Page 16 of As It Was (Strawberry Springs #1)

CAIN

Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch

Kerry Winsor

Can someone explain what gyatt means? Tommy just said it and I just can’t understand these kids these days!

Comments:

Jade Clark : It refers to someone’s figure. It’s just a fun way to say it when you’re giving a compliment. Try it in a sentence.

Kerry Winsor : Your gyatt looks great in that dress!

Jade Clark : Yep. You used it PERFECTLY.

Nicole Rudder : Jade . . . NO.

Jade Clark : I know. Got a nice screenshot, though.

By the end of the night, I was exhausted. Mollie was obviously still pissed, because I had to avoid marbles in the hallway when I put Eric to bed, but I’d ended a fight before it had broken out in front of him.

And that was what mattered .

I should have figured that it wasn’t over, that she would seek me out. After getting Eric to bed, she was waiting for me in the kitchen.

“I didn’t expect you to be the kind of man to pull out early.”

I did a double take. “You wanna try rewording that sentence?” I asked. “Because I don’t think that came out right.”

Her bottom lip poked out as she considered it, and then her jaw dropped. “ Ew ! No!”

“You said it, princess. Not me.”

“I meant in an argument. I feel so unsatisfied.”

“Get used to it.” I would not continue to go there. I didn’t need to picture Mollie in any of this context. “I’m not arguing with you in front of Eric.”

She blinked. “Why?”

“His teacher said it could negatively affect him.” I looked outside. It was easier to say this when not facing her. “And after yesterday, I want him to feel as normal as possible.”

“And you’re just listening? Damn, you never do that with me.”

“Let’s get one thing clear. I will do anything for that kid.”

Her lips curled into a smile. “That was always clear.”

“Good.”

“And I get it. No fighting when he’s here.”

“Just like that? You’re agreeing?”

“Eric’s a good kid. And contrary to what you might think, I’m not here to cause problems. That means I don’t want my presence to ruin anything any more than you do.”

“And how long are you staying for?” I asked.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her look down and then back at me. “No idea. I’ll go back when I’m ready, I guess.”

“You were raised there.”

“That doesn’t mean I liked it.” Her voice was quiet. “I know you’ll hate to hear this, but it’s nice here. I’m glad that ...” She trailed off and shook her head. “I’m glad I get to be here for now.”

“You could’ve come at any time,” I reminded her.

“I would’ve if I’d known.” It was said under her breath.

I turned to her. “What does that mean?”

Her eyes went wide. “How did you hear that? Do you have the ears of an elephant?”

“Explain.”

“Fine,” she said as she crossed her arms. “I didn’t know the farm was mine until the day before I came here.”

“What do you mean you didn’t know?”

“I mean that I was under eighteen when Papa Bennie died. It was in a trust for me, and my parents never took it out. Until now.”

“Is that why I couldn’t get in contact with anyone?”

She shrugged. “Probably. Legally, Mom had some sway, but she hates this place, so she left it to rot.” When I raised an eyebrow, she rushed to explain. “It didn’t rot, but I thought it had. In reality, you could’ve done whatever you wanted to.”

“Not whatever. I couldn’t make some decisions. Like hiring employees.”

She winced. “Yeah ... uh, sorry about that.”

“So, you found out and came here?”

“Kinda. I was gonna wait, but then I needed to be here.”

“ Needed? ”

“Yeah.”

I didn’t believe that for a second. “You’re running from something, aren’t you?”

Her shoulders tensed. “Why would you think that?”

“Why else would you stay?”

“Maybe because I like being here.”

“Sure, but you’re choosing to live with a man who completely hates you. ”

“It’s not that hard,” she said quietly. “I’ve done it before.”

That had my attention. “You’ve done it before?”

She shook her head. “Do you really care about my life outside of this farm? Because I don’t think you do.”

I opened my mouth to ... what? Ask her to open up to me? She was right. I didn’t care about that.

Or I shouldn’t .

But there was a part of me, one I needed to get control of, that did want to know why she was running. What had she seen here? And why had she left her cushy life? What was so bad about her past that she would endure all our fights and choose to stay?

“I’m going to bed,” she said. “We can find time to annoy each other later.”

“Were we annoying each other?”

Our eyes finally met, and I knew the truth. This was maybe the second time we weren’t at each other’s throats.

And I liked it.

“It won’t be the norm,” she said. “I’ll probably be gone before this happens again.”

I pursed my lips and let her walk away. I had no idea how long she would be here, but I also had no idea how long I could tolerate it without losing my damn mind.

Some of my anger dissipated in a cloud of smoke. She hadn’t ignored the farm until now. She hadn’t known.

That kind of information was dangerous for me to know, because it made me understand her. And I didn’t need to be doing that.

She didn’t leave .

Even as days turned to weeks, she was there. Sleeping in Bennie’s room. At the breakfast table.

It was driving me up a wall.

She spent a lot of time in both places, working on a job she seemed to care so much about. I had no idea what she did, but she was busy at it.

The weather started to cool, which meant my work would be slowing down, at least with the chickens. I was looking forward to the break until it meant I would be in the house and in her orbit more.

Eric loved her. He followed her around whenever he wasn’t in school, and the town quickly followed suit. I could tell by the way she went to Center Point Diner nearly every day that they’d welcomed her.

Of course they had. One look at her and I’d known.

I tried not to let her little smiles work on me. Most of our conversations were petty squabbles in the dark or somewhat-companionable silence when Eric was around. But I knew she was doing research on how to start the berry farm again, and the time to plant was soon.

I wondered if she would try to get me to do it, or if she would attempt it herself. Either way, the work was going to fall on me. She’d mentioned hiring employees, but school was in session and workers were hard to find.

She’d either figure it out or fuck something up trying.

My money was on the second one.

It was a crisp October day when egg production slowed to the point where I only needed to make one trip a day. This time of year, I would spend more time with the cows.

Mollie sometimes followed me to watch what I was doing, but the majority of her time was spent indoors on her computer. I didn’t know how she managed to walk after sitting for so long.

Obviously, she’d decided to have a change of pace. When I walked to the cow fields, I saw her in the distance. Moosley had taken an interest in her. The resident diva was following her.

I didn’t know how, but Moosley knew what time of year it was, and she always demanded more attention on the cooler days.

Apparently, she thought Mollie was good for it.

Mollie didn’t understand what was happening.

“Um, what?” she asked. “Listen, I promise I won’t hurt you. I’m just going for a walk.”

Moosley moved closer, and Mollie tripped over a cow patty.

“No, seriously! I can go.”

Mollie walked backward, but Moosley followed. She sped up, and Moosley did the same.

Then she broke out into a full run.

Moosley kept up the pace.

“What do you want?” she called. “I swear, why do all animals hate me!”

I could have helped her.

I didn’t.

She ran back and forth, only egging on Moosley, up until she finally got enough of a start to clear the fence and fall into a heap in front of me.

“You saw all of that, didn’t you?” she muttered as she caught her breath.

“Yep.”

“I could have been attacked, and you would have let it happen?”

“You weren’t getting attacked.” I walked up to the fence and pet Moosley. “She just wanted you to give her attention.”

“Fuck,” she groaned. “If I tried that with Hennifer, she’d peck my finger off.”

“Every animal is different,” I said. “But I thought you knew that. ”

“I have actual cow shit on my foot, and that’s not the worst part of my day,” she muttered before pointing at me. “You are.”

“Happy to be of service.”

She groaned and walked toward the house. I laughed, only for her to give me the middle finger.

I watched as she walked. She was, once again, in a ridiculous outfit.

She didn’t seem to ever dress down. She had jeans, but they were branded, judging by the way they fit her perfectly and had a name written on the belt line. This morning she was wearing the loose pair with a flowy linen shirt and a massive hat.

Just the sight of her set me off some days. The more time went on, I couldn’t decide which I hated more—her, or how much I looked at her.

I tore my eyes away and got my work done in record time. By the time I was back at the house, she was working again. I was tempted to piss her off once more today when I noticed a car pulling into the driveway.

I could recognize the sheriff car from a mile away. Mike was a good guy, but he didn’t come out this way all that often. He preferred to stay in town near the diner or the bar.

“Shit,” I muttered.

“What?”

“The sheriff’s here.”

“Did you do something illegal?” Mollie asked.

“Why would you ask that?”

“I’m trying to figure out if I should back you up or not.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I said. “You’re here all the fucking time. You’d know.”

Mike’s car rolled to a stop and my heart kicked into gear. I’d already gotten myself into trouble too many times in this town. These days, I didn’t even speed .

“Cain,” Mike called. “Good to see you.” His eyes went to Mollie. “I don’t believe we’ve met yet.”

“I’m Mollie,” she replied. “I own the house, and am generally a pain in his ass.”

“Glad to see you’re not too scared off by this one,” Mike said. “Though that might change.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong, Mike.”

He hummed and pulled a folder from his car.

“You’re being sued, Cain.”

“What?” Mollie and I asked at the same time.

“Here are the court documents. You might wanna read them. And make sure you have your ducks in a row.”

I slowly opened the folder with shaking hands.

It was for custody of Eric.

“The DNA test was positive?”

“It was.”

Shit. That asshole had actually done it. He was suing me for custody. Mollie peered over my shoulder.

“I—I don’t?—”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Mike said. “All I will say is ... good luck, Cain.”

And I knew what he meant.

To fight this, I was going to need all the help I could get. And for a guy who had never been a part of this town, I didn’t have much of that waiting around.

Jackie would do it. But she was the only person I had on my side.

Mollie was walking away, and I turned to her.

“What? No ‘I told you so’?”

“That feels like kicking a man when he’s down,” she said, grabbing her phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Just shut up for a second. ”

I blinked, about to tell her off, but she put the phone to her ear.

“Hey, Dad. Remember that thing I said I might need? I really need it now.” She listened and then sighed.

“No, Dad, I’m not coming back. This is unrelated.

” She paused. “This is that family lawyer thing. I know you said you would look into it, but I need it now .” She paused again.

“Okay, thank you. No, I haven’t talked to Trevor.

I’m sure he’s fine. Love you, bye.” When she put her phone down, she finally looked at me. “Give me your number.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m sending you some information that should be here any second.” Her phone jingled. “There it is.”

Wordlessly, I did what she asked, and she put her number in mine. “There are the lawyers I promised you.”

“I thought you’d forgotten.”

“No, I just don’t love calling my dad right now.”

I stared at the message on my phone. She’d included three lawyers. I should thank her, or say something . But seeing it on my phone made it all the more real.

It had been a long time since I’d felt fear . Most of the time, I was able to push it away. But Eric was mine . He was everything to me, and I couldn’t imagine my future without him.

“Cain?” Mollie asked. “You okay?”

I wasn’t. Not in the slightest. I could have lied and said I was, but there was no pretending at that moment. There was only fear . Would I see him finish kindergarten? Would I be able to see him go to middle school? Teach him to drive?

My chest burned. My entire body was tight. This was my worst nightmare.

But then firm hands landed on my shoulders.

“Hey. You need to breathe . ”

“I-I can’t.”

Her hands tightened. “Yes, you can. Come on. Do it with me.”

I didn’t want to listen, but then Mollie’s face appeared in front of mine. Even in my worst moment, it pulled me out of my thoughts, making me focus only on her.

Taking one breath and then two, I did what I was told.

“Good,” she said. “You’re gonna be able to fight this. You just need to call them.”

“What if I lose?”

“You won’t. Because I have a feeling you’ll do whatever it takes to keep Eric.”

She was right. Once again.

I nodded, but then caught on to how close she was. There were mere inches between us, and the only time we’d been this close was when we were fighting.

She must have picked up on it right when I had, because her eyes widened and she took a healthy step back.

“Good,” she said. “I’ll let you go call them.”

She walked toward the front door.

“Mollie, wait.”

She paused and looked back.

“Thank you.”

Her eyes went wide. “You’re welcome.”

“Please keep this from the town.”

“I already planned to,” was all she said before walking through the door.

She’d asked me what would make me like her, and she had no idea that she’d just done it.

Hopefully, I could keep it that way.