Promise Canyon (Virgin River #13)(75)

"Lilly, I saw--"

"You don't know what you saw, Grandpa, and I don't feel like trying to explain it until I've had a chance to think it through. Please. Give me a little time and space."

"If he's wronged you, I will--"

"I know how far you'd be willing to go to avenge me, Grandpa. But this time I'm going to take care of myself. I'll check in later."

Then she called Annie. "I'm afraid I can't help you with lessons the rest of the week, Annie--I'm under the weather."

"Lilly, we all know something's wrong," Annie said. "You're not here, Clay is miserable, Gabe is upset, and everything is upside down. Won't you tell me?"

"Will Clay tell you?"

"He won't say anything and I'm worried."

"No need to worry, Annie. Just please excuse me from my commitment the next few days. I'm sure I'll be fine soon. I'll give you a call."

She stayed home from the feed store for a couple of days. Clay waited almost twenty-four hours before he started calling her cell. Despite her desire to ignore him, she listened to his voice mails--he left several. Lilly, I have things to explain to you, but you have to give me a chance. Lilly, maybe I was wrong not to tell you more about Isabel, but honestly I didn't want her in our lives. Please forgive me. Give me a chance. And her favorite, Lilly, you're giving up on us too soon--we only need to talk to make this right.

She just wasn't going to do it, wasn't going to trust him again only to find out he was lying. She didn't take his calls or return them.

On the second evening after their confrontation, Clay came knocking at her door. She crept to the door and told him to go away, but he persisted.

"Please, just talk to me. Fifteen minutes, that's all I ask, just fifteen minutes. You have to understand about Isabel--she looks like she has everything, but she doesn't have any of the important things, Lilly. She's insecure and in so many ways she's childlike."

Hmm, Lilly thought. I wonder how childlike her bank account is. Or how childlike she is in bed. "Go away. I'm not letting you in. I don't want to talk to you!"

"Lilly, you mean so much to me and I know you care about me, too. Let's work this out. Let's hear each other out, clear the air. I'll try to explain. I just need you to try to understand.... We'll start over. We can't let this thing we have end so soon. Not now, not when we're just getting started."

She had to admit this was a vast improvement over the boy who said, "Baby? Well it can't be mine!"

But having him bang at her door threw her and she lost her mind. She wanted him to know she meant business, that she wouldn't be a naive little girl both he and Isabel could manipulate! So after she called the Fortuna police, she went into her bedroom and closed the door. She heard him pounding on the door, but his voice, which tempted her and angered her at the same time, was blissfully muffled.

And she thought, What have I done? What if they take him to jail? If anything could bring a final end to their relationship, calling the police on him would surely be it!

Clay had been knocking and talking for about twenty minutes when the squad car pulled up in front of Lilly's house. A cop equal to Clay in size got out, sauntered up to him and asked, "Sir? Did the lady ask you to leave?"

"I haven't done anything wrong," Clay said.

"You're creating a disturbance and it looks like you might be harassing her. How about you either leave or we go to the station and talk about this?"

"Damn," he said.

"Buddy, you gotta leave the girl alone. She's not into you, all right?"

"Yeah," he said, hanging his head. "Am I free to just go?"

"I'd like you to go. By the way, in case there's any confusion, Mr. Tahoma, I ran your plate and the young lady told the dispatcher where you work, so let's not give the woman any more trouble. We on the same page here?"

"Same page," he said over his shoulder as he headed for his truck.

And inside, Lilly lay on her bed and, for the first time since their dreadful confrontation, she cried.

Fifteen

When the phone rang in the office of the Jensen Clinic, Nathaniel picked it up, even though his assistant was in the same room working on the computer.

"Dr. Jensen," he answered. "I'll see if he's available, Isabel. Hold the line, please." He punched the hold button, turned to Clay and said, "It's Isabel. For you."

Clay nodded and reached for the phone.

"Clay," Nate said. "I can step out."

Clay thought about this for just a second, then nodded and said, "Thank you." He waited for Nate to leave the small office before he connected with the call. "Hello, Isabel."

"Well, hello," she said. "I hope you've simmered down a little."

"What's on your mind?"

She laughed lightly. "I'd have to be blind, deaf and stupid not to see that I really pissed you off. I've never seen you so angry, certainly not with me, certainly not from some offhand remark about an Indian girl! We had talked about this stuff before and you said the term was not offensive to you. I called to make amends."

"Forgiven," he said.

"But Clay, I'm still not sure what I did, what I said," she argued.