Chapter 2
TIM
It’s late in the afternoon when I turn onto the highway away from the hardware store and head back toward the ranch.
There’s a rattle from the back of my truck as rolls of barbed wire and fence posts bump against each other, so I slow to a good ten miles under the limit.
Rolling down my window, I crank up the radio and enjoy the breeze after a long day of work.
My gaze drifts to the road ahead, paying a little more attention to the cars and people I pass. Praying I’ll see a certain someone.
Cassie. Of course.
She’s back in town. I know this bit of news, not only from the townies who mention her, but from the last letter I received from her.
That’s right, I didn’t abandon my pen pal promise, and neither did Cassie.
For the first time, I feel as if she and I are real friends, and that gives me hope.
Hope for the possibility that we can be more than friends one day. Hope for more.
But all those hopes live in my head because we’ve yet to cross paths. I am dying to see her. To talk to her. To be near her.
I do a double take when I notice Cassie standing by one of the phone booths near the mechanic’s shop. I lift my hand to wave, a smile forming on my lips at the sight of her. But my excitement is cut short when she doesn’t lift her gaze to meet mine.
Are those tears staining her perfect face?
Not wasting a second, I check my mirrors and flip my truck around, wincing as the supplies I picked up for the ranch tumble around in the back.
Thankfully, they stay in the truck bed because if they fell out right now, I’d leave them in the road.
My concerns are consumed by the young woman crying on the side of the road.
In all my years, I’ve never seen her so distraught.
God, I hope she’s okay.
My tires kick up rocks and dirt as I hit the brakes and throw the gearshift into park. Only then does she lift her gaze, and when our eyes meet something inside me cracks open. I need to comfort her like I need my own breath.
“Cassie?” I jump out of the truck and rush toward her.
“Tim?” Her voice breaks and she closes the space between us, practically falling into my open arms. Sobs wreck her. Big, ugly cries that turn my stomach with fear.
“What happened? Are you hurt?” Questions fire from my lips as I hold her to my chest but she doesn’t answer, only crying harder. I try to be patient, I swear I do, but when minutes pass and her tears don’t subside, I have to know what’s caused the woman I love so much pain.
“Cassie, talk to me.” I step back, bracing her shoulders and meeting her gaze with as much calmness as I can muster. “Darlin’, say something before I drive you to the hospital.”
Her eyes widen and she turns away, her body leaning over as she vomits all over the ground.
Shit.
“Cassie?” I hold her to my side, making sure she doesn’t pass out while she’s sick. It’s quick though, and when she uses my arm to steady herself as she stands straight, I reach into my back pocket and retrieve my handkerchief.
She takes it, her eyes downcast as she wipes her mouth and brushes her hair from her face. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
“I don’t want you to see me like this.” She folds over the handkerchief and blots her skin, a vain attempt to remove the evidence of her tears. Her nose is red and her eyes are bloodshot. But more than that, she looks completely devastated. I want to take away whatever is causing her such distress.
“Come here.” I take her hand and lead her to the passenger side of my truck. She’s exposed on the side of the highway like this, where anyone can see, and the need to protect her supersedes my own feelings.
I open the door and help her inside before coming around to sit in the driver’s seat.
“I’m sorry.” She shakes her head. “You probably have somewhere to be.”
“Nope,” I lie. Doesn’t matter if I have to mend the fence line in the middle of the night, I’m not leaving Cassie like this. “I got all the time in the world.”
She glances up and meets my eyes. “Thanks for writing me.”
I try not to beam under her genuine appreciation, but a small grin breaks through. “Yeah, well, I should be thanking you.”
“Thanking me? For what?”
“I was dreading this summer. But your letters got me through each week.”
“I hardly believe that.” She gives me the barest of smiles but I’ll take it.
“This may come as a shock, but ranch life doesn’t leave much room for fun. Least not the way my father runs things. Writing to you—and getting your letters back—it meant a lot.”
“Well, I enjoyed them, too. It made home feel not so far away.”
“I’m glad.”
“Though I think you made some of those things up.”
“What? No way.”
“It’s unlikely anyone in this town cared about what I was doing as much as you made it seem.”
“They did. Swear on my life. Now, me on the other hand, no one in this town would even notice if I disappeared.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“It is.” I chuckle to release my nerves.
“I would notice.”
The cab goes silent at her words. My gaze meets hers from across the cab and I swear I forget to breathe.
My mouth goes dry and my pulse races. Her eyes search mine and I wonder if she can read my thoughts.
Does she know what I’m so desperate to confess?
This is the moment I have been waiting for.
The one where I tell Cassie the truth. Where I take a chance, leaping off a cliff and praying there’s enough water below to soften my fall.
I open my mouth, ready to put my heart on the line.
“I’m pregnant.” Her confession sucks all the oxygen from my lungs.
I stare, my brain trying to reconcile her words with this moment. “You’re . . . since when?”
“I took a test today.”
“And the father?”
She presses her lips together, as if she doesn’t want to answer. I wonder if she will. She doesn’t owe me anything, and I’m a sadist for asking when the answer is sure to gut me. “He wants nothing to do with me or this baby.”
“What?” I can’t fathom. “Well, then he’s a fucking idiot.”
She sighs, her eyes squeezing shut. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not?” I shake my head. “It’s the damn truth.”
“We didn’t plan for this.” She squeezes her hands together.
“So?” Anger bubbles beneath my skin. What kind of man wants nothing to do with their child? What kind of man would toss Cassie to the side in her condition? Hell, in any situation. Did he know how fucking lucky he was? “Half the children in this town weren’t planned. Probably more.”
She chuckles as a tear drops from her cheek into her lap. “Are you trying to make me feel better?”
Always . I want to fix this for her. I want to help her any way I can. I also want to find the man who did this to her and put my fist through his face.
But as angry as I am on her behalf, I can’t entertain those thoughts. Not now anyway. Cassie trusts me. Cassie needs me. Those are two things I’ve dreamed of, and I will be the rock she needs. I will do whatever it takes.
“Tim, I don’t know what to do.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Go back in time and stay here instead of going to Montana.”
“Besides that.”
“I can’t bring a baby into this world on my own.
” Her frown deepens. “But my other options aren’t so great.
” A growl of frustration builds in her chest and releases as a scream.
“Fuck!” She turns her angry eyes on me. “What am going to do? I can’t have this baby.
I can’t tell anyone. I can’t . . . fuck! I just can’t.”
“Come here.” I open my arms and she doesn’t need more invitation than that.
This time when she cries, her tears come softly, but they break my heart all the same.
I rub her back, offering her the only comfort I can.
When her breathing calms and her tears dry up, I say what needs to be said.
“Cassie, maybe you should see a doctor.”
“What?” Her eyes widen. “No. I can’t do that.”
“Cassie.” I don’t want to shame her, or manipulate her in this emotional state, but after working on a ranch, I’m all too familiar with the ways a pregnancy can go wrong and endanger the life of the mother. I can’t chance something like that happening to Cassie. “You and the baby need this.”
“Everyone in this town talks. I can’t.”
“Then let me take you somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Down in the Valley.” I nod as the idea comes to fruition. “We can make a day of it. Tell your parents we’re visiting friends from high school or something.”
She meets my stare. “Eduardo and Jessica are going to ASU.”
“Perfect.”
“So, what? We just drive to Tempe and find a clinic.”
“Yeah.” I nod.
“You would do that?”
I would do anything for this woman . “Of course.”