I tossed the last set of blades in the floorboard of my truck and slammed the door. It had taken every ounce of control I possessed not to rip Steve’s head off and shit down his throat. He’d always been a USDA Approved, Grade A, large asshole with an ego as big as Texas. Most of the town ignored him, myself included, but he’d just kept pushing.

When Ella had disappeared from behind the counter, he’d nudged me in the ribs and confessed to understanding why I’d been ‘tapping that’ and wasn’t interested in anyone else. While I fought down the urge to throw his ass through the glass front window, I calmly put the boxes of blades back on the counter and explained to him in no uncertain terms exactly what I thought of him. Ella had returned to catch the end of the exchange. While making a scene in Goodall Equipment’s parts department hadn’t been the best idea I’d ever had, what I regretted the most was Ella walking back in on it.

I was backing out of my parking space when Steve came out. He gave me the finger with a sneer, but I couldn’t care less what Steven Calhoun thought of me. All the way back to the farm I turned over in my mind what I’d seen. I’d only been an MP for four years or so, but in that length of time I’d really honed my bullshit detector. When Ella went off on Steve, his sneering response was telling. He thought he’d gotten away with something. Ella hadn’t asked him to fuck her, and she hadn’t told him she was on the pill. I didn’t know if he knew she’d been drugged that night, but he sure as shit knew it now. Ella had been telling the truth all along about the drug, the rape, all of it, and Steven knew it.

I could do nothing about it. Believing something wasn’t the same as having proof, but it had caused a seismic shift in me. All the pain and loss I’d been feeling flashed into rage in an instant. Rage at Cat and Steve, and the town for not believing Ella. Anger with my own parents for not doing more to help her. Anger at myself for not believing in her. Now I wondered if she’d ever intended to marry Steve or if that was just another rumor.

As I drove I worked hard to come to terms with my feelings. I could understand, logically, why Mom and Dad had believed the way they had, but this was Ella. They knew her, and they should have known, or at the very least given her the benefit of the doubt that something was off with the story. I’d sensed it. Why couldn’t they?

Maybe it was because I was still in love with her. Deep down inside, I guess I’d never stopped loving her. I’d tried to forget what we’d had, and though I’d buried it deep, now that I knew the truth, all those feelings came bubbling back to the surface. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone to the barn, and maybe she shouldn’t have been drinking beer. I didn’t care about those things. I expected her to be faithful to me, but I didn’t expect her to live like a hermit and not have any fun or go out with her friends. So maybe she’d made a mistake, but if she had, it’d been a small one, and she certainly didn’t deserve what happened to her.

There was nothing I could do to make it right, but I damn well could be there for her. Her grandmother had said I was part of their family, and that would never change, so it was about fucking time I started acting like it.

“Levi? What’s wrong?” Dad asked as I stomped into the shop with eight boxes of blades in my hands. He watched me a moment as I snatched tools from the tool box. “Want some help?”

“I’ve got it.”

I could tell he wanted to know more, but he was a guy and understood. “If you need anything, let me know,” he said before he left me to myself.

A lot of meaning was contained in that sentence, more than just an offer to help with changing the blades, but I wanted to be alone. I was in no mood to talk to anyone right now. I wasn’t done beating myself up for not being there for Ella as I promised her I would. Sure, I was halfway across Texas, unable to come home, but I could have called and talked to her, told her I still loved her, but I hadn’t. I’d left her to face it alone.

Working with my hands on a simple, repetitive task helped me think. I’d fucked up big time. She might not ever be able to forgive me, but I could try to make it up to her. I owed her that much.

“Levi? Lunch is ready,” Mom said from the door.

I looked up. I’d almost finished replacing the top row of teeth, but it seemed like I’d just started. “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Instead of going back to the house, she walked deeper into the shop. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

She watched me for a long moment as I tightened the two bolts holding the blade in place. The new blades were much shinier than the old, but I was going to remove the next blade and leave it off before I broke for lunch to make sure I didn’t get confused over which blades were new and which were old.

“You want to talk?”

“No, not really.”

“What happened?”

I glanced up and the look on Mom’s face stung me. She was truly worried. “It’s nothing. I saw Ella at Goodall’s. Steve came in and he and I had some words.”

“Just ignore him.”

“Yeah. It’s not Steve, it’s Ella. Mom, Ella was telling the truth about everything. The drug, the rape, all of it.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You don’t know that.”

“I do now. He was being a jerk and she jumped down his throat about the rape, the drug, all off it. I could see it in his eyes. He knew it was true.”

“That’s not proof. I think you’re letting her cloud your judgement.”

I shook my head. “No. No way. I know what I saw. You’re right, it’s not proof, but it’s good enough for me.”

“Oh, Levi,” she moaned softly. “Why do you want to get mixed up in this?”

“Because what happened to Ella isn’t right.”

“You can’t change it. Why can’t you just let it go?”

“I’m not trying to change it, but by God I can be there to help her like I promised her I always would.”

“She’s not your responsibility. I’m sorry for what happened to her, I really am. But Abby is Steve’s little girl, not yours. He should be the one to step up and take care of her, not you.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about everyone thinking Ella brought this on herself. She didn’t. How would you feel if Kamron or Rebecca was in Ella’s place?”

“They wouldn’t be. We raised you kids better than that.”

My lips tightened. “So you’re saying that someone couldn’t slip something into one of their drinks, even a Coke or lemonade, that could cause them to pass out, or are you saying even though they were drugged, you’d expect them to defend themselves, or are you saying no man would take advantage of them if they were passed out?”

Mom looked down. For the first time I think she was really considering what Ella had gone through. “No, I’m not saying that. I’m just thankful it didn’t happen.”

“I am too, but it did happen to Ella, and the whole town, you, me, and Dad included, turned our backs on her.”

“That’s not fair, Levi!”

“No? Where am I wrong?”

“There’s no proof she was drugged or anything else.”

“What if Rebecca or Kamron said they were drugged? Would you believe them?”

“Of course!”

“What if everyone else said it wasn’t true. Would you still believe them?”

She looked down. “Yes.”

“We should have given Ella the benefit of the doubt.”

“We did! Your dad and I both did. But when all the evidence started coming out against her…”

“I know. I’m not blaming you, not really. I’m blaming myself. I should have been there for her.”

“You couldn’t have known! How could you? And even if you did believe her, you still have no proof.”

I shook my head. “I know that, but I know Ella. She wouldn’t do that to me, not on purpose, not if she had a choice. I should have believed in her.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? I don’t understand.”

“I have no proof that anything she said is true. But I believe her now. I’m going to tell her that, I’m going to tell Ken and Helen and Tom and Mary that, and I’m going to ask them to forgive me. After that, we’ll see what happens.”

“You think telling her family will make any difference?”

“How can it hurt? I messed up. The least I can do is own up to my mistake.”

She looked at her feet. “I think you’re making a mistake.”

“It’s my mistake to make, and it won’t be my first one.”

“Do you still love her? Is that what’s making you do this?”

“I don’t know, Mom. I really don’t. I didn’t think so, but now I’m not sure. Maybe. The only thing I know for her sure is I loved her once, and I owe her and her family an apology for acting like a dick.”

She held my gaze for a long time. “I always liked Ella.”

“I know. She adored you and Dad.”

“You really think she was telling the truth?”

“Yes, I do. When I talked to her the first time, I knew she believed what she was saying, but seeing Steve’s reaction today, yeah, I believe her.”

“And you don’t think you’re reading too much into it?”

I shook my head. “No. You learn real fast as a cop to tell when someone is lying to you. Steve is guilty as shit of rape and he knows it. He thinks he’s gotten away with it, but he knows what he did was wrong.”

Her mouth thinned. “And I can’t talk you into dropping this?”

“I’m just going to apologize. That’s all.”

“You’re not going to do something stupid, are you?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, like go after Steve Calhoun?”

“No, nothing like that.”

She nodded. “And you’re not going to get involved with Ella again?”

That was a harder question to answer. “I don’t know. We’ll see. I think I probably burned that bridge. I don’t think she’s interested in me anymore.”

“You’re just going to apologize to Ella and her family and let it drop? Are you trying to clear your conscious?”

“That’s the plan. And yeah, maybe that’s all I’m trying to do.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “This is some fucked up shit, Levi. I don’t know—”

“Mom!” I cried and chuckled, stunned she threw the F-bomb. I couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d started flapping her arms and flew around the shop.

She twittered out a laugh. “Well, it is. I’m worried you’re not thinking clearly. I don’t want you dragged through mud on this, and I don’t want to see you hurt again. You know how Hamlinton is.”

“Yeah, I know. Mr. Goodall showed up, and by tomorrow everyone in town will know Steve and I had a pissing contest in his parts department. But you know what? I don’t care. Now that I think about it, that’s what pissed me off more than anything. Steve was acting like she was some two-dollar whore, not the mother of his child. I’m not going to tolerate it. I might be the only person in town, other than her family, who will stand up for her, but I’m not standing around while people run Ella down, and I’m not going to act like she brought this on herself. She’s the victim, Mom. She doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”

“You know people are going to talk.”

“Let ‘em talk. I don’t care, I really don’t. This is the right thing to do.”

She smiled at me. “You’re a good boy, a good man, Levi. Don’t ever lose that. I’m afraid you’re making a mistake, but I’m proud of you for doing what you think is right.”

I returned to my task, quickly loosening the two bolts holding the next blade. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

Lunch was a chilly affair. I could tell neither Mom nor Dad agreed with my decision to get involved, but I didn’t care. For the first time since I’d been home I felt like I had my feet firmly on the ground. Hamlinton handled scandals by sweeping them under the rug and whispering about it. That wasn’t going to fly with this one, or maybe it would, but I’d become one of the ones they’d whisper about. Either way, I didn’t care. I didn’t expect Steve or Cat to end up in jail since I couldn’t prove rape, but Ella wasn’t going to have to face the whispers and the knowing smiles alone anymore. If Hamlinton didn’t like it, then the whole town could go fuck itself.

After lunch I returned to my work. Mom and Dad left me to it, probably sensing they were walking on thin ice with me over this. I’d made up my mind and nothing they could say would change it.

I finished the first header, backed the machine out, and pulled the other one in. By the time I’d finished changing the second set of knives, it was almost dark. I’d completed both headers and only cut myself badly enough to bleed once. I considered that a win.

I thought about showering and running into town to apologize after Ella got off but decided after this morning, I needed to give her a little notice. I probably wasn’t very popular with her at the moment.

After I had dinner, I was in a much better mood than I’d been at lunch, and Mom and Dad weren’t quite so distant. Even though nothing was said about Ella or my plans, by the time the meal was over, we’d put our disagreement behind us. I was a grown ass man, and if I wanted to step in a pile of shit, it was my business.

I cleaned up and settled down. About nine, I dialed the number Ella had when we were dating. I’d deleted it from my contacts years ago, but my fingers knew the number as if I’d last dialed it yesterday. I didn’t know if she still had it, but it was the only number I had for her.

The call went straight to voicemail. This is Ella. I can’t take your call right now, but leave me a message and I’ll call you back. I smiled, taking it as a sign this was the right thing to do.

“Ella, this is Levi. I’d like to talk to you. Please call me back. It’s important.” I hung up and placed my phone aside.

It was nearly ten before my phone rang. “Hi,” I said.

“What do you want?”

I cringed. She wasn’t happy. “I need to talk to you. Not just you, but you and your family.”

“Why?”

“Not over the phone.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why?”

“You said you weren’t going to cause trouble, but you almost cost me my job this morning.”

“I’m sorry about that. Do you want me to talk to Mr. Goodall and explain what happened?”

“No! Absolutely not! You’ve caused enough trouble already.”

“I just need ten or fifteen minutes of your time, then if you want, I’ll never speak to you again.”

“That’s what you said the last time.”

“Ella, please, I give you my word. This is important to me. Just do me this one favor, for old times’ sake if nothing else.”

She sighed. “Fine.”

“I’ll meet you at your trailer right after you get off.”

“I need to get Abby first.”

“I’d like you to meet me alone first. And if you can arrange it, I’d like to talk to your parents and grandparents as well, after I talk to you.”

“What are you up to, Levi?”

“Just do me this favor. After I talk to you, if you don’t want me talking to your parents, then okay. But let me say what I need to before you shut the door on me completely.” I paused, but when she didn’t answer, I pressed. “If I ever meant anything to you, do this for me.”

“That’s low,” she growled but I said nothing. “Fine. Be at my place at eight. I’ll talk to Mom and Dad, but you’re on their shit list again after this morning, so I make no promises.”

“I’ll take that. Thank you.”

“After this, we’re done. Clear? I don’t want any more trouble.”

“I understand.”

“I hope so. I can’t afford to lose my job,” she said and was gone.