Chapter 8
He spent every afternoon for a week at the farm down the highway until he felt he had a good handle on everything. Then he brought his trailer down, paid the owners, and took away his prizes.
Lydia had called almost every day to ask about the cows, and it was his turn to reciprocate.
Nothing she’d said or done had given him any reason to doubt her word, and their conversations had been friendly and pleasant.
But Avery was about to up the ante, and he wondered what would happen.
When she answered the phone the very next afternoon, it was with a cheerful, “Hi, Avery!”
“Hey! What are you up to?”
“I just sold a house!”
she gushed into the phone.
“Yay! That’s great! Big one, little one?”
“Ah, just a medium-sized one, but a nice one. Got a good price for it. The seller’s pleased, the buyer’s ecstatic, and I’m getting enough commission to pay my utilities for the next two months, so I can’t complain. Talked to your mom since she got home?”
“Yeah, a couple of times. How are your parents doing?”
“They’re great. I think they’re going on a cruise for their anniversary next month.”
Avery smiled.
Her mom and dad were really nice people.
He’d gotten a chance to meet her mother at a street carnival up in town the weekend before, and he’d treated them to slushies and cotton candy.
It had been great to watch them.
They seemed very much in love and very happy together, and Avery thought about his parents, how distant and cold they’d been to each other until his dad had died with the heart attack.
The Kinseys were just the opposite, and he was a little jealous of Lydia and her brother, Josh, for being able to grow up with all that love and togetherness.
“That sounds like fun. I hope they go and have a good time.”
“Yeah. They said they saw you last weekend. Dad likes you.”
Avery smiled. “I like them.”
He hesitated. “So, anything new going on?”
There was a long pause, and then Lydia said, “Stop teasing me. You said there was a surprise, but you’ve never told me anything else. What is it?”
How to do it? “So, um, I’m a rancher. A cattle rancher.”
“Yeah.”
“And cattle ranchers have to herd their cattle, right?”
“Yeah. And you have Skipper for that.”
“Yeah, but he’s, well, he’s a dog.”
There was silence again before she finally said, “Yeah. He’s a dog. Unless something’s happened to him and he’s suddenly become a horse.”
When Avery said nothing, Lydia went silent again, but then she finally gasped out, “You bought a horse?”
“No.”
He waited, hoping she was sinking a little in disappointment before he said, “I hope you know how to ride.”
“I do.”
“Because I didn’t buy a horse. I bought two horses.”
There was another bout of silence before she shrieked out, “GET OUT! You did not!”
There was some squealing and laughing, and then she asked, “Can I ride one of them?”
Avery was laughing so hard he could barely speak. “Well, I haven’t figured out how to ride both of them at the same time, so yeah, I think you probably can!”
“Oh, awesome! When can I see them?”
“What are you doing right now?”
There was more squealing before she belted out, “Oh, I can go home and change RIGHT NOW!”
“Then go! I’m home and I’m not going anywhere. Just come on out when you get changed and we’ll try them on for size.”
He was sad she couldn’t see him, because he was grinning so widely that his cheeks ached.
“I’ll be there as fast as I can get there! Oh, I can’t wait. Bye!”
“Bye, babe.”
As soon as the phone went dead, Avery realized what he’d just said. He’d called her babe. If she’d heard him, she hadn’t said anything. And that was good, because it was purely out of habit.
Or was it? She was fast becoming one of the best friends he had there in TuckerCity, along with Danette and Greg. Then he realized he hadn’t talked to Danette in several days, and that was odd. Punching her contact in his phone, he waited while it rang and she answered with a weak, “Hello?”
“Hey. You okay?”
“No. I’m not.”
“You sick?”
“No.”
He heard her sniffle on the other end.
“What’s going on, Dan?”
“Me and Greg broke up.”
Avery’s heart sank. They’d been getting along very well, and something had obviously happened. He hoped it wasn’t something Danette had done. She could get a little out of hand occasionally, and Greg was too passive to rein her in. “What happened, honey?”
“His dad fell and broke his hip, and now Greg’s got to take care of him and his mom,”
Danette explained. “And she’s already in a wheelchair.”
“God. That’s horrible.”
“Yeah. And he can’t afford to get ’round-the-clock care for them, so he’s working in the day and staying with them from the time he gets off until the nurse can get there the next morning. He said he loves me, but he doesn’t think it’s fair to me to be able to spend no time with me at all. So that’s that,”
she said, then burst into tears.
“Oh, honey! I’m so sorry! Dan, are you in love with him?”
“I don’t know!”
she wailed. “I’m not sure, but I miss him, I know that.”
Avery sat for a few minutes. “Why don’t you come over here? Lydia’s coming over later.”
Shit, I really wanted to be alone with her! his brain hummed, and then he choked. He wanted to be alone with Lydia? What the hell was wrong with him?
In that split second of self-revelation, Avery knew.
Something about Lydia tugged at his heart and lit up his body.
He wanted her like he’d never wanted a woman before, not to tear apart and devour, but to protect and cherish.
She was softness and vulnerability, and that was something he’d never had with Shannon.
He’d thought he and that redhead were close, but he’d never experienced anything with her like the simple joy he had watching Lydia eat a brownie, or the way he’d felt as she’d knelt in the dirt next to that dying cow, stroking its neck and trying to comfort it in its misery.
He didn’t just want Lydia.
He needed Lydia. Her openness and her strength―it was what he’d been looking for all along, and he hadn’t even realized it.
Danette broke the spell. “You sure you wouldn’t mind?”
“N-n-n-no. Not at all,”
he lied. He’d already extended the invitation, and besides, Danette was his friend. He wanted to help her if he could, and she needed someone she could depend on right that minute. “You just get yourself on over here.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in a bit. Bye.”
She hung up and Avery panicked. He needed to make something for them to have for dinner. He needed to clean the place up a bit. He needed to…
Calm down.
He just needed to calm down.
A quick look in the fridge told him he should probably go the pizza route, so he bolted upstairs and straightened up his bedroom and the bathrooms, then came back down and loaded everything dirty from the sink into the dishwasher.
He washed and rinsed Skipper’s bowls so they didn’t look quite so disgusting, then ran a wet mop over the kitchen floor.
Not too bad , he thought.
At a dead run, he went through the refrigerator and threw out anything that looked suspiciously fuzzy, then took out the garbage.
The next task was straightening up the living room and, last but not least, gathering up all the dirty clothes to hide them in the laundry room.
There. Mission accomplished.
The surprise was that Danette showed up first, and she got out of the car with an overnight bag. Oh, this is not good , he thought as he watched her climb the porch steps. As soon as she cleared the front door, she dropped the bag and ran straight to Avery.
Trying to be the best friend he could, Avery opened his arms and swept her right up into them, and she knotted up and sobbed into his chest. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry! It’ll get better, I promise.”
“Why can’t I just go back to being the town whore and not caring about anybody?”
she wailed.
Avery smiled and kissed the crown of her head. “Because that’s not who you are. It never was who you really are. This is the real Danette, the one who really does need somebody to love her. And I promise, it’ll get better.”
“Oh, Avery! It hurts so bad!”
she cried out, then wept even louder. All he could do was stand there and stroke her hair and her back, letting her cry out all her heartbreak onto his tee shirt. She was just beginning to quiet when the front door opened again.
There stood Lydia, and she had a pained, confused look on her face. In a split second, the look turned to rage, but when Avery shook his head and put a finger to his lips, she stopped, her face one huge question mark. He whispered down to the crying woman in his arms, “Look. Somebody’s here to see you.”
When Danette turned, Lydia smiled as though she understood. “I thought maybe you could use a little girl time.”
“Lydia! Oh, Lydia, it’s awful, you know?”
Danette sobbed and strode in Lydia’s direction. To his amazement, the small blond opened her arms too, and Danette grabbed her and hugged her. Lydia’s eyes locked with his, and he mouthed breakup . She nodded in understanding, then patted Danette’s back.
“Let’s sit down, okay?”
Lydia whispered to Danette, and the two of them stepped over to the sofa and took a seat. As Avery watched in amazement, Lydia and Danette sat and talked, with Lydia occasionally reaching over to pat Danette’s hair or touch the crying woman’s cheek. Thinking fast, he jetted into the kitchen and held up a bottle of wine. Lydia nodded, so he opened it and poured them each a glass, then thought better of it and poured himself a glass too.
He let them just sit and talk for a while and busied himself starting a load of jeans in the washer. It wasn’t long before he noticed it was quiet, and he stepped back into the living room to find Danette dozing sweetly on the sofa, only occasionally letting out a hiccupping sob in her sleep. Managing to extricate herself, Lydia tiptoed from the sofa to the kitchen, took Avery’s hand, and led him out through the laundry room and onto the back porch. “Whew. Bless her heart, she’s all torn up,”
she whispered to Avery.
“Yeah. I called her right after we hung up. I realized I hadn’t talked to her in a couple of days, and I thought I’d better check on her. I’m sure glad I did.”
“I’m glad you did too. I feel horrible for her, but she told me about Greg, and I feel worse for him. You don’t think he’s making that up to break up with her, do you?”
Lydia asked, and a wave of anger broke over Avery.
“He’d better not be, but you can bet I’ll be checking on that. I’ll beat him to a bloody pulp if he’s lying to her,”
Avery growled.
“And I’ll help you. But that would be hard to lie about.”
“True.”
He stood stock still, trying to get his feelings in check, and realized he was still holding Lydia’s hand. “So,”
he said, working to shake the anger, “you ready to see something beautiful?”
“I sure am!”
she said with a blindingly white smile that made Avery’s heart pound in double-time. “Can’t wait!”
“Good!”
Leading her down the back steps and out into the afternoon sunshine, Avery headed to the barn, then took a hard left and opened a gate to a pasture he hadn’t used previously for the cattle. They wandered down a hill and through a line of trees, and when they stepped out into the clearing beyond, Lydia gasped.
Grazing a hundred or so feet away were a couple of American Quarter Horses, one a glittering palomino and the other a buckskin, their coats an identical color but manes and tails the opposite of each other. Both horses had stockings on all four feet, and the palomino had a white blaze up the center of his face. “Oh, lord, they’re beautiful!”
Lydia whispered.
Avery’s grin was a dreamy crescent as he stood and took in that breathtaking sight. “Aren’t they?”
“What are their names?”
Lydia asked, transfixed.
“The palomino’s name is Buttercup. The buckskin is Dixie.”
That got a nod of approval from her. “Mares.”
“Yep.”
Avery gazed at the horses with pride.
They were gorgeous.
The owners at the farm had worked with him all week, and they’d told him he learned quickly.
He knew how to use them to herd and to cut.
Skipper had even tagged along the last two days, and the horses had worked well with him and he with them.
As long as he had Skipper, those horses, and someone to help, he knew he could manage a much larger herd. “Want to ride one?”
“Yeah! Which one can I ride?”
Avery grinned. “You pick the one you like best and she’ll be your horse.”
Lydia wheeled and looked at him. “Are you serious?”
Something in Avery’s gut told him that moment was the right one. “Come sit down with me,”
he told Lydia, pointing to a log near the edge of the pasture.
Once they were seated, he looked out across the grassy land, the sunshine on the horses’ coats, and the trees at the edges of the clearing swaying in the gentle northeast Texas breeze.
He finally turned to the woman sitting beside him. “We need to talk.”
Lydia’s face fell. “Well, hell. Okay, what have I done wrong?”
“You haven’t done a damn thing wrong,”
he said, and she gave him a shy smile. “Matter of fact, you’re doing everything one hundred and fifty percent right.”
“First time anybody’s ever said that to me,”
she play-groused with a grin.
Avery let out a laugh. “It’s true. And you need to know that I didn’t set out to buy one horse—I set out to buy two, one for me and one for you.”
Avery watched as she stared at him, her lips slightly parted, and he had that overwhelming urge to kiss her again, but not until he’d said what needed to be spoken aloud. “Look, I don’t want to keep you away from this place. Truth is, I want you to be here. I want you to enjoy it, to feel free to wander, to ride the horses, to check on the cattle, to play with Skipper. I want you to be able to get in the car and come out here whenever you want, do whatever you want, and,”
he hesitated, wondering how his next words would be received, “to stay as long as you want.”
“Whaaaa, what are you trying to say?”
she gasped out.
“What I’m trying to say is, I love having you as a friend. But I wouldn’t mind having you as more―a lot more. I don’t know how you feel about that, but I?—”
“Avery?”
Lydia whispered out.
“Yeah?”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
There was no need to ask a second time.
Avery grabbed the beautiful woman beside him and pulled her to him.
As her arms wound around his neck, her kiss wound its way into his soul, and he could feel himself opening, his wounded, battered heart pounding strong and fast inside his chest.
Her lips were perfect, so soft and sweet, and when they parted to allow his tongue inside, Avery could’ve sworn he heard angels singing.
She felt right in his arms, like she’d been sculpted just for him.
He thought about the things they’d fought their way through to get where they were in that moment, and he was amazed.
By all rights, that little slice of time shouldn’t have been happening, and yet there it was, magical and wondrous in itself, and he could feel her right there with him.
He wasn’t alone in it. They were together in this thing, and it was more than he ever could’ve expected or asked for.
When she finally broke the kiss, Avery looked down into her face and watched a single, sparkling tear roll from the inside corner of one of those sky blue eyes. “Oh, Avery, I’m so sorry for all the things I?—”
“Shhhh, precious. Don’t think about any of that. It’s in the past, and we’re going to leave it there, okay?”
he said, trailing a finger down the path the tear had taken and wiping it away. “That’s all over.”
He hesitated, then gave her a goofy smile. “Right?”
She laughed and slapped his chest. “Yes! That’s all over. But why? Why would you want me?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I saw past all the anger and hurt and saw the beautiful woman in there. But damn if I could figure out how to get to her! Never thought I’d have to send her to jail to get there,”
he quipped.
She nodded and blushed. “You know why I was so damn mad?”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t just because of the farm. It was because I felt something for you but I only wanted to be mad at you. And every time I felt it, I just got madder and madder.”
Avery threw back his head and laughed. “You know what they say about that fine line between love and hate!”
“Honestly, I didn’t really understand what that meant until I met you. Because that hatred I felt for you was so strong, but now, the way I feel about you is just as strong. And it’s, I, maybe I shouldn’t…”
“What? Say it? If you won’t, I will.”
Avery straightened and looked down into her eyes, then took her hands in his and took a long, close look at them.
They were soft, her fingers thin and fine, her nails perfect with their French manicure, and he smiled as he wondered what a big honkin’ diamond would look like on that one, the next to last one on her left hand.
Then he looked back up to those blue orbs.
“I’ve fallen in love with the woman who hated me, Lydia.
I couldn’t help it. You just yelled and screamed and fought your way into my heart and wouldn’t go away. Gotta tell ya, I’m glad you’re tenacious or you might not be here now!”
he laughed.
“That screaming, snarling, spitting woman wasn’t the real me. She was the girl who got her dreams ripped up and torn apart and handed back to her in pieces. You do realize I’ve got a lot of baggage, right?”
she asked, her eyes serious.
“Hell, so do I. My brother stole my wife, fucked her, talked her into divorcing me, and married her. Whaddya think that did to me?”
She screwed up her face. “Ouch.”
“Hell yeah, ouch. Not pretty. You got a crazy ex somewhere?”