Learning to Breathe Again (6 page)

AS SOON AS JACK LEFT BAYLEIGH’S room, he went
to his home office and started searching the Internet for
information about her. Her reactions whenever he got too close to
her and the way she was hyper-aware of every single movement he
made, he would bet his monthly disability check he got from the
Army on her having been a victim of some kind of abuse. The
question he wanted answered right now was by whom and for how long.
His fingers tapped against the keyboard as he typed in her name and
waited for the information to appear.

He was amazed at the amount of information
that popped up on his screen, just from her name alone. It seemed
as if the majority of the band’s success wasn’t given to the band
itself, but the strength of the music they played. And she wrote
the majority of their music, according to most of the articles he
read. She was quite the talented songbird, it seemed.

He finally stumbled across the information he
was looking for. He could feel the anger simmering under the
surface as he skimmed the article, before going back and reading it
in more detail. He wondered if Jason knew. And then remembering the
slight hesitation in Jason’s answer when he’d asked about why she
was skittish. He figured Jason had done his own Google
searches.

She’d been stalked by some crazy bastard.
He’d broken into her apartment. She’d managed to get out of the
apartment with a few bruises from being ‘slapped around,’ according
to the article. Her neighbors had heard her and called the police.
And to top it all off, it had been the owner of the bar where
they’d been performing since going to England.

No wonder Bayleigh looked like she hadn’t
slept in a month. He was guessing she hadn’t slept in a year. It
also explained the trust issues.

He exited the page he’d
found the article on and went back to Google, typing in
stalking victims
this
time. Domestic abuse and stalking weren’t his forte when it came to
the law. Hell, those types of cases didn’t come up too often in
Waketon. And if they did, people tended to use the ‘good-ole-boy’
system to take care of it. But it did happen every once in a blue
moon, and he always referred the cases to attorneys out of Austin
or San Antonio. Bigger cities would have better resources to help
those victims. Plus he didn’t want to screw up in court and cause
more damage.

Shit. Now what the hell do I
do? I can’t just tell her I looked her up on the Internet and
invaded her privacy.
He pushed back from
the desk and with a heavy sigh, shutting down the computer. His
stomach growled, reminding him he hadn’t had anything for dinner
yet.

Glancing at the clock, he saw that his
houseguest had been asleep for over an hour. Deciding now was a
good time to bring her bags inside, he headed outside to grab her
luggage and took it back to her bedroom. He opened her bedroom door
just enough to set everything just inside of it; she didn’t even
flinch as he set everything down. After that, he headed back out to
the kitchen, trying to remember what he even had on hand worth
eating that wouldn’t require a lot of prep time. Or thawing. It
would help if he knew what she liked to eat but, hell, beggars
couldn’t be choosers.

Pizza. He could always make a pizza, he
thought, as he looked in his pantry. He wasn’t cordon bleu but he
could make a mean pizza. Grabbing all the ingredients he needed, he
had a pizza thrown together and in the oven in a matter of minutes.
He hoped one would be enough for both of them.

He glanced at his cell phone on the counter
and debated with himself whether or not to call Jason. But he’d
already invaded her privacy by doing that search on the Internet.
He couldn’t bring himself to betray her trust by telling her
brother on top of it. Besides, it was up to Bayleigh to decide who
was told and when. It was Jack’s job to keep her safe until Jason
got back to town.

His job. He did not like thinking of her in
those terms. She was not a ‘job’, damn it. She was a woman who had
been put through the ringer and needed a chance to heal.

And he wanted to be the one to help her
heal.

What the hell am I thinking? I couldn’t even
‘be there’ and give Diana the attention she needed when I was with
her. Bayleigh already had a dumbass for a boyfriend, if Jason is
right. I am so not the guy for her.

Hearing her door open and
close down the hall, he turned and braced himself against the
countertop, arms relaxed at his side, legs crossed at the ankles.
His ears caught the sound of her uneven footsteps as she made her
way down the hallway. He shook his head.
Damn stubborn woman. Wouldn’t kill her to call out and ask for
a hand, would it?

He wanted to go to her, scoop her up in his
arms, shield her from whatever demons were out there. Again, what
the hell was he thinking?

Jason’s sister. Nicole’s
sister-in-law. She has a boyfriend. Somewhere. She is off
limits!
The lecture he was giving himself
was not helping, he decided as he waited for her to join
him.

Bayleigh made her way to the kitchen, feeling
a little more refreshed after her nap. The hot shower had helped,
too. Her knee was the size of a large grapefruit though. She knew
if the swelling wasn’t better by tomorrow morning, she’d need to
have Jack take her to the ER and let them take a look at it. Her
breath hitched and she forced her thoughts away from the
possibility of the ER as she stepped into the kitchen. She’d worry
about that if and when the time came.

Her gaze slid around the room, settling on
Jack as he leaned against the counter. “Um, hi,” she greeted,
pushing her hair back behind her ear.

“
Hey, there. How’s your knee
doing?”

“
A little better. It’s
swollen, but it’s holding my weight,” her eyes drifted to the
coffee pot. “Is the coffee fresh?”

“
Yes, but I’ll warn you, I
make it strong. Nicole says it can be used to strip
paint.”

“
I like it strong,” she
started to step towards the coffee pot but stopped as Jack waved
her away.

“
Sit down and I’ll bring you
a cup. You should stay off that leg as much as possible,” he turned
to the cabinet and reached in for a mug. “How do you take
it?”

“
Just black,” Bayleigh moved
over to the table and sat down, wrapping her hands around the mug
when he set it down in front of her. “Thank you.” She forced
herself to relax as she breathed in the aroma. “And thank you for
bringing in my stuff, too.”

“
You’re welcome.” Jack
refilled his mug and sat down across from her at the table. “I made
pizza for dinner. I hope that’s ok?”

“
You made it?” she glanced
over at him, her eyes meeting his for a second before flitting
away.

“
Yes. I mean, I buy the
crust already made and keep a few in the freezer. I tend to have
pizza at least once a week. It’s great for those nights I don’t
have any plans in town.”

“
Oh, God, I didn’t even
think about that…did I interrupt anything by showing
up?”

Jack gave a short laugh at her stricken
expression. “Not like what you are obviously thinking,” he winked
at her. “I had thought about stopping and seeing my aunt and uncle
tonight on my way home, mooch off of them like I tend to do about
five nights a week.” He shrugged his broad shoulders and smiled
across the table at her. “My aunt and uncle raised me so they’re
more like parents to me than anything else. Nicole feels the same
way. She tends to eat there whenever Jason is on call.”

Bayleigh nodded and stared at her coffee.
“I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

“
Yeah, Nicole is great. I
think you’ll like her. I know she’s looking forward to meeting you,
too.” Jack studied her across the table, taking in the tension in
her shoulders. “Tell me about your band.”

“
It’s Will’s band. He
started it years ago. I just sing back-up when I’m needed.” Her
finger was tracing patterns in the wood on the tabletop. “And I
write some of the songs.”

“
Will’s the front man,
right? The lead singer?”

“
How’d you know
that?”

“
Your brother does talk
about you every now and then.” Jack stood up as the timer started
buzzing. “Pizza’s ready. What would you like to drink? I have beer,
soda, water. I can find some wine if you’d rather have that, and I
always have whiskey,” he offered as he pulled the pizza from the
oven, setting it on a towel on the counter.

“
Water is fine. Can I do
anything to help?”

“
Nope, I had everything set
out, ready to go,” Jack grabbed a couple of plates and napkins from
the counter and carried them over to the table. He grabbed a bottle
of water out of the fridge for her and a beer for himself, setting
those on the table as well, before turning back to the stove and
grabbing the pizzas, carrying them over to the table as
well.

“
I didn’t know what kind of
pizza you’d like, so I hope you like everything on yours,” he told
her as he set it down on the table, grabbing the pizza
cutter.

“
It looks good,” she told
him, helping herself to a piece of each one. She picked a piece of
the pepperoni off and nibbled on it.

“
Help yourself to whatever
you like, and don’t be shy,” Jack instructed as he served himself a
couple of the bigger slices. He noticed her frown as he popped the
top off his beer, making a note to himself to work that into the
conversation later.

“
So, the band…” he tilted
his bottle towards her. “You guys must be pretty good to be touring
Europe.”

“
They’re not really touring,
they are just one of the opening acts in a couple of pubs. They’ve
got themselves a faithful following, but they’re a long ways from
being a success.”

“
I looked them up on-line.
Article I read said you write most of the music for
them.”

Her eyes flew up to his and her fingers
stopped pulling the pepperoni off the pizza. “Which article?”

“
I don’t know. Something on
the Internet.” Jack’s eyes watched her as she swallowed hard. “You
ok?”

“
I’m fine. Just surprised
anybody mentioned me, is all.”

Jack nodded and started eating his pizza,
watching to make sure she ate more than just the pepperoni off of
hers. “From the way the journalist wrote it, he was surprised more
people weren’t talking about you.”

“
Yeah, well, I’m just the
backup singer. So, what’s your story?” she changed the subject as
she picked up her slice of pizza and took a bite.

“
My story?” he raised an
eyebrow at her.

“
Yeah, you know, where’d you
grow up, where’d you go to college? That kind of stuff.”

“
I was your typical small
town, all-American kid. I was born and raised right here in
Waketon. I even played on the high school football and basketball
teams. I managed to graduate with honors and headed to Texas
A&M for my undergrad, then moved on to the University of Texas
for law school,” he gave her a wink. “Now, I’m just a small town
lawyer.”

“
Who owns a large chunk of
land,” Bayleigh’s eyes strayed to the window, where the sun was
sinking below the horizon, causing the hills to cast long shadows
over the land.

“
Not that large of a chunk,
just what was left to me when my grandfather died. My uncle and
cousin got the majority of it.”

“
How much land is there?”
She leaned forward, peering out the window next to the table,
trying to see out.

“
Between my uncle and
cousin, me, and Nicole we own a total of 600 acres. Nicole owns
about forty acres, I think, and I own closer to fifty. She and I
both let our uncle use it for grazing and what not. Neither of us
have the inclination to actually ranch.”

“
So why own so much
land?”

“
It’s the heritage, for both
of us. Nicole’s land was left to her when her dad died. She
threatened to sell it off many times over the years, but my uncle
managed to always talk her out of it. She’d lease out pastures for
grazing, or she let my uncle just use it most of the time, if no
one signed a lease on it. And for me, well, it gave me a place to
come home to when I needed it.”

“
I could use a place like
that,” Bayleigh commented as she crumpled up her napkin and tossed
it onto her plate.