Promise Canyon (24 page)

Gabe put his hands in his pockets and hung his head. His father was not overly sensitive about such vernacular unless it was meant disrespectfully. He lifted his eyes and looked at her. “And that’s all it was? You asked if she was Indian?”

Again the shrug, but Gabe didn’t miss the shifting of her eyes. “As far as I know. I’ll give him a day or two to simmer down, then call him and try to sort it out. You know, one of the things I’m most proud of is that we managed to separate, end our marriage, so amicably. We’ve always maintained a good relationship, a very strong friendship. I wouldn’t want it to all crumble away because I stupidly chose the wrong word. Surely he’ll accept my apology?”

“I didn’t know you were here,” was all Gabe could think of to say.

She laughed. “Well, we’re even. I speak to your father
regularly, but I didn’t know you were here, either. Are you visiting?”

“No. I’m staying with my aunt and uncle in Grace Valley. My father arranged it so we could see each other every day. I didn’t know you and my dad were in touch.”

“I guess he wouldn’t think to mention,” she said with a shrug. “Now, what are you going to do while you’re here?”

He knew she was lying. They weren’t in touch much, if at all. “I work at the clinic and stable and will be be finishing high school here.”

The shock was evident on her face. “Oh? Why, that’s wonderful! You must be so happy!”

“My father has worked many hard years so we could be together,” Gabe said.

“Yes,” she said solemnly. And wisely she didn’t say any more. Clay had brought Gabe to the Sorensons’ after his marriage, brought him to that big, cold, unfriendly house, and after just a few weeks sent him back to his grandparents. Gabe had occasionally visited the Sorensons’ ranch in L.A. but he never again attempted to live there. His dad had said, “Surely you can see this isn’t the right place for you.”

And Gabe had said, “Is it the right place for you, Dad?”

“You know, Gabe,” Isabel went on, “there are opportunities for you at our ranch when you’ve finished school. I would sponsor you myself. Hire you, that is. We’re connected to many important breeders, training programs, et cetera. It might give you the right connections to establish your own equine business. You have only to call me if you’re interested.”

“Thank you,” he said politely, knowing he’d never take her up on the offer.

“Well, I’d better be on my way then,” she said, turning away. “Very nice seeing you, Gabe.” And she strode back into the barn.

He called after her. “Are you loading that horse?”

“Yes,” she said over her shoulder. “I brought her up here for your father and Dr. Jensen to have a look at her leg. I wasn’t satisfied with our vet’s diagnosis and for good reason—Clay and Dr. Jensen had a better idea of what was wrong with her. I’m glad I made the trip.”

She is so full of shit,
Gabe thought. Isabel Sorenson didn’t have to cart her own champion horses around the state in a trailer to get second opinions. She could bring half the high-priced vets in the nation to her door; they’d be panting for a chance to give their opinions, to find a niche in that wealthy breeding and racing family. Isabel had come for his father. And at the moment Gabe was very happy he’d seen his father leaving angrily.

But he said, “Can I help you load her?”

Isabel stood aside, her hands behind her back. “Thank you. That would be so nice of you.”

Gabe took the lead and put the horse in the fancy trailer. He closed it up and turned to Isabel. “Is there anything else I can get for you before you’re on your way?”

“Not a thing. But do remember what I said, Gabe. If you want a chance with a big breeder, you have only to give me a call. I’ll set everything up for you. You’ll never have to worry about a thing. Being your father’s son, I know you’re a talented young man.”

“Thank you,” he said with a slight nod.

He watched her climb in the big truck, turn it around
to face the road and roll down the window to give him a winning smile. “Call anytime, Gabe!”

“Thank you,” he said. And as the truck and trailer exited the lot, heading down the road, he said, “When hell freezes over.”

Lilly drove away from the Jensen Clinic as though her tailgate was on fire. She had trouble breathing. Hadn’t Clay just told her he’d love her forever? Exactly how many women had he pledged to love forever? Did he envision a harem?

She had a flashback to her old boyfriend. To the time she’d seen him flirting with another girl and had thought to herself,
He’s just a boy. When I tell him we made a baby, that will be over.
But a different outcome was in store for her. She told him and he laughed and said it couldn’t be his—that he’d been careful. Lilly never understood what he meant by that—he certainly hadn’t used a condom!

She tried again and again to direct his attention to that baby, but when all else failed, she’d gone to her grandfather. Yaz was incensed. He loaded his rifle and headed for the boy’s home to confront the whole family at gunpoint. There was no tribe like Clay’s father and uncles with a lawyer and leather binder, just her infuriated grandfather.

But the boy had run. And Yaz had pulled her away from the only home she’d ever known before she had a chance to even hear whether he came back around.

She lost the baby and for a few months she grieved. For a few more she fantasized that he’d returned to the reservation to reclaim her. For still longer she dreamed that he was searching for her. It took such a long time
for her to face the truth; he didn’t love her, but had used her and had no concern about her once he was done with her.

This thing with Clay, she thought it was so different. But it felt so
familiar!

When she reached her grandfather’s feed store, she jumped out of the truck. Her grandfather wasn’t expecting her back today, except to pick up her car before heading home. She grabbed her purse from the truck and headed for her Jeep. She saw one of her grandfather’s employees and yelled, “Hey, Manny! When you go back inside, tell my grandpa I’m done for the day, will you?”

“Not riding today, Lilly?” he shouted back.

“I was going to, but something…”
Something ripped my heart out!
“Something came up!” She had barely made it to the driver’s door of her Jeep when a big truck pulled into the feed store lot and blocked her departure.

She had been hurt before, but as she watched Clay jump out of his truck and stride toward her, her anger flared. She tried to make herself taller by straightening her spine and lifting her chin.

“Lilly, you have to let me explain,” Clay said.

“I can’t wait,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine there’s anything about what I heard that could be explainable.”

“She’s my ex-wife, Lilly, and her horse was hurt. She didn’t realize that so much had changed since I left L.A.”

“That’s basically what she said when I met her,” Lilly said, crossing her arms over her chest. “That the divorce
was a
technicality,
that she came up here to spend a few days with you…
if I knew what she meant.
”

“You met her?” he asked, clearly stunned. “When—”

“When I delivered feed. I was going to take Blue out, and there she was, waiting for you. Oh, let me be clear—she said she was waiting for her
husband!
She told me she arrived yesterday, that the two of you spent some time together!”

“A half hour, tops,” he said, stepping toward her. “She might have had the idea she was going to be with me, but I told her to park her trailer on the back pasture road and I left the clinic to be with you. Isabel is used to getting what she wants. Now she’ll have to get used to something else. I don’t have a relationship with her anymore, Lilly.”

“No?” Lilly asked. “If it’s nothing then why didn’t you say anything about her arrival last night?” She shook her head as tears sprang to her eyes. “You told her you’ll love her forever, Clay. What do you take me for?”

She turned toward her Jeep, but he grabbed her arm and turned her back. “We have had a complicated relationship and what you heard isn’t what you think.”

She shook his hand off her arm and put both hands on her hips. “I think I heard you tell her you’d always love her. And that doesn’t sound complicated. That sounds very direct and to the point. It also sounds like exactly what you told me a few days ago.”

Manny had been standing on the loading dock and two more men who worked in the feed store joined him there, all three watching Lilly and Clay.

“Not as a husband or lover, but as a friend who will
care about her and be there for her when I can. Lilly, let me follow you home. Let me tell you about my relationship with Isabel and why I’d say something like that. Let me explain how that doesn’t threaten what we have….”

She put up her hand. She gave her head a shake. “She didn’t look like the kind of woman who needed a friend. She’s beautiful and rich. I’m sure she has plenty of friends. There might be a real shortage of hot Native men with thick black hair down to their butts, however.”
And a working man’s callused hands that are still soft and sweet on a woman’s skin.
“She seemed very sure that she’d find what she wanted here. Why don’t you hurry on back to the clinic so you can continue the conversation?”

“I sent her home, Lilly. What you heard—it was a complete misunderstanding. We have to talk!”

“I don’t have to do anything,” she said in a fierce whisper. She glanced at the loading dock and saw that now Yaz had joined the men watching them. “And
nothing
is exactly what I intend to do. And I’m doing it alone. If you’re half as smart as you seem, you’ll give me space.”

“You don’t want an explanation,” he accused. “You want to be angry.”

“Oh, you’re
wrong!
I don’t want to be angry or hurt or disillusioned, so I’ll do this for you—while you leave me alone, I’ll think very, very hard about whether I want to take a chance on a man whose ex-wife thinks their divorce is merely technical! I’ll let you know what I decide.”

“She deliberately misled you, Lilly. She’s a spoiled, self-centered woman.”

Lilly turned and took a step toward him. “Look into my eyes, Clay,” she said softly. “Did she deliberately mislead me into believing that there was still a relationship after your divorce? Or is that true?”

“Isabel assumed too much. Part of the reason I moved here was to be sure that was ended for good. And when I met you—”

It was like a sucker punch to the gut, and Lilly winced. It was true. It hadn’t been a couple of years; he’d
barely
left his wife. Yet he hadn’t told her that. She turned away from him again.

“Don’t do this, Lilly. Don’t walk away like this.”

She opened the door to her Jeep. “Move your truck or I swear to God, I’ll
ram
it!”

There was a part of her that wished he’d hold fast and refuse to move his truck, even though ramming it would have been beyond ridiculous. First of all, his truck was far bigger than her little vehicle and the bumper was huge; only Lilly would sustain damage and probably injury. And second, it would prevent her escape, and she needed to get away from him. She drove away from the feed store as though hornets were after her.

She could see him following her in the rearview mirror. If he dared follow her home, he’d live to regret it! She watched him closely as they came to the intersection where she would normally go right and he would go left. She held her breath as she made her turn. And as she watched him go the other way, she sucked in her breath in a jagged gasp. Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God!

This can’t have happened to me again,
was all she could think.
I’ve been in love exactly twice in my entire
life and both times I’m betrayed? Left in pain? This can’t have happened to me
twice!

There was no possible way she could eat; her head began to pound and she knew it was from the effort she put into not shedding a tear over him. But she bolted both the front and back door so he couldn’t enter, put on her opera CDs, shut her eyes and tried to drive the image of him making love to her from her mind. She barely slept.

The next day she called her grandfather and excused herself from work on account of the flu.

“Lilly, I saw—”

“You don’t know what you saw, Grandpa, and I don’t feel like trying to explain it until I’ve had a chance to think it through. Please. Give me a little time and space.”

“If he’s wronged you, I will—”

“I know how far you’d be willing to go to avenge me, Grandpa. But this time I’m going to take care of myself. I’ll check in later.”

Then she called Annie. “I’m afraid I can’t help you with lessons the rest of the week, Annie—I’m under the weather.”

“Lilly, we all know something’s wrong,” Annie said. “You’re not here, Clay is miserable, Gabe is upset, and everything is upside down. Won’t you tell me?”

“Will Clay tell you?”

“He won’t say anything and I’m worried.”

“No need to worry, Annie. Just please excuse me from my commitment the next few days. I’m sure I’ll be fine soon. I’ll give you a call.”

She stayed home from the feed store for a couple of days. Clay waited almost twenty-four hours before he
started calling her cell. Despite her desire to ignore him, she listened to his voice mails—he left several.
Lilly, I have things to explain to you, but you have to give me a chance. Lilly, maybe I was wrong not to tell you more about Isabel, but honestly I didn’t want her in our lives. Please forgive me. Give me a chance.
And her favorite,
Lilly, you’re giving up on us too soon—we only need to talk to make this right.

She just wasn’t going to do it, wasn’t going to trust him again only to find out he was lying. She didn’t take his calls or return them.

On the second evening after their confrontation, Clay came knocking at her door. She crept to the door and told him to go away, but he persisted.

“Please, just talk to me. Fifteen minutes, that’s all I ask, just fifteen minutes. You have to understand about Isabel—she looks like she has everything, but she doesn’t have any of the important things, Lilly. She’s insecure and in so many ways she’s childlike.”