Backroads Read online

  I notice his breathing evening out in deep, long breaths. I run my hands up and down his arms soothingly and hope I’m helping to calm him.

  He rolls over and cups my cheek. “I love you so much. I never told you. You never knew. You are my everything. I’m sorry I never told you, my love.” His words are heavy with sleep. Was he awake just now?

  My heart is beating faster whether he was awake or not. He loves me. He. Loves. Me. His breathing is long and deep again, telling me he is sleeping. My insides want to shake him, wake him up, and tell him I love him too.

  I don’t though. I let him sleep. He pulls me close to him, tucking me against his body. I only hope I chased away his nightmares and they stay away. When his hand finds its familiar home gripping my breast, I whisper to him, “I love you, Chase. So, so much.”

  “Baby, it’s time to wake up.” A voice is poking through my subconscious. Did I leave the TV on again?

  “Come on, baby, I brought you some coffee.” Funny, I can smell coffee. Might be the neighbors.

  “Come on, baby, I need you to get up before I go.” Something is nudging my shoulder. I’m trying to sleep. Why won’t they let me sleep? More nudging rocks my body.

  I will kill whoever is waking me up. “Go. Away.”

  The bed bounces beneath me, and I’m jolted awake when I’m shoved onto my back. When I open my eyes, I immediately close them shut tight. It’s so bright. Groaning, I throw an arm over my eyes to block the light trying to seep through my lids. Why is it so bright?

  Shit!

  I sit up and flail around, my heart racing with panic. Chase is lying next to me fully dressed with a grin stretched from ear to ear.

  “What time is it?”

  “Almost eight. I let you sleep in. Don’t worry, I did everything you usually do in the morning. It’s all taken care of.” My heart starts to calm, knowing I won’t have to run around the ranch tending to animals.

  I lie back down closer to him, ready to curl my body around him now I know we have some time. He leans down and presses a soft kiss to my lips. “I brought you some coffee. Take a shower. I already let Linda know you would be over soon.”

  When he makes to leave the bed, I reach for him and he dodges my touch with a chuckle. “I have to go. The guys are waiting. We’re going to that horse auction today.”

  Horse auction?

  I vaguely remember him telling me about it. He’s going to be gone all day. “Wait, are you really turning me down right now?” I grab the sheet and whip it off me, exposing my naked body to him.

  His eyes devour my body. I roll on my back, spreading my legs for him and teasing my breasts with my hands. He groans at the foot of the bed. The outline of his cock grows with each breath—I have him now.

  He tears his gaze from me, “Yes, I have to go. I’m sorry.”

  I leap out of bed and attack him before he can make it to the door.

  Jumping into his arms, I kiss him breathlessly. “Five minutes. All we need is five minutes.”

  “Baby, I really need to get going.”

  His words say one thing, but his greedy hands squeezing my ass as he carries me back to the bed say another.

  “Five minutes. Not a minute longer,” he concedes.

  Ten minutes later, hot water is cascading down my satisfied body. My lips are still burning from his kisses, and my body is still sensitive from his touch.

  “Shit!” I had woken in such a haze and distracted by my sexual desire that I had completely forgotten about his night terror. How I held him while he cried. Hearing him tell me he loved me for the first time.

  Did he remember any of it? I need to catch him before he leaves.

  I finish up quickly, get dressed, and run to the main house. It’s no use. Linda informs me they already took off.

  The boys are heading to the auction with an empty trailer. I will have to wait until tonight to talk to him.

  I’ve been washing the pans Linda used last night and this morning, while my conscience eats me up. So consumed with my inner thoughts, I don’t even hear Beth walk in.

  “I’m wearing a pair of your shorts, and I’m pretty sure my ass cheeks are hanging out.” She holds up her hand to shush me. “I don’t want to know if they are.”

  She looks ridiculously cute in my short shorts and the white tank she snagged. She is so short the shorts look the right length on her, compared to how they look on me. She has great toned legs and breasts that look naturally firm and perky.

  “Good lord, you look as ridiculous as Holly in those things,” Linda says, waddling in from the garden. Her arms are loaded down with two large buckets of fresh produce.

  We all start to giggle. “Maybe you should try a pair on. Give your cobwebs some air down there,” I offer.

  Beth and I start putting away the bags we brought in yesterday. We had gotten home so late, we ended up piling the bags in the kitchen and leaving them till now.

  Pulling out a box of Pop-Tarts, I squeal in delight. “Oh my goodness, yes please!” I sing, not hesitating to rip open a package and take several large bites. “So good,” I purr through my full mouth.

  They both watch me gulp the package down in less than a minute. “What?” I ask before tipping the empty package over my mouth to catch the crumbs.

  “Eating like that, you should probably consider taking a test,” Beth says hesitantly.

  My stomach feels like I just ate a brick with their eyes on me expecting me to do what they wish.

  Linda reaches into a drawer. “Actually, I picked these up for you yesterday just in case.” She holds up several home pregnancy tests.

  I try to ignore the lump in my throat. “I’m not ready to face one of those yet.” I turn, ignoring them, and put the rest of our purchases from yesterday away.

  After everything is put away, the boxes of tests are still staring me down on the counter. I need to get them out of sight before Beth or Linda locks me in the bathroom with them and forces me to take one.

  Beside the boxes are the leftover biscuits from this morning. They remind me of Chase. They also make my mouth water. I try to ignore them, knowing what Beth and Linda will say, but thirty seconds later I snatch one up to calm my growling stomach. And because they’re watching me, I decide to make a show of it, heading to the fridge for the apple butter.

  “Not one word from either of you,” I warn, smearing a generous amount on it.

  “If she’s like this already, what’s it going to be like in a month... or nine?” Beth whispers to Linda, loud enough for me to hear.

  Biting into the biscuit, my mouth explodes with the goodness of homemade food. I moan to myself while they watch me. “I worked out this morning,” I mumble to them with a mouthful of dough. It was sort of the truth—ten minutes of quick calorie-burning lovemaking exercise.

  “So the lawyer called yesterday,” Linda says, changing the subject.

  He always called the lodge phone, which was good because I didn’t carry my cell on me like I used to. We decided it was a more reliable number.

  “And?”

  “He made a deal with Daniel’s lawyer. I think it’s going to be the best deal we can get.” She doesn’t look up from the recipe book she’s flipping through.

  “Linda!” She has me on pins and needles, and she’s acting like it’s not that big of a deal.

  She looks up with an ear-splitting grin on her face. “I told him I wanted to be the one to tell you. They are willing to drop the charges; you only have to give back the ring.”

  I move quickly until I have her in my arms. “Are you serious?”

  “Serious, sweetie.” She hugs me tightly, and we rock back and forth together. Soon Beth is pushing between us to be a part of the happy hug.

  Tears run down my face. Happy tears. Relieved tears. “I can’t believe this could soon be over. All of it. Is there a date this needs to happen?”

  “You’re going to have to call him back. He told me more than he probably should have with you not ther
e.”

  I don’t even wait. I head to her office, the girls in tow. Half an hour later, I have the specifics. I have two weeks to produce the ring, or they can and will go forward with the charges. During that time Daniel is not to make contact with me, or he will be paying me a fine and have to drop the charges.

  I then call Alexis. “Alexis! Can you meet me in Chicago next weekend?” I figure we can kill two birds at once.

  “Chicago?” she asks. I fill her in on everything, and we make plans.

  Everything is finally coming together.

  “Do you think Chase will want to go with you?” Linda asks after I hang up with Alexis.

  It had been on my mind. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea if he comes with. He’s made comments several times about hunting Daniel down and kicking his ass. I think it would be too tempting for him to be in the same city.”

  “Sooooo, I know we all assume this, but I’m going to be the one to ask. Do you plan on staying here, then?” Beth asks hesitantly. “After the charges are dropped.”

  I’d thought about this since my arrival. All my job applications had been ignored or rejected within my first two weeks. I hadn’t even looked this past month for any openings anywhere. Besides my things in the storage unit, I don’t have anything in left in the city. Looking across the counter, I have two people I don’t want to say goodbye to.

  And then there’s Chase, the first man I could see a real future with. Even if he said he would follow me wherever I went, I don’t want to go anywhere. This is where I want to be.

  “I’ll be staying. I have home-cooked meals every day and the two of you to annoy.”

  “Not for one second am I fooled you would stay for the two of us. You’re staying for him,” Linda quips.

  I laugh. “Well, he is a game changer.” I pause, and my voice grows quiet. “But seriously. You both mean the world to me, and if you’ll have me, I’d love to stay. There’s nothing for me in the city anymore but bad memories. I want to move on.”

  “And the faster you can get the bogus charges dropped the better. Because you are going to have enough on your plate in the months to come after you finally break down and take one of these tests,” Beth chimes in.

  I roll my eyes at both of them. The clock is dwindling down to the inevitable time I would know with or without the test.

  In the words of Scarlett O’Hara: “I’ll think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.”

  “So what’s your game plan anyway? Should I be coming with?” Linda has been on top of my problem since the day she got the phone call from Larry Welsh.

  After I filled Chase in on everything, we all became a unit with the same goal: to get the charges dropped.

  “Alexis will meet me at the airport next week. Her flight lands a half hour after mine. Then we’ll drive straight to the storage unit. If we’re successful in our search, then our lawyer will set up a meeting with his and I won’t have to see Daniel at all.”

  “Do you really think he’ll drop the charges once you hand it over?” Beth would be coming with too, if she wasn’t needed to help Linda.

  She’s right to have her doubts. I have mine too. Daniel did lie and cheat on me after all. That made him capable of anything. I don’t doubt he’d double-crossing our agreement.

  “Once the ring is found and verified, our lawyer will hold it until all charges are dropped. He already agreed and signed the paperwork as of yesterday.” My lawyer is sending me duplicates of all the paperwork via email today. “The charges should get dropped, but the reputation they spread about me isn’t going away anytime soon. I think you’re going to be stuck with me for a while, girls.”

  Though I’m excited not to have the charges looming over me anymore, the thought of being unemployable still bothers me. If I had a choice I would still choose to stay at the Brickett Ranch. To stay with Chase. Not being able to get a job makes it look like I’m not choosing though. It looks like it was my only option. I want Chase to know I chose him, because of no other reason than I love him.

  “Well, you can stay as long as you like,” says Linda. “Even with you and Chase running around having unprotected sex all over, you are both irreplaceable. And I’m pretty sure if you left, he would follow you. Then I’ll need to find someone to take charge around here. The guys are already in charge of the farming; I don’t want to add to their plate. On second thought you can’t leave. Ever!”

  “And you can’t leave me here with this old bat. I’ll end up with more cobwebs than her.” Beth looks too cute perched on the edge of the counter in my outfit to be talking about her cobwebs. If Jimmy ends up leaving, she would find someone.

  “You’re right. I can’t leave either of you.” I love these women fiercely. It’s hard to think of my life without them in it. “I love you both. Thanks for sticking with my crazy ass.” My voice cracks with emotion.

  “Oh great, now we’re all going to cry,” Linda says, wiping her eyes the same time Beth and I do.

  Laughter fills the kitchen as we hug each other.

  “Okay. Now that we have the heavy conversation done for the day, let’s go tackle candy land so you can paint the room next week,” Beth says dramatically, sashaying her way in the direction of my room.

  “Does my ass look like that?” Because I’m a little thrown at how inappropriate my shorts look on her. “Is there even a crotch to them?”

  Linda clutches her stomach as she doubles over with laughter. “Yes! Oh my god, your face right now... If you could have seen yourself watching her walk away. You’re looking for the color of her underwear, aren’t you?”

  I feel my face turn red. “Whatever. If my ass looks as good as hers, it’s no wonder Chase can’t keep his hands off me.” I wink and follow Beth.

  My goal was to drive him crazy, but now that I’ve seen them in action, I should think about wearing them all the time.

  With the boys gone, we have our hands full for the rest of the day.

  Beth and I move my wardrobe into Chase’s in no time; most of it was already there.

  Then we spend time moving all the bedding and furniture to the middle of my old pink bedroom to make painting easier. With the two of us, it doesn’t take long at all compared to when I did the other rooms by myself.

  Beth was raised on a farm with two older brothers. So when we tackle the chores of feeding the animals, she knows exactly what to do.

  “Why the hell does Linda have llamas?” I ask while we’re checking the water troughs in the pastures.

  “I wondered why she got them too, but surprisingly llamas provide protection against predators—coyotes and foxes. They have other uses too, but if you noticed, she has half a dozen of them all separated with different animals. Plus, they’re cute, and she can sell the wool. But really she needs to get a handle on her animal obsession. She keeps adding more.”

  She does have quite the animal kingdom. “Some of it has to do with Alexis. When she was a little girl, they didn’t have much. Linda would buy her stuffed animals with promises of someday having real pets. Not sure you would call farm animal pets, but she probably does.”

  “Wow. I’ll never say another word about her strange assortment. Okay, I probably will, but I’ll think differently about it now.”

  It’s easy to keep my mind off the importance of next week when we stay busy. Anytime we have a breather, though, fear and doubt creep in. I worry we won’t find the ring. Mostly I worry about telling Chase. He’s going to be upset when he finds out. And it’s kept my stomach in knots.

  “He might be upset, but there’s really no reason for him to go with you,” Beth counters when I express my fears.

  “I know there isn’t. I keep thinking I should tell him after it’s all done, but I promised not to keep anything from him.”

  “Does he know you could possibly be pregnant?”

  I roll my eyes. “No. And I’m not opening that can of worms till there’s something to even tell. You and Linda are the ones bringing it
up all the time.”

  “Okay. Do you know everything about him? I’ve never asked him, and I know Linda has left his skeletons alone. But you should know if there are no secrets between you two.”

  His past is still a mystery and hard for him to talk about. Bits and pieces have come out in conversation, but when something is be too much for him, he becomes silent.

  “No, I don’t know everything.” My heart hurts remembering the few times he tried to talk about it. What would such a strong man fear?

  “It’s all going to work out. Your ex sounds like a piece of work. How do you go from him to Chase?”

  Many times during the last couple months, I wondered the same thing. “When I first came here, I had it in my mind I would start over. This would be my new start, and I didn’t need a man. That lasted all of thirty seconds. Chase came on strong right away, blowing through that weak wall I put up. His good looks and the way women threw themselves at him, I had him pegged for a manwhore. I didn’t want anything to do with him. Then he proved he wasn’t. He proved a lot of things.”

  “He is extremely awkward around women. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall watching him flirt with you.” She giggles.

  “He was still awkward with me at times.” God, was he ever. “But then he would say things that had me weak in the knees. Unbelievably sweet things. Hard to believe but true.”

  “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. I can believe it.”

  I smile at her compliment. “He makes me crazy for him.”

  Linda is in the garden when we walk back up to the main house. “Hey, do you need any help?” I offer.

  “Actually, I’m done, but you can carry a bucket,” she says, grabbing two buckets.

  The phone is ringing when we get inside. “I got it,” Beth says, running for it. “It’s Alexis for you, Holly.”

  Setting my bucket down, I take the phone from Beth. “Hello.”

  “Do you really not carry your phone on you anymore?” Alexis says, not bothering with a greeting.

  I laugh. “I guess not. No one calls or texts but you, and I don’t need to keep up with things on social media anymore.”