Chapter 38 Strong Motivator #2
“Ford. I’ve always thought the way Lexi looked at you was off, but I was told she grew up with you,” Reenie said. “Jealousy is a powerful motivator. Add the fact you were hurt. If it’s really her, I bet that is part of it. I was afraid I’d be blamed for this and I was.”
“You were afraid you’d be blamed by my family,” he said. He didn’t believe Lexi would do this. Not over jealousy or a crush he’d never recognized the signs of. “Lexi isn’t family.”
Clay was still looking around and shaking his head. Frustration on his face. “Close to it. She’s been on this farm since she was a kid. Her parents and Mom and Dad were close. You know it. Reenie could be right. Women have come and gone in your life, but none of them has caused you to almost die.”
“I didn’t almost die,” he argued.
“You see it your way,” Clay said. “I see it mine. If I hadn’t stopped the bleeding, you don’t know.”
His brother was going to be saying that to him for the rest of his life.
“Is she working?” Ford asked. “We need to talk to her.”
“She is,” Clay said, his hands going into his front pockets. “She isn’t a danger to Reenie. Not like we think. This is more about you, Ford, and Reenie was a byproduct.”
“What?” he asked. What a clusterfuck for a guy who always prided himself on seeing everything and having it all under control.
“She did this to get back at you,” Clay said. “If she upsets Reenie, then it upsets you. She wouldn’t be stupid enough to do anything to you directly. She’d rather try to scare Reenie away.”
Clay let very few into his life and Lexi had been one that was always there.
His brother would blame himself for missing this just as much as him.
“I’m going with you,” Reenie said.
“No,” he and Clay said together.
Reenie slapped her hands on her hips. “It’s my stuff she ruined.
Not yours. She took most of her fury out on my clothing.
It’s all I have here. I have a right to know why.
I want to hear it from her lips. It’s not like you’re going to let anything happen to me.
Either of you. And if Clay is right, that she did it to get to you, Ford, I want her to know I will not tolerate it. ”
He looked at Clay. “She’s right. Because I want to hear what Lexi has to say too.”
He couldn’t believe that someone wanted him his whole life and he had no clue about it.
Knowing how he felt about Reenie and not being able to have her could have caused rage if he was a lesser person.
To watch so closely as the person you loved never saw you the same. It’d kill him if Reenie was with someone else and he had to witness it. If she almost lost her life by being with that person.
“I’ll bring her to my office first,” Clay said. “Come over in five minutes.”
“You’re going to tell her we know?” Ford asked. He didn’t think his brother would show his cards that easily.
“No. But because she is like family, I’m going to give her the courtesy of doing this in private without you and Reenie being there when I call her in. And you need to gather yourself because it’s all over your face that you’re taking the blame for this. It’s not your fault.”
But it felt as if it was, if what Clay said was true. Just like he witnessed the same feelings on his brother’s face.
He was believing he was such an idiot for years.
Clay marched out and got in his truck, then took off back to his office.
“Come here,” Ford said. “Are you okay? You look more annoyed than upset and I hate that this is happening.” But annoyance was better than fear.
“I am now,” she said. “When I first saw everything, I had a flashback to the mess I left behind. I was fast to remember this had to have been after your mom was here. That made me realize it wasn’t the same as what Randy would have done.
This was more of a jealous fit and an emotional breakdown and then when she saw my stuff, it was about hurting me.
It was to see if I could break and run again.
Months ago, I might have. But not now. If I hurt, you hurt. Clay is right.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you thought someone was watching you? Or that you suspected Clay or I went through your things?”
“I didn’t think it was you. Or I hoped not. I really thought it was Clay and I didn’t want to start any problems. I didn’t want to burden you with more. You and your family were already doing so much for me and it’s his property. He has a right to be here without me.”
“He’d never do that and I’m sorry you thought what you had. If you’d told me you suspected you were being watched, we would have done more.”
“I told you in town I felt it. Even at the event. But you thought it had to do with you.”
“I was right,” he said, his voice dropping. “It did. But not like I thought. People were watching us together, but Lexi must have been for another reason.”
“Let’s go,” she said. “I want to be the one to talk to her. Will Clay let me?”
“Not alone. I’m not allowing that,” he said firmly.
“I didn’t think you would.”
He held his hand out for the keys. It was his left leg; there was no reason to let her think he couldn’t even drive.
She was done relying on him to fight her battles, and he was done pretending she needed to take care of him. They were both strong enough on their own, and together.
She gave him the keys without a word.
They had to start fresh. They had to start now.
When they got inside the mill, the two of them made their way to Clay’s office, many waving to them. Rod one of them.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever felt jealousy before when it came to a woman, but he had when one of Clay’s employees flirted with Reenie.
He opened the door to Clay’s office. Lexi jumped up. “Ford. Oh my God. I’m so sorry about what happened to you. I wanted to go visit you, but Brooke said you were resting. You look good but tired.”
Lexi just glanced at Reenie and dismissed her.
No trace of animosity between the two women, but the concern and sympathy toward him was clearly in a different form than friendship.
He could see a touch of love that he’d never noticed before.
He’d dismissed her in his life as nothing more than a childhood friend.
But he still couldn’t see her doing this.
“Thanks,” he said. He looked at Clay.
“Have a seat, Lexi,” Clay said.
Lexi laughed. “What’s the frown for? What’s going on? Ford, sit. You’re still recovering.”
“Why did you destroy the cabin?”
Lexi stopped moving the chair she was bringing over to him. “What are you talking about?” Lexi asked. It wasn’t just shock on her face for being accused of something, it was more about being caught.
“The cabin is trashed,” he said. “As if someone had a rampage and took out their frustration on objects.”
“And you think it’s me?” Lexi asked. She drew her eyebrows together, her eyes darting between both men before turning to Reenie. “Did you tell them it was me, Maureen?”
The name reminded him that only those close to Reenie called her the shortened version. To everyone else, she was Maureen, just a person passing through.
Someone that could be scared off to leave again with everything that had just happened in her life.
Was that what Lexi was trying to do?
The funny part was, Reenie would never think it was Lexi and anyone on the outside wouldn’t either, but Lexi had no problem pointing a finger at his girlfriend.
“I didn’t,” she said. “I didn’t even suspect you, but I should have. You were always talking about Ford to me. But you’d cover it well and add his brothers in there too. I thought you had a crush on Clay.”
Lexi shrank back, her head shaking. Her eyes wide and filled with panic.
“No. I don’t have a crush on anyone. I’m not sure why you are accusing me of anything.
I’ve been around here my whole life. I belong, not you.
You’ve been here a few weeks and think you can turn who is ultimately my family against me. ”
He’d never seen the look in Lexi’s eyes that was aimed at Reenie, then turned to him.
A hidden anger.
“Lexi,” Clay said. “Cut. The. Shit.”
Lexi’s eyes switched from disdain to fear with Clay’s more forceful tone. The man who employed her and let her stay on the land where she said she belonged. But the minute she turned to Reenie, the venom was back.
He’d missed that too.
“I’m not doing anything,” Lexi shouted. “It’s her! She’s making this up to cause problems between us.”
“You wanted Ford all to yourself, but he didn’t see you the way you wanted,” she said. Reenie wasn’t shouting.
She was talking calmly. She was making eye contact. She wasn’t backing down.
Her hidden strength was shining brightly.
“He never sees anything,” Lexi all but spit out.
“Hey,” Ford said. His ego just took a hit on how blind he was.
Or was it because he didn’t feel the same way and she never acted like anything other than an honorary little sister that he couldn’t see beyond it?
“He saw what you wanted him to see. What you thought he wanted you to be,” Reenie said, her head angled. “Women do that. I know. I’ve done it most of my life. You’ve been invisible to men, haven’t you?”
Lexi’s shoulders dropped, her eyes filled with tears. He hadn’t expected that reaction. Hadn’t seen her cry or be so emotional. Like a woman. She’d always acted like one of the guys. “You don’t know what it’s like.”
“I know exactly what it’s like,” she said gently. “To know that no one sees you. No one cares that does. And the ones that pay attention to you might be for the wrong reasons.”
Lexi shook her head. “You’re lying. You’ve got Ford.
The minute you stepped foot here, that’s all he’s seen.
You’re no different than me. We almost dress alike.
I know because I went through your clothes weeks ago when I saw your car at the cabin.
We look alike too. Our hair and eyes. I don’t understand.
Why you and not me?” Her hand hit her chest in frustration.