Chapter Thirty-Two #2
Pride pushed against Caleb’s fear. Amy had come downstairs carrying a bag because he had wounded her deeply enough to make leaving a possibility, yet she still defended the home he had tried to take from her.
Dray’s smile thinned. “Romantic attachment often interferes with a woman’s judgment. I suggest you temper your emotions-”
Amy tore the offer in two, folded the pieces together, and tore them again before placing them on the table. “My judgment improved considerably after I stopped listening to men who hide dishonesty behind charm and manners.”
Caleb almost smiled, though fear still remained in him like a rock. Amy had taken the wound Theodore left behind and turned it against a man who believed women could be frightened and shamed into obedience.
Dray gathered the pieces without haste. “You’re young, Mrs. Whitaker. Youth often mistakes defiance for strength.”
“Age appears to mistake wealth for character.”
A faint flush touched Dray’s face before his pleasant expression returned. He slipped the ruined paper into his coat and collected his hat. “I offered your husband a peaceful resolution,” he informed her. “Seeing that sense has failed to persuade this household, other measures may prove necessary.”
Caleb moved between him and Amy. “Threaten her again, and Boone won’t be the man you need to fear.”
Dray settled his hat over his carefully arranged hair.
“Your old temper has survived more faithfully than your innocence.” He walked toward the door, then paused beside Amy’s carpetbag.
His gaze moved from the case to Caleb, and cold understanding brightened his eyes.
“A divided household seldom survives additional pressure,” he chuckled.
“I hope you enjoy what remains of the evening.”
Caleb watched him cross the porch and enter the carriage, remaining in the doorway until it disappeared beyond the cottonwood trees.
When he turned back, Amy stood near the table with one hand braced against it.
The courage that carried her through Dray’s visit had begun to fade, leaving strain visible in her face.
Caleb’s stomach tightened. Dray had already known Amy mattered enough to threaten, and now she had torn up his offer, challenged him in her own home, and made it unmistakably clear that she stood against him with Caleb.
The thought of what Dray might do with that knowledge drove Caleb across the room before he could temper his reaction.
He stopped in front of her, his gaze moving over her face as though he needed to assure himself she was still safe.
“Amy, he already sent Hollis after you once. Now he knows you’ll stand in his way too. ”
Her head lifted and defiance flashed in her eyes. “I refused to sell our home.”
“I know.” His voice roughened, and he dragged a hand through his hair. “And all I could think while you were standing there was that you were giving him another reason to come after you.”
Amy’s expression softened for an instant, though the hurt remained. “Then tell me you were afraid. Don’t turn that fear into another reason I should have stayed silent while you handled everything.”
“I wasn’t trying to silence you.” Caleb looked toward her carpetbag near the stairs, and the sight of it tightened something in his chest. “I was trying to get you far enough away that Dray couldn’t touch you.”
“And you decided hurting me was the best way to accomplish it.” She shifted closer, only to catch herself against the table when too much weight landed on her injured ankle.
“You told me you and the children would be fine without me because you knew exactly what would make me believe there was nothing left here to fight for, so you chose the cruelest words you could find and expected me to accept them as protection.”
Caleb looked at the floor. “If hating me puts you on that train, I’ll be able to live with it.”
Amy stared at him as tears gathered in her eyes. “You don’t get to call it sacrifice when I’m the person forced to lose everything.”
His restraint broke beneath the pain on her face.
“What do you expect me to do?” His voice rose across the parlor.
“Hollis Creed reached you on an open road, and Dray walked into this house knowing I couldn’t stop him without giving him the violence he wanted.
I can’t guard every door while I’m trying to save the ranch. ”
Amy flinched, though she held his gaze. “You keep speaking as though I’m another burden Dray placed on you.”
“You’re the reason I can’t think clearly!” The truth inside his words left him with nowhere to hide. Amy’s anger softened into uncertainty, and Caleb forced himself to continue.
“I love you.”
The words filled the room that had held so many of his silences, but this one felt different. He faced her again. “I love you, and I’ll never forgive myself if Calvin Dray hurts you because I was selfish enough to let you stay.”
Amy crossed the distance between them and placed both hands against his face. The tenderness in her touch nearly broke him. “I love you, too,” she told him gently.
Caleb closed his hands around her wrists, feeling her skin against his palms. Tears slipped down her cheeks, though her voice remained steady. “But loving me doesn’t give you the right to choose my life without my say.”
“Amy—”
“I heard you.” She held his gaze, her palms still warm against his face. “But you’re asking me to carry all the pain of leaving so you can be spared the fear of my staying. That isn’t something you get to ask of me.”
The words landed differently from every accusation they had thrown at each other that afternoon. Caleb had thought only of the danger he could remove by putting miles between them; he hadn’t allowed himself to measure what those miles would take from her.
Amy’s thumbs moved gently along his jaw. “I’m standing here telling you what I want. I want you. I want Noah and Maggie. I want this ranch, even with Calvin Dray trying to take it from us.” Her eyes searched his. “If you love me, then believe that I understand what I’m choosing.”
Caleb swallowed, his grip on her wrists slowly easing. “And if your choice gets you hurt?”
“Then we face that possibility together. You don’t make me lose everything first just so you never have to find out.”