Page 7 of Talon
Billy was big enough, and strong enough, that she had no doubt that the only way she’d be able to escape him, even with a gun on her side, was to be able to catch him by surprise.
When she’d put the letter in the file with the others, she took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.She needed to push this out of her mind and focus on eating dinner.She decided a hot bath, a glass of wine, maybe a couple of hands of solitaire and a couple of chapters would be perfect.
After pouring the wine, she took it and her phone into the bathroom where she started the water in the tub, adding some scented salts, then fetched her reader before stripping down.She’d already stepped into the tub and let the steaming water rise up around her when she picked up her phone, thinking maybe scrolling through her social media would be more relaxing than a card game, but never made it that far.The notification of an unread text message caught her eye instead.
Talon had messaged her.She glanced at the timestamp and saw that he’d sent it several hours before, while she’d still been at work.
**Talon: How’s your day going?
Madison typed out a response, then erased it and started over.By the time she hit send, she’d rejected more than a half dozen replies.In the end she went with:
**Madison: Just found this.Long day, but I’m trying to unwind.How was your day?
The comforting scents of lavender and vanilla filled the air as she stared at the screen for several seconds, hoping he’d text her back, but since it had been so long since his message, she didn’t have much hope.He was probably busy.He’d said he worked on a ranch, and she knew ranching was a lot of work.He was probably busy and wouldn’t get a chance to even see the message for a while yet.She forced herself to navigate away from her text app and instead open her social media.
But that didn’t last long.She scrolled for less than a minute before she found herself staring off into the distance, thinking about Talon.
No.This was getting her nowhere.She put down her phone and picked up her reader, determined to get at least a page or two read.But when her phone chirped a few minutes later, she realized she’d read the same paragraph at least three times and still had no idea what it said.Putting down the reader she grabbed her phone and checked the notification.
Her heart raced as she hit the icon to open the app.There was his name on her screen, with only the first few words visible.The world seemed to fade away, the heat from the tub, the scent of her bath salts, it all seemed to vanish as she opened the message.
**Talon: Busy but I was thinking of you.Anything I can do to help you unwind?
**Madison: I can think of a couple things that would help, but I’m not sure how you would do them from there.
She stared at the screen for a couple of seconds, wondering if she was being too forward.She hit send before she could have any more second thoughts and erased the message.Instead of waiting for him to respond she typed out another message, and again, hit send before she could second guess herself.
**Madison: It’s just been a stressful day.A little time to unwind and I’ll be good again.
She laid the phone on the edge of the tub and tilted her head back against the wall as she closed her eyes and forced herself to take a deep breath and hold it for several seconds before letting it out slowly.Even going so far as to ignore the chirp of her phone from an incoming message, at least until she was through exhaling.She wished for a moment she could reach the knots in her back or maybe that someone was around who could help her with them.Billy might be willing, but she didn’t want to be in the same room as him, much less let him touch her.
The image of Talon kneading her stiff muscles, neither of them wearing shirts, flashed in her head sending a warm sensation through her.She could almost feel his hands on her skin, which was ridiculous.She didn’t think he’d even touched her in the whole time she’d known him.
Wow.That was something she hadn’t planned for.Talon didn’t give her the creepy feeling she got when she saw or even thought about Billy.That could be at least partly because they didn’t have the history she had with her father’s friend.
A shudder passed through her despite the heat of the water that came halfway up her torso.She hated thinking about Billy and how much he’d changed in the last couple of years.
No, she wasn’t going to let herself go there, not again, not today.As a distraction from the direction her thoughts kept trying to take her in, she picked up her phone and checked the message that had just come in.
**Talon: I’m sorry you had a rough day.Want to tell me about it?I can call or we can do it this way, if you’re more comfortable with texting about it.
Did she want to share?Or was it too much like dwelling on the issue?She hated to drag someone else into her trouble, but she needed to tell someone.Maybe he’d have some helpful advice, other than the police and their stupid, ‘there’s nothing we can do.’
**Madison: Are you sure you want to hear about my drama?It’s not any fun and I don’t want to drag you down by telling you all my troubles.
While she was typing that up, another message came in from Talon.
**Talon: I’m here if you want to talk to someone.I want to be here for you.
She stared at the screen for a moment trying to decide what she should tell him, if anything.She didn’t want to dump on him, but the more he said something about wanting to be there for her, the more she wanted to share, at least part of it.
It took her several minutes to type it all up and the message ended up being more than a screen long.When she hit send, she set her phone aside where it wouldn’t get splashed then slid down and dunked her head under the water.It would take him a few minutes to read, much less respond, and since the water was cooling, she needed to shower off the soap and get out.It was a great way to give him time without overthinking whether or not she should have done it.
7
Talonsatinoneof the recliners in the bunkhouse main room, feet up and a beer on the table next to him as he waited for Madison to reply.From how long the bubbles had danced on the screen, he could only hope she’d decided to tell him what was going on.He looked up at the TV where a couple of his brothers were playing some war game where they were on one team stalking their enemy through the digital city, but he wasn’t sure as he was only barely paying attention.
He'd been watching them for a while, but he had no idea how long when his phone vibrated in his hand.He pulled up the screen and found that Madison had actually been typing out a message and it was a long one.
