Chapter 39
“This is illegal, you know!” Emma yelled through the iron railing; her cheek pressed against the cold metal as she strained to see someone. “I haven’t done anything wrong. You can’t keep me in here!”
“We all make mistakes, the sooner you admit it, the faster you can learn and grow.”
“Oh, shut up Jason.” Emma growled, refusing to turn around and face the sixteen-year-old boy lying down on the steel bed behind her.
“Denial is the first step to acceptance.” He went on. “The sooner you get there, the sooner this will be over for you.”
She scoffed. “I didn’t realize you were a modern-day Gandhi.”
“We are all Gandhi.”
Emma rolled her eyes, “For God’s sake, Jason. You’re still drunk from sneaking into your parent’s liquor cabinet! Just go to sleep so I can have some peace and quiet!”
“Oh no,” Jason groaned at the mention of his parents. “They’re going to be so mad at me when they find out what I did.”
As if her day couldn’t get worse. Jason dissolved into a fit of sobs as he lamented about all the bad decisions he’d made throughout the night, starting from his break-up with Mindy that led to his impromptu “bro” party, which he had hosted at his place since his parents had gone out of town to get groceries for the day. Five hours later, he’d been picked up by Dayna for streaking down Main St. at 1 in the morning in sub-zero weather.
“She’ll never take me back after this,” he said in between a hiccup-sob. “I’ve really messed up.”
Emma looked at the sixteen-year-old boy. “I have a feeling you’ll get over it.”
“Thanks, Emma. I don’t know how I would get through this without you.”
“Mmmhm.” She tried to swallow her exasperated sigh. Drunk teenage boys were the last thing she needed. She put her mouth to the gap in the bars again, “I know you guys can hear me! I want a lawyer! This is forced imprisonment! There are rules against this!”
Nobody replied, and she groaned against her palms. This was beyond ridiculous. She knew Hunter could be ruthless, but he had just taken it to a whole new level.
After handcuffing her and throwing her in the backset of his vehicle, she had kicked at the back of his seat and yelled until her throat went dry. He had simply turned up the volume on the AM radio that he was intensely listening to, drowning out the sound of her voice. Seemingly unaffected by the battering of her heels, he turned the car around and drove right back into town. After watching him, in shocked awe, as he called a tow-truck to pick up her jeep, she finally slumped back against the car seat in speechlessness.
When he brought her into the station, he had cited dangerous driving (manning a dangerous vehicle that was unfit for the road), driving with an expired license and going forty above the speed limit.
Which was all COMPLETELY ridiculous.
No amount of shouting and yelling and flailing around had made any impact. The officers simply looked at her with a bit of pity as she was escorted into a holding cell. An officer even had the audacity to look up from his desk and mouth ‘sorry’ as Officer Dayna took her in.
There was a plane ticket with her name on it, and she was sure Sarah was probably ringing her cellphone, wondering where the hell she had disappeared to. Giving up, she sat down on the bare bench near the bars and held her head in her hands.
This town was set on killing her. If not physically, then metaphorically for sure. First the townsfolk had tried to break her, then two men had literally tried to kill her for her inheritance, and now the law was keeping her hostage. She had literally waved a white flag, disclaiming that she was done – she couldn’t keep up with this place anymore.
Clearly that hadn’t been clear enough. This town wasn’t done with her yet. Or at least, one person wasn’t.
Hours ticked by. For the first two or three, Emma held out on some hope that she might be able to get out of here and catch her flight; there was still time. She could drive faster than the speed limit and find some shortcuts to make it to the airport. By hour four, she knew that she’d missed her flight. There was no way she would be able to make it now. She could almost hear the wheels as the plane veered off the runway and took flight. She wondered if Sarah would have boarded the flight; she hoped she did – it wouldn’t do to have both of them stranded in this godforsaken place.
On hour five, the door to the room housing the holding cell opened and an unnamed officer walked in, keys in hand. Emma shot up, ready to go.
“Your parents are here for you Jason.”
“What?!” Emma nearly shouted the word. “I’ve been here for hours, without reason!”
“Sorry Emma.” The officer clearly knew who she was. “Sheriff’s orders.”
“Bring that Sheriff in here!” Emma balked as Jason stood sleepily in response to the officer’s instruction. “What’s he so afraid of, anyway? He put me in here, he should have the nerve to face me.”
“Hope you get your anger issues under control, Emma.” Jason said as he passed. “It’s all about acceptance.”
“I. Do Not. Have. Anger. Issues!” Emma yelled as Jason was escorted out of the holding cell, the echo of her voice ricocheting off the walls as the door shut behind them.
Seething, Emma paced around the cell before finally taking a spot on the steel bed, where Jason had formerly taken space. She was going to pop a blood vessel before this day was over. It was either that or she was actually going to commit a crime, specifically: murder. And a very specific someone was on her mind.
She could not, for the life of her, understand why he was doing this. Was it out of spite? Did he feel as if he needed to get one last word in – a power move to show her who was boss? What man in his thirties went out of his way to complicate someone else’s life so wholly? It didn’t make sense to her, and it didn’t help that the more she pondered over it, the more she suffered flashbacks of seeing him naked, of her on top of her, and her on top of him. His skin on hers, his tongue in her, his…
Emma sighed heavily and rubbed her face to get the memories out her head. Ruminating over their past together would not help things. What she needed was to get out of here before time brought back more memories that would make this entire process considerably more difficult.
A bit more time passed, but after another consecutive hour in the holding cell, she stopped looking at the analog clock on the wall opposite her as it was too infuriating.
It was nearly noon when she heard the door open again, and she was about to leap to her feet to continue fighting when she heard a pair of hurried footsteps race inside, belonging to the one and only…
“EMMA!” Little Molly’s pigtails bobbed as she ran inside, a doll tucked under the crook of one of her arms. “Fancy seeing you here!”
“It’s a new saying she’s learned,” her dad was right behind her, and Emma felt her stomach squirm at the sight of Hunter’s brother. She would never get over how much he resembled his younger sibling. The same eyes, the dark hair, the tanned skin. “She’s watching some Pride and Prejudice with my wife.”
“I love Mr. Darcy!” She exclaimed, peering into the holding cell happily, giving Emma a toothy grin. “What about you, Emma?”
“He’s not so bad, I guess.” Emma looked warily between Molly and Ernie, trying to figure out what was going on. “Although, I may be off tall, brooding men for a while.”
“My dad said Uncle Hunter put you in here. What did you do?”
“You tell me, bud.”
“Yeah, about that. Sorry.” Ernie cringed, giving her a genuinely apologetic smile. “Hunter can be a bit… much sometimes.”
“You don’t say.” Emma said dryly, wondering what the hell she’d done to warrant a visit from Hunter’s family. “Any chance you could get me out of here?”
“Oh! Can we daddy?” Molly jumped at the thought, “Can we? Can we? Can we please?”
“I’m not sure you want to get involved in, er… adult matters, Molls.” Ernie reached into the bag he was carrying, “But, we do come bearing food. To make this a bit easier.”
Molly, momentarily forlorn at not receiving permission to free Emma, brightened up at the thought of giving her a gift and excitedly reached into the plastic bag to bring out sandwiches and a bottled smoothie.
Despite still wanting to run Hunter over with a truck, Emma didn’t have the heart to hurt Molly’s feelings. So, rather than rant about her infuriating uncle, she crouched down to Molly’s height and accepted the sandwiches and smoothie. “Thanks, this is very necessary.”
“Daddy said peanut butter doesn’t go with tuna, but I want you to know I really wanted to put some in there.”
Emma narrowed her eyes, “I hope you put it in there.”
Her eyes widened; her face serious. In a deadpan whisper, she said. “I did.”
Emma glanced briefly at Ernie who was looking even more apologetic than before. “Delicious.”
The two of them spent the next forty minutes eating and chatting aimlessly over Molly’s winter thus far; her first attempt at skating and playing hockey (which she adamantly has decided she hates, to the horror of her nation), her disgust of apples and love for cheese. She gave Emma an update on her baby brother, who was now crawling and putting her toys into his mouth (much to her mother’s dismay), and veered into dangerous territory talking about how Hunter had come over this morning acting all funny-like and bizarre.
“How was he acting all funny?”
“Uncle made me promise not to tell you.” Molly said matter-of-factly, her eyes wide again. “It’s a secret.”
Emma sighed, and took a resentful bite of her tuna and peanut butter sandwich.
They left after an hour, leaving Emma alone again. It was 1PM now, and she had spent the entire day in this godforsaken holding cell, and it seemed like nobody seemed to think it was anything unusual or out of the ordinary. A few officers came in to give her a bathroom break, and all seemed nonplussed by her irritation or anger.
It was at 3PM, after she had spent nearly 9 hours in the holding cell that Officer Dayna came in, keys in hand.
“Turns out there was a processing error – your license wasn’t expired, but your car’s been towed and is in the lot.”
If looks could kill, the police officer in front of her would be six feet under.
“Excuse me?”
She raised an eyebrow. “You wanna go or spend another hour in here?”
“I’m going to sue this entire station to the ground.” Emma muttered under her breath as she immediately stood up and followed the police officer out of the holding cell. She squinted at the sunlight in the station as she emerged into the main hall. The sun was high in the sky, but she could tell from the frost on the windows that the morning had turned into a chilly day. Her thoughts were confirmed as she glanced outside. The blades of grass emerging from the soil were tipped with a silvery whiteness, the bare branches of trees shaking in a chilly wind that rattled the panes of the station.
Emma ignored the stares from the officers in the station as she picked up her belongings: her purse, phone and wallet. Her suitcase and all of her clothes were in the trunk of her car, which was apparently back in the pound.
She clenched and unclenched her fists. Maybe Jason did have a point; anger management classes would come in handy at a time like this.
Expecting to walk all the way to the pound, she was surprised to see Kat standing outside.
“I thought you might need a ride,” she said before Kat could speak.
“No kidding,” Emma muttered, sighing as she gave Kat a quick hug. “I think this entire town is on drugs.”
Kat laughed. “There’s definitely something in the water. The long winter is my guess.”
“How did you find out I was here?”
“The news is kind of all over town. There’s even a bet going on at the bar. Don’t look at me – Nick started it. Half the towns betting you’ll run Hunter over with a jeep. The other half think he’s going to get the hell out of dodge before you get the chance to. I think people are generally rooting for you, though. At least, that’s where I’ve put my money so you better not let me down.”
Emma narrowed her eyebrows, unused to the support. “Why?”
“What do you mean why?”
“Why do they like me all of a sudden?”
“Hon,” Kat stopped dead in her tracks and stared at her. “You’ve been through hell and high water. I think you’ve earned your spot at the bar.”
Emma pondered over her words as they walked to her car. Not that she cared, but she had to admit, Kat’s words felt like a soothing balm to her battered heart. It felt nice to have earned your spot, and to have proven so many people wrong. She had spent so much of her life simply getting through the day, surviving from one day to the next. She had evaded confrontation, had placated her mother when she was sad, had avoided her father. This time, she had fought – and she felt stronger for it.
Although, why did it feel like she was still in the middle of a battle?
“Have you talked to him?”
“Who?”
Emma gave Kat a knowing glance. “Oh, you know who.”
Kat laughed. “Girl, I am staying so far out of this – I’m barely even here.”
Emma hissed through her teeth. Why was everyone protecting him!?
It was reassuring to know that Clayton was well behind bars when she arrived at the auto-shop. Her car was sitting there, and she had an unsettling feeling of deja-vu when she stepped out of Kat’s car. The auto repair shop sure looked the same, with its rusting iron gates, blue walls and red sign. She remembered how out of place and unsure of herself she’d been when she’d first arrived in Harbordale. So much had changed in such little time.
Clayton’s father was absent, understandably so. All the mechanics and repairmen stared at her blankly as she approached her jeep.
She looked around at the group of men. “Where are my keys?”
A stunned lad, probably around her age, jumped to his feet and scurried over. He handed the keys over without a word.
“I’m not paying another dime for this car to be repaired. It was perfectly fine when I picked it up. You hear me?”
Emma could hear Kat stifle a giggle as the men awkwardly nodded in their compliance. Without another word, she jumped into the passenger seat of the car and revved up her engine.
Next stop.
Hunter’s.
x.x
She arrived within ten minutes. And in those ten minutes, she had gone over a thousand different ways this would end up. She could probably move fast enough to stab him in the arm, although she wasn’t particularly looking forward to spending another night in that holding cell so maybe she would go the arson route. There was extra gasoline in the trunk of her car. People would understand if she simply doused his truck in oil and set it aflame. Right?
She knew he was home from the sight of his car in the driveway, and she made no effort to hide her approach. She roared the engine loudly as she drove up, braked sharply, and slammed the door of her jeep shut as she hopped out of her car.
He had hell to pay. And he would, if it was the last thing she did in this town.
“Hunter!” She called out as she stomped to his front door. She tried the handle. Locked.
Not a problem. She knew this house inside and out. She went around the back to the garage and punched in the number code for the gate.
It flashed red.
He’d changed it!
“Hunter, I know you know I’m here!”
Blood racing, she went around the back to his backyard which she knew had no lock of any kind. Once there, she found a hefty rock under a tree and lugged it back to the front of the house.
Sweating from the effort, she took in one deep breath as she lifted it above her head and swung as hard as she could.
The window to his living room crashed in an instant, and she flinched as shard of glass rained around her.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Satisfied with her break and entry, she gingerly walked over the glass and hoisted herself over the window and into his living room.
She froze. The man in question was right there in front of her, walking down the stairs at having heard the sound of his windows shattering. His hair was tousled, as if he hadn’t combed it at all throughout the day, and his five-o-clock shadow was more like a two-day shadow. His eyes were tired, his shirt rumpled, his jeans the same ones he had worn the day before.
He glanced at Emma, the glass, at Emma, and back at the glass. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Emma. A bit dramatic, isn’t it? What happened to ringing the doorbell?”
“Me? Dramatic?!” She felt livid. “You’ve had me locked in jail for 9 hours!”
He rolled his eyes, “Oh come on. It wasn’t jail. You were at the station. I know Molly brought you lunch.”
She was livid. “It was a peanut butter and tuna sandwich.”
He cringed. “Sorry about that.”
This was not how she had expected this conversation to go. Of all the scenarios she had run through her mind, this was not one of them. “Is that all you’re sorry for?”
He glanced towards the window as he put down a stack of clothes he was carrying onto the couch. “Well, I’m sorry that I’ve got to replace my living room window. You know that’s an actual felony, right? Breaking and entering, and property damage.”
That was it.
Emma had had enough.
Looking around, she picked up an item closest to her. Clearly Hunter had gone shopping, as there was a stack of toilet paper in bags by the door. She took the roll on the top of the pile and hurled it at him.
He laughed as the first one hit his arm and dissolved into more laughter as she continued to catapult toiler paper rolls onto his body.
“This. Is. Not. Funny!” Emma grunted through gritted teeth as she moved onto a pillow that was stuffed into a suitcase. He caught the pillow as she threw it at him, grinning. “Wipe that smile off your face! I spent six hours listening to Jason whatever his last name is, crying about his ex-girlfriend Mindy and wasting his dad’s vodka.”
“Now that I couldn’t control.”
“You are infuriating!” She moved onto a tissue box, which landed promptly on his chest. “I missed my flight.”
She threw a towel at him next, followed by more laundry, more cushions, and a tennis ball that he promptly caught in his hand.
She wasn’t aware when, but at some point during her assault of him, he had begun to approach her. She was still searching for something to throw when he caught her arms in his hands and held them against her body.
“I get it. You’re mad at me.”
“Mad doesn’t begin to cut it.” She growled, struggling against his hold. “I’m furious. I’m-.”
He swallowed the remainder of her words with a kiss.
Emma was so caught off guard that she simply inhaled sharply as his lips caught hers and found herself staring at his closed eyes as his arms enveloped her body. Her body softened against her will, what little of there was left the moment his lips touched hers. His scent, of pine and cedar drugged her senses, and goosebumps spread across her arms as he palmed her back to bring her closer to his body.
It was when she realized how much she had missed this, yearned for this, that she snapped back to her sense. With a startling jump, she lay her palms flat on his chest and him away. “You shouldn’t do that. You know how I feel.”
For a moment he looked bereft, as if stricken. And then he straightened, his chest deflating as he exhaled. “I know.”
“So you can’t play with me like this.”
“I agree.”
“It’s not fair to you, but it’s especially not fair to me.” Emma cleared her throat as she heard it falter. She didn’t want to cry in front of him. He had hurt her enough.
“I’m not arguing with you here.”
She realized then that he wasn’t, and that he had acquiesced to every point that she had made. “Then what do you want from me? Why am I here, Hunter?”
His jaw clenched, in the way that she knew so well, meaning that he was stressed, anxious, overwhelmed – possibly all of the above. He let out another small exhale, and brushed a hand through his tousled, already messy, hair. “I don’t want to let you go.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t want to let you go.” He repeated, as if that would clarify things. “You’re wrong for me in every way possible. You’re unpredictable, you’re loud, you can’t take no for an answer, you’re argumentative, and infuriating in so many ways. You’ve been a pain in my side since day one.”
Gee, thanks…Emma thought, unable to find her voice in response.
To her benefit, Hunter went on. “But you’re also hilarious. And compassionate. Determined. Steadfast in your beliefs, and kind to people who don’t deserve it. You don’t give up, even when life gets hard, and your resilience has no match. And I haven’t been able to get you out of my head from the moment you showed up at my door in four in the morning a few months ago. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
Emma was starting to feel her anger ebb way, replaced with a whole new whirl of emotions that she couldn’t place. “Why are you saying this?”
“Because for the longest time, I’ve been trying to convince myself to let you go because I shouldn’t be feeling this way about someone so different from me. And I knew whatever we had always had an expiry date. You were never going to stay here. But I’m tired of fighting it. I’ve stayed away for the past month and I’ve been miserable.”
Emma found that she couldn’t breathe. “Fighting what?”
“How I feel for you,” he looked at her sheepishly, but his eyes burned. “I’ve lost sleep over it. I know I’m older than you. I’m not as ‘hip’ as you twenty-something these days, so maybe this isn’t the ‘cool’ way to do things…but i…”
The pause was so long, that it felt as if time had frozen.
“I’ve fallen in love with you. You make me happy. I’m a better man around you, and I want to do better when I’m around you. You’re intoxicating, and I just… want more. And that’s why I couldn’t let you leave. I had to let you know before you left.”
Emma found herself completely frozen in place, her ears burning. In fact, her entire body was burning. Her cheeks were flushed, the back of her neck red, and her eyes were locked onto Hunter.
Finally, she let herself breathe. “So you locked me in a prison cell for nine hours? Normal people don’t do that, Hunter!”
He folded his arms, “I needed time to get things ready.”
Again, Emma was flabbergasted. “Ready for what?!”
“To pack up my things.”
Emma cocked her head to the side. “Enlighten me?”
“Well, I can’t make you stay. But I thought…” he shrugged as if to act nonchalant, but she could tell he was nervous. “Maybe I could come with you. I still need to put in a notice at work and find a way to get my affairs in order here but -.” Hunter stopped, suddenly distraught. “Why the hell are you crying?”
Emma hadn’t realized that she was, in fact, crying. But she was, and the tears had turned into sobs. Sitting down on the same couch that she’d slept in on her first night in Harbordale, she looked around at the errant boxes around the living room. Now she understood why there were random bags of household items packed up haphazardly around the living room, clothes strewn in suitcases, and shoes packed up in containers.
In between a hiccup, she said. “You would leave Harbordale for me?”
Hunter said down beside her, enveloping her in his arms to draw her closer. “Yeah. Is that crazy? I feel crazy.”
“I feel crazy too,” she half laughed-cried into his chest. “Crazy about you too. Really crazy.”
He laughed into her ear. “Well, I think that makes us a perfect pair.”
“I thought you didn’t care about me.”
He lifted her chin to make her look at him. His eyes were soft, the laugh-lines around his temples deepening as he gazed down at her. “I’m sorry it took me some time to figure myself out. When I thought I had lost you in those waters, I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do with myself. And then when I realized you were safe, and would be leaving me anyway…”
Emma sniffed, wiping away her tears. It felt so right being here, in his living room, in his arms. So much so, that these silly tears of joy wouldn’t stop falling down her cheeks. “I know that I can be stubborn too. I don’t think I made things easy on you.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“But you shouldn’t have locked me in jail for 9 hours.”
“It wasn’t jail.”
“It felt like jail.”
“You’re being overdramatic.”
“Hunter, don’t argue with me. Not now.”
“I’m trying, but you’re not making it easy.”
“Sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. For not getting down to this sooner.”
He lifted her chin again and gave her one of those soul-crushing kisses that she loved. She melted into his arms once again, her skin feeling flush and warm for a whole other set of reasons now.
Muttering obscenities under his breath, he pulled her onto his lap, and deepened the kiss. Everything Emma had prepared in her mind, of things she wanted to say to Hunter, and ask him, disappeared from her mind. All she could think about was him, them, and the kiss.
As he tossed her onto her back to settle over her, his hips heavy on hers, she knew that they wouldn’t be leaving that couch for quite some time yet.