Under the Open Sky (Montana Heritage Series) (28 page)

             
“What happened?” Trent asked of Cade.

             
“I could hear her crying; I was trying to decide if I should wake you when she stepped into the hallway.”

             
“You think I should get Naomi?”

             
“I don’t know.”

             
“She’s gonna make herself sick crying like that,” Trent fretted. “Mandy, honey, do you want Aunt Naomi?” her brother rubbed her back lightly.

             
“No!” she finally managed.

             
“What can I do, Mandy?”

             
“I was going to get a box of tissue,” it came out on a shuddering breath.

             
“I’ll get one,” Trent crossed to the bathroom and turned the light on as he reached into the linen closet. He returned, pulled a couple loose from the box and handed them to her. Remaining where she was, Amanda accepted them.

             
“I should get Dad or Naomi,” Trent turned.

             
“Please, don’t; I don’t want to upset them all over again,” Amanda requested.

             
“We can’t stand out here in the hall all night, Mandy. What do you want to do?” Trent was surveying her, his brow drawn.

             
“I wanna make it all go away,” she cried.

             
“I wish I could. You want me and Cade to go beat on Chris some more? Would that make you feel better?” Trent offered.

             
Amanda actually laughed through her tears.

             
“No, then they would arrest you both and I don’t want that,” Amanda protested.

             
“I think she just needs to cry it out, she’s been brave all night, Trent,” Cade offered.

             
“I’ve cried until I should be out of tears,” she protested. “I feel like such a baby!”

             
“Manny, you had a close call tonight, sweetheart; if it hadn’t shaken you up you wouldn’t be human.”

             
“I’m still tired of crying.”

             
“Alright, I imagine Cade would like to get into a dry shirt by now and you really should try to sleep,” Trent informed her.

             
“I had a nightmare; I don’t want to go back to sleep.”

             
“You want me to stay until you fall asleep?” Trent offered; Amanda nodded.

             
He had done that when they were children and she’d had nightmares. He would climb into her bed and read to her until she fell back to sleep. Tonight she felt much as she had then: young and vulnerable. It had always been Trent she turned to after a nightmare, not her father or her aunt and she had never wondered why until now.

             
“Okay, come on,” her brother patted her shoulder.

             
“Sorry,” Amanda sniffed an apology to Cade as she stood.

             
“I didn’t mind. I’m sorry, Manny; I am so sorry you had to go through that,” Cade told her, his eyes so dark they looked almost as blue as midnight. He was hurting for her, she realized; her heart flipped slightly in her chest.

             
She turned to follow her brother into her room where he was straightening out her twisted covers. She climbed back into her bed and watched as her brother seated himself at her desk. Sliding until he sat in the floor, Cade settled against her closet door.

             
“Okay, you have two bodyguards, you can go to sleep,” her brother teased.

             
“I feel much safer,” she assured him with a hint of a smile.

             
“Here, I’ll read to you,” Trent lifted a book from her desk and opened it to the book mark. “’Karen looked up at Mark, her eyes wide as she waited for his next move. She had waited what felt like a life time for this moment; her eyes closed as his lips pressed against hers.’ Do you really read this stuff?!” Trent demanded as he flipped the book over to frown at the cover.               Feeling lighter already, Amanda laughed.

             
“You have any G rated books in here?” Trent went through her desk.

             
“It isn’t
that
kind of book,” Amanda assured her brother. “So they kissed, in a few pages they’ll be a proposal and then another kiss and it’ll leave off somewhere in there. The rest is up to your imagination.”

             
“Your imagination shouldn’t even be going there.”

             
“I meant their life together; where’d your mind go?” Amanda demanded. Cade chuckled as her brother glared at her.

             
“
Scarlet Letter
, that’s not good bedtime reading,” her brother laid it on the desk top. “
Farewell to Arms
,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
, good grief, Mandy; have you read all these?”

             
“And then some,” she informed him.

             
“Here we go, some lighter material,
Little Women
,” her brother lifted it from the bottom drawer. It was one Amanda’s favorites; she could almost quote it. Amanda relaxed as her brother read, her gaze met Cade’s. He was doing it again, watching her, his expression unreadable, leaving her wishing that she could read his thoughts, especially when he smiled at her. Amanda smiled back; her eyes were growing heavy. When she drifted off this time she dreamt she was Jo Marsh and the professor in her dream looked oddly like Cade.

______________________________

              “So Cade beat the hell out of Chris huh?” a voice penetrated Amanda’s sleep fogged mind. She blinked several times before her eyes focused.

             
“Hi, Jenny,” Amanda greeted.

             
“You look rough, Mandy; are you alright?” Jenny, all teasing gone, dropped onto the bed. Amanda pushed into a sitting position before answering.

             
“I think so. How did you hear about it?” Amanda queried.

             
“Well, for one thing it’s all over town today. For another, David was in town when it happened and helped pull Cade off of Chris. David called to tell me about it, he thought Cade was going to kill Chris. He wasn’t entirely certain what had set it all off, though. He said Cade kept saying something about Chris ever touching you or coming near you again; then by today the whole story was circulating. A few versions actually and my phone hasn’t quit ringing.”

             
“Great,” Amanda sighed.

             
“What happened, Mandy?”

             
“I thought Chris was bringing me home. I should have been paying attention. I didn’t realize that he had been drinking or that he expected anything from me last night. I feel like a naïve idiot,” Amanda admitted. “He took me to the lake access road instead and,” Amanda hesitated.

             
“He tried raping you,” Jenny finished the sentence; Amanda nodded.

             
“After I got away from him he left me there,” Amanda shared and told her the rest of the story.

             
“Is Cade in trouble?” Jenny worried.

             
“It hasn’t exactly all been dropped but Officer Myles didn’t expect much of anything to come of it considering all,” Amanda explained.

             
“Good! I’m tempted to go beat on Chris a while!” Jenny fumed.

             
“He’s at the jail; I wouldn’t recommend it,” Amanda smiled at her friend.

             
“Mandy, I am so sorry.”

             
“Why is everybody but the jerk who did this to me sorry?” Amanda asked in bewilderment.

             
“Because we all love you and hurt for you,” Jenny answered around tears. “I’m glad Cade beat him up.”

             
“As long as it doesn’t get Cade in trouble, I can honestly say it doesn’t hurt my feelings any either,” Amanda admitted with an unapologetic smile.

             
“I guess not,” Jenny laughed. The two fell silent a moment, each lost in their thoughts.

             
“You gonna sleep all day, pest,” a rap sounded on the door a moment before it opened. “Oh, hi, Jenny,” Trent blinked in surprise. “Naomi has lunch ready.”

             
“Lunch?” Amanda’s eyes widened as she glanced at the clock.

             
“Oh, yeah; that’s why your aunt sent me up here,” Jenny remembered her reason for coming.

             
“Get out of here so I can dress,” Amanda shot at her brother. The moment the door closed, she tossed her covers aside and hopped from the bed; she winced as her feet hit the floor. “I momentarily forgot,” Amanda informed her friend before yanking on presentable clothes and dragging a brush through her hair.

             
“I guess I’m staying; your aunt invited me to,” Jenny shared as she stood.

             
“Good, you can help me stay busy today,” Amanda offered her friend a smile.

             
After eating, Amanda and Jenny spent the day meandering around the ranch. Amanda was trying hard to avoid dwelling on what had happened. She knew that school Monday was going to be difficult.

             
After Jenny had left, Amanda curled up with a book to read away the evening. After dinner, her father and brother left to make a delivery to a nearby ranch; they left Cade to clean up from their day’s work. Amanda found herself moving toward the barn and didn’t even try to delude herself into believing that she was going for any other reason than to see Cade.

             
“Hey, Manny; Jenny leave?” Cade glanced at her as she entered.

             
“Yeah, a little while ago; I’ve been reading.”

             
“You’re turning some interesting colors,” Cade noted, as he took in her jaw and face. Amanda nodded and seated herself on a hay bale to watch as he worked. “So next year, you’re off to college; you excited?”

             
“Yeah, I guess. I’m finishing school so I can go to school, but yeah; it’s the next step so…” Amanda shrugged.

             
“What? No big career plans?” Cade returned several tools to their places.

             
“All I have ever wanted is to be a rancher’s wife,” Amanda shrugged. She knew a lot of her friends couldn’t wait to get out of their little two stop light town but Amanda loved ranch life.

             
“Nothing wrong with that, but having a degree isn’t a bad idea either.”

             
“So Daddy is always reminding me,” Amanda smiled. “I’m taking a fast track program in Haddon. Business management; I figure it will be good for a regular job or to the benefit of a rancher’s wife.”

             
“Good luck, Manny.”

             
“You still trying to save up for your own ranch?” Amanda watched with great pleasure as he pulled his shirt off and wiped the sweat off his face before lifting a couple of large buckets to relocate them to the storage room.

             
“Yep. Two more years of college, four years working for your dad and then maybe by then I’ll have a down payment.”

             
“You’ll make a good rancher,” she assured him.

             
“I hope to,” Cade came to sit down by her a moment. “I want to prove to myself that I can do it,” Cade nudged at a bug crawling across the floor with the toe of his boot and kept his gaze down. “I want to prove that I can accomplish something, that I can marry and care for a wife and not perpetually be hurting her and my kids; that I have staying power.”

             
“You’ll do it,” she said confidently.

             
“My dad abandoned us, Manny; just left us. It killed my mother. His leaving combined with years of abuse killed my mom. I don’t ever want to do that to a woman or my child. After mom died, Dad took custody a whole eight months before the abuse caused the state to step in.”

             
“How old were you?” Amanda asked.

             
“Eleven and angry at the world. I made the rounds of all the foster homes, perpetually being kicked out. I got kicked out of another a week before my eighteenth birthday,” Cade shared. “My case worker had me in emergency housing figuring that was the best he could do for a whole week. That’s when your dad offered me a job. He didn’t pull any punches with me, laid it all out on the line. I would finish school. I would keep my nose clean and I would work hard.”