Page 17 of Defending Casey

Hale followed her over there and sat beside her, wondering if he would manage to talk to her without tripping over his own tongue someday soon.

“I think I did.” She spoke and he focused in on her words. “It was hard to know what I felt back then. The main feeling I had while I was pregnant was loss. I’d broken up with you only to find out that I was pregnant and then when I tried to find you at the college, they said you had never shown up for orientation. And then I went to your dad, and he told me to leave. Told me he didn’t believe me. Told me that his son would never be so stupid to get a girl pregnant in the first place.

“After the way he argued up and down about it I almost doubted it myself.”

He had to keep himself quiet. He’d asked himself the same question over and over since he’d seen her again and met Nora.

They’d used protection, not that they’d ever agreed to it or even talked about it ahead of time, but they’d all been forced to take the same sophomore year health class where the teacher mumbled the pertinent information and passed out laughable cartoon illustrated pamphlets on STDs and pregnancy.

How she’d become pregnant was something he was curious about, but he didn’t doubt the fact that Nora was his. He couldn’t see much of a resemblance between Nora and himself, but she felt like his. And like Casey, he’d fallen in love with Nora with little more than a touch.

He still had a multitude of questions to ask her, but he knew he had to take care of something first. “About that car seat.”

Casey’s smile melted his heart again, adding it to the thousands of times she’d done it before. “I can lend you the one in my car, Hale. It’s not a big deal. My dad and I shared one while Nora was a baby. Back then we went almost everywhere together so we didn’t need more than the one we buckled into the backseat.”

“And even then, it took me more than an hour to test and retest the thing and make sure I’d put it in the right way.”

Hale almost rocketed to his feet when he heard Casey’s father swing open the screen door. “Sir.”

The expression on his face was a complex mix of unspoken words and likely ten years of anger and disappointment. Hale knew he deserved them all.

“It’s good to have you back in town, Hale. A bit disappointing that you haven’t been by earlier than your visit to the store yesterday.”

Hale smiled. Even when her dad was giving him a pointed set down, he had never been mean about it. Shaking his head, Hale wondered, for what was probably the hundredth time, what his life might have been like if his father had been more like David Jones.

“If I’m honest with you like I’ve been with myself, sir, I’ll tell you that I was pretty much a coward until yesterday. Even then I thought I’d stop in and see if Mister Sumner could fill me in about Casey and what she was up to.”

He heard the soft intake of breath from Casey where she was sitting on the step.

“Coming back to Fool’s Gold was something I did because I had a job offer.”

Mister Jones nodded, his expression taking on the mien of an old sage. Hale recognized the expression and gesture from his first meeting with Nora before he knew exactly who she was. “You joining up with those security folks that set up at Lost Valley Ranch?”

Hale let the moment of surprise roll off his back, once again reminded of just how small Fool’s Gold was.

“Yes, sir. My Green Beret team have pretty much all signed on to work with Hank Peterson’s company.”

Mister Jones nodded slowly as Hale’s words filtered through. “Green Beret, hmm? Well, that’s quite an accomplishment, Hale. Or should I call you Hondo?”

Chuckling at the comment, Hale nodded. “You can call me whatever you like, sir. I answer to both.”

There was a moment when Casey’s father’s eyes twinkled with a little mischief. It was a little unnerving for Hale, but the better option, considering that the man had every right to show him the business end of a shotgun for leaving his daughter pregnant all those years ago.

“Well, there was a time I would have called you son, Hale, but maybe that time is long gone.”

Casey got up on her feet and Hale saw the hand she laid on the railing, gripping it tight enough to turn her knuckles pale. “Daddy…”

“Sir, I can’t expect that you’d understand everything that happened between myself and Casey back then as I’m certainly trying to understand what’s happened since, but I hope that maybe, if you’re a man with the capacity to forgive, you might give me the chance to figure things out and do right by your daughter.”

Hale didn’t have to look at Casey to know that she’d tensed up beside him. He could feel it in the air between them.

Her father’s gaze moved between Casey and Hale and Hale had the distinct feeling that they’d somehow gone back a decade in time. Only back then, life had been simpler than it was at the moment. It had only seemed like life or death at every turn.

Casey’s father cleared his throat and walked across the porch. “Well now, this might sound a mite strange coming from me, Hale, but my daughter… She’s got a mind of her own and a mouth to match. So whatever you two have to say to each other, you two should go ahead and say it.” He picked his way down the steps, pausing when he was standing between them. He looked at Casey first. “Sweetheart, I’m going to man the feed store today. You and Hale can… uh… start to work through the strange fix y’all have found yourselves in.” He turned to look at Hale and Hale found himself standing a little taller and lifting his chin to meet the other man’s curious gaze. “And you, Hondo,” he chuckled, “I’ll look forward to you telling me how you got that name in the service. Until then, try your best not to mess things up again, hmm? I’m gettin’ on in years and I’m not up to handling another broken heart.”

Hale didn’t know what to say to that, and neither did Casey if he recognized the look of shock on her face.

David Jones shook his head and pulled his keys from his pocket with a little shrug.

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