"I'm not seeing him anymore. My efforts would be better served here, don't you think? Aanon will take me and Dodge back home when I'm good and ready. Maybe sometime next week."
Fighting the urge to bang her head against the ladder she quipped, "Sounds like a fantastic plan." Worst slumber party ever was more like it. "No need to wait on me, I'll let myself out when I'm done."
More glaring. "I don't trust you alone in my house. I'll wait here."
"Great. I'll be right back." And by that, she meant an hour. Billy's mom had left a book on canning down in the cellar where she could easily find it next season, and she would read the thing cover to cover before reemerging.
Chapter Twelve
Erin's threat had been hollow. By three in the afternoon, she'd escaped the homestead with Aanon at the wheel and Dodge clutching his rock in the back seat of the Chevy. Fresh air, bugs, and the smell of cattle weren't for everyone.
Determined not to be anywhere in the area when Aanon returned home, she cut the log she'd hauled in and set out for town to beg a shift at Briney's.
"Weather will be here soon," Briney muttered ominously as she washed her hands in the sink near his office.
A flutter of worry hummed against her innards. Not for herself, but for Aanon's long trip home. Hopefully he'd make it back before Briney's weather prediction came to fruition. Stupid. Aanon didn't need her worrying about him. That was Erin's job.
Dinnertime would be a solemn affair around Briney's if he hadn't the ingenious foresight to offer bar food and sandwiches. Instead of being a ghost bar, customers trickled in if the diner down the street was full, or if they had a hankering for mixed drinks to wash their meals down with.
An hour into her shift, Ben waved as he came through the door and took a seat at the two-top table in the corner.
"Go on and take his order. I'll tend the bar. The man's been pestering me about when your next shift is for a couple of days now."
"What does he want?" she asked, wiping her hands on a folded apron tied to her lap.
Briney's mustache twitched. "Do I look like a gol-derned psychic to you?"
With a heavy sigh, she lifted the counter hatch and smiled at Ben. "What'll you have?"
"I didn't really come here to eat." He lowered his voice. "I need to talk to you. When do you get off? We could catch a late meal at the diner."
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because," she whispered, pointing to her belly. "I'm not in the best position to be dating anyone right now."
"Oh. Well I wasn't asking you out on a date. But if I was, dating someone is probably exactly what you need to be doing right now. Someone other than Aanon."
With a frown at Briney, who was busy making drinks for a couple who'd just sat at the counter, she sank into the chair across from Ben and leaned forward. "What in the actual hell are you talking about?"
"You've made an enemy, Farrah, and one you don't want. And trust me when I say, you don't want any part of a feud with this one. Erin called me."
"About what?"
"She asked me where your mom lived."
Her mouth went so dry she had to swallow twice before she could answer. "Did you tell her?"
"Hell yes, I told her! She's scary as a graveyard. Have you met the woman?"
"Dammit," she whispered, leaning back into the chair to stare out the window.
"I came up here a couple of times to see if you were working so I could give you a heads up, but you weren't in. I called Aanon this morning to try and get you a message, and he told me the damage was already done. Erin got what she wanted."
"And what did she want?"
"Look, maybe you should talk to Aanon about all of this. It isn't really any of my business, and I'm thinking maybe things are more complicated between you guys than I originally thought."
"You made it your business when you shared information with that lunatic, Ben," she growled. "Just tell me what she did."
With a pained expression, he said, "She called the father of your child."
She swallowed once. Twice. The betrayal was too much. Ben for giving information about her, Mom for outing Miles, Erin for attempting to ruin her life, and Aanon-Aanon should have been the one to warn her. "She called Miles?" Dread, as deep and dark as a well, pulled on her limbs until it was hard to move.
"That's what Aanon told me, and he wouldn't have any reason to lie. He sounded sick over it."
Her lip trembled, and she pursed it to hide her hurt. "He should."
The rest of the shift was a blur. She couldn't name a single drink she'd made by the time she revved the four-wheeler and headed home. Unable to find it in her to blame Mom, she shifted gears and blared down the road that would lead to the homestead. If Ben couldn't find the strength to fight Erin off her bone, Mom, who'd been too weak to ever lift a finger to protect her, hadn't stood a chance.
Miles would come for her, but not because he loved her or wanted her back. He'd come for the baby. The thought of him raising her child with his wife brought bile to her throat, and she slowed. Flashes of family pictures without her ran through her mind on a loop, and she pressed her hand against the fluttering in her stomach. What kind of example could Miles set for a child? He couldn't even be loyal to his own marriage.
Suddenly, everything was too green. Too vibrant, to engorged with melted snow, and the browns and yellows blurred across an Alaskan canvas. She stomped the brake, then stumbled from the machine and made her way to the tall reeds that lined the road. Gasping, she fell to her knees and gripped her stomach. Adoption seemed like a viable option until she thought of Miles with full custody of her unborn child. The hurt would be too great.
Her eyes tightly closed, she gritted her teeth against the urge to sob. That lying cheat didn't deserve her tears. The low hum of an oncoming vehicle was only a minor annoyance. What she was dealing with was so much bigger than one of the neighbor's seeing her moment of vulnerability.
Except it wasn't one of the neighbors.
Aanon's Chevy pulled to a stop behind her, and the door closed. The old truck creaked as it rocked out from under his weight and, in moments, a gentle hand was rubbing circles on her back. "Does the baby have you sick again?"
"No. Your girlfriend does."
"Erin? She's not my girlfriend and besides-"
"I talked to Ben! I know what's she's done." Her voice hitched, and she gasped to try and steady herself. "She's ruining my life, and for what? I do as she wants. I stay away from you, even though it kills me to do it. I watch you suffer so that you can see your son and when she says jump, I ask how fuckin' high. Surely, I've done nothing to deserve this."
He knelt down, and his steady hand went around the nape of her neck, massaging gently. "It kills you to stay away from me?"
"Not the point, Aanon."
"She hasn't told him you're with child. Yet. If she did that too early, she wouldn't have any leverage on you. On me."
"What do you mean, on you?"
"I don't want her telling him either. I don't know everything about the situation, but if you think Miles will take your child or your options away, I don't want him within a thousand miles of you." A scratching sound drew her gaze. He ran a hand over the short, gold stubble of his jaw. His eyes were hollow, tortured. "Apparently Erin knows that."
"She hasn't told him about the baby?"
"I don't doubt she talked to him, and I don't know what she said, but she assured me she hasn't mentioned your pregnancy."
"So, she'll hold that over us so that we'll do as she says? She uses Dodge, and now she'll use my child to keep you unhappy?"
Aanon stared off into the late evening sunset and gave a bare nod. "I don't know how to feel. She gave me Dodge. A piece of me will always love her because she's the mother of my child. I know it's hard to understand, but I was there when she was different. When she held Dodge for the first time. Even now that she's become so desperate to make me pay for accepting the homestead, it's hard to get the past out of my head. I don't care for her or respect the person she is anymore, but I don't know how to hate her either."
Well, she could probably hate her enough for the both of them, but he didn't have to know that. "She talked to my mom."
"I was wondering how she figured out about Miles. I didn't think you'd be the one to spill information about him."