Falling for Bentley (Part One) (12 page)

“True, but if I could teach and live here, I would. Money isn’t everything, Bentley.”

Bentley sat back and looked like he was thinking about what I said. I drank my milkshake while I waited for him to process whatever he was going after. “Hales.”

“Yeah?” I said looking up to him.

“I really am sorry for what I did and said to you in high school.”

I placed my hand on his, “I know, and I accept your apology. I don’t think you are the same person any more. If you were, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

RUBBING MY BELLY and pushing my plate away, I announced, “I’m full. That was so good. I can’t believe I forgot how great the cooking is here.”

Bentley laughed, “I can’t believe you ate it all. I don’t even know where you put it.”

“My ass.”

“Well if that is where it went, I’m grateful, because girl, your ass is de-lish-ous.”

“Funny. Does that line work often?”

Bentley smirked, “I don’t know, does it?”

Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Want to share a piece of strawberry shortcake?”

JUST AS I asked Haley if she wanted dessert, I saw Mandie walk into the diner. I hope to hell she doesn’t see me. It’s not like I could hide behind a menu, or anything. Like that wouldn’t look weird.

“Hey, you okay? You zoned out on me.” I heard Haley say.

“Yeah I just…”
and fuck!

Mandie stood beside Haley, looking her up and down with evil eyes. I could tell what was going to happen before Mandie even opened her mouth. I tried to stop it, but Haley beat me to it, “May we help you?”

Mandie let out a sneer before walking over to me and running one of her troll nails down my cheek, “You can’t, but Bentley here sure can.”

“Mandie, get your hands off me.” I shifted in the booth to get some space between us.

“Bentley, don’t be like that, you know what we had four nights ago was magic. When you are done here with—whatever this is—why don’t you stop by my place and we can finish where we left off. And you can get the t-shirt you left behind.” she purred.

How in the fuck did I ever find this bitch attractive?

“Jesus, Mandie, would you leave Bentley alone?” called out Whitney.

“What? I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was just saying hello to Bentley, and politely introducing myself to his friend.”

“Oh, cut the shit,” Whitney huffed. “Haley, this is my second cousin, Mandie. Please don’t mind her, she was just leaving.”

“I am not.” Mandie snarled, “I was just going to join them.”

“Well, don’t bother. I was just about to bring them their check,” Whitney hissed.

“Nonsense, I’ll just slide in beside Bentley, and we’ll have dessert. What is Ms. Maggie’s pie special today?”

Haley stood, “You know, I just don’t feel like having dessert. Whitney, it was wonderful to meet you. Anytime Travis is at the farm, please don’t hesitate to stop in, okay?” Then she turned to me, “Bentley, I’ll meet you outside, whenever you’re ready.”

I watched as Haley placed the napkin on the table before walking out of the door. I slid out of the booth and got in Mandie’s face, “I don’t know what the fuck kind of game you’re playing, but knock it the hell off.” Mandie stood there, her mouth hanging open, as I continued, “I can’t believe how you just acted, were you always such a conniving bitch?”

“You used to think it was my best quality,” she growled back.

“Yeah, in high school. When are you going to grow the fuck up?” I dug in my pocket and shoved some cash in Whitney’s hand on my way to the door. I looked back at Mandie, shaking my head, “What the fuck was I thinking,
ever
going out with you?” Then I hurried out of the diner, hoping to save the rest of the day with Haley.

“That’s fine!” Mandie yelled just as I reached the door. “I was done with you anyways. I need a real man that is actually going to make something of himself, someone other than a washed up nobody.” I stopped, but decided to not make a scene. I pushed the door open and stepped outside.

I walked over to where Haley was sitting on a bench just a little down the street. “Haley, I’m so…”

Haley stood and cut me off, “Don’t apologize for what she just did. You and I both know nothing would, or could, control that mouth of hers.”

“Was she always like this? For the life of me, I can’t see what I ever saw in her.” I said more to myself. The look in Haley’s eyes gave me my answer.

“That was then, and this is now. The difference between the two of you, Bentley, is you grew up, and she stayed in high school.”

I pulled her in for a hug, “You, Haley Wells, have one of the biggest hearts I have ever known.”

Dropping Haley off at her ranch was just something I wasn’t ready for. I knew she still had a few things to do in town, but after the whole Mandie disaster, Haley just wanted to go back to her place.

“Thank you for letting me tag along today,” I said trying to lift the mood in the truck.

“Thanks for the ride and for lunch. I guess I should pay you back, since I pretty much left you in the diner with no option except to pay.” she spoke as she reached for her back pocket.

“Haley, put your money away, I don’t want it,” I almost growled.

She shifted her hand away from her back pocket, “Okay, well, thanks again.”

I walked her to the door, prolonging the goodbye as long as I could. I felt like such a dick for what happened at the diner, and I have a feeling any leeway I had with Hales, just went back to square one. I leaned on the porch railing while she opened the front door, “Thank you, again, Haley, for hanging out with me today.”

She turned around and smiled, “I enjoyed myself, well, minus the unpleasant visitor.”

“Could we maybe do it again sometime?” I gripped the rail, trying to hide my nervousness.

Haley moved in front of me, “Why, Bentley Knight, are you asking me out on a date?”

I pulled my hand off the rail and took a step closer, lacing my fingers through her hair, “Hales, will you please see me again tomorrow?”

“I’d like that,” she answered shyly.

I leaned in and placed a small kiss to her cheek, “Tomorrow.”

I waited in my truck until she went inside before I pulled away.

On the way back to town I decided to call my brother to see if he wanted to meet up.

“Hey bro, what you up to?” Travis answered the phone.

“Just calling to see if you want to hang out, maybe go for a run and do some weights at the gym.”

“Needing to talk?” my brother asked in a serious tone.

“Yeah.”

“Cool. Come pick me up at the farm. Want me to grab your gym shoes?”

“Please. See you in ten.”

I hung up the phone, knowing Travis and I needed to have the conversation about what he and I really wanted out of the farm.

A mile into our run on the treadmill, Travis looked over to me, “Bentley, are you going to leave the farm?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you want?”

“I don’t know,” I answered back.

“Do you miss playing football?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to be honest with yourself?”

I ran for a bit before answering him, “I’m scared. What if what I want doesn’t make anyone else happy?”

“Who cares about anyone else, Bentley, you need to only think about you.”

“I don’t want to let Mom down.”

“You’re not going to let her down. Mom is giving you the out, if you want it, man. She’s not going to turn you away, or love you less, for whatever decision you make.”

“Yeah and what about Dad? He’s been on that farm, growing it into something. I’m not fond of the idea of throwing that away on him,” I answered back.

“Bentley, I hate to sound like an ass or an ungrateful son, but when Dad got hurt it kind of left him without an option. It’s no different than someone having a heart attack and having to leave his job early. Dad was just handed an early retirement.”

“When did you get so smart, little brother?” I questioned.

“When my big brother became my best friend,” Travis answered simply.

I smiled over to him, “First one to hit five miles picks the weight training routine.”

TRAVIS AND I left the gym all sweaty, “Dude, you stink,” he said, pushing me away from him.

“It’s not like you smell any better, little douche bag,” I taunted, shoving him back.

“At least I smell manly, you just smell like an old jock strap.” I grabbed my brother in a headlock and started giving him a noogie.

“Don’t be an asshole, Bentley.”

“I’m not. I’m just being your older brother,” I said letting him go, “What do you want to do now?”

“Maggie’s?”

“No, I was there for lunch.” I tried to sound causal.

“Oh right, Whitney mentioned you went there for lunch. She also mentioned you were there with a pretty lady named Haley.”

“Get that smug look off your face, Travis. We just had lunch after running some errands for the farm.”

“Riiight,” Travis snickered while hopping into the truck.

Driving my brother back to the farm, I decided to go check on the cows and see if the damn bull finally decided to make his way back to them. “When was the last time anyone checked to see if that bull went back with the herd?”

“I think the last time is when you did it. I was going to check when I got home.”

I raised my eyebrow, “Want to go with me, we can take the four wheelers out?”

Bentley
: I hate to do this, but I have to cancel our date today
L

Haley
: Why?

Bentley
: Damn bull got out and we need to get him back in.

Haley
: Have fun with that, lol.

Bentley
: I’ll make it up to you
J

Haley
: Bentley, it’s fine really, I understand. We’ll have our date the next chance we get, okay?
J

Bentley
: sorry
L

Haley
: lol no puppy eyes! I’ll talk to you later.

Bentley:
later.

It finally stopped raining on Friday, so after letting things dry on Saturday, I decided to tackle the sheds and scrape off all the old paint after church. I put my hair up in a ponytail, wore some old jean shorts that have seen better days with tons of holes in them, and a tank top. Then grabbed my flip-flops and sunglasses, making sure to fill up a water bottle.