After the Rain (The Callahans) (21 page)

“I know. Faye told me.”

“It was no secret.” He watched several birds fly between the trees.

“But the baby was?”

Sighing, he shrugged. “Not really. Everyone knows about it, obviously. It’s just not something I talk about.”

“It might help if you did.”

“The baby died, Kylie. She was never real.”

“She was to you.”

He didn’t answer. Thinking about his daughter and the fact that she’d never breathed real air, made him angry all over again.

“Your grandmother seems to have forgiven Danny.”

“Mamaw tends to see the good in people. I’m more of a realist.”

“Maybe you aren’t looking hard enough.”

Annoyed, he met her gaze. “I don’t
want
to hate him, Kylie. I just do. It’s the way it is.”

“It takes more effort to hate someone than it does to ignore them.”

He supposed she had a point. “All I know is that every time I see him, I want to plant my fist in his face.”

“I don’t blame you,” she said, on a sigh. “But does it help you when you do? Plant your fist in his face, I mean.”

“While I’m doing it, yes.” He grimaced as a raindrop fell and hit him in the face.

“What about the long term?” she asked.

“I think you already know the answer to that. I just want to keep punching him in the face. I admit I have a bad temper.”

“I see you as a caring person, Trey. You have a lot to offer someone.”

He snickered at that.

“Right now you’re all about pain. If you’d let that go, you’d see a difference.”

“You sound like Mamaw.”

“She’s a smart woman.”

Hearing his cell phone buzz, he checked the ID.
Faye
.

“She’s probably worried about me.”

He clicked the phone on and spoke into the speaker. “She’s with me and she’s fine.” He disconnected before Faye could say anything else.

Kylie grinned at that, but didn’t comment.

“It’s starting to rain. What do you say we go back and find somewhere quiet we can talk?” he suggested.

“Talk about what?” she finally asked, stopping and watching him carefully.

“I don’t know, Kylie. I don’t know anything anymore—except that I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m not afraid of you hurting me, Trey. I already told you that.”

He stared into those eyes for what seemed like an eternity. The truth was right there in front of him and he tried to push it away. He was falling for her, hook, line and sinker. The more he looked into those eyes, the more intense he felt.

“I won’t hurt you either,” she said, stepping toward him. “At the very least, we can be friends.”

Friends.
Like hell. He reached for her and she came willingly. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him before he could kiss her first. Her tongue moved into his mouth, quickly finding his and mating with it.

He didn’t understand how things with Kylie could get so explosive, so fast. It was like a fire and gasoline. It had been that way since the moment they’d met.

“Baby, it’s raining,” he said against her mouth as he let her hands slide up under his shirt.

“So?” She breathed against him, fumbling with his belt buckle.

He let out an expletive, his hands reaching around to cup her backside. He lifted her against him and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He turned them around and backed her up against a tree, his hands moving under her shirt and sliding up her rib cage. This time she didn’t protest. She met him halfway in an openmouthed kiss that seemed to go on and on.

The reality of cold rainwater hitting his face slowed him down a little. He breathed against her skin, raggedly. “I don’t want to do this like this, Kylie. Not after what you went through.”

Her breathing was just as heavy. “I don’t want to wait. Just do it.” She stared into his eyes as she reached down and pulled his jeans open. “Please.”

Her hands on him pushed him over the edge and he gave her what she wanted. It took only seconds for them both to find release. Then all they heard around themselves was the sound of rain hitting the trees.

“Does this mean you’re not dumping me just yet?”

He heard the words and lifted his head from her neck to meet her gaze. The realization that he was in love with her slapped him in the face yet again. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to dump you,” he finally muttered.

Her smile grew wider. “That’s good, Sheriff. If nothing else we’ll have a real interesting sex life.”

Realizing the position they were in, where anyone could walk by at any moment, he quickly disengaged himself and lowered her to the ground. “We have got to stop doing shit like this. One of these days, someone’s going to catch us.”

Kylie pulled her shorts up and pushed her damp hair out of her face.

“You’d probably lose your position as sheriff.”

“Pretty likely that I would, yes.” He finished buttoning his jeans and picked his sopping wet phone up off the ground where he’d evidently dropped it earlier. It wasn’t coming on. Cursing, he shook it. Still nothing.

“Minor casualty,” she said and grinned.

He couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess after that, anything is minor.”

They went back to Mamaw’s. Faye was still there and she was quite happy to see that they had apparently worked out their differences, temporary or not. Dusty was also there and Elle and Leo. It was soon decided that they would have a barbecue. Kylie settled down on the grass in the backyard with Amy. Trey took some time to set things straight with his grandmother.

Of all the people in his life, Mamaw had been the biggest constant, next to his dad. She could read him like a book. The fact that he had disappointed her ate at him.

“You have made her happy again,
Mapiya
.” Mamaw said, not looking up from where she was shucking corn on the covered patio.

“I can’t promise you where it’s going, Mamaw. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“She is a wounded soul,” Mamaw said, sitting down in a chair. “So are you. Perhaps you will heal each other.”

Trey thought that over and then shrugged. “I’m sorry if I upset you earlier.”

“You have a temper,
Mapiya
. You always have—just like your papa. You must think before you act on your anger. Someday you will be sorry if you don’t.”

“He shouldn’t be around here, Mamaw. I don’t like it.”

“If he were not sorry for his mistakes, I would not let him come around. I see in his eyes that he is sorry. He wishes to change what happened.”

“Well, he can’t,” Trey said, flatly.

“No, he can’t. So you will keep fighting with him? Hating him? It doesn’t solve anything.”

He supposed she was right. “I can’t promise you I’m going to like him, Mamaw. It’s just the way it is. But I am sorry if I upset you. This is your house and I behaved badly.”

She smiled at that. “I believe you are sorry for that.”

He was. He had been raised to always be respectful around his elders. He hadn’t been respectful earlier.

“She is good with the baby,” Mamaw commented, watching as Kylie rolled a ball toward Amy. “This one is destined to be a mother.”

Trey rolled his eyes and stood up. “Okay, Mamaw. I apologized, don’t push me.”

He heard her snicker as he walked away.

The rest of the evening, they spent discussing last minute wedding details and also the upcoming carnival. A late arrival to the gathering surprised everyone. Beau Callahan showed up out of nowhere.

Trey and Beau had always been close. Only a couple of years apart, they had pretty much had the same friends in school and many of the same interests. Both had played baseball together. Only Beau had pursued it as a career.

Now his brother was a multimillionaire with one of the highest batting averages in the MLB. Unfortunately, this year had not been his year. With a good portion of the season over, the Rangers were in last place.

“I’m telling you man, it’s so good to be home.” Beau and Trey sat on the front steps of Mamaw’s house nursing beers and taking a break from the wedding discussions.

“Been a little rough for you this year.”

“That’s an understatement.”

Trey watched as his brother took a long swig of beer. He looked different in some way. Trey couldn’t really put his finger on it. He had that Callahan dark hair and dark brown eyes, much the same as Dusty and Joey. He was the biggest of the four brothers, standing well over six feet. His build was similar to Trey’s, with a bit more girth to it. They looked a lot alike except for the eye color—and the worry lines, Trey figured out.

“So what gives?”

Beau looked up, surprised. “What do you mean?”

“You look like shit. You getting burned out already?”

Beau took a swig of beer as he snorted. “Burned out of screaming fans, women at my feet and playing a game for a several million dollar paycheck? Not really. It’s been an off year.”

“It happens, dude. You can’t win them all.”

“Tell that to the fans. They wanted the pennant this year.”

“You can’t win them all,” Trey said again. He knew how seriously Beau took his job. He had a lot of pride and when he wasn’t hitting well, he was likely to beat himself up about it.

“What about you?” Beau asked, giving him a knowing glance. “You seemed to be pretty cozy with Faye’s friend.”

Trey shrugged. At this point, denying his feelings was a moot point. “I like her. I don’t know where it came from, but I do.”

“That’s good, bro. She’s cute. Nice girl too.”

“Yeah. We both have a lot of baggage though. Not only that, she’s leaving in a couple of weeks. She lives in Montana.”

“Montana, huh?” Beau looked thoughtful. “Nice place. Not sweltering. Spent a couple of days there at a cabin with one of my friends once. You’d like it.”

“It’s a thousand miles away, Beau. I like it here.”

“You’ve never even been there.”

“Two days there doesn’t make you an expert.”

“No. But it makes me more of one than you are, having not been there at all.”

“I’m not getting married ever again, Beau. We’re having fun, that’s all.”

“Looks like more than that to me and I’ve only been around you for an hour.”

Leave it to Beau to lay it out nice and neat for him. “Just leave it alone. I have a job and a life here; she has a job and life there. We’ll see how long we last a thousand miles apart.”

“She know you’re in love with her?”

“Shit, Beau….”

“Okay, okay.” Beau grinned, in spite of Trey’s irritation. “I heard Matt Clyde was around. Shayna here too?”

“She cheated, he beat her up and then she left and he came after her. Naturally, she came running here. He showed up at the guesthouse and scared the hell out of Kylie and then took off after Shayna took some shots at him. I’m pretty sure she’s still staying at her parents’ house.”

“Hell, she’ll never grow up, will she?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

“You need to get away from her and stay away, man.
Far away
.”

Trey’s eyes darkened. “I never asked her to come here, Beau. She just manages to find me whenever she’s got trouble.”

“That’s because you’re always there for her.”

He wasn’t sure what his brother was getting at. “She was beaten up and alone, with two small kids. What would you have done?”

“I don’t know. I just think you need to get away from anything that is tied to her and start fresh.”

So that’s where Beau was going with this. “I’m not moving to Montana with a woman I’ve known for a month.”

“I didn’t say you should,” was all Beau said.

“You piss me off,” Trey said, glowering.

Beau only smiled. “I’ve missed you too, big brother.”

22

A week went by and the morning of the carnival came quickly. Everyone in Callahan would be involved in the event. Trey had a booth that was sponsored by the sheriff’s department. Joey and Dusty were cooking food from the restaurant. Faye was working with a booth that helped adopt out animals. Kylie had spent the week practicing her face painting on little Amy, Faye and anyone else who would let her.

She and Trey had seemed to clear the hurdle in their relationship that had faltered them earlier. Neither of them brought up the future. Instead, they spent their nights together, just enjoying each other. She made him lunches and dinners. Sometimes they went riding or swimming or cruising on his motorcycle. Every night they spent at the guesthouse. Neither of them spoke of the elephant in the living room—the fact that she would be leaving in a little over a week.

As much as reality tried to rear its ugly head, they both pushed it back down. Every day that went by, Kylie knew she was getting in deeper and deeper—and not just with Trey, but with his family as well. She adored Mamaw. The old woman had taken her under her wing and treated her as though she were part of the family. Trey’s mother treated her the same way. They all opened up their homes and their hearts to her. It was going to be hard to walk away from that. She knew she would have to, eventually. Her jeep was fixed and ready to go. Pete had called earlier in the week and let her know that. The only thing she was waiting for now, was the wedding.

Running a hand through her hair, she glanced into the foggy mirror. She didn’t look any different but she sure felt different. Her entire life had changed in a matter of thirty days. It was unreal.

Hearing her cell phone ring, Kylie grabbed it from the bathroom counter where she had been finishing up her make-up. The caller ID showed a familiar name that Kylie hadn’t seen in a while. Excited, she propped the phone on her ear and answered.

“Thank God! Where have you been?”

Hearing her friend Kate Nyland’s voice, she smiled. It had been over a month since they’d talked. Both were teachers at Green Gables Elementary School in Riverdale. They had met during Kylie’s first year on the job and been best friends ever since.

“Kate, hi!”

“Don’t hi, me. I have been calling you for weeks. Don’t you listen to your messages?”

“I do. I’m in Arizona. It’s just been really busy here. How are you? How are things?”

“They’re good,” Kate answered. “I talked to Paul the other day. Boy, he had a lot to say.”

Kylie frowned, knowing that anything Paul had to say probably wasn’t good. “We aren’t together anymore.”