Expelled

by Claire Adams

  We kept up the easy banter all the way to the restaurant, just enjoying each other’s company. We’d slept together every night since that first time, and it was nice to be out together. It made our relationship seem more real, even if it was brand new.

  We parked around back of the steakhouse and walked inside, Cash holding the door open for me. The hostess sat us at a table for two and left us with our menus. The waiter arrived before we really got a chance to look it over, so we ordered a few drinks—beer for Cash and white wine for me—to buy us a bit more time to decide on dinner.

  “This is nice,” I said, scanning the restaurant. It was busy, every table taken that I could see, mostly with couples, the guys in jeans and nice shirts and the women in dresses. We fit right in.

  He was watching me with those green eyes, the look in them unreadable. He spent about as much time inside his own head as I did in mine. Maybe that was why we got along so well. We didn’t always have to be talking since we spent so much time observing the world around us.

  “I’ve really enjoyed my time here,” I said, keeping my eyes on him, taking note of every freckle and change of expression on his open, attractive face. “I don’t usually stay so long in one place for research, but I knew before I left the city that I’d need more than just a few weeks out here. It’s so different than any place I’ve been, besides maybe Japan.” I smiled when he did. “And I like it out here. It’s beautiful and quiet. You can really think. And I learned how to ride a horse!”

  “That you did,” he said, and though he was still smiling, he looked sad too, mostly around the eyes. “But you’re planning to leave in a few weeks. October is right around the corner. Have you thought about what you’re going to do? Have you done all the research you needed?”

  The short answer was yes. The long answer was that I’d done way more than what I needed to do while I was here and had no business staying for even one more day. But it wasn’t that simple. I wanted to stay, and not just because I found the West beautiful.

  I let the waiter set our drinks down and take our orders before I answered Cash’s series of loaded questions.

  “I’m not really sure what I want to do,” I said, sighing out my frustrations. “This research trip is different from any of the others I’ve taken. It’s become about more than just what I was out here to do. I like what we have, and I want to see where things will go, but it’s just too new to make any grand decisions right this second, you know?”

  He nodded, keeping his eyes on me and not even considering his beer. I hadn’t touched my wine either. I didn’t want to look away from him for a moment. Every second felt so precious, as though we’d be wrenched away from each other at any time. I knew I was the one who was in control, ultimately. It was my plane ticket east that would pull us apart. And it was my choice when I would leave. It was way too much pressure.

  “I understand that,” he said, finally. “And I know your life ain’t out here in Wyoming, same as mine ain’t out east where you’re from. I’m happy to see where we are when it’s time for you to leave in October.”

  I took a sip of my wine, relishing the taste after so long without it. I didn’t know why I never picked any up at the store. Cash didn’t drink much, so I just never thought about it. He clearly wasn’t opposed to it.

  “I think I could stay a few weeks past October. Just to see the cold months, you know? It would be good for my research.”

  He smiled, his face lighting up and eyes shining. It was hard to look at him without jumping over the table and putting my hands and lips on him. His attractiveness had a gravitational pull.

  “That sounds just fine to me.”

  I smiled because he was, but I knew how much trouble I was in. I had no idea how I was going to get on a plane at the end of this adventure and go home, not now that I knew how amazing it was to be with this man.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Cash

  The Next Morning

  I was on my way out the door to get my morning started, the taste of Hailey’s sweet mouth still on my lips, when the phone rang. I ran for it with dread settling heavily into my gut, already knowing who it would be.

  “Hello?”

  “Cash, it’s Dad.”

  I held my breath, waiting for the news I’d been expecting since the last time he called. I’d talked to my mama once or twice since then, but Dad never called unless it was bad. They’d been in Colorado all this time, taking care of things as they presented themselves. Uncle Rog had gone home, but he was weak and needed constant care that his children weren’t prepared to give. Mama had been a nurse before she retired, and she’d been shouldering the better part of the responsibilities for her brother-in-law while Dad took care of getting Uncle Rog’s affairs in order ahead of the inevitable. No one was under any illusions about Uncle Rog making a full recovery. He’d gone home under hospice care. The idea was to make him comfortable until the end came.

  “Uncle Rog passed this morning. He went peacefully in his sleep.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad,” I said.

  “He’s in a better place now, son.” He heaved a deep sigh. “He wasn’t doing too well at the end. I’m glad he’s at peace now.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that.

  “We have an appointment out at the funeral home later this afternoon. We’re looking at setting the service for Thursday evening.”

  That was in three days.

  “I’ll book my ticket, get Eric up to the farm to take care of things, and fly out today,” I said.

  “Let us know when you’ll get in so we can pick you up from the airport.”

  “I will.”

  “Your mom sends her love,” Dad said. “We’ll see you soon.”

  “Bye, Dad,” I replied, and put the phone back in its cradle.

  I looked up to find Hailey in the doorway, just like last time. She was dressed in one of my oversized T-shirts, her curly blonde hair pulled back away from her tiny face and glasses not sliding down her nose for once, her open expression full of honest concern for me.

  “Is it your uncle?” she asked in a whisper.

  When I nodded, she entered the kitchen and gave me a hug, crushing her sweet-smelling body to mine. For once in the last two weeks, the feeling of her close to me wasn’t getting me aroused. I just closed my eyes, pressing my face into her hair, and enjoyed the comfort of her closeness.

  “I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “What can I do?”

  I looked down at her, ending our hug. “I have to fly out today to Colorado.” A thought occurred to me. “Shit, I need to call Eric right now before he leaves for work.” I actually had some time. It wasn’t even 6 o’clock yet. I’d been dragging a little the last couple days out of reluctance to leave my bed when Hailey was in it, so it wasn’t as early as it should have been.

  I picked up the phone and dialed Eric’s number. Unlike me, he had a cell phone, and I knew he kept it right by his bed. It took him several rings to pick up.

  “Hello?” His voice was muffled with sleep.

  “Eric, it’s Cash,” I said. Hailey was standing right next to me, her blue eyes watchful.

  “What’s going on?” He still sounded half-asleep. He wasn’t a morning person. Without at least two cups of coffee in him, he was useless. “Is it the farm?”

  “My uncle passed away,” I said, and didn’t give him time to respond. “I need to leave today. I can take care of feeding and watering the animals this morning before I go. Can you take it from there?” I’d only need him to put them away for the night and then care for them in the morning again. I’d given them a full grooming yesterday and was thankful for that. It took a few hours to get through all the horses. He’d only need to brush them down occasionally while I was gone. He could show Hailey how to do that too to give her more fodder for her book.

  “Yeah, of course. How quickly do you need me out there?”

  “Tonight’s fine. Might take you longer tomorrow. I’m not sure how long I
’ll be gone. Service is on Thursday.”

  “I’ll take the rest of the week off,” he said. “I’ll see you when you get back. Call if you need anything.”

  “Will do. Thanks, Eric.”

  “Sure thing.”

  I hung up the phone and turned back to Hailey, who’d been there watching me in silence the whole time.

  “Do you want me to go with you?” she asked, eyes wide behind her glasses. It was dark in here. The sun was taking longer to rise in the morning the deeper we got into fall. The kitchen smelled like the flowery soap she used and the pot of coffee I’d put on after first getting up.

  I almost told her to come—it might be a comfort to have her there—but my family had a way of chasing off outsiders. We were close-knit and not too interested in adding to our ranks. Not that we weren’t friendly, just that this wasn’t the time to introduce my parents to a new girlfriend. It would be stressful enough as it was. My mama would be happy to see I’d found someone until I mentioned that she was from three thousand miles away. That would cause another avalanche of questions about who she was and where she’d come from and why I hadn’t told anyone she was staying with me. My cousins were all sorts of nosey, and they loved to talk behind a person’s back. I didn’t want to expose Hailey to all of that just yet, if ever.

  “Nah, it’s probably best you don’t come,” I said with a sigh, rubbing the back of my neck. “It’ll just be a quick trip, and you’ll be questioned to death by my family if I show up with you.”

  She rose up onto her bare tiptoes to give me another hug, this time kissing me tenderly on the neck. “I’m really sorry for your loss, Cash.”

  I gave her a weak smile. “My uncle wouldn’t have wanted this to be a sad time. He was a really great guy who loved to laugh and have fun with us kids. He’d want us to throw him a party, to have music and dancing instead of people sitting around crying onto their sad plates of food.”

  “Do you want me to book your flight online?” she asked, lifting her thin eyebrows. “That way you can have everything ready to go when you get to the airport.”

  “That’d be great.” I had no idea that was even a thing. I’d just planned to arrive at the airport with my bags and buy the next ticket out of town. Eric would probably laugh to hear that.

  “Where do you need to fly into?” she asked.

  “Denver would be the best. It’s only a short drive to Uncle Rog’s.”

  She nodded. “You go do what you need to do with the horses, and I’ll get your flight taken care of.”

  I dropped a nod, and she took off in the direction of the guest room. I hustled outside to free the horses from their stalls and get them into the corral. I’d planned to put them out in the pastureland, but this would make it easier for Eric to round them up after work. I fed and watered them and then did the same for the cows. I mucked out the stalls as quickly as I could and then laid down fresh hay to save Eric the trouble tonight. Once all that was done, I hurried back inside for a quick shower, then packed a suitcase with everything I’d need for the next few days.

  Hailey met me in the living room. She handed me two sheets of paper.

  “The top one is your itinerary. You fly out in three hours, which should give you plenty of time to make it if you leave right now.”

  I nodded, looking it over. I switched sheets to look at what was on the second one. I looked up at her, confused.

  “That’s your boarding pass. Since it looks like you only have a carry-on, you don’t even need to stop at the check-in counter. Just go straight to the gate.”

  I grinned. “You can do that?”

  She smiled too, looking radiant, her messy hair still wild and eyes half lidded from how tired she was. “Yep. Now get on your way, cowboy. You don’t want to miss your flight.”

  I took her in my arms and kissed her long and deep, just wanting the taste of her to last me for the days I’d be in Colorado with my family.

  “Thank you, Hailey,” I said.

  “Call me when you get in, or I’ll worry.” She looked worried already.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  She smiled at that, and I had to grab my bag and walk away to keep from kissing her again. I left the house and climbed into my truck. She waved from the porch, looking small and beautiful in my T-shirt and nothing else. I waved back and then turned the truck around in the dirt driveway to get on my way.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Hailey

  A Few Days Later, Late September

  I forgot how much fun Eric was to hang out with, but over the few days Cash was away for the funeral, we got a chance to pal around quite a bit on the farm, him showing me all the chores that had to be done in order to keep things up and running. It gave me a real appreciation of how much work Cash had to do, and it was invaluable for my research. The weather had been extremely warm, unseasonably so, to hear Eric talk, so we’d been riding just about every day after the work was done, exploring the trails around the ranch that I hadn’t seen before. We were out enjoying ourselves now, Eric on Lettie and me on my old boy Buck, who seemed to be well used to me.

  “Cash seems okay,” I told Eric as we went along. “I’ve talked to him a few times on the phone since he left and it seems like he feels good about the funeral and how it was handled. It was uplifting, to hear him describe it. I think that’s all he wanted, to remember his uncle the way he was, not the way the last few painful weeks were for him.” I was happy for Cash. He’d so wanted a celebration of his uncle’s life, not a depressing affair full of woe and crying. I could understand that fully.

  “That’s good,” Eric said, looking over at me as a sly smile spread across his face.

  “What are you smiling about?” I asked, smiling myself.

  “I’m just happy for Cash, too.”

  We were turning back towards the ranch now. Cash was due to be home this afternoon. I’d wanted to meet him at the airport, but he’d left his car parked in the lot, so there was no real reason to drive there as well. I just wanted to see him as soon as I could, even if it only shaved an hour off the waiting time.

  “What do you mean?”

  “That y’all two are dating and getting to know each other better,” he replied.

  My cheeks turned red by what he was implying.

  “You know, I invited you out here to stay without even asking Cash.” Now he was smiling like the devil he was, those dark eyes glittering in the ample sunlight.

  My jaw dropped open, and he gave a full-throated laugh. “What?”

  “Yep. I just wanted to get our old boy out of his shell. And I hoped a beautiful, intelligent, sweet woman would be the one to answer the ad. And here you are.”

  I frowned, the color rushing back into my cheeks at how I was just a piece in Eric’s game, but then Cash was too, and we never would have met if it hadn’t been for Eric putting together this ridiculous scheme. That explained why Cash had seemed so put out when I arrived. And why he’d been frosty for the first week or two to the point of not even wanting to look at me. I’d been an intrusion on his life, but he’d been too much of a gentleman to tell me to leave after Eric arranged for me to stay.

  “You are really a piece of work,” I said with a laugh. “No wonder Cash seemed so standoffish the first time we met.”

  “Yeah, he nearly tore me a new one when I went inside with him!”

  We both laughed hard at the memory. At the end of it, I was wiping away tears.

  “Well, it turned out alright, didn’t it?” he said. The wind had ruffled his blond hair, and the way it was lying all over his forehead gave me a glimpse into what he must’ve looked like as a kid. He had a baby face attached to a man’s lean, muscular body. Put all that together with his sharp sense of humor, and he had to be popular with the ladies.

  “It did work out. And I might just use your scheme in one of my books.”

  “Well, just remember to make my character the hero, not Cash.”

  We laughed again as we rode b
ack to the ranch, the horses trotting towards the stables where a good brushing was waiting for them. I was getting excited to see Cash and had a great dinner planned for just the two of us. It felt like years since we’d seen each other.

  We brought the horses around to the corral and climbed off of them.

  “I’ll take care of these beauties if you’ve got things you need to worry over in the house,” Eric said.

  He’d been so kind to me and to Cash over the last few days, taking time off work to take care of things on the ranch and keep me company.

  I pulled him close to me and gave him a long hug. He seemed surprised at first before putting his arms around me as well.

  “Thanks for everything, Eric.”

  He turned to kiss me tenderly on the cheek, his warm mouth lingering a little too long.

  A cleared throat from behind caused us to spring apart.

  Cash was standing just in front of the house, hands on his hips, face screwed up in a nasty frown, and green eyes shooting fire our way. He wasn’t supposed to have been home for at least another hour.

  Eric looked from Cash to me, the concern apparent in his dark eyes. “I best be on my way,” he said. “Give a holler if you need anything else, Cash.”

  But Cash didn’t really answer unless grunting noncommittally was an answer.

  Eric watched him a moment before telling me goodbye and walking out to his truck. As he drove away, I started walking over to where Cash was standing stock still by the porch.

  “Can we talk inside?” he asked, the ice in his voice knocking the tentative smile off my face.

  He seemed extremely upset, too upset to even give me a hug. Maybe everything he’d said about the funeral being uplifting had just been for show. It looked like his trip had affected him a lot more than he’d expected. My heart hurt for him at the thought. I knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. I’d been planning a fun night with dinner and some sexy lingerie I’d bought in town, but that could wait. It might be better to let him talk through his feelings tonight, just to process them without the pressure of expecting him to act normally.