Anything You Ask (13 page)

The bottom of the sky looked like someone had pulled a thick quilt of gray clouds over the farm. A drop of rain splattered on her thigh, imprinting the denim with a splotchy dark circle. She hurried to get into the shelter of the barn before the downpour began.

Thanks to the barn’s neat condition, she spotted Jeff and Hale standing in the walled-off workshop in the corner. The space was designed to be easy to warm with a space heater during the winter. In the warm months, the window connecting the workshop to the barn was open, allowing their angry voices to be heard by Danielle.

Curious about what made their postures stiff as boards, Danielle made her way toward the golden rectangle of light spilling out from the workshop’s open door onto the neatly swept concrete floor. She stopped in the shadow’s edge when Jeff jerked his baseball cap low on his brow.

“Mark and I had a deal, remember? He counted on me to buy from him. In return, I got a reduced price.” Jeff jabbed his thumb toward the second story of the barn, where precise rows of aromatic hay lay baled and ready for sale. “Our grandfather wanted us to work together. He gave your father this land to grow feed, and my father got the cows. Your hay for my beef. A family partnership.”

“I didn’t see any of your beef in Danielle’s freezer when I got here a few months ago. She and the boys needed help, Jeff. Where were you?”

“I offered to lend a hand, but she wouldn’t let me.”

“What did she have to do in exchange for your help?” Hale crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve been around long enough to know you don’t do something for nothing in return.”

“That’s how the arrangement works. I scratch your back, you scratch mine.” Jeff spit on the ground. “Danielle refused to give me what I wanted.”

A lethal intensity radiated off Hale’s features. “What did you want?”

Jeff held out his hands, palms upright. “Wait a minute, don’t jump to conclusions. I wanted her to give me the fields bordering my property so I could graze my cows.” He shook his head with a sharp jerk. “What the hell is wrong with you? We’re practically brothers. I wouldn’t take advantage of Mark’s wife.”

“I’m not so sure of that. You and Mark had a twisted idea of how family treats one another.”

“Are you still holding a grudge because Mark and I threw you in the silo?” He waved a hand in the air. “You were a pesky little kid who wouldn’t leave us alone. So don’t blame me for the times we tried to toughen you up.”

“Your method worked.” Hale braced his hand on the workbench, the ligaments along his forearm flexing with irrefutable power. “I won’t be bullied anymore. I’m selling my hay to a dairy farm across town. They’re picking up the bales tomorrow.”

“What? You can’t do that.”

“Your
deal
nearly bankrupted Mark. I won’t let you do the same to me.”

Danielle’s hands tightened around the rough cardboard egg carton as she watched Jeff’s face redden until his skin matched the crimson walls of the barn.

“Mark didn’t need my help to screw up things. He was a rotten mechanic who couldn’t keep his tractors running long enough to plant his fields. No wonder he didn’t make money.”

“You bear responsibility for some of Mark’s troubles, considering you never paid him enough to make any profit. There’s only one reason he’d let you do that. You were holding something against him, and I know what it was.” Hale’s voice went dead calm, and his features hardened. “I saw you and Mark the night the barn went up in flames. You ran out of there right before the fire burst through the roof. There were two girls with you.”

“Not only are you deaf, you’re blind.”

Danielle noticed that Jeff’s voice lacked its usual bite. A surge of apprehension made her stomach go sour. Was Mark with another girl the night the barn caught on fire?

“I wasn’t the only one who smoked when we were young. So did Mark. I think he started the fire by accident when the four of you were fooling around in the hay mow.” Hale glowered at Jeff. “You drove the girls home while Mark ran for help. I went inside to douse the flames.”

“That was a stupid thing to do.” Jeff kicked at the dirt floor. “There was no way you could stop a fire from spreading in a roomful of hay.”

“I had to try.” Hale’s mouth tightened. “When everyone saw me stumble out of the barn, I looked guilty of setting the blaze. Blaming me worked to everyone’s advantage. Mark didn’t catch hell for what he did, and Dad finally had an excuse to throw me off the farm. Everyone won, except me.”

Jeff nodded. “You’re right. I promised Mark I’d keep his secret in exchange for cheap feed for my cattle. That’s what family does. We protect each other.”

“Not in this family. You take advantage of each other’s weaknesses to get what you want.”

Never one to miss an opportunity, Jeff gestured toward the house. “Danielle is the only person who will be hurt by the truth. This is our chance to protect her. No woman wants to learn her man cheated on their marriage.”

“I already know.” Danielle burst out of the shadows and strode through the workshop’s open door. Her sandals punched an angry rhythm against the wood floor. “Who was the girl?”

Both men turned in her direction. Jeff’s jaw slackened and Hale’s back stiffened.

“I heard everything.” She slapped the carton of eggs on the workbench. A distinct crack pierced the uncomfortable silence as a gooey yolk bled through the container. “Who was Mark with the night the barn burned down?”

“Rebecca Smith,” Jeff confessed and ran a shaky hand over his face. “She and her sister were friends of ours. Sometimes, we hung out together, no big deal.”

A twinge of betrayal made Danielle wince in pain. “Rebecca works at the Freeburg Bar now. Mark used to go there all the time.”

“Well, yeah.” Jeff shrugged. “She took good care of Mark when he stopped by. If he got too drunk, she’d call me to drive him home.”

“Rebecca should have called
me
when Mark drank too much.” Danielle wadded her hands into two tight fists. “Instead, she enabled him. So did you.”

“That’s not fair, Danielle. None of us could stop him from drinking.”

“Right before his accident, he came home so drunk he had no business working in the barn. Did Rebecca know she sent him home in that condition? Every shot of whiskey she served him at lunch contributed to his death.” Livid that so many people turned a blind eye to Mark’s problem, Danielle glared at Hale. “Did you know Mark was seeing her that summer?”

“I wasn’t sure.” Hale’s voice was flat, his expression stony. “I had no proof.”

“You should have told me. I never would have married
him if I’d known what he was doing behind my back.” All her hopes seemed to be wilting, collapsing into a limp heap on the ground. Why hadn’t Hale said anything that summer?

“I had no idea you were going to marry him, Danielle. The way you two acted, sometimes I wasn’t even sure you were dating.” Lines of tension creased at the corners of Hale’s eyes. “How could I charge him with cheating if I wasn’t sure? He would have hated me.”

“I understand. Your loyalties lay with Mark. He was family, after all. I was just a friend. At least, I thought I was a friend.” Tingling with pain, she couldn’t bear the thought of staying on the farm any longer. Every man who coveted this land ended up hurting her. “I was a means to an end for both of you. Mark used my good credit to secure his loans, and you used me to get the farm you always wanted. Now that I think about it, perhaps moving to Virginia isn’t far enough.”

Chapter Nine

Guilt perforated him and Hale gripped the workbench. Danielle was right. He’d used her to claim the farm he always wanted. She had no idea that without her, this place meant nothing.

Like any good Cooper, he’d kept his tender feelings hidden so she couldn’t pinpoint his vulnerability. Glancing up in time to see her walk out, he took a step to follow.

“Now, she knows all of Mark’s secrets. Does she know yours?”

Jeff’s smooth voice stopped him cold. Hale stared, sick with pain. When would his own family stop hurting him?

“You can make everything right.” A smirk pulling at his lips, Jeff nodded at the hayloft. “I’ll protect you in exchange for a good price.”

“No. I won’t cut a deal with you.”

“Don’t be bullheaded. We can work out something so I can feed my steers and you can keep your pride intact.” Jeff crossed his arms over his chest and squinted at Hale. “I can tell you care what Danielle thinks of you. She doesn’t need to know the truth.”

Hearing Jeff echo his reasoning made Hale’s body go numb.
She doesn’t need to know the truth.
By lying to her, Hale realized he was descending into the quagmire that sucked the honor out of every obstinate male in the Cooper family.

“Danielle deserves a man who won’t bend to blackmail to protect his pride.” Hale would let his name get dragged through the dirt if it meant he could make enough money to provide for Danielle and the boys. “Get out of here, Jeff.”

“Fine, but don’t blame me when Danielle figures out who she really married. Personally, I’m sick of you acting like you belong here.”

Cocoa’s warning bark was the last thing Hale heard before Jeff threw a right hook and punched the left side of his face.

Stumbling backwards from the blow, Hale slammed into the workbench. A box of nails burst open, sending a deluge of sharp steel down the back of his neck. He watched some of the nails bounce on the concrete floor and realized he couldn’t hear them.

Once again, he was trapped in a vortex of silence. Cocoa stood loyally beside him as he grabbed her collar and pulled himself upright.

Blinking to clear the stars from his vision, he spotted his hearing aid on the floor. When Jeff’s foot hovered above the expensive device, Hale froze in disbelief.

Jeff’s mouth moved too quickly for Hale to comprehend what he said. The gist of the message was clear when Jeff’s boot crushed the hearing aid in two.

In a red haze of rage, Hale’s pulse hammered against his temples. Adrenaline coursed through his bloodstream, making it easy to grab Jeff by his shirt and drag him out of the workshop like he weighed little more than a worm. Undeterred by the hard pellets of rain beginning to fall, Hale slammed his cousin against a tree.

“This is the last time you interfere with my family, Jeff. If you’re stupid enough to pull us apart,
your
secrets will be exposed. Think about that the next time you’re tempted to break up my marriage.” Judging by the fear in his cousin’s eyes, Hale knew Jeff understood the threat.

Hale released him in disgust and jogged back to the barn. As usual, Cocoa was beside him the whole way. He commanded her to sit outside the workshop, not wanting her to step on any nails.

Feeling sick to his stomach, he knelt on the floor and picked up the pieces of his hearing aid. No way could he fix the shattered plastic. Shoving the fragments into his jeans, he scanned the back yard. Nothing moved except for the diminishing glow of Jeff’s red taillights.

Left with only four senses to rely upon, he left the barn and sprinted up the gravel lane toward the house.

When he hurried inside, there was no sign of Danielle in the family room, kitchen, or office. By this time, the boys were already in bed, so that left one last place to find her. Hale swiped the rain off his face and raced up the steps three at a time, almost tripping over Cocoa in his rush.

The dog beat him to the bedroom and trotted to the slender figure standing by the wall.

When Cocoa nuzzled Danielle’s hand, she turned toward the window. Closed off. Shut down. Betrayed.

This time, Hale knew he was the one who hurt her. He turned on the light, but there was no way he could read her lips with her back turned toward him.

“Dani? We need to talk.” He couldn’t even hear himself. For all he knew, she screamed at him to get out. Almost as an afterthought, he touched his throbbing ear. His hand came away smeared with blood. The hearing aid must have cut him when Jeff knocked it off. Not caring about the damage, he wiped his hand on his t-shirt.

He swallowed hard. “I can’t hear you, honey. I need you to look at me so I can read your lips.”

That admission wasn’t easy. In the midst of this crisis, he couldn’t listen like any other man could. Curling a hand around her elbow gently so he wouldn’t startle her, he turned her around.

When she glanced at his ear, her eyes widened.

“You’re hurt,” he saw her say. She broke out of his grasp to snatch a towel off a pile of folded laundry, handing him the terrycloth with a worried frown.

He wiped off the blood and rain as best he could before pulling open his nightstand drawer to get his old hearing aid. The bulky device wasn’t as good as the new one, but it would help.

Fumbling to insert a battery, he felt a wave of relief when he inserted the earmold and heard a high-pitched squeal. The battery was good, but everything sounded muddled compared to the crisp fidelity he’d gotten used to from his new hearing aid. At least, he could hear a little bit.

When he reached for Danielle, she held up her hand and took a step backwards. Her refusal to let him near spurred his determination to explain everything.

“You and Mark never touched. I only saw him kiss you once, a few weeks after you began working on the farm. Towards August, you spent more time with me and less with him. I had no idea what was going on with you two, so I didn’t mention that Mark and Rebecca were hanging out.”