Page 58 of More Than a Fling

“And of course, knowing nothing about her, never having met her or had any kind of conversation with her your entire life, you immediately knew she was telling the gospel truth. Wow Annie, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. You’re the greatest.”

“What am I supposed to think? I caught you two embracing in the back room at your show. She is beautiful…” her voice trailed off.

He slammed his fist down on the kitchen counter. “I’m blown away that after all we’ve shared you can believe that about me. You really think I’d lie about something as important as a child? You must really have a high opinion of me.”

“Are you saying it’s not true?”

“Believe what you want to believe Annie,” Gabe said.

“She was very convincing. She said it was “typical” that you chose not to tell me about the baby and that I should step aside so that the child could grow up with a father.”

“Are you done?” Gabe said in a steely tone.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say for yourself?” Annie asked.

“You have it all figured out, what else is there for me to say?”

“Fine then! Have a nice life. I’m sure you, Robbie, and baby will be very happy together! Good thing you found that farmhouse. This place would have been much too small for the three of you,” Annie said, choking back her sob as she turned and ran out the door, slamming it behind her as hard as she could.

As the door banged shut, the timer for the enchiladas went off. Gabe turned it off, removed the casserole from the oven and dumped the entire contents in the trash can. Then he took the roses from the table and went outside and threw them onto his compost pile.

He was beyond pissed. Furious with Robbie for her manipulation, but even more angry with Annie for believing a complete stranger over him. He had told Annie that Robbie wanted him back and that she thought she was in love with him. How hard was it for her to figure out from there that Robbie might try to sabotage their relationship? Underneath his anger was a deep hurt. Her level of distrust in men ran deep. He had thought that they had something special and had moved past her fears.Wrong.

Gabe put the wine in the fridge and pulled out a beer for himself. He decided to sit outside and have himself a little fire. Maybe the crickets and stars could sooth his soul tonight. The beer couldn’t hurt either.

As Gabe’s anger died down despair set in. He had to acknowledge to himself that the reason he was so angry and hurt, was that he had developed deep feelings for Annie. Who was he kidding, he had fallen in love with her. She was it for him. She was the one he wanted to wake up beside for the rest of his life. He felt like he was losing the best thing that had ever happened to him. He also knew that you couldn’t make someone trust you, all you could do was be trustworthy, the leap of faith had to come from them.

As he was finishing his third beer, he thought he saw a shadow moving about by the barn. He put his bottle down and stealthily went to investigate. Keeping his back against the side of the barn wall, he made his way to the interior where the horse stalls were. Since it was summer the whole herd was turned out in the pastures all night.

He could see the shadowy figure down the long aisle in the very last stall.Midnights stall.He silently approached, so familiar with his surroundings, Gabe could have found his way blindfolded. The intruder must have sensed someone was there because suddenly they bolted out of the stall and quickly climbed the end gate and took off running.

Gabe knew with their head start, he’d never catch up, so he turned on the barn lights to see if he could figure out what they’d been up too. The horses’ flakes of hay were already thrown into the stalls, ready for their morning feed.

Mixed in with the hay was something that made the hair stand up on Gabe’s neck, it looked like a fern with a bunch of triangular-shaped leaves. Gabe thought it might be Bracken Fern which was highly toxic to horses and unfortunately tasted really good to them. Large amounts could kill a horse, but even in small amounts it contained toxins that could cause neurological damage. He decided to go wake up Sam and see how he wanted to handle this.

* * *

“Why only Midnight’s stall?” Sam said. Bella sniffed around furiously where the intruder had been.

“Maybe they didn’t have time to get to the rest,” Gabe answered. Noticing Bella’s agitation, he said, “Who’s been here girl?”

She barked her response.

“We’ll need to file a police report.”

“Do you think I should call now or wait until the morning?”

“I think we can wait until morning,” Sam said. “Maybe it’s time to think about installing some security cameras for the barn and alarms for my clinic and the office.”

“I’ll get on that first thing in the morning after I file a police report,” Gabe said.

* * *

When Annie left Gabe’s, she went directly to Darcy’s house. Her sister made her a cup of hot tea and settled in on the comfy living room couch for a long talk.

“Annie, you didn’t even give the man a chance to tell you his side of the story. No wonder he’s pissed.”

“He didn’t even try to fight for us… for me,” She replied, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

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