Mending Hope (Contemporary Western Romance) (License to Love Series:Book 2) (3 page)

Melinda turned her gaze on Alyssa, and she felt the weight of its judgment.  After a moment she answered.  “No, I haven’t.  Hello, Alyssa.  Sorry that you had to come to Stanhope on such a bad note.”   When she extended her hand, Alyssa took it in her own and made sure to return a firm grip.  When she did Melinda smiled in response.  She may have just met Melinda, but one thing she knew for sure was that she didn’t ever want to be on her bad side. 

“Do you feel ready to give your formal statement?” Melinda asked, turning back to Shad and Clara. 

“Yeah,” Shad said, “I want to get this over with.”

“It would probably be good to move this inside then.” Melinda told them.  When they went to go inside Woody put his hand on the small of Alyssa’s back, and she felt the heat and electricity pour out of him even through the fabric.  Before she realized what she was doing she found herself leaning back into his hand as they walked up the stairs and into the house.

It had been a long day by the time Woody led Alyssa into the Slice and Suds.  Even though he had heard about the things that the stalker had done to Clara, he hadn’t realized the extent of what that had meant to her life. 

They went to a corner booth away from a lot of the noise.  After Woody ordered a pitcher of beer and a pizza, he turned to Alyssa. 

“I don’t think I realized how much of our lives are susceptible to hacking,” admitted Woody.  “Hearing what that guy did, makes me want to completely disconnect from the outside world.”

“Aren’t you already?” Alyssa asked. 

Woody thought about that for a moment and then laughed.  “That’s very true.  If I had a problem with my electric bill I could just go downtown and straighten it out.  I’m not a nameless person.  That can be good or bad depending on your point of view.”

“Bad?” Alyssa asked as she poured her first cup of beer. 

“Yeah, “Woody confided.  “If you’re a teenager trying not to get caught doing something you shouldn’t, it can be a bad thing.”  He smiled and leaned over the table when he spoke as if he were unveiling a great secret to her.  When he did that, she took a deep breath, his cologne lingering in her nostrils causing her stomach to clench with an unexpected surge of desire.  She fought that urge down and leaned back in her chair.

To cover her uneasiness, Alyssa barked out a quick loud laugh that was so loud a few people turned back to look at them.   Woody started laughing as well.

“I hadn’t even thought of it that way.” Alyssa mused.  There was a twinkle in her eyes when she said this, and he found himself going out of his way to make her smile even more.  Before he realized it, he was telling her stories of the three of them when they were growing up and getting into all kinds of trouble. 

“…and then Shad bet Melinda that she and her friends couldn’t catch the mare and ride her bareback in the pasture in the middle of the night.” He was mid-story when they polished off the first pitcher of beer and he motioned to the server to order another one. 

“Did they?” she asked, her eyebrow elevated in curiosity as she leaned over the table.

“Well, Melinda wasn’t about to give up without a fight, so she and her friends went out into the pasture and waited by the fence.  The mare kept circling closer and closer, but they could never coax her all the way to them.”  He poured them both another glass of beer before continuing. “But instead of giving up, she launched herself from the fence onto the mare’s back at a distance of about ten feet.”

“So she made the bet?”

“Technically, I guess.” He answered cryptically.

“Technically?”  Alyssa turned her head slightly while shooting him a puzzled look.   “What does that mean?”

“Melinda did manage to cling onto the old mare for thirty seconds, which was the time on the original bet.  However, when she fell off she landed on some rocks and cacti and had to be taken to the hospital.”

“Oh that’s horrible!” Alyssa exclaimed.  “Was she okay?”

“Yeah, she broke her leg, but it was nothing that could keep Melinda down.  No, what was worse was the trouble Shad got into when Dad found out what happened.”

“He probably caught a lot of slack for being the older brother.” Alyssa observed.  She thought about how lonely her childhood without siblings had been by comparison.  There was Clara’s family, but it wasn’t the same.  There was no one there to lean on, depend on, or get in trouble with.  She had longed for a big family for as long as she could remember.

Woody smiled a little. “He did.  But he also did a lot for us since Mom was gone and Dad was always working the farm.”

“Where was your mom?” Alyssa asked. 

“She died.” He answered, and the openness and smile that had been on his face a moment before suddenly tightened and the corners of his lips dropped. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry.  I shouldn’t have intruded.”   When she spoke he saw that she started rubbing her thumb along the indentation in her ring finger.  Her discomfort in the situation translating immediately to her need to instinctively reach for comfort from her missing ring.

“It’s not a problem.  It happened a long time ago.” He gulped down the last of his beer and poured another. 

He had almost told her that he had been the reason his mom died, that she hadn’t been able to survive his birth and that in order for him to live she had to die.  These were the thoughts that haunted him, the ones that he had never given voice to, not even to Shad.  Now, however, he found himself wanting to tell this woman whom he’d only met this morning about his mother’s death.  Instead he found himself searching for a way to change the subject. 

“Do you play pool?” he asked as he looked across the room and realized that one of the tables was open. 

She smiled and looked over her shoulder.  “I played some when I was younger.”

Woody stood up and helped Alyssa out of her seat.  He had never been able to resist a woman who knew her way around a pool table. 

While he was setting up the balls in the rack she rounded the edge of the table and chalked up her cue.  “You do know your way around the table.” He commented as he took the chalk from her, his fingers resting calmly in her palm for a moment before he rounded the table.  “Your break,” he told her.

Alyssa flipped her hair over her shoulder, leaned down over the table, and sank two solids on the break. 

Woody smiled at her, relieved to see her finally beginning to break out of her shell.

*

Three games of pool later, they were walking across the parking lot.   Alyssa stumbled on the pavement and started to trip when Woody reached out and steadied her with a hand against her shoulders. 

“My car’s still at your shop,” she told him, giggling as he opened the door to the car.  He’d pretty much stopped drinking when they’d started playing pool, but she hadn’t.  She had been torn between the fact that she really liked spending time with Woody, and the guilt she felt for forgetting about Kyle. 

Now, even though the night was winding down and they were leaving the bar, she found that she didn’t want to let this moment go.  It was most likely the beer that was clouding her judgment, but she didn’t want to wake up tomorrow to be the same old Alyssa.  Tonight she felt different, tonight she felt alive.  She was determined to hold onto that as long as she could.   

“I was just going to take you to the farm,” Woody stated.   “Clara said they had a room set up for you to stay in.” He told her as he helped her up into the seat.  His arm was warm against her skin, and she felt her flesh light up under his touch as she snuggled down into him.

When he turned around to help her up into the seat, she found herself looking deep into his eyes.  They were dark green in the moonlight, but she could sense that there were secrets there that were as haunted as her own.  She suddenly wanted to once again share her life with someone, to experience an embrace that was more than just a memory.

He put his hand up, cupped her cheek and used his thumb to wipe away a single tear that had slid from the corner of her eye when she wasn’t paying attention.

“Why are you crying?” He asked as his thumb travelled over her lips, and she sighed as he leaned down to kiss her. 

As soon as his lips touched hers she could feel the electricity flowing through her.  A spiral of excitement curled up from the apex of her thighs and spread through her entire body.  She slipped her arms around his neck and drew him closer, deepening the kiss. 

Her senses burst into life, and she could suddenly hear everything from the crickets chirping, to the hum of the neon lights overhead.  She could smell his cologne and the thick wet air, and she could feel his heartbeat as it thumped steadily under her fingertips when she placed her hand on his chest.

He leaned into her and she found herself pressed against the car, his body molding into hers.  There was something dark and primal she had avoided for years resting in her and she could feel it begging to escape.  When his mouth left hers and began a trail of kisses down her jaw and neck it left little flames in each contact area. 

His free hand slid from her shoulder down to her hip, and she gasped when his hand pushed aside her blouse and the sensitive flesh of her abdomen came into contact with his rough fingertips.  He planted a kiss on her collarbone and then once again kissed her, deeper this time, more intense than before.  She wove her fingers through his hair and pulled him even closer, trying to quench the fire which was beginning to rage inside of her.  It had been so long since she’d experienced desire that she was having trouble remembering how to deal with the flames which threatened to now consume her. 

When she pulled up into the kiss a loud crack of thunder and lightning flared across the sky, followed immediately by a downpour of rain.  At first she didn’t move, afraid to lose the connection.  But the rain was so thick, that he broke off the kiss and ushered her into the car.

As soon as he closed the door behind her, the guilt and the worry crept in.

What have you done? 
She wondered. 
You barely know this man. 
But maybe the most nagging one was the voice asking,
How could you just forget about Kyle?

Perhaps it was because that voice had the largest ring of truth to it, but she ducked her head down and stared at her hands, avoiding any further contact with Woody as they drove to the farm in silence. 

Because the truth was that for a moment she had forgotten about Kyle.  She’d forgotten about everything except that moment, and as badly as she craved the absence of her guilt and her memories, she feared it, too.

*

Alyssa fished out the last of her toiletries and miscellaneous clothing items from the bottom of the bag and dumped them in the drawer.  She’d been staying in one of the side apartments at Shad’s farm house for the last three days.  Clara had asked her to be around for support during the trial, and since she was a writer, her job could theoretically be done anywhere she had decided to stay for a little bit.  Clara had even ridden with her yesterday when they’d driven back to Alyssa’s home in Wichita Falls to pack up a few more supplies and they had gotten a chance to talk about everything that had happened.

Alyssa hadn’t mentioned anything about Woody, but she was sure that Clara could see the tension between them.

Since the kiss, things had been strained between her and Woody, but she was still enjoying the time they were spending together.  When she was around him she didn’t run her thumb over her indented ring finger or think about Kyle nearly as much.  It felt like she had managed to finally shed much of the guilt and emerge from the wall she’d built around herself.  Once again, she could breathe. 

Each joke, each laugh, tore holes at the barricade she’d built.  The truth was, when Clara had asked her to stay, she felt relieved. 

The door swung open as Clara came in with a bundle of sheets.  “Here are some clean sheets.”

“Thanks.  I was just putting up the last of my stuff.” Alyssa said as she took the bundle from Clara. 

“I’m glad you decided to stay.”

“You’ve said that like a hundred times now.” Clara chuckled.

“I still mean it, too!” Exclaimed Alyssa.  “I don’t know what I would do without you here to help me.”

Alyssa smiled and nodded, but she knew that Clara was just as concerned with her well-being as she was with the trial.  They had sat down and talked for hours the other night about Kyle and the accident and about her life now.  Before then they had communicated the stress of what Chuck Sanders had inflicted on her, only then he had just been some nameless entity that shadowed everything in Clara’s life. 

Now Alyssa was thrilled to see that Clara had successfully cast off that shadow and was enjoying her new life here on the farm with Shad.

“I’m sure you’d be fine.  After all, you have the wonderful Shad,”  Alyssa winked at her as she walked the sheets over to the bed and carefully set them on top of the comforter so that she would remember to change them out later.

“I’ll let you get back to your unpacking and writing,” Clara turned to head out, but then abruptly stopped and came back into the room. “Also, Woody is coming by the house for dinner tonight.  I just wanted to give you a head’s up.”