“Would you mind some company when you go to the store?” Gavin asked from his seat on the other side of the kitchen counter, not making a move toward her, like he usually would when they were alone. She didn’t know if she should feel hurt or relieved.
“If you want to come with me, Gavin, you are welcome to.” She giggled when he chuckled at the double meaning of her statement.
“You know as well as I do, that I love coming with you.” His voice was laughing, and his eyes were on fire. “Why have you been avoiding me?”
“I didn’t realize I was.” She felt flustered and looked back down at the list in her hand.
“You have always been a terrible liar.” He sipped his coffee. “You have done everything under the sun to make sure you aren’t alone with me; you have even had Eva sleeping in your bed.” He stood up and moved to the sink behind her, rinsed out his mug and put it in the dishwasher. “If you want me to leave, Audree, all you have to do is say the word, but at least have the courtesy to tell me to my face. We have known each other long enough to be honest with each other.” He leaned against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Honest with each other, really?” she scoffed at him.
“You know you are one of my very best friends; I don’t think there is much you don’t know about me.” He took a step toward her, and she moved to take his seat on the other side of the counter.
“How many women have you slept with Gavin?” she blurted out and regretted it immediately, when his head shot up to meet her eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“How many women have you had sex with?” When he paused and ran his hand over his face, she felt herself getting angry; was the number so large that he couldn’t even remember? She turned around and bolted for the backdoor, before realizing she had forgotten her purse on the counter.
“Ah.”
“Never min….” she said, holding the doorknob in her hand.
“I can count them on one hand.” He caught her shoulders when she turned to grab her purse off the counter.
“Please forget I even asked; it’s really none of my business.” She shook her head and tried to move out of his grasp.
“How can you say it’s none of your business?” He released her arm and lifted her chin with his finger. “We sleep together…”
“No, Gavin, we have sex! All we have is sex. You make that very clear every time I wake up alone and in my own bed. We are friends who have sex when you are in town, at your convenience.” She was proud of herself for finally saying it out loud and to his face. She saw what looked like shock and pain cross his face, but she couldn’t figure out why he gasped.
“Audree, is that really what you …” he paused when the phone across the room rang.
“Hey, anyone home?” Clint’s voice called from the speaker on the phone’s answering machine and Audree ran to pick up the phone.
“Hello, Hello, Clint, I’m here.” Audree laughed excitedly, grabbing the phone receiver off the counter.
“Hey, little sis.” She could hear the smile in his voice.
“How are you? Is everything okay?” Audree loved when Clint called, but also feared that he was calling because something was wrong.
“All is good; I just wanted to tell you that I’m scheduled to come home at the end of the summer. I wanted to surprise Momma and Dad, but I needed your help.”
“Of course, anything.” She jumped up elatedly. “I cannot wait; let me know the details when you know what you need. I’ll have your place opened up.” She turned and smiled at Gavin who returned her beaming smile. “We cleared out the barn and have plans for an extension, maybe I’ll get Travis to move up his timeframe. I see a party in our future.” She laughed.
“You and your parties.” He chuckled. “Is Gavin there? I called his cell, but he didn’t answer. Last time I talked to him, he said he was planning on being there about this time.”
“Yup, hold on. Love you, Clint.” She looked back at Gavin and waved him over to the phone. “Clint wants to speak with you.” She held the phone out to him.
“We are not done talking, Audree.” He took the phone from her and covered the mouthpiece with his hand. He shook his head and wanted to grab her before she walked out the door, but Clint was waiting on the phone. “Hey, man,” was the last thing Audree heard before closing the door behind her without a backward glance over her shoulder.
“Good for you, about time,” Ruby said from the other side of the phone line.
“I cannot believe I said that to him.” Audree blew out a breath as she sat in her truck in the parking lot of the grocery store.
“I wish I had seen his face,” Ruby said cheerfully.
“He looked shocked and hurt; like I’d hit him.” She thought back to Gavin’s face and felt her stomach turn.
“Well, if he is in love with you, he needs to speak up. You tattooed the dumb ass’s initial on your body and you know, after all of this time, he has to have seen it. He isn’t that blind.”
“Ruby, I...”
“You, nothing. It’s his turn; he has to tell you how he feels. Only a woman who is totally in love with a man would put up with the scraps he has given you. You know I don’t agree with this whole fuck buddy nonsense, and I’ve told you before that you deserve better,” Ruby said, exasperated.
“Please don’t start again,” Audree pleaded.
“Sorry, honey, I just love you and want you to be happy. You deserve everything.”
“And you are happy with Harry, so you want me to be happy, too.” She smiled, knowing Ruby really liked Harry.
“Yes, I am and you deserve to be happy, too, and in love with someone who can tell you that he loves you,” she sighed. “Okay, I’m done; climbing off of my soapbox now.” They both giggled. “Harry will be gone with Travis and Scotty until later, do you want me to come over, and we could have a girls’ day?”
“Sure.” Audree smiled. “I’ll grab a couple more things, and I’ll be home in about forty-five.”
“Ok, honey, see you then,” Ruby said and hung up.
***
Audree finished in the grocery store and stopped by the feed store to put in an order for her father. She was reminded of the days she had helped Clint feed the cattle, when Gavin was late and she had to drive the truck.
“You spending more of your daddy’s money, little girl?” A voice pulled Audree out of her reverie as she walked back toward her truck; a voice she knew and dreaded every time she came to town. It was like he watched and waited for her to show up, just to harass her.
“Nope, Mr. Montgomery, just spending my money. I don’t need my daddy’s money; I have plenty of my own, but thank you for your concern.” She tried to move around him, but he blocked her path.
“You know I’m going to get that parcel back one of these days,” he grumbled, just as he always did. The story never changed.
“I’m sure you will.” She rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses.
“Don’t sass me, little girl,” he said roughly.
“Mr. Montgomery, how many times do we have to have the same…?”
“Until I get my parcel back.”
“Sorry, but it is out of my control.”
“The hell it is,” he said a little louder and a few people on the street stopped and turned toward them. “All you have to do is sign the papers.”
“You know as well as I do, I am not allowed to do that, in accordance with your wife’s will.” She shook her head. “And you know what,” she sighed. “I’m kind of tired of having this same lovely little chat with you.” She took another step away and he blocked her again. “Mr. Montgomery, honestly, doesn’t this get as tiresome for you as it does for me? If it doesn’t stop, I would be more than happy to get a restraining order to make sure you stay away from me. But then you would probably have to stay on your farm and bitch from your office.” She smiled to herself and took his shock as a chance to step around him.
“Why you lit
tle…” He wrapped his hand tightly and painfully around her upper arm.
“Father, stop!” Gavin stood behind his father and, as he met Audree’s eyes, he saw his father’s hold on her arm. “Father, let go of her arm.” He took a step closer to Audree, putting his body between her and his father.
“Son…”
“Stop!” He held up his hand. “Audree, go home.” He looked at her and smiled when he saw her glaring at him for telling her what to do, he imagined. “Please, I have some things to discuss with my father.” Audree nodded at Gavin and stepped away from him.
She tapped Gavin’s back as a silent thank you and he nodded, his position blocking his father’s view of her. “Have a nice day, Mr. Montgomery,” Audree said cheerfully and waved over her shoulder without ever turning back around. “I’m sure we’ll be doing this again real soon.”
***
When Audree arrived at home, she noticed that Travis’ truck was parked in front of the house. She carried the two grocery bags she knew contained perishables. She called out, but no one answered. After she put the groceries away, she went to find Travis.
Audree finally found him in the living room, a room they hardly ever used, but her mother had insisted that she needed a great room for visitors and parties. She thought it was a waste of a room, but she wouldn’t change it.
“So what is up your ass?” Audree finally asked, after almost fifteen minutes of watching Travis pace the living room floor, checking his phone every couple of seconds.
“Finally,” he said, turning when Gavin stepped through the front door. That in itself was odd, because they hardly ever used the front door.
“Let me see them.” Gavin walked past her and straight to Travis, who shoved a bunch of papers at Gavin. “Holy shit! This is for real. Have you spoken to her?”
“Yeah, like I’m going to go and ask her about this. Do you really think she would know about this bullshit and agree to it?”
“How the fuck would I know? I’ve never met the girl!” Gavin shouted at Travis.
“Well, schedules ….”
“Schedules, my ass! You have been engaged to this girl for six months, after dating for what? Like two seconds. How involved was he in the meeting and setting up of your relationship with her?”
“What the hell are you two talking about?” Audree stepped closer to them, trying to see the papers in Gavin’s hands; they both turned and looked surprised at her presence. “Sorry, but I live here.” She stepped closer to Travis. “You’ve been pacing my living room since I walked in the door and … and Gavin is pissed. You are obviously talking about Trudy.” She looked between them. “What’s going on?”
“Our asshole father has serious fucking control and greed issues.” Gavin looked at Travis for approval; then handed the papers to Audree at Travis’ nod.
“What is this?” She looked at the papers. They appeared to be some kind of contract. As she read through the first page, she looked between Travis and Gavin, and back at the papers in her hand. She had to move over to the couch as she continued to read; she could feel her knees buckling under her.
“Oh my God! This is insane! Your father is crazier than I thought! You cannot go through with this wedding, Travis, you cannot marry her.” Audree threw the papers down onto the coffee table in front of her. “This can’t even be legal. He can’t force Travis to marry her.”
“It is an agreement that the parties agreed upon. Father would keep giving him land until one of us married her. I’m sure he made Travis think it was happenstance that he met her, but I’m sure he set it up to work in his favor.”
“Did you see what happens if that agreement is breached? My father has to pay him twenty-five million dollars, and he doesn’t get the land back.”
“So what? It is not like he doesn’t have it.” Audree could feel her blood beginning to boil.
“He doesn’t have it,” Gavin mumbled from his place by the window. “He has been counting on this ‘gentlemen’s agreement' bullshit for years. I have been financing his farm for the past five years, just so he wouldn’t lose everything.” He didn’t look away from the windows. “Did you see that for every year we were of age that Meager’s daughter had to wait for one us to marry her, our father would pay with a hundred acres of his land, our land, Mom’s family’s land? Well, it took what nine years for Travis to be sucked in by this crap and now he has lost 900 of the eighty thousand acres he had. He will get that land back and one thousand more for every year the marriage lasts.
“Do you love her Travis? I mean really love her?” Audree asked.
“I…”
“If you cannot say yes to that question without hesitation, then the answer is no.” Gavin looked from Audree to Travis.
“Father told me…”
“Father told you it was your family duty, but he didn’t tell you about this agreement of his?”
“No, I was at the attorney to pick up what was supposed to be just a pre-nap, which I was fine with, but this was included in the envelope.” He sat down on the couch next to Audree and picked up the papers.
“Travis.” Audree looked from Gavin to Travis. “Marry me. Get out from under your father’s bullshit and then we’ll figure out the rest.” She looked him right in the eyes as she said it.
“God, I love you, Audree, but I wouldn’t do that to you.” He looked at Gavin when he said it.
“We’ll figure something out,” Gavin said, coming over to sit across from them on the other couch. “There is a clause in there about infidelity, both before and after the marriage,” he paused. “Maybe if we get her to…”
“She would never.” Travis shook his head. “Besides every guy in town knows she is with me and would never go after her.” He put his head in his hands.
“We’ll figure something out, Trav.” Audree laid her head on his shoulder. “It will be okay. It will work out.” She looked over at Gavin and he nodded at her.
“We’ll take care of it.” Gavin looked back down at the papers, shaking his head.
***
Son of a bitch! He actually went through with that stupid plan of his. Every time I hired lawyers to get him out of this, he wouldn’t give them the information they needed. The fucker is out of his mind, determined that he takes his sons with him, and sacrifices our land as well.
It had only been a few days since Travis showed Gavin and Audree the papers from his father’s insane ‘gentlemen’s agreement’. Audree tried to keep Travis busy working on the addition to the barn and had started spending even more time with Scotty. Gavin had been nowhere to be found for most of the time. Ruby said she heard he was spending a lot of time at Authors’ Pub getting drunk. Audree had called Dirk, the bartender there, to make sure that she was called if Gavin got too drunk and needed a ride home.
Thursday night, four days before Audree and Eva were scheduled to leave for their visit to Brooks’, Eva had wanted to stay at her grandparents so; Audree invited everyone over for a movie night. Travis had been moody all week and he had been fighting with Gavin and Trudy. Gavin wanted Travis to talk to Trudy about the papers and Travis refused to believe that she knew anything about them and wouldn’t even ask her.
“So Saturday night, I finally got Trudy to move her schedule around and she is going to come and meet us at Authors’. I told her you were leaving on Monday so we needed to get this done,” Travis said, stacking his empty popcorn bowl onto the others sitting on the table to his left.
“Great,” Ruby said, sounding not so thrilled, from her curled up position on Harry’s lap while she ran her hand through his hair.
“Cool, we finally get to meet the future Mrs.,” Scotty said from his seat on the couch next to Audree.
“I’ll ask my mom to keep Eva for the night.” Audree stood up and stretched before picking up some of the stacked bowls.
“Let me help you.” Scotty stood up next to her and reached out to Audree for the stacked bowls.
“Thanks.” Audree caught the smirk
on Ruby’s face and rolled her eyes. Audree was in no mood for Ruby’s thoughts on Scotty. She had been more or less forced to sit next to him on the couch since Travis took up one chair and Ruby and Harry squeezed into the other. That left the couch. She sat next to him and their legs touched, but nothing else, until he put his hand on the back of the couch. She was relieved that he didn’t try to put his arm around her. She was confused enough with everything else going on. Scotty’s interest in her was not really even on her radar.
“It’s a shame Gavin had to miss movie night.” Ruby gave Harry a quick peck on the cheek before she stood up and grabbed their empty cups. “He has been gone a lot lately at night.” She threw Audree a knowing look. Audree had told Ruby that she was still doing all she could to avoid being alone with Gavin; Eva was still sleeping with her. Tonight, however, Audree would be alone in the house with Travis in his room, on the other side of the house. Gavin had been MIA since the afternoon so she wasn’t sure where he would be spending the night. She thought about maybe sleeping in Clint’s old room, but she wasn’t going to hide in her own house.
“Yeah, I don’t know where he has been going, but he has been coming in at the ass crack of dawn and then going over and putting in a full day at the farm or ranch. He doesn’t talk to anyone,” Travis said, scooting over to grab a falling bowl from Audree and thankfully following her and Scotty to the kitchen.
“Eva was disappointed he hasn’t been around to read to her at before bed,” Audree stated after she put the bowls into the sink. “I told her he would probably be around tomorrow for her to hang out with,” she said on a yawn. “He had promised to take her fishing.”
“I actually needed to talk to him about something, too.” Travis looked at Audree, and she ascertained from the look that he needed to talk about something in private.
“Okay, well, we are out of here.” Ruby moved over to give Audree a hug and kiss. “Later.” She pointed at Travis.
“Scotty, you want us to drop you off?” Harry asked, following Ruby toward the door.
Love Unclaimed Page 13
