Chapter 28
Hayes
“Trouble in paradise?”
I looked up from the blurring numbers on my computer screen as my headache let himself into the study.
“What do you want?” I groused.
Lewis grinned with all his teeth like a giddy chimpanzee. “Who? Me?”
I rubbed my eyes to try to ease the strain from looking at my computer and not sleeping. Really, it was just from not sleeping. “You’re the only one in here.”
“And why is that?” he asked with a pleased clap of his hands. “Where’s your woman? Oh, wait. You have no idea because you’ve been sleeping alone for—what—going on two days now?”
“Will you get to the point already?”
“Would you like to concede and hand over the estate now?” he soothed in a mocking tone. “I won’t even make you admit that it was all for show. Or are you going to make me keep dragging this out in court?”
“I wouldn’t want my tax dollars to go to waste. Let’s keep a judge employed,” I snapped.
“Oooh. Someone’s touchy today. Did Catherine finally pack up and leave you? She was a nice piece of ass to look at but had the most shrill voice—”
I was out of the desk chair and at his throat. “Keep her name out of your mouth.”
Lewis’s grin was maniacal.
“Gentlemen,” Hallie said, appearing in the doorway. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No,” I hissed.
“Good. So you’re not about to beat each other senseless. I wouldn’t want to jump to conclusions,” she said drolly.
Anger flared in Lewis’s eyes as another body appeared behind Hallie.
Catherine.
She looked just as tired as I did. Her usual bright smile was gone. In its place was a stone-cold expression. “Hayes, do you have a minute?”
Those six words were the first she had spoken to me since our fight, when she had taken off her ring. Each one was a punch to the gut.
“Of course,” I said, softening my voice as I tried to push away the adrenaline.
Hallie raised a finger. “After you pick up the phone. A lawyer called the house line because he couldn’t get you on your cell. I’ve got the call waiting.”
I looked at Catherine. “I’ll call him back. Let’s—”
“Take the call.” And with that, Catherine turned and left.
Great. Just fucking great.
“Yeah. Take the call,” Lewis said, cocking his head to the desk phone that hadn’t been used since Granddad died.
Hallie lingered in the doorway, keeping an eye on Lewis, as I sat down and picked up the receiver. “Hayes Wilder.”
“Hayes, I’m glad I caught you. I’ve got good news,” Mr. Allen said jovially. At least someone in the damn state was in a good mood.
I glanced up at Lewis. “My brother is here. Would you like me to put you on speaker to share that good news?”
Lewis’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m not so sure he’ll think it’s good news,” Mr. Allen said. “I’m sure he’ll be receiving a similar call from his legal counsel soon.”
“Alright, then.”
“As the executor of the estate, I received notice this morning that, after reviewing your grandfather’s will, and the supporting documentation of your marriage license and the deed conveying ten acres to your wife, the court threw out his petition. Congratulations, Mr. Wilder.”
I let out a sharp breath. Catherine and I had done it.
“Thank you, Mr. Allen.”
“You’re not entirely out of the woods,” he warned. “Likely, Mr. Halstead will have his attorneys file a motion to reconsider. Unfortunately, that’s just par for the course. But I don’t anticipate the outcome changing. Just make sure your personal legal counsel stays abreast of the situation.”
“Understood. Thank you, sir.”
Mr. Allen said his goodbyes just as Lewis’s phone rang.
He glanced at the screen, then stepped out to answer it. “You better have good news for me, Gerald,” he snapped.
Hallie watched Lewis disappear into the rose garden, then looked at me. “He’s about to be in a bad mood, isn’t he?”
“Fortunately for me, yes. The judge said that the will stands, and the estate is mine.”
Hallie let out a sharp breath and laughed in relief. “That’s some damn good news.”
Mason cut through the kitchen and stopped short when he saw the two of us in conversation. He stepped through the study door and looked between Hallie and me. “Everything alright?”
Hallie leaned into him. “Lawyer called. Lewis doesn’t have a claim to the estate.”
Mason blinked in surprise as his hand coasted up and down her back in a reassuring motion. “I was preparing for the worst, so that’s some real good news.”
“Yeah,” I said as I swallowed the sand and shock that abraded my throat. “It is.”
Catherine returned and crowded in the door with Mason. Her eyes flicked to where his hand was, then looked up at me with an impassive expression.
“You wanted to talk?” I said hopefully as I rose from behind the desk.
Mason and Hallie glanced between Catherine and me, then looked at each other.
“We’ll give you two some privacy,” Hallie said as she and Mason turned to slip out.
“No, y’all can stay. This pertains to you guys too,” Catherine said, all business.
My stomach twisted.
“I’m throwing a grand opening for the Learning Cottage next weekend. I have it handled. I just wanted to give you a heads-up that there will be guests on the property. It shouldn’t interfere with the regular operations.” Catherine was robotic as she gave the news.
I was so fucking proud of her, and I hated that she wouldn’t let me share in her excitement.
I hadn’t worked out how to reconcile with her yet. Frankly, I didn’t think I should have to apologize. I was the one who had stuck my neck out for her. I had protected her.
But somehow, my attempt at protecting her had hurt her.
I had never been torn up over a relationship before, even when my engagement ended. Maybe I had grieved too much as a kid to be upset over ending things with a romantic partner, but Catherine taking off her wedding band had crushed me. Even today, her finger was bare.
I hadn’t slept. I never drank more than a sip of alcohol because of my daily medications, but today, all I wanted to do was sink to the bottom of a bottle.
“I can’t wait to celebrate with you,” I said earnestly.
The corners of her lips tightened, and she swallowed. “I should get back to work.”
“Cath—”
But she was already disappearing through the patio doors.
“Dammit,” I muttered as I shoved away from the desk, pushed past Mason, and followed her without a rehearsed plan or even the faintest clue of what I was going to say.
Something inside me had overridden every natural inclination to stay in the study. My feet had a mind of their own as I sprinted after her.
There was only one thing that could override logic.
Love.
“Catherine,” I called as she slipped into the roses.
She didn’t turn.
I raised my voice as I hurried to catch up to her. “Catherine, wait.”
She curved behind the headstones of my parents and grandparents.
I caught her hand and held on for dear life. “Cath.”
She turned to wrench her hand away. I let her have it and wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her instead.
Catherine’s back went ramrod straight. I wrapped her limp ponytail around my hand and cradled the back of her head. She opened her mouth—whether it was to breathe or cuss me out, I didn’t know. But I took the opportunity regardless.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered against the corner of her mouth before dotting it with a kiss.
Those cherry lips turned thin and volatile like a bottle rocket as she wrenched free. “What’s done is done.”
“Cath, I mean it. I’m sorry.”
She took two steps back. “I believe you. You can be sorry and still not be able to take back what you did.” Her hair whipped across her shoulders like chaff in the wind.
“It still doesn’t change the outcome,” she said before turning away from me and stepping around the headstones.
My heart ached as I watched the way her hands balled into fists.
“I meant the vows,” I called after her. “Every word.”
She stumbled, giving me a chance to catch up to her. But Catherine didn’t turn to face me. “I meant it all,” I said gently. “Maybe I didn’t know that I meant them at the time, but I did.” I swallowed the knot in my throat. “I still do.”
Catherine looked down at her feet, head hanging low.
I laid my hands on her shoulders. “I meant it when I said that I would protect and cherish you. And dammit, Catherine, I do. I cherish you so fucking much, and I’m sorry that I hurt you by trying to protect you.”
She tipped her head back and flashed a smile of disbelief at the sky. “Maybe you convinced yourself that you meant them. Maybe it made it easier for you to deal with me being here so you can keep the estate.” She raked a hand into her hair. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Cath—”
“Just—Just stop!” she said as she whirled around. “Stop trying to care! I’m a grown woman. I can handle my life just fine. I was doing it long before you came around. I don’t need you making choices for me. Especially ones that can’t be undone!”
The words I had said to her two days ago floated through my mind. “You might be able to take off your ring, but I won’t. I can’t. And as long as this ring is on my finger, I will care about you.”
“You got what you wanted. You got the marriage license. You can take off the ring and stop playing pretend.” Each word nicked at me like an ice pick.
“I can’t.”
Catherine rolled her eyes.
I held my hand out. “Take it off. See for yourself.”
Forget-me-not eyes looked up at me as she worked my wedding band off my ring finger. “There. Stop caring.”
I stepped forward. The boots I had been wearing ever since she came to the estate nipped at the toes of her sneakers. “I. Refuse.”
She flicked her gaze to my hand, then did a double take when she saw the small tattoo that hid beneath my wedding band. A small tiara was inked at the base of my finger.
“It’s not about the estate, Cath. I don’t care if we’re in the richer or poorer part of the vows. For me, it’s till death do us part.”
She clenched her jaw, making it flex and tic as she tried to hold on to her anger. But I didn’t miss the way her lips wobbled.
I took her hands in mine as she held on to my ring. “I’m so sorry that I hurt you. That I overstepped. It’s not my place to tell you how to feel, especially when I’m the one who made you feel that way.”
Catherine looked away as a tear slipped down her cheek.
“I just…wanted to know him,” she confessed.
“Even if he let me down again. He deserved everything you did, and frankly, he deserves way worse.” Her eyes lifted to mine.
“You and I have been in this together since day one, but you didn’t give me a say in it.
I know you were trying to protect me, but you treated me like a problem to be fixed rather than a partner. ”
This was where I sucked at relationships. There were too many variables that I couldn’t log. I couldn’t prepare and practice. What I saw as the simplest solution was often the wrong course of action because it removed her from the equation.
I fought the intrinsic fight-or-flight response and the anger that masked it, and nodded contritely. “Yes, ma’am.”
Catherine held my hand in hers and smoothed the pad of her finger over the tattoo. “Tell me this is some gumball machine temporary tattoo that will fade after you wash your hands and that it just happened to be a crown.”
“It’s real,” I said as sparks skittered up my arm at the feel of her soft touch. My god, I missed this.
The knee-jerk fight-or-flight reaction began to fade. “And I hated every minute of getting it done. I can’t believe people get tattooed willingly.”
Catherine raised an eyebrow. “I can’t believe you got a tattoo for…”
“For you,” I said as I cupped her cheeks.
“I’m not trying to manipulate you, Cath.
The first night of the conference ended early and all my meetings were done.
I didn’t feel like driving back to Bethesda just yet.
I saw a tattoo shop and went in because I was missing you.
Because I always miss you, even when you’re just up working on the cottage. ”
I kissed her softly, savoring how it eased the torment I had felt ever since she gave the ring back. To my surprise, Catherine tipped her head to the side and kissed me back.
“I don’t know what this is supposed to feel like,” I admitted. “But it feels real.”
Catherine took my hand in hers and slid my ring back on.
I reached into my pocket, pulled out her wedding band, and slid it back on her finger.
I hadn’t let it out of my sight since she took it off.
“Tell me what you need from me,” I said as I rested my forehead on hers.
“Space? Groveling? I’ll do it. I’m more than happy to get on my knees for you.
” I brushed strands of hair away from her face.
“I will shovel cow shit for you. Just tell me what you need from me.”
Her arms snaked around my waist. “For you to trust me. Treat me like an equal. Don’t problem solve for me. Problem solve with me.”
“Is that your way of saying I’m forgiven?”
She swallowed. “You’re forgiven. But I’m still hurt. Both can be true.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Catherine turned to walk away, but I caught her hand. “How did the interview go?”
“Good,” she said without skipping a beat, but I didn’t miss the way her gaze floated to the mountains. “They said I’d hear back by the end of the week.”