River Lane

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Garret

Jared knew that Nayvee and Garrett had fought at their last rodeo and was good enough to not ask questions when Garrett asked to fill her bedroom with the flowers. It was Jared’s idea for him to stay on the ranch until she talked to him. Garrett sat the house for a while to see if she would come downstairs. After a few hours of not seeing her, he was starting to worry if she would ever come down. He had a nervous habit of tapping his fingers and Claire had picked up on it.

“Don’t worry. She has to come down at some point in time. She will just have to adjust to the fact that she has to face you and she won’t be able to do that civilly without talking about things.”  It was about a half an hour after that when Allie showed up. She walked in through the door and her gaze zoned in on him. The look on her face read ‘we will talk about what happened later’, but she didn’t say anything out loud.

“So where are you girls going tonight,” Jared asked, noticing that she had cleaned up.

“We were just going to go hang out for a while. Nayvee needs a night out and we’ve been making plans for a week or two. I guess she thought tonight would be a good time to sneak away.”

Just then they heard her running down the stairs. Garrett’s heart started beating faster and then went into super speed mode when she walked into the room. Well, through the room. She didn’t even stop to acknowledge him or say anything. She said goodbye to Claire and Jared as she was walking past, walked straight through the door, and out to Allies car. Garrett gave them about thirty seconds before he stood up and walked out right behind them.

He picked up Trevin in town and found the girls at the local bar. Neither Nayvee nor Allie were twenty one yet, but the local bar had a dance floor in it, and as long as the customers weren’t drinking their booze they were lenient about letting them dance. As soon as he walked through the door and found her, he knew that she’d had a few drinks before she ever entered the bar.

He could see a small group of girls, dancing on the floor to some hip hop song that wasn’t very appealing to him, but they seemed to be enjoying it. He spotted her in an instant. She was wearing a short Levi skirt, tall cowboy boots, a white tank top and her brown felt cowboy hat over her long curly hair. There was only one time that she had ever looked better to him.

Trevin grabbed them a couple of beers while Garrett decided what to do next. She didn’t seem to notice that they were there yet. He was trying to stay back in the crowd but when she started to slow dance with another guy, it lasted about twenty seconds before Garrett cut in. It happened so fast she barely registered what happened before he had his hands around her waist in a grip she couldn’t get away from without making a scene. He knew she wouldn’t do it because then word would get back to her aunt and uncle. She danced with him for a minute without saying a thing, looking over his shoulder with a dark glare on her face. He had to break the silence.  

“Will you please talk to me now?”

“No. We have about forty five seconds before this song changes and I can dance with somebody else.”

“Maybe I’m not going to let you go dance with somebody else. I did tell you that I couldn’t stand to see anyone else touch you,” he said trying to make her smile. Her face didn’t change even a fraction. She wouldn’t even look at him. It was starting to dawn on him  just how bad he had screwed up and how much effort it was going to take to fix things. She turned to walk away and Garrett pulled her back to him even closer. Leaning his forehead against hers and closing his eyes he whispered, “Please just dance with me”. She put her hand on his cheek and gently pushed his face back. She rubbed her thumb across it, before dropping her hand and walking away.

Garrett stood there comprehending for a second, before walking back to his seat. He felt bad for about thirty seconds, before jealousy started taking over as he noticed she hadn’t even made it back to her friends before someone caught her to go dance with them.

“I’m going to need another beer.”

He was determined to stay there the rest of the night, as long as she was still there. He wasn’t about to let her out of his sight. She had too many other guys ogling at her as bad as he was. She refused to let him dance with her again, though he tried many times. He eventually settled on drinking his beer and watching her. Making sure nobody got too close or that she didn’t do anything stupid. It didn’t take long for her to get tired of the place and leave.

 

      Nayvee

            After Allie had dropped me off I put my hat on the railing and walked straight out to the barn. I was so frustrated that I couldn’t bear going in the house yet, and knew that if I didn’t calm down I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I was filling up a bucket of water when he came walking in the barn.

            “Oh my hell Garrett! Can you not give me like a ten minute break away from you tonight?” I was so mad that I couldn’t help but yell. I picked up my bucket and started walking toward Tequila. When I heard his footsteps following me, I did the first thing that came to mind. I threw the water at him.

            The expression on his face was so priceless that it was all I could do not to laugh. I began walking back to get more water, when I tripped, slid in the mud, and fell directly into him, knocking us both into the mud that I had just created.

            “Doesn’t it seem like we were in this situation once before?” I ignored him and tried to get up. I had hardly any mud on me and I was trying to keep it that way. I didn’t care how muddy he was. Unfortunately he didn’t think along the same lines as me. He rolled over, pushing me into the mud and pinning my arms to prevent me from getting up.

            “Nayvee you have GOT to talk to me. I have tried calling you ever since you left me standing in that arena and you never answered my calls. I showed up on your doorstep practically pleading with you to listen. I followed you to a bar and spent my whole night trying to keep all the damn perverts in the place from touching you. I’m not letting this be an option anymore.” I looked around for an escape route but soon came to the conclusion I really didn’t have much choice. He continued with his rant.

            “That hussy is not my girlfriend, nor was she ever. The whole time that I was on the road, I drove the other guys nuts with the fact that I would not go chase buckle bunnies with them. You want to know why? Because I was busy pouting over you. They found a girl that had already been around the block with each of them, and tried to give me a fun night. Needless to say I turned her down, which has never happened to her before and she has followed me ever since. I swear to you Nayvee, nothing ever happened between me and Joanie and nothing ever will. Please believe me.” I was so caught up in his words; I didn’t even realize he was stroking my mud-soaked hair.  I wanted nothing more than to forgive him, but I just wasn’t ready to let it go

            “Why did I see you with your arms around her at the fire that night?”

            “Because I knew that you were there, and to be honest I was trying to push you out of my mind still and I was having a hard time with it on my own. But nothing happened.” Without giving me a chance to object again, he leaned down and kissed me. I kissed him back for a minute before thinking better of it. I pulled away from him, stood up, and ran away. This time he didn’t follow.

            Standing in the hot shower, I tried to clear my head. I didn’t know if he was playing a foolish game, or if I was. I knew I was being unfair to Pace, but I wanted nothing more than to be with Garret. Yet now I wasn’t sure how much I trusted him anymore.