Chapter 4 – Shay
Chapter Four
Shay
Ididn’t realize when I signed the contract that my husband would look like this.
He’s much taller and larger than I expected.
It’s not that he’s fat – far from it. Each bicep looks like it’s twenty-eight inches thick all the way around.
His skin is a golden, sun-tanned color, which surprises me because I thought all redheads were pale.
There are glinting streaks of blond throughout the red, but the tall man has a full head of unmistakably red hair.
He only looks at me once before he offers to carry Caleb inside.
My heart pounds. Oske promises me I won’t have to worry about any funny business towards Caleb with this man and despite her knowledge of all types of shady people, I trust Oske with my life.
If it weren’t for her, Caleb and I would both be dead.
She didn’t even know me when she went out of her way to save my life.
Watching Cody walk into the house with my son, there’s a strange feeling in my chest.
I wonder if the knotting in my chest is from worry, or maybe it’s not knotting at all and instead is the fluttering of an unraveling knot.
This could be the end to all my troubles, or just the beginning.
Once we’re in the house, Oske asks Cody to show me around and offers to smoke a cigarette outside – for her benefit more so than ours, I’m sure.
For the first time, I’ll be alone with this terrifying, broad-shouldered man.
He looks at me over his shoulder and says one word in a gruff, deep voice. “Come.”
Caleb stays asleep, which surprises me, until Cody takes me to a tight hallway with three bedrooms and a shut door at the very end of the hallway.
“That door stays closed,” Cody says. “You never touch it. Understand?”
I nod. He pushes a door open that must be… our bedroom. Mine and Caleb’s that is, because I don’t think Cody and I could both fit in a bed that small. The room is modern, but simple, even if there’s no crib.
“I’ll get you a crib as soon as,” Cody says in a low, gentle voice. I expected a home put together with a little less taste, honestly. This place looks like it’s fresh out of a catalog and it’s much nicer than anywhere I’ve stayed since coming to this country.
Cody rests Caleb’s carrier on the changing table in the room and unstraps him, looking curiously at my son.
“How old is he?” Cody asks.
“Three.”
He has the energy of two kids his age and I’m shocked he stays asleep as long as he does.
Cody fussing around with him pushes Caleb’s buttons and he starts fussing a little bit.
I step between Cody and my son instinctively, and Cody moves aside.
Caleb’s eyes flicker open and my son calms down a little when he makes eye contact with me.
His eyes flash quickly over to Cody, who scares the crap out of him apparently.
My son starts wailing – instantly and loudly. His mouth forms a round o-shape and the scream coming out of his mouth throws wet spit everywhere. Cody looks on with fascination while I pull him out of his seat and hold him close. I feel guilty again for removing him from yet another home.
This time, we’ll have a stable life. I’ll do what Cody asks and be a good wife to him. For Caleb.
“He’s got a pair of lungs on him,” Cody says, his voice tense.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. It’s healthy for a boy to cry like that,” he says. He looks over at me and smiles. I wish his small acts of kindness didn’t hurt. It would be easier to look at him if he didn’t have eyes like that – eyes that reminded me of somebody else.
Cody watches me comforting Caleb. I try to act like he’s not there and focus on my son’s needs, but it’s difficult.
Caleb holds onto me, looking nervously at Cody once he realizes that we’re somewhere else again.
He recognizes that this place is nicer than our holding cell – and definitely nicer than wherever he was the week we spent separated from each other.
“I hope we can have a good life here, Shay. I’m not much of a man for talking or getting along with others.”
“I’ll manage.”
“I hope so.”
He leaves me in the room with Caleb, making an excuse about having a word with Oske and allowing me time to settle in. I’ll admit that I appreciate the space, but maybe I’m just not what he expected. I mean… What does a man with this much money and an appearance like that want with a woman like me?
I can’t afford to uproot Caleb’s life and start over.
Even if we went back to Canada, I don’t have the money or the support system for us to ever have more than a room in a shared apartment somewhere, if we were even that lucky.
Oske offered me this deal and promised me that even if things turned physical that Cody would never hurt me and he wasn’t “sick in the head” like most men.
I would do anything for my son’s survival – even an arranged marriage with a man who is somewhere between a biker and a country boy.
At least he’s scarier than any man who ever tried to hurt me. At least there’s that.
Caleb wakes up enough to ask for reassurance.
He wants to know where we are, if his dad is going to be there, and if the scary men are going to come get him again.
I promise him that he’s safe and that we finally arrived at the new place that I told him all about where he gets to have his own bed and toys…
“That’s a scary guy.”
“He’s not scary. He’s a friend. His name is Cody.”
Caleb shakes his head and holds onto me tighter. I feel like such a bad mother for putting him in this position. It’s better than the other positions that we’ve been in, but it’s not where I wanted to be in life.
“I promise that nothing bad is going to happen anymore, Caleb. I am your mom and I will do everything to keep you safe, okay? I love you and I’m never going to let anyone take you away again.”
His little head moves on my chest. I don’t think I have ever felt this much love in my life.
I mean every word of my promise to this boy.
My words comfort him, but he’s still tired from everything going on, I’m guessing.
He falls asleep after a few more minutes of babbling against my chest. I set him down and wander outside the bedroom, almost afraid to move freely.
When I leave the hallway and walk downstairs to even more open spaces, I hear Cody and Oske’s voices engaged in a mildly tense back and forth. Oske has tense conversations with pretty much everybody.
“You always say I have nothing to worry about but how many kidnappings have there been in the past year alone?”
“Had nothing to do with me,” Cody responds. They make no effort to hide their conversation, but Oske quickly turns her attention towards me once I’m close. She smiles at me.
“Is he sleeping? How do you like the room? I told him to make sure this wasn’t a dusty bachelor pad by the time you got here.”
I shrug, suddenly nervous to answer the question because Cody’s eyes are boring a hole into me.
I’m his wife, and he just met me. It shouldn’t bother me that he wants to scan every inch of me and learn how to read not just my words but my mannerisms and expressions.
This contract just isn’t about love and romance for me.
But I can’t be surprised if he expects that.
And if he expects that, I’ll do what he expects.
“Caleb’s fine,” I answer quietly. “He’s a little nervous and honestly, I hate bouncing him around so much. It will be nice to have him somewhere stable.”
“The good part is that you won’t have to work unless you want to,” Cody says. “I have plenty of money to keep you at home and all I want is a home cooked meal and a clean house.”
“Cody, do you know that Shay has never been on a horse?” Oske says, changing the subject from contractual obligations to… I’m honestly not sure why she’s bringing up horses.
“No shit,” Cody says, cracking a smile for the first time since I’ve seen him. Smiling makes him seem a lot more gentle and kind. His full, thick beard casts a more terrifying impression of the big man that his smile breaks through.
“No.”
“I own horses. Lots of horses. A couple of ranches. But my personal horse is at the main ranch in Oklahoma.”
That’s right… I remember vaguely from the paperwork reading more about Cody Hollingsworth’s horse ranches, but I wasn’t terribly fixated on how he made his money.
I always imagined riding horses would be fun and exciting because of rodeos I saw occasionally on television as a child.
Urban Canada wasn’t exactly chock full of horseback riding opportunities and we didn’t have much growing up.
“I’ve never seen a horse outside of a petting zoo,” I admitted. “Riding is one of those dreams I let go a long time ago.”
Cody’s eyes soften. “That’s too bad,” he says. “You’re far too young to be letting go of your dreams.”
His eyes flicker away from mine and the nervousness I felt around Cody before triples.
I find him totally unreadable. For a man who entered an arranged marriage, I expected him to be lecherous, outwardly cruel, or worse.
Instead, he just seems… withdrawn. A little sad.
And like he wants to reach out and put his arms around me every chance he gets.
I don’t know what to make of Cody Hollingsworth, and if there’s anything I have learned about men throughout my life, it’s that you can’t trust them.