Alpha Hayley's Destined Mate novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Off My Land

Lon didn't park in the lot.

He drove straight through the pit gate and out across my infield, and stopped the Cadillac on the grass by the flagstand.

He got out and came around to open the developer's door.

Lon put his hand on the man's back and walked him out onto the front stretch, pointing.

He swung his arm in a big slow circle.

My uncle has long arms. They're thin and brown, and his cuffs never reach his wrists.

I'd never thought about it in my life until that second.

Myra was standing beside me. She didn't say a word, and she didn't have to.

The crews on the infield had stopped work.

There were maybe twenty of them, my tow drivers and the gate boys and the women who run the water truck, all standing still with rakes and hoses in their hands.

Cleve stood by the flatbed and stared at his father.

His father hadn't looked at him once.

I picked up the jacket out of the clay and stuffed it back in the garbage bag.

Then I walked out onto my track.

Lon heard me coming and turned around with his whole big smile.

"There she is. Hayley, honey, I want you to meet a friend of mine."

The developer took off his sunglasses. He had soft hands and a very good watch.

"Ms. Rydell. I've wanted to talk to you for a long time. Your father and I never got very far."

"No," I said. "He told you no."

"He did." The man smiled. "Fourteen million is a lot of no. Your uncle's been very helpful about the drainage."

Lon put his arm around my shoulders.

He smelled like aftershave and hair oil.

I'd smelled that hair oil last night at the rail over the river, mixed with gun oil and sweat.

Half the old men in this valley comb their hair back with the same tin of grease from the same feed store.

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