Page 6 of Hadley


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“I’m not CJ, you fucking ass, and as I have said to you and Levi both about a million times, I’m not marrying your son. He’s an idiot. You’ve had that pointed out to you several times, too, I’m sure. I’m marrying this man. He asked, and I said yes. I think he’s been the man that I’ve been waiting on for my entire life.” She waved him away. “Now, if you’re not going to congratulate us on our upcoming wedding, I’d like for you to leave us alone. We have things to work out.”

“I’m not going to allow this to happen to my family, CJ. You’ve been warned something would happen to you should you—” Hadley stood up, and Mr. Mitchel backed up. “Sit down. I’ll not have you getting up in my face when I’m not talking to you. Better yet, just go away. CJ and I have things to discuss.”

He didn’t so much as blink at the man. But Hadley did feel his family coming up behind him. All of them, including his uncles, father, aunts, brothers and their wives. Winnie stood just behind Mitchel, and his uncles were close at hand too. Without taking his eyes off the man, he told his family that he’d just threatened his mate.

“Perhaps we’ve gotten off to the wrong step, Mr.— I don’t think I caught your last name.” He told him. “Manning? The Mannings with all the money, Mannings?”

“I think people just refer to them as the Mannings. Your calling them that is too long in normal society. Mr. Mitchel, I’d like for you to meet my future husband and his family, Hadley Manning. His family, if you were to look around, is surrounding us. I thought it was to keep me safe from you, but really, in all honesty, I think they’re here to make sure that one of them doesn’t kill you before the other one does. In the little bit of time that I’ve spent with them, I’d think that they’re all sort of competitive about—”

“Oh, do shut the fuck up before I have to shut you up.” Hadley felt his dragon rush over his body when Mitchel threatened Colby again. All it took for him to be calmed was for her to put her hand into his. Mitchel didn’t seem to see that he was in danger of death right now. “She’s not going to marry you. Christ, she has more money than sense as it is now. What do you think she’s going to do when she has more money than anyone else? Women are the ruination of the world, and I mean to have a bit of her money by her marrying my son.”

“Dad?” Hadley felt his dad come up behind him. “Can you marry the two of us right now? I’ll ask Colby’s GGMa if she wouldn’t mind us marrying today, but if you could get some help from one of my aunts, I’d like to get this settled right now.”

“It’s done, Hadley. I’ve taken care of it before this fool came to the party.” He nodded at his aunt Carson, and she winked at him. “Xavier, are you up for marrying off another one of your sons today?”

“I am at that. How about you, Colby? Or is it CJ?” She said that it was Colby. “All right. Are you ready and willing to marry my son? I have to ask that, as you know, because it’s something that I do. He’s a good man and will be a wonderful mate to you. I might be just a little prejudiced about that, but all my sons are good men. Their mates are even better, and I expect no less from you.”

“It would make my day, Mr. Manning.” She was told to call his dad Xavier. “Good. I’d like that as well. I’d only like to talk to my family first. My mom and GGMa. If you’d not mind.”

“Not at all, my dear. And let me be the first to welcome you to the family as a bride.” She walked away from them to go to her family. Hadley stayed where he was, keeping an eye on the elder Levi, but he knew Colby was in good hands when his brothers, all five of them, seemed to just peel away from the crowd and go with her. His dad asked him if he was ready. “I mean, I think this is the best way to get this all taken care of, son. What do you think?”

“I think that the sooner this is all legal, then this other crap can be taken care of as well.” Mitchel said that he wasn’t going to roll over so easily. “I didn’t for a moment think that you would. However, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to force her hand when she has a husband already and a family as large as mine behind her. Or in front of her if you get out of hand again.”

“You can’t just show up and act like you’re going to be marrying someone my son has been trying to marry for decades.” Hadley asked if Levi loved Colby. “Love her? Whatever reason would he have for loving her? That’s a pretty antiquated way of thinking. Marriages aren’t for love, young man. They’re for making pacts with other families to make everyone rich. Don’t you see that by you marrying her or thinking that you can, you’re messing with the way things have been going on for years and years. It’s a transaction between two people. Love has nothing to do with it.”

“I love her.” Mitchel just snorted at him and called him a fool. “I also know that my parents love one another. My brothers all love their wives. And Abe, Colby’s GGMa’s spouse, loved her as well.”

“Whatever makes you sleep easy at night. What do you get out of this? Marrying a woman who has less than you do? I’m thinking that it has less to do with love than you think. It’s because, like me, you want to expand your wings. Have more land and money than you do now. Yes, you see it now, don’t you? However, I want you to give up this notion of marrying her. I need for her to—I’m going to just say it. She has to marry my son because we’re on the brink of disaster. And we know that having that happen would be terrible for this town.”

“The town? In what way?” He told him he’d have to take his businesses elsewhere, someplace where he was more appreciated. “You mean go to a town where they don’t know that you’re blowing smoke out of your ass in telling them that you’re wealthy? I’m not sure what businesses you’d be taking with you when you leave because I know for a fact that your house is ready to be repossessed for nonpayment of taxes. Your cars, including the one that Levi drove around as recently as yesterday, has already been taken back by the bank. You’ve no business here in town anymore. Not even a checking account that has any money in it. As of this morning, you’re nine thousand dollars overdrafted. Tell me, Mitchel, what is it you think your leaving is going to do to this town.”

“Who have you been talking to? That is none of your business about my—I should sue you for slander.” Hadley told him it was only slander if it wasn’t true. “You…you bastard. Take that proposal back, or I’m going to have you arrested. You fucking little shit. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?”

“I don’t care, to be honest with you.” Colby joined him then, taking his hand into his again. However, this time he was as calm as he’d ever been before. “You can either apologize to Colby for threatening her, or I have my family run you out of town like someone should have done years ago.”

“I’ll do no such thing.” It took less time for his father to marry him and Colby than he thought it should have. There wasn’t any long speech about how they’d met. Nor about how much anyone could see that they were in love. Dad asked them if they were ready to be man and wife, and that was it. The licenses Aunt Carson had filed as of this morning. “What is the meaning of this? I’ve told you several times that you’re not to—look what you’ve done now. I’m going to have to get some compensation for all the trouble that you’ve caused us. Christ, the trouble is going to be horrific before I’m finished with you.”

Hadley let Mitchel go on and on about his trouble and the things that he was going to tell the police. He picked Colby up after being hugged by her grandparents and mother and took her to the dark tree line. It was time that he claimed his mate before he had to go to jail for killing someone.

“I have something to show you.” Once they were out of sight of the rest of the people, Colby seemed to be about as giddy as he was. When she took her hand into his, he realized that he’d follow her anywhere at any time. “I know that it’s been here forever. I only just come across it a few years ago, and GGMa told me about it. It’s the most lovely part of this land, and I’m betting the main reason that your family wishes it to remain in your family.”

There in the middle of the field, were six of the most beautiful trees he’d ever seen. It wasn’t until he got closer to them that he saw that they were emerald trees like the ones that he’d been told about his entire life.

“A dragon in love would use his emerald tears to plant a tree for his true love. Once the tree was big enough, he and his mate would return, give a bit of themselves to the tree, and it would produce fruit with the gem inside.” Colby told him how her family had been getting fruit from the tree since forever. He touched the first tree that he came to and knew that it was his parent’s tree. “I had no idea that they’d done this. I mean, I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never seen it—I want to plant our tree here, Colby. For all time.”

“I’d like that.” He only had to think of how much he already loved Colby. How, in the short time they’d known one another, how much they’d come together. When the emerald slipped from his tear duct and down his cheek, he waited while Colby took it onto her finger. “Look at it, Hadley. It’s growing larger.”

It was too. By the time it had finally stopped growing, it was as large as a softball. But lightweight still. Once he was able to dig a hole in the rich dark earth, he knew that for so long as he was around, he’d come here to rest and to think about life. Bring any children they had if Colby wanted any here to play. The air and the land around the trees were rich with life, love and happiness.

After the two of them planted the emerald, he sat there as it started to sprout up from the ground. Not into a large tree yet, but enough to let anyone walking by know that something had been planted there and that it was growing. Colby sat down beside him as the two of them held hands. Lying back on his back, bringing Colby with him, Hadley felt his body become relaxed enough to where he knew that in a few minutes, he would be sound asleep. And he didn’t care.

Chapter 2

Colby woke up and stretched out like she did whenever she woke. However, being alone in the field behind her home bothered her just a little. It wasn’t until she saw Hadley talking to a bunch of faeries that she remembered that they’d been married yesterday. Or today. She didn’t have any idea what time it was. When she said his name, he turned and gave her the most wonderful smile. She thought she might like being married to a man as nice as Hadley was.

“They’re going to build us a house if you want to live here. I’ve also asked them to make it like the one I have at home for beginners. If you don’t like something about it, it’ll be easy for them to make changes.” She asked him if he wanted to take her to his house. “No. I love it here, with you. And I’ve spoken to my family. We work together. I can work from here, like I said and pop in and out of meetings when I’m needed. This will be a good place for us. Don’t you think?”

“I’d have to ask my GGMa about the land.” He nodded and told her that she was on her way here to see the trees. “What do you think she’s going to say when she finds out about us being out here all night. I mean, it is the next morning, right?”

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