by Sophia Gray
Just as she moved to answer the call, though, it ended. As she was debating on calling her father back, a buzz indicated a voicemail. She had deleted all the others without listening, but she played this one, pressing the phone tightly to her ear so Ethan wouldn’t hear anything in the event that he woke up.
“Amelia.” Her father’s voice filled her ear. It had been so long since she’d heard him when he wasn’t shouting or trying to intimidate her. Was it her imagination or did he actually sound contrite? He definitely sounded hesitant. Her resolve melted completely. “I... I just want to talk to you. Please, honey. I’ll be awake. Just...just get in touch with me.”
She listened to the voicemail twice more, thinking of what Penelope had said. “I wouldn’t count on rebuilding that relationship.” But what if she could? This was the longest she’d ever rebelled against him. Maybe he finally understood. She turned the phone in her fingers, thinking hard.
In the end, she didn’t return her father’s call. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was still too frightened that she was going to be disappointed with what he said. Furthermore, she didn’t want Ethan to overhear. Instead, she sent a text.
“I’m in the campground in the Valley of Fire. Can you send a driver?”
“I’ll come myself.” The reply read. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’m so glad you’re willing to talk to me.”
Amelia pulled her clothes on over her pajamas and waited for her ride, sitting in the front of the tent with her arms wrapped around her knees. Her heart ached when she looked over at the large lump under the covers that was Ethan, but she didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t want to marry for convenience any more than she’d wanted to marry for status. Was it too much to ask for someone to simply want her for who she was? For someone to just love her?
# # #
When the car pulled up, she eased out of the tent, walking as quickly as she could while still being quiet. She didn’t want to get caught and she definitely didn’t want a big scene. She couldn’t imagine that she’d be popular among the members of The Angel’s Keepers if she was discovered sneaking out in the cold hours before dawn, especially if they saw her father behind the wheel of the big luxury car.
Amelia slid into the passenger side of the car, looking at her father in the glow of the dashboard lights. He looked haggard and exhausted and his jaw was clenched tightly. This was far from the warm welcome she’d been hoping for and her heart was pounding with nerves. What was he going to say?
“Why were you out all the way out here?” he asked, putting the car in drive and pulling away from the campsite.
“The Angel’s Keepers are here,” she answered. “The whole club. It’s a camping trip to kind of build morale.”
He pulled out his cell phone and tapped out a message, glancing up at the road casually. “Interesting idea. I wouldn’t have thought that they’d have the funds for it.”
“Membership is up. Who are you messaging?” she asked as they pulled out of the lot. Her father hadn’t even looked at her since she’d gotten in the car.
Gregory shoved the phone down into his jacket pocket, care not to let her see. “I’m just letting security know when we’ll be back.”
“You have security now?” That was a new development. The gates had always been enough for her father’s tastes. The thought of additional personnel was frightening rather than comforting. Had they been hired to keep other people out, or to keep her in?
“Yes, I do. It was time to do something a little more than put up a gate. There have been some...issues.” Gregory shook his head and frowned, his tone growing stern. “It’s not anything for you to be concerned with.”
“I’m just worried about you,” she said.
He didn’t reply and his hand kept drifting toward the phone in his pocket, checking and checking again for a reply to his text message. Would he be that concerned with getting the okay from security? Would a reply from a security guard even take that long? The car jounced along over the rough edge of the road the fourth time he looked down at the phone and Amelia tightened her grip on the seat belt.
“Can you slow down, please?” she asked, her voice wavering a bit.
“I wouldn’t imagine you’d have a problem with my driving after running off on a motorcycle,” Gregory said. He eased up on the accelerator and put the car into cruise control, though. “Is that better?”
“It’s fine.” Amelia closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the buttery leather headrest of her father’s Lincoln.
Had she really thought that he’d sounded contrite on the phone? She should have known that it was only another one of his tricks. Maybe she could sleep until they got home. Anything to keep herself from crying.
Amelia was half asleep when she heard her father’s cell phone ring. She was just wondering who would be calling him at this hour when she heard him curse viciously under his breath. She heard a rustle as he raised the phone to his ear.
“I told you not to call!” he snapped in a low voice. “Not now!”
It was so surprising to hear that tone in his voice that it was a struggle to keep her eyes closed. He was usually so controlled with other people. She felt him glance at her and she tried to stay relaxed. If he knew she was awake, he’d disconnect.
The voice at the other end of the line was tinny but recognizable. It was the same man who had been shouting in Gregory’s office before she’d left with Ethan. Something Miller, she thought.
“Make time,” Miller demanded. “We need to move and we need to move now. We’ll go through you if we can’t get around.”
“I told you I’d have new information and I will,” Gregory said roughly. “Give me two hours and don’t forget I’ve got more power in this situation than you do.”
Gregory threw his phone into the cup holder and Amelia pretended to stir at the loud sound. “What was that?” she asked, making her voice as groggy as possible.
“Don’t worry about it, Amelia. It’s not your concern,” he said, biting off each word with a snap. “Go back to sleep.”
The car surged forward again. Two hours would be just enough to get them back home. She couldn’t pretend that the new information didn’t have something to do with her; it was all much too convenient. Her heart began to pound again and she knew without a doubt that she’d made a huge mistake. And the worst part was that she had no idea how to fix it.
# # #
“Dad?” Amelia asked as she walked into the house. There had been two guards at the gate and two in the hallway. She wondered how many more were scattered around the grounds. She also wondered what had frightened her father so badly. “Can we talk for a little bit?”
“Not now, Amelia,” he answered, glancing down at his cell phone. He’d barely had it out of his sight since that phone call that had made him so angry when they were leaving the Valley of Fire. “I’ve got a lot of work to do today and that drive out to pick you up took up more time than I thought it would. I expected you to be at Ethan’s house.” Gregory frowned at her, obviously annoyed that she wasn’t where he’d planned for her to be.
“Well, I wasn’t. Andyour message said you wanted to talk,” she reminded him, holding her ground.
He turned to face her, sighing impatiently. “I wanted to talk about you having some sense and coming back home. Now you have, so there’s nothing left to say to you. Why don’t you go up to your room and get some sleep?”
Amelia couldn’t do anything but stare as he turned away and went into his office. He’d basically just sent her to her room. Her feet carried her upstairs and she automatically went into her bedroom. It was exactly as she’d left it. The maid had been keeping it vacuumed and dusted and the sheets and white down comforter were fresh and clean.
The bathroom was sparkling, too, and she turned the shower on, letting the hot water run until it steamed up the clean glass. Maybe she could steam herself clean of the way it felt to be rejected yet again. Although, to fair, Ethan hadn’
t rejected her. He wanted to marry her. He wanted to take care of her.
Amelia poured body wash into her bath pouf and began scrubbing a little harder than she really needed to. That was part of the problem. She didn’t want Ethan thinking that sheneeded him.
She wanted them to be on equal ground so she would know he wanted her, not just that he felt responsible for her. In short, she wanted him to want her like she wanted him. Not just for sex. Not just to make raising a child easier, if such a thing was even possible. But for anything and everything else that came along.
Aubrey had said life hardly ever worked out the way a person planned. Amelia paused in her scrubbing, wondered if she’d really ever planned anything in her own life. Other than losing her virginity, that is.
If she was completely honest, she had to admit she hadn’t. She tended to just let things happen to her. Her father didn’t want her to work, so she simply let him pay her way. Ethan had wanted her to go back home with him once he found out about the baby, so she’d gone home with him to get away from her father. And now she was back at her father’s house to get away from Ethan. And she was supposed to be an adult.
So what did she really want to do? She let the hot water pound down on the very center of her head as she tried to think. She wanted to work, to help people. Now more than ever, she thought she’d be the perfect candidate for a crisis pregnancy center or a job in some kind of women’s health field.
She didn’t want to be just “State Rep. Stratton’s daughter.” She wanted to stand on her own two feet financially. She wanted freedom.
And she wouldn’t get it here. Amelia reached out and turned the water off with a quick flick of her wrist. Maybe life wouldn’t always work out according to plan, but having a plan was a good start.
Once she was dry and dressed, she began to pack. She’d call Aubrey once she was done and ready for yet another fight with her father.
Chapter 25
Ethan
Ethan woke up when a shaft of sunlight plunged through the thin material of the tent. Damn it, he’d set an alarm and, apparently, it hadn’t gone off. He’d planned to take Amelia back out to watch the sun rise. He rubbed his hands over his face tiredly and rolled over, reaching out to pull her close and apologize for his phone not waking them up.
But she wasn’t there. His hand met only empty sheets when he reached for her for the second time in their relationship. He sat up so fast that his head spun.
“Amelia?”
She didn’t answer. A thousand scenarios ran through his head. She could have been attacked by something, either human or animal. Maybe she’d gotten up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and she’d gotten lost. Maybe she was just gone.
He shut the thoughts down, grabbed his jeans and yanking them on. He jerked the shirt he’d worn yesterday on, as well, because he didn’t want to take the time to dig through his bag for anything. He didn’t even bother to tie his boots before he grabbed his cell phone and prepared to duck out of the tent.
Ethan went still when he saw the text message notification. It was from Amelia and it was several hours old. He opened the message, not sure that he really wanted to see what it had to say.
I’m sorry, Ethan. I can’t marry you. I’ll keep you up to date about the baby, but I need some time. Please don’t contact me.
The volume of his phone had been turned down before it was sent. That was why he hadn’t heard his alarm. She’d left him in the middle of the night and she’d been very careful not to give him any kind of warning.
His pulse rate kicked up as a mixture of anger and disbelief poured through his blood. Was this really how she was ending things? After the night they’d had? Yeah, there hadn’t been any sex, but he’d felt closer to her than he ever had, falling asleep with her in his arms, feeling like they were finally getting onto the same page together.
She’d gotten along with everyone she’d interacted with at the campground. She’d snuggled back against him out in the desert, answering his questions and asking her own. There hadn’t been a single thing that had gone wrong. At least, not that he knew of. There’d obviously been something. Apparently, he wasn’t ever going to figure out what the hell it was because she couldn’t bring herself to talk to him like an adult.
The anger stretched its wings, expanding by leaps and bounds, and Ethan let it grow. Hell, he fed it. Anything to drown the rising tides of hurt and pain that were trying their best to consume him now that the first shock was gone. She wanted to go? To sneak off without saying anything or trying to work things out? Fine.
He didn’t need someone that childish in his life. His whole goddamned life would be much simpler without her in it. He could eat mustard again. He could...he couldn’t think of anything else that Amelia interfered with, so Ethan worked hard to convince himself he’d missed the freedom of being single.
He could have a different woman tonight if he wanted one. Ethan swallowed hard, ignoring the distaste he felt from the thought of going to bed with someone besides Amelia. Or maybe it would be good just to stretch out in his own bed and be alone in his house. It would be quiet. Not that Amelia’s chatter had ever bugged him.
The place wouldn’t smell like her anymore. When they’d gone shopping she’d bought a flowery smelling body wash that made the bathroom and bedroom smell unmistakably feminine. He hadn’t thought he’d like it; he certainly hadn’t expected to miss it. He also hadn’t expected to like the scent of the small candle she’d put on the nightstand, the one that smelled that marshmallows and a campfire. Or the laundry detergent that she’d asked for, the one that was supposed to smell like some kind of meadow. But he did.
He liked the scents she brought to his life. And the colors. And the sounds. How was he supposed to go back home and be surrounded by all those things when she wasn’t there?
Ethan shoved those thoughts away, too. No. She could have talked to him, but she’d taken the easy way out. Even if he wanted to track her down again, how could he be with her now that he knew he would never know what she was really thinking and planning? The short answer was he couldn’t. He didn’t expect her to share her every thought with him, but he damn sure would have wanted a heads up about this.
She’d mentioned the baby. He made a mental note to try to find a lawyer. A good one. That Anthony guy was a lawyer, too. If she went back to him, he might be screwed. Of course, he might be anyway because she knew a hell of a lot more about the political world than he did. But that wouldn’t keep him from his kid.
Ethan rolled the sheets and blanket into a ball and stuffed them down into the bag. Then he deflated the air mattress. The club was supposed to stay another night, and he hoped that they did, but he couldn’t do it. Not with everyone looking at him and asking where Amelia had gone. That ignited his anger all over again. She’d left him holding the bag, trying to explain her behavior when she wouldn’t even explain it herself.
The rest of the people in the campground were staggering to life, some heading to the showers, some having morning cigarettes, and others starting to brew coffee cowboy style as Ethan began to break down his tent.
“What’s going on?” Ryan asked him.
The road captain was the most awake out of all of them and he’d clearly just come back from a run. It was the kind of energy Ethan tended to envy, especially today. He felt exhausted and about fifty years older than his actual age.
“Uh, I’m packing up,” he answered, concentrating more than he really needed to.
“Is Amelia okay?”
For a second, Ethan wanted to lie. He wanted to say she’d gotten sick in the night and he’d called someone in to take her back. But what was the point? Whatever had been between them was broken now and he needed to put that out there. Otherwise who knew how tempted he’d be to take her back?
“She left last night,” he said shortly. “I think that she went back home, but she didn’t really say.”
Ryan’s face went slack with shock for just a se
cond and then he pulled it back together. “Jesus, are you serious?”
“Yeah,” Ethan answered. “I am.”
“Shit,” Taylor said from the other side, shielding his lighter with his hand as he joined them. “You think she was just here to get some dirt?”
“I honestly don’t have a fucking clue,” Ethan said, yanking the stakes out of the ground. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I don’t think she was, though,” Penelope said.
“Yeah, but we don’t know that, babe,” Taylor said. “She could have--”
“She’s running,” Penelope cut in. “Because she’s been hurt.”
“I didn’t do a damn thing to her!” Ethan said more vehemently than he had planned.
“Okay, but maybe somebody else did,” Penelope said, her hand tightening on Taylor’s. “It’s hard to believe that things can be good if they’ve been bad for a long damn time.”
