Chapter 15 Too Much Confusion
TOO MUCH CONFUSION
Meredith drove onto the property Sunday morning.
She’d texted Clay that she was coming to get her things and would like to talk. He never replied.
The man could take stubborn to a new level.
She drove by the barn and didn’t see his truck. Not that she expected to. The cafe was open, but she didn’t stop and kept going further toward the mill.
It was closed today, but maybe he was working.
There were no vehicles there either, so she turned around and headed back.
When she passed the cafe again, she saw Callum outside waving to her.
“Hi,” she said, pulling up next to him. “I’m looking for Clay. He’s not answering my texts. I left my bag at his place yesterday when I went to change.”
“He’s down by the creek behind the house.”
“What?” she asked. She thought for a second and remembered it now.
When she and Gale were kids they’d gone down there to play. Walk around.
Throw rocks in the water, get their feet wet.
It was the best playground imaginable growing up on this property, even though her best friend hated it. She loved to come visit.
“He goes down there on his days off to relax,” Callum said. “I can take you back.”
“I remember where it is,” she said. “There is a path behind your house some, right?”
“He’s behind his,” Callum said. “Go behind it, walk past the shooting targets, then the apple trees and you’ll see it pretty clearly, a path he’d put into the woods to get back there.”
“Thanks,” she said, turning her SUV and driving toward Clay’s ranch.
She parked and got out, then went around the back of the house, saw the wall of two-by-fours with targets tacked to it and bullet holes.
Yeah, she’d just bypass that, thank you very much.
She needed nothing else to remind her of the person Clay was.
He wasn’t that person anymore though.
She walked between the apple trees, her hands going up and touching them. She pulled one down and took a bite. He wouldn’t mind. And if he did, too damn bad.
She’d consider it payment for having to track his butt down and him avoiding her text.
All night, she tried to think of how to play this.
It was a needed distraction from her interaction with Fredrick.
Seriously? She couldn’t catch a break.
If it wasn’t him, then it was his ex. Her ex’s ex.
She shook her head. Too much confusion.
She looked down at her sneakers, glad the ground wasn’t too wet, but they’d get messy out here.
The end of September air was brisk, the wind blowing slightly. In a few hours, it’d warm up more, but it was only nine in the morning.
It took her almost ten minutes from when she parked to get to Clay. The path wasn’t horrible, but she was pushing bushes and twigs out of the way, stepping over stumps in the ground.
She saw him standing on the bank, a pole in his hand, reeling it in, then tossing it out again.
“How many times did you trip on your trek out here?”
He hadn’t even turned to look at her. “How did you know who it was?”
“Because you made enough noise to scare the fish away,” he said.
He still wouldn’t turn and look at her.
Talk about rude.
But she was coming to expect that from him too.
“Doesn’t look like you’ve caught anything so far. Don’t blame it on me. Maybe you’re scaring them away with your tone and frown.”
“I don’t talk to the fish and they sure the hell can’t see me.”
He reeled the line in again and then tossed it out. Still not looking at her.
She stopped to stand next to him. “I bet they can just feel your annoyed, frustrated presence. Or maybe they are baiting you too. Seems like you draw that out of people.”
He turned his head to look at her grin. “You keep coming back for more.”
“If you answered my text this morning, then you’d know what I wanted and we could have avoided this. Unless you wanted me to seek you out. I believe I’ll go with that. Deep down, I think you like me coming back to you. You enjoy our brief interactions.”
“You’re full of yourself this morning,” he said drily.
“I’ve got to be,” she said. “It’s not as if anyone compliments me.”
He turned his head to look at her again. His eyes traveling the length of her.
He didn’t have to speak the words—his glance spoke volumes. Good enough for her.
Which was pathetic, but she’d take anything she could get.
“Do you need that?”
“What? Compliments? Don’t we all? I try to teach my students that they should always say something nice to people. The reward is worth it when they least expect it.”
“If you say so.”
Out of the water his line came again, then he tossed it back.
“Wow, I hadn’t realized that fishing was just a repetitive action with little reward.”
“Maybe you could compliment them for their avoidance tactics.”
Meredith burst out laughing. “Oh my God. Did you just crack a joke, Clay?”
She was moving her head side to side and watching his profile for any reaction.
He finally turned his head, a tiny lift of his lips happened.
“I’ve been known to from time to time,” he said.
She took the last bite of the apple, then looked around. “Can I toss it for the deer like we used to do as kids?”
“Yep,” he said. “Give it a big heave away from me.”
She arched her arm back, then followed through with all her might, hoping to impress him. It hit a tree and ricocheted back at his head and had him ducking.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wincing.
He put the fishing pole in her hand, then walked back to get the apple core, picked it up and underhand threw it to the right.
She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of that.
Because she wanted to prove she wasn’t a complete klutz. The first words out of his mouth were to ask how many times she tripped.
She was too embarrassed to tell him she lost count.
“I expect no differently from you,” he said.
“I came to get my clothes. I was rushing yesterday and forgot the bag on the bathroom floor.”
“I saw it there last night. It’s on my dining room table.”
“Oh, I could have gotten it. You know, if you’d just replied to me.”
“The doors are locked.”
“You unlocked them from your phone yesterday. Or did you want to see me again?”
They stood there in silence for ten seconds. As if he wasn’t sure what he should say.
“What do you want from me?” he asked.
Not what she’d thought would come out of his mouth.
“I don’t know.”
“Geez, thanks for the guidance.”
“I don’t think you need anyone to guide you in life.”
“We all need it at times,” he said.
“True. I guess I want to know if you see any possibilities.”
He snorted. “I see many possibilities with a woman.”
He was baiting her again. That’s fine. She was getting used to this.
Maybe if she stood up for herself more in life, she wouldn’t have ended up with idiots like Fredrick.
She waved her hand in front of her face as if cooling her body down. “I see the same with you.”
He dropped the pole he’d taken back and gripped her upper arms. Not hard, but enough that he had a good hold on her.
Her back ended up against a tree, his mouth on hers.
Holy cow. She hadn’t seen this coming.
It wasn’t a nice gentle kiss she was used to getting the first time from men.
It was scorching. Steamy. Erotic.
Everything that she’d fantasized about alone at night.
His mouth slanted across hers, his lips nudging hers apart, his tongue coming in to taste, then to play.
She wanted to wrap her arms around his waist and hold on, but she was trapped by his hands.
Not that she was complaining.
Nope. He could keep her like this all night long.
Her tongue was dancing with his, she groaned in her throat; he did the same.
Then she heard a buzzing sound and broke away, her eyes darting around.
“Shit,” he said, stepping back. “I’m sorry.”
She was waving her hand and moving away and closer to him, then she ducked behind him, her hands on his waist. “Kill it. Slap it again. Please. I want another kiss, but can’t with that by me.”
He sighed, waved his hand at the bee that was circling. “It’s just a bumblebee. It’s more afraid of you than you are of it.”
“I doubt that. They sting.”
“Rarely. Unless I try to kill it with my hands. I’ll take a hard pass on it.”
He turned to walk toward his pole, but her hands stayed on his waist as if they were glued there. A good excuse to keep touching him.
“What are you doing?”
“Going back to my place,” he said. “I’ve been out here for three hours.”
“And you’ve caught nothing in three hours?”
“Are you going to hold on to me the entire walk back?”
“I’ll let go if you give me another kiss so it’s not in your head that you think I was mad about it. I don’t want you apologizing.”
“I don’t think it’s wise.”
“Who says we have to be smart all the time?” she asked. “If you don’t give it to me, I’ll give it to you.”
She crossed her arms and skirted around to stand in front of him.
He must have realized she meant business, so he leaned down to give her a simple peck.
Yep. Not what she wanted.
She caught him around the neck and kept him down to her level, them returning to the kiss they had before the bee made an appearance.
When she heard the buzzing again, she started to internally squirm but controlled the urge to jump out of his arms.
Yeah, no fear was taking her away from this until she was ready.
Not when she knew Clay would protect her.
He finally pulled back after close to two minutes of them playing tonsil hockey. She was winning too. She knew it.
Or they were winning together.
“Ready?” he asked.
That’s it? That was all he had to say?
Her nose scrunched up while she fell in line with him since he was walking ahead of her.
He slowed down when the path widened, and they were side by side. She was going extra slow so as to not trip. The last thing she needed was him making some snide comment about that.
When they got to the clearing and the rows of apple trees, she said, “I miss picking apples. I haven’t done it in years. I had so many memories here. It’s too bad no one can come do it anymore.”
“What would you do with them?” he asked.
“What? The apples?”
“Yeah. Just eat them or bake with them?”
“I’d eat some, but I’d bake a pie and some muffins for sure. Maybe apple bread. My mother used to make that when I was a kid. It was great, but I like muffins because I can pack them in my lunch for school.”
“We can pick some before you leave,” he said.
“Kicking me out?”
“Was it that obvious?”
“Yep.”
“If I was really kicking you out I wouldn’t have offered it.”
Her shoulders wiggled some. “I didn’t think of that.”
“Because you need to talk everything to death rather than look at the actions.”
Hmm. Good point.
“I teach five-year-olds. They need everything explained.”
They got to a shed in his backyard, he opened the lock and put his fishing pole and tackle box in there, then shut it and reset the lock.
She wasn’t sure why he felt the need to do that on his property, but who was she to say who came back here?
He said nothing, just pulled his phone out, punched something in and then opened a door that went to the back of his garage.
Once they were in there, he picked a bin up off the floor.
“For apples.”
“You’re seriously going to let me pick them?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Or don’t you want them?”
“I do,” she said. “But won’t it affect your production or something?”
He rolled his eyes. “A few dozen apples off a tree doesn’t make a difference. Let’s go.”
She wanted to ask what his rush was, but the fact they could even do this together was more than she thought would happen today.
“Does it matter what trees I pick them from?”
“No. Walk around and get what you want.” She was pulling them down and walked back to put them in the bin. He was standing there watching her.
“You’re not going to help?”
“I’ve been picking apples my whole life. I don’t need to do it for fun.”
He reached for one and pulled it down, but then bit into it.
“I would have loved growing up here.”
“People say that when they didn’t have to live it.”
“I know,” she said. “Gale hated it.”
“I don’t know that she hated it as much as she didn’t like to do the work on the land. She spent most of her time in the cafe.”
“I shouldn’t have said that. It was wrong of me.”
“I knew what you meant. I might have had those thoughts for years too.”
“You must have liked it enough to come back,” she said. “Or did you only do it because of your father?”
He held her stare. “It’s complicated.”
She wasn’t sure why she thought he’d open up to her.
They’d had two sweltering kisses and he was acting like he wasn’t affected in the least.
As if that hadn’t even happened.
Talk about a bummer.
“Isn’t life,” she said. She saw a big apple on a higher branch and jumped to get it. She missed. Of course she did. Luckily, she didn’t fall landing.
He walked over and grabbed it for her. “What other ones do you want?”
“Those six right there on that branch.”
He reached up and grabbed them all, handing three of them over, then they walked together to the bin and dropped them in.
“You’re going to be baking a lot. Do I get any for helping?”
She turned her head to see if he was joking or not.
No smile on his lips. “Sure. What do you want?”
“What do you want to give me?”
“Oh, baby. Talk about a loaded question. Do you really want me to answer that?”