I listened for more sounds, but all I heard was Beth’s voice. “I can do that. What are your options?”
“Staying or going home early.” I kept my voice low, just in case there was someone outside.
“Easy,” Beth said cheerfully. “Leave. This isn’t your fight, and family fights are not something outsiders should get involved in. Families are bound together, so no matter how much they fight, eventually they’ll end up at least trying to sort through their shit. It’s usually the outside people who get involved, no matter how well intentioned they are, that end up being iced out.”
“True.” I’d once read somewhere that people should never get involved in business with family or in family business. What Beth said had reminded me of that. “Do I tell Taydom I’m leaving?”
“Probably not. Unless you think he might want to leave with you.”
“I don’t think he can or that he should. From what little I understand or have been told about this situation, it’s serious. He came here for a reason and I think he needs to stay.”
“Then don’t tell him,” she said as if it was that simple. “Pack your stuff, get a cab, and come home. Text me your flight details and I’ll pick you up.”
“No, that’s unnecessary. If I catch a red eye, I’ll get in at some God-forsaken time. I’ll just take a cab home. Don’t worry about it.”
She sighed heavily. “I don’t give a damn what time it is. Just text me your flight details.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll text them to you so someone has them, but I’m still taking a cab.”
“We’ll see.” Beth spent several more minutes making sure I was okay before hanging up.
Once she ended the call, I had made my decision. Getting up off the bed was easier now than it had been when I’d left the room earlier to speak to Taydom.
Talking to Beth had lifted a weight off my shoulders, and I was now determined to do everything that needed to be done the right way. This wasn’t the time to tell Taydom about the pregnancy. Once everything here was sorted out and he came back to Dallas, telling him would be the first thing on my list of priorities.
For now, he needed to help the family who had raised him. I would take care of the family we had created for the time being. The baby and I would be okay. Hopefully, his family would be too.
Moving quietly around the room, I gathered all my things and packed my bag. I called the cab, but if I was being honest with myself, I would have rather walked all the way to the airport than to stay in this house for another night.
It was like I could feel the tension coming off the walls of the place. It wasn’t healthy, and as Beth had said, it wasn’t my fight or my tension. No one liked interlopers in their business.
Once my bags were packed, I flicked the light in the room off and hoped they would think I’d gone to bed. I sneaked down the corridor with my bags and took a peek down the staircase before descending it.
Voices were going at it again in the kitchen, but I didn’t bother to stop and listen to what they were arguing about now. Instead, I took it as a sign that I really shouldn’t be here and made a beeline for the front door.
I moved as fast and as quietly as I could, only slowing down to open and shut the door carefully. Muffled voices still carried from inside, but they faded as I lugged my stuff down the long drive.
So far, so good. I breathed out a sigh of relief when I didn’t hear the telltale crunch of gravel showing there was someone behind me. The only sounds in the warm night air were my own shoes and bag on the ground and my breathing.
When I finally reached the road, I sat down on my suitcase and let the reality of the day wash over me. There were still so many things I didn’t understand and so many things I wished I could talk to Taydom about.
I was still reeling, but now that I was out of the house and on my way home, there was one thought I couldn’t get past. Taydom had lied to his mother about me. The same mother he claimed to be so close to.
I’d told him how much I was missing my own mom and how I would do anything to speak to her again, and the whole time, he’d been lying to his. I couldn’t believe he would do that, and I didn’t know how I would be able to fully trust him again after this.
Chapter 38
Taydom
My heart slammed to a stop when I opened my bedroom door to find it empty. “Elsie?”
Nothing but silence answered me. I moved farther into the room, but in the ambient light of the moon shining in, I had made out that the bed was empty even from the doorway.
Turning in a slow circle in the darkness, I soon figured out that there wasn’t anyone in here. My feet were racing out before my brain had time to catch up. I checked the bathroom and then the kitchen, wondering if maybe she’d gotten hungry or wasn’t feeling well.
There was no one there, so I checked outside next. Again, no one.
The creak of the kitchen door had me racing back there, but it was only Riley. He frowned when he saw me, holding up both hands. “Whoa, there. What’s going on? Why are you so pale?”
“It’s Elsie. I can’t find her.”
His head jerked back, and his eyebrows rose. “What do you mean you can’t find her? She has to be here somewhere. Unless you had a fight with her, too?”
“I didn’t. I…” I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands and heard blood pounding in my ears. “I didn’t have a fight with her necessarily. It was more like the other fight just bled into our relationship as well.”
“Have you seen her since? It’s been almost two hours.”
“No. I went up to apologize to her, but then I figured I’d better walk it off first. I was still halfway out of my fucking mind when I went up there the first time. Took a walk, then I went back, and she wasn’t there.”
“I saw Mom and Dad out there as well,” Riley said, still frowning. “If we were all out walking, maybe she is too?”
I shook my head, my stomach twisting at my words. “The room is empty. None of her stuff is in there, either.”
“Fuck.” Riley scrubbed his hands over his jaw. “Okay, we need to find her then. Does she know anyone around here?”
“No.” I ground my teeth together and took in several deep gulps of air. The emotions flying through me were making me feel too volatile, too uncertain.
Blood continued to rush in my ears, and the icy tentacles of fear were winding themselves around every one of my organs. I doubted there was any blood left in my cheeks and I felt sick to my stomach.
I was also vaguely aware that my hands were shaking, but that was the least of my worries. “She doesn’t know anyone in the area, Riley. Where the fuck is she?”
“Language, Taydom,” my mother’s voice chided from the kitchen door. She stomped to clean her boots. Then her brows drew together when she saw my expression. “Where is who? Elsie?”
“Yes,” I said and told her what I’d just told Riley. When my father appeared behind my mother, I scowled at him. “This is all your fault. Now she’s gone and I don’t have the first fucking idea where to start looking for her.”
“First, there have been enough F-bombs dropped in this household tonight. I will not tolerate any more.” My mother crossed her arms as she entered the kitchen and walked right up to me. “Second, don’t blame your father. This is no one’s fault and everyone’s fault all at the same time.”
“You can’t really—”
She slashed a hand through the air. “I said enough. Listen to me, Taydom. Blaming your father will not help us find her, nor is it going to help us talk through our own situation.”
“Talk through it?” Riley asked incredulously as he folded his own arms and narrowed his eyes at me. “There is no talking through this. Neither of them will—”
My mother turned to face him. “Keep quiet and sit down. Both of you.”
Her tone brooked no argument, and knowing her as well as I did, I knew the fastest way to getting out of here to find Elsie was by listening. Riley and I both yanked
chairs out and sat down, then watched as my mother and father did the same.
Mom always had been the voice of reason in our household, but it surprised me my father was going along with her on this. That wasn’t something I’d seen before.
She set her hands down on the table and glanced at my father. “Before any of you say anything, I want you to listen to me. There’s a girl out there that we need to find. But our actions drove her away in the first place. If we have any hope of finding her and convincing her to come back, we can’t allow another argument like the one earlier to take place.”
“But, Mom,” I protested, my leg bouncing. “She’s out there alone. I need to get to her.”
“She’s a smart girl.” My mom leveled me with a look. “She’ll be fine. If you chase after her without clearing anything up here, I will hazard a guess she’s just going to order you back. I’ve only known her for a little over a day, but she’s strong, and she’s gotten used to dealing with things on her own since her mother’s passing.”
Riley objected this time. “But, Mom.”
Mom turned that silencing look on him. “Our problems drove her away. No doubt about it. So we will sit here and talk for a little while. Then we’ll all go out and look for her, okay?”
My chest was tight, and my heart was thumping, but something inside me knew my mother was right. “Okay.”
“Fine,” Riley spat.
“Good,” my father said. His head was hanging, but then he lifted it to look into my eyes. For the first time, he allowed me to see the anguish in his expression, the fear and the exhaustion. “I need to say some things and I don’t want either of you to interrupt me.”
He waited for us to nod before continuing. “You broke my heart when you left us, Taydom.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but the look in his eyes held me back. There was a rawness there that was almost painful to see.
“I knew you weren’t going to stick around.” He sighed. “I always knew you weren’t going to make the farm your life. I just couldn’t fathom you actually giving it up. The thought never crossed my mind to do it and I know it never crossed Riley’s either.”
My brother nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Farming is in our blood and it’s taken me a long time to understand that it’s not the same for you,” my dad said. “What you said earlier about it being natural for kids to grow up and leave is true. Don’t think I don’t know or understand that. I do. It just hasn’t been the way of life for our family.”
Again, I was tempted to speak up for myself. But then he surprised the fuck out of me when he sighed and said the last thing I’d ever expected to hear him say. “I’m sorry, Taydom. I should never have treated you the way I did, especially not the way I did after you left.”
My jaw dropped, and so did Riley’s, but my mother had obviously known what he was going to say. She reached out and took his hand, her eyes misty.
Dad turned his hand to wind his fingers around hers. “It’s something your mom and I have been going around and around on for a long time, but this visit has opened my eyes. Truth is, right now, I’m glad you got out. The fact that you would go to such lengths to get us—to get me—to listen to you speaks volumes. I don’t approve of you using that girl in your scheme, but doing something like that is so out of character for you that your mother has pointed out to me how much it must mean to you to help us.”
“It does,” I said. “It means everything.”
He nodded. “I thought so, but don’t think you’re entirely right. It means a lot to you, but not everything. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Elsie means something to you, too.”
A lump appeared in my throat, but I managed to force out words around it. “She does.”
“She’s not your girlfriend, but you want her to be, don’t you?” my mother asked, her voice gentle as she brought her gaze to mine.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat to get rid of that stupid fucking lump. “I love her, Mom. I love her and now I’ve screwed it up.”
A radiant smile spread on Mom’s face even as tears started leaking out of her eyes. “I knew it couldn’t all have been an act. She loves you, too, you know?”
I blinked. “You think?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think. I know. I’ve kept a very close eye on both of you since you arrived, and there’s no doubt about it.”
My heart nearly exploded at hearing her words, but there was a more pressing question than to ask my mom how she could be so sure. “What do we do now?”
“Now,” she smiled and released my dad’s hand, “we hug it out and then we go get her.”
“How do we find her?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “She’s at the airport. A girl like that isn’t wandering around in the streets like some damsel in distress, hoping you’re going to come rescue her. She would have taken decisive action. I’m willing to bet she called a cab and is on her way to the airport as we speak.”
“What if you’re wrong?” My heart was pounding again. “I know she’s not a damsel in distress, but what if she’s not at the airport?”
“If she’s not there now, she’ll be there tomorrow morning. On the way to the airport, you can check the commercial flights. If there’s still a flight out tonight, that’s the plane she’ll be on. If not, we’ll start checking the hotels near the airport. We’ll find her.”
“What about the farm?” Riley asked and held up a hand when Mom turned to glare at him. “What? You said we had to sort out our own shit before we go get her, so what does this mean for us?”
Dad cleared his throat. “It means that when we get back here, whenever that might be, we’re going to sit down together and figure out how to save this place.”
“If it means accepting help from him?” He inclined his head toward me.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Dad released a deep breath and gave me a firm nod. “We won’t take any handouts, but we can work out the terms later.”
“Works for me.” It was more than I’d ever hoped to hear from him. More than I could have dreamed of actually. “Let’s go get my girl.”
Mom, Dad, Riley, and I all piled into Mom’s minivan. Why she still had the thing, I didn’t know, but it sure came in handy right now.
I got behind the wheel and broke the speed limit all the way to the airport. Mom, Dad, and Riley all competed over who could give me the loudest advice on how to win her back. Then Riley jumped behind the wheel when we screeched to a stop outside the departures terminal.
I ran into the airport and immediately started scanning the relatively quiet space for her. It wasn’t as easy to find someone in an airport as movies made it seem, but I managed it eventually.
Elsie stood in front of one of the ticketing booths, her bag standing next to her with the handle extended. She was just pulling a card out of her wallet when she saw me racing up to her.
“Elsie! Don’t do it. Don’t buy the ticket.”
Several people stopped to stare at me, and a security guard left his post to approach me. I ignored all of them, even the people who had taken out their phones and seemed to be recording me.
I didn’t give a fuck about any of them.
The only person I cared about was Elsie. She was the only one I could focus on, like my vision had narrowed to include only the raven-haired, green-eyed girl who had turned now and was looking at me as if she wasn’t sure I was really there or not.
“I’m here, Elsie. I’m here and I’m sorry. Please don’t buy that plane ticket.” I held my breath and waited for her to say something, anything, as I prayed my apology wasn’t too little, too late.
Now that I’d finally admitted to my family and myself that I loved her, I’d realized just how very true it was. What I felt for her was unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
I couldn’t lose her, especially not without even telling her how I felt. I had no idea how to go about doing it, but it was now or never.
Chapter 39
Elsie
Unless I’d somehow gotten drugged somewhere between the airport and Taydom’s parents’ house, the man himself was running toward me. There were so many questions flying through my brain, I couldn’t begin to process them all.
There was a tall, dark, and handsome billionaire racing through an airport trying to stop a girl from buying a plane ticket. I’d seen this movie before. Several of them actually. I just never in a million years thought I’d ever live such a moment.
Security guards straightened and moved forward a little, but they didn’t seem alarmed at all. It was almost like they really had seen this happening before.
Huh? I frowned as I tried to make sense of the scene I found myself living. How the hell is this possible?
“I’m so sorry,” Taydom said again. The edge of desperation in his voice yanked me out of my thoughts and I came to, with him standing in front of me.
There was so much emotion burning in his dark eyes that my knees nearly buckled. His usually tidy hair was standing up all over the place, like he’d been running his hands through it for hours.
“I never meant for you to feel like I used you,” he said, his voice rough. “Honestly, I didn’t even think about it that way until Drew mentioned that was what it might feel like to you.”
“Andrew?” I frowned. “He knew about all this?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I mentioned it to him that my parents were in trouble and one thing led to another from there. It was stupid not to tell you, but I was afraid of how you would react. I promise I never meant to hurt you.”
“You might not have meant to, but you did.”
“Yeah, I did.” He reached for my hands, and when I didn’t move them away, he took them gently and stroked my knuckles with his fingertips. “I’m so, so sorry. I should have just come clean as soon as I realized there was another angle to what my plan might look like.”
“Why didn’t you?” It was something I hadn’t been able to figure out. “Why wouldn’t you just tell me you needed help and why?”
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