CHAPTER SIX
Austin dropped Todd off at the municipal soccer field, where he insisted he was going to make up for his poor showing the previous day, and drove to Blue Shapely’s.
He was used to people getting frustrated in conversations with him, though he was rarely attentive enough to figure out why they were. It had taken him a couple hours of mindless fence-post-hole digging for the realization to settle into his brain.
He’d done that stupid ADHD thing where he’d get so focused on one component of a conversation that he couldn’t get past it. In his mind, the most important words out of all that Sheena had said was that she and Blue were supposed to have been an item. Of course he’d attacked that nugget like a hunting dog on a rabbit because his subconscious identified a threat there. Blue was competition.
The fact that she was demonstrating no romantic interest in the man, either in words or actions, hadn’t stopped him from taking offense. He should have stepped away from the subject the moment she got annoyed about it, but apparently fifteen years of social skills therapy hadn’t been enough. Maybe because he’d never been allowed to practice the skills without his mother sitting there telling him what to think and what to say.
He didn’t need her there to tell him when he should apologize, though. He usually figured that out on his own. Slow, sometimes, but slow was better than never, in his book, and he did want to apologize.
He hated that he made her feel bad. That crumpled look on her face—he’d realized later what that had meant. How she’d felt.
He was a shit, and she didn’t deserve it.
Willa was in her front yard patting rocks into place around an empty birdbath’s base when Austin pulled up.
He cringed, wondering if it was healthy for a woman that pregnant to be on hands and knees. Must have been okay, because by the time he’d hopped down and shut the door, she was on her feet, dusting her hands clean on her jeans.
Before she could say anything, he read her glare for what it was and put up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean to make her mad, okay? That’s why I’m here. Tell me she hasn’t left yet, because I want to say sorry. Doesn’t feel good to think folks are mad at me for not knowing how to have a conversation.”
“The last thing she needs is one more chauvinist telling her what she thinks is wrong.”
“And I didn’t mean to do that. Honest. Is she here? Can I talk to her? Please?” He reached through his open truck window and grabbed the bouquet of wildflowers off the seat. “You can tag along if you want. I’m just trying to do what’s right.”
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“Then no.”
He groaned. “Look, it’s hard having folks in my business like this. Just let me explain it to her, and if she wants to tell you, that’s fine with me.”
“Your business, meaning…”
“How I am.”
Willa seemed to be chewing on that while she quietly pulled her fingers free of her gardening gloves.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I think it takes courage to admit flaws. I know too many people who wouldn’t and who expect everyone around them to compensate for them, no matter how inconveniencing they are. I suspect Sheena knows more men like that than she’d care to recount.”
“I’m not trying to be like that.”
“Then go offer your apology. She’s still in Maria. Almost left last night, but Blue needed some more information from her.”
“Thank you.” He started up the path to the house, but Willa pointed the other way. “She’s not here. She felt like she was imposing, so she went to the motel downtown.”
“So why didn’t you—”
Willa cocked a brow, and he clamped his lips together tight so he wouldn’t spit out the rest of that garbage question.
He didn’t need to ask why she didn’t tell him Sheena wasn’t there in the first place. He already knew.
He’d deserved being brought low by a gatekeeper for the way he’d behaved. That was a natural consequence of real-life social interactions, and he was learning. He’d put himself out there and was learning.
*
Austin was about to go to the motel office to find out if anyone matching Sheena’s description had checked in but stopped short upon spying her through the window of a unit in the middle of the row.
She was sitting cross-legged on the bed, laughing at the television. Easy, relaxed, so casual in a T-shirt and sweat shorts.
It didn’t look like she’d unpacked. Her tote bag was on top of the table beneath the window and was full to the brim with clothing. The only thing that looked disturbed was a toiletry bag splayed wide. A wide-tooth comb and scissors were angled on top along with what looked like a couple of sample packs of hair conditioner.
He looked back her way, noticing then that her hair was different than the first night. It was wet. Water was still dripping onto her bright yellow shirt from the ends of her curls. They were a bit more defined than they were before, but the texture was still hard to make out from where he was.
He leaned in for a closer look and bumped his forehead on the glass.
Shit.
Sheena bolted off the bed and ran to the window.
He watched the litany of emotions play across her face.
Fear, then recognition, followed by relief, and then annoyance quickly thereafter.
He probably deserved the annoyance part.
Hastily, he held up the bouquet, and mouthed, “Sorry.”
“What do you want?” came her muffled voice through the air conditioner mounted over the window.
“I felt bad. Wanted to say sorry.”
“Okay. You’ve said it. You can leave now.”
He sighed and shoved his hand into his hair. He felt naked without his hat.
Saying sorry was hard, but he couldn’t demand that anyone accept an apology. That’d been another slow-to-come lesson.
“Can you just give me another chance to be your friend? I hate thinking folks don’t like me because of stuff I’ve said. I didn’t mean it.”
“Why should I? You won’t even give me my earring back.”
He rooted it out of his jeans pocket and pressed it against the glass. “Look. You can have it. No teasing. I just…”
Wanted some leverage.
He’d thought holding that little hoop would be the only way to access her when he wanted. What he hadn’t thought was that he didn’t have the right to access her. She didn’t owe him anything. Not five minutes. Not thirty seconds. Not even a “hi” or a “bye.”
“Here. Take it.” He set it on the windowsill and backed away.
She slid the window open and, slowly, picked up the little gold hoop. Just as slowly, she closed the window. Didn’t lock it, though. She stood on the other side, watching him as she pressed the hoop into her ear.
He could have been wrong, but he thought she sighed with relief—as if that little piece of jewelry was worth more than its weight in gold.
She took the seat in front of the window, fidgeting with the remote control. Still watching him.
He didn’t like feeling so stuck out, even if there was no one else watching. When he couldn’t figure out what people wanted from him, leaving until he could figure out what to go back and say was easiest on his ego. “I guess I’ll see you,” he said.
“Fencing to put up?” she asked.
He shrugged and smoothed a flower petal that had somehow gotten crushed. “I guess I could do a little more, but I’ve already showered today.”
She laughed at that.
He hadn’t been joking, but he could see where the statement may have the slightest edge of amusement to it.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
“What, dinner?”
She nodded.
“Not yet. Waiting on Todd.”
“When are you supposed to pick him up?”
He shrugged. “He said he’d call me.”
“Oh.” She turned to the screen and watched it for a while. Maybe a minute. Then she turned it off and slid the window open. “Buy me some flautas?”
“You sending me to buy you dinner?”
Her brow creased. “I can pay for my own dinner. Usually, when people—”
“Hey. Don’t get mad at me, okay? Sometimes I have to ask questions that seem stupid to you because I have a tendency to misinterpret things.”
“Why?”
“Way my brain is set up.” He shifted his weight, stared at the toes of his boots. “Not something I like to readily admit to folks, but maybe it’ll help you understand. I’m not trying to be a butt. I’m just trying to see if you’re telling me to go away or if you’re asking me to take you out.”
“Oh. Well, the latter.”
“Really?”
“Why do you sound so surprised? A girl’s gotta eat, right?”
“Yeah. I’m sure you could come up with better options, though.”
“Like who?”
Austin dug his teeth into his lower lip and kept his tongue in check. He didn’t need to say any names, and certainly not Blue’s. Like hell was he going to get in trouble for that again.
“No one ever takes me out,” she said.
“I don’t believe that.”
“Why not?”
“Just look at you. You’ve probably got men falling all over themselves to have you in their arms.”
It took him a little while to put two and two together about why her shoulders were shaking the way they were and why her lips were twitching. “That’s funny to you?”
“Yes. Really funny.”
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you over dinner.” She added, softly, “Are those flowers for me?”
“Oh.” He thrust them at her but then pulled them back to fluff a couple of flower heads that had gotten crushed some-damn-how, and then offered them again. “Sorry. You’re probably used to better.”
“I’m used to different. Different doesn’t mean better.”
She closed and locked the window, set the flowers on the table, and met him outside. “You can drive,” she said. “Lance drove my rental car back up to Colorado Springs. That’s where I flew into in case I was being followed and hadn’t noticed yet.”
“You didn’t put the car on a credit card, did you?” He unlocked his truck.
“Why?”
“I just remembered the last time I had to get a rental, the location was printed on my statement.”
“It was just the deposit, though.”
“Still gonna show up as a pending charge.”
Her jaw dropped, and her eyes went wide with shock.
In that moment, she looked too innocent to be legal. Definitely not old enough to be permanently attached to a guy as long in the tooth as Blue Shapely. The fact that anyone could look at her and think that was a good idea made Austin’s teeth grate. She needed someone who still had some things to learn.
Someone like him, maybe.
He gave the thought a mental swat. His mind was just running away again. Of course she wouldn’t want a guy like him. Most of the time, he didn’t even want to be a guy like him.
“You think someone could find me that way?” she asked. “If they were looking?”
“Does anyone have access to your credit card statements besides you?”
“I don’t get paper statements, and no one knows my online information.” She grabbed him by the elbow and yanked on his sleeve. “You don’t think anyone could get in and track me that way, do you? If my father got home early, he might already know I’m gone. Do you think—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said, putting up his hands and waving them in concession. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She was talking so fast that she had his brain spinning even faster than its usual, and he hadn’t thought that was possible. “Sounds like you’ll be all right.”
“But you don’t know these people. You don’t know what they’re like or what they’re capable of.”
“Tell me, then.”
Grimacing, she shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”
“What could it hurt? At worst, I’ll ask you a bunch of stupid questions you can choose not to answer, but maybe it’ll help you clear your head so you stop worrying.”
“I’m going to worry anyway.”
“You think Blue’ll let something happen to you?”
“No. I’m a guest in his territory, and so he feels responsible for me, I guess. He’s got his Coyotes checking on me every few hours.”
“Then take it easy,” Austin said, rubbing her upper arms, comforting her. He couldn’t remember ever having been in that position before. Empathy didn’t always come immediately to him, but being useful that way felt nice.
“I’m trying to,” she said, peering up at him. Her eyes were the same warm brown whether she was wearing fur or her human skin. Thinking of her in that other form was disorienting for him. Unsettling, because the magic didn’t make sense, and his brain didn’t know how to behave when confronted with the impossible.
“This is hard,” she said. “Being out here like this is like being on a faraway planet and not knowing how anything works. I don’t even know when I’m making mistakes.”
“I feel like that sometimes, too.”
“You do?”
He nodded and pulled open the passenger door of his truck. “I moved all the way out here and took the ranch job so my screw-ups wouldn’t bother so many people. Nobody gets too mad at a cowboy who’s a little rude and who always seems like his head’s a million miles away. Can’t expect too much from a guy who spends most of his time outdoors with animals.”
“I’ve spent lots of time with animals.” She buckled her seatbelt and let out the quietest of scoffs. “Dangerous animals with human intelligence, and I can promise you I’d rather be around the ones who know what their flaws are and will admit them than the ones who think being bad makes them strong.”
Grunting, Austin closed the door.
He wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought that might have been a compliment.