Lost Rider(10)

Clay stops his beer on its path back to his mouth at his brother’s harsh words and looks over at him, the glowing light from the fire highlighting his deeply furrowed brow. “You see the same shit I saw, brother? I know I ain’t losin’ my mind and I know for a fact I’m not the only one that noticed how good she’s lookin’. Elliott already said something and I’m pretty sure I saw John talkin’ to her not even ten minutes ago.”

My heart is about to beat right out of my chest. I’m not even sure that I’m breathing as I listen to them talk about me. As I listen to Maverick tear into me, each lashing of his tongue feeling like a physical whip to my soul.

“Jesus, Clayton. It’s kind of hard not to see when she’s been paradin’ around like a whore. She’s fuckin’ sixteen and has the body of a ten-year-old boy, for fuck’s sake, so I’m pretty certain we didn’t see the same thing. All I saw, brother, was a kid desperate for some attention. Tell me you weren’t actually lookin’?”

I couldn’t stop the sob that erupts from my mouth if I tried. And of course I tried, so it came out like a gargled, wet gasp. Hearing Maverick voice all my insecurities so harshly brings a shame over me like I’ve never known. Here I was trying to get him to notice me and he thinks I look like a little boy? Tears fill my eyes as both of them turn sharply at my choked cry.

“Shit,” Clay barks and pushes off the truck to walk toward me.

I just stand there holding a tied grocery bag with my stupid used toilet paper. Tears roll down my cheeks while my heart breaks, my eyes never leaving Maverick’s face. He’s turned away from the fire now, so I can’t make out his expression in the shadows, but there is no doubt he can see the hurt in mine. I might have lost faith in the power of my crush over the years, but that doesn’t mean that my heart doesn’t still yearn for the man it will never have . . . but hearing what he thinks about me, even though I always guessed it, well, it just about nearly kills.

Clay stops in front of me, his hands clasping my shoulders just like his sister had earlier, and dips his head down to look in my eyes. “Shit, Leigh, I’m so sorry.”

Clay continues to talk softly to me, but I don’t hear his words, my focus completely on the person that I grew up imagining some grand love story around as he shakes his head a few times. I was right to give up on that stupid fairy tale, but that realization doesn’t ease the burn his words left behind one bit. Maverick is staring intently at the ground in front of him. He looks up, tosses his beer in the cab of his brother’s truck as he lifts his Stetson off his head and runs his fingers through his hair.

He looks over to where we’re standing and I jolt, my body going solid in Clay’s arms when Maverick makes the move to start walking over to us. I look back at Clay, my eyes meeting his sympathetic gaze before I return my focus in his brother’s direction. He’s maybe ten feet away, but the second he takes the first step I jump. Clay’s fingers tighten around my shoulders when I let out a strangled sob. Maverick’s booted foot makes another move closer and I don’t waste a second. The grocery bag, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer fall from my hands as I rip free of Clay’s hold and take off running toward the trees.

“Goddammit,” I hear Maverick snap. “Give me one of the flashlights.”

I run.

The tree limbs strike my bare legs as I flee, but the searing pain doesn’t slow me down. I keep going as quickly as I can.

If I can just keep going, I’ll break through somewhere around where my family’s property butts up to the Davis’s. It might take me an hour or so on foot, but the way I’m running, I’ll be home soon enough.

“Fuckin’ stop, Leighton!”

Maverick’s voice booms out around me and scares me so much that I turn my head around and blindly search through the moonlit woods, searching for him while continuing my quick pace.

That is until I smack right into a tree I hadn’t seen coming because I had been too busy trying to pinpoint his location so I could run in the opposite one.

“Shit!” I cry out when the rough bark scrapes against my thighs and left arm, bringing me to my ass before I know what hit me . . . or what I hit. I yelp when my palms scrape against the rough ground.

Judging by what sounds like a herd of elephants crashing through the woods, I know they’re close. Shame from Maverick’s words now mixing with the embarrassment I feel over my tree collision.

“You all right, sugar?” Clay questions me in concern. He drops to his knees beside me, the light from his flashlight hits my body, and I quickly kick my leg up to knock it out of his hand. “God almighty, Leigh, let me look at you.”