Hold You In My Arms (Stevens book 9)

Chapter 15

Fiona had thought herself into a hole. She knew one of her biggest faults was to overthink things, and she was sure she had done it once again, but the rabbit hole she had fallen down was too deep and dark to drag herself out.

She had gone to bed and replayed all that had happened between her, Henry, and Alistair that afternoon. One thing had become very evident to her was that Henry hadn't seemed surprised or shocked that the family had come up with a couple's name for them. In fact, it had appeared to amuse him.

What was it Alistair had told her? Everyone had known she had a thing for Henry since the moment she had met him, which had to mean that Henry knew it too. Had their weekend together been about pity? She could imagine Henry's thoughts, 'poor Fiona, working at a life she doesn't like, the lost little rich girl who has no friends'.

Fiona tossed hay from the back of the trailer into the stall a little more forcefully as she got mad at herself all over again. Clayton had charmed her too, and she had fallen for it. She had been so stupid to fall for it a second time. Fiona was so wrapped up in her thoughts and self-doubt that she didn't hear anyone behind her, and when she spun to get the next scoop of hay, Tiny was suddenly in her way.

"Tiny, what's up?" she asked as she took a step back in surprise at his sudden appearance.

Tiny took his time, letting his glance roam from her toes to her hair. He was particularly interested in her hair as he reached out and grabbed a strand that had come loose and tugged at it.

"Stop it, Tiny. That's not appropriate." Fiona took another step back which was a mistake because it backed her right into the stall.

"Not appropriate. That's funny. You don't seem to be too worried about what's appropriate when Henry is around," Tiny threw back at her as he stepped towards her once more.

"Excuse me?" Fiona asked, convinced she had heard him wrong.

"Maybe I will, and maybe I won't. That all depends on how nice you're gonna be to me." He took another step toward Fiona, and she raised her pitchfork and put it in his gut.

"If you walk away right now, maybe I'll be nice enough to let you leave quietly." Fiona pushed hard on the pitchfork and caused Tiny to take a step back. "Or better yet, I won't run you through in self-defense with this pitchfork."

"I doubt you would treat Henry this way. I'm sure you were much nicer to him on the little trip that you took together." Tiny's mouth twisted in anger.

"You're right. I was much nicer to Henry, and he was nicer to me, and he respected what I wanted, and right now, I want you to walk away and leave my property." Fiona pushed a little bit more with the pitchfork causing Tiny to take a step back.

"Your property!" Tiny snorted. "It's your father's property, and you do a piss poor job of running it, that's for sure."

It was everything that Fiona never wanted to hear, as well as her worst fear realized. After all of her hard work, she still wasn't good enough. She wasn't good enough to have a man want her, she wasn't good enough to bring a child into the world, and she wasn't good enough to run her father's ranch. Nothing she ever did was good enough, and suddenly that thought made her mad at every man who had made her feel like she was less than they were. And here was good ole' Tiny ready to receive the brunt of her anger. Fiona couldn't think of a better person to take it out on.

"I'm only as good as the men and women who work here, and the first step to correcting that is to get rid of the likes of you." She rammed the pitchfork into his belly and pushed hard enough that Tiny started to walk backward, allowing her out of the stall.