Chapter 29 Part 29
Asher
Another few weeks passed, and Asher felt content. Work on the ranch never stopped. The news had predicted their first flurry of snow. The cattle had been moved to the temporary sheds, which they put up every fall. It was open in the front, allowing the cattle to get to the hay and water pits. During the coldest hours, they all huddled together to stay warm.
Asher’s breath made white puffs as he walked onto his porch and pulled the door closed behind him. Maggie now worked in the office, near the main house, where Colt and Dylan kept all their records. He could hear their voices coming from the kitchen as Melody babbled. She was now eight months old, and starting to pull herself up against chairs and tables.
“Hey, you’re back,” Maggie said, and gave him a kiss. Melody was crawling toward him, wearing a fuzzy onesie with feet and a hoodie. He scooped her into his arms and kissed her cheeks.
“It was a good day, though we might get snow before the weekend’s over,” Asher said.
“Good thing you’ve got that large fireplace in the living room. We can cuddle on the couch all weekend,” Maggie said.
“Hello, little lady. How was your day?” Melody's hands clutched his face on either side, and she rested her face against his.
“Dinner’s ready, but she was a bit fussy so I fed her. Why don’t you relax for a minute, while I put her in bed?”
Asher kissed the top of Melody’s head, and gave her to Maggie. He switched the kettle on, and made himself a cup of coffee. When Maggie’s phone vibrated on the kitchen table, Asher glanced at it. It displayed a blocked number.
“Hello.”
“Who is this?” Asher frowned at the man’s voice. “Are you the new asshole Maggie’s sleeping with? Let me guess, you’re loaded, and she got you with how terrible her childhood was.” The man chuckled, and Asher gritted his teeth.
“Who the hell is this?” Asher asked.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Asher Fitzgerald.”
“Well, Asher Fitzgerald, you tell Maggie I want the money she stole. I might not know where she is right now, but I’ll find her. She knows what she owes me, but if she spent it all, she can always pay it back the way she knows how…on her hands and knees.”
Asher opened his mouth to say something, but the call had ended, and he resisted the urge to slam the phone down on the table. When the phone vibrated in his hand, he opened her messages. It was a video attachment, so he clicked on it.
Bile rose up his throat, but he couldn’t look away. He almost hadn’t recognized Maggie, but when the video zoomed in on her face, he knew it was her. His hands started to shake with anger. Maggie’s phone skidded across the table, the video still playing as Asher placed his untouched coffee in the sink, and pulled his jacket back on.
Asher took his hat from the peg near the front door when Maggie came walking down the stairs. She frowned as he put his hat on, and pulled his gloves from his pocket.
“Did something happen? Is there an emergency?”
Asher shook his head. His eyes looked like a thunderstorm, and Maggie took a step back. She could see the anger swirling in them. “I’m leaving. I can’t look at you right now.”
Asher slammed the front door behind him. He didn’t feel the biting cold as he stomped across the yard to the barn. Theo and Rick both looked up as Asher walked to One Star’s stall. “Bring me the warmest saddle blanket.”
“Right away, Asher,” Rick said, hurrying off to the tack room. He returned a few moments later, and draped the blanket across One Star’s back.
“You’re going out in this weather? Did something happen?”
“Where I go and what I do is none of your business. You got that?”
Rick and Theo took a step away from Asher. They could almost taste his anger in the air. They watched silently as he saddled One Star, taking a bedroll, and fastening it to the back of the saddle. Asher walked into the office, and returned with a rifle in his hands. He checked it and tucked a box of ammunition into his saddlebag. A bag of food for One Star was fastened to the saddle, as well.
Asher zipped his jacket shut, and mounted One Star. “Tell Blair, I’ll be back on Sunday.”
He clicked his tongue, and One Star started forward. Asher led the horse past his house, but not once did he look in its direction. His anger flared up again, and he spurred One Star into a gallop. He could see the horse’s breath as it ran along the field toward the woods.
When they reached the tree line, Asher slowed the horse to a walk. He needed to be away from her; he needed time to think. His mind couldn’t fathom what he’d seen, and he had no idea how he was going to make peace with it.
Sure, everyone had a past, but the fact that she’d never said a word, was what had set him off. He couldn’t look at her, couldn’t talk to her. He was afraid of what he might say or do. He shuddered as images of that video replayed in his mind.
Her past shouldn’t matter to him, but it did. It mattered so much, and it was worse because he hadn’t known. He felt sick to his stomach, leaning sideways in the saddle, and letting it all come out. One Star kept walking as he vomited, before he rinsed his mouth from the water bottle in his saddle bag.
A coyote howled somewhere in the deeper parts of the forest, but Asher kept going. He was heading to a small wooden cabin they’d built one summer. It was primarily meant for whoever got caught out in a storm. He’d spend the weekend there, thinking of how he was going to handle this.