Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
Hazel
That afternoon, after all the immediate needs of the horses, the ranch, and the inn are met, once I thank Grace and Tabitha for all their hard work, give Amelia my apologies for missing another dinner, and make sure Kell and Elliot have the extra help they need from Cade and his friends—I pack a bag and head to Bo’s house. My knuckles are rapping on the door as soon as I confirm that his truck is in the driveway.
His brow furrows when he answers it and sees the bag in my hand, but he steps aside and lets me in all the same.
“If you’re moving in, we’ll have to work on a room for you. Cade’s been staying here, and he’s got the other spare set up for his video games.” Bo looks skeptically at the bag next to my feet in his entryway.
“I’m just staying the night. No need to panic.”
“I assume Ramsey’s done something to drive you away?”
“Him and Curtis. ”
“Curtis?” Bo asks, confusion coloring his tone.
“He’s back in town.” I look up just in time to see the flash of worry across Bo’s face that tells me he’s been read in on whatever’s going on. “And that’s what I thought!” I point a finger at his chest.
“What?” He holds up his hands palms out like he’s innocent when we both know the truth already.
“You knew too. Was there anyone in this family besides me who didn’t know?”
“You’re going to have to give me a little more information.”
I feel my temper climb as I stare at my brother, and my eyes narrow.
“If there are enough secrets floating around between all of you and Ramsey that I have to specify the details, we’re going to be having a whole other conversation.”
My brother’s eyes roll to the side, and he closes them as he lowers his hands and shakes his head.
“Let’s go sit out back…” He starts for the other side of the house, and I follow him into the screened-in deck he and the rest of my brothers built a few summers ago. It overlooks the lake his house sits on and has a gorgeous view of the mountains. Almost enough to distract me from my worries for a few moments. I melt into one of the chairs, so tired from the last two days—physically and emotionally—that I’m not sure I’ll ever get up again.
“Did you at least tell him you came here? He’ll lose his mind, and we’ll have a whole other conversation and a set of problems on our hands while he tears up the town looking for you.”
“I left him a note that I was coming here and to let me have the night away.”
“I’m texting him too. I don’t need him thinking I conspired with you.” Bo gives me a worried glance .
As much shit as he’s talked about Ramsey in the years since our divorce, it’s funny that he worries so much about him now. I roll my eyes as he pulls his phone out.
“Do whatever you have to do. And then tell me about Curtis and Ramsey and whatever you’ve been conspiring about. Every. Single. Detail.”
I wait patiently while he types out a message to Ramsey. I don’t bother to pull out my phone. I sent a quick message to the girls group chat to let them know I’m doing okay today. I didn’t have the energy to update them on the drama, and I didn’t want to see any more desperate messages from Curtis either. He’s been sending one every hour on the hour, it seems, and I just need time he isn’t willing to give.
“Ramsey’s right about Curtis. You should stay away from him,” Bo says as he puts his phone away.
“That’s hard to do when I’m engaged to him.”
“Are you? I’m pretty sure you’re married.”
“Now you sound like Ramsey. If that’s how this is going to go, I’ll go to Dakota’s.” I sit forward in my chair like I might get up. Her place isn’t much further down the road. I could muster one last round of energy. Bo holds his hand out and gives me a look to tell me I need to take a breather.
“I told him about Curtis. I warned him when he first got here that Anson Cade, and I had seen some shit we didn’t like.”
“Like what?”
“That pole barn that Ramsey’s stuff is in? The one the arsonists were running around in? He was in there one day when I was over, and you were at the inn. Another time, he had a metal detector out in one of the fields claiming he was looking for a watch. Did you know about those things?”
It immediately makes my stomach swirl. I’ve never shown Curtis inside the pole barn. In fact, I didn’t even think he knew where the key was. And I’ve never seen Curtis wear a watch in my life. But I also have no idea what he could have been doing with a metal detector. There must be plausible, simple answers to them, but I don’t have them.
“That’s what I thought.” Bo’s eyes travel over to me, a bit of pity and a bit of warning in them. “Then one night, Cade was on his way back from Springs, went down to one of Anson’s team’s games, and he stopped to get a late-night snack. While he was in the drive-thru off 50, he looked over at the motel parking lot when he saw a couple of people arguing—a man, who looked a little familiar from a distance, and a woman. It was real fucking heated, like they were having a couple’s spat almost. He watched because he thought he might have to call the police, but then the guy got in his car and drove off. Which is when Cade realized—it was Curtis.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me any of this until now?”
“It was all random stuff. He could have had a fender bender with the woman. He could have bought a new watch. Maybe you asked him to go out into the pole barn. None of it was a glaring red flag; it was just enough little things that they were adding up to us having questions we were trying to get answers to.”
“But you still didn’t tell me?”
“You’re supposedly in love with him. You don’t have a history of listening to warnings when you’re in love with someone.”
“You should have told me. And supposedly? Really?”
“We were afraid you’d think it was ridiculous and that you might tell him. Then he’d know we were onto him, and any other clues we might have gotten would have been covered up. He just… has a bad vibe around him. I know you love him. I know he’s been good to you, and I don’t have anything concrete I can point to him the way you’d want it… I just, with some of these guys, when you know, you know. ”
“And yet you continue to hold steady to Ramsey’s side. You two seem all chummy again. I thought you said it was family first around here?”
“Then I found out he is still family.” Bo’s lips quiver with half a smile, and I frown at him.
“Don’t be a smartass.”
“He’s a fuckup, Haze. But he loves you. He’d do anything for you. The second he was back in that house with you, I just felt a whole fuckton of relief.”
“Because I can’t take care of myself?”
“Because you’ve been living with a fucking snake, Haze. I don’t know what he’s got up his sleeve, but you can’t trust Curtis. And I hope to God you’re not actually in love with him.”
Of course he doesn’t want me to be in love with him. Because he wants his brother-in-law back, firmly ensconced where he thinks he belongs—on his ranch at my side.
“But I can trust the man who ran off?” I give Bo a skeptical look.
“He ran off because he thought it would keep you safe. He believed that. I know he did. And you know he wanted you to go with him. You were just determined to stay here and run your inn, and he wasn’t going to come between you and your dream either. I told you my opinion then, and nothing’s changed—neither of you was in the wrong.”
“So you told him about Curtis, and then what? He went to his brothers, I assume, since he knows about Vegas not being a real thing?”
“When those guys were in the pole barn the other night, I told him it was the same barn I saw Curtis in. It all just seemed too coincidental. Especially since when his parents were killed, it seemed like the murderers were looking for something on the property then too. So the next day, he went to see his brothers, hoping they’d have more on him with his employee file. He thought maybe they knew more than they were letting on because Grant had told him to give up on you too,” Bo explains.
“Give up on me?”
“Don’t be na?ve. You know he doesn’t want the divorce to go through.”
“He’s never said that to me.”
“Maybe not plainly. But I promise he’s said it loud and clear if you were listening. The whole town knows that’s what he’s here for, so if you’re claiming you don’t—it’s because you don’t want to hear it.
“Well, maybe he should man up and ask how I feel about that idea instead of whatever this is he’s been doing… Or, you know, vaguely any attempt at directly asking me what I want.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“Haze…” My brother sighs loudly and runs a hand over his face.
“What?” I’m exasperated and currently regretting running to the brother that might love my husband more than I do.
My brother steeples his hands and runs his index fingers up the sides of his nose as he blinks at the floor and then lifts his eyes to meet mine.
“You two are some of the most stubborn, bullheaded, independent people I know.”
“Please, Anson’s worse.”
“I said some of.”
“And? So what?”
“He’s here . He could be anywhere he wants to be. He has the money and the means.”
“His parole officer—”
“You don’t think his fancy-ass fucking lawyers could get him out of that if he really wanted? People as rich as his family… they don’t follow the same rules as the rest of us. ”
“Maybe he was bored of life out East.”
“I’m sure he was real bored of fame, good money, and endless women.”
I glare at my brother for even bringing up the other women. I knew there were others, and I was fine with it. I didn’t expect him to stay celibate while we thought we were divorced. I certainly wasn’t. But I didn’t need to dwell on them.
“And that reaction right there tells me everything I need to know about how you feel about letting him walk.” Bo sits back in his seat with a self-satisfied smirk.
The idea of Ramsey leaving after this makes my heart twist and my lungs clench, almost like I can’t get a breath. The thought of him now, with someone else after the last few weeks we spent together—well, that makes me imagine setting things on fire. Namely his clothes and his bike and half the things I’d saved for him while he was gone. He’s mine now, and if he could force me to be his for ninety days on a technicality, well… two could play that game.
“Is he thinking about leaving?” I ask, trying not to sound as worried as I feel. I haven’t exactly been kind to him.
“I haven’t discussed it with him. I don’t want to be in the middle of you two any more now than I did before. But I can’t imagine he is. All he talks about is keeping you safe. You know, after his parents…”
“I know,” I respond sharply. I knew better than anyone how much his parents’ deaths—especially his mother’s death—rattled Ramsey to his core. He’d been sweeter and more carefree before it. Always with a joke, always a laugh about something. Finding his parents like that had extinguished almost all of the light he had in his soul. It had broken him in a way nothing seemed to be able to glue back together again—not therapy, not the ranch, not me… not even football—his first re al love.
“Then you know as much as I do about the state of his mind. Probably more.”
“Does anyone really know his mind?” I shake my head, staring out at the water as a fisherman in waders wanders deeper in on his next cast.