Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39

JESS

I woke up to the rooster crowing. Beside me, Slate nearly jumped out of his skin, getting such a fright that he almost launched himself out of the hayloft. Giggling, I sat up and blinked hard a few times until my eyes started focusing properly. Then I got to my feet, dusting off my ass.

"Steady there, champ," I said. "You're okay. It was just the daddy chicken. Don't worry. He's just saying good morning. He won't eat you."

I stretched my arms out above my head, yawning as the realization dawned that we must've fallen asleep together out there. As I lowered my arms back to my sides, Slate groaned and sat up, blinking hard before he let out a mighty yawn too and stood. Brushing hay off his pants, he looked around.

"Would you look at that? We spent the whole night on the floor, and you thought I wouldn't be able to do it."

I chuckled. "I said I didn't believe that you would sleep in the barn with the cows, and you still haven't done that."

"One thing at a time, Jess. Jeez. Give a guy's back a chance to recover."

I laughed. "Okay, old man. Maybe you should go have a nice, long soak and then go for a massage."

"That sounds pretty good right about now," he said, perking up. "I haven't seen a massage parlor in town, though."

Reaching out, I smacked his shoulder and shook my head at him. "That's because we're a tough crowd out here. We don't need back massages after one night of sleeping on hay."

He shrugged, but he really did look a little crestfallen. "Speaking of hay, you've got some in your hair."

I brushed my palm over what was left of my ponytail, picking out the pieces I felt, but Slate chuckled, grabbed my hand, pulled me to him, and helped me pick out the rest. I leaned into him, strangely okay with the intimacy of the moment and accepting his help.

After last night, I'd realized that he wasn't the bad guy after all. Not defending me to my parents from the outset had been the right thing to do, and since he'd gone on to lay out all the other options to them, I'd realized that I probably also should've just stuck around to see how the conversation played out.

There had been fifty million reasons for him to approach things exactly the way he had, calm and measured, giving people time to process every different option he put out for them to consider. I'd been jerking my knees a lot lately, and as Slate gently picked hay out of my hair and then pressed his lips to mine for a sweet kiss, I decided that it was time to try to change that again.

I wasn't a drama queen who freaked out over every little thing that happened. Merrick Meadows meant everything to me, which was why all this had been pushing my buttons in such a sensitive way, but that was also why I needed to try to keep a cool head from now on.

"I'm going to try sneaking into the house without being busted by your parents," he murmured against my lips. "Do you want me to wait so you can have a head start?"

I shook my head and pulled away from him. "I'm going to start my chores and pretend to have had an early start."

"Okay, but won't your parents know something's up if you're out doing your chores in the same clothes you wore last night?"

My nose wrinkled. "Urgh, you're right. I have to change. I don't know what's going on with my head. It's like my brains are scrambled."

He chuckled. "It's called an overload, I think. There's a lot going on, babe. Don't be so hard on yourself. Do you have a change of clothes out here somewhere?"

After we'd climbed down from the hayloft, I nodded and took his hand. "I keep some spares in the barn. In the rainy season, it's always nice not to have to go back into the house to change. I might still have something out there."

Yet, I wondered if it was even necessary to go to these lengths to cover up that we'd fallen asleep together last night. I doubted my parents would judge me or have a bad word to say about what might be happening between Slate and me.

I knew they liked him and Austin would just have to learn to live with it, but I kind of wanted to keep things private for now. Slate would be going back to the city as soon as all this was said and done, so I saw no reason to make our fling into something it wasn't.

My mom would be taking her wedding dress down from the attic if she thought there was something brewing between Slate and me. So no. There's no reason to send everyone into a tailspin.

On our way from the barn, he suddenly slowed his pace and then paused completely. Letting go of my hand, he turned to the field and squinted in the predawn light like he was trying to figure something out.

I looked up at him. A frown puckered my brow as I wondered what was going on with him. "What's up?"

He pointed at the drilling equipment. "Something's wrong."

My stomach dropped. Just as the sun broke free from the horizon and started rising on a new day, we rushed through the field to the dig site. Heart pounding in my chest, I pushed as hard as I ever had, barely managing to keep up with Slate's much longer strides.

I had no idea what he'd seen or heard that had triggered this, but I saw the stress on his face as he ran. Jaw clenched, he sailed over the grass with his eyes wide and wild. His head darted from side to side like he was searching for something.

When we finally reached the site, I felt like my blood was being sucked out of my head. What the hell?

"Sabotage!" Slate said urgently, spinning to face me as he ran to the nearest drill.

I gasped when I saw oil spewing out of the ground in a stream, contaminating the soil and spreading quickly. A shudder ran down my spine and my insides turned to stone. Oh, no! Oh, God. No!

"Get your dad and Austin," Slate yelled to me. "Call the work crew. Tell them to get their asses here now!"

Spinning on my heels, I sprinted to the house. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Slate rolling up his sleeves and jumping in to try and stop the surging leak. Anxiety smacked into me like an out of control train. This isn't good.

My footsteps pounded on the dirt, my worries about being seen in yesterday's clothes forgotten. Jumping up the front steps, I practically flew into the house, bursting through the screen doors with my chest throbbing and fear threatening to seize up my organs.

When I raced into the kitchen, my family had just started stirring. Everyone was still sleepy and nursing what appeared to be their first coffees of the morning. I couldn't believe they were still wiping the sleep out of their eyes when it felt to me like the apocalypse was upon us.

"Get your boots on," I yelled at my dad and Austin. "Mom, call the work crew. Send out an SOS. We need them here. Now!"

My brother just about tripped over his feet in his haste to get up, brown eyes hard even though I hadn't told them what was happening yet. Dad was already at the door, grabbing his muddy boots and pulling them on with the speed of a man half his age.

I ran out hot on Austin's heels with Dad right behind us. My face was hot and sweat slid down my spine, but I kept running, knowing Slate needed us. When we reached the dig site, I pointed at Slate. "Austin, go help him."

Austin frowned, but it didn't take him more than a beat to recover before he was getting down in the mess with Slate, trying to help him seal things off. Slate was slick and black, covered head to toe in oil. His clothes were completely soaked through. Every so often, he wiped his forearm across his brow and tried to keep the oil from running into his eyes.

Austin skidded to him on his knees, like he was doing a power slide. He rushed to grab whatever Slate was struggling with. I wished I could get in there with them, but I knew I would probably be more hindrance than help.

My hands dropped to my knees and I bent over, breathing hard with my head spinning. I tried to figure out just what the hell was going on. How could this have happened?

As I started catching my breath, I glanced at my dad. He was standing right next to me, his lips parted in shock and his arms hanging slack at his sides as he watched the boys trying to contain the damage. His chest heaved on deep breaths of his own.

Meanwhile, Slate was shouting instructions to Austin and oil was still seeping out of the ground like a stream of demons determined to get out of hell. Together, they finally managed to slow the stream to a trickle and they collapsed on the soaked earth side by side.

Dad rushed over to them, pale as a ghost. He looked down, blinking hard, like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Austin and Slate looked at each other. Then they both looked at my dad and finally they looked at me too.

I looked back at them, knowing that all of us stupidly looking at each other wasn't going to get us anywhere, and none of us seemed to be able to move. We were all breathless and shaken, and I, for one, needed a strong cup of coffee.

"What the fuck happened?" Austin asked no one in particular, finally catching his breath enough to be able to sit up.

Slate moved tiredly to his knees before he pushed to his feet, his head shaking over and over again as he surveyed the damage in front of him. "I have no idea, but I can guarantee that it didn't happen by itself."

"You mean someone sabotaged us?" Dad rasped out, sounding like the shock had stolen his breath.

Slate dropped his chin in a curt nod, his features hard and scary under all that oil. "The team should be here soon. We'll figure it out when they arrive, but first, we should probably go get cleaned up. It's going to be a long day, guys. And I'm willing to bet it's not going to be a pretty one."