Brides on the Run (Books 1-4): Small-Town Romance Series

by Jami Albright

  “Do you have any?”

  She shook her head. “Not with me. I’ll take some at home.”

  He removed the towel from his shoulders. “We should leave and get you some medicine.”

  “No. I’m fine.” She opened the cooler he’d brought and pulled out a bottle of water. “I’m probably just dehydrated.” Her gaze roamed from his wet head to his bare feet. “Unlike some people.”

  “Hardy-har.”

  Lottie squealed, and Walter barked. “Besides, she’s having a blast. I don’t want to cut her time short.”

  He couldn’t do anything but stare. He knew some mothers put the wants and needs of their children above their own, unlike his own mother. She’d followed right along when his dad had offered her drugs.

  According to Clyde, his daughter hadn’t cared about anything except Beau’s dad and her next hit. The old man would die again if he knew he’d spoken those words out loud. A gallbladder surgery and pain medication had loosened his tongue, and he’d shared the long-kept secret. Beau’s fifteen-year-old self hadn’t quite known how to process that little tidbit.

  Truth be told, the twenty-eight-year-old man still didn’t know what to do with the information.

  “What?” She wiped her hand over her mouth. “Do I have something on my face?”

  “No.” He glanced out at the lake then back to Hailey’s whiskey eyes. “Lottie’s lucky to have you.”

  The flush started at the base of her neck and raced to her cheeks. She looped a piece of hair behind her ear and ducked her head. “I’m lucky to have her.”

  He hitched his thumb over his shoulder. “That little dog-napper is one hell of a kid. And despite being married to Derek, I’m pretty sure you did that all by yourself.”

  She shrugged and ducked her head again.

  “Don’t be embarrassed. You deserve the credit. You only have to meet the guy once to know what he’s about. Besides, I heard what he said about a paternity test.” He shook his head. “How did someone as great as you end up with someone as awful as him?”

  “Well, that is a story.” She pulled at a piece of grass next to the blanket. “I was young. Charlie and I were sneaking around with the Odom boys. Hank was three years older than us and Derek was two. It was exciting. He was hot and popular, and he wanted me.” More grass was plucked from the ground. “After Charlie left, I was kind of lost. I had a lot of free time on my hands.” She shrugged. “He didn’t force me to have sex with him. I was crazy in love with him. I wanted to give him that, but I hardly knew what was going on.” She chuckled, but it sounded wrong. “No wonder I got pregnant.”

  “Hailey, you don’t have to tell me…”

  “No, it’s fine.” She released the air in her lungs. “Anyway, it was only years later that I realized how he’d manipulated me. He said he had needs, and if I couldn’t meet them, he’d find someone who would.” She held a piece of grass up and let the wind take it. “That was probably the beginning of the end. When I finally saw it for what it was, I was furious with him, with myself, with the whole damn world.”

  “And the other women?” Every bite of food he’d eaten threatened to come back up. She’d been used and discarded. It made him sick.

  One shoulder jerked up. “I don’t really know. It could’ve been just the one time with Ariel, but my gut tells me it was from the beginning. I have no proof though. And nobody in town would’ve told me because they all thought I deserved it.” She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Stupid, petty, small town.”

  “Why don’t you leave? You could move to Austin and still run the bar. It wouldn’t be convenient, but you could make it work.”

  “I used to dream of getting out of Zachsville. I had a journal full of pictures of all the places where I would travel. I gave it to Lottie. Maybe she’ll be able to go to those places for both of us.” The upward tilt of her lips missed the mark by a mile. “This is where I belong.”

  He didn’t buy that bullshit for one minute. This was what she thought she deserved. That was clear as day, but it wasn’t his place to point it out. She wasn’t ready to hear it, and judging by the set of her jaw, she may never be ready.

  Sometimes you’re in prison for so long that it begins to feel like home. And Hailey Odom was right at home in a prison of her own making.

  “Whoa.” Hailey waved her hands in front of her face. “TMI.” The chuckle that she pushed from her throat sounded forced in the quiet afternoon. “Let’s talk about something else besides me and my sad story.” How had he gotten her to say all that stuff? One thing you learned being public enemy number one was to keep your personal life personal. You never knew who would turn on you and use that information against you.

  She glanced at Lottie sitting under a nearby tree. Walter sprawled beside her as she scratched behind his ears and carried on a one-sided conversation with him. “Besides, it’s not all sad.”

  “She is somethin’.”

  “Yes, she is.” She lay back on the blanket with her arm over her forehead. “Your turn.”

  He twisted to one hip and rested his arm on his bent knee. “Not much to tell. You know about my parents and Clyde. I did a little professional steer wrestling until I screwed up my knee. And now I’m here in Zachsville because a cousin I didn’t know I had heard me sing and wanted to sign me to a record deal.”

  “You rodeoed? That’s kind of hot.” It was so stinkin’ hot. Wait until she told Charlie.

  He threw his head back and laughed. “It’s hard as shit, exhausting, dirty, and fun as hell, but I don’t know about hot.”

  “I bet you had all the buckle bunnies chasin’ after you,” she teased, and hoped he didn’t hear the curiosity too.

  He shrugged. “One or two.”

  It was her turn to laugh. “I bet more than one or two.”

  The grin he shot her could probably impregnate a weaker woman. “Maybe. I’m not very good at math.” Little girl giggles peeled through the air. They glanced over to where Lottie and the dog still rested under the tree. “Guess Walter said something funny.”

  “Guess so.” She chuckled. “Did you win when you steer wrestled?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you make money?”

  “Yeah, I did. I saved all of it. It was going to be my nest egg when I went to Nashville to try to get a record deal.”

  “Then the record deal came to you.”

  He shook his head like he still couldn’t believe it. “It did. And even though I had to wait a year to take Jack up on the offer, it’s still the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m so grateful.”

  “Why’d you have to wait?”

  “Clyde was dying, and I wouldn’t leave him.”

  Loyalty. This man understood the meaning of the word. Maybe that’s why they got along so well. She turned to her side and rested her head in her hand. “I’m sure he appreciated that.”

  “Then you’d be wrong.” He snorted. “He was mad as a wet hen.”

  “Why?”

  “He’d wanted me to be a country music star since the first time I picked up a guitar. He thought I was wasting a chance.” He moved his hair out of his face. “I wasn’t, but I couldn’t get that through his thick head. Jack, Gavin, and Luanne let me sign the contract, and we cut two songs, just to shut him up.”

  A little line of jealousy for what he’d had with Clyde wound around her heart. “He sounds like he was a character.”

  “He was.” Sadness clouded his expressive eyes. “I miss the hell out of him.”

  “It’s hard when you lose that one person who’s always in your corner.” Another thing they had in common.

  “It is. How long ago did your mom pass?”

  She knew the same sadness she’d seen in his eyes now swam in hers. “Not quite two years ago.”

  “You’re very loyal to her memory. She must’ve been a great mother.”

  Hailey nodded. “She was, but not in the traditional sense. Sh
e wasn’t the warm, cookie-baking, boo-boo kissing kind of mother, but she was there for me when no one else was.”

  “When you got pregnant?”

  She traced the design of the old blanket with her forefinger. “Yeah, she sheltered me from the ugliness going on in the town.”

  “Sheltered you?”

  “I was terrified of going back to high school.” She made herself meet his eyes. “You can’t imagine the things that were being said to my face and behind my back.”

  “That’s such bullshit. It was a stupid football game.”

  She shrugged. “Bullshit or not, it’s what was happening. My mom told me I could work at Boon’s, get my GED, so I never had to go back into that environment again. She saved me.”

  “And your dad?”

  The bitter edge of her humorless snort cut through the air. “My dad was totally against it, said I needed to finish school. He just wanted to throw me to the wolves.” Beau didn’t say anything, but the wrinkle between his eyes indicated he was thinking about something. “What?”

  “Nothin’.”

  She pushed up to a sitting position. “Doesn’t look like nothing.”

  “I hate that that happened to you. But…”

  “But what?” Where was he going with this?

  “I don’t know. Maybe if you’d gone back to school instead of hiding out at the bar, you wouldn’t still feel like you had so much to prove now.”

  What the hell? “I wasn’t hiding out, Beau. I was protecting myself.”

  He held his hands up like he was giving up. “Okay. I get it. Ignore me.”

  She stood and grabbed their bag. “I will. It’s getting late. We should go.”

  His long body unfurled from his sitting position and he took a step into her space. “Hay—”

  “No. I’m done talking.” The volcano threatening to go off in her chest made her voice shake. She turned to Lottie and the dog. “It’s time to go, Lottie.”

  “Awwww,” Lottie whined and came to stand next to them. “Can’t we stay a little longer?”

  “No, we need to get home. Tell Beau thank you.” Her headache was back, but this time she knew the cause, and she refused to meet his questioning gaze.

  Her kid, who hadn’t gotten the memo that they were mad at Beau, threw her arms around his waist. “Thank you, Beau. It was the bestest day.”

  He grinned down at his admirer and wiggled the hat on her head. “Anytime, Lil’ Bit.”

  “Woohoo!” Lottie punched the air. “You’re awesome, Beau. Isn’t he awesome, Mom?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Hailey had to put an end to the Beau Callen fan club. “Lottie, you and Walter go on to the truck.”

  “Okay! Race you, Walter.” The two took off toward the vehicle.

  “Hailey.”

  Her finger went to within an inch of his face. “You listen to me, Beau Callen. Even though it appears that you’ve got my life all figured out, you don’t know me. You live one day of my life, then you can pass judgment on me. Until then, keep your opinions to yourself.” She marched toward the truck. Her reaction was so far over the top it was ridiculous, and she didn’t want to examine the reason why.

  She was pretty sure she wouldn’t like what she saw if she did.

  Chapter 19

  A fist pounding on wood roused him from a dead sleep, but it was the panicked voice yelling his name that had him yanking on his pants and running for the door. He opened it to a red-faced, crying Lottie.

  She grabbed his hand and tugged. “Beau! You have to help her. She’s dying.”

  He knelt to get on her level. The cobwebs in his brain made it hard to unscramble what she was saying. “Slow down, Lottie. Who’s dying?”

  “My mom,” came out on a big shuddering breath. “She’s sick. She says she’s dying.”

  “Hang on.” He grabbed a t-shirt and shoved his bare feet into a pair of boots. “Let’s go.”

  They ran into the house, and Lottie led him to the bedroom where a pale, sweaty-faced Hailey lay in a messy nest of covers. Beau would’ve thought she was dead if weren’t for the moaning, and her head rolling from side to side.

  The smell of sickness slammed into him. It immediately transported him back to Clyde’s bedroom, where the stench of impending death circulated in the air like ravenous, black vultures gathering for a meal. He forced oxygen in and out of his lungs and willed himself to hold it together for the little girl next to him. He’d have his moment of grief later when he’d taken care of Hailey and her daughter.

  “Lottie, do you know how to call May?”

  The worried little girl didn’t take her eyes off her mom. “Yes.”

  “Go call her.” He took her shoulders and turned her away from the picture of Hailey in the bed. “Go call May and ask her if she can come to get you ready for school, then drive you there.”

  She grabbed his forearms. “But my mom—”

  “Will be fine. We might have to make a quick trip to the clinic, though.”

  “Okay.” Little fingernails dug into his flesh. “Don’t let her die.”

  “Lottie, she’s not dying, but I bet she feels like she is. I’ll take care of her.”

  Thin arms went around his waist, and she buried her face in his side. “Thank you, Beau.”

  “It’s going to be alright, darlin’. You did the right thing by coming to get me.” He ran his hand over her riot of dark curls. “Go call May, then get ready for school.”

  After Lottie left the room, Beau went into the bathroom to get a washcloth. He ran it under cold water, then went to Hailey’s bedside. “Hailey.” He gently shook her shoulder. “Hailey, I’m here.”

  Her bleary eyes cracked open just a tad. It either took her a minute to recognize him or for him to come into focus because she blinked several times before she spoke. “Beau? What are you doing here?”

  He laid his palm on her forehead. Her skin was on fire. He replaced his hand with the cold rag, and she sighed. “Lottie came to get me. She thought you were dying.”

  She grasped at his shirt but didn’t have the strength to get a good grip. “I am. Take care of Lottie. Don’t let Derek and Ariel have her.” Tears streamed from her glassy eyes into her hair.

  “Hey, it’s alright.” He took her limp hand in his.

  “No, it’s not. I’m so sorry I was mean to you yesterday after you were so nice to us. I’m a terrible person. I deserve to die.”

  “You’re not dying, and I forgive you.” And he had. He’d overstepped his boundaries. She had every right to set him straight, even though he still believed he was correct in his assessment. But it still wasn’t his place to point out that bit of truth.

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m sorry I crossed the line.”

  She dismissed his statement with the flick of her wrist. “What’s today?”

  “Monday.” Where was May? Hailey seemed to be getting less and less lucid, and her skin was on fire. He needed to get her to the clinic.

  “Oh.” Her head rolled to the side. With a gasp, she jerked it back to him with wild, panicked eyes. “Monday? Where’s Lottie?”

  He stroked her hair. “It’s okay. Lottie’s getting ready for school. May’s coming to take care of her, while I take you to the minor emergency clinic.”

  That seemed to sober her a bit, though she was still out of her mind with fever. “I can’t go to the clinic. I have to work.”

  “Not today. You’re off on Mondays, remember?”

  “I do stuff on Mondays. I clean the house.” Her eyes drifted closed. “I have the PTO dance.” She slurred her words like she’d been on a three-day bender. “And I wash my privates on Monday.”

  “Beg your pardon?”

  She tried to push herself up in the bed, but her arms wouldn’t hold her. “I wash my privates by hand every Monday. If I don’t, then it won’t get done because I don’t have anyone to help me.”

  He bit the inside of his lip. What in the hell was she talking about? “I’m sure May or
myself can help—”

  “You can’t touch my privates.” Her eyes were closed again, but a sly smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “Well you can, I dreamed you touched my privates last night. It was nice…”

  What. The. Hell?

  “Wait.” Her lids flew up. “No, not privates. What’s the word?” The question came out on a huff of air.

  He chuckled. “I don’t know, honey, but let’s get you to the doctor. I’ll help you get dressed.”

  She slapped at his hand when he tried to straighten her sleep top. “There’s another word. Why can’t I think of the word? What’s wrong with me?” She was crying again. Big sobbing, hiccupping cries. “What’s the word, Beau?”

  “Um…” What word was it she wanted him to say? He had no idea, but he’d do anything to make her stop crying. “Vagina, vajayjay, beaver, pu—”

  “No! I mean for those.” She flung her hand in the direction of a pile of underwear and bras.

  “Oh. Panties, underwear, drawers?”

  “Delicates.” She let out a relieved sigh. “My private delicates. I have to wash them.” Her head lolled to one side, and she fell back to sleep.

  She was sick as a dog, and talking out of her head. It was concerning, and yet he couldn’t get past the fact that she’d had a dream he’d touched her privates.

  “Beau?” May came rushing into the room. “What in tarnation is going on?”

  “Probably the flu. She’s burning up with fever. Can you get Lottie to school?”

  “Of course. What are you going to do?”

  “I’m taking her to the minor emergency clinic.” He retrieved Hailey’s robe and slippers from the floor, then put them on her, which was no easy task since she was dead weight. But he knew the drill. He’d dressed Clyde plenty of times when the man had been as ornery as a bull but as weak as a kitten. Once clothed, he scooped her in his arms and headed out of the room.

  May took Lottie by the hand, and they stepped out of Beau’s way. “Call when you know something.”

  “I will.”

  Lottie whimpered at May’s side.

  He dipped his chin toward Hailey’s daughter. “You’ll take care of her?”