Chapter 18 #2
“Here comes Mia.” Gabriella rested her head on his shoulder as they sat side by side on the picnic table bench.
“I think she was talking to some girls from school.” She squinted into the distance.
“One of them is Megan Bryer. Remember her from the witness stand? She was kidnapped by Covington and his son at the same time as Heather.”
Clay glanced toward the playground. He recalled the testimony but didn’t recognize the girl from this distance.
He couldn’t wait to be far from this town where everyone they knew was connected to a crime or painful memories. He’d accumulated enough bad memories of his own in his time here.
He knew Gabriella felt the same way. She couldn’t leave Heartache fast enough ten years ago.
“I think it’s amazing how this whole town has pulled together to convict him.” Gabriella picked at a pastry he’d brought her from the buffet, tearing off bite-size pieces of raspberry Danish.
She’d done well speaking to Sam and the rest of his department about her ordeal, taking her time to give them a detailed account even though she had to be bone weary from all she’d gone through. He admired her so damn much.
“Morning.” Mia greeted them, her whole demeanor different than when they’d first met and she’d been furious with both of them.
Another sign that Clay was on the right track to forging good relationships instead of hiding from them. He’d won over his teenage half sister.
Part of her good mood was that she felt relieved about Pete. Plus, the news that Connor had been arrested had to be a load off Mia’s mind. Clay had changed her cell phone number early this morning, making sure he kept his sister as safe as possible. His biggest security measures were yet to come.
“Morning.” He waved toward the picnic table bench opposite them, eager to share his plans. “Have a seat.”
“Is Pete still doing well?” she asked right away, her posture tensing.
“He’s the miracle patient of the day according to the doc.
” Clay had been genuinely relieved to exchange a few words with his father when he awoke.
In typical Pete Yancy fashion, there had been no heartfelt declarations, but from a few surly comments, his father made it clear that he’d heard Clay forgive him about Eddy.
“He is being moved to assisted living tomorrow.”
“Close by?” Mia asked, leaning forward on the table. “Will we be able to visit?”
He hesitated, taking his time to choose his words.
“He’ll be about twenty minutes north of here, heading toward Nashville, but yes, we can visit.
” he answered carefully, hoping she would see the benefit to Clay’s plans.
“But now that Pete is doing well, Connor is no longer a threat, and Covington’s guilty verdict should come through next week, I want the three of us to move to Memphis. Start over together. Be a real family.”
For a moment his only response was the country music ballad piped over the amplifier. Across the lawn, families ate and laughed together, a few kids danced and played near the gazebo, blowing bubbles from the tiny giveaway bottles.
Beside him, Gabriella shifted, freeing her hand from his. “Memphis?”
Mia frowned, her dark ponytail sliding forward on her shoulder as she shook her head. “Can’t we be a real family here?”
It occurred to him that he should have discussed moving to Memphis with Gabriella before mentioning it to Mia. He’d envisioned their responses much differently in his mind. This was a good thing. A step forward for all of them.
“How can we stay here when this town is so full of bad memories and unhappy times?” He wouldn’t do that to Gabby. “Gabriella left this town for a reason ten years ago. She’s stayed away from her home and her past because she wanted to move on—”
Gabriella stopped his words with one hand over his wrist. “But the ghosts of the past weren’t in Heartache. They were in me. I’ve banished them all. For good.”
Her hopeful smile chipped at his heart. He wanted to make her happy. Be there for her in a way he hadn’t been ten years ago.
“I know, but why should you force yourself to stay here when we can start over fresh somewhere else?” He definitely should have had this conversation with her privately.
The realization came with a strong dose of panic that this was too important to screw up and he’d already started off on the wrong foot.
“I’m not forcing myself. I want to be here.” There was a steely note in her voice, a defensiveness that he didn’t understand.
He tried harder. Dug deep. Played his most important card.
“I love you. And I want you and Mia to be with me.”
“You love me?” Gabriella asked. Her tone had softened but her blue eyes looked wounded.
Mia frowned. “I thought you said I could have a voice in my future?”.
The two questions—both critically important—let Clay know how badly he’d messed this up.
Panic squeezed his shoulders and cold sweat popped along his brow at the realization that he was digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole he hadn’t anticipated.
He shouldn’t have introduced this idea to both of them at the same time. But too late to redo it now.
He linked his fingers through Gabriella’s.
“Maybe we should discuss this privately.” His gaze flicked over to Mia, who slunk lower into her hoodie as if she was only too happy to hide.
Gabby wasn’t moving, however. She clenched her jaw and stayed put.
“I love you,” he told her again, focusing solely on the beautiful woman next to him. “I realized it when you were trapped in that house last night and it almost killed me to think about anything happening to you. I want us to be together. All the time.”
He squeezed her hand, but she pulled away quickly.
“I want a say in my future, too, Clay.” She swiped her hand over her eyes, her lips trembling with emotion. “You know how hard I’ve worked to put the past behind me. I don’t need someone to swoop in and save me anymore. I need to feel in control of where I go next.”
If she had kicked him in the chest, it couldn’t have possibly hurt more.
Had he sabotaged himself by not discussing his plans with them first?
Or was his idea of a family for the three of them just not meant to be?
He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, needing to at least make it clear to Mia that she was coming with him.
“Mia.” He studied her across the table, still reeling from Gabriella’s rejection.
He felt hollowed out inside. “I meant it when I said you could have a say in your future, but I was referring to input on your room and maybe your school. Possibly a car. I thought you would want to be with me in Memphis. I have a good life there and my own business. We can get a bigger house with more space.”
“But I want to be here.” Clearly agitated, Mia stood. Her brown eyes were rimmed with fat tears but she bristled with anger. “In Heartache. With Gabriella.”
Stunned, Clay looked to Gabby to talk some sense into her. Surely even if Gabriella didn’t love him, she would at least see the need for Mia to be with him. That was what she’d pushed so hard for all along, wasn’t it? She’d told him as much that night on the porch of his motel cabin.
Besides, Gabriella didn’t even live in Heartache. Yet she bit her lip as if she wasn’t sure what to say. Her blue eyes tracked back and forth between Mia and Clay.
Frustration simmered. He’d tried to build a family, damn it. He’d made peace with his father. He was reaching out to the people he cared about.
“My home and my business are there,” he repeated.
Mia stopped her angry pacing on the other side of the picnic table. “Dad will be here.”
Clay fought the impulse to remind her that their father wouldn’t be around much longer. Instead, he focused on other realities. “There are just too many bad memories.”
“We met here,” Gabby said quietly. “That’s a good memory.” She nodded toward the party going on out on the lawn. “But maybe we should slow down, take a breather and talk about this later.”
He looked up and realized that, sure enough, they’d attracted attention with Mia’s pacing and their tense body language. Knowing as much only made him more frustrated.
His plan was crumbling. He was losing ground fast and didn’t know how to fix the situation.
He’d laid out all his ideas for the future, but he’d gone about it wrong.
He thought Pete had sucked at relationships, but he was even worse.
Mia felt more loyalty to the guy than to him, that was for damn sure.
And Gabriella…seeing her united against him tore right through him. Every time he had gotten close to someone, things went south.
“Maybe we should. In Memphis, we wouldn’t have the whole town straining to overhear every word.
” Frustrated and more than a little hurt that his declaration of love had been met with questions and refusals, Clay needed air.
He unfolded himself from the picnic table bench and kept his voice low. “I’m heading out.”
“Of the party?” Gabriella asked, her voice unsteady. “Or the town?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure.” He ground his teeth. “Maybe both.”
Not ready to deal with any more fallout from this week, Clay stalked through the crowd, past his foster parents and toward his bike. He’d told Gabriella once the motorcycle was good for airing out your head.
He didn’t think it stood a chance of patching up his heart.