by Joanne Rock
Which meant Clay’s commitment to Heartache was done. He’d come here to meet his sister and make peace with his father. Now he’d done both. He was ready to move forward with his life instead of looking back all the time, and he wanted Gabriella to be a part of that.
He’d wasted too much time running from his family. He was ready to create a new one with Gabby, and Mia, too.
At the Hasting fosters’ reunion brunch, he held Gabriella’s hand and waited for Mia to arrive so he could tell them both the good news. He finally had a plan.
“Here comes Mia.” Gabriella rested her head on his shoulder as they sat side by side on the picnic table bench. “I think she was talking to some girls from school.” She squinted into the distance. “One of them is Megan Bryer. Remember her from the witness stand? She was kidnapped by Covington and his son at the same time as Heather.”
Clay glanced toward the playground. He recalled the testimony but didn’t recognize the girl from this distance.
He couldn’t wait to be far from this town where everyone they knew was connected to a crime or painful memories. He’d accumulated enough bad memories of his own in his time here.
He knew Gabriella felt the same way. She couldn’t leave Heartache fast enough ten years ago.
“I think it’s amazing how this whole town has pulled together to convict him.” Gabriella picked at a pastry he’d brought her from the buffet, tearing off bite-size pieces of raspberry Danish.
She’d done well speaking to Sam and the rest of his department about her ordeal, taking her time to give them a detailed account even though she had to be bone weary from all she’d gone through. He admired her so damn much.
“Morning.” Mia greeted them, her whole demeanor different than when they’d first met and she’d been furious with both of them.
Another sign that Clay was on the right track to forging good relationships instead of hiding from them. He’d won over his teenage half sister.
Part of her good mood was that she felt relieved about Pete. Plus, the news that Connor had been arrested had to be a load off Mia’s mind. Clay had changed her cell phone number early this morning, making sure he kept his sister as safe as possible. His biggest security measures were yet to come.
“Morning.” He waved toward the picnic table bench opposite them, eager to share his plans. “Have a seat.”
“Is Pete still doing well?” she asked right away, her posture tensing.
“He’s the miracle patient of the day according to the doc.” Clay had been genuinely relieved to exchange a few words with his father when he awoke. In typical Pete Yancy fashion, there had been no heartfelt declarations, but from a few surly comments, his father made it clear that he’d heard Clay forgive him about Eddy. “He is being moved to assisted living tomorrow.”
“Close by?” Mia asked, leaning forward on the table. “Will we be able to visit?”
He hesitated, taking his time to choose his words.
“He’ll be about twenty minutes north of here, heading toward Nashville, but yes, we can visit,” he answered carefully, hoping she would see the benefit to Clay’s plans. “But now that Pete is doing well, Connor is no longer a threat and Covington’s guilty verdict should come through next week, I want the three of us to move to Memphis. Start over together. Be a real family.”
For a moment his only response was the country music ballad piped over the amplifier. Across the lawn, families ate and laughed together, a few kids danced and played near the gazebo, blowing bubbles from the tiny giveaway bottles.
Beside him, Gabriella shifted, freeing her hand from his. “Memphis?”
Mia frowned, her dark ponytail sliding forward on her shoulder as she shook her head. “Can’t we be a real family here?”
It occurred to him that he should have discussed moving to Memphis with Gabriella before mentioning it to Mia. He’d envisioned their responses much differently in his mind. This was a good thing. A step forward for all of them.
“How can we stay here when this town is so full of bad memories and unhappy times?” He wouldn’t do that to Gabby. “Gabriella left this town for a reason ten years ago. She’s stayed away from her home and her past because she wanted to move on—”
Gabriella stopped his words with one hand over his wrist. “But the ghosts of the past weren’t in Heartache. They were in me. I’ve banished them all. For good.”
Her hopeful smile chipped at his heart. He wanted to make her happy. Be there for her in a way he hadn’t been ten years ago.
“I know, but why should you force yourself to stay here when we can start over fresh somewhere else?” He definitely should have had this conversation with her privately. The realization came with a strong dose of panic that this was too important to screw up and he’d already started off on the wrong foot.
“I’m not forcing myself. I want to be here.” There was a steely note in her voice, a defensiveness that he didn’t understand.
He tried harder. Dug deep. Played his most important card.
“I love you. And I want you and Mia to be with me.”
“You love me?” Gabriella asked. Her tone had softened but her blue eyes looked wounded.
Mia frowned. “I thought you said I could have a voice in my future?”
The two questions—both critically important—let Clay know how badly he’d messed this up. Panic squeezed his shoulders and cold sweat popped along his brow at the realization that he was digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole he hadn’t anticipated. He shouldn’t have introduced this idea to both of them at the same time. But too late to redo it now.
He linked his fingers through Gabriella’s.
“Maybe we should discuss this privately.” His gaze flicked over to Mia, who slunk lower into her hoodie as if she was only too happy to hide.
Gabby wasn’t moving, however. She clenched her jaw and stayed put.
“I love you,” he told her again, focusing solely on the beautiful woman next to him. “I realized it when you were trapped in that house last night and it almost killed me to think about anything happening to you. I want us to be together. All the time.”
He squeezed her hand, but she pulled away quickly.
“I want a say in my future, too, Clay.” She swiped her hand over her eyes, her lips trembling with emotion. “You know how hard I’ve worked to put the past behind me. I don’t need someone to swoop in and save me anymore. I need to feel in control of where I go next.”
If she had kicked him in the chest, it couldn’t have possibly hurt more. Had he sabotaged himself by not discussing his plans with them first? Or was his idea of a family for the three of them just not meant to be? He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, needing to at least make it clear to Mia that she was coming with him.
“Mia.” He studied her across the table, still reeling from Gabriella’s rejection. He felt hollowed out inside. “I meant it when I said you could have a say in your future, but I was referring to input on your room and maybe your school. Possibly a car. I thought you would want to be with me in Memphis. I have a good life there and my own business. We can get a bigger house with more space.”
“But I want to be here.” Clearly agitated, Mia stood. Her brown eyes were rimmed with fat tears but she bristled with anger. “In Heartache. With Gabriella.”
Stunned, Clay looked to Gabby to talk some sense into her. Surely even if Gabriella didn’t love him, she would at least see the need for Mia to be with him. That was what she’d pushed so hard for all along, wasn’t it? She’d told him as much that night on the porch of his motel cabin.
Besides, Gabriella didn’t even live in Heartache. Yet she bit her lip as if she wasn’t sure what to say. Her blue eyes tracked back and forth between Mia and Clay.
Frustration simmered. He’d tried to build a family, damn it. He’d
made peace with his father. He was reaching out to the people he cared about.
“My home and my business are there,” he repeated.
Mia stopped her angry pacing on the other side of the picnic table. “Dad will be here.”
Clay fought the impulse to remind her that their father wouldn’t be around much longer. Instead, he focused on other realities. “There are just too many bad memories.”
“We met here,” Gabby said quietly. “That’s a good memory.” She nodded toward the party going on out on the lawn. “But maybe we should slow down, take a breather and talk about this later.”
He looked up and realized that, sure enough, they’d attracted attention with Mia’s pacing and their tense body language. Knowing as much only made him more frustrated.
His plan was crumbling. He was losing ground fast and didn’t know how to fix the situation. He’d laid out all his ideas for the future, but he’d gone about it wrong. He thought Pete had sucked at relationships, but he was even worse. Mia felt more loyalty to the guy than to him, that was for damn sure.
And Gabriella...seeing her united against him tore right through him. Every time he had gotten close to someone, things went south.
“Maybe we should. In Memphis, we wouldn’t have the whole town straining to overhear every word.” Frustrated and more than a little hurt that his declaration of love had been met with questions and refusals, Clay needed air. He unfolded himself from the picnic table bench and kept his voice low. “I’m heading out.”
“Of the party?” Gabriella asked, her voice unsteady. “Or the town?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure.” He ground his teeth. “Maybe both.”
Not ready to deal with any more fallout from this week, Clay stalked through the crowd, past his foster parents and toward his bike. He’d told Gabriella once the motorcycle was good for airing out your head.
He didn’t think it stood a chance of patching up his heart.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CRUSHED, GABRIELLA WATCHED Clay walk away, his steps so fast and purposeful no one dared try and talk to him as he ducked under an archway of yellow and purple balloons. Her chest ached to think that was all he had to offer her—his love with strings attached. Love that would abandon her at the first sign of trouble.
A love she couldn’t trust.
Even so, she loved him enough that she wanted to run to him and try to squeeze more emotions out of him. To squeeze those three little words he’d given her—far more than any other man had ever given her—and make their love into something that would fulfill them both.
But he hadn’t wanted to discuss alternative visions of the future. He’d frozen up and walked away. Leaving her alone.
The wailing country music tune amplified throughout the park reminded her of all the hurt that came from one-sided relationships. She couldn’t in good conscience tell the members of her support group to hold out for real love—to know their own worth—while she accepted less than that for herself. Still, the hurt in her heart felt like a million glass shards.
All the cheery balloons and bubbles blowing on the breeze didn’t take that hurt away.
“Gabby? Are you okay?” Mia’s voice pulled her attention back to the here and now.
The reunion breakfast. Mia’s hurt that was as big as her own. Gabriella’s gaze came into focus again, in time to see Clay’s foster mother speaking animatedly to him beside his motorcycle.
Lorelei Hasting’s dark curls moved in a halo around her head as she used her hands to make a point while Clay stared into the distance, his black helmet under one arm. But Gabriella couldn’t concern herself with whatever conversation they were having. Mia needed her.
“I am not okay at this moment in time.” She answered Mia’s question honestly. She wasn’t going to hide the hard truths of the world from the teen ever again. “But I will recover.” She opened her arms to the teen sitting beside her. Mia looked as lost as she felt. “We both will.”
The girl rested her head on Gabriella’s shoulder, accepting the hug and reminding Gabriella that her time in Heartache had made an impact on Mia’s life in a good way. This trip had been about more than putting the past to rest for Gabby. She’d met one of the people in her support group—someone who’d been at a real crossroads in her life and needed a friend.
Thinking about that eased some of the pain in her chest a little. For the moment, anyhow. Clayton had been wrong about Heartache being full of bad memories. There were some beautiful ones here.
“He can’t make me leave, can he?” Mia lifted her dark head. “I just made friends. And Davis is the only boy who has ever cared about me. We haven’t even kissed since that awful first time in his truck and—” She dragged her sleeve over her cheeks to dry them. “I know that shouldn’t matter and I should just be grateful to have someone who wants me. But I thought Clay was my friend.”
Gabriella listened while, on the far side of the park, she watched Lorelei kiss Clayton’s cheek. Watched Clayton roar away on the bike, spitting up a few bits of gravel on the way.
He was really leaving.
“Clay is your friend.” Gabriella knew that much. Clayton would do whatever he could to take care of his sister. Something had changed inside him since being in Heartache. He’d let go of that fierce insistence that a foster home was best for Mia. “But he’s going to be your legal guardian, too, and that comes with a lot of responsibility.”
She tried to see this day through his eyes. To feel the way he might feel right now. But for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why he would think it was a good idea to walk away when she didn’t immediately jump to agree to his plan for the future. Maybe she should have handled it differently. Pleaded her side then and there. But she’d been surprised and then overwhelmed by a whole host of emotions. Before she could think through the best response, he was gone.
Didn’t Clayton, of all people, understand how that would rock her? She’d only just come to terms with how deeply her mother’s abandonment had affected her. She’d even shared that with him. Her chest burned with the ache of losing him so fast. Without a chance to fight for a different future together.
“Can’t you talk to him?” Mia pleaded, taking her hand and squeezing it.
Gabriella studied her chipped nail polish from the Salon Night the week before. It wasn’t nearly as damaged as the rest of her.
“I don’t know if I’ll have a chance.” She had to be forthright. “He could be packing up his things and leaving for Memphis right now. But if not, if I see him before he leaves, I’ll tell him how important it is for you to be here.”
“I can’t ask for more than that.” Mia thanked her and retrieved a crumpled tissue from her purse to clean up some of the smeared eyeliner on her cheek.
Gabriella wondered who would intercede with Clay on her behalf? Whatever his foster mother had said to him hadn’t made a dent, judging by how fast he’d left the party.
But she couldn’t think about that right now or she would fall apart, and she had to be strong for Mia.
“Mia?” She hoped it was a good time to raise another issue with the teen. “I’m going to speak to Clay for you. But I need you to talk to the sheriff for me. Tell him everything you know about Connor.”
She hadn’t asked the girl to make a statement last night—of course—while she’d been frightened for her father’s life. But whatever secrets she had in her past about the boy, they needed to come out now. Gabriella understood too well how hanging on to the past only made the nightmares grow larger than life.
Mia put down the tissue and the compact mirror she’d found in her bag. “I will. I promise.”
“I’ll go with you if you want. And Clay needs to be there as your guardian since you’re underage.” She refrained from asking what had happened between them, thinking Mia would shar
e it if—when—she felt comfortable enough.
“I kept a record of his phone calls and when we changed my cell number.” Mia’s forethought to keep that kind of file caught Gabriella by surprise. But then it wasn’t the first time she’d seen the double image of the scared girl and the strong woman she would one day become—the woman she was already becoming.
“I’m glad you thought to do that.” Gabriella felt a swell of pleasure and pride.
“You know where I got the idea?” A hint of a smile transformed her face in spite of her red-rimmed eyes. “From your cyber bullying website. It’s one of the tips for making sure a stalker pays for his crime.”
A new tune floated on the breeze—a happier steel guitar to replace the lonesome fiddle of a few moments ago. Gabriella latched on to the lighter moment with both hands. Strange how even happiness could hurt a little without Clay to share it.
“You did the right thing.”
Mia looked thoughtful for a minute. “I hope so. I mean—I know keeping the record was good. But I threatened him with a knife more than once before I picked a fight with a perfectly nice girl to get kicked out of that house. Connor never followed through on his threats, but I knew if I stayed any longer, he would.”
Her happy moment faded as the revelation rocked her. Mia had never revealed how dark things had gotten in that first foster home. She’d made vague references to being bullied in school because of her breasts. Her body had been the focal point of cruel comments for years, and Gabriella had tried to help her with that. But the girl needed more counseling than what she’d gotten over the years.
“Did your social worker know about that?” Gabby pressed, doing the math to figure out how far in the past that incident would have been. Almost three years.
No wonder Mia had kneed poor Davis when he kissed her.
“Yes. But when she investigated, another kid lied for him. So when she didn’t move me out of the house, I picked the fight with the girl, and then my foster mom kicked me out. The next home was good, and then Pete got me out of the system anyway.” Mia reached for Gabby’s arm and squeezed it, as if to reassure her. “And now Connor is going to jail anyhow. It all turned out okay.”
