Chapter 6
Leah
“Leah,” multiple voices called out as I walked into the bunkhouse. There were some new faces I didn’t recognize among the group piled in front of the big-screen TV for Thursday night football.
It was the close of my fifth day here, but everyone acted like they’d known me since grammar school. Even if these people were concerned about my being a convicted felon, they acted as if they didn’t know anything about my circumstances here. It was so different from the crowd I’d fallen in with back in New York, most of whom cut me as soon as a hint of suspicion became attached to my name.
I gave a wave. “Just coming to use the bathroom.” I walked out a few minutes later.
“Come on, hang out with us for a few and watch the game,” Elijah said, several others chiming in as well.
“Yeah, come on,” Missy said, having come in. She walked closer and then looped an arm through mine, locking me to her side and whispering, “I need you. I’m tired of drowning in testosterone around here.”
Between the amount of people, and the number of beer bottles, my gut was telling me this was the exact scenario that would set Kade off.
“I’m not sure…”
“Kade never comes here,” she said. How she knew that was my problem was unclear, but I nodded. Missy dragged me over to a high-top table near one of the couches. “That’s Bernie, Roger, Ted, Eddie, and…” She mumbled the last name.
“Huh?” I asked.
She leaned in. “I can’t remember the other guy’s name. He’s just started coming around. Pretend I said it and smile.”
I did what she suggested, giving the group a casual wave as I braced for the awkward questions to begin. What used to be normal small talk was now like dodging bullets. “Where are you from,” “How did you end up here,” and “How long you sticking around” were the most dreaded sentences I could hear.
An interception and a third down, combined with a lack of timeouts, trumped all interest for the minute and gave me some breathing room.
“Do they all work here?” I kept my voice down so I didn’t take their attention off the screen. I’d seen some of the faces around, but others were definitely new.
“Some work at nearby ranches—everyone hangs out here for the games, since the bunkhouse has the best screen in town.”
It really did. I’d never seen the projection screen on before, but it was like watching the game in a theater. The thing had to be a hundred inches across.
Adam, one of the few not glued to the screen, walked over and held out a beer to me.
“I’m good, thanks.” I was walking a fine line being here as it was. In fact, the line was about as thin as you could get. The last thing I needed to do was break a rule as big as drinking. I might’ve kidded that prison would’ve been better, but as I was settling in, this place wasn’t turning out to be so bad, especially since I barely saw Kade.
“It’s been a long week. You deserve a beer,” Adam said.
“Really, I’m fine,” I said.
“I’m going to put this right here. If you take a sip, no one is going to notice.”
He put the beer right beside me on the table I was leaning against and then gave me one of those killer smiles, the kind that probably got him company any night he wanted.
“Can you go drool somewhere else? I left all the rags back at the barn,” Missy said.
“Isn’t it past your bedtime?” Adam replied.
“I’m staying up late while I wash the crabs you gave me out of the sheets.” She followed that with the sweetest smile you’d ever seen. These two didn’t play around, or at least not in the way they clearly had in the past.
It was a hard enough blow that Adam’s face turned so red it was causing a rash all the way down his neck.
“Fuck you,” he said, obviously out of original lines, as he walked away.
“I guess you two don’t like each other much?” The way she looked at him, I was glad there weren’t any nearby knives.
“He’s a real charmer until he realizes he’s not going to get back in your pants because the first time wasn’t worth a repeat.”
“Ahh. Okay.” The guy was so good-looking that he probably fell into that curse where he didn’t think he had to do much—not that I ever intended to find out. But knowing what little I did about Missy already, there was clearly a lot more to the story than a bad go-around in bed.
“Hey, I’ve got to do a fence check tomorrow afternoon—you’re welcome to come along if you want?” she said, shifting the conversation. “It might be a nice change. We’ll take the ATVs and go around the different fence perimeters, make sure none of the wood posts are rotting or pieces are missing.”
“You don’t just walk it?” That could buy a lot more time away from the house, where Kade might be.
She was squinting as if I were nuts. “When you’ve got four thousand acres? No way. Heck, we won’t even be hitting all the pastures, and it’s still going to take most of the day.”
“Four thousand acres?” Every time I looked around or found out something new about this place, I grew more impressed with what Kade had built. I shouldn’t have been, but it was hard when I remembered the young guy working sunup to sundown to keep this place afloat. He’d worked himself to the bone to just pay the electric bill. To see him come this far was inspiring.
“Yeah. I mean between the horse and the cattle.”
“There’s cattle?”
“You can’t train cutting horses if you don’t have cattle. You know, a horse can’t cut cattle from a herd that doesn’t exist. He’s in the process of buying more acres, but the guy who owns the land to the north is being stubborn on price, even though he wants to sell. We’ll get it, though. That’ll put this place at over six thousand acres once it gets worked out.”
How was Kade able to buy so much? Monroe had hinted that he had been pretty successful, but whenever Kade’s name came up, I’d find a distraction or change of subject. Because when I did hear his name, all I thought of was a past that was too painful, a friendship lost, and a first crush that hadn’t just been crushing but pulverizing.
I was on the verge of getting swallowed by that black hole of memories when the door to the bunkhouse swung open and the star of my nightmares strolled in.
There were greetings around the room, but I kept my attention trained on the game I’d been ignoring.
Sometimes I wondered if I’d ever known Kade at all. Other times, like now, I could sense his energy the second he entered the room and knew he was here for a fight before anyone else caught on. And what was sitting right beside me, giving him the perfect excuse? The beer.
The room went quiet, proving Kade didn’t look happy as he walked over and stood in front of me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I finally met his stare. “It’s the bunkhouse. As far as I’m aware, I’m allowed in here. I actually have to come here because my shed doesn’t have a bathroom.”
“You aren’t allowed at parties,” he said.
“It’s not a party.”
He reached beside me, going for that damned beer, as I prepared for battle.
He held it up in between us. “This yours?” he asked.
I wanted to tell him to go to hell but couldn’t. The problem was, this did look bad.
“I didn’t drink it. I didn’t even ask for it.” If I sounded slightly aggressive, it was his fault for being the one to ask. It wasn’t as if he deserved any softness from me.
“Let’s go. It’s time to go to bed.”
A few of the guys groaned. “Come on, Dad, let her stay out a little late tonight.”
“We promise she’ll be in bed by ten,” another one said, followed by laughter.
Kade glanced their way and the room fell silent.
“It wasn’t hers,” Missy said. “Adam left it there. Look at it, it’s full.”
With my face burning red, and with the smallest scrap of pride I had left, I patted her arm. “Don’t worry about it. I was ready to leave as soon as he showed up to the party.” I was speaking directly to Missy but was loud enough that the room heard.
I got a couple mumbled laughs when I walked out the door, Kade on my heels as I walked the short distance to my shed.
I walked in, trying to shut the door after me, but I wasn’t fast enough to keep him out.
“I don’t care if you hate me,” he said. “I signed a?—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. You signed a contract,” I said, turning toward him.
“You want out of here? Just say the word. I’ll gladly drive you to the prison myself.”
“You want to drive me, I’ll pack my bag tonight. Just give me the word.” Even as the words came out, my chest tightened. He might call my bluff. I’d never been good at backing down from a fight, though, and if he kept throwing down the gauntlet, I’d damn well pick it up.
We stood, nearly toe to toe, while I waited to see what my fate would be. My heart felt like it was getting zapped as I saw the flicker of something remorseful in his eyes. Was it because he was going to tell me this wasn’t working? Was it guilt I saw because of what he was about to do?
Then his eyes shifted to my lips, and for a second I could’ve sworn he was going to kiss me. I was so convinced that I parted my lips in response—from shock, of course.
He hated me. I hated him.
He backed up a step after a few seconds. “I don’t smell beer on you. I’m sorry if I overreacted, but be aware you can’t drink.”
He walked out, and I swore it took me a few more moments before my lungs wanted to work. I walked to the bed and collapsed on it, absolutely drained and not even sure why.