As I drove toward the farm, I picked up my phone and made a call to Deputy Stone. I wasn’t stupid enough to try and confront someone without backup, and Deputy Stone was the only person I even remotely trusted within a close enough distance to get there in time. I got his voicemail and explained everything as quickly as I could, hoping like heck I could trust him.
I was relieved when my phone stayed silent after that. If there weren’t messages and frantic attempts to contact me coming from Sam, perhaps Mikey hadn’t tattled on me after all.
Or maybe Sam’s simply driving back here too fast and recklessly to waste time on messaging.
I ignored all thoughts about Sam and focused on what I was going to say. When I parked in front of the farmhouse, I hissed at Mikey to get his ass in the house and stay out of sight. “Try the guest room. And lock the door!”
I made sure the surveillance video cameras were online and working and then sent off the login information to Deputy Stone before slipping my phone back into my pocket. Hopefully, Barney wouldn’t turn violent, but after everything I now suspected of him… it was hard to know for sure.
When his car finally bumped up to the gate, I took a deep breath and marveled at my steady nerves. Even though this wasn’t the Stanner family I’d always imagined an eventual showdown with, I still felt that this conversation had been a long time coming. No matter what happened, it would be a relief to finally get some of these things out in the open.
Barney leaned out of his window. “Can you open the gate for me?”
After he parked and got out of his car, I gestured for him to follow me to the rocking chairs on the front porch.
“Thank you for coming,” I began, clutching my knees nervously. “I didn’t know who else to talk to about this.”
“You were right to come to me. Anytime,” he assured me.
I groaned and closed my eyes, resting my head back on the rocker. “I feel like such an idiot. I think…” I opened my eyes and looked at him before glancing down at my lap. “No, I know I was wrong to trust Sam.”
I held up a hand. “Wait. Before you say anything, please don’t be disappointed in me for trusting him in the first place. I feel like a fool…”
Barney sighed and reached over to place his hand over mine. I tried not to cringe. “We all make mistakes. But… what happened to change your mind?”
“I should have seen it. And you tried to warn me. He’s just so crass. And he pressured me to ride on his motorcycle. I was terrified, but I didn’t know how to say no, and we almost died! And then he told me that he thought I should take the insurance money from the fire and use it for something decadent, like an expensive motorcycle. Can you imagine? When I asked about what I would do with the building, he said I could probably make money by tearing it down and making a parking lot there instead since the town is going to boom after the ski resort opens.”
Barney’s eyes widened comically. He was a sucker for historical buildings. Or so he’d said. “A parking lot?”
“Right? It seemed kind of… disrespectful. Of my aunt Berry if not of me directly. That’s when I realized you would have never suggested such a thing to me.”
“Certainly not!”
“And it made me question some other things he’s said, too. Like I think he’s thinking of skimming money off the ski resort somehow. I didn’t really understand what he was saying—you know how business stuff just goes over my head—but it sounded illegal.”
“I told you there was something off about him, didn’t I?” Barney squeezed my hand tighter and shook his head, clucking over me like a mother hen. “From the very first day. I warned you to stay away from him, and now you see the proof yourself.”
I nodded and tried to come up with a tear or two. “You did. And I didn’t listen. And now I feel so stupid. You’ve always been there for me. Through everything. When the Stanner brothers beat me up behind the shop that time, you were the one who brought me flowers and my favorite salad from Bolo’s Market. You looked out for me and helped guide me on how to stay out of trouble. I just feel like… I feel like…” I sniffed and looked away.
Barney’s hand came down on my shoulder and squeezed as if trying to reassure me. It took all of my self-control not to shudder under his touch. No wonder my gut was always trying to warn me away from hooking up with him. He was an awful human being. My body had known it, even if my brain hadn’t.
I glanced at him quickly and then darted my eyes away. “I feel ashamed of how stupid I’ve been,” I whispered, and it was the first true thing I’d said since he’d arrived.
“Sweet pea. We all make mistakes. Of course I understand. You’re young. You’re easily led astray.”
I forced myself to smile wanly. “I just hate that I made you have to go so far out of your way to guide me back to the right path. You tried so hard to get me to realize how good you were for me, and I didn’t listen. I abused your trust in me.”
“Sometimes love means doing the hard thing, Truman. And I love you enough to do the hard things.”
“I can see that now. I see how much you love me.” I looked at him and tried to appear lovestruck. “You loved me enough to come up with an amazing plan. And I messed it up. I messed it all up.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you tried to set a little fire to get my attention, I’d failed to ship out a big delivery of essential oils that day. If I’d just done my job instead of being lazy, the fire would have never gotten out of hand. Oh, how you must have been so upset! I feel terrible.” I let my true feelings of regret and anger bring real tears to my eyes. “It could have been contained if not for my stupid, stupid procrastination. It’s all my fault. All you wanted to do was…” I faked a big gulping sob, and Barney stared at me for a few beats.
I assumed he was trying to determine whether or not to continue trying to pin the arson on Sam or accept my understanding and let it be.
This was the moment of truth.
Barney finally pulled me in for a hug.
“Shhh, shhh. It’s okay. There, now. It’s all over. It is what it is. Although that certainly does explain why it got out of hand.”
That wasn’t enough. It wasn’t an actual confession. I needed more.
“But then the motorcycle crash in the mountains. I feel like I misunderstood what I was supposed to do. Run? Should I have stayed there and made sure he was standing by the bike? I felt so stupid, Barney. I didn’t know what you wanted me to do. Tell me what I should have done.” I cried on his shoulder.
“Of course you should have run, sweet pea. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I simply wanted to scare him away from here and remind you how unsafe and unreliable a man like him is. You did the right thing. Of course you did. There, now. Stop the waterworks. It’s alright now.”
“After the time in front of the shop, I wasn’t sure. But I should have known you didn’t want to hurt anyone. I knew it had to be a mistake.”
“I wasn’t expecting those other two to interfere,” he said peevishly. “And I certainly wasn’t expecting some imbecile driver behind me to honk and scare me to death.”