She pushed herself to her feet and stripped off her clothes from the night before. A very long, insanely hot shower was what she needed. And makeup remover. Very deliberately not looking out her window, she went into her bathroom and tried not to look in the mirror, either.
An hour later, she was ready for work, though it was seriously tempting to take a sick day. All she had to do was call the police station and ask them to post a sign on the door. She didn’t do it often, but with only one librarian it had happened a few times over the years.
But she wasn’t going to hide. Staying in her house, licking her emotional wounds and feeling sorry for herself wasn’t her style. If she was going to have to live next door to Matt for the foreseeable future, she needed to set the tone now.
It was fun, but now it’s not, so how about those Red Sox?
When she walked out to her car, she was relieved to see his truck was already gone. It was one thing to have a plan for returning to a state of neighbors-only, but she was still a little raw to put it into play.
Bear came barreling toward her, and she stopped to play with him for a few minutes, as she always did. He was so sweet, and she hoped Matt wouldn’t be a jerk and not let the dog come visit. She wouldn’t have guessed he’d act like that, but she hadn’t guessed last night would happen, either.
When she couldn’t put it off any longer, she gave Bear a belly rub and then told him to go in the house. Once he was gone, she got in her car and started it. She had to adjust the seat because Matt had been driving and just that small reminder made her mad all over again.
It wasn’t a good day at work. Very few patrons stopped in, which became a problem for about a month between the weather being too nice to be inside and being so hot they wanted the air-conditioning, which meant time crawled by. She deflected texts from Tori and then from Liz. Then Tori again. Even Katie texted her.
Finally she started a group text to get it over with. I’m trying to work. Matt & I are over. End of story.
It wouldn’t be the end of the story, of course. They’d want all the details. But she wasn’t ready to talk about it quite yet.
She wasn’t even sure what there was to say. She’d changed her expectations. He hadn’t. That’s all there was. It didn’t make for a great story.
It made for one hell of a heartache, though.
NINETEEN
MATT FOLLOWED PETE up the old logging road, the ATV engine roaring between his legs. They’d been trying to catch a couple of punks who were trespassing and riding wetlands for a while and now they were at it again.
Because they’d spread the word through the surrounding community, the residents were watching and an older woman had called in a tip. Based on her information, they knew the riders had to have gone through wetlands and across posted property to get where they were and they had a good idea where they’d come out of the woods. Matt and Pete intended to be waiting for them when they did.
They were cranking up the dirt road, with about two miles left to go. Matt calculated, based on when their caller had seen the suspects, that they’d arrive at the point where they’d cross paths with only a few minutes to spare.
It felt good to be out on the quads, blowing off some steam. God knew, he had plenty to blow off.
He’d overreacted to Hailey. In the back of his mind, he’d been aware of it even as it was happening, but he couldn’t help himself. And now, in the light of a new day, he knew he’d been an asshole. Or Prince Asshole, as she’d called him. He’d always thought he had a good sense of humor, and hers was one of the things he liked most about Hailey, but he hadn’t been able to laugh off what he knew she’d meant to be funny. She’d pushed his hot button without knowing and, rather than explain, he’d pretty much killed any chance she’d get close enough to push it again.
Now the question was whether he should apologize to her and try to explain, or if they were both better off the way it was.
He heard the pitch of the machine Pete was riding change and had to let off his throttle a bit to leave space between them. Pete was definitely slowing down and Matt pulled toward the center of the road a little, intending to speed up and pull along side him. If they didn’t haul ass, they were going to miss bagging the rogue ATV riders.
Then Pete hunched forward, his right arm coming up toward his chest. His machine slowed drastically without his thumb on the throttle, but his body jerked, yanking the left side of the handlebars toward his body.
He still had enough speed so the machine turned to the left, too sharply. His tire caught and the machine lifted.
“Pete!”
If he’d had control of the bars, he might have been able to throw his body sideways and pull the machine into line, but Pete let go totally to clutch his chest. As the machine rolled, he was thrown and Matt shouted as he hit the tree line.
Matt tore off his helmet and was calling for help even as he ran toward his friend. They’d already called for backup and a truck was en route, but he had to call it in as a medical emergency now.
Pete wasn’t moving and Matt felt the cold sweat of fear break out over his body. He didn’t think Pete had actually hit a tree, but it was hard to tell. He shouldn’t move him, but he knew from the events leading up to it that it wasn’t the crash that was going to kill him.
From the angle, he guessed Pete’s arm was broken. Maybe his leg, too. It wasn’t obvious but, judging by the way he’d landed, his right side was probably busted up. But, worse than any broken bone, Matt didn’t think he was breathing.
Yelling at the phone he’d put on speaker and dropped next to his knee, trying to update them on the urgency of the situation, he moved Pete as carefully as he could to his back. After undoing his vest and parting it as best as he could, he checked his breathing and hunted for a pulse.
“I need help!” He took off his own vest, needing it out of the way and leaned over his friend. “Don’t you dare die, Pete.”
He started CPR, his world narrowing to nothing but breathing for Pete and listening to the woman on the other end of the phone assuring him help was coming.
HAILEY LOCKED UP the library and drove to the General Store because she needed a few groceries. If it had only been milk for her coffee, she might have stopped by the diner and begged some from them rather than face Fran, but she needed a few other things, too. Including comfort food.
She was going to drown her feelings in a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips. Maybe she’d fry up a hot dog to go with them, or maybe she’d just eat the entire bag for dinner. Sure, she’d be sorry tomorrow, but no more sorry than she already was for getting involved with Matt Barnett.
If she could go back in time, she would never have brought him the shepherd’s pie. They both would have been better off if he’d kept on thinking of her as the crazy lady who lived next door and couldn’t be trusted in the woods.
The bell rang over the door when she stepped into the general store. Fran looked up and frowned. “Did you hear the news?”
Hailey realized Fran wasn’t sitting in her usual knitting chair. She was on a stool near the scanner she usually kept down to a volume just loud enough to be annoying. “I just left work. Did I hear what news?”
“A game warden was in an ATV accident.”
Hailey froze. “Where?”
“I’m not sure.”
“There are a lot of game wardens. I mean, I hope whoever it is is okay, but there’s no reason to believe it’s our game warden.” She wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince Fran or herself. “What happened?”
“I don’t know a lot. I just heard it on the radio. They were calling in a LifeFlight helicopter to take a game warden to the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. I’m almost sure I heard Matt’s name, but I missed the context.”
Hailey’s entire body went cold and for a long moment, she wasn’t sure she could even move. Or breathe. “You don’t know if he was the warden hurt or if they were reporting he was the warden on scene?”
“I don’t. I’m sorry, honey. The radio chatters all the time and, by the time I realized what was going on, I’d missed some of it.”
“I have to go.”
She ran to her car and drove home, her fingers tight on the steering wheel. Once she was in her driveway, she took a breath and tried to call Matt’s cell phone. It rang and rang, and then went to voice mail.
“Dammit.” She went inside, indecision making her mind whirl.
It might not be him. Whoever was talking might have been letting the other person know Matt was on the scene. He could have been a witness. Or the investigating officer. She had no evidence he was the one hurt.
But she couldn’t stand not knowing and, in the pit of her stomach, she had a bad feeling. Her hands were shaking and her stomach was churning and there was no way she could go about the rest of her day pretending there wasn’t a chance Matt was fighting for his life.
She pulled out her phone again and dialed Drew Miller’s cell. He answered on the second ring. “Drew, do you know anything?”
“There’s a lot of confusion on the scene and nobody has time to talk to me. I know two game wardens went on the helicopter and one of them was Matt, but I’m told only one of them was hurt.”