Chapter Twenty-Five

"Can I call Bethany now?" Andrew asked as he wandered into the kitchen while Nicole was busy cooking.

"Cavanaugh, could you come flip these burgers while I take Andrew upstairs and get Bethany on the phone for him?" Nicole asked.

Cavanaugh stood from the table and nodded as he walked to the stove. Nicole wiped her hands on a dish towel and led Andrew toward the stairs.

"Nicole!" Madeline exclaimed as she came running from the playroom.

Nicole smiled and scooped the girl into her arms. She kissed her cheek with a loud pop and squeezed her tight, "Maddy, I missed you," she told the girl.

"I missed you too. Where's the other cowboy? The policeman?"

"He went home," Nicole said sadly.

Madeline shrugged, "I like the one in the kitchen, can I go talk to him?"

Nicole looked back and saw Cavanaugh watching them with an odd look on his face, "You sure can," she replied and sat the girl down on her feet.

Madeline ran into the kitchen and threw her arms around Cavanaugh's long legs. Nicole saw the look on his face. It was a mixture of happiness and pain that made her own heart hurt for the man. What was going on in his head behind his crinkled smile and blue eyes. Was he thinking of the children he had lost?

Nicole turned away from him and led Andrew up the stairs to the bedroom he and Ian had been sharing, "I'll get her on the phone for you but I can't promise that she'll want to talk." Nicole warned and Andrew nodded as he bounced from foot to foot and rubbed his hands on his pants.

Nicole picked up the phone and dialed the number and waited three rings before Bethany's voice came over the other end, "Hello?" she said and it was clear she'd been crying.

"Bethany, are you okay?"

"Nicole? Oh no did Andrew tell you what happened?" Bethany moaned.

"He's very worried about you," Nicole replied. "And he wants to talk to you."

"No...." Bethany started.

Nicole cut her off, "Just talk to him, Bethany. You might be surprised by what he says."

Silence came over the line and then finally she heard Bethany sigh, "Okay."

Nicole handed the phone to Andrew and then left the room. Andrew put the phone to his ear and tapped his fingers on the bedside table as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Bethany?" he asked quietly.

"What?" Bethany's soft voice came back to him. Suddenly Andrew didn't know what to say. He wanted to look at her when he spoke so he could actually see her reaction to his words.

"I want to see you," he replied.

"No," Bethany responded quickly, her voice very sad.

Andrew felt panic and desperation threatening to set in, "Why?" he asked.

Bethany sniffed, "Andrew, last night wasn't me... I'm not sure what happened to me, whether it was a mixture of the alcohol and the fresh air or something else but I'm not that type of girl. I don't run off with men I barely know and do that."

Andrew nodded, "I know you don't," he assured her. "I could tell I was your first," he added. "Bethany, I should have told you no last night, I can see that now, but you don't' realize what you do to me. Please, I want to say this to your face, can I come see you? Or you can come see me?"

"I don't think so..." Bethany replied and then Andrew heard a click on the other end and Bethany was suddenly gone.

Andrew put the phone down and then collapsed on the bed feeling more depressed and hopeless than he had ever felt before.

***

Bethany collapsed on her bed as tears ran down her face. It wasn't that she didn't want to see Andrew, she was beginning to see that she might have overreacted this morning, but her papaw would kill Andrew for sure.

He had caught her sneaking home. He had seen the grass and tangles in her hair, the dampness of her clothes and the shame in her eyes and he had known exactly what had happened. It had taken nearly an hour of her crying and begging before her papaw had agreed not to jump in his truck and ride to Nicole's with his gun. He had let her know just what he thought about her acting that way and had let her know what he thought of Andrew as well.

"Who was that?" Silas demanded as he appeared in her doorway.

"Andrew," Bethany replied honestly, she had never been able to lie to her papaw. And even if she had dared to try the man seemed to have a built in lie detector.

"That good for nothing, waste of air ain't coming here is he?" Silas growled.

Bethany shook her head, "No, papaw. I told him not to." she replied. Silas nodded, "Good. You are going to college. You are going to make something of yourself. I failed with your mama but I ain't gonna fail with you," he stated before turning and walking away.

Bethany curled up to her pillow and sobbed. She hated how strict the old man was on her and it was all because of her mother. Honestly Bethany didn't want to go to college and become a businesswoman the way her papaw wanted her to. She wanted to write. She loved to write romances full of passion, adventure and the past. She was fascinated by the time of outlaws and stagecoaches. By greedy town bankers and crooked sheriffs and brave cowboys riding in and saving the damsel.

Maybe that was one thing she found so tempting about Andrew. He represented what she had always dreamt about. She buried her face in her pillow and pulled her covers over her head, determined to spend the rest of the day feeling sorry for herself.

***

After moping and staring at the phone for less than ten minutes, Andrew jumped from the bed and grabbed his gun belt off the floor. He cinched it tight around his lean hips and plopped his hat on his head. If Bethany wouldn't talk to him on that telephone then he would just go to her house and make her listen.

He went down the stairs and slipped silently out the back door. It would take him a while on foot but he remembered how to get to Bethany's house and the long walk would help burn some energy off before he got there.

***

"At least hotels back in my day had restaurants, poker, whiskey and female entertainment," Ian stated as he walked into the small, smelly room that Leslie and Madeline had been calling home. "This just has a tiny bed and a sticky floor."

"I don't think a place with whiskey, poker and female entertainment would be a good environment for my daughter," Leslie countered as she went about packing up she and Madeline's few belongings she'd been able to get from her mother in law. The woman hadn't let her take much and most of she and her daughters clothes and Madeline's toys had been left behind.

Ian just shrugged and picked at the threadbare sand colored curtains. He couldn't explain why it made him angry to imagine a mother and child living in a place like this but it did. Ian wasn't a settling down man but dammit if he was and had a wife and a daughter then he would make sure they had a better place than this to lay there heads down at night.

"Well hurry up," he stated. "I'm hungry."

"You're impatient is what you are," Leslie countered as she zipped Madeline's princess suitcase closed.

Ian couldn't help but grin at the impatience in her own tone, "I'm that too," he admitted. He took the suitcase from her hand and grabbed the second one off the bed. Leslie gave him an odd look and he shrugged, "I might be an outlaw but I still carry heavy things for the fairer half of the species."

Leslie just shook her head, grabbed the last remaining bag and headed for the door. She wasn't sure what to make of this man. He was handsome, she had to give him that much. Mischievous brown eyes, stubble covered face, wild dark hair beneath that hat and a body that she was sure was to die for beneath those tight wranglers and blue t-shirt. But he also seemed impatient, a bit lazy and more than a little egotistical.

Life had taught Leslie to be cautious of every new person she met. Abusive parents had led to an abusive boyfriend, a teenage pregnancy and marriage at only seventeen. That marriage had given her an abusive husband and a support system that wasn't actually very supportive. Normally she would have sternly denied any help from a man she didn't know but if Nicole said that Ian and his brothers were safe then Leslie believed her. Nicole was the one person on the earth other than Leslie herself that Leslie trusted at all.

"You gonna open the door so I can put these suitcases in or you gonna stand there staring off into space a little longer?" Ian demanded as he stood beside the car with her suitcases.

Leslie snapped out of her daze and hurried to open the door beside him. He tossed the suitcases in and smiled at her, "Thank you, darlin'," he said with a wink and Leslie raised her brow at him. Was he flirting? She chose to ignore it and walked around to the driver door.

Ian shrugged. Hell she might not have said anything but at least she hadn't smacked him. He might just be getting his touch back.

***

Andrew smiled when the barns and house came into view. He would finally see Bethany again and be able to have some peace from the whirring in his mind. Several times today he had been tempted to find more whiskey but he kept remembering his promise to Bethany. He had promised that he would stop drinking just so long as he could be near her and he wasn't willing to give up on being near her just yet.

Andrew was nearly to the porch when Silas came striding from the house. When the old man saw Andrew he stopped suddenly and jerked his sawed off shot gun from the holster on his hip.

"Get the hell off my land," Silas growled. Andrew stopped in his tracks, his hand automatically going to the gun on his own hip. "Don't you even think of pulling that gun, boy. After what you did to my baby girl I'd be more than happy to blow your head clean off your shoulders."

"I want to talk to Bethany," Andrew stated as he took his hand away from his gun. Killing her papaw probably wouldn't be the best way to gain her forgiveness.

"No," Silas stated, pointing the gun at his chest. "Now get out of here."

Andrew looked desperately up at the house. "Bethany!" he called out. "Bethany, I need to talk to you!" He waited for a response but got none.

"Get out of here now, boy! Don't make me a murderer," Silas warned. "I need to talk to Bethany," Andrew replied desperately.

"She don't want to talk to you," Silas growled. "All she's done is cry because of what you did to her and if you don't get on out of here then you're gonna be nothing but a greasy spot on my lawn."

Andrew's heart broke but he nodded and turned around.

"Did you walk here, boy?" Silas growled.

Andrew nodded, "Yes sir," he replied without turning around.

Silas grumbled under his breath, "Go get in that big black truck and I'll take ya back to Nicole's."

Andrew wanted to refuse but Silas still hadn't put that big gun away so instead he nodded and climbed in.

***

"Is that Andrew getting out of Silas's truck?" Leslie asked as she walked into the kitchen. She and Ian had only been home a short time and Ian was busy shoving cheeseburgers and fried potatoes into his face.

Nicole looked out the window and nodded, "Yes it is. How did he get to Silas's?"

"I heard him sneak out the back door a while ago. He must have walked," Cavanaugh replied as he took his empty plate to the sink. Nicole watched Silas drive away and then Andrew was coming into the kitchen, his boots dragging on the hardwood floor with his sad steps.

"You were supposed to talk to her on the phone!" Nicole exclaimed.

"She wouldn't talk to me so I went to her," Andrew replied with a shrug. "But she wouldn't talk to me there neither."

"I'm sorry, Andrew," Nicole said as she went to him and hugged him tight. "Maybe you just need to give her a few days."

Andrew nodded and flopped himself down at the table. Nicole quickly made him a plate and sat it in front of him.

"Why are you so sad?" Madeline asked as she climbed up in Andrew's lap.

"He made the mistake of falling for that 'L' word and now his heart is broken," Ian replied as he wiped his face on his arm. Leslie made a face of disgust as she took a sip of her water.

"What's the 'L' word?" Madeline asked.

Andrew sighed, "Love."

"With a girl? Is she a princess? You have to take her to a ball and dance with her and then she will fall in love with you and kiss you," the four year old exclaimed as if the answer was easy.

"That simple huh?" Ian asked with a grin.

Cavanaugh nodded as he leaned his hip against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest, "We should all be more like children," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It sure would make life a lot more simple."

Ian took a sip of cola and laughed, "How deep and philosophical of you, big brother. You're starting to sound more like Jamison everyday." Cavanaugh grumbled and limped from the room, "Why do you do that?" Nicole asked Ian. "Why do you insist on giving him such a hard time? You're like a kid at the zoo poking a lion with a stick. One of these days he's going to snap and you'll be in trouble then."

Ian just grinned and stuck a chunk of fried potato in his mouth, "Naw, Cavanaugh's no lion. He's harmless. A little kitten really," Ian replied. Nicole let out a gasp and then broke down in laughter when a throw pillow from the couch was suddenly flying through the air and hitting Ian in the side of the head, "Nice shot!" Nicole called out as Ian grumbled and rubbed at his temple.

Cavanaugh's deep chuckle filled the air, "Thank you, ma'am."

***

Bethany slipped from her bed and walked as silently as she could to her bedroom door. She opened it just a crack and looked out into the dark hallway. Her papaw had long since gone to bed and everything was quiet. She needed to talk to Andrew. She had heard the confrontation between he and her papaw earlier today and it made Bethany begin to think that maybe Andrew really did care.

He had walked all the way from Nicole's to her house just so he could talk to her after she had treated him so badly both at the park and on the phone. A man wouldn't do that unless he cared. And if she was being honest it wasn't entirely Andrew's fault that they had made love the night before. She had wanted it just as terribly as he had wanted her. As a matter of fact she was fairly certain that she had been the one to bring up making love first.

Sure in a perfect world, a perfect man would have turned her down but Andrew wasn't perfect. He was endearingly flawed. What they needed to do was get to know each other. To really spend time together, with their clothes on, and learn about one another. That would be the test. If Andrew still wanted to stick around, even after he learned she wouldn't be letting him take her clothes off for a while then that would tell her everything she needed to know.

Bethany grabbed her purse from her dresser and snuck silently from the house. She got in her car, fired it to life and then drove away toward Nicole's. She parked the car a little away from Nicole's house. It was the middle of the night and she didn't want to wake the whole house up.

She held her purse tight on her shoulder as she walked down the dark gravel road and then she stopped suddenly when Nicole's house came into view and she saw the man standing on the porch. It was Andrew. What was he doing? She forced her feet to move again and Andrew's head snapped around and his face lit up in the porch light when he saw her.

Bethany felt her heart race as he ran from the porch and joined her in the moonlight, "Your papaw ain't gonna come out of the woods and shoot me with that gun of his is he?" he asked as he glanced around nervously. Bethany laughed lightly, "No, he and Baby are both sound asleep," she promised him and his face was suddenly lit up by that childlike smile of his that she loved seeing so much. It was the kind of smile that could instantly put a person at ease.

"Man oh man, am I glad to see your face again." Andrew stated as he let out a long breath and ran his hand over her arm. Just like that, her simple presence had stilled the chaos in his mind.

"We need to talk, Andrew," she said and he nodded and took her by the hand.

He led her to the porch and they sat down together on the swing, "Why didn't you drive all the way up to the house?" he asked.

She shrugged, "I didn't want to wake everyone up."

"Bethany, I want to apologize. I'm not real sure what I did wrong or why you got so upset but I never ever wanted to hurt you."

"No, Andrew, I'm sorry. I was terrible to you this morning," Bethany admitted with a sigh. "You have to understand that I have never, not once in my entire life, done anything carefree, adventurous or questionable. I was always overly cautious and a bit of a goody two shoes. You brought out a side of me that I hadn't even known existed and I liked it last night. We laughed, we talked, we had fun and what we did together beside the water was incredible..." Bethany blushed and looked off into the night.

Andrew grinned happily and slid his arm around her shoulders. He felt as if a one ton weight had just been removed from him. She didn't hate him, "I agree." he replied and he saw Bethany's blush deepened.

"But then this morning when I woke up I was suddenly the old me again and I lost it. I couldn't believe what I had let myself do and so I blamed you because it was easier than blaming myself. I was sure that you had gotten what you wanted from me. I was sure that you would only see me as a whore...."

"Stop, now." Andrew snapped, his anger plain to hear in those two simple words. "I never once said that all I wanted was one night of passion from you and I would never think you a whore. As a matter of fact I believe I'd shoot just about anyone who tried to say you were one."

"Andrew, it's not the 1800's anymore, you can't just shoot people who make you mad."

"Good for that woman at the dress shop who seemed so fond of those plastic things," Andrew grumbled.

Bethany found herself laughing again, "How do you do that?" she questioned and he frowned as he swatted at a mosquito.

"Do what?"

"Make me feel better."

"I could ask you the same question," Andrew replied.

She saw a hungry look come into his eyes and she knew what he wanted because, God help her, she wanted it too. His lips sought hers and claimed them in a caress that was both possessive and yet somehow tender. Bethany felt herself falling over that edge again. How did Andrew do that so quickly. Just one touch from him and she was ready to give him everything......

She pulled away quickly and he frowned as he caressed her cheek, "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice deeper than normal.

Bethany tugged on the bottom of her t-shirt and tried to still the trembling in her hands. Here came the moment of truth, "I need us to go slower," she said finally. "I need to really get to know you and have you get to know me before we cross that line again that we crossed last night." Bethany knew that was the only way her mind would accept what she was feeling for him.

Andrew smiled and laid his forehead against hers, "Okay," he said simply.

Bethany couldn't believe her ears. He didn't sound mad or disappointed or irritated like she would have assumed he would, "Really? Just like that you're okay with taking it slower?" she asked skeptically.

He pulled her into his arms and laid her head against his chest, "Bethany, you don't seem to listen to me, either that or you just don't take me serious enough. Being near you makes me better. It makes the noise stop. It makes me feel content and peaceful. I'm pretty darn sure that I love you already but if time is what you need then it's what I'll give you. Just so long as you promise that I'll at least get to be near you everyday."

Bethany was shocked. He really did care. He had even mentioned the word love! She had never, not in a million years, thought that a man like Andrew would ever be interested in her! Sure he wasn't perfect, but his flaws were what she was most fond of. His inability to hold still, his hyperactivity and his tendency to ramble.

She wasn't sure if it was love yet but she was sure that she couldn't wait to find out, "I think I can manage that." she replied contently as she curled up against him.

His hands rubbed gentle circles on her back and his breath teased her hair. He began humming quietly as he rocked the swing gently and soon he had lulled Bethany to sleep.

Andrew smiled into her hair and realized that suddenly all urge to move was gone. Something about having her in his arms put him at peace. He was going to make sure he kept her within arms reach at all times forever and ever.

He shifted in the swing and relaxed against the wood knowing he'd sleep more sound tonight than he ever had before.