Thicker Than Water
Chapter Eleven
Jarrod sat behind his desk while Audra, who was looking rather upset, sat in a chair in front of him. With continued rumors that at least one man, if not more, who had ridden with the railroad was planning on causing more trouble; Jarrod had been busy reviewing various reports on those men until his sister had asked to speak with him.
"What is it, little sis?" Jarrod felt the Pappy side of him kick in as he set the papers aside and leaned forward.
"It's Heath," Audra blurted out, tears close to falling. "I have got to have done something!"
Jarrod's eyebrows turned downwards. While he'd had a feeling Audra had become interested in their newest hand, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to make his sister think she'd done anything out of line. "What do you mean?"
"When he first got here and I began watching his children, he was friendly and warm," due to the sudden upward movement of one of Jarrod's eyebrows, she hurried on to explain, "I don't mean anything wrong by that statement! I just mean we seemed to get have a connection, to talk easily with each other and such. But now," She said as a touch of sadness came into her voice and her shoulders lowered a bit as she talked about the picnic earlier in the day, "It was like he thought he was doing something wrong in being there. He barely had two words to say to me. The few minutes he was there, all his attention was on his children."
Not knowing what Heath had discovered, Jarrod made a natural assumption. Smiling kindly upon his sister, he assured her he didn't think it was her herself that was the problem. "People go through the grieving process at different paces, little sis. His wife's death, from what little I was told by the Stokes, was sudden and unexpected. Yes," he nodded and held up his hand as Audra sat up as tall as she could and looked as if she was going to object, "it's been somewhere around three years. Audra," Jarrod put his hand down and gave her a look that said quite forcefully "Please, think", "whether you like it or not, while some people are more than ready in that time, some aren't. Maybe, he's just not ready look at anyone seriously. And," he said with a tone of a bit of reprimand in his voice, "if that's why you've been watching his children for free, not to simply to be around the children, then I highly suggest you talk to him about pay." He was sure Mr. Thomson would not argue as he, Jarrod, had heard the man make the offer more than once.
Thinking on the way she'd been behaving lately, Audra sighed acknowledging she'd been doing what she could to send the man some messages she was interested. It was true she had a bit of a crush on him; he was good looking and he was such a good father. In some ways he reminded her of her father when she was little. It wasn't hard to be attracted to a man like that, but she presumed she wasn't pushing too hard and didn't think she had made any unsavory advances; well she hoped not, though not charging him for child care was a bit tacky she had to admit. "You think I scared him?" She hated the idea she'd done that to anyone.
Jarrod chuckled. He couldn't see his sister scaring anyone. "I don't think it's you yourself that scared him. But, I'd give up on the idea of the two of you together. From what you say, he's made it quite obvious he's not interested." He wasn't about to add that he was relieved to hear it as the nagging feeling that there was more to Heath than he knew continued to grow. If the nagging feeling was accompanied by an uncomfortable one, he'd think the blond haired gentleman might be in cahoots with Crown's former friends, but it wasn't. No, if anything, it was more of a feeling that some invisible hand was pushing him, begging him, Jarrod, to see and remember something. It wouldn't have been so bad but, more than once, he'd felt like it was his own father doing the pushing! The question was…what was he supposed to remember?
Audra, who had been began chattering stopped talking, excused herself and then left the room feeling much better than before, leaving Jarrod grateful she'd asked no questions. He realized that, like with Nick in the stables, he'd let his mind wander and hadn't been listening to his sister!
While Audra was talking to Jarrod, Heath was working in the stable doing his best to concentrate on his work. It wasn't easy as he was struggling to decide what he should do. He'd been at the ranch just long enough to start admiring the Barkley's for the love and strength they seemed do share when he'd found the newspaper clipping and unsent letter his mother had written. The more he thought on it the more he fought with himself.
He wanted the name that rightfully belonged to him; his children deserved to have the right name too, but….his train of thought was broken when he heard the sound of spurs hitting the stable floor. Nick.
"May I help you?" Heath looked up and asked as he put the pitchfork up, grabbed a brush and started to brush one of the horses McCall had asked him to take care of. Actually, the horse could have waited, but Nick looked more than a bit bent out of shape and Heath didn't want to risk doing anything to make the man's mood any worse. He made it halfway down the animal's side when Nick answered. When he did, Heath was shocked beyond measure.
Unbeknownst to Jarrod or Audra, Nick had been outside the study door and heard the first part of the conversation. He'd listened up to the part where he heard how aloof Heath had been and stormed out of the house and was now standing in the stable looking at Heath. "What has Audra ever done to you?" He snapped, his irritation clearing showing.
Heath's arm dropped to his side as he turned to look directly at Nick, his surprise was showing as clear as the noon day sun. "What are you talkin' 'bout? She's never done a thing wrong."
"Then why start acting like it's not safe for you to be in the same place as her?" Nick kept his eyes on Heath as he explained what he'd overheard in the house. "She likes you and thought you liked her. Now, you give her the cold shoulder and say she's hasn't done anything. What kind of man leads a woman on only to turn around and give her the cold shoulder?"
Heath felt himself instantly stiffen as he heard more of his mother's words from the letter repeat themselves in his ears. "First off, I never led her on!" Heath shot back, stiffening even more so as he did so. At least, he couldn't think of one thing that he'd said or done to that would be put in the 'leading her on' category. "Second, I never meant to give her the cold shoulder. I…" he did his best to relax as he went back to brushing the horse before him, "simply got caught up playing with my children. I'll apologize to her and make it clear that I also never meant to give her the idea there was a chance of anything existing between the two of us. Okay?" He turned his head and looked at Nick.
Nick was still a bit unsettled only what was he supposed to do? It's not like the man had actually hurt Audra in any way. Well, not intentionally, and he had just said he'd do what he could to clear things up with Audra. He might have continued the conversation, but he could hear McCall outside calling for him. "All right," He turned and walked out of the stable leaving Heath once again fighting the battle that was waging on inside of himself, a battle where one side was telling him to open his mouth while the other side told him to keep quiet.