Mr. Always & Forever

by Ashlee Price

  “Now, Henri, don’t be fibbing on us. You know your mother doesn’t lie.”

  Henri wasn’t paying her much attention. “Yeah, so you say.” He turned his attention to Mary fully and asked her if she wanted to go for a walk.

  “I can do the pictures then if you want.”

  Henri tried to make a face, tell her silently to drop the subject. It was not going to end well and Elna already had her ears perked up. “What pictures?”

  Mary was about to tell her, but he stopped her and talked over with a different answer. “She is a photographer and is working with an author who wanted some pictures. I thought it would be a perfect place for the western theme of the book.”

  Elna nodded her head, but looked at them both a little strangely. There was something going on, more than was said, but she ignored her inner voice telling her to say something. Henri looked so happy and she didn’t want to spoil it with all kinds of questions. There was her concern, their family always a target because of their success. “You two just make sure you are back for dinner.”

  Chapter 8

  “Why didn’t you want me to say anything about the photo? Are you embarrassed to be doing it? You don’t have to, you know. There is no obligation.”

  “I said I would because you asked. I certainly wouldn’t do it for anyone else, but I don’t mind doing it, Mary.”

  They were walking close together down a fence line that led out into the flat land that spanned for miles around them. The sun was hot, but as their eyes met, neither one of them was worried about the heat. Mary looked away after a moment, his blue gaze too intense to hold for long.

  She had him stop by the fencepost and lean against it again. He was a natural in front of the camera and before long she had all the shots she needed and maybe a few for her own collection. Mary thought he looked better with the shirt off and wished she had the courage to say something along those lines, but she couldn’t muster up the courage to do so.

  “So was the thing you wanted me to go to tomorrow your sister’s wedding?”

  Henri pushed back from his final pose and moved back towards her, walking the same direction they had been going in the beginning. The house was far behind them and he kept taking her further out. “Yeah, is that okay?”

  She said it was, but wished she had something to wear. “I am sure whatever you wear will be perfect. I can’t think of anything that I wouldn’t like to see you in.” Mary wasn’t so sure that it was true, but it was sweet and when he touched her hand with his, she found her fingers lacing up with her own. They kept walking, silent for a time. Henri’s thumb brushed the inside of her palm and gave her goose bumps.

  Finally she had to break the silence. Mary liked to talk and when she was nervous, it was a need that was harder than ever to qualm. “So where are we going?”

  “To one of my favorite places. I usually ride down here, but it was just too nice of a day to not walk.”

  Mary had to agree. The sun was hot as always, but the slight breeze was just enough to keep them cool. He wasn’t going to tell her where they were going, but as they kept walking, she saw the landscape getting greener and a small stand of trees. It looked like an oasis in the lighter green and brown color of the short grass. He had her attention in any case and Mary would have followed him anywhere, feeling safe with Henri.

  His favorite place turned out to be a small pond that was surrounded by a few trees and large slabs of rocks. It looked man made, but many years before and with an eye for making it look like nature had a hand in it. Mary could see why it was his favorite place. The sound of the water was relaxing and as she sat next to him with her feet in the water, the coolness of the liquid made her almost immediately start to cool off. Mary knew that a quick dip would feel ever better. She wasn’t dressed for it, but Mary had other ulterior motives.

  She wanted to see that hard body of his again and as she got closer to the edge, Henri looked at her questioningly. “Is it a good place to swim? The water feels great.”

  He nodded that it was, but he was more interested in her as she stood up. “Do you want to come for a swim with me?”

  Henri just shook his head. There was no way that he would say no to such an offer. He was ready to jump in as he was, but then stopped to take his shirt off. Mary couldn’t get enough of him and though she tried to hide her attraction, the way he made her feel was hard to hide. He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to the edge with him. “If I am going in, you have to go in.”

  It was her idea, but Mary was more a gradual swimmer, getting in slowly to get used to the fast moving water. But Henri was having none of that and he pulled her in with him. Her clothes immediately started to weigh her down. Henri had his arms around her waist and after a short shriek and giggle, Mary had cooled off immediately. Her legs wrapped around his, as her arms encircled his neck.

  Naturally his lips went to hers in that moment and she was left sighing against his lips. It was what she had wanted to do since she first saw him with his chest bare and his blue eyes glittering at her. His lips were soft and slight demanding. Every inch of her was wrapped around him as she clung to him. Mary hadn’t expected it to feel so good, for his body to feel so good against hers, but it did.

  Her back felt the rough rock behind her as he leaned in for more contact. Mary whimpered when he pulled away, dragging him back in for another kiss. She wanted more, but knew she had to stop before she wouldn’t be able to and pulled away. Henri looked as disappointed as she felt and the hardness pressed against her told her that it was the case. He needed her just as bad as she needed him and not even the cold water could cool his ardor.

  Moving away from his hard, tempting body, Mary tried to gain her composure, but like everything with him, it was hard. They swam for a few minutes, but there was too much tension and soon they were on their way back. She hadn’t thought things through and was soaked. He offered her his shirt to put over her own and Mary agreed, some of the reason for the simple fact that she didn’t want him to put it back on. The only thing that saved Mary from freezing on the way back was the hot sun beating down on them. But as they got closer to the ranch, the sun was starting to go down. They had been out for some time and the last half a mile, Mary was frozen by the time she got to the ranch.

  Mary grabbed her bag on the way in and had Henri show her where she would be staying so she could get dressed. She didn’t see the look she got from Elna, but Henri did. She gave him a dirty look and when he left Mary to it, she asked him where they had been. “What are you doing without a shirt and her freezing?”

  “We just went for a swim and should have brought the horses. Are the rest of the guys back?”

  She shook her head and looked at her second to youngest son. “I really like her.”

  He smiled back at her and told her that he felt the same away about Mary. It was hard not to feel something for her. She was bubbly and seemed to have come to him when he needed her most, thinking that he would never find love. Henri didn’t know what was going to happen between them, but he hoped that it would work out the way he wanted it to in his head.

  Dinner was a little awkward for Mary, but considering all of the people at the table, she did pretty well about getting to know them all. By the end of the night, everyone liked Mary as much as Henri did. He gave her a short kiss goodnight before she went to bed. They both wanted more, but the house was full and it didn’t seem the time. Mary was still trying to keep her emotions together and even as she wanted more, she closed the door behind herself and leaned back against the door. Henri was a hard man to get to know, but she was glad that she had. Mary was feeling their meeting at the airport was rather fate driven.

  The wedding the next day was even more beautiful and Mary had caught herself crying. The couple she didn’t even know, but she felt like she already knew Gemma. It was the love for each other that kept her a little weepy-eyed and she wasn’t the only one. Almost every woman in the place had wet eyes and it made Mary feel bet
ter. Henri wasn’t getting teary-eyed, but he did pull her in to hold her against his chest. Mary didn’t fight the warm embrace and felt content in his arms.

  But reality had to set in and she had to go back to Houston for her work assignments. Mary promised to call him that evening when she was done with her errands. Henri couldn’t wait and neither one of them had brought up him going back to Venezuela.

  Chapter 9

  “Henri, have you talked to mom today?” Scott had a worried look on his face that Henri didn’t like the looks of. He waited for more, but Scott didn’t say anything else except that he thought he should go talk to Elna.

  “What’s it about?”

  “The business and Mary.” Scott already knew, but he wasn’t going to be the one that shattered his brother’s smile that he hadn’t seen before. He had liked Mary as well, the whole family did, but it seemed like she had been here for a reason that didn’t include seeing Henri. Scott wished that what he had just heard wasn’t true.

  “Come on, just tell me.”

  “I can’t. Mom is in the office. I think you should go talk to her.”

  Henri agreed to, but he didn’t like the whole cloak and dagger routine. When he got into the office on the bottom floor, Elna looked up at her son and smiled slowly. “Henri. I was looking for you earlier. We need to talk.”

  “Yeah, that is what Scott said. What is going on?”

  She tossed a paper down on her desk as he sat down. “This is what is going on.”

  On the front page was a picture of the ranch during the wedding, as well as a smaller picture of Mary and him walking back from the late night swim that night at the pond. As he sat down in the seat, he read all of the lies and conjunctions that had been printed. There was a picture inside that he recognized of him that Mary had taken. It was then that it sank in that she had sold the picture to the newspaper.

  “Did you know about this? Did you know that she worked for the Herald?”

  He shook his head that he did. “She is a freelance photographer mom. I knew that she did some work for the newspaper.”

  “Did you know that she was going to do that story?”

  Henri couldn’t speak. Again he just shook his head. Elna’s face changed as his did. It sunk in that her son had been duped and it was only when she saw the pain in his eyes that she realized how much her son had cared about Mary.

  “How long did you know her? You never did tell me where the two of you met.”

  “We met on the plane coming back home. It’s crazy that it was only a week ago. And then this…” Henri was a little heartbroken and it felt devastating, even as he realized that it had only been a few days since they had met. Even as he held the paper in his hand and read the words, it didn’t feel real to him. None of it did and Henri took that as his first clue that it hadn’t been real at all. Some of their conversation was in the lines of the magazine and it had all been screwed around and turned into something bad. The headline was that he was back in the country for a wife. His mother’s deathbed request was in there and then the ‘forced marriage’ of his sister to her current husband.

  He leaned back further in the seat. “Has Gemma seen this?”

  She shook her head and sat down then. “No and I don’t want her to, though I know she will figure it out. You can’t keep anything from her.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking to have said some of those things. You know that it wasn’t said like that.”

  Elna smiled and waved him off. “Oh I know. It wouldn’t be the first time that we have been dragged through the mud. She really seemed like a sweet girl.” She was trying to soften the blow, but she knew that he cared about her. Henri was hardly ever home and he certainly had never brought a girl with him. “You know, it could all be a mistake. You should talk to her.”

  Henri didn’t want to hear that. That was the last thing that he wanted to do and his head was answering before he could get a word out. “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

  “I know you are hurt, but sometimes things are not as they seem.” Elna wanted more than anything to be right and she hoped that she was.

  ***

  Henri didn’t call her and when he saw her number coming up on his phone, he just turned it off all together. It was his luck. Henri never had any luck with women and it seemed like the luck was going to continue as it had before. After several days of ignoring her calls, she stopped making them and Henri was even more upset than before. It felt like nothing he did was going to make it any better and he thought of what his mother had said. He should talk to her, get her side of the story, but his ego held him up.

  Instead he planned his trip back to Venezuela. It was his plan all along and Henri started to feel better with a direction in mind. There was something settling with the idea that he had a plan, even if he wanted to do something else instead.

  When his phone rang and it was her number that showed up, there was a temptation to answer. He sat there going back and forth about it for so long that the phone stopped ringing. After a few moments of looking at it, wanting it to call her, Henri instead stuck the phone back in his pocket and went into the ranch house. He had to tell his family that he was going back and it was not a conversation that he really wanted to have. Goodbyes in the Callahans were always hard and he dreaded it more than leaving Mar behind.

  “Hey, glad to see you back. I was wondering where you went off to. I was hoping you would help me with some last minute touches on the far fence line on the west side of the property.”

  Henri nodded that he would. It sounded better than having to deal with the goodbyes and the questions. Gemma had found out about the magazine and she had shrugged it off, claiming that she knew it wasn’t Mary that had done it. He felt a little perturbed that she was surer about it than he was. Henri was the one that had talked to her for hours, fallen in love with her and he had not an ounce of the assurance that Gemma had. She had only talked to her a few minutes. It made Henri wondered if everything he thought was true was wrong.

  Chapter 10

  “I’m sorry about everything with Mary. She seemed like a really nice girl.”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it.” Henri knew he was trying to help, but it wasn’t helping. All of his family had said how much they had liked her. It was a way to show that they had been duped as well, but it didn’t make him feel any better. He would have much rather her been who she said she was, instead of just being one of many that saw her for something else.

  “I understand, Henri. I just want you to know that I am here for you if you need anything.”

  Henri thanked him, but his mind was back on the one person that he didn’t want to think about. His phone kept ringing in his pocket. “Are you going to answer that?”

  He shook his head that he wasn’t. It was probably just Mary calling again and he didn’t want to hear it. Henri didn’t want her to feel better by apologizing because all he could feel was betrayal about it. When his brother’s phone starting ringing, Henri watched him answer as he should have.

  “Hello?”

  “Yeah he is here.”

  “Okay. I will send him down.”

  Scott off the phone and looked at his brother. “Mary is down at the ranch with mom. You need to go down there.”

  Henri sighed and started out towards the house on his horse. It didn’t take but a few minutes and he was sure that Mary had made a bigger mistake coming there. Elna would not take kindly to what had happened and he was sure that there would be a tense scene when he walked in. He wasn’t expecting to see the two women laughing and talking at the table like two old friends. Not knowing what to say, he just stood there for a minute until they realized that he was standing there.

  “Well about time you answered your phone.”

  “Sorry about that.” He was answering his mother’s sharp tone, but his eyes were on the woman sitting next to her. Mary was still as beautiful as he remembered. There was a moment that he
thought that maybe he wouldn’t feel the same way about her after the betrayal, but he knew then that it just wasn’t the case.

  “Why don’t the two of you go talk for a while? Henri, take her to the pond. I bet she would like it there and it was always your favorite spot.” Elna had a look of conspiracy in her eyes that she didn’t even try to cover up.

  He nodded his head, never refusing her before, but he didn’t know what to say. There was something so strange in the whole situation. “Um, okay.”

  Mary seemed about as unsure as he was. She could see the way he had responded and if it wasn’t for Elna, the two of them would not have left. When they got outside, he stopped her. “I can’t believe you came to my house.”

  “You wouldn’t answer your phone.”

  “Because of what you did.”

  “I didn’t do anything and if you would have answered your phone and talked to me, then I could have told you. Someone I worked for in the newspaper took me out, we had a couple of drinks and I talked about you. I couldn’t help it, I had been drinking a bit and I was happy. Then she used it all in the article and she got a picture of you on accident. It wasn’t this big betrayal. I would never do that to you and your family. Belinda saw an opportunity and took it.”

  Henri didn’t want to believe it, but he was still heading towards the horse. He didn’t ask her if she had rode before, putting her up on the saddle and getting in behind her. With a motion to the horse, it took off towards the place where they had been alone before. As he held her stiffly, soon both of their bodies had to get with the natural movement to stay on. He was pressed up against her and she was starting to feel too good to ignore.

  ***

  By the time he got to the pond he was hard and she could feel his need behind her. Mary didn’t want to explain herself anymore, too worried about what he was obviously thinking about as well. There was no denying how good he felt next to her.