“Good,” I choked out and went straight for the break room. I knew Miles was gone for the afternoon, and the other vet tech, Kelly, had gone to lunch with her boyfriend.
I sank into an empty plastic chair and put my head between my legs. Flashes of light and memory slammed into me: Ian dragging me by the hair as I clawed at his arm and begged him to stop, the slap of his open palm against my face, the taste of blood in my mouth.
I struggled to breathe as tears slipped out of my eyes. I’d thought I was so much stronger than this. Yet here I was, falling apart. My lungs trembled as I willed them under control.
“Hey, Everly? Tim said you were back here. I wanted—” Hayes’ words cut off as he caught sight of me. He was the last person I wanted to see me this way. He crouched in front of me. “Hey, what’s going on?”
I forced myself to sit up, but I couldn’t disguise the shaking. “Nothing, I’m fine.”
His concern morphed into a scowl. “You’re not fine. You’re shaking like a leaf, and your face has no color in it at all.”
I closed my eyes for a moment as if I could make it all disappear. The run-in with Ian. Hayes witnessing my weakness. I wanted to simply float away.
“I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
My eyes fluttered open at his words. He hadn’t disappeared, and I hadn’t floated away. “It’s not your job to help.”
“It’s exactly my job. And I’ll do it wherever I can.”
I studied the man in front of me. The angular jaw that always betrayed Hayes’ frustration. The rough stubble and planes of his face. Those eyes so dark and deep, I felt as if I could sink into them and get lost for days. Nothing in him spoke untruths. Maybe Hayes truly was one of the good ones. Someone determined to make the world better for everyone around him. “You don’t need to take care of me.”
He pushed to his feet and started for the door. I thought I’d finally sent him running. But instead, he only poked his head out. “Tim, we need twenty.”
“We don’t—”
Hayes ignored me and simply shut the door. He began moving around the small kitchenette without another word to me, opening cabinets until he found two mugs. Then he riffled through drawers until he found a box of something. Within a few minutes, he was easing into the chair opposite me and handing me a steaming mug.
I didn’t touch it. “What if I don’t like tea?”
“Then just wrap your hands around the mug. It’ll help.”
I had the burning urge to stick out my tongue at him. But as I wrapped my hands around the ceramic, and the heat sank into my palms, something in me eased. “You’re very overbearing, you know that, right?”
He shrugged and blew on his tea. “Everyone has to have a character flaw.”
I snorted. “I’d say you have a few.”
“Never claimed to be perfect.”
I stared down into the swirling liquid. “Perfect’s boring anyway.”
“Very true.” Hayes was quiet for a moment, letting the silence swirl around us the same way the liquid in my cup did. “You going to tell me what happened?”
I sighed. It was clear he wasn’t going to leave me alone until he got some pieces of the puzzle. “I had a run-in with my brother. Just brought up some bad memories.”
“Okay…” He was quiet and, for a moment, I thought he wouldn’t push. “What’s the status with your family?”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you been in touch with them since you left Wolf Gap?”
I dunked the tea bag a few times before taking it out and resting it on a spoon. “I lived with my older sister in Seattle until I moved out for college. But, no, I haven’t talked to the rest of my family since I was twelve. Allen and Ian paid a couple of visits to Seattle when I first moved there.”
Hayes’ jaw worked back and forth as if he were working out a math problem in his mind and having trouble. “They harass you?”
“They made their presence known. But once we moved, they didn’t put any real effort into finding us.”
“And your mom? She didn’t put a stop to it?”
I gripped the mug a little tighter, my mother’s face flashing in my mind. “I think she lost her fight.”
“You were her daughter.”
“And I cost her the love of her life.”
Hayes’ gaze bored into mine. “Was that really how she saw it?”
“I honestly don’t know. All I know is that she couldn’t break free of that life. My sister, Jacey, tried to get her to come with me, and she wouldn’t. She didn’t want that freedom for herself.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand your family. The people they’ve tied themselves to.”
I traced an invisible design on the table. “I won’t lie, there’s some ugliness. Hate. But some of the paranoia comes from how they were raised. My grandparents on my dad’s side were the same way. They’ve been preached to about the government being out to get them. Other preppers wanting to pillage and steal. It skewed their outlook. But there’s good in that community, too.”
“I know that. Some folks simply want to live off the land or protect their families in case the worst happens. But that’s not…”
His words fell off, but I finished Hayes’ sentence for him. “That’s not what my family is.” I looked up to meet his gaze. “My childhood wasn’t all bad. And my parents taught me things that I’ll forever be grateful for.”
There was heat in those dark eyes. It blazed as he swallowed. “But you’re different from them. Always were. Or you wouldn’t have ridden that horse into town all alone.”
I’d tried time and again to think back and see what might’ve made me do that. To break free of everything around me. I’d never exactly figured it out. “While my dad always looked for danger, I saw beauty—in the land, in other people. In all of it. As much as he tried to school me, I could never get my mind to work that way.” Not even after Ian’s attack.
Hayes took a sip of his tea. “Shows a strength of character.”
I let out a mock gasp, my hand flying to my chest. “Hayes Easton, was that a compliment? Careful, I might start to think you actually like me.”
That familiar scowl returned. “I never said I didn’t like you.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I didn’t.” He adjusted the collar of his shirt. “But I did make you feel unwelcome. And for that, I truly am sorry. Do you think we could have a do-over?”
“A do-over?”
“We’re fond of them in my family. If someone messes up, they can ask for a do-over to start fresh.”
A fresh start. Wasn’t that exactly what I was trying to foster here? For myself. Hopefully, for a whole lot of animals. So, who was I to deny Hayes the same? I extended my hand. “I’m Everly Kemper.”
Hayes’ large hand engulfed my smaller one, the rough calluses on his palm sending a skitter of sensation up my arm. “I’m Hayes Easton. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Everly. Welcome back to Wolf Gap.”
He made it seem as easy as taking an eraser to a chalkboard. But I knew it wasn’t quite that simple for either of us.
14
Hayes