Straddling the Fence (20 page)

Ripping a page right out of Bellamy’s untested playbook,
tonight Eli was planning to drown his disappointment at the bottom of a bottle.
His choice of tranquilizer was whiskey instead of tequila, except there was one
problem with that decision—there wasn’t enough Jack Daniels made in Tennessee
to fill the gaping, empty hole in his chest.

Still, he planned to give it his best shot, literally, as he
grabbed a glass from a cabinet, plunked a few cubes of ice inside and doused
them with liquid fire. He took the bottle with him into the living room and
settled on the couch, fully intending to polish off the entire fucking thing.
An alcohol-induced coma seemed like a nice way to forget, albeit temporarily.

Never again would he question or wonder why Fritz had
behaved the way he had after Kai left Serenity. He totally got it now. Got the
moroseness, the irritability and the urge to pound the shit out of something,
be it person or bottle. Loving someone and watching them walk away hurt like a
mother, and with every passing day, the ache grew deeper and more acute, sharp
as a new blade.

At what point did it start to get better? Three months, six,
a year?

Never?

He was starting to think that keeping in contact with
Bellamy, even if it was only through texts and phone calls, was the wrong thing
to do. Maybe if he gave that up too, he would eventually start to feel normal
again. But what was normal now? He sure as shit didn’t want to go back to his
old soulless lifestyle, screwing girls he had no interest in talking to, let
alone ever seeing again.

Jesus Christ, he was pathetic.

Part of him wished he’d been selfish and asked her to stay.
But no matter how much he loved her and didn’t want to see her go, he couldn’t
bring himself to say the words. He couldn’t imagine having to face her every
day knowing he’d asked her to give up something that meant so much to her.
Sure, it might be okay at first, but after a while, she’d start to regret
giving up the chance. Regret turned into cancers and ate you up from the inside
out. She’d come to resent him, then possibly hate him, and he couldn’t stomach
the thought of seeing all that beautiful light die in her eyes.

“Here’s to playing the lovesick martyr.” He toasted the
empty room and polished off what remained in his glass.

He was pouring his second drink when his phone rang.
Glancing at the display, he saw that it was Sage, not Bellamy, so he ignored
it. No sooner had the ringing stopped than it started up again. If he ignored
it a second time, Sage would be banging down the door in a few minutes, trying
to talk Eli into going to Sam’s, where they’d have to pay for their liquor and
Eli would wind up hurting some nice girl’s feelings because he didn’t want to
flirt or dance or fuck.

On the last ring, Eli barked, “What?”

“You sober enough to drive?” Sage asked, but there was
something in his tone that instantly cleared the building alcohol fog from
Eli’s brain, a breathless urgency he could hear and sense through the line.

A sudden icy alertness washing over him, he sat up and put
his fresh drink down. “Yeah, why?”

“Get over to Bellamy’s place right now.”

By the time Sage said “now”, Eli was at the back door
stomping his feet into his boots and grabbing his keys. “Sage, what’s going
on?”

“Her house is on fire. Try not to wreck on your way over.
I’m almost there.” Sage hung up.

The news stopped him cold in his tracks, panic momentarily
disrupting his ability to walk and think at the same time, before he forced his
feet to start moving again. Running, actually, thoughts flooding back into his
brain in random chaotic jolts.

Is she there?

The fireplace.

Did that goddamn squirrel chew through wiring?

Heart pine burns like kerosene.

Bellamy…

He barely registered opening his truck door, let alone most
of the drive over, but the sight of Bellamy’s house fully engulfed in flames brought
everything into razor-sharp clarity. His heart did something weird and painful
inside his chest, as if it was being overinflated with a tire pump, getting
ready to burst and shred him to pieces.

Please, God, don’t let her be inside that house.

Cars and trucks were parked along the sides of the highway,
people stopped to watch a tragedy unfolding. They stood beside vehicles, hands
covering mouths and hearts as the raging fire swallowed whole what Bellamy held
so dear. Eli didn’t care about the house. Not really. All he cared about was
where she was and if she was safe. That she was anywhere but here, trapped
inside or watching it burn.

He plowed up the drive, the engine under the hood of his
truck whining over the abuse, dust rising behind him in a dense, swirling
cloud. Local fire trucks sat parked at a safe distance from the structure,
lights flashing strobes of red and white across the field, mixing with the
steady bright-orange glow from the flames. They rose so high they blocked out
the trees, black smoke rolling up into the night sky to smother the stars.

Then he caught a flash of a silver vehicle, her work truck.

It felt as if his heart had finally burst and shattered
every rib. But common sense told him that it wasn’t parked in its usual spot. Instead,
it sat toward the back of the property, near the old shed, her little blue car
parked next to it.

Odd.

When he parked beside Sage’s truck and scrambled out, he was
stunned to see the firefighters were standing around with their hands shoved in
their pockets or crossed over their chests, watching the fire burn like
spectators, not doing a damn thing to douse the flames.

The heat from the blaze was so intense he could feel it on
his skin, the acrid smell of burning wood assaulting his nose. The first fireman
he reached was an ex-classmate, and the only reason he paused was because it
was on his way to the back of the house.

“Jack, what the hell? Why aren’t y’all trying to put it
out?”

Jack shrugged. “She told us not to waste a single drop of
water,
unless
the field caught fire.”

Definitely something Bellamy would say. Hope bloomed inside
him, brighter than the flames. “She?”

“The owner. Miss Haile.” Jack pointed in the general
vicinity of the backyard.

Eli took off at a run again, not slowing until he caught
sight of Sage standing under a magnolia tree well away from the burning house
with his arm wrapped around Bellamy’s shoulders. Tears glistened on her cheeks,
set aglow by the flames. Tiny rivers of gold streaking her perfect skin. Relief
flooded through his veins in such a rush he almost grew lightheaded. She was
alive and safe and back in Serenity.

Sage stepped aside and Eli swept her into his arms before
she barely knew he was even there. He held her too tight and too long, but she
didn’t utter a peep of protest. Her hands gripped his shirt at his waist then
slid up his back as she buried her face in his neck.

“You scared fifty years off my lifespan, darlin’.”

“I’m really sorry.” Her voice was muffled by his shirt. “I
lost my phone in the yard somewhere when I was moving stuff out. Besides, if I
called first, you would’ve just tried talking me out of it.”

“Probably.” He drew back, hands roaming greedily over her
body, reassuring himself that she was real before kissing her mouth hard enough
to bruise. “Are you okay?”

“I am, now that you’re here. Except the whole town will
probably think I’m certifiable after doing this.”

“Did you set your house on fire, Bellamy?”

She nodded slowly, then let go a shaky, watery laugh.

Unable and unwilling to loosen his hold, he pulled her close
again, feeling just as shaky—a hangover from all the nerves. “Why’d you do it,
honey?”

She sighed so deeply he felt her body move against his. “You
know why.”

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

There was no way she was letting anyone get near that house
with a bulldozer. If it was coming down, it had to be her hand behind the
destruction.

“I agreed to sell the land to Mr. Treadway. We shook hands
on it this afternoon when I got back to town, but he’s having the contract
drawn up first thing Monday morning to make it official.”

“You sure about this? We could probably still find someone
else to lease the dirt without much trouble.”

From the smile she gave him, Eli could tell she was finally
at peace with the decision to part with the place. “I’m sure.”

He smiled back. “Well, okay then.”

Eli tucked himself against her back, wrapping his arms
around her waist while they silently watched the flames gobble up her relic of
a house. A tinderbox, really, made of materials sure to burn fast and hot. The second
floor collapsed down onto the first, sending millions of sparks dancing up into
the darkness. Gray ashes drifted off with the light breeze and the spectators
lining the roadway began to dissipate, their apparent thirst for drama slaked.

Kai, Fritz, Ruby and Joe showed up, but they weren’t in a
state of panic because Sage had called them beforehand and explained that
Bellamy was fine. They were simply there to offer their support, like a close
family should. After an hour or so, they all hugged Bellamy once more and left,
along with Sage, leaving her and Eli alone. Only the firefighters remained to
drown the embers once the fire burned itself out.

“You know, there was probably ten thousand dollars’ worth of
heart pine flooring in there,” Eli mused next to her ear, a bit sad over the
loss.

“Probably,” she said with a long sigh.

He chuckled. “You’re not the least bit sorry you burned it
down, are you?”

“Nope. Well, I might’ve had a moment or two of panic once I
actually saw flames. But I had to do it.”

“I’m proud of you, Bell.”

She turned in his arms, nodding toward the antique farm
table leaning against the magnolia tree behind them, two of its legs broken off
where they joined the top. He assumed the injury had been caused in her
struggle to get the monstrous thing out of the house without help. The sum
total of her material possessions sat next to it, her nearly nomadic existence
distilled down to three cardboard boxes, a squatty filing cabinet and two
suitcases. Her lumpy excuse for a bed hadn’t made the cut, thankfully.

“Think you can fix it?” she asked, referring to the table.

“I know I can fix it.”

“Think there might be room for it in your kitchen?”

“If I have to knock out a wall.” He’d tear the whole damn
house down and rebuild if it meant making space for her and her huge, special
table.

Her eyes caught his, bright and shiny in the dying light, as
she placed a hand over his heart. “Think there might still be room for me too?”

“Darlin’, there will always be room for you.”

“I made a mistake, Eli. I turned my back on what had become
the most important thing in my life—you. I put a job ahead of love and I was
wrong to do that. I realized after I left that somewhere along the line, the
dream had changed. I didn’t desire it anymore. I missed everything about
Serenity—the people, the animals, Kai and Grace and the entire Carter
family—but I missed
you
the most. I missed being near you and how you
make me feel when I’m with you—safe and happy and loved. This is where I
belong. Right here, in your arms, with you looking at me the way you are at
this very moment. Can you forgive me?”

He kissed her sweet mouth, tender this time. Tender as his
heart felt. “There’s nothing to forgive, Bell.”

Her hand came up to cup his cheek. “I love you, Eli, and I
promise nothing will ever get in the way of that love again.”

“I love you too, honey.” He kissed her forehead. “So much.
More than I ever thought it was possible to love someone.”

Arms wrapped tight around each other, they watched the fire
die down to a smolder. The fire department drowned the last of the embers,
leaving only the charred remains of what had once been a landmark of Bellamy’s
life. Eli brushed a few stray tears from her cheeks before they found her phone
in the grass and loaded her things into the back of his truck.

“We’ll come back tomorrow and pick up your vehicles,” he
told her as he helped her into his pickup. She nodded, quiet as they followed
the fire trucks out the gate.

Eli stopped at the end of her drive, one last thing on his
mind he wanted to do before they left the old place behind. He grabbed a hammer
from his toolbox, tackled the task then locked the gate for now. Once Bellamy
signed over the deed to the land, they’d hand the keys to Wallace Treadway, but
not until she put pen to paper.

He climbed back inside the truck and set the battered, rusty
mailbox on the seat between them. From the way Bellamy smiled, you would’ve
thought he’d handed her a box of tiny newborn fox kits. One day very soon, he’d
hand her the reins to her very own horse, or any animal she desired. Whatever
lit up those green eyes with joy, he would see that she got it if it cost him
his last dime.

She lovingly traced the faded black letters down the side
that spelled out “McCoy” before reaching for his hand and tugging him across
the space for another lingering kiss that told him she was going to be just
fine. That together they were going to be better than fine. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Ready?”

Their hands still linked together, Bellamy nodded. “Let’s go
home.”

The End

A simple country girl who adores living in the South, Annie
enjoys spending time in the great outdoors, biking and working out with her
hubby, reading and of course writing. She believes the most important thing you
can do for children, outside of loving them unconditionally, is put a book in
their hands. Her favorite authors include Flannery O'Conner, Harper Lee,
Gillian Flynn, Megan Hart, Cara McKenna and Anne Calhoun, just to name a few.
She'd love to hear what you thought of her books.

Annie welcomes comments from readers. You can find her
website and email addresses on her
author
bio page
at
www.ellorascave.com
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