Page 71 of More Than Anything

“I know. I’m sorry. But I only want to talk to you, nothing else. I understand why you feel the way you do, and I’m sorry for everything. After this, I won’t call you or come by again, okay?”

“It’s not that I don’t want you here. It’s just that this is a small town and I can’t…”

“I know, I know. Your reputation and all that. I get it, really, I do. But this can’t wait.” Avery rolled a rock around with the toe of his roper. It was hard to look at her and not touch her, but she was pulling back as he spoke. Nothing in his life felt right anymore, but seeing her was far more painful than he’d ever dreamed. “I just want you to know that I love you more than I’ve ever loved another human being. More than anything. Ever. If this is what you want, I’ll accept it, but know that I’m losing the love of my life when I walk away from this door today. I won’t ever recover. And when I’m gone, I hope you remember what we had and it makes you smile sometimes.” He looked down into those beautiful eyes and tried to smile, but he couldn’t. “So I’ll go now and I won’t bother you again. Have a great life, Lydia. You deserve it. You’ll find somebody to love you.” Avery turned to shuffle back to his truck. Maybe Shannon had hired someone and they’d come along and finish him off right there. Anything was better than the pain of walking away from her.

“Avery!” she called out behind him. He turned to see her standing there with her hands on her hips, and he remembered that first day when she stood there on his porch just like that and told him to get out. And it was happening again, but this time it wasn’t his land or his home?it was out of her life. “It’s not like you’re eighty. Just take care of all this. I can wait. I have time.”

“I may not have a lot more time.”

“Why not?” Lydia leaned against the door facing. “It shouldn’t take that long to straighten everything out.”

“That part may not even matter. I’m being hunted.”

“By Shannon,” she said, her voice flat.

Avery shook his head. “No. By someone she’s paid to try to kill me.”

“Dear god! Get in here!” Running straight for him, she grabbed his arm and pulled him through the door, then shut it behind him. When she rounded on him, her eyes were wide with terror. “She’s paid someone to try to kill you?”

“Yeah, there’s this guy who went to the sheriff’s department and told them she’d approached him with money, asked him to kill me, but they can’t find her. We think she’s most likely looking for somebody else to do the job,” he explained.

Lydia stood before him, her arms folded across her chest, disbelief lining her face. “Why would she want to do that? I thought she wanted you back.”

“No. She wants my insurance money and my trust fund, since she’s already blown through my brother’s money and the company’s money too. She thought she’d come here and I’d welcome her with open arms, but when I didn’t, she realized she couldn’t get to my money that way. And if I die, the bigamy charges go away too. So that’s her answer to all her problems.”

Lydia dropped her arms and stared at the floor. “Now I don’t know what to do.”

Avery just shook his head again. “I understand. But if I’m going to die, I wanted a chance to tell you in person that I love you and I’m sorry for all this.”

“No!” He didn’t anticipate the speed with which she leaped at him and threw her arms around his neck. “No! We won’t let that happen! Oh, god, Avery, I love you. Please, don’t let this happen!” Dissolving into tears, she gripped his neck as he held her close. “Oh, god, no. No. This can’t happen. I love you, Avery. Don’t leave me.”

There it was?that scent, the one that told him he was close to her and everything would be okay. He just wanted to stand there and take it in forever. “I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered to her. “I hate Shannon and everything about her. I don’t want to lose you. I only want to be with you, any way you’ll let me.”

Just as abruptly as her embrace, she relaxed her grip on him and looked up into his eyes. “Where is she now?”

“We don’t know. Nobody’s seen her. They’re looking for her, but as of right now, they can’t find her. She’s probably over in Texarkana somewhere. I tipped my hand and I shouldn’t have; I told her I knew she was after my money and that I’d already taken steps to divorce her. And she knew right then that if she didn’t kill me before I did that, she’d lose everything. But if I die before then, it’s all hers. That’s what she’s banking on.”

“The cops have got to find her. I have to believe they will. Oh, god,” she said, her soft palm resting on his cheek. “Baby, you look terrible. What can I do?”

“Love me. Just tell me you love me and you haven’t stopped.” Avery’s tortured heart was aching. All he wanted to know was that when it was all over, she’d still be there.

“I love you and I’ll always love you. Right now, you need a shower, a shave, and some rest. Come on,” she said, pulling him toward her bedroom.

“Where are we going?”

Lydia smiled back at him. “To get all three.”

Two hours later following a shower and an hour nap, Avery sat at Lydia’s table, trying to choke down some soup, his throat so constricted from stress that he could barely swallow. She’d taken his phone and called Jason to let him know where Avery was. He told her to tell Avery not to worry; Jason would feed the cattle and take care of everything. To Lydia’s surprise, Jason let her know that he planned to buy a gun and carry it. “And you be sure to let me know when he’s headed home so I’ll be watching for him,” he told her.

“No problem. Thanks, Jason,” Lydia said. “I’m sure he’ll be there in a bit.”

“That’s what friends are for. Talk to you soon,” Jason said.

Lydia hit END and watched Avery. “How’s the soup?”

Avery shook his head. “I’m really not hungry.”

“You have to eat.” Lydia took his hand. “Are you scared?”

---