I wished I had asked her what she meant, but I didn’t want to bother her. I was so confused because I thought I had life down better than anyone I knew. I chalked it up to old age and dismissed what she said.
I joined the others and sat at the table next to Bridge. We talked about the pregnancy and what we thought the sex of the baby was going to be. She’d decided that she would wait until the birth to find out. That drove me crazy, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“What about names?” I asked her.
“I have no idea, honestly. I can’t decide on a single one.”
“Oh, come on, Bridge. You have to be leaning toward a few.”
“I’m serious,” she laughed. “I think I’m going to have to look in the baby’s face and decide then.”
I smiled. “Wow, gutsy.”
“I like to live dangerously.”
“I know,” I said, exasperated a little.
She huffed and rolled her eyes. “Get it out.”
“Well, I mean, you and Jonah. What’s really going on there?”
She looked at the next bench down from ours and eyed the subject of my question. “I-now don’t get mad…”
I sighed. “Bridge, any time someone prefaces a sentence like that, I most definitely get mad.”
“Well, just listen then,” she began before taking a deep breath. “I like Jonah.”
“I had that kind of figured out already.”
“A lot,” she said, agony written all over her face.
“I think he likes you a lot too, Bridge.”
“I think so but, well, I’m so perplexed. I’m having someone else’s baby. I’m not quite eighteen. I know it should feel inappropriate but I-I just feel so lost because I don’t feel that way.”
My heart went out to her. “You’re punch-drunk.”
“Extremely.”
“Why don’t you just follow his lead?”
She furrowed her brows at me. “Are you seriously talking to me about this?”
“Yes, Bridge, he’s a good friend to me and, to be honest, you have to be a rare kind of person for your friends to be okay with them dating your sister. You feel me?”
“Yeah, he’s a gentleman. And I know that sounds so stupid in this day and age, but Jonah is so kind to me, so considerate and thoughtful. I don’t think I’ve ever felt uncomfortable around him, and lately I’ve found myself watching his every move when he’s around or wondering where and what he’s doing when he’s not.”
I considered everything she was saying. “Just tread carefully,” I advised. “Follow his lead, don’t rush, and guard the shit out of your heart, Bridge.”
She nodded, taking everything I said seriously. I wondered why I couldn’t follow my own advice.
Halfway through dinner, Cricket shocked me walking into the hall. Her hair was back in one of her hair scarves and her eyes were red from crying, although I could tell she tried to cover them up.
My hands stilled on the table as she made herself a plate. I wanted to jump to my feet, run to her and pick her up. If I could have, if she would have let me, I would have carried her away. I wanted to kiss every inch of her swollen eyes and promise her that everything was going to be all right. Oh God, she makes my chest ache.
It took everything in me not to jump up when she approached the table. She made a move to sit next to Ellie, who happened to be sitting next to me, but changed her mind and sat at the complete opposite end of the table.
Damn it!
I watched her every single move, not caring at all if people thought I was psychotic. It wouldn’t have bothered me if they did, not when she was so obviously hurting.
When dinner was over, everyone sat and chatted for a while when the phone rang. Emmett got up to answer and Cricket used the opportunity to try and sneak off, but I followed her and caught her in the main living area.
“Cricket,” I said tenderly.
Instead of brushing me off, as I anticipated, Cricket faced me. “Yes?”
I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t expected her to be receptive at all, so I just went with the first thing I could think of. “I’m sorry about this morning.”
She smiled delicately. “It’s not a big deal, Spencer,” she said politely, making me feel uneasy.
“No, it was. I’m not exactly sure what I said, but I realize now that I pushed you too far and I’m sorry for that.”
“You just helped me understand what I was too blind to see, and I fixed it. So, I should be thanking you, really.” She smiled affably and turned toward the staircase.
She was acting so strangely, too politely, not at all the easygoing Cricket I was accustomed to. “Okay,” I said, following her. “Can we talk some more?”
“If you’ll excuse me,” she said, putting me in my place, “I have a few things to do, but I’ll see you around.” She ascended the remaining staircase and hooked a right down the long hall to her bedroom.
I followed her anyway, not satisfied with the cold, apathetic conversation she’d just given me.
“Cricket, why are you acting like this?” I asked. My hand settled on her forearm as she reached for her doorknob.
She looked down at my hand and I removed it. “I’m not acting like anything. I’m with Ethan. I’m not using him or afraid to leave him anymore, and I think our friendship is improper. I think you and I should be fellow ranch hands and nothing more.”
I felt like she’d punched me in the gut. “Anymore? You’re not broken up? What was earlier all about?”
She sighed. “Of course not,” she explained. “And earlier was just my fixing something that needed fixing. I’m setting boundaries between us, Spencer. You’ll be gone in a few months, and it’s not worth wrecking fifteen years of my life all because I’m starting to feel things for you.”
“But if I was sticking around? What then? Would you be with Ethan then? It feels like you’re settling.”
She shook her head. “It’s not settling. I’ve just made a decision. I made a promise and I cannot go back on it.”
And with that, she left me in the hall, stunned.
I staggered back a little and headed back toward the stairs. “Still with Ethan?”
I felt more shocked than I thought I would.
“Yes, does that bother you, Blackwell?” I heard from the end of the hall.
Ethan stood, leaning against the wall, his eyes boring through me. He wanted a fight, I could feel it, but I’d already decided not in the Hunt house, not when they’d been so kind to us.
“Yes, it does,” I told him.
“Finally, some honesty for a change,” he said, standing to his full height but leaving his arms crossed. He walked closer to me and I found my fists naturally tightening. “You better watch yourself,” he continued.
“Oh yeah? Why?”
“Because I’ll catch you when you least expect it.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked him.
“It means I see right through your shit and you don’t want to provoke me.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Damn straight,” he said, lingering a moment before rounding me.
He knocked on Cricket’s door.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“It’s Ethan,” he said, eyeing me.
“Come in,” she invited.
He opened the door but before he went inside, gave me a triumphant smile.
“Asshole,” I muttered and headed back downstairs to get my jacket and head back to the trailer, but the dining hall was unusually full.
I found Bridge sitting next to Jonah talking so I joined them.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Emmett’s on the phone with the McAllen family a town over,” Jonah explained.
“Friends of the family or something?”
“Not really, but apparently something major happened. Pop Pop’s asked us to stick around for a minute.”
“Okay,” I said just as Emmett walked in.
He sat at the front of the table. “Well, that was Amos McAllen’s son. He’s flown into Yellow Creek. Amos was in an accident last week and they’ve had to amputate his leg.”
“Poor man,” Jonah said, shaking his head.
“He’s in pretty serious condition and his wife is suffering without him. As you know, calving season is in full swing and their ranch is small.” Lots of hands started nodding. “She relied on Amos for a lot.”
“I can go over and help them,” Jonah offered quickly, shocking me.
“I was hoping you would say as much,” Emmett said.
“Can we afford to lose Jonah?” I asked Bridge under my breath.
She shrugged. We were strapped for hands as it was. Jonah nudged my shoulder and I looked at him like he was crazy. The death look he gave me confirmed it.
I raised my hand like a fifth grader. “Uh, I can go too,” I volunteered.
“Thank you, Spencer,” Emmett said. “That’s about all we can spare, I believe.”
A few days away from Cricket might help clear your head a little too, I thought.
That night, I practically toppled into bed, tired all the way down to my bones by so many different things.
“You look pathetic, you know that, right?”
“Shup up, Piper,” I said, locking the villa door and heading toward the elevators.
I pressed the button for the bottom floor. She followed me when the doors opened.
“You look desperate to her and she’s probably lost all respect for you.”
“Shut up, Piper!”
She sighed and leaned against the glass in her satin gown. “I tried to tell you, Spencer. She’s not good for you. She’s nothing but trouble.”
“Piper, shut up, or I’ll shut you up.”
“And she’s going to take all your money,” she sang.
My blood burned in my veins and my hand found her throat and squeezed. “Shut. Up.”
She smiled and I let her go. She gasped, then started laughing. “You hate to hear the truth,” she said, borrowing my own words. “And what about your deal?” she asked.
“What deal?”
“The deal your friend made you. The phone call you got on the way back from Vegas?”
“How do you even know about that?”
“You forget, Spencer, I told you I know everything. I know he offered you the chance of a lifetime on an inside trade involving an innovative technology. I know you have every intention of taking it because it would set you and your sister up extravagantly for life. I also know that you’re two million dollars short.”
“Yeah, no thanks to you.”
She pouted. “Trust me,” she said, “if I had known the offer was coming and that you’d take it, I’d have kept your money safe.”
“And now I have no way of obtaining that two million! He’s going to need that soon! How am I supposed to get it now?”
“You’ll find a way. Borrow it.”
“From who?”