True Belonging 2 by Ella Cooper
True Belonging Book Three Preview
Chapter One
Flint
Lawrence’s words had slammed Eliza right in the chest. I could see as much in her shocked expression.
“You know, I wonder what your family would think about this little relationship you have with Flint,” Lawrence said, grinning over at me. “I mean, you already know that we don’t approve of it. Would it make things better or worse if I told on you?”
“Relationship?” Eliza muttered. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I think you do.” Lawrence shrugged. “And I think you know what will happen if it keeps going.”
After Lawrence walked away, I saw that Eliza had turned as white as a sheet. His threat of blackmail about her family was enough to destroy any remnants of a good mood that either of us had left.
“Look, nothing’s going to happen,” I said, trying to pull her out of her state of shock. “I won’t let Lawrence do anything to you, okay?”
I tried to touch Eliza’s arm, but she pulled away from me.
“Let’s just get the barn done,” she muttered, walking off to pick up her hammer. I decided that I’d give her a bit of time to calm down before I tried again. I meant what I had said. Lawrence wasn’t going to threaten her and get away with it on my watch.
“I’ll join you in a bit,” I answered, but Eliza did not even acknowledge my words. Instead, she kept her eyes on the nail she was working on. I walked away without her so much as asking me where I was going.
Lawrence was halfway to his house when I caught up to him.
“What’s wrong with you?” I yelled, making him stop in his tracks and turn on me. “You can’t just pull something like that and walk off like nothing’s happened.”
“Come on, Flint,” he answered as he rolled his eyes at me. “You can’t tell me that you’ve fallen for that girl’s little victim act. She’s crazy, and she shouldn’t be on this ranch. Can you give me a reason why I shouldn’t have her taken away?”
“Several!” I shouted before I brought the volume of my voice down. “First, this is my ranch. It is private property, and I can allow on it whomever I wish. Secondly, she is an adult, and her choices are her own. Third, you know that you’d only be doing that because you want to piss me off.”
“Ridiculous,” Lawrence said condescendingly, as if I was an impertinent child. “I’m protecting my family here. If she’s really nuts, then I don’t know what she’s capable of.”
“Then you can blame me if anything happens,” I growled, “and take the ranch for yourself if they drag me off to prison. How’s that?”
“We’ll see.” Lawrence shrugged, but I could see the glimmer of greed behind his eyes. “If she steps one toe out of line, I will call her family to get her.”
This time, I said nothing, too angry to get the words out. Lawrence kept walking, whistling a folk tune joyfully as he did. I had no idea how he’d found out about Eliza’s family, but I was furious anyway. He had no right to threaten her like that.
My day now completely ruined, I marched back to where Eliza sat on the stool. She was working on the wooden wall in a daze, almost as if something had broken inside of her.
“You know that I didn’t tell him anything, right?” I said, and she grunted an acknowledgement in return. “Do you know where he found out?”
“Kate,” Eliza answered bluntly. “She spoke to me.”
“Why would you tell her?” I demanded, my frustration bleeding out through my words.
“I didn’t.” Eliza looked up at me with cold eyes that stabbed at my heart. “Can you leave it alone now? We have work to do.”
I was surprised at the ice that laced her voice and clenched my jaw. I didn’t want to make her any more upset than she already was, and I could understand why she was being so snappy. At the same time, I hated that she looked at me as if I was a stranger. Like that morning’s picnic had never happened.
Hurt, I moved farther down the wall to start pulling planks out myself. We were almost finished with a whole panel, after which we could start putting fresh planks in the old ones’ places.
The morning wore on between us in silence. Every now and again, I would glance toward her, but she would not return the favor. I could feel the distance between us growing with each agonizing minute.
Once we’d finished the panel, it was close to lunchtime. I got up from where I sat, staring around me at all of the rotten wood that we’d pulled loose.
“We’ll have to put all of this on the truck, and I’ll get it out of here,” I said, hoping that Eliza would at least look at me to receive instructions. Unfortunately, all I got was a nod as she got up from her stool and gathered armfuls of planks to carry up to the truck.
The whole situation was scratching at my very soul. It didn’t seem like she was angry at me, rather that she didn’t want to involve me in her situation any further. I wanted to grab her arm and confront her, remind her that I wasn’t just going to let her go so easily.
But I knew that there was something she needed to work through. She wouldn’t talk to me if I forced it. I had to be patient.
We carried the planks to the truck in turns. As Eliza walked back down to the barn, I would be walking up, and vice versa. Whenever she passed me, her eyes would flit away, as if she was determined not to look at me. I wondered if she was planning on never speaking to me again and simply continuing our work in complete silence.
There were few things I could think of that could get that close to torture. Once we were done loading the planks, I stood next to my truck and waited for her to turn toward me.
“We need to take these into town,” I said, swallowing down the frustration that was still building up at the ice in her expression. “Load new planks and get paint, too.”
“I don’t want to go,” Eliza replied monotonously, looking right past me. “Won’t you be able to do that yourself?”
I wanted to point out that I’d hired her to help me with these things, but at the same time, I felt almost relieved that I could do this alone. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to a long, awkward car ride with Eliza, who didn’t seem like she was going to thaw out any time soon.
Maybe this would be good for both of us, just so that we could think about everything that was going on. For me, the picnic seemed so far away now, especially since it looked like Eliza wanted to pretend it had never happened in the first place.
“I suppose I could,” I said eventually, deciding to try to get her to talk to me one last time before I left. “Listen, Lawrence isn’t going to do anything. You believe me when I say that, right?”
Eliza stayed quiet and refused to look at me. It stung to know that she had gone right back to not trusting me after I’d told her my deepest secret. For several moments, I stood and waited for any kind of answer, but it never came. My frustration was now building into sheer anger, and I needed to get out of there.
“Don’t leave while I’m gone,” I said as I got into the truck and rolled the window down. “Please.”
“Won’t.” Eliza offered me only that single word before she walked back up to the house, probably to get something to eat.
I swore and punched at the truck’s dashboard once she disappeared, trying to calm myself down. I had to know where Kate had gotten her information, and why they were trying to blackmail Eliza so hard.
That was when I remembered the meeting with the lawyers. Were Kate and Lawrence going out of their way to ruin my relationship with Eliza because of that discrepancy in the will? It really wasn’t something that I would put past them after the last few months, but at the same time, I couldn’t imagine that someone could truly be that cruel.
“Idiots,” I grumbled as I switched the truck on and reversed toward the dirt road. Surely they knew that I wasn’t going to involve Eliza in any of that nonsense, even if it turned out that I did need to marry someone to keep the ranch.
“Jolene, Jolene,” the radio sang when I turned it on, rolling up the volume until it flooded all of my thoughts. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to distract me. All I could think about was the possibility that Eliza would be gone when I got back home.
Lawrence could easily take the opportunity to call her family, or Eliza could decide that she was done with me and the ranch and leave without a word. Somehow, neither situation seemed too likely. Lawrence had the perfect leverage for blackmail now, and he wasn’t going to waste that.
And Eliza wasn’t going to break her promise to stay with me, at least for a while. I was sure of that. I needed to trust her, even if my whole mind was screaming to turn the truck around and make her come with me.
“Gotta clear my head,” I mumbled at myself as I finally drove into New River and toward the dump at the far side of town. I had the whole day to myself now, essentially, and I could use that time to get away from everything that was happening on the ranch. Hopefully, when I got back that night, Eliza would have calmed herself down, too.
The truck rattled as it hopped over the bumpy road beside the dump, and I parked as close to the giant heaps of trash as I could. Manual labor had always helped me to get my mind off of my troubles, especially when the day started to get hotter.
I unloaded bundles of planks from the truck bed, thinking of things that I could do to show Eliza my feelings hadn’t changed. Maybe she thought that I would change my mind about protecting her if my family threatened me, too. That wasn’t true, however. The harder Lawrence threatened me, the harder I would fight. Not only for what was mine, but for everyone that Lawrence targeted.
It took only about twenty minutes to unload everything, but the heat of the sun and the weight of the planks had me sweating profusely. I wiped at my forehead with my arm, but that barely helped.
The next thing that had to happen was Home Depot. I got into the truck and drove back into town. At this point, I was quite downtrodden. I’d been looking forward to a Home Depot adventure with Eliza for the whole time that we’d been working on the barn. I was sure that she would be able to choose the perfect paint and might even give me more ideas.
“Not going to happen now,” I sighed to myself as I pulled into the parking lot. “Gonna be a lone wolf out there.”
I walked up to the entrance and took a deep breath. This wouldn’t take very long by myself. I wondered if the same people that had worked here ten years ago were still there.
I recognized the face at the counter immediately. “Mr. Haddock, afternoon to you.”
“By my bones, Flint Mayfield!” the old man laughed and came around the counter towards me. “How have you been doing? It’s been forever, my boy.”
“Oh, all’s good,” I said, trying to offer him a smile. “Just coming to look for some planks.”
Mr. Haddock was the kind of man who would prod unendingly if he got even the slightest whiff of possible gossip. I didn’t want him to see the truth behind my expressions. If he knew, the whole town would find out shortly after, and my phone would ring off the hook. It was already bad enough that he knew I was back.
Excitedly, he led me through the store, asking questions and shoving equipment and materials into a shopping cart. By the time I left, I’d bought half a truck worth of things that I hadn’t wanted to buy before I arrived.
I sighed as I stood on the driver’s side, staring at the clock on my phone. I imagined Eliza sitting at home, brooding in her room. Perhaps she’d already calmed down, but the severity of her mood that morning convinced me that that was unlikely.
I didn’t want to go home just yet, despite knowing that I should have confronted her by now, or at least done something about Lawrence. But I simply didn’t have the energy to deal with any of it. I decided that I was going to stop in at the local bar and have a beer to relax, even if I could only spend an hour or so there.
Getting in the truck, I offered Mr. Haddock one last wave before I drove off. His face betrayed that he did notice something, but I had to hope that he wasn’t going to tell everyone about it, however unlikely.
The bar’s parking lot was empty aside from an old rusty car in one corner and a brand-new bike in the other. That offered some relief, because it meant that people wouldn’t really be bothering me.
I parked my truck close to the entrance and walked inside, finding solace in the slow, soft country song that was playing in the background. One older man sat at the bar, looking like he basically lived there, and one who was clearly the owner of the bike sat behind one of the slot machines in the corner.
I took a seat on a stool three over from the man at the bar and waved a hand at the bartender. She bounced toward me with a bright smile on her round, friendly face, blond hair bobbing around the bottom of her weak chin. She seemed to be a few years younger than I was.
“Hello there! I’m Alice,” she said happily. “What brings you in today, sir?”
“Flint,” I answered in a gruff tone, before softening my voice and trying again. “I’d like a beer.”
“Mm, rough day?”Alice changed her expression into one of sympathy and concern in one perfectly fluid motion. “Want to talk about it?”
“Not particularly,” I sighed, wishing suddenly that Alice would focus her energy elsewhere. “I really just want that beer, if you don’t mind.”
Alice seemed hurt, but she got the beer from the fridge behind her and planted it in front of me. I noticed in the corner of my eye that the old guy was staring at me as if he recognized me from somewhere.
With one proper look at him, I remembered who he was. “Mr. Davis?”
He’d been the principal at the middle school when I was younger, although it wasn’t surprising that I didn’t recognize him at first. In my head, he was a tall, strong man with wide shoulders and an intimidating stance. Now he was hunched over, most of his hair gone and his body slumped unhappily.
“It’s a woman, isn’t it?” he said without even greeting me, his eyes glassy. The sentence was slurred somewhat, as if he’d been in the bar since the moment it opened.
Alice glared at him. “Didn’t you hear, Bill? He doesn’t want to talk about it.”
I sighed as I put my hand around the beer and looked at Alice and then Mr. Davis. I wasn’t in the mood for conflict. That was the whole reason I had come here.
“Sorry,” I muttered at Alice, lifting the beer and taking a swig. “He’s somewhat right.”
“‘Course I am,” Mr. Davis grumbled, staring at the liquid in his own glass. “Wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”
“You or him?” Alice asked, completely ignoring my apology as she leaned forward over the counter to point at us.
“Both,” Mr. Davis answered with a sigh. “Women will drive you to drink.”
I laughed bitterly. “Is that right?”
“Mm.” Mr. Davis nodded very slowly, as if he was trying to seem wise. “You start being on your own side instead of hers, then one day, she’s just gone, and you’re here every day, staring into a drink.”
His words seemed mostly like the ramblings of an overly drunk and depressed man, but they somehow managed to resonate with me anyway.
“That’s only because you gave up on her,” Alice pointed out, clicking her tongue at him as she shook her head. “If you’d chosen her and not yourself, she would have stayed.”
“It’s in the past,” Mr. Davis insisted, a note of anger trailing after the sentence. “We’re not talking about me here.”
I wasn’t entirely listening to their conversation anymore. Those first lines were enough to shake me to my core. As drunk as he was, Mr. Davis was right. I could stay away from Eliza and let her grow more distant from me, or I could fight harder to prove that I would keep her safe. That nothing was going to take her away from my world.
That this wasn’t her struggle alone.
“Thanks, Mr. Davis, Alice,” I said, dropping a few dollars on the counter to pay for my half-drunk beer. “I’ve got a bit of business to attend to.”
“Aren’t you Flint Mayfield?” Mr. Davis seemed to remember why he had been staring at me in the first place. “My regards to your grandfather.”
I didn’t tell him the truth. It seemed like he had enough on his plate.
“I will tell him,” I said instead. “See you.”
End of preview.
*****
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