Love and Protect

by Lori Ryan

  That brought a burst of laughter from Cade. “Yeah, you could say that. They shut down the whole town and block off all the roads. There are a bunch of artists that have galleries in town so they set up shows, and there are booths that sell pies, candles, crafts—you name it. Mom and her friends sell pies at a booth and then put the money toward buying Christmas presents for families in need.”

  Laura knitted her brows. “So, exactly how many pies will I be baking this afternoon?”

  Cade’s smile was downright mischievous. “Oh, I’m sure it won’t be too many. You’ll be fine.”

  *

  Laura watched as a seemingly endless number of women flooded May’s kitchen. Tables were set up in the living room where some of the women assembled boxes for the pies, and others dusted the tables with flour and set out rolling pins to roll out dough for the crusts. Another group of women were hulling and slicing strawberries at the kitchen table.

  All of the women said hello to Laura when they came in, as if she were simply one of the group, as if they’d known her for years.

  “Don’t worry, no one’s going to bite you. We’re all quite nice, really,” said a tiny woman whose white hair had a slightly pink tinge to it, and stood a good four inches above her head in a teased style that had Laura clamping her lips together to keep from giggling.

  “Um,” Laura said as the woman pushed a bowl of strawberries and a knife in front of her and pulled her down to sit next to her at the table.

  “I’m Haddie. Hadeline Gertrude Gillman to be exact, but everyone calls me Haddie,” she said with a smile at Laura as she nodded toward the bowl and the knife.

  Laura picked up the knife and began hulling the berries and putting them in the larger bowls in the center of the table. “I’m Laura,” she said.

  “We know that,” said another woman sitting across from her. She had beautiful black hair and striking blue eyes in a young face. “There’s not a person in the county that doesn’t know who you are. I’m Ashley Walker. Ignore anything inappropriate that Haddie says. She’s a little eccentric and frankly, she doesn’t have all her marbles anymore. Though inhibition and social graces seem to have abandoned her, we all love her anyway.”

  Much to Laura’s surprise, Haddie smiled, wide and gleefully. “Thank you, dear. I love you all, too,” she said, not seeming the least bit offended by Ashley’s assessment.

  “Very tactful, Ashley,” said a woman on the other side of Haddie. She leaned forward and looked down the table at Laura. “Ashley has no excuse for her lack of tact. She’s got all her faculties and she still says whatever she wants.”

  “That’s my sister, Cora. She’s the good little girl in the family. I’m not,” said Ashley and Laura laughed as she watched Ashley stick her tongue out at her sister, despite the fact that she appeared to be in her late twenties.

  “You’re sisters?” Laura asked, looking from one to the other. Cora had dark skin and dark brown eyes. Her features were nothing like Ashley’s pale skin and blue eyes. Even though they both had dark hair, they looked nothing alike.

  Cora answered first, jumping in to speak over Ashley who looked like she was winding up to answer. “We’re adopted. We have three other siblings we look nothing like, either. That’d be our brothers, Sam and Nathan, and another sister, Emma. You’ll meet them at the Strawberry Festival.”

  Haddie chose that moment to chime back in and prove Ashley had been right about her lack of social graces and inhibition. “Did that witch, Martha Kensington, know what her son was doing to you? Did she know he was beating you?”

  The loud hum of conversation in both the kitchen and living room came to a screeching halt, and Laura looked around frantically for May who was headed toward her from the living room. Before May got there, and before Laura could formulate any sort of response, Haddie continued.

  “I figured it out one night when you showed up on the television set with that high-necked dress on. Limelight Magazine had just done a big article on you and your classic sense of style. They even had a picture in the spread of the dress you planned to wear at a gala fundraiser that weekend. The night of the gala, I watched you walking down the red carpet on that news show that always covers all the stars, and you weren’t wearing that beautiful dress.” She looked around the table at everyone, as though she expected them to tell her the name of the show she was referring to, but everyone simply stared back, silent as mannequins.

  “Anyway, there you were in this high-necked wool monstrosity, and I knew—he was hitting you.” She finished with such an air of authority, Laura couldn’t utter a sound. Her throat simply seemed to close up.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Haddie. It was a dress. And, never mind that anyway. No one wants to talk about Laura’s past. We want to know about her present, about you and Cade,” Ashley said, turning to Laura. “I heard he was holding your hand in town the other day. Are you two going at it like bunnies out in the barn?”

  “Ashley! I swear you and Haddie are both ridiculous! Leave Laura alone,” Cora said.

  “Can she have sex? She’s pregnant,” came one of the disembodied voices from the living room. Laura’s face burned red as another voice answered, confirming that, yes, it was safe for a pregnant woman to have sex. She began to wonder if she could slide down under the table, crawl through the legs of the other women, and somehow make a break for the door without anyone noticing. She didn’t know which topic was worse. Her past abuse, her current relationship with Cade, or the status of her sexual activity and whether it was doctor-approved or not.

  “I wouldn’t mind knowing what’s going on with her and Cade. That boy’s been alone since Lacey left. We were beginning to think she’d screwed with his head so much, he’d never find love again,” said one of the women who now filled the doorway between the kitchen and the living room as women pressed into the kitchen to hear the conversation.

  Laura’s head was spinning, and just when she was about to put her table-crawling plan into action to save what was left of her dignity, she processed what the last woman had said.

  “Who is Lacey?” she asked, turning to May who had made it over to her and now stood by her side. If it were possible for the room to grow even quieter, it just had.

  “For heaven’s sake, you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Can’t you let Laura just enjoy a day of baking? Maybe she would have liked meeting all of you. Now we’ll be lucky if we can convince her not to cross the street when she sees one of you coming,” May said as she placed a hand on Laura’s shoulder. “Heathens, all of you, that’s what you are. Gossiping heathens.”

  “Who is Lacey?” Laura asked again, looking around the table this time.

  Nobody said anything. They all looked at each other until Ashley shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll tell her if you all won’t. She was Cade’s girlfriend for three years. Everyone thought they would get married. Well, it turned out he’d been trying to break up with her for about the last six months they were together. Every time he tried, she told him she’d kill herself without him. He eventually told her he couldn’t stay with her because he didn’t love her, and she needed to get help if she was thinking about hurting herself. Cade told her father that he should get her some help, but her dad thought Lacey was just being melodramatic.”

  “Cade came home and found her in his place two days later. She had broken in and taken a bunch of pills then lay down in his bed,” someone from the other room said.

  Laura looked up at May, eyes wide. May’s expression was pained, but sympathetic as she squeezed Laura’s shoulder.

  “She lived. He got there in time and called an ambulance. She was checked into the hospital and then spent a few months in a treatment facility. She lives with her mom now in Austin, and only visits her father here from time to time,” May said.

  “Cade blamed himself,” Cora said. “It was awful. Even though everyone told Cade he’d done the right thing, that he couldn’t have let her keep holding him hostage that way, he wasn’t the
same for a long time after that. I don’t think he’s dated anyone since then, has he, May?”

  Laura couldn’t even begin to process what that meant. And if this story was true, why would he date Laura after all this time and with her history? Why date someone with so many issues, so much baggage? Shouldn’t he want a nice, normal woman with a nice, normal life—and past?

  “All right, that’s enough, ladies. Back to work. We’ve got one hundred pies to make,” May said, clapping her hands together. She squeezed Laura’s shoulder then began issuing orders fast enough that no one had time to question Laura, much less continue the conversation about Lacey.

  It was only after the pie making had resumed its conveyor-belt-like pace that Haddie leaned over and answered the questions swimming through Laura’s head. “He saves people and animals, honey. Haven’t you noticed? He likes saving anyone he thinks needs it. Always has.”

  Laura pasted a smile on her face, but her mind was racing. She’d been such an idiot. How could she not have seen that? Of course, that’s why Cade was drawn to her. Haddie was right. He tries to save. It’s what he does. She’d watched him with the animals he loved. They were broken in some way; all of them. And, he saved them. Took them in and saved them.

  And, it made perfect sense that he’d want to save poor, helpless Laura, too.

  *

  Cade had a hard time focusing on his work all afternoon. He didn’t want to wait even a few hours for his date with Laura. He’d seen the pie women leave about thirty minutes earlier as he’d been heading up the stairs to his apartment above the barn. He showered and then dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt before walking up to the main house to pick up Laura.

  “Hey, Cade. Laura’s waiting for you inside,” Josh said as he pushed May in her wheelchair down one of the paths leading from the house.

  “Thanks, guys. Going for a walk?” he asked as he took the steps two at a time.

  “You bet. Heading out to catch the sunset. It’s going to be a beauty today,” Josh said, one hand on May’s shoulder.

  “See you guys later.” Cade walked through the front door. If he’d been paying more attention, he would have noticed his mother was unusually quiet. That she’d been looking at him with troubled eyes. That might have tipped him off about what was to come.

  As soon as he saw Laura sitting at the kitchen table, he knew something was wrong. She appeared to be waiting for him, but she didn’t look at all like she planned to go out with him.

  Laura raised her eyes when Cade entered the kitchen and immediately wished she’d taken the coward’s way out and left him a note. He looked so concerned for her, so worried that something might be wrong. Of course, he did. But, what would happen when she learned to stand on her own two feet? Would he want her then? And would she ever be able to stand on her own if she had him taking care of her all the time?

  “Hey. Laura, are you okay? Do you feel all right?” Cade asked, coming over to kneel down in front of her chair.

  “Yes, I’m fine, Cade. It’s just…I don’t think I can do this.”

  “Go out? That’s fine. We can stay in if you want. We can watch a movie here,” Cade offered and tried to take her hand. Laura pulled back, hating to see the confusion on his face.

  Laura shook her head. “No, I don’t think I can do this,” she said, gesturing from Cade to herself. “Us. I just can’t do this, Cade.”

  Cade studied her with those eyes that could see right through her. “What happened between this morning and this afternoon? Everything was fine this morning. What changed your mind?”

  “It just isn’t what I want right now, Cade. I want to focus on myself and my baby right now, not try to lean on someone else. I know you want to save me, but I don’t need saving. I don’t want to be saved.”

  “What are you talking about? I don’t want to save you. I want to date you.” Cade stopped and narrowed his eyes at her as if he understood suddenly. Laura stilled as the air around them became heavy and tense. She wished she were anywhere but here. Anyplace where she wouldn’t have to see the hurt in his face.

  “They told you about Lacey, didn’t they? They told you all about Lacey and their theory that I was trying to save her.”

  Cade crossed the room. “Damn it, Laura. I’m not trying to save you. What happened with Lacey happened because she was sick. And yeah, I stayed with her longer than I should have because I was afraid she’d hurt herself, but that doesn’t mean I’m running around looking for other women to save. I don’t care what the women of this town told you, you’re nothing like Lacey. You’re a hell of a lot stronger than she ever was.”

  Laura stood, her arms wrapped around her middle. And at that moment she realized something she hadn’t been ready to admit. If she did go through with this with Cade and he lost interest when she no longer needed him, she wouldn’t be able to handle that loss. She might have been strong enough to handle what her father had done to her, what Patrick had put her through, the loss of her brother. But, she wasn’t strong enough to love Cade and lose him. She needed out. Now.

  “You’re overreacting, Laura. I’m not trying to save you.”

  “You ordered a commercial greenhouse for me for heaven’s sake! You want to talk about overreacting?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Cade. But, I just can’t date you,” she said and turned and walked upstairs.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Laura sat at the kitchen table the following morning, hoping she’d done the right thing. She and Cade had done the morning chores at the stable together, but they hadn’t talked any more than they’d needed to during the routine. He would usually come up to breakfast with her at the main house, but he’d gone back to his apartment over the barn for breakfast instead.

  “I think I’ll go sit on the front porch with this for a while,” Josh said lifting his coffee mug and leaving behind Laura, May, and the uncomfortable silence that had settled among them.

  Laura stood and began carrying dishes to the sink, then ran the water to warm it.

  “Are you going to tell me what happened?” May asked, and Laura wanted to laugh. Or cry. She wasn’t sure which one. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to May about her relationship with Cade.

  She shrugged. “Nothing. We just decided it wasn’t a good time to start dating.”

  “Hmmm. You’re probably right about that. You have a lot going on, a lot to figure out,” May said.

  Laura rinsed the last dish and shut off the water, ignoring the pang she felt in her chest when May agreed it wasn’t a good idea to date Cade. She took a deep breath and dried her hands. This was what she’d wanted. She had wanted to end the relationship, to nip it in the bud before Cade realized he only cared about her because she needed him. Before she was attached and it was too late to protect herself.

  Laura didn’t say anything as May sipped her tea and watched her. A few minutes later, May put her teacup in the sink and went to leave the room, but turned back just as abruptly as she’d left.

  “You know, though, Laura. I could be wrong. It might just be the perfect time to let someone in. It might be the perfect time to let someone support you and be with you. It takes a lot of strength and courage to lean on someone else, to let them help hold you up when you think you might fall down. To take a risk on something like that. Sometimes leaning on someone else is the strongest thing you can do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Your talents are wasted here, gorgeous,” Paul said, gracing the waitress with a smile that usually got him everything he wanted. She took the bait, of course, smiling back at him with what she must have thought was a sexy, come-hither smile. Two Sisters’ Diner was smack in the middle of Evers, Texas and Mark and Paul had learned that people liked to chat with newcomers in small-town diners.

  The waitress’s efforts to capture his interest were interrupted by a very bright head of red hair and a disembodied voice that must have gone with the head. That head seemed to bob as the voice spoke.

&nb
sp; “It’s not her talent. All she does is deliver the food and pour the coffee. I’m the one does all the cooking here.”

  The waitress rolled her eyes. “She likes to think people come for the food, but it’s the coffee. And, I’m the one that makes the coffee. My own special blend I mix from five different roasts.” She smiled her leering grin again. “I’m Gina. That’s just my sister, Tina.”

  Paul held in a laugh and raised his coffee mug. “It is really great coffee,” he whispered, with a wink, milking her flirtatious nature for all it was worth. He was ready to get this job over with and he had a feeling this lady could help him. Working at the diner in town, she’d likely know everything that happened in this town and everyone who came through it.

  “Everyone knows it’s the coffee that keeps people coming back to a restaurant,” Mark agreed.

  “So,” Gina asked, “what brings two gorgeous men like you to our town? You visiting family? Couldn’t keep away from the hottest hot spot this side of Dallas? What is it?” she asked with a grin and a flirty flick of her very wide hip.

  Mark and Paul both laughed, but it was Mark who answered. “Nah. We’re on our way to Austin to see some friends, but we heard an old friend of ours was visiting out here. We thought we’d try to stop by and see him on the way.”

  “Huh. That would make three visitors all at once if your friend’s here. That’s more than we’re likely to get the rest of the year,” said Gina.

  “Well, we struck out. We thought we’d be able to get in touch with him, but it turns out he’s not answering the phone and we’ve got to keep moving,” Paul said.

  And, she fell for it.

  “Who’s your friend? Maybe I know him?”

  “Josh Samuels.” Paul saw the flicker in her eye as soon as he said the name. Honestly, she wasn’t very good at hiding it. “He’s a doctor. We worked together at a hospital up in Connecticut, but we moved on to another facility. We were hoping to catch up with him. He’s a good guy.” Paul finished the spiel but he could see she was gearing up for denial.