Ride Baby Ride

by Vivian Arend

  He got to see her like that more often these days, and her enthusiasm thrilled him.

  A hand clamped down on his shoulder. “You’re obsessed with my sister,” Clay poked.

  “Not even going to deny it.”

  Clay grumbled. “No fun to tease you anymore. You’re all Katy all the time.”

  “Tease Mitch instead,” Troy suggested. “He’s got a cop on his tail. One more ticket, bro, and she’s going to impound your bike and slap your ass in jail for a couple nights.”

  Mitch didn’t answer, just eyed Anna Coleman as she strolled through the crowd patrolling the fair grounds, her uniform far more wrinkled than usual. Gage wondered briefly if something was going on he wasn’t aware of.

  He’d been so focused on Katy and his conversation that he almost missed it. A familiar face popped out briefly from behind the corner of the cookhouse.

  “Was that Simon?” he snapped.

  Clay twirled. “Where? He’s not supposed to be anywhere near Katy.”

  There was no one there. “I’m seeing things,” Gage mumbled.

  Only he still left the tent, glancing around closely. He passed Len and Janey returning from the rides, Janey’s cheeks flushed from excitement.

  She slowed as he passed her. “Gage? What’s up?”

  He ignored her, pacing forward. Fucker. It was Simon, now leaning on the outside of the cookhouse and staring intently at Katy. The expression on Simon’s face suggested his attention wasn’t a good thing.

  “Oh my God, that’s Simon.” Janey slapped Gage on the shoulder rapidly a dozen times, her voice shaking as she ran along beside him. “What’s he doing here? What’s he doing?”

  Gage wasn’t going to wait for something bad to happen. He stormed across the clearing between tents, headed straight for the troublemaker. He grabbed Simon by the back of the shirt and jerked him off his feet. “What the hell? You’re not welcome here.”

  Simon scrambled to free himself from Gage’s grip, seams shredding as he broke free and stumbled into the crowd. He used the people around him to pull himself upright and whirl toward Gage.

  “Bastard,” he snarled. “You think you’re so much better than me, but you’re the biggest loser here. A liar and a killer, and you don’t deserve to be with someone like Katy.”

  Gage lifted his fists and widened his stance. Simon wanted a fight? Bring it on.

  Janey slipped into his peripheral vision, standing well back from them both. “Gage. I called the police and they’ll be—”

  “Police? What the fuck did you do that for?” Panic streaked across Simon’s face, and he surged forward, only this time toward Katy, one hand raised threateningly in the air.

  “Katy, watch out,” Janey shouted.

  Gage lost it. He threw himself in front of Katy as a protective wall, and Simon bounced off him.

  “Back off,” Gage warned.

  Simon exploded, punishing Gage with a flurry of fists. He wrapped an arm around Gage and jolted forward, the two of them staggering into the crowd as people screamed and attempted to run away. Katy cried out, his name escaping her in pained gasp.

  The sound barreled through him, a terrifying echo from his past when he’d been too late to make a difference.

  Gage went numb.

  Katy. He had to protect Katy.

  Simon wasn’t supposed to be here, not this close to Katy, but the man obviously didn’t care about the law. Gage ignored the fist smashing against his face, instead pushed forward and did his best to move Simon farther from his target. Pain ignored, the shimmer of stars floating past his eyes ignored. All that mattered was keeping Katy safe.

  Around them people continued to shout, but Gage didn’t stop. Didn’t stop until he was on the ground, and even then he clutched Simon tightly, refusing to allow the man to escape.

  He didn’t swing his fists—didn’t attack. Just held on and took the assault as he kept Simon away from Katy.

  “Gage, you ass, let him go,” Clay shouted from somewhere close by.

  The shouting and noise seemed to be dropping, but the adrenaline racing through him kept his grip firm. “No, he’ll hurt Katy.”

  “No one is going to hurt Katy.” Clay’s big hands pushed down on his shoulders. “Jeez, man. The RCMP are right here. Let him go so they don’t rip off his arms.”

  Gage relaxed. Simon was lifted off him, rapidly pulled to his feet and away from where Gage remained on the ground.

  Clay offered a hand and pulled him upright, bracing him for a moment as everything spun. Gage’s eyes wouldn’t focus for a minute, and he blinked hard. “Katy. Where’s Katy?” he demanded.

  “Settle down,” Clay ordered. “She’s over there.”

  Gage whipped his head to check she was okay, nearly falling over he moved so fast. “Thank God, you’re safe. You okay?”

  Her face had gone white, and her hands were draped protectively around her belly. She nodded, leaning against Janey as her friend pulled her into a hug.

  A few feet away Anna Coleman stood guarding a handcuffed Simon. Her partner Nick stood beside Gage, while other RCMP worked to calm the crowd.

  “I’ll be back in a minute.” Anna Coleman spoke softly. “Gage, don’t leave before we talk to you, understand?”

  Gage nodded, and Anna turned to lead Simon to the police car.

  Nick interrupted her departure. “Wait. I hate to do this in light of what just happened, but I have no choice.”

  He reached into his jacket and pulled out a long envelope, passing it to Gage.

  This wasn’t the time. “I need to see Katy,” Gage protested.

  Nick forced the paper into his hand. “Read it, now,” he ordered.

  “You had it coming,” Simon gloated. “Stay away from my woman, Jenick.”

  Oh shit. That couldn’t be good. Gage ripped the top off the envelope and frantically opened the paper. The words made no sense, though. “This… This can’t be right.”

  He had to be seeing things.

  “What is it?” Katy asked, stepping closer.

  Nick held up a hand, undeniable reluctance twisting his expression. “I’m sorry, Katy. You can’t come any closer than that, I’m afraid.”

  Gage held the papers to Clay. “Did Simon hit me harder than I thought? How can this be legal?”

  It was Nick who answered. “They were delivered this morning.”

  “It’s for your own safety, Katy.” Simon had put on the act again, all calm and mature, as if he hadn’t just tried to attack her. “For our baby.”

  Nick motioned to Anna. “Take him away, I’ll deal with this.”

  Everyone fell silent as a laughing Simon was guided off the fairgrounds, Anna Coleman’s firm grip on his shoulder.

  Gage’s gaze met Katy’s—her panic and upset so clear he nearly ignored everyone around them and stomped across the space separating them, papers be damned.

  “Gage? What’s going on?” she asked.

  Clay walked over to give his sister the papers, wrapping an arm around her. The expression on Katy’s face as she read them scared him more than the sight of Simon stalking her had.

  “It’s a restraining order against Gage,” Nick explained to Katy. “Using Gage’s history, Simon went in front of a judge and filed a complaint. He said he had concerns that you and your baby might be in danger, especially if it’s discovered that the baby is actually his.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Janey snapped. “How can Simon get a restraining order on Gage? That’s up to Katy, not anyone else.”

  Nick shook his head. “Except in special circumstances. Here in Alberta, this is a civil-court matter. If there’s a reasonable belief that a claim is valid, exceptions can be made. The judge agreed there was a possibility of danger considering Gage was involved in a violent incident as a youth.”

  “Violent incident…? He was trying to save his mom.” Katy shook the papers. “This is wrong, and the only reason Simon did it was to control me and hurt Gage.”

  Nick sig
hed. “There’s nothing I can do. Gage can go in front of a judge to protest, but until it’s overruled, the order stands until the baby is born and the paternity test is complete.”

  Clay was back by Gage’s side, offering support. Gage rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder, the world swirling between pain and frustration.

  Fear still shone in Katy’s eyes, and Gage felt it to his very soul. “I can’t be with Katy?”

  “I’m sorry, no. No contact over the phone or Internet either. No communication. It’s a full restriction, and if you break it, you can be arrested.”

  Gage wanted to shout in rage even though that was the worst possible idea at the moment. Fury against Simon shot through him like living flames, but his hands were tied.

  He was trapped.

  Across from him, Katy faced Nick. “I need to talk to you for a minute.”

  The RCMP looked confused, but he nodded. “Go on.”

  She spoke clearly, her voice the only sound as everyone around them hushed to silence once more. “Simon went too far. I’m going to do everything possible to make sure he gets no contact with my baby, even if he is the biological dad. He’s dangerous.”

  Sweet relief poured through Gage.

  Her voice quivered for a second, those beautiful eyes of hers filling with tears, but she still lifted her chin and continued. “Tell Gage not to break the order. Contact the judge to see if he can get it lifted, but if he can’t, I want him to wait it out. It’s only for a little while. It sucks and it’s wrong, and if Simon were still here I’d be the first one to knock him on his ass for doing this to us, but it’s not worth going to jail for. I’ll be fine, and within a month we’ll be past this and we’ll go on with our lives.”

  Such strength and power in her small frame, Gage was nearly overwhelmed by the display. “Hey, Nick?” he called.

  The RCMP turned his way. “Yes?”

  Gage followed Katy’s lead. “Tell Katy I’m going to do everything I can.”

  “I know…” she answered, not looking away from Nick.

  Nick shook his head. “Guys, you have to stop this. It’s time to move on.”

  They faced each other across the distance that before had seemed like nothing but was now as large a barrier as the Atlantic Ocean. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she gazed sorrowfully one final time before walking toward the parking lot.

  Gage’s soul crumbled into dust. “How could this happen?” he whispered. “It’s not right, to leave her all alone. I wanted to protect her. I need to protect her…”

  The murmur of voices rose as Janey stepped to his side. She laid her hand on his arm. “I’ll go with her. I know it’s not what you really want, but somehow we’ll get through this.”

  “Go—” he urged.

  Janey quick-stepped across the field to rejoin Katy, slipping an arm around her. Katy leaned her head on her friend’s shoulder, and they walked slowly, disappearing from sight around the corner.

  All the happiness and joy Gage had finally allowed himself to grasp slipped away like ashes being blown from an abandoned fire pit.

  16

  Katy stared into her backyard. The garden gnomes had been at it again.

  Well, one gnome of unusually large size.

  For the past week since the picnic, Gage had taken to showing up and doing her chores. Silently. He didn’t try to speak to her, but every morning before heading to work he arrived and did something that needed to be done. Chopped wood and stockpiled it for the winter. Weeded the garden. Turned over another section along the fence where she’d mentioned planting raspberry canes.

  He came back in the evenings to move sprinklers and deal with the trash. It was tortuous to see him, and want him, and not be able to touch him.

  Maybe they could have cheated and gotten together. Phoned or emailed or even had him sneak into the house in the dark. She wasn’t about to turn him in, and neither was her family. But it would only take one misunderstanding to blow the entire thing up around them. Katy stuck with what she’d told him originally. They could handle the separation for the short time required.

  No communication. No contact. No coming closer than the prearranged distance.

  Instead, Clay stopped by to tell her the latest news from Gage. The judge he’d gone to see had been sympathetic but insisted the concerns raised were valid enough to take seriously. The order stayed in place.

  Simon was behind bars for breaking his own restraining order. Katy couldn’t have handled not having Gage around and knowing Simon was roaming free.

  Only as she wandered the house, the baby weighing heavier all the time, it was lonely. Heartbreaking, body-achingly lonely.

  This was more frustrating than the days immediately after her memory loss the previous fall. At least then she had forgotten about the things that had made her sad as well as the things that had made her happy. Now she knew what would make her happy, but she was helpless to reach out and grab it.

  Helpless to give that happiness back to Gage as well.

  Her dad showed up one night, staring out at the yard while Gage was there. Usually didn’t say much, her dad. So when he spoke, she listened.

  “Remember the first time I met Gage. Kind of looked lost.” Keith Thompson fidgeted with a set of crayons she’d left on the table. “Took a long time for that kid to smile. I mean, really smile. Almost seemed something inside him had been rusted shut, and turning the lock to open it was painful. But he did get there. Eventually.”

  Her dad eased himself up off the chair and paused, still staring outside. “Seen him more than smile because of you, Katy. You make him shine bright like your mama used to make me come alive inside. He’s a good man. You’ll get through this, and in the end it’ll be worth it.” He kissed her cheek before leaving. She was torn between crying and laughing, and ended up doing a strange combination of both that left her sniffling through hiccups.

  And now her backyard was awash in a sea of blue.

  All along the perimeter, where the fence created too much shade for anything much to grow, low-lying plants full of tiny blue flowers covered every inch of ground. It was like someone had poured spectacular winter sky over the ground and it had set roots.

  She pulled her robe over the extension of her belly the best she could, slipped on old shoes and stepped out into the fresh morning air. She paced the yard slowly, examining the plants as if they would somehow make all her problems go away.

  They were beautiful, and she wanted to draw pictures of them, which was a totally irrational response to the fact that Gage Jenick had somehow overnight transformed her yard into a botanical wonderland.

  There was no mistaking this for anyone else’s work, especially not when she turned and discovered him standing at the edge of the fence. The fence he’d fixed a couple days earlier.

  They stared across the yard at each for all of thirty seconds before he turned, ready to walk away.

  “Wait.” Katy glanced around. No one close, no one to tell… So irresistible.

  Gage swallowed hard as she approached, holding up a hand as if to ward her off. “Stop.”

  She paused at the closest point legally possible, ignoring the fact that even talking was supposed to be out of bounds. “I had to see you.”

  He examined her closely like a man drinking deeply after a drought. “You okay?”

  She nodded. “I’ve got this really great gardener.”

  Gage smiled, but it was a faint flicker of the old expression that could bring her to her knees with longing. As if he was holding back. Cautious. “Do you recognize them?” he asked, pointing to the flowers.

  Keeping their discussion normal. Easy, and fit for public conversation. Not intimate, which was probably good or she’d be tempted to throw herself into his arms and damn the consequences. She twisted to check her backyard. “Flowers aren’t my thing. Yet. Who knows what I’ll pick up next, though. They’re very pretty.”

  “They’re called forget-me-nots. They’ll fade after a few mo
nths, but they bloom every year just as bright as before. It’s like…” he paused, “…for a little while they go to sleep, but they’re always there. Waiting to show what they’re really like inside.”

  A knife blade of emotion, painful and sharp, twisted in her belly.

  He reached for her but let his hand fall away before they connected. Gage cleared his throat, staring over the field of flowing blue. “I miss you. Stay safe, okay?”

  Then he turned and walked away, taking her heart with him.

  17

  There was this itchy sensation at the back of her brain screaming it was past time for this to be over. Not only the baby’s arrival, but all of it. Her family had taken control of the waiting room down the hall, but they still managed to hover. Between the anxious glances and the well-meant but annoying suggestions to make her feel better, she was ready to kick their collective oversized asses out of the hospital.

  She was having a baby, damn it, not on her deathbed. There was too much going on now that labour had started. Too much, and yet not enough to distract her from thinking about what she wanted.

  Or more specifically who she wanted.

  “I can’t do this anymore.” Katy eased her way down the hall, holding tightly to Janey’s arm.

  “I don’t think you can cancel at this point, hon.” Janey paced slowly, her head dipping closer as her volume went even lower. “Although, if you want me to encourage anyone to leave, tell me, okay? Anyone,” she said pointedly as one of Katy’s brothers stepped toward them.

  Here they went again. Katy eased a hand over her rock-solid belly as she paused to deal with another contraction. “Oh damn, this hurts.”

  Her brother Troy wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You’re doing great.”

  She couldn’t answer for a moment. It was nice to know they cared, but really? Her brothers and her dad? Katy blew out the final moment of pain and straightened to look into Troy’s concerned eyes. “Thanks for the encouragement, but please. Go home, and we’ll let you know when the kid arrives.”