Chapter Eight
By the time they were ready to leave the restaurant, Alexis had made up her mind. As they walked back towards the car, she put her hand on James’s arm and pulled him gently to face her. She took a deep breath to steady herself and the words came out without hesitation. “James, I’m not going to come home with you. I’m staying here. I’m not sure how long for, but I’m staying. And I’m staying on my own.”
“You’re not coming back?” His voice was incredulous. “After I came out all this way to get you because Phoebe said you were miserable?”
“No, we’re over, James. We have been ever since I left New York. There is no us anymore.”
It took a second for her words to sink in. She could see on his face that he knew what she knew—that maybe this had been right before, but she was a different person now, and things could never go back to how they had been. He knew that it had been his choice that had led them down this path. And she also knew that he was going to understand.
He turned his back on her and kicked the tire of his rental, but she had seen his eyes welling up, and she felt a surge of pity for this man, a man she had loved so strongly before. He had a good heart underneath it all. Not to mention the type of good looks that made women literally stop and stare on the street. But this alone was no longer enough for her.
She put her arms around him and they held each other for a moment, before pulling away and getting back into James’s car in silence. This time he drove more slowly.
When they arrived home, he grabbed her full bottle of whiskey (for medicinal purposes only), took it straight to the living room where his bed was made up on the couch, and shut the door behind him.
She climbed into her own bed, feeling light-headed with relief. That night, she slept more soundly than she had in weeks.
When James left the next morning, he pressed a small box into Alexis’s hands.
Her heart lurched for a second before she realized that it was too big to be an engagement ring. She almost laughed at the relief she felt, wondering why on earth she had ever thought it was going to be a good idea to get married to him.
“I bought this for you before we broke up and I knew I wanted to give it to you. I still do, even if we’re not together anymore.”
Alexis held the box in her hands, feeling the weight of it. It was going to be a large piece of jewelry. And expensive, knowing James. “I can’t accept this from you.”
“I don’t have anyone else to give it to, and I wouldn’t feel right about giving a woman a gift I had chosen for someone else, anyway.” He smiled ruefully, his face still an interesting shade of green from the previous night’s whiskey. “I can’t return it. And Phoebe helped me pick it out, so I can’t give it to her for a Christmas present or anything. So you might as well have it.”
Alexis laughed with him. “Okay, I will accept it. Thank you.”
“Just think of it as a gift from an old friend.” He opened the door of his rental car and got in.
His small leather briefcase rested on the passenger seat next to him, and in the back sat the large leather duffel bag that he had bought in London on a business trip, packed neatly in the way he always packed, with everything folded and anything expensive wrapped in tissue paper.
She remembered when she had found the receipt for the bag on the kitchen bench in his studio apartment. It had cost him four figures. At the time she had thought it was impressive. Now she shook her head to herself thinking that it was, in the end, a waste of money. With that money she could have fixed the farm fence in the field where she had fired Nate.
Mason had that kind of money, she already knew. And she liked the way he dressed because you couldn’t tell that he had money.
James closed his door and started the engine. She stepped back, but before she could turn around, he opened his window.
“For what it’s worth, Alexis, I am sorry I hurt you. And I hope everything works out for you here. Friends?” He stuck his hand out of the window and she shook it firmly.
“Friends.” And she meant it.
He took off down the driveway and Alexis watched him to the end of the road before she opened the box. Inside was heavy golden bracelet made up of two thick, interwoven bands. Diamonds sparkled along the length of one band. A small golden card sat in the box also, with a short blurb on the quality of the gold and diamonds. It was heavy, sparkly, over the top and quintessentially Phoebe.
She grinned to herself. Of course Phoebe would have made him bring her a present. This was just what Phoebe would have chosen for her.
Her heart ached with a fondness for Phoebe and the lengths to which she must have gone to make James reach out to her. She would have to call her tonight to thank her for her kindness and explain to her that she and James were not right for each other anymore.
What on earth would she do with this piece of jewelry? It was flashier than anything she would have even worn back home and must have cost an absolute fortune.
Mrs. Hetherington, that’s what she could do with it. Sell the bracelet and give her the money as a gift. After all, if Georgia could set aside her hatred of the kitchen to bake the woman a cake, she could donate the cost of a bracelet that she didn’t even much like.
Wandering back inside, she placed it on the kitchen bench before pulling her work boots on. There would be time to think about that later. The farm had been neglected during the few days that James had visited and she had work to do.
She spent the next two hours checking up on the sheep, refilling their water troughs and testing the fencing between fields for loose strands. One small lamb had managed to wedge one of its back legs in a fence—luckily not one of the electric fences—and she had a difficult few minutes trying to get it free while it bleated at her and tried to kick and butt her. When it was finally free it took off back to its mother and she watched for a minute to ensure it wasn’t limping. After being convinced that there was no lasting damage to the lamb or its leg, she headed back to the house, her stomach grumbling in hunger.
During her morning rounds she hadn’t bumped into Trev at all, which was unusual. She hoped that now Nate was gone, he wasn’t going to turn out to be as lazy as his predecessor. There had been no signs so far that he was anything but a dedicated worker, but his absence bothered her.
Back at her house for lunch, she saw her mobile flashing on the bench. There was a missed call from a local number she didn’t recognize, and a voicemail had been left. Frowning, she dialed her voicemail inbox and listened in surprise and then anger at the message.
“Hey, Alexis, it’s me. Trev. Look, I’m uh—I’m really sorry but I’ve been arrested and I—uh—need you to come and pick me up? Please? I’m just in town and they said I could be let out this morning but I kinda need a ride…” His voice trailed off and he mumbled an embarrassed-sounding thanks before hanging up.
She smacked her hand on the kitchen table in frustration. One of only two farmhands she had left, and he was getting himself arrested? She would pick him up because she needed him at work, but she was going to give him a piece of her mind when she saw him. No one who worked for her was going to be getting into trouble with the law. Not on her watch.
She grabbed an apple and a bread roll and ate them angrily on her way into town. What a waste of the morning, driving all the way into town to pick up Trev when there was so much to catch up on. They were already a man short, and while James had been there she hadn’t put as much time into the farm as she’d have liked. And now they were falling yet another day behind while she ran around town after a stupid kid who probably thoroughly deserved to be punished for whatever stupid tricks he’d been playing to get himself arrested.
Luckily the police station was easy to find at the edge of the tiny town center. She parked outside and walked in, wondering if Trev had expected her to post his bail. If he did, she would certainly be making him pay her back out of his wages.
The policeman at the front desk looked very unintereste
d in her as she came through the door. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if he had noticed her. He was engrossed in something on the computer screen.
“I’m here to pick someone up,” she said to him, startling him out of his reading.
“Afternoon, miss. Who are you here to pick up? We’ve got a Trevor Woodbeam and a—uh—Nate Goodwell.”
Nate was here? What on earth?
“I’m here to get Trev. Uh, Trevor.”
“Good, good, good.” He pushed himself up out of his chair. “I’ll go and get him. He’s technically been released already but he said he was waiting for a ride, so I let him wait here. He’s just out the back.”
The policeman returned a minute later with Trev shuffling behind him, eyes downcast and looking incredibly embarrassed. He smelled of stale beer.
“Thanks for coming to get me,” he said, eyes still on the ground. “I was going to call my mum but...” he trailed off.
“Thank you, officer,” she said. “I’ll take him from here.”
She marched out of the station and into her truck, not even waiting for Trevor to get in and close the door before starting the engine. Before she took off, she looked at him, fuming. “Explain yourself.”
“I’m sorry boss, I didn’t mean to. I couldn’t help it.”
“Couldn’t help getting arrested?” Her voice was thick with sarcasm. “Trevor Woodbeam, you’re barely out of school but you’re a grown man now, with a job and responsibilities. I can’t have my staff not show up to work because they’ve been arrested. I have a good mind to take you over to your mother’s house and tell her exactly where I have just picked you up from.”
He hung his head even lower. “Please don’t tell her. She would be so ashamed of me.”
Beside her, a beat-up old station wagon pulled up, and a graying man with a beer gut that bulged over the top of his dirty jeans got out, threw a cigarette butt on the ground, and walked into the station.
She took a deep breath. “Are you going to tell me why you were in there?”
“I punched Nate.”
Her breath came out through her nose and she snorted in disbelief. “You what?”
“At the pub last night. He was running his mouth and I punched him. Then we got in a fight. We were both drunk, so they kept us in overnight. But I didn’t want to tell Mum, so I called you to pick me up.”
“Why on earth did you punch Nate?” She was more curious than angry now. If anyone deserved a punch it was Nate, but this was completely unlike Trev. “He’s about twice the size of you, Trev.”
“He was talking about your sheep. He was the one what put the dogs in there. They were his friend’s dogs, they used to breed them for fighting before his friend got arrested for it. But the dogs are still killing machines—he said this. He was bragging about it to his mates at the pub last night and I just got angry. Nobody should do that to sheep. It’s sick in the head. So I punched him.”
Alexis felt her heart drop. “Nate—Nate put dogs in with the sheep?” She felt like throwing up. Of course, of course it couldn’t have been Mason. How could she have thought it was him.
As she looked out the window, the man with the beer belly and dirty jeans came back outside, with Nate in tow.
She got out of her car and calmly walked towards him. He had a stunning black eye that she took in with satisfaction. She hoped it hurt.
He sneered at her.
She felt no fear at all this time. “Nate, you stay away from my farm. You stay away from my staff. And the next time you cause trouble on my farm I swear I will get you arrested and thrown in jail. Again.”
He stepped towards her, close enough that she could see spittle flying out of his mouth as he spoke. “You don’t scare me, girlie. You had it coming, you and that pansy boyfriend of yours.” And he stretched out a hand as if to grab her.
Before she could think twice, she had stepped forward, grabbed his shoulders and driven her knee up, hard, into his crotch.
He fell back, clutching his crotch with tears of agony.
His friend in the dirty jeans ran over to give him a hand up.
“That’s your warning Nate. Don’t you ever take a step onto my farm again.” And she walked back to her car, buckled herself in, and drove off with Trev sitting in the passenger seat and staring at her in wide-eyed astonishment.
“That was cool,” he said finally.
She felt a surge of pride but didn’t want to show Trev. “Look, how about I drop you home and you have the day off today? I expect you at work tomorrow, on time, and if this ever happens again, I am not going to be as forgiving.”
“Yes, boss,” he said, suddenly nervous again.
She smiled reassuringly at him. “And I’m not going to tell your mother, Trev. Not this time.”
His shoulders dropped and he visibly relaxed. “Thanks.”
He directed her to his home and jumped out of the car quickly when they got there.
She leaned out of her window and he headed up towards his house. “You can tell your mom I gave you the day off because you’ve been working so hard to cover for Nate leaving. And Trev—” He looked up at her nervously. “Good work on Nate. That was an impressive black eye.”
He grinned at her. “Yeah, I was quite proud of that myself.”
Mason’s truck was parked in her driveway when she got home. He was pacing up and down next to it and running his hands through his hair. She slowed as she drove in, taking the time to drink in the sight of him. He must have heard the news about Nate already—this was a small community after all—and was coming to confront her about her lack of faith in him.
Her heart ached at the realization that she had pushed him away, and she blinked away a tear. In her upset, she had accused him of dreadful things without a shred of evidence. There was no excuse for her behavior.
She owed him an abject and heartfelt apology for thinking even for a moment that he had set his dogs on her sheep.
She only hoped he would accept it.
She wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t.
Her stomach whirling with butterflies, she stepped out of her car.
Mason strode towards her. “Alexis.”
She gathered her courage around her like a shield. “Please, come inside. I need to say something to you, and I’d rather say it after I’ve had a cup of coffee.” She was still struggling after her early morning start and really needed the boost.
He stopped short and looked hard at her, taking in her disheveled appearance for the first time. “Are you okay?”
“It’s been a rough morning. I’ve just bailed Trev out of jail. It’s a long story.”
He followed her inside and watched quietly as she filled the French press with coffee grounds and boiling water, and then poured them both a cup.
He waited until she had taken her first sip. “Trev? In jail? What happened?”
The warmth she saw in his eyes was melting the core of ice that had taken up residence in her heart. It hurt to thaw it out. She had to feel things again instead of pretending that they didn’t matter, that she was tough and invulnerable. “He found out that it was Nate who put those killer dogs among my sheep and they got in a fight. The cops had to come and break it up, and they were both arrested. I picked Trev up this morning.”
“Is he okay?”
She gave a brief laugh, though she had seldom felt less like laughing in her life. “Still spitting mad with Nate, and he has a few bruises, but nothing major. Nate came off rather worse, by the looks of it. He had a beauty of a black eye.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I hope you stayed clear of him though, he’s bound to be even more pissed now.”
Alexis smiled to herself. “He doesn’t scare me anymore. He’ll be facing charges of willful damage as well. There were a half dozen witnesses to his boast of killing my sheep, and according to Trev at least a couple of them were sober enough to remember it this morning.” She took a deep breath. “I have to apologize to you. I thought it was you. I was
upset and not thinking clearly, but that is no excuse, and then I refused to believe you when you told me the truth. I was mad, and I didn’t want to believe you. I should have known you would never deliberately hurt animals like that. Or me,” she added softly.
He reached out and took her hand, sending skitters of warmth down her spine. “It was my fault as well,” he said. “I was so frustrated because I didn’t know what I wanted, and I knew that whatever happened, I was going to lose out one way or another.”
“You wanted to buy Bert’s farm,” she said sadly. She had come to terms with the fact that he didn’t really want her. She couldn’t force him to care for her or to love her as she had grown to care for him.
“I did. It was a promise I made to Georgia. I’ve bought my brothers out of their share of the family farm, but Georgia wanted to stay on the land. Rather than breaking up the farm, we agreed that I would buy her a smaller stand-alone farm of her choice and gift it to her in return for her share. That way we would both get what we wanted. When Old Bert died, she set her heart on his place, and I wanted it for her.”
She had grown to genuinely like Mason’s young sister. “Georgia will be happy, then. I’m glad she’ll be living there.”
“But I also desperately wanted you to decide that you wanted to keep the farm, and to decide to stay.” He pushed his hands through his hair and he looked so sorrowful that she wanted to take him in her arms and hug him tight. “I know it was foolish of me. I know you are a city girl through and through, but I wanted you anyway. I hated the prospect of you selling up and going back to New York, even though I knew it had to happen eventually.”
New York. It seemed so foreign to her now. All those people crowded into such a small space. Neighbors below her and above her and on each side of her. No garden of her own. All that traffic and noise and dust and dirt. Even the thought of visiting her favorite restaurant again or going shopping at the Boxing Day sales to snag a bargain didn’t particularly excite her anymore. She’d rather get up early and do yoga outside on the grass at dawn, to the sound of bird song and sheep baaing.
Head First (Quinn Brothers Book 1) Page 14
