentum was more than he’d expected, and she watched as the door bounced after hitting the door jamb, Chad’s fingers caught in between. A muffled grunt escaped his lips, and Katie saw him wince and flinch as he jerked his hand back, his mouth pursed tightly to hold in the expletives he undoubtedly wanted to hiss.

  Katie gasped. “Damn it!” She hadn’t meant to say the words out loud—or to slam his hand in the door—but seeing his clenched jaw as he cupped his injured hand in the other and glanced
away, she was unable to stop herself from holding her hand out. “You should have just let me close the door! Let me see it.”

  It was Chad’s turn to step away from her. “I’m fine, Katie.” This time, his voice was gruff, and Katie pulled her hand away.

  She nodded as though confirming something silently, then once again reached for the door. In the flash of an instant, Chad’s foot stepped forward, and this time his entire body held the door in place.

  “I want to talk to you. If it takes being hit by the damn door all day, so be it.”

  “Chad, Mason is going to be up soon—”

  “Good. I need to apologize to him, too, for the mess at his birthday party. Did he get my gift?”

  Katie’s eyes shifted warily. “Actually, no. It’s still at Aunt Belinda’s. I didn’t think it was appropriate to give it to him...considering.”

  Chad’s eyebrow rose into a high arch. “And what exactly was inappropriate about giving a seven-year-old a gift?”

  “I didn’t want—”

  “Don’t make him suffer because you and I are having a misunderstanding, Katie.”

  Katie glared at him, exasperated. “Don’t you dare tell me—a misunderstanding? That’s all you think this is?”

  “That’s all I know it is. If you’d just listen to me, I can—”

  “Stop it, Chad.”

  “If you just let me—”

  “I said, stop it!” Her voice was high-pitched and loud, the exact octave she’d been trying to prevent coming out of her mouth since the beginning of their conversation. “I said I don’t want to fight about this. Just go!”

  “No, you don’t want to fight for us, Katie. There’s a difference.”

  If his words didn’t make her resolve falter momentarily, his expression did. She opened her mouth, intent on arguing with him, on proving him wrong. Instead, she didn’t know how to reply. The transparent pain on his face, mixed with the sadness in the darkened pools of his eyes, offered the first moment where she wondered if Chad was, in fact, telling her the truth.