Page 31 of Ace of Spades
“Why? Why would I have called you?” I ask, my voice cracking in the slightest. “You told me to leave you alone. So this is me leaving you alone, Weston. Now can you please do the same for me.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened. If Bradley did this to you, I swear—”
“You’ll what? I can handle myself, Weston. It’s none of your business.”
“Hailey—”
“No,” I cut him off, putting my foot down. “You were right. We should stay away from each other. I think that’s the smartest thing for us.”
A million different emotions swirl in those green eyes of his.
“Fine,” he finally relents. “But just so you know, it’ll always be my business when it involves you. That fucker is dead the next time I lay eyes on him.”
His eyes bore into mine, as if trying to memorize every little detail about them, or hoping I would change my mind. At the end of the day, he was the one who had told me to stay away fromhim—I was only trying to respect his wishes. I couldn’t do this back and forth anymore.
He finally turns to walk away, getting into his truck and driving off, leaving me with Rafe and the horses.
I stand there for a moment longer, letting a lone tear roll down. Why did I care so much? I hadn’t known him for more than a few months, and I didn’t even know him well—so why did it feel like I was shattering? Why did it feel like I was losing him, when I never even had him in the first place?
“You okay?”
I hadn’t even noticed Rafe coming up beside me.
“Was that really necessary? Telling him to come over?”
There was a pause, as if he was trying to find the right way to answer.
“If the roles had been reversed, I would’ve wanted him to tell me. He needed to know,” he tells me gently.
I give him a nod, turning to walk away.
“Hailey,” he calls after me. I stop, turning to look at him over my shoulder. “You ended things with him, right? With Bradley, I mean.”.
“How do you think I got this black eye?” I manage to laugh.
He gives me a sad smile.
“Just promise me that you’ll let one of us know? If he gives you any more trouble? I know you and Wes aren’t seeing eye to eye right now, but he cares about you. We all do.”
I feel a pang hit me in the chest, a ball forming in my throat.
“Why?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind,” I tell him. “Thank you for coming this morning, I really do appreciate it.”
With that, I walk back to the guest house, crawl back into bed, and allow myself to stay there for the rest of the day.
Chapter 12
HAILEY
“Come on, Casino,” I groan, pushing my leg as hard as I can into the mare as I try to get her around the second barrel without knocking it over. She throws her head up, as if she was trying to talk back to me.
I struggle to pull her back down to a walk, quitting the pattern completely and turning her back around to the perimeter of the arena, fighting her with everything I have until we reach the gate.
“You want to let it out,” I whisper, fighting to keep her still long enough for me to bend down and unlatch the arena gate. “Then let it out.”
