Chapter Twenty-Four #3
Daisy didn't interrupt. She rarely did when somebody finally reached the part that mattered.
"When I met him, I wasn't looking for a man like Amos.
" His voice roughened. "I was looking for a place where nobody knew me.
" Flint rubbed a hand across his jaw. "After you left, every corner of that ranch carried a memory I didn't want.
" He gave a quiet laugh. "Samuel tried giving me space.
Ruth decided feeding me might solve the problem. "
It was Daisy’s turn to smile. "That sounds exactly like Ruth."
"It would've been manageable if she'd stopped at meals.
" Rain lashed against the glass. "I started taking work wherever I could find it.
Freight contracts. Cattle shipments. Escort jobs.
Amos paid well. He treated his men fairly.
At least that's what I believed. He had a way of making people feel seen. "
Flint stared at their joined hands.
"If you'd spent enough years feeling lost, that could mean more than it should."
Her thumb brushed lightly across his skin. "I understand."
He suspected she did.
"Then little things started adding up. Shopkeepers changed their tone when he walked in. Men who argued with everybody suddenly agreed with him. Debts followed people for years, no matter how much they paid." His jaw hardened. "By then, leaving carried consequences.”
Daisy's fingers curled around his. "You hurt people?"
"I… scared people." The admission scraped him raw. "I shoved a few men around when they got stubborn. Broke up fights. Started a few, too."
Thunder rolled across the prairie.
Flint watched rain race down the glass. "I kept telling myself I wasn't like Amos."
Daisy lowered her head slightly, listening with the same focus she gave every sound. "What changed?"
A bitter laugh escaped him. "Reality."
Her grip tightened.
Flint drew another breath. "A railroad worker found records Amos wanted hidden. Shipment records. Payments. Names."
"Evidence."
"Enough to hang him." The kitchen seemed smaller suddenly. "He came looking for help."
Daisy went still. "And you helped him?"
"I tried." He sighed heavily. "By the time I understood how serious it was, Amos already knew the man who had been talking." Flint stared at the table. "He disappeared two days later."
Daisy's breath caught.
"I found him." The confession hung between them. "I found what was left after Amos finished making an example of him."
His stomach twisted.
Months had passed, but the memory still lived beneath his skin.
"He had a wife. Two little girls."
Daisy gasped. "You've been carrying that alone."
The quiet certainty in her voice struck harder than judgment ever could.
Flint shook his head. "I carried it because I earned it." He swallowed hard. "That man came looking for help because he believed I was different from the rest of Amos's men." A reedy laugh escaped him. "I believed it too."
Daisy's fingers closed more firmly around his hand.
Flint drew a slow breath. "Every time Amos crossed a line, I found a reason to stay. The money was good. The work wasn't my responsibility. I'd leave after one more job." His jaw clenched. "A man can justify almost anything when he doesn't want to look too closely."
"No."
The single word cut through the room. Flint looked up.
Daisy sat straighter. "I'll accept responsibility when it's mine, Flint. You should do the same."
A faint spark of irritation stirred. "That's exactly what I'm doing."
"You're claiming all of it." Her chin lifted. "Those aren't the same thing."
He stared at her. "You always this stubborn?"
"I learned from you."
The answer came so quickly he almost smiled.
Almost.
Daisy turned her hand and threaded her fingers through his. "When I left, you believed I stopped loving you."
His pulse stumbled. "Daisy—"
"You did." Her voice softened. "I know because I'd have believed the same thing." Pain flickered across her face. "I thought I was protecting you. Then you arrived bleeding on my brother's sofa and looked lonelier than any man I've ever met."
His throat burned.
Daisy reached across the table until her free hand found his jaw. "You weren't abandoned because there was anything wrong with you, Flint."
He closed his eyes.
"You survived however you could." Her fingertips brushed his cheek. "You got knocked down, made mistakes, lost your way, and somehow found your way back here."
No one had ever said it quite like that.
Nathan worried. Wyatt lectured. Samuel carried disappointment quietly.
Daisy saw the damage and searched for the man underneath it.
The difference nearly unraveled him.
When he opened his eyes again, she was still there, still holding his hand as thunder rolled across the prairie.
"You came back," she whispered.
Flint looked at the woman he'd loved half his life and realized every thought he'd been blinded by what he felt for her to finalize his plans to leave. He’d been running scared again, knowing the future outside was his and his alone to make. He had to start making it without Daisy.
Yet the thought of walking away from Daisy again carried a kind of fear that dwarfed all the rest.