Hidden Away, page 12
part #2 of Hearts of Montana Series
Sam giggled.
They’d stopped for a carton of night crawlers on the way up, and Taylor peeled back the lid of the Styrofoam carton. “Reach in there and grab a worm. Make sure you get a good one.”
Sam wrinkled his nose at the wriggling worms. “How do I know which one is a good one?”
“Ahh, just get one that looks good and fat. And extra juicy. The fish love those.”
Sam laughed as he reached in and plucked a slimy worm from the dirt. Pulling it free, the worm stretched and snapped, and its lower half sucked back in to the dirt. “Oh no. I broke it.”
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. The fish like half-worms just as much.” Taylor gave him a wink, and Sam’s expression of alarm eased.
He showed the boy how to thread the worm’s body onto the hook. Sam watched intently, his face a mixture of awe and disgust.
A ribbon of brown goo exploded from the side of the worm.
“Oh gross. Did you see that? It pooped. The worm pooped. That was sick. And cool.” Sam giggled.
Taylor laughed at the myriad of faces that Sam made and at the way the boy laughed at the simplest things. “You ready to throw it in?”
He showed the boy how to cast and set the line, then propped the pole between two rocks. He’d put a bobber on the end of the line and told Sam to watch for it to go under the water.
Sam settled in against a rock. Rex lay down next to him, his head in the boy’s lap. Sam looked over at him. “I like this. Fishing is good.”
He chuckled and set about getting his own pole ready.
Yes, fishing was good.
And this was a good choice.
Fishing was easy. It didn’t take much effort, and the serenity of the water soothed even the stormiest of souls.
He set his line and snuck a glance at Sam.
They had securely wrapped his casted arm in plastic that morning. Sam twisted a blade of grass between his fingers as he watched his line and casually rested his unbroken arm on the dog’s back. He seemed at peace.
Then his expression changed. A wild look of surprise covered his face as he looked up, his eyes wide. “The bobber! It went down. Did you see it? It bobbed.”
“Grab your pole! Start reeling it in.” He jumped up and crossed to the boy’s side. He put his hand on the end of the pole but tried to let Sam do most of the work. The cast on his arm made it a little awkward, but the boy managed with a bit of Taylor’s help.
Sam wound the line in, his little body squirming as much as the fish on the line. “I got it. I got one!”
“You sure did.” He lifted the pole and grabbed the small fish on the end of the line. He pulled the hook from its mouth and passed the fish to Sam.
Sam held it reverently in his hands. “My first fish.”
He couldn’t help but grin. He remembered the first fish that he’d ever caught. And it was in this same creek. His dad had brought him here to teach him to fish, too.
He pulled his phone from his pocket to get a picture. “Hold that fish up, and I’ll take your picture. We can send it to Cherry later.”
Sam held the fish up, a huge grin on his face, and Taylor snapped a picture.
“All right. Now we gotta put him in the basket. Then I’ll show you how to clean it, and we can take it home tonight and you can have him for supper.”
The boy wrinkled his nose. “I’ve never eaten a fish before.” He beamed up at Taylor. “But I’ll try it.”
He chuckled and showed Sam the basket that he’d staked to the side of the creek. He helped him to drop it in, then eased the basket back to float in the water and keep the fish cool.
“You did it. Caught your first fish.” He clapped Sam on the shoulder. “How does it feel?”
The boy’s smile faltered, and Taylor watched as his face crumpled in dismay.
Sam’s bottom lip trembled, and he covered his face with his hands as he began to cry. His small shoulders shook as he sobbed into his hands.
“Hey. Hey now. It’s okay.” Taylor sank to the ground and pulled the boy into his lap, cradling him against his chest. “It’s okay to cry.”
“I miss my dad.” Sam clutched Taylor’s shirt in his small hands and cried into his chest. “I miss them so much.”
“I know you do.” He rubbed Sam’s back, his heart breaking for the child. Sam often acted so mature that he sometimes forgot just how young he was. And thinking back, he couldn’t remember seeing the little boy let loose and cry yet.
Taylor said nothing, just rubbed his hand in small circles on the boy’s back and let him cry it out.
Sam clung to him, his sobs coming in hard gasps as he released the pain and grief that he must have been bottling up inside since the accident. His crying finally tapered off, and he took big shaking gulps of breath, trying to calm down.
Sitting up, he swiped his arm across his tear-stained cheeks. “Sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about, buddy. Sometimes a guy’s just gotta cry and get all that stuff out.”
Sam peered up at him, a questioning look on his face. “Do you cry sometimes?”
“Yeah, I do.” Geez, this kid was killing him.
The pain on his face felt like a physical punch to Taylor’s gut, and he just wanted to take the pain away. Make him smile again. “I don’t know if I told you this, but my mom died when I was a kid, too.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. I was older than you. I was in high school. And my mom wasn’t in a car accident. She was sick. She was sick for a while. So I had time to say goodbye to her. But it was still hard. Really hard.” He touched Sam’s cheek. “And I still miss her.”
“You do?”
“Of course I do. She was my mom. Sometimes I miss her so much that it still makes me cry.” He smiled at Sam. “It’s okay to cry. And it’s okay to miss them. They were your parents.”
Sam shrugged. “But they weren’t my real parents.”
“Hey. Come on now. They sure as heck were your real parents. They were the ones that raised you, that taught you to walk, that sung you to sleep. And they were the ones that changed all your stinky diapers.”
That earned him a small smile from the boy.
“I’m serious. Your mom and dad adopted you because they wanted you. They wanted a baby to pour all their love into. They were your real parents.”
“But what about the mom and dad that gave me away. They must not have wanted me.” Sam’s voice was small, and he couldn’t meet Taylor’s eye.
“You don’t know that, Sam. There are all sorts of reasons why someone might give their baby up for adoption. A lot of times it is because they can’t take care of a baby, and they want to give their child a chance at a better life. Maybe your parents loved you so much that they sacrificed their own chance at getting to raise you. Maybe they gave you up so you could have a life with parents that could do a better job of taking care of you.”
Sam tipped up his chin, finally looking into Taylor’s eyes. “Do you think my real mom would ever want to meet me?”
Taylor shrugged. “I don’t know. I know I’m sure glad to have met you.”
“I asked Cherry about her, but she doesn’t seem to want to talk about it.”
“Well, remember your mom was Cherry’s cousin and her best friend. Maybe it’s just hard for her to talk about it.”
“Do you think you could help me find my real mom?”
“Me? Why me?”
“Because you’re the sheriff. And you know lots of people.” Sam’s eyes were filled with hope.
“You watch too much TV.” Taylor hated the way the look of hope changed to one of disappointment.
He didn’t really think this was any of his concern, and he sure didn’t want to upset Cherry by nosing around in her family business.
But they were engaged, sort of, and he did care about Sam. It might not hurt to ask a few questions. “I guess I can look into it. Usually those records are sealed so no one can get into them, but I can give it a try.”
Sam’s face lit with a smile. “Thanks, Taylor. I know you can find out. You can do anything.”
Taylor nodded at his pole. “Apparently I can’t seem to catch a fish as well as you. How about we set our lines again and have a snack?”
Rex barked his approval.
Later that night, he and Cherry lay in bed together, her lush body snuggled against his side.
Cherry ran her fingernail down his chest. “Sam couldn’t stop talking about going fishing with you today. He had a great time. How about you? Did you have fun?”
Taylor grinned down at her. “I have never regretted a day spent fishing.”
She playfully swatted his arm. “You know what I mean.”
“I know. Of course I had fun. Sam’s a great kid. I really like hanging out with him.”
“Me, too.” Her voice held a wistful tone.
“Did he tell you that he cried today?”
She pushed up on one elbow, alarm in her eyes. “No, why? Did he get hurt?”
“No, he caught a fish.”
“I don’t understand. Why did that make him cry?”
“Because evidently, his dad had always promised to take him fishing.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. We talked a lot about his parents today. I told him it’s okay to talk about them. He wasn’t sure if he could because no one else was talking about them, and he didn’t want to get in trouble or make anyone sad.”
Cherry’s eyes filled with tears. “Poor baby. I am so not good at this. That’s why I wasn’t talking to him about it. Because I didn’t want to make him sad.”
“It’s important to talk about them. He needs that. I can remember when my mom died, and no one would talk about her or even mention her name. But all that did was make me feel like there was something wrong with me, because I thought about her all the time. I missed her so much, and I needed to talk about her. Not all the time. I’m not saying that. But if something makes you think of Stacy or Greg, just tell him. Especially if it’s a good memory or something that makes you smile. Does that make sense?”
She nodded. “I did it all wrong back then, too, didn’t I? I should have talked to you more about your mom.”
Her face looked so sad, it tore at his heart.
He tipped her chin up and gazed into her eyes. “Hey, listen, we were kids. We didn’t know what the hell we were doing. Sometimes I still don’t. We both could have handled things differently. But we can’t change the past. We can only move forward. We only have control of this moment. The one we are in right now.”
Cherry snuggled against his chest. “I like the moment we’re in right now.”
He grinned. “I know a way to make you like it more.” He leaned down to kiss her and was rewarded with a soft moan against his lips.
Had he just missed an important chance to talk about their past? Should they wrestle these demons now and bring the past out? Shake the dust off the rugs and clear the air of all the muck and pain that they caused each other all those years ago.
He pulled back. “Cherry.”
She smiled up at him, a dreamy look in her eyes. “I love it when you say my name. I have the lamest, silliest name, but when you say it, it sounds sexy.”
A grin crept across his face. He lowered his voice and sang in a low, sweet tone. “She’s my cherry pie. Tastes so good, make a grown man cry.” He leaned in and nipped at her bottom lip.
She shook her head and grinned. “I’m ashamed to admit that I sort of secretly love it when you sing that song to me.”
He nuzzled against her neck, softly kissing the sweet, tender spot below her ear. “You want me to keep singing?”
“I just want you, period.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. The movement pressed her breasts together and up, and all thoughts of song lyrics fled from his brain.
Chapter Thirteen
Cherry woke to an empty bed and the sound of power tools coming through the window. What was Taylor up to now?
She heard Rex bark and figured Sam must be up as well. Throwing back the covers, she climbed out of bed and stretched.
Over the last week, she’d been using muscles that she hadn’t used in a long time. Her body was sore, but in a good way. A really good way. Time spent in bed with Taylor was better than any yoga session.
They’d been getting along so well. Tonight would be the real test.
The engagement party.
She’d been so caught up in trying to get the diner up and running and taking care of Sam that when Charlie offered to take care of the party, she let her.
She had no idea what Charlie had planned or how many people were coming. How many people would she have to convince that she and Taylor were a real couple? And that they were planning to get married?
“Hey, Charlie,” she called to her friend as she stepped out onto the front porch.
Charlie turned and waved, looking gorgeous as always in jeans, a sleeveless white top, and pink cowboy boots. Her long blond hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she held a clipboard.
A clipboard? Really? To have a few people out for a barbeque?
Cherry crossed the yard and peered down at the clipboard. The page was full of notes and checked tasks. “How’s it going? This seems like a lot of work for just a few people.”
“A few people? Half the town wants to come. I’ve already had over a hundred people let me know they’re planning to show up.”
“A hundred people?” Yeesh. Small towns. No one wanted to miss out on anything.
“I know. It blows me away how different small towns are. But everyone loves you, and nobody wants to miss out on a party.”
And how many people were coming just to see if she and Taylor were a real item?
That thought made her stomach hurt.
She watched a couple of guys from the fire department grab a piece of plywood from the back of a pickup and lay it on the ground next to several others. “What are they doing?”
“Building a dance floor.”
“A dance floor?” This shindig was getting carried away.
But the thought of dancing with Taylor made her pulse race a little. Being twirled around the dance floor in his strong arms.
They hadn’t danced together since prom nine years ago.
Memories of the high school dance came flooding back. The flowing pink dress, the tons of bobby pins that Stacy had stuck in her hair to give her the perfect updo, the way Taylor had looked heart-breakingly handsome in his tux with the pink cummerbund that exactly matched the color of her dress. Dancing for hours in his arms, laying her head on his shoulder during slow songs, and laughing as they bounced around to the fast ones.
Then after, listening to the radio as Taylor laid her back on the bench seat of his truck. He’d made her a mix tape of their songs and to this day, she couldn’t hear a Tim McGraw song without being right back in that truck.
And without thinking of Taylor and that night. The night that changed everything.
The night they’d made Sam.
“Earth to Cherry.” Charlie waved a hand at her.
“Sorry. I missed that.”
“I could tell. You were suddenly a million miles away.”
A million miles and nine years ago away.
“I said that Taylor’s dad is getting his old band together to play for tonight. I’ve never heard them play, but Zack said they used to be quite popular. They played local bars and county fairs. Some people probably don’t even care about you and Taylor. They may just be coming out to hear Russ’s band, Wishbone.”
Great. The more attention diverted from her and Taylor the better.
This party was becoming much bigger than she’d first imagined. A lot of people were going to a lot of trouble to help them celebrate a fake engagement. “This seems really extravagant. Who’s paying for all of this?”
“There’s not that much expense really. A lot of people are bringing food and the band is free. The guys from the fire hall love Taylor so they’re setting up the dance floor and hauling out hay bales to sit on. I think Russ is covering the decorations. I was talking to him earlier, and I think he’s hoping things work out with you and Taylor.”
He’s not the only one.
Wait. Don’t even go there.
She couldn’t let herself hope for something real with Taylor. Yeah, the sex was pretty real. But she couldn’t count on him. Couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t start to feel trapped in this small town and take off again. It was easier to not let her heart get too involved. Keep a safe distance. Keep it physical.
Except, if she were being honest, she’d have to admit that it was already too late.
Taylor and Sam walked out of the barn, the dog following closely on their heels. Sam held a hammer in his hand, and Taylor carried a red tool box. A leather tool belt slung low on his hips, and the snug black T-shirt he wore clung to his muscled chest and arms.
Holy hot-ness. A friggin’ tool belt.
“Cherry. Do you see the party?” Sam came running up to her. “Taylor’s been letting me help. We’re building a dance floor and a stage for the band. Isn’t that cool?”
She smiled at his enthusiasm. “Yeah, buddy. It’s pretty cool.” She glanced at Taylor and caught him smiling down at Sam, and her heart fell.
Yeah. Way too late.
“This party is becoming a little bigger than I thought it would be,” she said to Taylor.
“It’s Broken Falls. The whole town loves a party.” He leaned down and spoke softly into her ear. “The more people that are here, the less doubt there will be about our engagement.”
She tried to ignore the delicious shivers that his warm breath on her neck were causing. He was right, of course. “I know. I’m just pouring all of my savings into repairing the diner. I don’t have a lot of extra to put into such an extravagant party.”
“Don’t worry about that. Everyone is pitching in, and my dad’s band is playing for free as long as we feed them. We had too much meat in the freezer anyway. This is a good excuse to get it cleared out for fall.”
He had an answer for everything.
“Okay, well I’ve got to go in to the diner today and get some work done. I feel bad leaving you here to take care of this, but I’ve got to get the restaurant open as soon as I can.”
