“4.0,” Darby is the first to predict.
Aidan shakes his head. “4.5 at least.”
Shane doesn’t say anything. Instead, he peers down at me with an eyebrow hitched up, his mouth wavering into a potential smile.
“What?” Two days he’s been pretending I don’t exist and now he wants to be chummy because of a little earthquake? Yeah, I think not.
“Nice shirt.”
Oh. I look down and realize my mistake. I’m wearing his USMC t-shirt that I refuse to return. I shrug, deciding to go for broke. Collies can be vicious if provoked. “It’s a comfortable t-shirt. Don’t read anything into it.”
His mouth twitches in amusement. I’m not amused. In fact, I’m far from amused, my temper waking from hibernation.
“I can give it back to you right now if want?” I grab the shirt at the hem. It’s so big it hits the middle of my thigh. Lifting it, I get close to my panty line and he gently takes my arm.
The pads of his fingers glide carefully over the back of my upper arm, not lingering too long lest I get the wrong impression. God forbid. Well, I am getting all the wrong impressions. Every place he touches is scorched earth, destined to never forget that Shane Hughes has been there. This guy really brings out the worst in me.
“Stop,” he says quietly––quiet enough that the rest of them (all of whom have suddenly become amateur seismologists and are still arguing the Richter scale rating of this quake) can’t hear.
After a brief but aggressive eye duel, I walk away to check on the animals. Shane isn’t far behind. “Go away,” I order without missing a step.
Naturally, he doesn’t. I turn abruptly and he stops short, only a foot separating us. “What do you want, Shane?” I take a step back, so I’m not forced to tip back my head to see his face.
“I need to check that the structure isn’t compromised,” Shane murmurs. “You’re not going in that barn before me.”
The saving grace is that none of the animals were in the barn tonight. It’s been hot at night lately, and I’ve been leaving them in their paddocks.
An aftershock hits and we grab each other at the same time. It’s a deep one, which means less violent and short-lived. I drop his hands almost immediately.
“What are we doing?” Aidan asks, suddenly standing next to us in his underwear and flip-flops, a deeply curious look on his face as his attention ping-pongs between me and Shane.
“We’re checking the barn for damage. C’mon, Aidan.”
The Hughes brothers walk inside without waiting for me. As soon as I set one foot in the barn, I hear, “Get your ass out of this barn right now, Blue!”
“I have every right to be in there, too!” I shout. But it falls on deaf ears, the same two sets that are busy staring at the vaulted ceiling. I don’t dare set foot inside. The Colonel has spoken, and for the first time, he sounds like he means it.
Instead, I head to the paddock to check on the smaller animals and Legend, who although is gaining strength and putting on weight by the day, is still nowhere near full-strength.
The animals have settled back down from their earlier freak out. Piglet, one of the mini ponies, still seems a little rattled. He trots over to me immediately while Spice and Raven stand around the middle of the paddock, tail to nose. I pet his neck and scratch his withers to calm him and he pushes up against my hand for more.
“They okay?” the man with the raspy voice asks.
Glancing over my shoulder, I notice he’s standing with his cellphone flashlight pointed at the ground. “They’re okay for now.”
“You want the bad news now or tomorrow?”
My shoulders fall, my soul crying out in defeat. We can’t afford any more big expenses. “Give it to me now. How bad is it?”
“The retaining wall on the south side has a crack in it. It has to be repaired immediately.”
Hazel, out of nowhere, comes trotting up to Shane, braying her little heart out. It’s so dramatic it startles poor little Piglet.
She nuzzles his thigh and trots around him, desperate for his attention.
“I think she likes you, Hughes,” I say, trying my best not to laugh. He grunts and I almost lose that battle. “It wouldn’t kill you to reciprocate. No one will think you’re soft if you pet her.”
His searching eyes slide over to me. “She’s not the first female I’ve disappointed and she won’t be the last.”
I feel sorry for you, I want to say. I keep quiet instead, too tired to try to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. ‘You can’t blame someone for their nature,’ my father’s voice echoes in my head. I should tattoo it on my heart.
His actions betray his words, though. I watch his big hand reach out and rub Hazel’s ear. His face softens into what could be construed as pleasure.
Score tally… Hazel:1 Hughes: 0.
Chapter 13
“First the pickup truck and now the barn. I want to cry,” I tell Mona. It’s getting harder and harder to stay positive.
We stare at the sagging wall on the south side of the barn with heavy hearts.
Mona takes a sip of her coffee from her In My Defense I Was Left Unsupervised mug. “All this can be fixed. Don’t go Blue on me now.” She flashes one of her dimpled grins and it forces a reluctant smile out of me, too.
The roar of trucks approaching has us both turning to see who it is. Two large ones from the local hardware store come ripping down the driveway.
“Did you order anything?” I ask my boss.
“Negative, Smokey.”
“I did,” Shane announces like he won Game of Thrones and he’s now Lord of all the realms. Or something like that. He walks toward the trucks and points them in the direction where they should unload the materials he ordered without telling me. Aidan suddenly appears to offer his assistance.
“Well, well, well. If this isn’t a sight…” The mischief lurking in her periwinkle eyes scares me. “Tell ya what. Darby and I will take care of the animals today. You help the boys fix that barn.”
“But––”
“That peace treaty is fragile between those boys. You want to be the one to ruin it?”
“Seriously? Are you sure you’re not CIA trained? Because it sounds like you’re running a psychological operation on me.”
“Would you look at that. Oh, no…” Glancing over my shoulder, she makes a sad face and shakes her head. “They’re already arguin’.”
I whip around to see what the problem is, and by the time I realize I’ve been had, she’s already half-way back to the house. The woman is diabolical.
While the men unload the timber, the cement, and the rest of the supplies, I place a call to the hardware store manager. Apparently, Shane called them this morning, and voila, supplies got delivered. No debate about times and schedules and being short-staffed. Must be nice to wield that kind of power.
“We need to shore up the retaining wall,” Shane says to Aidan, the two of them inspecting the corner of the barn that’s sagging with complete focus. “Set up some temporary scaffolding while we work.”
“What should I do?”