Dragonfly Creek (18 page)

He held her loosely, dancing them around in a slow circle, and laughed. “Funny thing about Burke is that he’s with the state police now. And he’s been hanging around Emma since she came back to town. She and Zanny swear there’s hope for him yet.” He gave her a brief kiss. “Best I recall, you had a bully of your own to contend with, of a sort. Elliot?”

Ainsley grimaced. “He is. That’s part of why I was so upset last night. I saw him yesterday at lunch with Hershel. We aren’t close anymore. It wasn’t pleasant.”

Ben touched her face. “I’m sorry.”

“It is what it is. Elliot and our dysfunctional relationship was unfortunately one of the casualties when I got sober. It’s for the best.”

He bent to kiss her again, but paused when a loud buzzing started. “That’s a chainsaw.”

“Sounds like it.” She kept her hand in his as they walked toward the sound. When they rounded the curve, the fallen tree near another curve at the foot of the driveway was plain to see. So were the men working on clearing the road, next to a pickup truck. “Isn’t that John?”

“And my cousin, Rick. This is convenient.”

They picked up the pace, and the men looked up as they approached.

“Hey, hey. You’re just in time.” John smiled at them and turned off the chainsaw.

“I knew we should have stayed up top a little longer,” Ben joked. “Ainsley, you know my brother. This other ugly mug is my cousin, Rick Browning. He’s a deputy sheriff.”

Ainsley offered the handsome man her hand and a smile. “Hi.”

Rick grinned back at her as they shook. “Hi. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“How did you guys know about the tree?” Ben asked.

“I was on patrol last night, drove up the road here as part of my routine.” Rick gestured over the embankment where the driveway turned off the road. “Saw your truck parked at the bottom, decided to investigate a little. The tree’s presence explained the truck. I swung by John’s this morning, commandeered him. Thought we’d give you a hand.”

“Speaking of my truck… What’d you do? Hotwire it? Dad’s the only one with a spare key.”

Just then, a tall man who looked remarkably like Ben came around the curve, a rope in his hands. “Found it. Oh, hello.”

Ainsley was standing close enough to Ben that she heard him swallow. “Hey, Dad.”

“
Dad
? I was hoping you had an older brother you’d forgotten to mention,” she groaned under her breath, mortified. It was one thing for John to be there and to know Ben had spent the night. But Ben’s father?

Before she could run back up the hill, Ben was making the introductions. “Dad, this is Ainsley. Ainsley, my father, Owen Campbell.”

The spots of embarrassed color on Ben’s cheeks normally would have amused her, but she had a flaming face of her own to contend with. “Mr. Campbell.”

When he smiled, the resemblance to Ben was eerie. He was older, and his hair was darker, but there was no doubting the two were closely related.

“Owen, please. Mr. Campbell was my father.”

John was watching them closely, a mischievous smile playing around his lips, but he didn’t say anything. He just winked at her.

“Owen, then.” A sudden bout of shyness struck her, and she looked to Ben for guidance.

He shrugged and squeezed her left hand, which he still held. “Let’s get to work.”

Even with four people working, they took a while to get the large branches cut off the tree so they could get to the main trunk. The massive oak was probably sixty or seventy years old, and seeing its destruction made Ainsley a little sad.

“What do you want to do with the wood?” Owen asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Do you want it? It’ll make good firewood.”

“Sure. If you’re certain you don’t want it.”

She shrugged. “I won’t be here. After we wrap things up in a couple of weeks, I’ll be going back to Lexington.”

Ben, who walked past her as she spoke, stopped. “That soon?”

“Yes. I’ve already stayed longer than I anticipated.”

His expression was hard to read as he went on past. Ainsley stared after him for a minute, then turned back to Owen. Ben’s father had a speculative look on his face, and he glanced from her to Ben and back.

“Things will work out the way they’re supposed to,” he said softly. “Give it time.”

The kind acceptance in his demeanor made her want to cry. She nodded, unable to speak, and grabbed a handful of loose branches. She wished she had his confidence and faith.

“We can move the logs over to the side of the drive if you want, and I can bring my truck back down for some of it,” Owen offered. “We’ll fill Ben’s up today and try to get the rest over the next couple of days.”

“That’s fine. I appreciate the help here today.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Owen said. He smiled then, Ben’s smile, and Ainsley’s heart broke a little. For what had to be the ten thousandth time, she wondered if her child would have looked like Ben.

Ben was quiet after that, and so was Ainsley. Hearing the timeline for her departure laid out in stark terms had brought a definite pall over them both. She wondered if that meant he didn’t want things to end, or if he was counting the days until he was rid of her. Just because they would be living in the same city, that didn’t mean they would be together, and she would be wise to remember that.

Chapter Twenty-Two

T
wo weeks. It wasn’t enough time.

Ben was starting to get the idea that Ainsley’s leaving five years ago had been a lot more complicated than he’d been led to believe. Still torn on whether he wanted to dig for answers or keep things superficial, hearing her put a time estimate on her departure disturbed him.

John picked up on his distraction. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Ben glanced over his shoulder to where Ainsley was chatting with his dad and Rick. “She’s leaving in two weeks.”

“I know that’s the plan. You thinking about trying to change it? The two of you looked awfully happy when you came down the hill.”

Ben rubbed his chest, where an ache had settled. “I don’t know.”

The look on his brother’s face told him John understood his dilemma. “Whatever you decide, I’m here if you need me.”

“Thanks.”

They’d just finished moving the last section of trunk out of the way when a small beige car pulled up in front of Ben’s truck, and Byrdie got out. She walked up to them, hands on her hips, examining the mess.

“Power out up top?” she asked Ainsley.

“Yes. Phone, too.”

“Figured as much.” She examined Ben head to toe, no doubt taking in his wrinkled clothes and unshaven jaw. After the inspection, she turned to Owen. “This one your pup here?”

“He is, and so’s the one next to him. He hasn’t been causing you any trouble, has he?”

When John snickered from beside him, Ben casually elbowed him in the stomach. He saw Byrdie’s lips twitch, though she didn’t take her eyes off his father.

“Oh, not too much. I’ll let you know if that changes.”

“Please do. He isn’t too big to take a switch to.”

“Dad!” Ben’s cheeks heated as everyone laughed. “You’ve never raised a hand to me.”

The look Owen leveled on him was mostly playful. “It isn’t too late to start if you get out of line. I take it Ainsley is your ‘pup,’ then?” he asked Byrdie.

Byrdie smiled. “She is.”

“I’ll hold Ben down if you need me to,” John volunteered. He grabbed Ben from behind, clasping his hands together in front of Ben’s chest, and lifted him off the ground a couple of inches.

“Geez, what are we? Twelve again?” Ben protested, trying to break John’s hold. “Let go.”

“No. This is the first time since you
were
twelve or thirteen that I’ve had the chance to embarrass you in front of a girl. I’d have to turn in my brother card if I let go now.”

Ainsley giggled softly, enjoying their antics. Ben winked at her. “If you don’t let go, I’ll tell Dad whose idea it really was to turn the pond into a water slide.”

“Ain’t skeered. And it wasn’t my idea.” Despite his protestations of innocence, John let him go with a rough tousle of Ben’s hair.

Owen shook his head. “Oh, I know whose idea it was. I’ve always known it was Emma and Zanny. You kids just about gave me a heart attack that day. I told Sarah we should have just had boys, but no. She insisted on giving me three girls. More trouble than the boys, by far,” he told Ainsley.

Ben watched her eyes widen, her mouth dropping open with surprise. “I beg your pardon?”

Owen shrugged, hands spread. “What can you do?”

After a few seconds, she snorted out a huff of laughter, her face clearing. “I’ll bet you wouldn’t trade those girls for boys, either, even if you had the chance.”

“Of course not.” He smiled. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t hope their children put them through some of the things they put us through.”

They moved the last of the tree off the driveway, leaving only small debris that could be driven over easily.

“You all should come up to the house, get something to drink,” Byrdie suggested. “It might not be cold, but it will be wet.”

John grinned. “That sounds like a good—”

“Appreciate the offer, but we’ll head back over to John’s,” Owen told her with a smile as he clasped John’s shoulders from behind. “Maybe a rain check?”

John didn’t give up easily, though. He faked a cough. “Dad, I’m thirsty.”

Owen moved his arm to hold John in a loose headlock. Since he was standing behind him and slightly uphill, he held him easily. “You’ve teased your brother enough for now,” Ben heard him mutter. “If you’re good and go quietly, I’ll buy you ice cream.”

“I like ice cream,” Rick piped up with a wicked grin as everyone laughed.

“Fine, but I get sprinkles
and
whipped cream. Three scoops,” John said.

Byrdie, still chuckling at them, started toward her car. Owen stepped over to Ainsley and held out his hand. When she clasped it, he bowed over it.

“It was a pleasure. Let Ben know if you need anything else, and we’ll be here. You should come to dinner tomorrow at the farm. You and Byrdie.”

Ben barely kept from wincing when he saw the instant alarm that flared in Ainsley’s eyes at the offer. Her face flushed, and her discomfort spoke volumes.

“I appreciate the offer, but I have plans. Maybe another time?” she asked tentatively.

“Consider it a standing offer. Ben, we’ll see you at the house later?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Dad.” He gave Owen a one-armed hug as he passed.

After a little chaos and some more teasing, the men departed, leaving Ben and Ainsley standing at the back of Ben’s truck, looking everywhere except at each other.

“They’re nice, your family.” Her voice was soft, and her arms were crossed. “And you look just like your dad.”

“I’ve heard that a time or two,” he said with a small smile. “I guess I’d better head out. Will you and Byrdie be okay?”

She pushed back a loose strand of hair. “Yes. I’ll probably jump in the pool and get the worst of this off me, and then we’ll go into town or something.”

He checked again to make sure the tailgate was closed securely, even though he’d checked it twice already. “I guess I’ll see you around?”

“I hope so.” She bit her lip, then stepped up to him. Rising up on her tiptoes, she cupped his face with her hands and brushed her lips across his. Before he could grab her and pull her close for a longer kiss, she moved back. “See you soon?”

“If you want to.”

“I do.”

He nodded. “Then we will.” Touching her arm lightly, he went past her and got in the truck. He waved at Byrdie, who was waiting patiently in her car at the foot of the driveway. When he reached the main road, he headed toward the homeplace. He could use the time unloading the wood to think.

Ainsley’s reluctance to make their relationship known to his family gave him chills. He wanted desperately to believe this time was different, that she wasn’t just using him. But he knew his judgment where she was concerned was skewed. That was one of the reasons he was hoping she would say yes to his father’s invitation to dinner, so he could talk to them later about their impressions. He didn’t need their approval to have a relationship with her, but he was so confused. He didn’t want to reach out to her and risk getting his heart ripped out again if there was no chance she had strong feelings for him.

“You need to grow a pair and just ask her, Benjamin,” he told his reflection in the rearview mirror. “For God’s sake, you’re nearly twenty-five years old. It’s time to grow up.”

The thought of facing Ainsley and simply asking her the truth about how she felt and about why she’d left made his stomach clench. The last time he’d felt that particular sensation, he’d been standing in her living room, waiting for her mother to tell him where she was. He had no desire to repeat the experience, in any shape or form, but he had the feeling he was going to have to if he wanted answers.

Chapter Twenty-Three

A
gainst what was probably his better judgment, Ben went back to Ainsley’s Sunday evening. He spent the night and left her sleeping peacefully before the sun came up the next morning.

He had some hard decisions to make, and not a lot of time to make them. The clock was ticking. He would be living in Lexington for the next four years, and she would be just down the road. So it wasn’t as if they were going to be at opposite ends of the country. But his gut was telling him things would play out before she left.

By that Friday afternoon, he was a little closer to figuring out what to do than he had been. He’d spent every night that week with Ainsley, and the night before, a quietness had come over her as the evening wore on. She kept fidgeting on the couch as they played cards with Byrdie, causing the older woman to shoot her a concerned look.

“What’s wrong?”

Ainsley rubbed her arm and shrugged. “I’m okay.”

Byrdie raised an eyebrow. “Baby girl.”

She sighed. “I think it’s time to call Jonah.” The women exchanged a look Ben didn’t understand.

“Call Jonah why?” he asked quietly.

Ainsley’s face was red, and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Remember what I told you, about managing things after Mexico?”

It took him a few seconds to put two and two together. When he did, his own face grew hot. “Oh. Your period.”

“Yeah.”

Byrdie got up from her chair, mug in hand. “I need a refill. Do you want me to call him for you?” She stopped beside Ainsley and brushed her hair off her forehead with a motherly hand.

“Do you mind?”

“Of course not.”

“I’ll do it.”

“So how does this work?” Ben asked as Byrdie went into the kitchen. He held out his hand. When Ainsley took it, he used it to ease her into his arms, nestling her into his chest.

“It will probably start tomorrow or the next day. Then for four or five days, I’ll basically be incapacitated. I can’t drive, won’t leave the house. He’ll give me just enough medication to manage the pain and then wean me off as things taper down. The whole process takes about a week.”

“How can I help?”

She smiled up at him and touched his face. “You don’t have to do that.”

He drew in a deep, shaky breath. “I know. I want to.”

That night when they went to bed, he intended to only hold her. But Ainsley was having none of that.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

She kissed her way down his throat. “You won’t. I need this.” She took over after that, and he let her. When it was over, they clung to each other limply, damp from sweat and utterly sated.

The echoes of her soft laughter and the vision of her smiling as she teased him followed him into Friday. Since it was his last day working for Kyle, Ben dropped off the mowing equipment at the shop, then headed to the bank to cash his check. He got to the branch just before it closed and was the last one in line. A man he’d seen only once before, but recognized immediately, came up on the other side of the window. He spared a glance for Ben, but his attention was on the teller.

“Linda, did you get that report printed out for me?”

“Sure did. Here it is.” She handed him a file folder, and he thumbed through it. “Need anything else?”

“Nope, this is fine. Thanks.” He started to walk away, but Ben stopped him.

“Elliot, right? Ainsley’s cousin?”

He turned, his face rigid. “Yes. Have we met?”

Ben’s expression wasn’t pleasant, he knew. “A long time ago. Once was enough.”

A condescending smile crossed Elliot’s face. “I remember now. You were her ‘beau’ that summer. I thought you left town.”

“I finished college. Now I’m back.” The jackass didn’t need to know he would only be back for a few more weeks. “She told me the two of you weren’t on speaking terms.”

The teller passed Ben his receipt, looking at him nervously. “Do you need anything else, Mr. Campbell?”

“No. Thank you.”

Elliot’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve seen Ainsley? Actually talked to her?”

“I have.”

The other man gave a bark of laughter. “I’ll be damned. You’re seeing her again. After what she did to you, I must say, I’m surprised. Come on back to my office. I’d like to hear this.” He went to the gate that separated the reception area from the desks and unlocked it.

A whisper of foreboding teased Ben’s mind, but he went. He looked at Elliot’s expensive slacks and dress shirt, then his own dirty, worn jeans and T-shirt. He still had grass on his boots. “I’d hate to get your office dirty.” His tone told the other man he couldn’t care less about that, but he followed him.

“It’ll wash. You drink, Campbell?” Elliot asked as he closed the door behind Ben, then walked over to a small wet bar in the corner.

“Not today, thanks.”

“Well, I’m off the clock, so I’m going to have a little liquid libation. So how long have you been seeing my dear cuz?”

“We met again a couple of weeks ago. What did you mean out there? About what she did to me.”

Elliot eased into the plush leather chair behind his desk. He took a sip of the amber liquid he’d poured. “When she first started seeing you, all those years ago, I really thought she had feelings for you. Love and all that mushy shit women love to pour down our throats. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I realized just how devious she truly is. She’s her mother’s daughter, that’s for damned sure. Doesn’t it bother you that she used you as a stud and was going to use your child to secure another man’s future? Or is the sex just that good?”

Ben shook his head. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Ainsley. She used you to get pregnant.” He paused, the whiskey halfway to his mouth, and took in Ben’s expression. “My God. You didn’t know.”

Ben’s vision narrowed to Elliot’s face, everything else graying out. “What
precisely
are you talking about?” he ground out between clenched teeth, sitting forward.

Elliot set the glass down. Serious, he rubbed his jaw and gave a little shake of his head. “Man, I didn’t know you weren’t aware. I’m sorry.”

“If you don’t start talking and tell me what it is you thought I already knew, I’m going to come over there and rip your head off.” He rose, planting his hands on Elliot’s desk.

“I’m not going to tell you anything with you looming over me like some Neanderthal.”

Somehow, he managed to rein in his temper, and Ben sat. “Talk.”

“Aunt Geneva wanted Ainsley married to Doug Scott. So she made the arrangements. The marriage would be beneficial for both families. Auntie would get the prestige and financial boost she wanted, and the Scotts would be able to hide the truth about their faggot son from their friends. When you happened along, she and Ainsley saw their chance, and they took it. The Scotts were pretty happy just to have him married off to someone, but when Ainsley told them she was pregnant, that put a pretty little bow on the deal. Auntie crowed about that for weeks. Until Ainsley had to go and mess things up by losing the kid.” He finished the whiskey.

Ben’s heart was pounding. “You’re lying.”

“No. I’m not. I wish I was. I didn’t put it together until Ainsley quit drinking and the little perv was dying. He had AIDS, you know. When she told me he was gay, that’s when I put what they’d done together. Everything made sense then, her seeing you, insisting it was love. That’s what she had to tell herself, I’m sure. It isn’t like the two of you were a good match on paper. No offense.”

Ben thought there was a very real chance he was going to empty his stomach all over Elliot’s expensive rug. He didn’t remember coming to his feet. All he could feel was pressure on his chest and the churning in his stomach. Turning his back on Elliot, he left the bank without another word to anyone.

Ever since she’d told him about the miscarriage, something just hadn’t sat right. Some little part of his mind kept twitching—a niggling question that he couldn’t quite figure out. He realized now it had been the timeline of things. He’d put it together that Ainsley had to have gotten pregnant fairly quickly after leaving Hazard, but he’d guessed it had been a few months. Otherwise, her addiction and recovery story just didn’t make sense.

But all the puzzle pieces fit so well that it made his chest tighten with betrayal and grief. He thought back to when they were intimate the first time around, and how she’d used love and being on the pill as an excuse to not have to use condoms. He’d not had a second thought then, thinking that if she was the kind of woman who would deliberately get pregnant in order to trap a man, she would trap someone who wasn’t a rice-and-beans poor college student.

Now, he realized his sperm had been the commodity all along.

“Ben, you’ve got to be one of the stupidest men to ever walk the planet.”

He sat in his truck, trying desperately to figure out a way around what Elliot had said. He thought if he sat there long enough, he might be able to come up with a reason for her treachery. But did he really need to do that?

“No. No I don’t.”

He drove to her house. Two unfamiliar cars were parked in the driveway, but he didn’t stop to consider whom they might belong to. More angry than he’d ever been in his life, he stalked to the front door and rang the bell.

“I’ll just ask her,” he told himself as he waited for someone to answer. “I’ll ask her, and I’ll see it on her face. I’ll know. And then we’ll be done with this.”

John and Hershel had almost concluded their business with Ainsley when the doorbell rang. She’d called and asked if they could come to her for their scheduled meeting, as she was feeling a bit under the weather.

“I’ll get it,” Byrdie told them, leaving the dining room.

When his brother stormed in a few seconds later, fury etched in every line of his body, John rapidly came to his feet and went halfway around the table, stopping a few feet away from Ben. Ben didn’t even glance at him, just focused on Ainsley, who was still seated at the head of the table. His fists were clenched at his side, and he was breathing hard, as though he’d run up the hill. When he spoke, his voice was so rough, so full of pain, it hurt John just to hear it.

“Was it mine?”

“Ben, what’s going on here?” John took a step toward him, but Ben stopped him with a hate-filled glare. Hershel and Jonah, who’d also been seated, were on their feet. Hershel sent a concerned look to John, who gave a single shake of his head. The question hadn’t made any sense to John, either. Jonah and Byrdie, however, seemed to understand, if the dismay on their faces was anything to go on.

Ainsley started to stand. “Ben, let me explain—”

“
Was. It. Mine?
” He shoved John out of the way and moved closer to her, until only a few inches separated their faces. “When you left here and married another man, were you pregnant with my child?”

John wasn’t sure whose indrawn breath was the loudest. “Sweet Jesus,” he whispered.

Ainsley’s face was so pale that he thought she might pass out. A single tear tracked down her cheek, and she swallowed convulsively. He waited for her to deny the charge, but instead, she slowly nodded.

“Yes.”

Ben flinched as though she’d slapped him. “God
damn
you.” He whirled around and pushed past Jonah, then past Byrdie, and was out of the dining room before John could react.

“Shit. Ben, wait!” John ran after him. He caught up to his brother halfway across the front yard, on his way to the driveway. “Stop for a second, damn it.” John put his hand on Ben’s shoulder, then had to move quickly to duck the fist that came swinging.

“Don’t you touch me. Don’t any of you ever touch me.”

John got in front of Ben, his hands held up in supplication. “Okay. But you’re not getting in that truck. You can’t drive like this. I’ll take you wherever you want to go, but I’m not letting you get behind the wheel.”

Ben stopped walking, and for a few seconds, John thought he was going to rip him limb from limb. He’d never seen Ben this angry. Ever. He would have been perfectly happy to never see him that way again.

After a couple of seconds, his brother dug into his jeans and pulled out his keys. He threw them at John and then went around him to the passenger side of his truck.

Hershel had come out of the house behind them. John looked at him with an apology. “I have to go.”

“Don’t worry about it. Take care of your brother. Good luck.”