Page 39 of Tethered

“What’s this?”

“Face cream. I’m assuming your wife ordered it.”

His shoulders slump. “I need to put a password on the computer before she ends up buying something expensive.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course. Considering I’ve talked your ear off, ask away.”

I suspect the reason he talks so much is that he doesn’t get much human interaction beyond his wife. “Are you still working out of state?” I ask tentatively.

“No. I’ve taken a leave of absence. We have some savings for now. It’s not ideal, but she left the stove on the last time I left her alone. I can’t risk that again.”

“No, of course not. Okay, here’s the thing—I need some more help at the ranch. As its local, you’d be around the corner should your wife need you. And as part of your wage, I would pay for a caregiver to come in and sit with your wife. One who could cook her meals during the day and make sure she takes her meds, that kind of thing. It comes with medical?—”

“You don’t owe me anything, Calliope,” he says softly, but I don’t miss the glimmer of tears in his eyes.

“Perhaps not. But I really do need help at the ranch, and I’m not good at trusting people. I’ve halved the cattle we have, and Ihave a small team of ranch hands helping out, but it’s still a lot of work. What you did for me, regardless of the outcome, was more than anyone else did, and I’m really fortunate to be in a position where I can help. Please let me.”

Tears fill his eyes as he swallows and tugs me into his arms again. He holds me tightly, and I can feel him shaking as he tries so damn hard to pull himself together. Any minute now, I’m going to start sobbing along with him.

“So is that a yes?” I ask, my words muffled against his chest.

He huffs out a laugh before pulling back and looking down at me with a wobbly smile.

“It’s a yes, and a thank you all rolled into one.”

Chapter Twelve

“You okay?” Austin asks as we head toward the final address on my list.

I look at him and shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know. For as long as I can remember, this town has been like an albatross around my neck. My father might have been the bully, but everyone else just stood around and watched as he beat me down again and again. I was convinced everyone hated me.”

“And now?”

“And now, it feels like everyone just hates themselves. I don’t know if they’re feeding off the land or the land is siphoning off their emotions, but everything has become so toxic sometimes it’s hard to see a silver lining.”

“Hope can be a dangerous thing.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know the town’s history, or some of it at least. I know you’re connected to the land just like the ones who came before you. And though power manifested differently in all descendants, one thing remains the same—a Hart was always the heart of this place. Cutting it out is the fastest way to watch the land rot away. I saw the writing on the wall a year after you were gone. That’s why I moved. There was nothing good left here, nothing grew, nothing flourished. A curse had fallen on the place.”

I flinch. There is some truth to that. Though it wasn’t my intention, I remember lying in the dirt, feeling violated and in pain, where I purged that darkness into the soil beneath me. Did I do this? Did I poison this place?

“And then you came back, and slowly things are turning around.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“What happened to Andy?”

He goes rigid, his hands fisting the wheel as if the man’s name lashed open a wound. “He left town with me, but moved out when he was nineteen. He’s been married and divorced and has a kid he never sees, since his ex-moved to Canada, which just says everything, doesn’t it?”

I swallow the vomit I feel rushing up the back of my throat, trying to imagine how that woman would feel if she found out the man she married, who fathered her child, had once raped someone.

“Cece?”