Chapter 28
Elaine pinned her hair back on the sides and fluffed up her bangs. She’d just gotten them cut, and they did make her look a little bit younger. At the same time, she had a tall forehead, and bangs helped cover some of that up.
She’d been thinking about her relationship with Brandt non-stop lately, as he’d made a few remarks about her center for women on their past couple of dates.
She hadn’t appreciated them, nor had she solicited his opinion on how she ran her business.
While she understood that everybody said insensitive things from time to time, Brandt’s comments had actually revealed a lot more about who he was.
“Or who he isn’t,” Elaine said to her reflection. The truth was, Brandt was a total small-town cowboy who had never left Three Rivers. He enjoyed a truck his daddy bought for him and didn’t seem to understand that other people didn’t come from as much privilege as he did.
Elaine certainly couldn’t say she’d come from a place of poverty, either, but those she endeavored to help didn’t have generational ranches or fat bank accounts, and she held a lot of compassion for them.
She turned away from her reflection, because she’d already made this decision. She’d been seeing Brandt for a couple of months now, though, and she didn’t feel like she could end it with a text.
September and October were very busy around the Panhandle, but Elaine had asked him to meet her for a quick dinner at the Baker Brewery. She reasoned that they’d get their food fast, and she could tell him she just didn’t think it was going to work between them.
“Hopefully I’ll be home by nine,” she muttered as she left the bathroom without putting on her usual lipstick and triple-checking that everything sat exactly in place.
A sense of sadness accompanied the frustration that came with her decision to end this relationship.
She’d been hopeful in the beginning, as Brandt had been charming and handsome, showing up with flowers and planning dates, but the last couple had literally been them either walking around the mall—where he didn’t even buy a full dinner but a hot dog and an ice cream cone.
Then, she’d gone to his house so he could “cook for her,” only to discover that he’d ordered pizza, and the only thing he actually did to prep was make homemade ranch dressing.
“It was good dressing,” Elaine said to herself as she picked up her red handbag and transferred her car keys from her black one.
She wore a pretty crimson-colored blouse covered in Texas poppies and a black skirt, as the color made her feel powerful and feminine at the same time. She’d need her courage with her tonight to end things with Brandt, and she left the house determined not to let him talk her out of it.
Not that she knew if he would or not, but she knew enough about Brandt Lyman to know that the man usually got his way, and if it wasn’t his idea to end the relationship, he probably wouldn’t be happy about it
She arrived at Baker’s and entered to a dim interior. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, and she scanned left and right, expecting to see Brandt sitting at the bar, only a few paces inside the door, waiting for her.
He wasn’t, so Elaine took those steps and sat down on the end barstool.
The bartender came closer, and she said, “I’m waiting for someone. Has anyone else come in?”
“No, ma’am,” he said. “I know better than to ask if you want anything to drink. Club soda, sparkling water, Diet Coke?”
Elaine smiled at Lynn Turner and drummed her fingernails on the countertop. “Sparkling water, please, with lemon and lime, if you have them.”
“I do, ma’am.” He turned his back on her to get the drink, and Elaine pulled out her phone to check the time. She’d left her house at the very last minute, so she wasn’t surprised to find that it’d hit seven o’clock already.
Brandt was late.
Elaine knew there were good reasons for being late, and that everybody got caught up from time to time, but Brandt had a habit of it with seemingly few good reasons. Her irritation with him and her determination to break up with him solidified.
Lynn put the drink in front of her, and she smiled at him. “Thank you.”
She sipped it, wondering if she had to go to dinner with Brandt to end the relationship. Perhaps simply meeting him face-to-face, sitting with him at the bar for twenty minutes, and then patting his hand and saying, “I don’t think it’s going to work,” would be enough.
Other parties and couples continued to enter the brewery, because they served the best bacon cheeseburgers in town.
But Elaine didn’t see Brandt. The din increased with conversation and laughter, and Elaine felt small and removed from it as she watched everyone else having a good time.
She sat alone and forgotten, stewing over her next move and what her life would be like tomorrow when she woke up boyfriend-less once again.
Disappointment cut through her, but Elaine knew Brandt wasn’t the man for her.
Her eyes moved to a corner booth when it erupted with laughter, and her ears somehow picked out a tone that had a ring of familiarity to it.
Sure enough, as she watched, Brandt himself rose from the end of the bench in the horseshoe-shaped booth, pulled his wallet out, and threw some money on the table.
Then he turned toward her and took a couple of steps in her direction before the smile dropped from his face.
She stared, because he’d been here this whole time and had made her wait for the past twenty minutes alone on the barstool.
She automatically searched the booth he’d come from and found it full of men.
Still, her whole plan for the evening changed as she watched Brandt teeter on his feet and have to reach out and grab the back of a chair to steady himself.
Her heart pounded through her chest, because she didn’t drink, and she didn’t want to be with a man who did.
Brandt had only had a very light amount of alcohol on their previous dates, but as he slid onto the barstool next to her, he smelled like he’d drunk the entire brewery before gracing her with his presence.
“Howdy, sweetheart,” he drawled, and he leaned over to give her a kiss.
Elaine turned her head, disgust rearing through her. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Oh, just a little bit, sweetheart,” he said. “I knew you wouldn’t want me to during dinner.”
“So you came early and made me wait?” She pinned him with what she hoped was a dark, intense look.
Brandt didn’t seem to feel it at all, and he merely smiled at her.
“It seems like you’re already out with your friends,” she said. “And you don’t need me here tonight.”
“That’s not true, Laney.” He took her hand in his, but Elaine swiftly pulled away.
“Listen, Brandt, I don’t think this is going to work.”
Where he’d been all smiles and softness and sweethearts before, he turned rock-hard with those words. “You don’t think what is going to work?”
“Us,” she said simply.
“Because I had a few drinks with my friends before our date?”
“No,” Elaine said. “I asked you to meet me here, so I could break-up with you. I’ve been planning to do it for a few days now. This is just a cherry on top of my right decision.”
The dark eyes she’d once found so handsome now blazed with alcohol and anger. “Well, that doesn’t work for me,” he said. “Because you and me, Elaine, are written in the stars, and I had much different plans for us tonight than a break-up.”
“Good thing you’re so flexible.” Elaine reached into her purse and pulled out a twenty.
She left it on the counter and set her now-empty sparkling water glass on top of it.
“I’ll see you around,” she said, hoping her message got through clear enough and that he’d remember they’d broken up when he woke up in the morning, hung over.
She slid her phone into her bag and tipped to her left off the barstool, so she wouldn’t have to go toward him. She’d only taken two steps when he latched onto her arm, his hot breath washing over her earlobe as he growled, “You’re not just walking out of here.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” Elaine said. “Let go of me.”
Brandt didn’t let go of her. He stood eight inches taller than her and worked hard around his daddy’s company and farm, which meant he had more muscles in his arm than Elaine had in her whole body. He marched her right out of the brewery and into the twilight.
“Let me go,” she said again, and this time she managed to pull away enough to make him stumble.
She broke into a run, though her red ballet flats weren’t really made for that, hoping she could get to the safety of her car before he gained his equilibrium and figured out where she’d gone.
“That’s not happening,” Brandt said from behind her.
Elaine’s pulse rebounded through her whole body when she heard footsteps behind her.
White noise filled her ears, a gift from God that she didn’t have to hear Brandt gaining on her.
She reached out her key fob, frantically pressing any button she could, because perhaps the alarm would go off, and that would draw attention to them.
Her car honked once, the way it did when she locked it, and then Brandt knocked the keys out of her hands and kicked them up onto the grass along the curb where she’d parked. With a growl, he grabbed her wrist, spun her around, and pressed her against the passenger door of her car.
“Stop it,” Elaine said, though tears sprang to her eyes.
“You don’t need those keys,” Brandt said. “You’re coming home with me.”
“No, I’m not,” Elaine said. Her free hand flapped and fought to get him away. He leaned his hips into her body, and she couldn’t move from the waist down. “No, Brandt,” she told him. “Let me go. Stop it.”
She prayed with everything she had that someone would hear her, see her, but it felt like the dinner crowd had arrived in the last hour, and no one had come early enough to be done yet.
He leaned in, the stench of beer on his breath as he said, “You’re mine, Elaine, and I’m not giving you up so easy.”
“I do not belong to you,” she said, and she slapped him across the face. That only angered him more, and he grabbed that wrist and pinned it up by her head. Then he pressed his mouth to hers, and fear overcame Elaine, infiltrating every cell in her body and making her go limp.
Maybe then he’ll stop, she thought.
Then something Austin had told her flowed through her mind: They don’t stop, Elaine. If something bad ever happens, you fight and fight and fight.
She screamed and wrestled her shoulders away, hitting him with her bag. He grabbed it and threw it in the same direction he’d tossed her keys.
Though her chest ached for breath, she managed to say, “Brandt, stop it! No!” Panic poured through Elaine, and while she’d never considered herself a small woman, she was no match for Brandt’s height, weight, and size.
Her mind spun, because she’d never found herself in this situation before, and she had no idea how to get out of it.
“Brandt, stop,” she said again, her voice pitching up and increasing in volume. She pushed his hand away from her hip yet again, but he seemed to have more than two of them.
He pressed her against the side of her car and growled, “You’re going home with me.”
Tears streamed down her face. “No,” she said again, but her voice sounded weak and pathetic, even to her own ears.
She managed to get both hands between her body and his, and she pushed as hard as she could against his chest. He didn’t go anywhere.
His mouth landed on hers again, hot and demanding and so unwanted.
Not knowing what to do and acting out of pure instinct, instead of going limp and hoping he’d stop when he realized she wasn’t responding, she bit down hard.
Pain exploded through her mouth as she’d bit her own lip along with his.
But even as the metallic tang of blood touched her lips, Brandt stopped kissing her.
He leaned up, and their eyes met. “You’re going to regret—”
“Stop,” Elaine said, and in the next moment, Brandt got pulled away from her by some supernatural force.
“The lady said stop,” a man said.
Elaine knew this voice, but in her heightened emotional state, it took her a moment to recognize Colt Franklin’s face and the familiar cream-colored cowboy hat he wore.
“This ain’t none of your business,” Brandt said.
“You’re wrong about that,” Colt said. He held Brandt with both hands, one on his upper arm and one on the lapels of his jacket, pressing the fabric up around his neck. Colt shoved him away from him, then quickly took two steps to put the full height of his body between her and him.
“I heard her say ‘no’ more than once, so you best be going before I call the cops.”
Brandt reached up slowly with one hand and wiped his mouth. He looked at it and seemed surprised. “You made me bleed.”
Elaine wanted to say a whole bunch of things, but her stomach recoiled. She still had the taste of blood in her mouth, and she wasn’t sure if it was his or hers. She felt dirty from head to toe, and her whole body started to shake.
Colt seemed to know it, and he curled one arm behind him and around her, pulling her close against his back. “Just hold onto me, honey,” he said, his voice low and meant only for her ears.
Elaine didn’t normally shy away from confrontation, but she couldn’t fully process everything that had just happened. Her head swam, and bright white lights popped in her vision, making the darkening parking lot feel like the Fourth of July.
She leaned her head forward, touching her forehead against the back of Colt’s arm, and she wasn’t sure how long Brandt stood there staring at them before he said, “Fine, but this isn’t over, Elaine.”
“Oh, yes, it is,” Colt said. “If you even look at her again, you’ll have me to answer to.”
Brandt laughed, a high-pitched cackle she’d never heard him make. She couldn’t believe how fully a few drinks had transformed him, but when she dared to lift her head and take a peek at him, she didn’t even recognize the man glaring at her.
Brandt spun and stalked away. A sob fell from Elaine’s throat at the same time Colt turned and wrapped her in his arms.
“It’s okay,” he said, his voice a complete one-eighty from what he’d just used speaking to Brandt. “You’re fine, sweetheart. I got you. You’re all right.”
He held her close against his heartbeat as she sobbed and smoothed his hands through her hair as his voice continued to lower and lower into a whisper. “I got you, sugar,” he murmured. “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”
Elaine clung to him, because she wasn’t sure she could stand on her own. She didn’t know where her purse was or how far Brandt had thrown her keys, but none of that mattered, because she believed Colt when he said, “You’re okay. I’m here and I got you, and everything is going to be all right.”