Love At Peace (Hometown Heartstrings #3)

Chapter 13

Heather

E ric was released the next day. His discharge information included a lot about staying hydrated, how to eat soft foods, and to keep his ankle elevated and iced.

I didn’t have to do much to get Eric settled. His house was on the bare side, with just the basic furniture and no clutter. It appeared to be a lived-in home, but with the ongoing projects everywhere, it was clearly a work in progress.

Once I got him onto his recliner, which he preferred to be able to watch TV and to get up easier with the footrest that could move, he sighed heavily like he just wanted to sleep again. So I let him nap. I went to the food mart to get soft and mostly liquid things to stock up in his fridge.

“Trying a new diet?” Ashley taunted when I checked out.

I stared at her, lacking the energy to waste on a reply for her.

She furrowed her brow, perhaps annoyed that I wasn’t engaging in her stupid routine of acting like we were still in high school.

Eric woke up when I came back to his place, and he seemed much more comfortable in his own home.

“I’ve got lots of things in the fridge and freezer. I got a lot of straws, too.” I snapped my fingers. “Oh, and I washed out the blender. I suspect it’ll get a lot of use.”

He nodded, seeming down. “I’m sorry, Heather,” he mumbled.

“For what?” I shrugged. It was just one day off of work. I felt like I wasn’t doing anything special.

“That I don’t know what happened. If I was near your ex’s place...” He sighed, readjusting the ice pack on his jaw. “Then it’s got to be something related to him.”

I was dying to know what had happened too. My worst suspicion was that David could’ve targeted him as a way to get to me. But that didn’t seem to make sense anymore. If he was sleeping with Nevaeh, he seemed to have moved on from me. Why would he try to do something to my cousin to attack or wound me if he was moving on to a new woman, a new prey?

“Do you remember approaching him?” I asked. “Before that day that you were there?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t remember any conversations with him. Or plans to see him. Or...” His brow was lined as he seemed to concentrate harder. Maybe he was taxing himself too hard.

“Don’t force it. It’ll come back to you,” I advised.

For the rest of the day, I stayed there to help him move with his ankle and get comfortable. He would be off from working at the ranch for the rest of the week, but I would be going back to the bank tomorrow.

It was a new companionship that we were forging, but it wasn’t altogether awkward. He didn’t talk much—both because his jaw was wounded and because he wasn’t talkative to begin with—and I didn’t try to stress him out with the expectation to talk or answer questions. I was itching to know what happened. If David had gone to Eric with ill intentions or if Eric had gone to him to defend my honor or stand up for me.

I didn’t need a hero. I didn’t want a man swooping in to be a knight in armor for me. Yet, I could see how my cousin would feel like he had to because he was family.

Still, I refrained from asking him about what happened that day.

Marty stopped by, just to check on Eric, but when he saw me there visiting, he didn’t push me to speak up about David. It felt like a ticking time bomb, with the cop and others wanting me to tell them about what my ex had done to me. But he didn’t put me on the spot.

Not yet.

The next day, when I went back to work at the bank, I tried to understand what David was doing and why. I couldn’t shake those thoughts and questions out of my mind.

If he was moving on to Nevaeh, what did that mean for me?

If he was content to find a new woman to control, could it really mean that I was free?

No. I doubt it.

When I arrived, Janelle greeted me warmly. She hadn’t changed her opinion of me despite the data being compromised on my laptop, and that mattered.

“I’m glad Eric’s all right at home.” She smiled after I caught her up. “And if you need to take a break and want to check on him, that’s no issue, Heather. Family first.” She smiled.

Family.

It was the first time I could accept hearing that word and not want to cringe. Being back in Burton threatened to make me relive the memories of my parents, but the longer I stayed, I was forming new memories to replace the old bad ones. Like rekindling, or kindling, a relationship with my cousin when he was hurt.

“Thanks, Janelle.”

“Before you head to your office, I want to remind you that the job is still an option.” She smiled softly. “It won’t be too soon. The transfer wouldn’t be until months from now. So I’m sure Eric would be recovered by then, but don’t forget about that position in Wisconsin Dells.”

I nodded, not sure what to say other than a mild thanks. I hadn’t forgotten about the job. Since I bluffed and told Roarke that I was taking this job, I neglected to think about it any further. Then with the news about Eric being missing, then hurt, I didn’t give it any consideration.

Now, though, with it on my mind, I had to wonder if I should go or stay. Eric wouldn’t “need” me here by then.

But would it even make sense to go?

One of the biggest reasons I would consider taking that job was to get away from David. He’d followed me to Burton all the way from Chicago, and it wouldn’t be a challenge for him to chase me down in Wisconsin Dells, either. A deep thread of fear would always reside in me that I would never be far enough away from him to be safe. That no location would ever be a safe haven where you couldn’t reach me or hunt me down.

Now that David would be connected to Nevaeh, would he care to expend all his energy on trying to control me? It was clear that he was getting in her head already. He had already convinced her that he could do no wrong. She defended him to Marty, claiming that her “boyfriend” wasn’t a bad guy.

There was no way to know what I should do. Nance and Fergus weren’t too helpful with advice either, and we talked about this job transfer when I went to her house for that raincheck of a movie night.

Much to her dismay, the internet stopped and we couldn’t continue streaming the movie. I felt lost though, so I didn’t mind. Fergus was vested though, wanting to complete the rewatch of the second Star Wars installment, which he believed was the best of the series.

“I hate this,” Nance said, giving up on getting the streaming service to work. “I miss the dial-up cable.”

“Eh, we’ll pick up on finishing it another day,” Fergus said. “Oh, we could have a movie marathon. Winter is perfect for those.”

“Yeah, don’t they usually have a marathon of these movies over Christmas?” I said.

Nance shrugged, frowning. “All this talk about you taking that job in Wisconsin has me thinking you won’t stay for long.”

“Janelle said the position wouldn’t actually be filled for months from now,” Fergus reminded her.

“But I don’t want you to go at all,” Nance said, imploring me with a sad face.

“I haven’t made my mind up,” I told them both as Fergus and I got our coats on to go. He’d walk me out so I wouldn’t be alone. Nance grabbed her coat too, to see us to our cars.

We walked out as a group, but even with them at my side, I tensed when a man walked up quickly and got in my face.

David ended his spell of hiding. He strode up to me, looking me directly in the eye. Fergus cut in front of me, and Nance tugged me back and kept me close. They both were aware of what David looked like, but even if they hadn’t he’d stalked up so quickly, cornering us near Nance’s garage, his approach would be threatening and predatory no matter who he was.

“Get back,” Fergus warned.

“What the hell do you want?” Nance demanded.

I stiffened, holding my breath at the sight of my controlling ex, but I fought not to be paralyzed in fear. I wasn’t alone. He couldn’t grab me and drag me away. His words couldn’t cut into me and make me think that he was right and that I had to do as he said. Nance and Fergus were right here with me. They’d hang on to my arms and keep me back. They’d call the cops. Nance was liable to call her gruff husband outside and scare David away. Fergus might be cocky and try to punch him.

“Oh, look at you,” he sneered, not flustered with my two new friends. “Acting like you got people who care about you here. Like you can ever be worthy of someone.”

“Shut up.” Nance stepped forward. “You shut the hell up right now, mister.”

David didn’t flinch. He didn’t even acknowledge her, taller than her by a whole head. Locking his gaze on me, he narrowed his eyes to achieve an even more hateful snarl. “You think—”

“Hey.” Fergus shoved hm back, forcing him to redirect his attention on him. “We don’t care what you think. Just get the fuck out of here.”

“You’re going to sic these losers on me,” David spat, shoving back at Fergus. “You think you can have these small-town idiots push me around? Huh?”

David took a menacing step toward Fergus, rearing his arm back, and Nance advanced. She elbowed him, hard, and he stepped back with a whoosh of an exhale.

“This is private property.”

She stepped forward again, forcing him back as he held his side.

“You’re trespassing.”

David shook his head, standing to his full height to look over Nance and Fergus to growl at me. “You’ll never be accepted, Heather. You’re a good-for-nothing bitch and you’re never going to be happy without me. You’ll never be worthy of anything unless you’re with me and—”

Nance screamed. She screamed with the force of all her lungs could hold.

I cringed at the piercing decibel, hunching my shoulders as she stood between me and David. Fergus nodded, smirking at him.

David shut up. He glowered at her, but as soon as she had to draw in a breath, he opened his mouth. “You—”

She did it again. Screaming with her mouth wide open, she basically called out an alarm. It worked as an effective distress call. And it shut him up. Porch lights flickered on. Front doors banged open as the neighbors all reacted.

Nance’s door opened too. Her husband, a big, burly, barrel-chested hulk of a trucker stepped out, gun in hand. “What the fuck? What the hell’s going on, Nance?”

David’s footsteps crunched on the gravel as he retreated. As soon as Nance’s husband stepped out fully, walking down the path, my ex turned and ran as fast as he could.

“Nance?” he called out.

She held up her hand, narrowing her eyes on David as he got smaller and smaller in the distance. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“What the hell was that screaming for?”

“Oh, some guy spooked me walking my friends to the car.”

I swallowed, willing my heart to slow down from the interaction. “All” David had done was harass me, but it was still enough to scare me. Any time I had to see him, I was thrust back into the feeling of being trapped.

“You sure?” her husband checked.

Fergus patted my back, looking back at their front porch where Nance’s husband stood with his gun, still frowning at us out here. “Yeah, we’re good. She sure was spooked.”

“Well, where’d this asshole go?” he asked.

“He ran off,” Nance replied. “He’s gone.”

Not really.

Nance didn’t tell her husband all that I was worried about. When we tried to watch the movie, he was upstairs sleeping. It seemed that she was still sticking with the promise not to tell anyone about my concerns with my ex being in town.

“You sure?” he checked again.

“Yes, hun. I’m sure. Go on back in. You don’t have a coat on.”

“You scared me screaming like that, and you worry about me wearing a damn coat,” he muttered as he went back inside.

“Thanks,” I told her once it was just the three of us again. The neighbors all retreated since they heard her telling her husband all was well.

“I told you. I got your back,” she replied.

“Want me to follow you home?” Fergus asked. “In case he thinks about bugging you again?”

I nodded, hating to count on help but growing to understand that it didn’t make me weaker. I was stronger with a little help from a friend.

It felt good to have their support. It wasn’t a trap to be helped. It wasn’t a system of obligations and expectations, that if they did something nice like standing up to David with me that I’d be forced into something else.

Fergus followed me home, and once we saw that the coast was clear to my cabin, I waved him off. His headlights bounced in the darkness, signaling his route back down the bumpy road.

Yet, I stood there, peering out the curtain of my front window.

Maybe I need to go after all. Just to get away—again.

The idea of running didn’t fill me with a false sense of hope this time.

It...disappointed me.

Nance and Fergus showed me just now how it wasn’t as difficult to face my enemy with them at my side.

I bet Gavin would do the same.

Todd had. He’d scared off David.

And Roarke. I knew that he would defend me too.

Relying on any of them wouldn’t be a recognition of cowardice.

But running might. Fleeing and getting out of Burton—again—might be a crystal clear sign of being the ultimate coward.

I’d run from David once.

To do so again would be selfish.

With a little backup from my friends, maybe it was time to be done with David for good. To stand up to him. For me to look him in the eye and tell him he can’t bother me anymore. For me to fight back.

Fight back how, though?

I let the curtain fall into place as I stepped back from the window.

There was no way to defeat him. No way to teach him a lesson. Not a chance that he’d pay for his behavior. He always got away with everything.

And knowing how low the odds were for me to fight and win , I wallowed in the hopelessness that had taken root in my soul.