“I’m trying to explain, Gayle, if you’ll stop for a goddamn second. He’s been to hell and back—”
She jerked away from him. “Aren’t you hearing me? I. Don’t. Care.” She stepped forward and pounded her chest with her finger. “I’ve been to hell and back. I’ve had to pick up the shattered pieces of my life and learn to live again. And I have never judged someone like that because of my baggage. He—”
Lance’s eyes went wide. She snapped her mouth shut. Tears threatened to form and she blinked them back furiously. Damn it. She never talked about the past. No reason to relive it when nothing would change it.
“Gayle, I had no—”
She lifted her hand in front of his face. “I am not doing this. I made peace with my past a long time ago. You just keep that prick away from me. I don’t give a flying fuck what he’s been through. I don’t care how horrific his story is. He’s just showed me his true colors and I want no part of him. Anytime you need me to watch Skylar, it will be at my place. I don’t want to be anywhere near that judgmental bastard.”
Mac cringed as the barn door slammed against the outside wall and Lance came barreling back inside.
“What the fuck was that?” Lance got right up in his face and pushed him a step backward with his body. Mac didn’t object, letting his friend have his anger. “Gayle is a good person and she sure as fuck didn’t deserve that shit from you.”
“I don’t want to be around her, Lance.”
“Well, you sure as hell guaranteed that by being judge and jury over her life.”
Things had gone a lot further than Mac had intended. But the moment he’d looked up and saw Gayle standing there, his chest had tightened…and not in anger. The disgust and fury that had swamped over him for still feeling something when he knew what she did for a living, and that she was nothing more than an adrenaline junkie, came pouring out in words before he could stop it.
The abject terror he’d felt over the last few days when he thought about her within touching distance of a tornado had made him crazy. The fear she created inside him because she willingly put herself in danger was overwhelming.
Jesus. If he felt this powerfully in the short amount of time he’d known her…it just plain pissed him off. The whole fucking thing pissed him off big-time.
He couldn’t care for this woman. It would kill him.
He needed to keep his distance. Needed to make sure she kept hers.
He’d wanted her anger. Anger was safe.
“You want to know what I just learned?” Lance continued. “That woman you were just an absolute prick to has been through something, too. Something real bad.”
Mac jerked up and looked at his friend. “What do you mean?”
“Well, let’s see. Raging pissed off woman says she’s been to hell and back and she had to pick up the pieces of her life and learn to live again, but she has never judged anyone the way you just did.”
A painful knock to the gut stole Mac’s ability to breathe. She’d been through something so bad she’d had to learn to live again? No. Lance must have misheard. Gayle didn’t come across as haunted at all, much less broken and mended.
“Did she say what it was?”
“Yeah, no,” came Lance’s sarcastic reply. “But did you hear what I said, Mac? Did you hear the difference?”
What was Lance getting at?
His friend groaned and slapped both hands over his face. “You’re fucking pathetic, dude.” He lowered his hands and stared at Mac. “She learned to live again.”
“I’ve had to do that, too.”
“No. Gayle truly lives. You are just here. Marking time. Big difference. But, Gayle made you smile and laugh, Mac. She brought you out of the shell you had erected around yourself. She made you live.” Lance took a step forward. “And you just treated her like a pile of dog shit. She may be a storm chaser, hell, I don’t know. But I think the two of you have a lot more in common than you realize.” He swept his arm toward the barn door. “Look at her. Gayle has been able to find peace with whatever it was she went through. Maybe she can help you do the same.”
A feminine voice called Lance’s name from outside, and he glanced toward it. “That’s Piper. Skylar’s here and I have to go. Gayle is watching her while I’m gone. It should only take a few hours. I suggest you do some really hard thinking and figure out a way to make amends with that woman, because you know what? I was right. She would be good for you.”
With that, Lance stormed from the barn, the door slamming against the outside wall for a second time. Mac stared after him, then slowly lowered himself to the weight bench, linking his fingers between his knees. What had happened to her? There were so many ways a person could travel to hell, have their life shattered. The idea that someone could’ve hurt or neglected her made him shudder.