Page 66 of Ace of Spades
“What’s up?” Dakota asks, her voice still cheerful as always as if the news I’m about to share with them couldn’t possibly be bad. I feel Weston’s attention on me, his eyes studying me as I face the group.
“So… um,” I start. “My dad… I told y’all that I didn’t want to talk about why I left. Well, I found out that he doesn’t just want to run the trailer park as a side project. He bought it because he plans to tear it down. Actually, it sounds like he has plans for a lot of the businesses around here… I don’t think he’s going to stop until he’s basically torn the town apart. And it sounds like he might be coming for the ranch, especially since he sees you guys as competition.”
The group is silent, the atmosphere shifting. I nearly regret saying anything, but I know it would have come out sooner or later, and I couldn’t sit around and let them be caught off guard when it was too late.
“How long have you known about this?” Beau finally asks, an edge to his tone.
“It’s the reason I left, because we got in a fight over it. I’m really sorry for not bringing it up sooner.”
I can feel Weston tensing beneath me, but I can’t bring myself to chance a look at his face right now, afraid of what I might find.
“And you didn’t think to tell us sooner?”
“Knock it off,” Weston tells him before I have the chance to respond. “She told us now, didn’t she?”
“That’s great and all, but what are we supposed to do now? We gave you a place to stay, a spot on our team—you committed to helping us, and yet you kept this from us for what, almost two weeks now?” Beau continues. “That trailer park is home to some of us. Weston and I grew up there, our parents still live there. This town is our home, Hailey.”
“Beau—” Chelsea tries to no avail, releasing him as she swims around to face him.
“I said knock it off,” Weston snarls, his voice commanding.
“Well of course you’re going to defend her. I mean, look at you two. Weren’t you calling her a spoiled brat just a few months ago?”
I flinch at his words, a ball of lead forming in my throat.
“I should probably go,” I manage to choke out, attempting to pull away from Weston as his arm only tightens around me.
“No,” he tells me, leaving no room for argument in his tone. “You’re staying. Beau—you need to go cool off. See what happens if you talk to her like that again.”
“Okay, I think everybody needs to calm down,” Dakota intervenes, swimming to get between the two of them, turning to face Beau. “She told us now, didn’t she? She didn’t have to dothat, she's already in a tough enough position as it is between us and her dad.”
“Stay out of this, Dakota,” Beau warns her.
Weston moves to go after him, but Chance manages to get there first.
“You’d better check yourself right the fuck now,” he tells him, shoving him backwards.
“Hey, hey, hey—enough!” Rafe calls out, swimming to the center of the group. “Everybody calm the fuck down. Beau—go cool off.”
Beau doesn’t say anything as he exits the water, grabbing a towel out of his backpack to dry off before throwing his clothes on and grabbing his horse, riding off into the woods.
“Guys, I’m so sorry,” I croak. “I know I should have told all of you sooner, I was just scared that something like this might happen or that you would all blame me. I didn’t mean to cause any issues.”
“Stop,” Weston cuts me off. “Stop apologizing.”
“Yeah,” Dakota adds, swimming up to the both of us and grabbing my arm comfortingly. “You told us, and that’s all that matters. Beau will get over it, I promise. He was just caught off guard.”
I force a smile.
“I’m so sorry about him, he just gets like this sometimes when it comes to things he’s passionate about. Don’t let him get to you,” Chelsea tells me before going off after him.
“Why don’t we head back?” Chance says. “It looks like storm clouds are rolling in anyways.”
I look up to find that grey clouds now obscure the stars, casting us further into darkness as we swim back to the shore. We’re almost at the river bank when Weston pulls me back, turning me around to face him.
“Hey,” he says, quiet enough so the others can’t hear. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I lie. “I’m fine.”
