Wrapped around your finger - Post Malone

61

"Oh! This is all wrong! I am sorry, I should not be the one shouting. You have been through the wringer in the last few days...weeks, and now I am shouting at you. You should be shouting at me."

"I don't shout."

"What?! You shout!"

"I'll rephrase. I don't shout at you."

Hazel opens her mouth to disagree, but then she closes it again. She can't remember an incident that he shouted at her. He always just stands there staring at her like a crazy woman when she throws a tantrum and then speaks to her like one would on a lazy Sunday afternoon. He is never in a hurry with his words. She is deep in thought and doesn't realize that he has picked up her shirt and is dressing her like a toddler. "Ha! You shouted when the suited men came the first time. You shouted at me," she says. "I did not shout, I was mad at as hell but I did not shout," he says turning to get himself dressed. He is right. "What about when I dig my nails into you?" she asks, "you shout then," she adds. "No, ma'am, I scream in pain...I will clip them as you sleep one day," he says pulling up his jeans and doing up the button. It's true, through everything, even when he found out what she did - he has never shouted at her. She has seen him shout and even throw a tantrum with others but never her.

"Why? Why have you never shouted at me?"

"Do you want me to shout at you?"

"Austin, you are talking in circles again."

Austin puts his hands on his hips and drops his head with a shake and a deep sigh. She pisses him off, she knows, he is a man of few words. He is not good at explaining his feelings - he is black and white with his words and sometimes she feels she needs a dictionary when he talks. But he is trying - for her he is trying to open his mouth and speak more words. She suspects that she will have to interpret him to a lot of people over the years to come, but she doesn't mind. She does not mind being the only one to understand him...as long as he fucking tries to explain his feelings to her. He sighs again and she waits patiently for him to speak.

"It ain't right that a man shouts at the woman he loves."

"You have never shouted at me - that means you loved me from the second you met me."

"Aye."

"Oh...oh...what?...oh...ok then."

He gives her a pointed look then walks over to the window and looks out. "Evelyn is walking up the ranch road...you have some explainin' to do. Ma'am," he says. Hazel grabs her stomach and her chest burns. She can feel the tears sting her eyes. "Does she hate me? Is she angry?" she asks with a small voice. "That girl is wiser than any man I know. How she feels is between you and her...best not drag this out," he says kissing her forehead. "Off with ya," he adds and opens the bedroom door. Hazel walks down to the kitchen steps and sits down, she would stand but her legs feel like jelly. She knows her fate lies with Evelyn now. She watches as Evelyn walks through the ranch house gates and then stops in the exact spot Hazel had buried her heart. They look at each other - Evelyn looks as if she is a little unsure that Hazel is real.

"How was school?"

"It's a crime, puttin' children in boxes with windows while the sun is high and ranches need tendin'."

"Maybe so, but a good rancher works her land hard and has the brains to know how to profit off it."

"True...but...I am also just a girl...still young. Sometimes I don't want to be a rancher or a schoolgirl. Sometimes I just want to be young and wrapped up in my mama's arms."

Hazel bites her lips and her chest feels like it just might burst as she blinks furiously at the tears that threaten. She takes a deep breath and swallows the lump in her throat. She has something to say and she needs to make sure Evelyn hears every word.

"I may not be your mama...but I love you like one. I want you...so desperately it burns my soul. There is no value in life without you Evelyn and even though it took me ten years to find you or even know you existed I have enough sense to know in my heart that I was always searching for you. I loved you before I knew of you. Do you know what your name means?"

Evelyn shakes her head.

"It means desired child, an island in the water, life, little bird, strength, and wished for. You are all of those things to me. It also means, strangely enough, Hazelnut. So I think in some crazy way we were always meant to be for each other, connected by the names the two people we loved the most in this world gave us."

Evelyn doesn't wait for Hazel's words to settle before she bolts forward and flings herself into Hazel's arms. Hazel catches her and holds onto her as tightly as she can. She will never let her go, she meant every word and nothing in the world will change that.

Hazel lifts her head when she hears the rumble of trucks coming up the ranch road. There must be at least fifty trucks and about a hundred men and women on horseback, they cause a dust cloud as they come up the road that billows into the air above Cottonwood. She hears the kitchen door open and then Austin walks out and stands beside her on the kitchen steps. She and Evelyn both wipe their cheeks and stand up, but stay close to Austin.

"The whole town is here," Evelyn whispers.