Ties that Bind (Sunshine & Shadow Book 3) (4 page)

     The plane ride felt long, too long. April had
nothing to focus on for the three boring hours except the nagging feeling in
the pit of her stomach, the deceit, the betrayal, the heartbreak. She blocked
Lex’s number after he called her for the fourth time. She couldn’t speak to
him. She couldn’t hear his voice. She had given everything to Lex, trusted him
absolutely, given him her heart to protect. And he had stepped on it, crushed
it underneath his lying, cheating feet. She hated him. Deep in her heart she
hated him more than she had ever hated anybody. And she hated herself. Because
she’d been right about him all along. She convinced herself that he had
changed, that he was a good man deep inside, that he just needed to be with the
right person, and she had been wrong.

     He was not a good man.

     He didn’t need the right person.

     Because he already had the right person. The
person who was perfect for him. The person who was now pregnant with his child.

     As the plane touched down at Vancouver airport,
April let out a deep breath. She hadn’t told anyone she was coming home. No-one
knew where she was, or what she was doing. It was a good feeling to be alone.

     The airport was crowded. She maneuvered her way
between the tourists and returning citizens with ease, grabbing her suitcase in
record time and rushing to the greyhound desk to get a bus ticket.

     “You’re lucky,” the woman said. “There’s a bus
leaving in fifteen minutes from Bay C. If you hurry, you can make it.”

     April paid and took off. She heaved her bag
higher up her shoulder and ran, shoving bodies and luggage out of her way,
refusing to be slowed down by anything. She had to get home.

     She spotted the bus just as it was closing its
doors. She put on a burst of speed and caught up to it, pulling slowly out of
the bay. She banged her fist on the door and the driver stopped.

     “What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying
to get yourself killed?”

     “Please,” April said, struggling with her breath.

     She handed the ticket to the driver and he
grumbled but let her on. She slid into a seat by the window.

     The ranch was eight hours away from Vancouver
International Airport. April tried to sleep most of the way. Her dreams were
interrupted, broken by every bump in the road, or squeal of the bus brakes.

     Halfway through the trip, she called the ranch.

     “Good afternoon, Blue Haven Cattle Company, Adam
speaking.”

     “Adam, hey, it’s April.”

     “April! Hey! What’s up?”

     “This is kinda unexpected, but I’m on my way to
100 Mile.”

     “What? Why?”

     “Long story. Any chance you could send someone to
pick me up in two hours?”

     “Yeah, I’ll get your mom. Everyone else is out.”

     “Thanks Adam. See ya soon.” April hung up the
phone.

     She was impatient to get home, impatient to forget
that the last few months had ever happened. She put her headphones in her ears
and closed her eyes, wishing the twisting in her stomach would cease.

     Finally they were pulling into the 100 Mile House
Greyhound station.

     Grabbing her bags from the compartment under the
bus, April spotted the Blue Haven truck at the far side of the parking lot.    

     As she walked to the vehicle, she pulled her
jacket tighter around her. British Columbia in early December was a lot colder
than California.

     Home.

     The place you’re supposed to feel the most
comfortable, relaxed. Safe.

     But April felt nothing. It was like returning to
a strangers place. Not the place she had grown up in, the place she had lived
for twenty-two years. When she had come back from university, she had felt
relieved, so happy to be home. Because back then, Blue Haven was her home.

     Now, she felt different.

     Her mom had been overjoyed to have her back, seeming
only slightly surprised at her reason for returning. Apparently everyone had
seen it before she had, the attraction that hadn’t seemed to make sense. They
had all known he was a liar, and no-one had told her. They had just waited for
her to find out on her own. April wasn’t sure if she was grateful or
disappointed about that. If someone had told her, she could have saved herself
a lot of heartache. But would she have listened?

     Blue Haven was covered in a white blanket when
April’s mom pulled the truck into the driveway. The sky was blue with minimal
clouds and there was a nice soft breeze making a whistling sound as it blew
through the bare trees. That was one thing April definitely hadn’t missed in
L.A.; the cold. She pulled on her winter jacket and headed straight to the barn
after throwing her bags in her room.

     The barn doors were frozen to the ground and it
took a minute to yank them loose. April grunted, noticing how much muscle tone
she had lost while being in the city. Getting acclimatized to being back in the
country would be that much harder.

     Since she was a little girl, April’s favorite
thing in the world was the smell of horses, and she was greeted with that exact
scent as she entered the barn.

     “Where’s my boy?” she called out.

     She heard a nicker and then footfalls on dirt.
Chinook stuck his head over the stall door at the far end, breathing hard,
scenting the air. April cooed to him and he nickered again.

     “Hey, buddy.” Her eyes filled with tears.

     The big horse put his head in her arms and let
her cradle him. He softly snorted against her coat, closing his eyes as she
rubbed behind his ears. His winter hair made him fluffy and she buried her
fingers in the warmth.

     “April?” She heard her dad’s voice.

     “In here, dad.”

     Her dad half-ran around the corner, rushing to
her when their eyes met. He picked her up and swung her around in a hard hug.

     “How the hell are ya, pumpkin?”

     He looked into her eyes, placing his hands on her
shoulders, “Your mom told me a bit about what’s going on, so let’s go inside
and get a hot cup of coffee and you can tell me all about it.”

     April nodded. She felt a lot safer around her
dad. Wandering to the house, braced against the chill carried in the brisk
wind, April wondered where everyone else was. She heard hoof beats coming up
the driveway, fast.

     Kip rode up on Charger, the horse’s thick winter
coat dripping with sweat.

     “April!” he shouted, jumping off and running to
her.

     Like her father, Kip picked her up off the ground
and swung her around, squeezing her against his chest tightly.

     “Hey,” April said, laughing.

     Her dad headed inside. “I’ll put the coffee on.
Come in when you’re ready,” he said over his shoulder.

     “Adam radioed me. I was all the way over the ridge.
Galloped pretty much the whole way back.” Kip’s eyes were dancing.

     “Poor Charger,” April said, stroking the horse’s
face and following Kip into the barn.

     Out of the wind, she slipped off her gloves. Kip
noticed her chewed nails.

     “You chewing your nails again? You only do that
when you’re super stressed out.” He unbridled the horse and began undoing the
latigo on his saddle. “Wait, why are you even back? I thought you were super
busy with the movie and…Lex.”

     April noticed his hesitation. She said, “I quit.
Lex…wasn’t right for me. He wasn’t the person I thought he was.”

     Kip’s fists clenched around the leather strap. “What
did he do?”

     “His relationship with Violet just sort of…got in
the way. Look, please don’t worry about it. I’m here now.”

     He smiled at her. “You are. And in time, too.”

     “In time for what?”

     “Debbie’s winter solstice party on the twenty-first.”

     “Oh right, I totally forgot about that.”

     “We haven’t missed a year since I started working
here five years ago. And it just didn’t seem right to go without you. Now I
won’t have to!”

     April smiled. She wasn’t sure a party was what
she needed. But as it was tradition, and for Kip’s sake, she would try to enjoy
it. She had a few weeks to get back into life on the ranch before the party
anyway, and she hoped when the time came she would be acclimatized enough to
relax and have fun with her friends.

     Kip made her life easier. He was by her side
nearly twenty-four seven. April worried it would become annoying, having him as
her constant shadow, but the company turned out to be nice. It reminded her of
being in the city, where one was never really alone. They chatted about life and
the way the summer season at Blue Haven had gone. Kip graciously avoided any
Lex talk.  

     Chinook was also happy to see her, and the pair
enjoyed the snowy mountains together almost every day. April had missed riding
her horse. He seemed to read her mind; they were so in sync. Chinook was the only
horse she could truly relax on, because she knew without a doubt that he would
take care of her in any situation. They were bonded.

     For April, getting used to the quiet again was
the hardest part of moving back to the ranch. She couldn’t hear traffic, or
people, which had become a comforting white noise while living in the city. It
was too quiet here, missing something.

     The night of the solstice party was snowy. Heavy
flakes fell down from the sky, adding to the already-thick blanket that seemed
to cover the world. The light from the house cast colorful rainbows onto the
white canvas, untouched as of yet because no-one wanted to leave the house
until they absolutely had to.

     April got ready in her room, straightening her
wavy hair and pinning it back, so that it wouldn’t fall into her eyes. She had
become accustomed to wearing makeup in the last few months, and tonight she
wore basic mascara and eye liner, with some clear lip gloss. She looked at
herself in the mirror one last time, tucked a flyaway hair behind her ear and practiced
her false smile.

     Downstairs, Kip waited for her.

     “Where’s everyone else?” she asked.

     “Just headed out. We’re taking my truck, that way
I can bring you home if you want to leave early.”

     April looked at him, slightly shocked.

     “I know you’re not exactly excited about
tonight,” he said. “So I figured this way, as soon as you’re ready, we can come
home.”

     “Thanks.”

     “You ready?”

     April nodded, following Kip to the door, trying
to find the strength to be excited about the party. They ducked their heads,
hurried through the snow and jumped in the truck, leaving the second set of
tire marks in the clean snow as they left the ranch.

     The solstice party was an annual affair. Half the
town was usually there, each bringing appetizers and good cheer.

     Debbie Freeman lived closer to town, on a small
hobby farm set on six acres. She was a middle-aged woman with a welcoming smile
and warm eyes. April liked her very much. She would often ride to Rainbow Acres
to buy free-range eggs for the ranch.

     Walking onto the farm that night, April slipped
down the steps. She gasped, grabbing Kip’s arm to keep from landing on her
backside on the ice. He steadied her.

     “Easy there. Where’s your mind tonight?”

     They wandered down to the giant bonfire Debbie
always lit by her private lake. People gathered around it, and April and Kip
found a spot at the edge of the group, where two stumps with a wooden board across
served as a bench.

     The fire was warm, and April could feel the chill
lifting off her cheeks. The flames danced amongst the rocks, eating the
blackening wood bit by bit.

     She snuggled into Kips side.

     “Warm enough?” he asked, putting his arm around
her.

     She nodded, smiling at him. Being in Kip’s arms,
having him near, felt like home. She was comfortable with Kip, loved. And she
wasn’t sure why she had denied him before.

     “Let me know when you want to head home,” he said
softly, his lips so close to her ear that his warm breath caressed her neck.

     She turned to him, admiring the way the fire made
his skin look golden. His bright blue eyes were, as usual, partially hidden
behind his long, dark hair, but were alight with something April hadn’t seen in
a while. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was. It seemed to be just for
her.

     Kip’s mouth was open, his full lips framed in
dark stubble. April could hear his breath come and go. She leaned in
automatically. Closing her eyes, she waited.

     Rejection hit her stomach as she counted to three
and Kip was sitting in the same place, stock still, staring at her.