Joan Johnston - Hawk's Way - Rebels

“I had nothing to do with Laura’s death. It was simply a tragic accident.” Then, before he could stop himself, “I miss her.”

Cherry laid a hand on his forearm, and he felt the muscles tense beneath her soothing touch. She waited for him to look at her before she spoke. “I’m sorry about your wife, Mr. Stonecreek. It must be awful to lose someone you love.”

“Call me Billy,” he said, unsure how to handle her sympathy.

“Then you have to call me Cherry,” she said with the beginnings of a smile. She held out her hand. “Deal?”

“Deal.” He took her hand and held it a moment too long. Long enough to realize he didn’t want to let go. He forced himself to sit back. He raised the beer can he had taken from her to his lips, but she took it from him before he could tip it up.

“I don’t think this will solve your problems, either,” she said with a cheeky grin.

He laughed. “You’re right.”

They smiled at each other.

Until Billy realized he wanted to kiss her about as bad as he had ever wanted anything in his life. His smile faded. He saw the growing recognition in her eyes and turned away. He was there to rescue the girl, not to ravish her.

He picked a stem of sweet grass and twirled it between his fingertips. “Would you like to talk about what you’ve done that’s going to disappoint your parents?”

She shrugged. “Hell. Why not?”

The profanity surprised him. Until he remembered she hadn’t been a Whitelaw for very long. “I’m listening.”

Her eyes remained focused on her tightly laced fingers. “I got expelled from high school tonight.”

He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “That’s pretty bad, all right. What did you do?”

“Nothing! Not that I’m innocent all that often, but this time I was. Just because I had a whiskey bottle in my hand doesn’t mean I was going to pour it in the punch at the prom.”

He raised a skeptical brow.

“I was keeping a friend of mine from pouring it in the punch,” she explained. “Not that anyone will believe me.”

“As alibis go, I’ve heard better,” he said.

“Anyway, I’ve been expelled and I won’t graduate with my class and I’ll have to go to summer school to finish. I’d rather run away from home than face Zach and Rebecca and tell them what I’ve done. In fact, the more I think about it, the better that idea sounds. I won’t go home. I’ll…I’ll…”

“Go where?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere.”

“Dressed like that?”

She looked down at herself and back up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “My dress is ruined. Just like my life.”

Billy didn’t resist the urge to lift her into his lap, and for whatever reason, she didn’t resist his efforts to comfort her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him.

“I feel so lost and alone,” she said, her breath moist against his skin. “I don’t belong anywhere.”

Billy tightened his arms around her protectively, wishing there was something more he could do to help. He crooned to her in Comanche, telling her she was safe, that he would find a way to help her, that she wasn’t alone.

“What am I going to do?” she murmured in an anguished voice. “Where can I go?”

Billy swallowed over the knot in his throat. “You’re going to think I’m crazy,” he said. “But I’ve got an idea if you’d like to hear it.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“You could come and live with me.”

CHERRY HAD FELT SAFE and secure in Billy Stonecreek’s arms, that is, until he made his insane suggestion. She lifted her head from Billy’s shoulder and stared at him wide-eyed. “What did you say?”

“Don’t reject the idea before you hear me out.”

“I’m listening.” In fact, Cherry was fascinated.

He focused his dark-eyed gaze on her, pinning her in place. “The older lady who’s been taking care of my kids is quitting on Monday. How would you like to work for me? The job comes with room and board.” He smiled. “In fact, I’m including room and board because I can’t afford to pay much.”

“You’re offering me a job?”

“And a place to live. I could be at home evenings to watch the girls while you go to night school over the summer and earn your high school diploma. What do you say?”

Cherry edged herself off Billy’s lap, wondering how he had coaxed her into remaining there so long. Perversely, she missed the warmth of his embrace once it was gone. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around the yards of pale green chiffon.

“Cherry?”

Her first reaction was to say yes. His offer was the simple solution to all her problems. She wouldn’t have to go home. She wouldn’t have to face her parents with the truth.

But she hadn’t lived with Zach and Rebecca Whitelaw for four years and not learned how they felt about certain subjects. “My dad would never allow it.”

“A minute ago you were going to run away from home. How is this different?”

“You obviously don’t know Zach Whitelaw very well,” she said with a rueful twist of her lips. “If he knew I was working so close, he’d expect me to live at home.”

“Not if you were indispensible to me.”

“Would I be?” she asked, intrigued.

“I can’t manage the ranch and my six-year-old twin daughters all by myself. I’m up and working before dawn. Somebody has to make sure Annie and Raejean get dressed for school and feed them breakfast and be there when they get off the school bus in the afternoon.” Billy shrugged. “You need a place to stay. I need help in a hurry. It’s a match made in heaven.”

Cherry shook her head. “It wouldn’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Can I be blunt?”

Billy smiled, and her stomach did a queer flip-flop. “By all means,” he said.

“It’s bad enough that you’re single—”

“I wouldn’t need the help if I had a wife,” Billy interrupted.

Cherry frowned him into silence. “You’re a widower. I’m only eighteen. It’s a toss-up which of us has the worse reputation for getting into trouble. Can you imagine what people would say—about us—if I moved in with you?” Cherry’s lips curled in an impish grin. “Eyebrows would hit hairlines all over the county.”

Billy shook his head and laughed. “I hadn’t thought about what people would think. We’re two of a kind, all right.” His features sobered. “Just not the right kind.”

Cherry laid her hand on his arm in comfort. “I know what you’re feeling, Billy.”

“I doubt it.”

Cherry felt bereft as he pulled free. He was wrong. She understood exactly what he was feeling. The words spilled out before she could stop them.

“Nobody wants anything to do with you, because you’re different,” she said in a quiet voice that carried in the dark. “To prove it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, you break their rules. When they look down their noses at you, you spit in their eyes. And all the time, your heart is aching. Because you want them to like you. And respect you. But they don’t.”

Billy eyed her speculatively. “I guess you do understand.”

For a moment Cherry thought he was going to put his arm around her. But he didn’t.

She turned to stare at the pond, so he wouldn’t see how much she regretted his decision to keep his distance. “I’ve always hated being different,” she said. “I was always taller than everyone else, thanks to my giant of a father, Big Mike Murphy.” When she was a child, her father’s size had always made her feel safe. But he hadn’t kept her safe. He had let her be stolen away from him.

“And I don’t know another person with hair as godawful fire-engine red as mine. I have Big Mike to thank for that, too.” Cherry noticed Billy didn’t contradict her evaluation of her hair.