by Ali Parker
I scowled at her. “I just want you to leave other people out of this,” I told her.
“Does she know about the baby, though?” Ella asked, putting her hands over her flat stomach, not for the first time. “If you’re getting involved with her, don’t you think she deserves to know? I mean, you’re still going to have responsibilities to our baby. Even if you don’t marry me like you’re supposed to.”
“Get with the times, Ella,” I said, feeling exasperated. “Even if I did knock you up, that doesn’t mean we have to get married. And you know as well as I do that I didn’t.”
“Like you said, time will tell,” Ella said, a twinkle in her eye. She leaned in closer. “But you know, things aren’t going to work out between you and Abi anyway.”
“Why not?” I asked. I shouldn’t have shown how surprised I was by her words, but suddenly, I couldn’t help wondering if she knew something I didn’t. Maybe she had heard something around town about Abi. Maybe there was a husband, or an ex-husband, or an ex-boyfriend. Someone who was still in the way.
But I hadn’t gotten that feeling from the way that Abi and I had interacted. She had seemed genuinely interested in me, and not in the rebound kind of way.
Then again, maybe that was why she didn’t want to actually get involved with me. Maybe it had nothing to do with her impending departure. There was someone else in the picture, someone else in her heart, and she didn’t want to get tangled up with me while she was still loyal to them in her soul.
That would make sense.
It wasn’t what Ella meant, though. She shrugged. “I just mean, whoever comes out of nowhere to end up here, they must be pretty desperate for a place to hide,” she said.
“She didn’t just come out of nowhere,” I said, impatiently. “She’s a Brock. She came back to the family farm.”
“That place has been falling down for years, though,” Ella said, sniffing her disapproval. “Why would she come back now?” She paused. “I bet she’s running from something.”
“She’s here for her family,” I said. “Some people have values. She’s here to take care of her grandparents and to try to turn the farm around.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “Sure,” she said, but I could tell she didn’t believe me.
I decided I had to be blunt. “Abi is actually a very nice girl,” I told Ella. “Maybe if you tried to be a little nicer, people wouldn’t hate you so much.” It came out meaner than I’d really intended, but it didn’t seem to faze Ella anyway.
“You don’t know me well enough to know if I’m nice or not,” she said haughtily.
“Whatever,” I said, shaking my head. “Why don’t you just leave? I don’t care about whatever news you think you have.” No matter how curious I was to know the truth, there was no way I was going over to her house with her. That was a recipe for disaster. And I knew she knew that.
Scheming bitch.
“Whatever,” Ella echoed, pulling away from me. “If I were you, though, I really wouldn’t get involved with anyone until I knew the results of those tests I took. You’re going to have enough to deal with soon, without having a jealous girlfriend in the picture. And the last thing you want is to break another girl’s heart by showing her she’s not your number one.”
I started to say something in response, something about Ella definitely not being my number one, and how, given the situation with my brothers, it was clear that I wasn’t her number one either. But I forced myself to ignore her in the hopes that if I didn’t give her any more attention, she’d leave.
Thankfully, I was right.
But that didn’t mean that I could forget all about the conversation. No, I was sure that Abi had overheard at least part of it, too. The first part, about the pregnancy. I could only imagine what was going through her head right now.
Doubtless she’d heard all the rumors around town already. And Ella hadn’t exactly been subtle that other night here in Kinsey’s, when Abi had offered her a drink and Ella had said that she wasn’t drinking. But I didn’t want Ella to be another reason Abi thought things wouldn’t work out between her and I. I had to make sure Abi knew that I didn’t believe for one moment that Ella was actually pregnant with my child.
As Abi disappeared into the back room to help Kinsey with something for the wet t-shirt contest, I’d wanted to catch her arm, to take her off to some private corner and explain everything. But right now— after just talking to Ella—that would’ve set the rumor mill churning, too. Out of respect for Abi, I didn’t really want to do that. Besides, I didn’t know if I could keep my hands off of her, especially if we were off in some private corner. I was still remembering her with that tequila shot, licking salt off her hand and biting her lower lip like she was nervous, uncertain.
I shook my head, pushing those thoughts, and thoughts of what else she might lick with that tongue of hers, out of my head.
Abi reappeared and started handing out white t-shirts to the contest participants, and the bar suddenly got loud with men whooping and hollering as their buddies stripped off their usual checkered shirts and put on the plain tees.
I frowned and then grabbed the sign-up list out from under her arm as she walked past, scribbling my name at the bottom. If that was the only way to talk to her, then so be it.
“Listen,” I said, as she fished through the pile of shirts, looking for one in my size. “I know you heard what Ella said. But she’s lying, I know she is.”
“You have proof?” Abi asked, glancing up at me for a moment.
“No, but I don’t have proof that she’s pregnant either,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “And besides, Ella’s not the most trustworthy person in town.”
“I doubt she’s going to pee on a stick in the middle of a bar,” Abi said. “And it sounded like she wanted to go somewhere with you.”
I frowned, thinking that over. But I shook my head. “No, what she really wanted was for everyone to see us leaving together,” I maintained stubbornly.
“Sure, whatever,” Abi said, finally pulling a shirt out of the pile and shoving it towards me.
“Abi, please,” I said, catching her wrist.
But she carefully pulled away from me. “I can’t do this, Mason,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to get caught up in all this drama. I have enough to deal with, with the farm. You know that.”
“I know,” I said soothingly. “Promise me that you’ll think about the idea. To turn the place into a harvest festival or haunted farm.”
Abi ran a hand back through her hair. “I’ll think about it, I guess,” she said. “It just seems like a pretty big risk. And we’d have to do so much work, right now. Halloween is right around the corner, and that corn isn’t going to last forever if we turn it into a corn maze.”
“I can help you, though,” I told her. “And I’m sure there are other people in town who could help out. Especially if they got to dress up as zombies during the event. It could be a lot of fun.”
“I’m not sure that you and I should be working together like that,” Abi said. She sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea, and I’d love to have your help if we were going to pull it off. But with everything with Ella, I’m not sure it’s the best idea. I don’t want rumors like that getting back to my grandparents.”
I sighed, but there wasn’t much that I could say to that. She was right—it didn’t make any sense for her to get caught in the middle of Ella’s games. But all the same, I hated that things were like this. “I’m really sorry about Ella,” I said sincerely. “She’s only trying to cause trouble, you know.”
“I know that’s all you think it is,” Abi said. “But either way, trouble is the last thing I need.”
“I know,” I said. We looked at each other for a long moment, neither blinking. I wanted to reach for her, to pull her into my arms and hold her for a moment. I could see the strain, suddenly. The way the weight of the farm was on her shoulders. It wasn’t fair, and I wanted to help out in a
ny way that I could. Originally, I’d selfishly just wanted the farm to do well so she would stick around. But now, I just wanted the farm to do well, for her sake.
It didn’t sound like she was going to let me have any part of that, though.
“Abi, I need all those t-shirts handed out!” Kinsey called over.
Abi jolted, as though she’d forgotten where she was. She looked dumbly down at the shirts in her hand, and then at the sign-up sheet that I was still holding. “Oh, right,” she said faintly, blinking at me. “I guess I have to get back to work.”
“Think about the idea,” was all I said before she turned away.
Chapter 14
Abi
The t-shirts were handed out, and the kiddie pools were sitting at the ready, with a couple of spares in the back room just in case the ones we were using out front happened to spring a leak. The last thing we wanted was to flood the whole bar. Among other things, people would complain if we ruined their leather boots!
“Here,” Kinsey said, handing me a hose. “I think the easiest way to keep the buckets filled is going to be to hook this up in one of the bathrooms. Then we don’t have to run back and forth.”
“Perfect,” I said, already heading towards the bathrooms to do just that. I detoured and grabbed an empty bucket so that I could test out the hose first, in the bathroom, so that I wouldn’t accidentally spray anyone with it when I went to fill the first bucket in the bar.
On the way to the bathroom, I passed Ella and her posse. God, I couldn’t believe the lot of them. They pretended like they were so western, with their bleached hair and their rhinestone jeans. I wanted to drag them out onto a farm and put them to work. See how they would do with that. But they would probably chip a nail and whip out their emery boards right there.
I smiled a little at that mental image. Mason and Ella are so wrong for one another.
The thought came from somewhere deep in my mind, and I couldn’t help blushing at it. Not that it wasn’t true, but it was none of my business. I wasn’t here to play matchmaker. And who might I think was better suited for Mason anyway? Me?
I might be a harder worker than Ella. I might have better character than her, from what I’d heard of her around town. But that didn’t mean I was destined to end up with Mason. I still wasn’t part of this world, no matter how hard I was working to save the family farm. In a couple of months, I’d be right back home in North Carolina, miles and miles away from here and doing very different work.
I sighed, glancing back over my shoulder towards Mason, but I couldn’t see him; from this angle, he was back behind the wall.
Just then, I heard his name.
“Can you believe Mason?” Ella complained to her friends. “He acts like he wouldn’t even care if I was pregnant.”
There was laughter around the table. “Come on, Ella, if you were really pregnant, is this the way you’d be dealing with him?” one of the other girls said.
“Probably not,” Ella admitted, laughing. “But I can tell he’s starting to wonder now. He still talks tough and everything, but I can see it in his eyes. He’s worried that I might actually be pregnant.”
“I’m sure he’s thought all about what you could do to his family if you really were,” one of her friends chirped. “With David and everything, yikes.”
“Screw David,” Ella said, leaning back and folding her arms across her chest. “He’s not even here anymore. I’m sure he’ll hear all about this though. But it’s Ted I’m really pissed at. I can’t believe he settled for that Lauralee.” She said her name like it was a dirty word, and I frowned, wondering what she had against the woman.
When I glanced over at the group, from where I was frozen in the shadowy hallway leading to the bathroom, I could see all the girls nodding their heads in sympathy, and I fought the urge to scoff. I didn’t really know Lauralee; I’d only seen her around town a few times. But she seemed a lot better than Ella, I had to say. She at least looked like she could pull her weight around the farm, and I had a feeling that was important to the Dawson boys. Plus, it wasn’t like Ella had a sparkling clean reputation.
“Anyway, I’m mostly just screwing with Mason’s head,” Ella continued. “Getting under his skin and making him second-guess everything is pretty much worth not drinking at the bar.”
“I think people are starting to think you might actually be pregnant,” one of her friends giggled.
“Hope they don’t look too close,” Ella said, grabbing one of her friends’ drinks and taking a quick sip of it. “Anyway, I’m going to go to the bathroom, then let’s move on. This place is boring, and it’s about to get worse. Who wants to see old guys in a wet t-shirt contest anyway?”
“I don’t know if I want to drive all the way to Milford tonight,” one of the girls groaned.
“Then don’t,” Ella said simply. She was clearly the ringleader of the group, I was coming to realize. She grinned at her friend. “We’ll just take your car and go. We’ll bring it back in the morning.”
There was laughter around the table. “Better not put you in charge of getting the car back, then,” one girl said.
“We all know the only reason you want to go all the way to Milford is so you can get laid without everyone here knowing it!” another girl crowed. She shook her head. “I don’t think everyone would be buying the ‘pregnant’ thing if they knew what you really got up to.”
Again, there was laughter. I didn’t stick around to hear Ella’s retort, though. Instead, I hurried towards the bathroom with the hose and the bucket, realizing that as soon as Ella came this way, she would see me. And the last thing I needed was for her to realize I’d been eavesdropping on her and her friends. When I’d told Mason that I didn’t need to get mixed up in their drama, I’d meant it.
Ella came into the bathroom while I was hooking up the hose and went immediately to the mirror to fix her lip gloss. Midway through, she glanced over at me, and I couldn’t mistake the smirk on her face. “Oh, it’s you,” she said. “You’re Mason’s girlfriend, right?”
“No,” I said shortly.
“Oh, aren’t you interested in him?” she asked in surprise. “You know, he’s quite the catch. But you’re probably just keeping it quiet, aren’t you? What with everything that’s going on with me.”
I whirled on her, unable to stay quiet any longer. “Everything that’s going on with you?” I asked sarcastically. "You mean like pretending you're pregnant so you can stir up trouble?”
“Pretending that I’m pregnant?” Ella asked in mock surprise. Her hand dropped towards her stomach again, and by then I’d had it with her.
“I can’t believe you,” I said in disgust. “Don’t you have any sense of self-respect? The whole town is talking about you, and what do you think is going to happen when they realize that you’re not actually pregnant at all? Or do you plan to milk it for all it’s worth and ‘miscarry’ the baby in a few weeks?”
Ella drew herself up in righteous indignation. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I really am pregnant with Mason’s baby. I know that that’s probably hard for you to swallow because you want to believe that you’re his first and only, but how dare you accuse me of making it all up!”
“Give it up,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I heard you talking to your friends about it. And I saw you swipe one of their drinks. You’re not pregnant.”
Ella stared at me for a long moment. Then, she sneered at me. “Honestly, I don’t really care what you think,” she said. “Or what you think you overheard. This is my town. I don’t care if you’re a Brock. No one’s going to believe you, no matter what you say. Not over me.”
“That’s bullshit,” I said. “Everyone in town knows you’re a slut, and no one really believes you’re pregnant with Mason’s child.” I wanted to clap my hand over my mouth as I heard myself saying those words, but both my hands were busy as I tested the hose in the bucket. Whatever was going on between Ella and I, Kinsey was ready to get the wet t-shirt
contest started. And the sooner it started, the sooner it was over, and I could get out of here and go home.
Ella snarled wordlessly at me. “I’m a slut?” she asked. “Those are big words, coming from you. How long did you wait, after coming to town, before you started sleeping with Mason? You don’t even know him, do you? I bet if I asked you what his favorite food was, you’d have no idea.” She leaned in close, narrowing her eyes at me. “I grew up with the Dawson boys. I know things about them that you’ll never know. And don’t you forget it.”
I stared at her for a long moment and then rolled my eyes. “Sure, whatever,” I said. It was true, I didn’t know things about Mason like his favorite food or his favorite color. There was a lot that we didn’t know about one another. Another reason that a relationship between the two of us would probably never work out. But at the same time, I didn’t think that the things that Ella knew about Mason were worth much of anything.
She wasn’t his friend. And she definitely wasn’t his girlfriend.
Ella seemed satisfied with what she had said to me; she washed her hands and then walked out of the bathroom. I stared down at the hose for a moment, but it was all hooked up now. I shrugged and followed her.
Apparently, Mason had been standing right outside the bathroom door. I frowned when I realized Ella was right there with him. Had he been on his way to the men’s room, or had he been waiting for Ella? But it was neither, if his words were any clue. “You leave Abi alone,” Mason snapped. “If you’re pregnant with my child, whatever, I’ll pay up. But don’t you dare make Abi feel like she’s caught up in this drama.”
“Or you’ll what?” Ella asked sweetly. “Oh Mason, don’t you see? She doesn’t care about you at all. She just told me in the bathroom that she’s not interested in any of the drama. And that she’s happy for me and my baby.”
I stared at her for a long moment. Happy for her and her baby? I hadn’t said anything like that, and she knew it. I shook my head. It apparently was just like Mason said, she was just trying to cause trouble. And I wasn’t going to put up with that.
