“It scared me,” she said. “I thought you were going to bleed to death. But Mama Galloway put bandages on you, and you went back out and tried again.”
Heath picked up a small rock and hurled it out over the cliff. “That was before she died.”
Cathy felt like an idiot. Why had she brought up Mama? Thinking of Mama always made her think of Daddy, and thinking of Daddy… “I’m sorry,” she said softly.
Heath didn’t respond.
A pair of flies flew around each other in a circle and then alighted on the ledge. Cathy watched them, trying to think of something else to bring up, some happy childhood memory. But the more she sifted through them, the more she realized that everything was tinged with something unpleasant. Her father had beaten her afterwards, or Matt had gotten angry with Heath, or it reminded her of someone who’d been killed violently. She supposed she hadn’t noticed how bad their lives were when she was a kid, because kids just don’t see those kinds of things. But now, looking back…
“It’s probably best you left last night before anything could happen,” said Heath.
Cathy looked up for Isabella. Had she heard?
But Isabella was sitting up on the guard rail, and Cathy could see that she’d put in a pair of headphones.
“Things are complicated, like you said,” Heath continued. “I suppose the romantic thing to do would be for me to tell you that I’d raise his squealing spawn as my own, and that you and I could ride off into the sunset together.”
Squealing spawn? She didn’t know what he meant. But then, she realized. He was talking about the baby. Her baby. Instinctively, her hand went to her stomach.
“But it wouldn’t be that way, would it, Cathy? Eli would have visitations and weekends and holidays, and we’d always be carting his brat off to see him, and he’d always be in our lives. So, I can’t really have you at all. He’s stolen you from me.”
“Who said I wanted to ride off into the sunset with you, Heath? I never said that,” she said.
“You said things that were pretty fucking close,” he said.
“I didn’t mean them,” she said. “I was confused.”
“Oh, I was confused too,” he said. “It was very confusing, the way you jumped me and forced me to say things and got me all worked up before you ran off and left me there.”
She flinched.
“But whatever I said, I said under duress,” he told her. “I would have said anything you wanted at that moment. When your hand is on my dick, I’m easy to manipulate. But you know all about manipulation, don’t you, Cathy?”
“Fuck you.” She gritted her teeth.
“So, I’m not yours, you understand that? I’m never yours. Ever again.”
She glared at him. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you being like this?”
“Like what?” he said. “This is the way I am.”
“No, you’re being cruel,” she said. “Just because I came to you last night and said things I didn’t mean—”
“About how you were only half of something without me?” he said. “Are those the sort of things you didn’t mean? Or about how you didn’t want to give me up?”
She shut her eyes.
“The thing is Cathy, I’ve given it some thought, and I don’t want to run off with you. Not as long as that you’re pregnant with his child. The thought of that thing growing in you makes we want to vomit.”
She stood up. “I don’t have to listen to this.” He hated the baby that much?
“In fact, if you did want to come with me,” he said, “I’d have to insist that you get rid of it.”
“I don’t want to go with you,” she said. She started to crawl up the rocks. “I hate you, Heath Galloway. Stay away from me.”
He chuckled. “You don’t mean that, Cathy. I know you wish you did, but you don’t.”
She scrabbled away from him, tears pricking her eyes. He was being so ugly, and she hadn’t ever experienced that from him. It hurt.
Then her foot slipped, and the world turned sideways.
There was a horrible second, her heart in her throat, where she felt gravity pulling on her body, threatening to suck her down off the cliff.
But Heath was behind her, and he pulled her upright.
She put a hand to her chest. “Thank you.” She could hardly breathe.
There was sheer terror in his expression. “Be careful,” he said. “I thought you were going to…” He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t scare me like that.”
She gazed into his eyes. He didn’t mean half the things he’d just said either. She could see that in the way he was looking at her.
Oh, hell. Nothing made sense anymore. Being around Heath was like walking on a cliff all the time.
When they got back in the truck, she climbed into the center to be close to him and sat with her thigh pressing against his for the whole ride home.
* * *
“You’re in love with Eli, right?” asked Isabella. She was chopping up peppers in the kitchen. She’d insisted on cooking that night, saying that Cathy needed something home cooked for nourishment. “You and Heath are just friends?”
Cathy was washing lettuce in the sink. She turned off the water. “Why would you say something like that?” Were her feelings for Heath so obvious?
Isabella shrugged. “Well, I know that we’re friends mostly because of my brother, but we’re still friends, and I know that sometimes people get upset when friends go after other people’s exes, and—”
“Wait a second.” The thought she’d had earlier about Isabella having a crush. Maybe it wasn’t so ridiculous after all. “You’re asking for my blessing to pursue Heath?”
Isabella sliced into a pepper. “Basically.”
Cathy turned the water on. “Well, then my answer is no. Not because I still have any feelings for him. But because you don’t want to have anything to do with him, trust me. If you could hear the horrible things he’s said to me since he came back, you wouldn’t want to be near him.”
“He’s angry with you, Cathy,” said Isabella. “That’s all. He’s not such a bad person. He’s been through a lot. And I think it’s really admirable that he’s managed to make his own fortune in two years when he’s so young. I’m impressed.”
“He’s not a normal sort of guy,” said Cathy. “He’s very intense, and he can be violent, and he would chew you up and spit you out for his own amusement. Trust me, stay away from him.”
Isabella sighed. “You aren’t over him after all. I see how it is. I wonder if I should tell Eli.”
Cathy glared at her. “My god, Isabella, it’s not about that.”
“I think you just want both of them to love you,” said Isabella.
Cathy sighed.
“You don’t need to wash the lettuce anymore. I’ll do it myself.”
“Isabella, really—”
“Go away,” said Isabella. “I want to be alone.”
* * *
Matt stumbled, clutching the couch in the tenant house for support. One of the men came up behind him to help him up. “Come on, Matt, let’s get you back up to the house.”
“Oh, I’ll walk him up,” said Heath, looking up from his poker winnings, most of it from Matt. He was sorting the twenty dollar bills from the fifties.
“You sure?” said the man. “I didn’t think you liked him very much, and when he’s this drunk, he can be hard to deal with.”
“I’ll walk him home,” said Heath. “You don’t have to wait around.”
It was late, the poker game had broken up, and most of the other players had already gone home.
The man shrugged, deposited Matt on the couch, and walked out of the living room. Heath went back to counting his money. He heard the last of the men drive off. He and Matt were alone.
“Dirty gypsy,” said Matt. “Stealing my money from me right under my own roof.”
Heath smiled coldly. “I think this money is the rent I gave you, actually. A
nd I won it, Matt. You’re the idiot who gambled it away.”
Matt started to try to get up again, but he couldn’t stay upright. He went sprawling onto the floor.
Heath laughed. He got up and stood over Matt, his foot on his back. “It’s kind of disappointing how you’ve run yourself into the ground without me. My revenge would have been much more fulfilling if I got to destroy you. But you’re destroying yourself.”
Matt tried to get up, but Heath’s foot held him fast.
“Having some trouble there?”
“Let me get up,” said Matt.
“What was that?” said Heath. “Are you ordering me around? I don’t think you’re in the position to do that anymore.”
“Let me up.” Matt’s voice was a growl.
“No, I don’t think I will.” Heath grinned down at the trapped man, his black eyes gleaming.
Matt thrashed ineffectually. He tried to grab Heath’s foot, twisting around to get at it, but he couldn’t reach.
“Gypsy fuck,” said Matt.
Heath laughed again.
“You ruined everything. You stole my family from me. Daddy liked you better. Cathy liked you better. What did I have?”
“You expect me to feel sorry for you?” Heath’s voice was harsh. “You forced to me to live in a barn. I didn’t have running water. I went weeks without a shower. I had to shit outside. And I stole things from you?”
“Let me up,” said Matt.
“No.”
Matt’s voice broke. “Please.”
Heath ground his foot into Matt’s back.
Matt cried out. “Aw, god, Heath, you’re hurting me. Let me up, please, I’m begging you.”
Heath pressed harder.
Matt screamed. “Please! Please!”
“That’s more like it.” Heath removed his foot.
Matt tried to get up, but he was still drunk and unsteady.
Heath offered him his hand and hauled the man to his feet. He was surprised at how thin Matt was. He was a bag of bones, frail like a man three times his age.
“Thank you, Heath,” said Matt. He looked up at Heath drunkenly. “You’re right, you know. Back then, I was a dick to you. It wasn’t right. I’m sorry.”
Heath turned away. “Let’s get you up to the house.”
When he got Matt inside the farmhouse, he was surprised to find two-year-old Gage curled up on the steps asleep. He let go of Matt. “This is Fran’s little boy?”
“Yeah,” said Matt. “I take care of the kid.” He grasped the railing and began to stagger up the stairs.
“You just leave him up here like this while you’re drinking?” said Heath.
Matt belched. “I put him to bed, but sometimes he gets up. He’ll be fine there. He wakes me up when he’s hungry.” He continued his ascent.
Heath knelt down, eye level with the sleeping little boy. He hadn’t counted on there being a kid.
* * *
Eli hung up the phone. “Fucking prank calls. That’s the second one tonight.”
Cathy looked up from the magazine she was reading. “What do they say?”
“Oh, nothing, it’s just silence,” said Eli. “It’s annoying.”
“Weird,” she said.
Twenty minutes later, the phone rang again.
Cathy got up. “Let me answer it.”
Eli shrugged.
She picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Make up an excuse, leave the house, and meet me at the cornfield in fifteen minutes.” It was Heath.
She hung up the phone.
“Another one?” said Eli.
“Yeah,” she said. Her pulse picked up. “Um, I think I’m getting a craving for ice cream.”
“There’s ice cream in the freezer,” said Eli.
“No, I think I want soft serve,” she said. “Something from Dairy Queen, maybe.”
Eli smiled. He got up and patted her stomach. “Well, if that’s what the little guy wants, then that’s what he’s going to get. I’ll drive you.”
“Oh, don’t bother,” she said. “I’ll just go myself. You don’t have to.”
“I thought that was my job. You, you know, gestate the baby. I run the errands for your weird cravings.”
He was so sweet. Why was she sneaking out of his house to meet another man? A man who seemed to hate her, who said awful things to her?
“You will,” she said. “Trust me, when I’m as big as a house, you will run errands constantly.”
He laughed. “All right, I’ll take a rain check. I was going to watch a baseball game anyway.”
Oh, good. He’d be occupied, then. She smiled at him and headed out of the room.
“Cathy?”
Her heart leapt into her throat. “Yeah?”
“You’re really going to get as big as a house?”
Relief flooded through her. He had no idea what she was doing. “Absolutely. And you are going to love it.”
He came over to her and kissed her goodbye. “I’m sure I will.”
* * *
Heath’s truck was already parked in the cornfield when she got there. Twilight was stealing over the world, and everything was tinged in blue, even Heath, who was lounging against the grill of the truck in a tank top and jeans. He was less coifed, and he reminded her of the boy he’d been before all this had happened.
She got out of the car and went to him.
He ran his hand through his hair. It wasn’t in a ponytail, and it fell in waves around his shoulders. He smirked at her.
His smirk was still as sexy as it had been when he was seventeen.
She swallowed.
“Just wanted to see if you’d come,” he said.
Bastard. She turned away.
He caught her by the arm. “How’s it feel to be manipulated, Cathy?”
“Let go of me.”
He tugged her close. He wrapped his arms around her, trapping her there.
But being trapped hardly mattered. She didn’t struggle against him. He was strong and warm, and she liked the feel of his body so close.
“You’ve treated me so badly,” he murmured. “I don’t know why I can’t let you go.”
“I’ve treated you badly?” she said.
“Yes, Cathy, you have. But you’re not actually a very nice person, as you pointed out to me the last time we were alone together.” He gave her a wry smile. “As it turns out, I might not be a very nice person either.”
“No,” she said, “you’re not.”
“It’s only that people have to pay,” he said. “After what they’ve done to me, I have to get revenge.”
“If you’re trying to get revenge on me Heath—”
“No, not you.” He shook his head. “That’s not the plan. You, Cathy, should consider yourself quite free to torture me as long as you like. If it makes you happy to make me squirm, have at it. I worship you, and I’d rather be near you while you cut me to ribbons then to be away from you.”
She kissed him.
He caught her by the neck and held her there. His mouth assaulted hers.
She pulled away, struggling for air. “Why did you leave, then? If you wanted to be near me, why did you go away?”
“For you, of course,” he said. “To be what you wanted. I thought I’d come back and sweep you off your feet, and we’d live happily ever after.”
“But on the cliff, you said—”
“Forget what I said.” He put his hand over her chest. “You feel what I feel, don’t you? Here. In your heart. You know how I feel about you.”
“And the baby?”
He grimaced.
She pushed him away. “I have to think about the future for my baby, you know.”
He shrugged—one of his eloquent shrugs. “Why does there have to be a baby?”
“Because it’s there,” she said. “I didn’t plan it, but I’m pregnant, and I can’t pretend I’m not.”
“It’s the nineties. Wake up and smell the feminist revolution. You
don’t have to stay pregnant.”
“And aborting my baby for a man is feminist?”
He massaged the bridge of his nose.
She folded her arms over her chest.
His voice was quiet. “I can’t. I just can’t handle the baby. I know it makes me an asshole.”
“You’re damned right it does.”
“We’re too young for babies, anyway. Neither of us is ready for something like that.”
“I’m ready.”
“I’m not.”
“Eli’s ready.”
He licked his lips. “Well, I suppose the two of you will be very happy together, then.”
“Not with you calling me and telling me to meet you, we won’t.”
He chuckled quietly. “You didn’t have to come.”
Cathy shook her head. “I only wish I could tell Isabella about the way you’re behaving without making myself look bad. Knowing what a jerk you are would cure her of the stupid crush she has on you.”
“What?” Heath’s voice was full of amusement and interest.
She sighed. “Isn’t it ridiculous? I told her that you’d chew her up and spit her out.”
He stroked his chin. “Isabella Linton has a crush on me.”
“Don’t sound so excited about it,” she said. “I know you couldn’t be interested in her in a million years.”
“Oh, you’re right. You have ruined me, it’s true. I come back to find you knocked up, because you’ve clearly been spreading your legs for Eli Linton. Meanwhile, I’ve been away for two years, and I haven’t put my cock in anything except my own goddamned hand. Because no woman compares to you.”
She took several steps backwards, stunned. “That’s not true. You expect me to believe that?”
“Believe what you like,” he said.
“Heath…” She closed the distance between them again, putting her hand on his cheek. “I never asked you to do something like that. You don’t have to deny yourself—”
“It is what it is.” He rested his forehead against hers. “So, you’re right. I don’t desire Isabella Linton. I only want you. I always have. I always will.”
She let her eyes go shut, and she breathed in the scent of him, woodsy and spicy and familiar. “I can’t leave Eli.”
“Stay with him,” he rasped. “Birth his stupid brat. I don’t want any part of it.”
“But…”
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