Southern Comfort

by Natasha Madison

  Chapter Eighteen

  Casey

  “It’s the craziest thing, but I feel like I’m being watched.” She shakes her head. “It’s silly, I know.” My body goes on high alert, and I stop myself from doing the only thing I want to do, which is grab her off the horse and put her on lockdown until this shit is over. Instead, she trots off, and I grab my phone to send Derek a text right away.

  Me: I want the feeds from the cameras surrounding the barn in five minutes.

  Now here I am, watching the girl who has me all in knots, literally in knots. The need to keep her safe almost consumes me more than anything I know. “Thata girl,” she says as she gallops past me on the horse. I’m impressed that Lady M hasn’t tried to buck her off. She rides with ease, and it’s the hottest thing I have seen in the longest time.

  “How’re you feeling?” I ask when she nears me. Her smile lights her whole face up again, and the only thing I can think is that I want to keep that smile on her face all the time.

  “Amazing.” Her voice comes out breathless. “I forgot how much I love riding.”

  “Then why did you stop?” I ask, curious about everything.

  “My mother thought I spent too much time with my horse and not enough time with my pageant lessons.” She shrugs. “It was more important to learn how to walk with a book on my head than to learn how to ride a horse,” she says. At first, I think she’s joking, but her face is serious. The smile is gone, and in its place, is the look she gets when she’s sad. After watching her for the past couple of weeks, I know her happy face, her sad face, and her irritated face. I also know her smiles, and the one that lights up her face is my favorite.

  “So after I pouted for three days, she sold my horse to make sure that my pout was gone permanently.” I just watch her as she slows down from a gallop to a trot. “You are the best girl.” She talks to the horse, and I swear the horse turns around and side-eyes me. “You are just perfect.”

  “Why don’t we get her back inside, and you can ride her after breakfast? The two of us can go for a ride, and I’ll give you the lay of the land,” I say, and her eyes light up, and I want to laugh.

  “Really?” I just nod. She gets off the horse and then holds the reins while she talks to her. “Let’s get you some water and then get you some grub.” She takes her inside, and I’m about to follow her when my phone alerts me that an email has come in.

  To: Casey

  From: Derek

  Subject: You are going to be pissed.

  There seems to be some movement in the trees by the barn. I don’t have anything, but it looks like a shadow moving. I’m already ahead of you and getting the monitors up and on screen. I’ll call you in a few.

  Derek

  “Motherfucker,” I hiss out and then walk to the barn, the whole time looking around to see if I see anything, but I don’t. When I walk into the barn, she is already getting the horse water, and she looks like she’s done this all her life. But I know she hasn’t. She must feel me looking because she looks up, and I see her cheeks are a bit pink.

  “Hey, I made you a coffee,” she says, motioning with her head to the kitchen. I watch her the whole time, trying to calm myself down. I want to ask her all the questions, but I know now’s not the time. I want her to tell me about her life while we are sitting face-to-face, but I also don’t want to ask her about her secrets when I’m still not sure I’m willing to share mine.

  “Thanks, darlin’.” I nod at her and walk over to grab the coffee when a ping comes out of my phone with pictures. I walk over to my office. “I have to answer an email before we head over to my parents’ house,” I say, and she just looks over her shoulder at me.

  “I can go ahead of you if you’re busy,” she says softly. “Help your mom.” I don’t want to freak her out, so I just nod at her and watch her walk from the barn to my parents' house. The minute I see her open the screen door and walk inside, I turn back to my office and call Derek right away while the images load.

  “Before you start.” He doesn’t even say hello when he answers. “When we detected this, we weren’t sure if it was an animal or a person.”

  “Tell me everything.” The pictures come on screen, and I can see why. The person out there is hugging the trees while he walks from one to the other, so it just looks like a blurred image until you freeze it for one frame and notice his hand on the tree.

  “From what I could tell, he was there from three a.m. until five a.m. He stops right at the perimeter where it opens. Right now, I can’t see what he is focusing on, but we are working on trying to clear up the image.” I try not to freak out that he was there while we were sleeping. I watch the screen as it goes from one picture frame to the next. He’s trying to get the lay of the land, I think to myself and make a note to put in some traps.

  “Um, hello?” I hear Derek’s voice. “You still there?”

  “Yeah,” I say to him. “I want everything locked down tight. If a tree leaf looks suspicious, I want to know about it.”

  “Will do,” he says, disconnecting. Looking back at the screen, I notice he has a mark on his hand, almost like a tattoo of sorts. I zoom in, but the image is too grainy, so I send a message to Derek.

  Me: He has a tattoo on his hand. Find out what it is.

  Derek: Will do.

  Getting up, I take the clipboard, jotting down things for them to do. I include notes on the traps I want set, and when I walk into the kitchen ten minutes later, my heart stops but for a totally different reason. Olivia stands beside my mother as she helps her make biscuits. Her hair is piled on top of her head, she has flour on her cheek from her hands, and she just looks so happy. I watch how my mother teaches her, and she follows directions. This is what she deserves, I tell myself. This happiness and these carefree moments are what this woman deserves, and I’ll give them to her as long as I can. “Hey,” she says softly when she sees me standing here watching her. “I’m making biscuits.”

  “I can see that,” I say, and then I finally notice that my father has been watching me the whole time.

  “Morning,” I say, and he just nods at me. Breakfast is the usual as we talk about the farm and what needs to be done.

  “I take it you canceled your business trip?” my father says. Olivia turns to look at me, and I glare at my father. “It’s in two days.”

  “What business trip?” Olivia asks, and I want to curse, but I know my mother would not be happy. I also am pissed that with everything going on, I forgot about it.

  “Nothing,” I say, my voice tight. Looking down at my plate, I see that Olivia is looking down, too, and I want to kick myself for making her sad.

  “Thank you so much for breakfast,” Olivia says from beside me, trying to sound happy, but her tone is flat. I bet if I looked over, she would have a smile on her face that was fake as fuck. “I forgot that I have a call with my boss this morning.” And now I look up and see what I was afraid of seeing. The fake Olivia is back as she smiles at my mother. “I’ll see you later.” She then looks at my father. “Have a great day, Billy.” She turns and walks out of the house, and it’s almost as if I’m glued to my chair. As I watch the door close behind her, I can feel my parents staring at me.

  “Ass.” My mother is the first to talk, and when I look at her, she glares at me.

  “What in the sam hill are you still doing sitting here when the woman has left?” my father almost shouts.

  “What do you want from me?” I finally say, dropping my fork, and it clatters on the plate. “This is your fault.” I point at my father as I get up. “If you hadn’t brought up my business trip.”

  “I always thought you had brains to go with your good looks,” my mother says, grabbing her coffee cup and bringing it to her lips.

  “She’s leaving,” I now shout louder than I want to. “Eventually, she’s going to leave.”

  “It doesn’t have to be like that,” my father says. His tone is so monotone it’s just as irritating as when I was eighte
en and he spoke to me. His voice never rises, ever. “Son.”

  “Don’t son me,” I say, putting my hands on my hips and feeling all these emotions run through me. I’m angry that she just left. I’m pissed that she’s sad, and I’m irritated that I couldn’t just say what it was about.

  “Okay, fine,” he says, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the table. “I’ll just say this. That woman”—he motions with his chin toward the door she just walked out of—“deserves a man who is going to make her happy. Like really happy.” He looks over at my mother, and she smiles at him. “She deserves a man who will take care of her and spoil her, and for the first time in her life, she needs to be put first before anything else.” I want to say that all that is me, but is it really? “Actually, now that I think of it, you aren’t that man.” I glare at him. “If you were that man, there is no way you would still be here having this conversation when you should be running after her. But instead, you stand here with your head up your ass.” My mother just laughs, and I turn to look at her.

  “Dumb ass,” she says. For the first time in her life, she’s called me a dumb ass. “She does deserve better.”

  I don’t even know what to say to any of this. There are so many things I want to say, but all of them lead to the same thing. I’m not the man for her, and my father is right. She deserves all that and more. She deserves a man who’ll make her smile. She deserves a man who will hold her at night and wake her up with coffee in bed. She deserves to have a whole house full of children, and just the thought of her having a child with someone else cuts me to the core. Especially knowing that I can’t give her any of that, and that’s what cuts me the most. I shake my head. “You don’t know,” I say, and he just looks at me. “She’s never going to be happy living here on the farm.”

  “You ask her that?” my mother asks, and I just look at her.

  “She screams high-class city girl,” I say, and then I shake my head.

  “You won't know until you ask her,” my father says, and I don’t want to think about it. Right now, I think about the woman who just walked out of my parents’ house and stormed over to mine, and I think about the man who was watching my house.

  Instead of answering his question, I turn and storm out of their house. Making my way over to my house, I jog most of the way. “Olivia!” I shout out her name and wait for her to answer me, and after five seconds, when she doesn’t answer me, I call her name again. “Olivia!” I walk toward her bedroom, and I see the door open and the bed made. “Olivia?” I say her name, looking into the room and seeing the bathroom door open. “Olivia,” I say a bit more frantic this time and run to my bedroom, seeing it not touched. My heart sinks when I run upstairs because I know she would never have gone up there after last time. My heart pounds so hard and loud that it’s the only thing I can hear along with my heavy breathing. After I check the whole house, my hands get so clammy and my stomach drops when it finally sinks in that she isn’t here.

  I pull out my phone and call Derek, shouting at him when he answers. “Olivia is missing!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Olivia

  I can still hear his tone in my head while I walk out the door. I push away the hurt feelings that I have. My mother’s voice is coming in loud and clear.

  “What did you expect, Olivia? You are nothing but a warm body and arm candy for these men.

  No one needs someone smart on their side. They need someone who can make their stocks go up.”

  I shake my head and try not to think about it. I try not to let my feelings get hurt, and most importantly, I try not to cry, but the tear comes out before I can fight it back.

  It’s almost as if I can see my mother standing in front of me, holding her martini glass and laughing at me.

  “Stupid, silly girl.”

  I stop halfway to his house at the barn and decide to go see Lady M. I walk into the barn, and I see a couple of the workers who I’ve met over the past three weeks. I smile to a couple of them and then I see that one of them is mucking the stall that Lady M is in. “Hello there,” I say to him, and he looks over at me.

  “I’ll be done in a minute,” he says, and I just smile at him.

  “Can I help you?” I ask, and he just looks at me. “I used to do this when I was younger,” I say, and he just laughs.

  “I can’t see it.” He shakes his head.

  “Well, I can’t prove you wrong by standing here and watching.” I grab a pitchfork and loosen up the new shavings he just put down. When it’s all done, he just looks at me. “I’m going to go get her some water,” I say, going over to the hose and twisting it for some water. Then I carry the pail of water back in and pour it in her water dish. I walk over to her and rub her neck. “There you go, my girl,” I whisper, and she just looks at me.

  “She doesn’t like anyone,” the guy says and walks out of the stall.

  “Now, that isn’t true.” I look at her again. “You’re just selective over who you like.” I’m about to say something else when I hear what sounds like five people storming into the barn. I look around, suddenly frantic, and Lady M must sense him because she lets out a high-pitched neigh. When I finally look out of her stall, I see that all the commotion was caused by Casey, who stands at the door of the stall and glares at me.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asks. Just his tone pisses me off, and even if I wanted to answer him, he doesn’t give me the opportunity. Instead, he just opens the stall and comes in, Lady M stands between us. “I’ve been searching for you.”

  “Well, you found me.” As I walk around Lady M and toward the door of the stall, he grabs my arm, and in reflex, I shrug it off. “What’s your problem?”

  “My problem,” he hisses out and then advances on me, while I take steps back until my back is pressed up against the wooden stall wall, and I can’t move anymore. “My problem is that I couldn’t find you,” he says, stopping in front of me, and the only thing I can concentrate on is his chest rising and falling. “I’ve been looking for you, everywhere,” he says, almost hissing, as his hands go on the wall beside my head.

  “Well, not everywhere.” I try to say it loud, but it comes out more like a mumble.

  “Do you know how long two minutes is?” he asks, and I make the mistake of looking up at him. His eyes are so dark, they look black.

  “One hundred and twenty seconds,” I answer him, folding my arms over my chest. “Seriously, I don’t know why.”

  “One hundred and twenty seconds.” His voice is almost in a whisper now. “Can feel like your whole life when you can’t find someone.”

  “Well, you found me,” I say.

  “Yeah.” He gets even closer. “I found you.” We stare at each other, and I’m not sure what to say or what to do. He looks like he has so much to say, yet all he can do is look at me. “I found you,” he says again. He bends his head, and I hold my breath and wait for his lips to land on mine. Even though I want to push him away and say no, my mouth itches to have his lips on mine. To feel safe in his arms. “Don’t do it again,” he says right before his lips fall on mine.

  My hands travel to his chest, and I could swear he does a huge sigh of relief when he claims my lips. He kisses me almost like it’s the last time he is going to kiss me, and I have to be honest, it always feels like that. Maybe knowing that this thing between us has an expiration date I don’t know of.

  “Casey,” I whisper his name breathlessly, and before I can say anything more, the sound of someone clearing their throat makes us look over.

  “So you found her,” Billy says, trying not to smile, and my face suddenly gets heated. I’m waiting for him to push away from me, but instead, he brings me closer to him and kisses my head.

  “I found her,” he says. Billy just shakes his head, walking away chuckling.

  “That is so embarrassing,” I say, putting my forehead down on his chest. His heart is beating as fast as mine.

  “It’s not like he caug
ht us naked,” Casey says, his arms hug me tighter than before. “But seriously.” I look up at him. “Don’t do that to me again.”

  “Well, don’t act like a horse’s ass, and I won’t,” I say, and he just glares at me. “Now I want to take Lady M out.”

  “Is that so?” he says with a smirk, and I finally realize that he is too good looking for his own good.

  I push him away from me now, and he laughs. “Jerk face,” I mumble. He puts his hand over my shoulder, and we walk out of the stall.

  “Miguel!” He shouts at the guy who was mucking the stall with me. “Can you saddle down Lady M and my horse also?” Miguel nods. “We are going to have to get you some boots,” Casey says, looking down at my sneakers that are now dusty and dirty.

  “I didn’t even realize they were so dirty,” I say, looking down at my shoes and bending over to dust them off. “How could this happen?”

  “From the looks of it, you just mucked a stall. There is dust and dirt and all that.” He points at the shoes, then takes out his phone and types something. “Let’s go.”

  We walk to the opening of the barn where Lady M is waiting, and beside her is a beautiful black mustang. “Is that one yours?” I look over at Casey, and he nods his head. “He’s beautiful,” I say. He smiles, and I could swear he puffs out his chest. “Can I touch him?”

  When we stop beside him, he grabs the reins from Miguel. “You can.”

  I walk over to him and pet his neck. “You might be even better looking than your owner,” I say loud enough for Casey to hear, and he just laughs. “If you buck him off, I promise to give you some extra treats,” I whisper loudly, which only makes Casey laugh even more.

  “Let’s get you on your horse,” he says. I walk over to Lady M.

  “Hey, beautiful girl,” I say, rubbing her neck. I put my foot in the stirrup, getting myself on the horse before Casey even walks over to me. Miguel hands me the reins, and I look over at Casey as he mounts his horse, flexing his whole arm, and his muscles come out more defined than before.