Live for Me (Hallow Ranch)

Prologue

Abbie

Twenty Years Ago. Hayden, CO.

“What do you want me to say?” he bellowed, his powerful voice shaking the walls of our trailer.

“I want you to tell me you love me, dammit,” Mom shouted back at him.

I never understood it, the way Mom always craved love as if mine wasn’t good enough. She tried explaining it to me once. Love between two adults was different than love between a mother and child. She never thought I was good enough, even when she had love from one of her boyfriends.

Max was the fourth one after Daddy.

The silence was too much for me, and I found myself poking my head out of my small bedroom, the smell of smoke and sweat filling my nostrils. “Sheri, you want too much from a guy like me,” Max said. His back was to me, his hands in his hair. I knew if he turned, I would see his beer gut hanging over his belt.

Mom was standing on the other side of the living room, her makeup running down her cheeks. She’d just gotten that mascara from the drug store two days ago with money I’d found in the couch. She was so proud of me for finding it, said we would go into town for a treat.

I thought the treat was for me.

It wasn’t.

“Max, please,” she begged, her voice cracking as she fisted her dress at her sides. It was the same dress she always wore when he came over. It was the only one she had.

He shook his head. “I can’t be here with you every fucking day, Sheri. I have work to do.”

Mom shook her head. “You don’t have work! You’re lying!”

Max dropped his hands and shook his head. “You always think everything is about you, huh?”

I didn’t blink as all the emotion in my mother’s face melted away, revealing the cold, distant side of her I didn’t like. It scared me. She could go from one mood to the next, and it didn’t matter what I did to try and stop it. Last time she got cold, she slapped me in the face.

“Tell me where you’re working, Max. Did you finally get a new fucking job?” she asked, ice in her voice.

“As a matter of fact, Sheri, I did. Down at Hallow Ranch.”

My eyes widened.

Hallow Ranch was Mr. Langston’s ranch.

Mr. Langston wasn’t nice to anyone in town, not since his wife died in the fire. Everyone at school knew the story, and his two sons, Denver and Mason, mainly kept to themselves. They were a few grades above me.

“John Langston would never hire a fuck up like you,” Mom sneered.

Sadness hit me then, and I quickly ducked back into my bedroom, shutting the door and putting my back against it as another round of screaming started. Eventually, the screaming got louder, and I could hear Mom throwing things. Usually, it was the TV remote, then her ash tray, and if things got really bad, she would flip the coffee table.

It was always the same.

Mom would fall in love with a new man, they’d be nice for awhile, and then they would leave. None of them ever stayed, including Daddy. He left on my fifth birthday.

That was five years ago.

As Mom and Max continued to fight, I kept my back against the door. You know, just in case Max left and Mom needed someone else to yell at. I still had some math homework to do, but that would have to wait until tomorrow morning. I would wake up extra early, walk to school, find a bench at the playground, and—

“Abigail!”

I sucked in a breath, feeling goosebumps spread over my arms at the anger in my mother’s voice. Quickly, I flipped off the light, praying she would think I was already asleep. She shouted my name again, sounding closer this time. I felt a lump grow in my throat, and I bit down on my bottom lip as hard as I could, forcing my whimpers to quiet.

“Girl, you have five seconds to get into the living room,” she screeched.

“Jesus, Sheri, leave her alone,” Max cut in, sounding tired.

My heart skipped a beat. None of her other boyfriends gave a crap about me.

“Don’t tell me how to raise my child, Max!”

“Leave her alone, and I’ll stay the night,” he offered, his voice hard. “Don’t go near her fucking door, and I’ll stay. Deal?”

My shoulders sagged.

Eventually, our trailer grew quiet, and I heard Mom’s bedroom door shut, but I didn’t go to sleep. I stayed up and finished my math homework. After that, I sat crisscross applesauce on my bed, facing the door just in case Mom decided to come into my room.

Good news: I got an A on my math homework.

Bad news: everyone at school stared at the bruise on my cheek the next day—including Beau Marks.

“What the heck is that?” he asked, his voice sounding strange.

I didn’t bother trying to hide it as I turned my head to face him, feeling heat in my cheeks. He was two seats down from me at the lunch table, where he sat every day. He was grade older than me, but he’d looked out for me since I was in kindergarten, ever since one of his friends accidentally knocked me down on the playground.

I shrugged a shoulder. “A bruise,” I answered.

Beau had the prettiest blue eyes I’d ever seen on this side of the Rockies, and his golden hair was my favorite shade. It was much better than my dull brown.

I watched as he brought his brows together, looking concerned. “From what?”

My mouth felt dry all of a sudden.

I’d practiced this lie in my head all morning, but I couldn’t lie to Beau.

In the future, a long time from now, one statement would remain true.

I, Abbie Spears, would never be able to lie to Beau Marks, even when a lie was the only thing that could save his life.