Page 18 of Stay for Me

Fuck.

Fuck.

Goddamn it.

Those words repeated themselves over and over in my head until I was two feet from the front porch, the shitty little Honda sitting behind me, its owner completely unaware of how she affected me.

Diana Harper.

I came to a slow stop, staring up at the house, wondering what torture awaited me inside.

She was here—yet again.

After three months of peace, she was back in my little corner of the world, disrupting all I’d done to try and heal.

When I first came to Hallow Ranch, I’d thought the universe had given me a break amidst everything I’d been through. It was the least I deserved. Then, that all went to shit the second I laid eyes on her. In that moment, the peace I came here to find and had only gotten a taste of was shattered.

Peace was unreachable now, a myth, a sham.

As long as she was in my orbit and I in hers, I would never know peace. I’d traded one jail for another. After all the trauma, torture, and agony I’d endured growing up and serving my country, none of that could be compare to the agony of being around her. So, over the last few years, I tried to get used to her presence, and thankfully, she didn’t come around often.

But when she did, my insides burned, set ablaze by the way I longed for her.

“Denver, I can take care of this,” her voice sounded from inside the house, pulling me out of my thoughts as the wind picked up. I looked up to the sky, finding dark clouds looming towards the east. A storm was coming.

“I can send out a C&D and—”

Her sweet, intelligent voice was cut off by Kings’ harsh one. “Diana, that woman is never going to fucking learn her lesson unless I do this. She can fuck with me. She can try and fuck with what’s left of my fucking ranch, Diana, but so help me God, she does not get to fuck with our son.”

Cathy.

Fucking hell.

I sighed through my nose as my jaw jumped, ignoring the thunder rolling through the air. That damn woman. Instead of focusing on being a good mother, she was hellbent on making Kings’ life a living hell.

“Think about this for a moment, Denver. Please,” Diana begged, her voice louder than before.

A second later, Kings came barreling onto the front porch, still dressed in his work clothes. His gray eyes landed on mine, hat in hand as he pointed at me with it.

“You got plans tonight?” he clipped.

He knew the damn answer to that. I shook my head once, leaving my hands hanging down at my sides despite how uncomfortable I was. I couldn’t let him or, God fucking forbid, her, see that. So I put on my mask and did my best to keep my composure. I didn’t want to be here.

I wanted to be in the bunkhouse, taking a fucking shower, and then going to bed to pass out. I kept my eyes on him, silently hoping his lawyer would remain in the house.

Out of sight, out of mind, or whatever the fuck the normal people say.

I couldn’t see her, not today. I was still trying to get over her last visit—three months ago. The way she laughed at Jigs when he’d cracked a stupid joke, the way she lit up the entire ranch the second she unfolded herself out of her shitty car, and that damn dress she decided to wear—it was all still burned into my mind. The dress was simple, but because she was wearing it, smiling in it, laughing in it, the dress might has well be a fucking ball gown.

Everything about her, from her simple gestures to her compelling arguments, were burned into my brain, and I needed it scrubbed. Actually, I was highly considering a lobotomy.

“Good,” Kings clipped as he marched down the porch steps, putting on his hat. “Caleb is inside. Need you to watch him for a few hours. I’ll be back before he goes to bed.”

I tipped my hat to him, and his eyes cut to the storm clouds, his expression unreadable for a moment.

“Is everything alright?” I asked, turning when he walked by me, heading for his truck. He stopped his in tracks, and, behind me, I heard the screen door ease open.

Then, all I could feel was her.

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