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"Why are you so beautiful?" She asked him and he laughed.
"Hey, that was my line," he said, and she shrugged, then walked up to him and lay down on the bed.
"I made a drawing, started it sort of. It's going to be really big," she said, and he nodded.
"I'm glad about that. I'd love to see it when you're done," he said. She smiled and kissed him.
"Bring your guitar when you do and after that, we'll go riding. There's this place I want to show you. Only... you'll promise not to knock me off my horse this time?" She asked. Hayden threw his head back in laughter then pulled her close to himself. She lay down in his warmth and perceived the slight scent of sweat, fresh sheets, and faint cologne. He was truly a beautiful man and she thought of the drawing of him staring at the landscape she had shown him, and a smile crossed her face. That would be a good one for the collection. She wrapped her arms around him as well and knew that she had fallen in love.
Austin drove along the narrow path with his head throbbing. He didn't see the end in sight, and something inside him told him that he may never even see it. He liked roads like this, roads that didn't end just like this one. He wanted to follow this road until he got to the end, and his mind told him that maybe why he was doing that was because he was unable to follow through with the matter of Hayden and Ike to the end. He gritted his teeth and shook his head. This wasn't over. This wasn't the way. He had to make them pay, one way or the other.There was no way that he was going to let this matter go just like this.
†
Lenanee watched Hayden as he branded the calf, and something about him, his effortless elegance and handsomeness, made her swoon. She loved him, but they were still being tentative, and gentle. He looked up at her and smiled, then waved as soon as he let the calf go.
Lenanee soon realized that she was smiling at him, and she started walking in his direction. He took off his hat and stood there staring off into the distance. She had noticed that he was doing that very often, his eyes would travel, and he would sigh like there was something weighing heavily on him. She touched his cheek, and he looked down at her with a small smile on his face.
"Are you okay!" She asked him, and he shook his head.
"There are just a few things that have been on my mind, but I’m fine," he said to her, and she shook her head and then held his head with both hands.
"Are you okay?" She asked him again. He stared at her with dark eyes then he shook his head.
"I am not. Austin is out there doing who knows what. I don't know exactly how I'm supposed to stop him, but the truth is that I feel like I have to. That is the only way that I can have a semblance of peace for myself," he said. Lenanee stared at him for a while, then she looked at the people branding the cows and the smell of animals, grass, and hot irons in the air then she shook her head.
"I don't think that would be wise. I don't think that this is what you want," she said to him, and he shrugged.
"This is exactly what I want. I don't think there is anything that I want more than this," he said, and when she looked into his eyes, she could see the fiery passion within.
"Why is this important to you?" She asked him, and he shook his head and then spat against the grass, and that was when she recognized what this was. He had been humiliated by Austin, and until he got back at him, then he wouldn't be able to rest. Lenanee walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Hayden, what happened that day…it doesn't make you any less than the man that you are. You are a great man, kind and compassionate. I don't think that you should let what Austin did weigh on you so much that you just…." She stopped and shook her head then she tried to wrap her arms around his waist. He stood there unmoving for a while before he placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead.
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. This isn't something that I should be thinking of at this time," he said and looked down at her. She saw the playfulness return to his eye, and before she could even react. He had already lifted her clean off the ground and twirled her in the air. She giggled and laughed, and he turned around and around then he dropped her and cupped her cheek.
"I'll be fine, okay? I won't go and do anything stupid," he said to her, and she shrugged.
"I'll take that," she said with a mild shrug and a wide smile.
†
Hayden sat outside on the front porch with a beer in his hand, and his eyes narrowed as he stared into the middle distance. He tried to remove the thoughts that were in his mind, tried to make himself forget, but every time, he remembered the beating and the way that he was weakened, unable to fight back. Utterly dominated in that fight, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
He thought about Lenanee and his father. They wouldn't want him to go searching for Austin. Everyone knew just how dangerous the man was and the things that he could do. Everyone knew that it would be foolish to cross Austin, but Hayden couldn't shake the thought off his mind, couldn't shake the feeling that this shouldn't be where it ended.
"Late-night drinking is not something you do often, Hayden," Ike said from behind him, then cleared his throat and started walking closer. He pulled up one collapsible chair and sat beside him, then looked down at the crate that was there, smiled and took a beer then he popped it open and blew breath through puffed cheeks.
"Something's on your mind, son. What is it?" He asked.
"It's nothing," he said.
"What do you mean?" Ike asked him.
"I mean, there is nothing wrong with me. There is nothing on my mind at all," he said. Ike nodded and said nothing for a while.
"You know, I think that you should let this matter go. Austin will get what's coming to him or not, but his matter with us is finished. Do you understand?" He asked.
"That is what you think, but then again, you weren't the one he beat up in the garage. You weren't the one who had to endure that humiliation," Hayden sat, then stopped, and shook his head.
