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I sighed, leaning against him. “I’m sorry. It’s just, we’ve been gone a while now, and the longer we are here, the more I worry about my mom, and what’s going on back home. On top of that, the horses can sense my feelings, and I can’t seem to shut off the connection now that it’s been bridged.”
Mathis blinked, glanced back across the meadow at the horses, where Dark
Temptation now pawed the ground restlessly and Pizazz trotted back and forth. Even his gelding seemed disturbed. Looking back at my face, he sighed, rubbing a calloused hand across my cheek.
“We can go back, whenever you are ready, Callie. Dark Temptation has made tremendous progress. Theres no way they will still insist your crazy or put him down now.”
Looking into his kind golden eyes, I nodded. “I think we should go back tomorrow. I just, I have this feeling deep down, like maybe somethings wrong, and we should go home, but forgive me if it’s wrong of me, but I wish I could just stay here with you, forever.”
Mathis smiled. Kissing me gently, he replied, “Things will be different once we go home, Callie. We won’t be together every moment of the day, but the way I feel about you, and the future I see with you will not change.”
Smiling at Mathis, I kissed him, wrapping my arms around him, and thanking God for what he had brought into my life. Even for the gift I’d once called a curse.
25
My cell phone began to vibrate erratically the moment we came within range of Mathis’s house. I had waited as long as I could to switch it on, wishing that I could postpone the return to reality as long as possible. Part of me was so tempted to just leave the damn thing off, put the horses in the barn, and drag Mathis upstairs to his bedroom and never remerge. However, there was that nagging feeling in the pit of my gut, something, some little instinct telling me I needed to go home, and I was terrified that something might be desperately wrong. I didn’t bother reading the missed calls list or the text messages. Instead, I went straight to listening to voicemails.
My brother’s voice blasted through the speaker, ridiculing me and calling me loco. My father’s message was gentler, but it was clear he was worried I would get myself killed. The first message from my mother was stern, but incredibly unsurprised. In fact, she told me to be careful, and she hoped everything worked out. Who would have thought that my mother would be one of my biggest supporters, when she was the one I had avoided most all these years? It made my heart hitch, and guilt tried to overwhelm me.
Taking a moment to ground myself, I stopped my mare, and allowed myself to just look around. The air was brisk and slightly chilly, the sky a bright azure blue. My eyes scanned the hills which were already fading to their golden color as the temperature had begun to drop. Birds still chirped away, and somewhere nearby; a hawk screeched. Toward Mathis’s beautiful house, a horse whinnied, and his dog, having spotted us, let out a series of excited barks. Taking a deep breath, I looked over at Mathis, and nodded. Together, we moved forward once more.
The message that finally broke down the wall on my unhinging emotions came from Sammy. Her voice was shaky, like she had been crying a lot, I could hear the strain, but it was her words that made the phone slip through my fingers and hit the cold ground below my mare. I froze, so many emotions and feelings warring inside of me that I couldn’t process them all. Pizazz snorted in distress, and behind Mathis, Dark Temptation began to paw the ground unhappily. Mathis was off his horse and grabbing me around the waist in a flash.
“Callie? Callie, what is it? What’s happened? Talk to me!”
I blinked, taking control of myself again, I picked up my phone, and handed it to him. “Listen to the message.”
Grabbing Pizazz by the reins I led her briskly to the barn, muttering, “I’m gonna kill the bastard.”
Having listened to the message, Mathis appeared beside me, quickly unsaddling his gelding and putting him in one stall and the stallion in another. His face was blank, but I saw the muscle ticking in his jaw, and I knew he was pissed.
Putting Pizazz in a stall, I followed Mathis to his truck, the two of us exchanging few words in our shock. Of all the events I had thought might face me on my return, this sure the hell wasn’t one of them. I couldn’t talk, so I texted Samantha that we were on the way. She replied immediately letting me know they were still at the hospital.
I stormed through the hospital, having no patience for the guard at the visitor counter, not giving a damn if I looked like hell. Behind me, Mathis smoothed them all over in my wake, and I found myself sending up a thank you, yet again, for bringing him into my life. Rounding a corner on the second floor, I found my family slumped in states of disarray around the waiting area. My dad and Cody wore nearly identical looks, as if they were plotting murder, Sammy was a beautiful mess, looking on the verge of puking and crying. My mother sat beside her, with little Caleb asleep in her lap, and Kaylee leaning her head on her brother from the seat on my mom’s other side.
The moment my boots came to a stop, all eyes-all adult eyes-came to rest on me. My mother and Samantha looked relieved, my brother still looked murderous, and my dad just looked tired.
“Where’s Elaine?” I wasn’t wasting time beating around the bush. “And where’s that bas…” my eyes flicked to the two exhausted children, and I sighed. But I didn’t need to explain to my family who I meant.
Mathis had caught up to me, and he stood beside me, ready to back me up. My dad stood up and ushered me away from the kids. Once we were out of earshot, he gave me a brief hug.
“Well, you’re alive, so I will take it we were all wrong and you’ve gentled that stallion?” when I didn’t reply, he sighed. “Elaine’s still in intensive care. She’s holding on, but barely.”
Tears stung my eyes. “What the hell happened?”
My dad rubbed his face. “We don’t know the whole story. Just that Peter told Elaine to get rid of the baby, and she confronted him about his affairs. They were in the car, they started to argue…. Peter lost control and they went over the ravine, rolling several times. He was driving incredibly fast, thank God the kids weren’t with them too…”
I swallowed. “Where’s Peter?” my body felt cold as I thought about killing my sister’s husband.
“He sustained minor injuries, and since he was driving, speeding, and he…. well, he’s in custody.”
My brow wrinkled together. “Since he what, Dad?”
My dad ground his teeth. “Peter fled the scene, called nine-one-one, and said he was alone in the car. Of course, when the police arrived, they went down there, and that’s when they found Elaine. They are charging him with attempted murder.”
My heart pounded in my chest, echoing in my ears as my anger rose. I took several deep breaths, my fists opening and closing. “And the baby?”
My dad’s voice choked. “Miraculously, the baby’s still with us, but she’s not far along enough for them to do emergency c-section, and if they lose Elaine, they lose the baby too. Its…they don’t know if she’ll pull through.”
