Chapter 39
THIRTY-NINE
Hazel
In the morning when I get up, I can tell Ramsey never came to bed last night. I peek into the guest room to see if he slept there instead, but the bed is already neatly made. If he did sleep there, he’s long gone now. I hoped to at least apologize. I was emotional last night, lost in how scared I was for the horses and my friends. I hadn’t been fair in how I treated him, even if I did think that his conspiracy theories about Curtis were wild allegations. The shower and the sleep has cleared a lot of the pain, and now I just want to clear the air too.
I make my coffee, pour it into a thermos, and stuff a donut from yesterday’s breakfast into my mouth before I make my way out to where Kell and Elliot are already working. My brother, Cade, and one of his friends are helping to get the horses situated in the other barn.
The vet is here, too, working with the two horses that were injured when they were startled by all the commotion. It could have been much worse, and frankly, we were lucky that it was just that. Not that we really have funds for more vet bills on top of the ones we are already paying for the rescue horses we took in last month. But where there’s a will, there’s a way.
As I step out onto the back porch, though, I’m met with shock.
“Curtis!” I nearly drop my thermos.
“When I got your text last night about the fire, I just got on the next flight I could and drove out from Denver this morning.”
I didn’t want to believe what Ramsey said last night, but I couldn’t write it off either. Standing here now in front of Curtis, my stomach turns.
“Oh. You didn’t have to do that.” I shake my head. “I’ve got things under control.”
That’s a lie, but I’m getting there. I’d at least managed to pull myself out of my anxiety death spiral and formulate a plan for how I’ll get this all under control. I’m fairly certain Curtis showing up out of the blue is going to ruin it all when Ramsey finds him.
“I just want to be here to help. To support you. However you need.” A sympathetic look crosses his face, and he takes a step forward and kisses my cheek. My heart swells with the fact that he raced up to the ranch from Vegas to be here for me. It’s the kind of guy Curtis is—always thinking about how he can help, asking what he can do instead of just making decisions on my behalf. Not conspiring with my brothers to outmaneuver me.
Amelia’s voice echoes in my head, and I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been letting myself get too caught up in Ramsey’s web to see things for what they really are. If I really have my head on as straight as I think I do.
The hairs on the back of my neck go up a moment later, though, as I feel the breeze whip at the damp spot on my cheek where Curtis kissed me. I glance around, hoping Ramsey wasn’t nearby to see it. It feels like I’m cheating on my husband, and I’m fairly certain Ramsey will have even stronger opinions than that.
“Thank you for doing that. That means so much.” My eyes drift over him, and I offer a small smile before I have to be practical. “But I’m not sure that’s going to work with Ramsey being here,” I say softly, looking down at the boards of the deck.
This isn’t an easy topic, and I don’t know that I have it in me to negotiate this kind of thing today. Not after the emotional and physical drain of yesterday, and especially not before I’ve had my coffee.
“Fuck Ramsey and his delusions. This is serious. The stables burned down. Horses are hurt. You’ve got threats against your life sprayed on the barn. I’m your fiancé. It’s gotten too serious for us to still be playing this stupid game he wants.”
“I appreciate your concern and that you showed up here for me. Truly. But… it’s not a game to him, and I don’t need the added stress. It’s his ranch—legally speaking. He has a vested interest,” I explain even though Curtis is smarter than this. He shouldn’t need this explanation.
“I don’t care. I’m here for you. He’ll just have to get used to it.”
“Don’t you need to be in Vegas?” I question. It’s a Sunday, but I assume he’ll need to be back for training on Monday.
“I don’t care about anything else but you, Hazel. If they want to fire me, they can.” Curtis shrugs like it’s nothing that he’ll lose his job. Like we don’t live in a small town, and he can just as easily pick up another one.
Although, if Ramsey’s suspicions are right, he might push for Curtis to lose his job anyway. I swallow hard. There’s really no might about it. If the Stocktons decide something, there’s no stopping them. They mete out their own justice, and the whole town just has to brace for the impact of it.
“They will fire you, and possibly worse, if we don’t hold up our end of the bargain, Curtis.” I shake my head. I could just imagine them beating him to a bloody pulp and all the guilt I’d feel for it.
“If you’re worried about them, then what if we leave for a bit? We could get you out of here and away from all of this?”
“Leave? I can’t leave. The stables just burned down. I have a million things I have to take care of.”
“You just said yourself it’s Ramsey’s ranch and not yours. Let him deal with the fallout.”
“Legally, not literally. Even still. I have the inn to take care of.”
“I’m sure Grace can handle it. She’s been wanting more responsibility, right? Here’s your chance to give it to her. You can get away and relax, escape all the stress from Ramsey and his drama. We can reconnect. Hell, maybe we can go to a beach, or you could come back to Vegas with me.” Apparently, I’m wrong about Curtis too. He might have come back, but it seems he wants to manage me the same way everyone else does—to his benefit.
“No. I’m not abandoning my home when everyone needs me. There’s too much that needs to be done. It’s all hands on deck.” I’m surprised he would even suggest it when he knows this is where my heart is.
“Fine. Then I’m staying. I’ll be your extra set of hands.”
“Stay where? Ramsey won’t let you back in the house—not until the ninety days is over.”
“The inn? Don’t you have extra rooms?”
“He won’t like that.” I shake my head, and the anxiety in my stomach doubles when I hear boots through the house approaching the back door. The footfalls are heavy enough that they could only belong to one six-foot-five man I haven’t seen yet this morning.
“I won’t like what?” Ramsey asks as he opens the screen door, and I can practically feel the animosity radiate off him when he sees Curtis. “Oh yeah. I won’t like that at all.”
“It’s not about you. It’s about Hazel,” Curtis counters.
“My wife, you mean. I’ve got everything under control, and you’re the last person we need here. Aren’t you supposed to be in Vegas?”
“Doesn’t seem like you have anything under control by the looks of it. I came when she texted me about the fire.”
I can see the slightest bristle in Ramsey’s countenance when he hears that. He won’t love that I texted Curtis about it, but it’s not like I could keep it a secret from him.
“Well, you can go back to wherever you came from. No one needs you here.”
“Ramsey, stop it,” I warn him.
“I’m just telling him the truth, sugar.”
“Should I just talk to Grace or Tabitha about getting a room?” Curtis ignores Ramsey and looks at me.
“You’re not staying at the inn. You’re not staying anywhere on this property.” Ramsey takes a step closer to him, and I fear we’re only a few minutes away from the two of them throwing punches.
“You don’t get a say in where I stay. Only Hazel decides.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” I look between them warily. “It’s just going to add to the tension here. We need to be focused on the horses and getting things in place for them.”
“Fine. Come and stay with me at a hotel downtown then. It’ll give you a break from all of this at night. Let you escape a little,” Curtis pleads with me.
“We made a deal.” Ramsey looks at me. Something about the finality in his tone irritates me. Like he’s not trying to convince me I should choose him, but that he’s telling me I don’t have a choice at all. Given that we haven’t even resolved our argument from last night, it builds on every frustration I’ve already been feeling since then.
“I said you could stay here. I didn’t say that I would,” I argue.
I can see Curtis stand up a little straighter, a self-satisfied smile touching his lips. Ramsey doesn’t miss it either, and I can see the moment his temper hits. It flashes over his face before he reins it back in, and his own smirk appears. I feel like a rabbit trapped between a snake and a wolf.
“Before you take off with him, why don’t you ask Curtis where he’s been all this time?”
“I’ve been training. She knows that.”
“Training for what?” Ramsey asks calmly, staring Curtis down. “Because we both know it has nothing to do with the casino.”
My heart drops as the two of them stare each other down.
“What are you talking about?” I look to Ramsey first and then to Curtis. “What is he talking about?”
“I have no idea.” Curtis defends himself, but there’s something in the way he does it—the small half-step back he takes, the way his face falters, the shift of his shoulders that tells me there’s truth to what Ramsey’s saying.
“Someone explain,” I demand, my temper finally surfacing. All before I get my fucking coffee.
“Your boy toy here’s been lying to you. There’s no training in Vegas. Nothing to do with the casino. He took a leave of absence from his job.”
“That’s a lie!” Curtis shouts, taking a step toward Ramsey.
“You don’t want to do that.” Ramsey holds his hand out to stop Curtis in his tracks. He’s right. Curtis would lose. Ramsey has six inches and probably sixty pounds on Curtis, most of them muscle. He’d just be asking for pain, and Ramsey doesn’t need the trouble.
I stare at Curtis, trying to make sense of Ramsey’s accusation. Ramsey wouldn’t lie about something like this, so he must have known. His brother’s must have told him. Which means he’s known for a while and didn’t tell me.
“How long did you know he wasn’t in Vegas?” I turn on Ramsey.
“I was coming to tell you last night when I saw something was on fire, and then with everything, I didn’t get a chance to tell you.”
“You should have found a way!” I turn back to Curtis. “Where were you?”
“I can explain everything if I can just have some time alone with you. Come stay downtown with me. We can talk. You can relax.” Curtis reaches out for me, and I recoil from it.
“She’s not fucking going anywhere with you, you lying sack of shit!” Ramsey steps between us.
“Stop this! I don’t want to talk to either of you. I have things to do around the ranch and no time for these bullshit games. Don’t talk to me. Don’t follow me. Just let me do my job in peace.” I take off toward the corral in a hurry, forcing myself not to cry. I don’t need to look unprofessional right now. Not in front of all of my staff while we’re facing a huge crisis.
But the fact that Curtis lied to me and Ramsey has been investigating all of this without saying a word to me? I thought that, finally, Ramsey had matured. I thought Curtis was a good man. I thought that my ability to pick someone I could trust might have finally improved, and that maybe, just maybe, my instincts were finally reliable, but now I realize I’m as lost as I ever was.