Chapter 68
CHAPTER 68
CHARLIE
“ H ow the heck did it get out?” I asked Wyatt as we tried to catch a goat that had gotten loose. “Why hasn’t anybody caught up to it just yet?”
He laughed, the sound of his boots skidding on the ground as he tried to make a grab for the goat and failed. “This is why. He’s a crafty little one.”
Wyatt’s attempt ended up sending the goat barreling my way and finally I managed to get hold of him. He squirmed and struggled against me, trembling with the adrenaline of his near escape as he let out a bleat. I grinned at him. “There we are, boy. Let’s get you back to your temporary home. It’s not safe for you to run around out here at the moment.”
“Thank shit, you caught him.” Wyatt elbowed me in the ribs as we strode back to the petting zoo. “You’re a real goat whisperer.”
I laughed. “Gee, thanks. I still don’t understand how he got out, though.”
“Take it up with Cody,” he said before he glanced at the goat. “I was starting to think he was just going to have to sleep outside tonight.”
“If he was going to, you would’ve had to sleep out here with him,” I said, handing the goat back to Cody when we reached the petting zoo. All my brothers were taking turns manning the attractions the ranch was putting on, which was this as well as pony and horse rides. It was Cody’s turn here now. “Be careful with this one. If he escaped once, he’s going to do it again.”
“We’ll watch him.” Cody motioned at a few rocks they had moved in here for them. “One of those was too close to the fence. I’ve already rolled it back, so we should be good now.”
“Alright,” I said as I nodded at him. “I need to get back to Dad. George has asked us to talk to some of the farmers who have shown up about the strategies we learned at the Walker Conference.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, seeing Dallas’s name on my screen. It seemed I also already had three missed calls from him. I frowned as I slid my thumb across the screen, holding up a hand to let my brothers know I needed a minute.
“Hey, man. What’s wrong?”
“Dude, I don’t know what’s going on, but Olivia is crying and she’s on her way to the parking lot. She’s basically running.”
“Fuck.” I started walking toward the exit without offering my brothers an explanation I didn’t have, weaving my way through the crowd as my heart stammered in my chest. Worry flooded my senses, turning my field of vision into a tunnel. “Do you have any idea what happened?”
“Just that she had some kind of falling out with Scarlett. I was going to grab a water from one of the food vendors when I saw them talking. I tried to stop her from leaving, man. I really did, but she told me to let go or she’d start screaming.”
My stomach fell and I took off running instead of just walking, my footsteps pounding across the earth. Thankfully, people tended to get out of the way of tall guys on the run and the weaving ended. “Alright. I’m on my way to her now. Thanks for calling.”
With that, I hung up and dropped my phone into my pocket, wondering what the hell Scarlett had told her to elicit that kind of reaction. At a full sprint, it took me almost no time at all to reach the bottom field, and since Olivia had been one of the first cars here this morning, I saw her instantly.
She’d been parked near the entrance to the fair itself, and I called out to her where she was just about to climb in behind her steering wheel. “Liv, wait!”
Abruptly stopping at the sound of my voice, her chin snapped up and her gaze landed on mine. The expression that formed on her face at the sight of me was not like any I’d ever seen from her. This wasn’t the cool and professional indifference or even the anger from before after she’d overheard me talking to Dallas.
This was sheer fury, her eyes burning with an intense mixture of hatred and betrayal. I hadn’t even reached her yet, but she yelled at me across the space between us, drawing a few curious stares that I didn’t even think she was aware of. “Were you going to tell me that all the things we did are things you did with her first?”
I frowned, my heart thumping in my chest as I tried to work out what Scarlett might have told her. Trying to stay calm, I swallowed my panic and looked her straight in the eyes. “What are you talking about, doing the same things with her?”
“I’m talking about your moves , Charlie. The ones you apparently recycled with me. Taking a girl out to the stables for the birth of a baby animal. Having her help you and making her feel special. Going horseback riding to the stream and taking her around with you to have her fall in love with the way you treat the animals.”
I felt my features crumbling. She was dead serious about this and I didn’t have any idea what was going on. “I still don’t know what you’re talking about. I never did any of that stuff with her. You are talking about Scarlett, right?”
“Of course I’m talking about Scarlett,” she yelled, the fireballs she was shooting at me from her eyes feeling like they were burning the edges of my soul. “Did you take her stargazing too, Charlie? To Waterfall Park? Tell her the story about your parents?”
“Well, yeah. I told her their story, but none of the rest of it is true.” I reached for her, hoping like hell that she would listen to me, but she dodged me and sent me a sharp look that told me I’d better not try that again. “I didn’t do any of that other stuff with her, though.”
“Then how did she know about it, Charlie?” She scoffed and shook her head at me, her hand still on top of the open door of her car. “She told me everything . She said she saw us together and she knew she had to warn me because all you’re trying to do is turn me into her. To do all the same things with me so that you could feel like you had her back.”
I nearly fell over with the force of the surprise that hit me. “Are you really serious right now?”
“Yes, I’m fucking serious. You’re nothing but a phony and a liar.” I could hear the rage bubbling up from deep within her, but it seemed she was nowhere near done just yet. “Next time you want a girl to fall in love with you, try some new moves. Change it up instead of just rinse and repeat. I’m not Scarlett and I never will be.”
“I know that and I don’t want you to be.” I took a step closer, leveling my gaze on hers and breathing hard as I tried to process all the accusations that were being flung my way. “You and I have shared things that I’ve never shared with anyone.”
“That’s funny, because she and I seemed to have had the exact same experiences with you,” she said as she tossed her hair across her shoulder. “She knew about all of that stuff, Charlie. I’m sure she knows about the rest too and she would’ve told me if I’d given her the chance.”
I shook my head. “There’s no way. Scarlett hates horses. She wouldn’t have?—”
“Then how did she know ?” she seethed at me, her cheeks pinking as her hands started shaking. “She also said that you did propose. Not that you were going to , but that you did . Why the hell would you lie about that?”
“I didn’t lie about it. I never proposed to her, Liv.” I took a step back and planted my feet about a foot apart. “How can you believe all this shit after I told you she would do or say anything to get between us?”
“Save it,” she snapped at me. “She’s got proof. She showed me the evidence that what she was saying was true.”
“What kind of proof?” I countered, knowing I would’ve been laughing at how ridiculous this was if I wasn’t so damn scared that I was going to lose her for good this time. “What kind of proof could she possibly have shown you of something that isn’t true?”
“How about a ring?” Olivia canted her head, her eyes narrowed to slits. “Is that good enough for you? She kept it, Cowboy. She still has it and it looks just like the one your mom wears.”
“What?” For the second time in as many minutes, I nearly fell over. “How could I have given her my mom’s ring if Mom is still wearing it?”
Olivia scoffed. “I know that your family loved her so much that they let you have your grandmother’s ring for her, and I know you gave that to her. I also know that her ring and your mother’s are so alike because of some family thing about having similar rings.”
“Yeah, but?—”
“Why are you even denying any of this? If you’d just told me that you proposed, then fine. I get why you didn’t want to tell me that you were giving me the same experiences, but this is just an outright lie.”
“Liv, I?—”
“I really don’t want to hear it.” All the fight seemed to evaporate from her as pain started glimmering in her eyes instead of rage. Her shoulders caved in and tears welled on her eyelids. “She also showed me the message you sent her saying that you would love her, always. I’m sorry I ever got in the way of that. Goodbye, Charlie.”
As she dropped into the driver’s seat of her car, she called out, “Lacey and London are covering the rest of the fair. Lose my number and forget my name. I never want to see or hear from you again.”
Without another word, she slammed her door, threw the car into gear, and raced away so fast that I hadn’t even finished absorbing her last words before she was gone. I felt my heart stop as she disappeared, the useless organ just about exploding and going up in a burst of flames while she literally fled from my life.
As I stood there, unable to do anything but blink and struggling to even breathe, I realized I was madly in love with her and just like that, she was just gone.
What the fuck just happened?
I had absolutely no idea, but once I got over the shock, I was damn well going to find out, and when I did, there would be hell to pay. Scarlett had gotten away with ruining my life once. I definitely wasn’t about to let her do it again.