“Morning. You sleep okay?”
Hayes’ voice was full of concern as he took in my face. I blinked up at him. “What is happening right now?”
“Don’t be mad.”
“That is never a good start to any statement.”
Hayes’ expression seemed to battle between amusement and worry. “Dad wanted you to have your barn now.”
“What?”
“He said your plans were sound and simple. His buddy who runs a construction crew heard what you were doing, and he and his crew said they’d love to help. They’re between jobs right now and can give this project a week of dedicated work.”
“What?” It was the only word I seemed capable of saying. My head turned as people began spilling out of trucks, SUVs, and cars. They laughed and chatted—faces I knew and ones I didn’t recognize. “Why?”
“You want to do some good here, and people want to help with that.”
Tears stung the corners of my eyes. “Even though they know who I am?”
“Ev.” Hayes took my face in his hands, turning me towards him. “Who you are is an amazing, brave, selfless woman. Why wouldn’t they want to help someone like that?”
A few tears slipped free, and Hayes wiped them away with his thumbs. I grabbed hold of his arms, worried if I didn’t, I might lose my stance. “I can’t afford to pay all of them.”
“It’s a gift. And we got the materials at cost. Those are a gift from my family.”
My head shook between his hands. “No. I can’t accept that. It’s too much.”
“They’ve wanted to do something. Needed to. Let them.”
“I can’t—”
He silenced me with a swift kiss. That mix of heat and comfort I’d felt before nearly brought me to my knees. “Please, let them do this.”
The pleading in his tone had me giving in. “Okay. But there’s something I want to give them, too.”
Hayes released his hold on my face and straightened. “What’s that?”
“I’ll show you.”
Hayes called his dad over, and I motioned to Shiloh and Julia. Hadley had to untangle herself from a Birdie piggyback ride, but she came, too. I took in the family. One mine had stolen so much from, who still gave to me freely anyway. “I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for me. I wanted to do something for you. And I couldn’t think of what that might be.”
Julia reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “You don’t need to give us anything.” Her eyes darted towards Shiloh. “You’ve already given us everything.”
A burn lit in the back of my throat. “I think this is something we can do together.”
I moved to a crate I’d set at the foot of the porch steps. Lifting the lid, I looked up. “There’s one for each of you.”
Hadley bent down and picked up one of the items in the crate. “A sledgehammer?”
I met Shy’s gaze and then looked behind her to the shed in the distance. We’d kept our distance from the space every time we’d worked together. Consciously or subconsciously, I’d woven the paddocks we’d created away from that area. But if any of us had a prayer of moving past what had happened here, we needed to face it.
“The shed.” The structure Shiloh had been kept in for five days all those years ago still stood strong. While the main house was barely habitable, and the barn was gone, that damn shed was still there. “It’s time to tear it down. I thought it might be a good place to put a garden. Pour some life into the space.”
I looked around at the faces, seeing a mixture of reactions. And for a heartbreaking moment, I wasn’t sure if I’d overstepped my bounds. But then Shiloh stepped forward and picked up a sledgehammer. “I think that’s a great plan.”
She started walking without waiting for the rest of us, but we followed. Julia first, giving me a tight hug and whispering, “Thank you.” Then Gabe, who seemed to be wrestling with tears. Hadley simply shot me a grin. “Let’s beat the hell out of some wood.”
Hayes bent, picking up the last two sledgehammers. “How do you always seem to know what Shy needs?”
I took one of the hammers from him and started walking. “I don’t know that I do. I just know that ignoring what happened here hasn’t been good for any of us. I hid from it for so long, and it chased me, haunted my nightmares, influenced everything. It has to give us a better shot to actually face it.”
Hayes wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I wanted to burn this place to the ground so many times I lost count.”
I stiffened in his hold. “Hayes—”
“But I was wrong. I’m ashamed that was my reaction.”
“You’re allowed to feel whatever you need to.”
He tipped his face down to look at me. “It’s so much better to create good here. To make new life where one was almost cut short.” His voice hitched on the words. “Doing what I do, you’d have thought I’d have learned this by now. More destruction won’t heal or cast out that darkness.”
“We’re about to do a little destruction right now.”
“This is different. It’s clearing the way to create something new.”
“I like looking at it that way.”
“Me, too.”
He bent to press a kiss to the corner of my mouth, but I stepped out of his hold. “Hayes,” I hissed. “Your family.”
He grinned. “I think I’m going to try making a habit of kissing you wherever I can and as often as possible.”
My cheeks heated. “I can’t talk about this right now.”
“But we are going to talk about it sometime. And that means you’re going to have to stop running away from me.”
“I’m not running.”
He arched a brow.
I picked up my pace. “I’ve just been busy.”
“Suuuure.”
“Later,” I hissed as we came to a stop where his family gathered.
He moved in close to me. “That’s a promise.”
I tried to ignore the heat coming off him in waves, the promise of safety and comfort I wanted to lean into so badly that it hurt. Instead, I focused on the faces around me. “Shiloh, you get the first blow.”
She didn’t say a word, simply stared at the structure that had taken so much from her. It seemed so small now, yet it had been a prison. She arced her hammer back and swung. As the first plank splintered, it sounded like freedom.
31
Hayes
I leaned back on the couch, kicking my socked feet up on the coffee table. Koda’s exhausted snores sounded from the dog bed in the corner. All of the excitement today had worn him out, but we’d made more than a little progress. More paddocks were finished, and the barn might even be done by the time the mare and donkey were well enough to come to their new home.
The door to the bathroom squeaked, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Everly appear. Steam billowed out of the bathroom, and I instinctively reached for my beer. Her hair fell in loose waves around her shoulders, her tank top hugged each dip and curve, and those damned shorts she wore to bed... They had my mind delving into places that she wasn’t ready for.