Page 41 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

He laughed outright. Still an angel, just an agitated one.

“Why are you laughing?” When she came out the bathroom the second time, she was pulling her hair into a ponytail.

He shook his head. “Nothing, what’s got your goat?”

“If just one thing could go as planned this weekend, I’d feel a lot better.” She grabbed her now cold breakfast from off the bed and came to the kitchen. She put it in the microwave, and Cash cringed. He’d normally make a fuss. Microwaving eggs did not do them favors, but not today. She was stressed enough as it was.

“What brought that thought on?” he asked. It wasn’t like anything was going as planned yesterday, but she’d ultimately embraced it and Cash had felt confident by that night that the Warners would invest.

She leaned against the counter. “The whole reason we’re in this mess is because Allie and Tony decided to run off to escape their problems. It’s just, Allie said this impromptu trip of theirs had been Tony’s idea, and I just don’t get that.”

“Why not?” He was curious about this Tony. He couldn’t say the man had made all that great of an impression on him after he and Allie had abandoned Jo to deal with a situation that would’ve been tough even if they weren’t dealing with all the other things they were having to deal with right now. But he was still curious about him. What kind of man could win over a girl like Allie?

He’d have to have a lot of energy, that was for sure.

The microwave beeped, Jo pulled out the frittata he’d made her and sat next to him at the table. “He’s been so excited about this deal. He was responsible for every step, and he’d planned out the weekend with the Warners to the T. He even drew up the contracts.” She cut off a bite and gestured, waving the food through the air. “I mean, I read through it and stamped my approval before he sent it to them to look over, but it, this was his baby. He’s been so obnoxious about the whole thing; it just doesn’t make sense that he’d bail like that.”

A nagging idea, not fully formed, tugged at the back of Cash’s mind. She was right. That didn’t make sense. “Every thing’s going to work out.”

She swallowed and pointed her fork at him. “Still the optimist, I see.”

He grinned. “Is that how you saw me?”

She nodded. “Always.”

Chapter 14

While the fields where they kept their hives held some charm from the colorful trees in red, orange, and yellow surrounding them, the locations themselves were mostly dried up and brown by this time of year. Jo hadn’t considered that before bringing the Warners here. The more she showed them, the more bored they became, and it was left to Jo to describe the areas during the spring.

They only visited two of the three fields she’d planned, and luckily, she had a couple pictures of the lavender fields on her phone. She’d had to move one of her hives this last spring and had taken photos of where she wanted to put it to discuss it with Allie before they made the switch. Moving hives was a big deal and had to be handled with precaution so the bees wouldn’t get lost.

And there’d been Cash. He was so charming, so fun—like Allie in that respect—he had the Warners laughing and getting excited in the moments when she was sure she’d nearly lost them completely.

Jo felt a warmth in her chest every time she looked at him. As much as her pride wanted to take credit for everything they’d done the last two days, it was the business they wanted to invest in, she couldn’t deny that if Cash hadn’t shown up and pretended to be the Tony to her Allie, that the Warners probably would’ve left.

On the drive back, the Warners got caught up talking about all the marketing opportunities they wanted to implement in the back seat of Jo’s old farm truck. She and Cash sat in the front bench seat; he had his arm across the backrest as he drove them back into town. Even that had been a blessing because she really felt too exhausted to drive. At every turn since yesterday, he seemed to read her mind, or the situation, and had been there to help.

Jo sneaked a peek at him.

His expression was on the blank side of amused. He’d combed back his blond hair, little specks of gold shone in the afternoon sun, and he had a fresh shave. On Tuesday and Wednesday when she’d seen him, he’d been wearing clothes that were a little nicer than what most of the farmers in the town typically wore, but today he was in jeans meant for getting dirty and a hunter green flannel, and he wore them well.

A small chuckle came from him and she froze, her eyes slowly moving up over his figure to his face. He was smiling outright now. A smile like she remembered being on him all the time when they were kids, and it made her feel, homesick?

He’d always been a smiley guy. Always, even when his parents had spent the entire night arguing, even after he’d been caught in the middle, and even when he’d had to deal with issues far greater than what he should’ve had to for his age. That last year before he left, he’d gotten into fights, she knew because she was the one cleaning him up afterward, but she never once saw him get in a fight—never once saw him after a fight without a smile on his face. And suddenly, she wondered if that was because he’d been protecting her from the truth, like he was trying to do now.

And he had. Not just from the Warners, but from having to deal with this situation alone. And that hadn’t been the half of it. It occurred to her then she hadn’t thought about her dad or the loss of her family home since yesterday. He’d made her laugh and lifted her load when she’d needed it most. Just like he always had when they were kids.

She frowned.

His hand came down on her shoulder, and he glanced over at her. His look asking: You okay?

Before she could over think it, she slid across the bench seat and rested her head on his shoulder. For all the times she’d tensed up at his touch the last couple of days, she couldn’t help but laugh a little when this time he was the one to do so. He let go of a little laugh then, too, and dropped his arm around her.

“Aren’t you two the sweetest things ever?” Cynthia said.

“We try,” Cash replied.

And Jo couldn’t help but think just how true that statement was. They were great at trying—succeeding not so much. She knew that when she’d slid over next to him, she’d already weighed the pros and cons tons of times the day before. He was leaving on Sunday. But she just couldn’t bring herself to care about tomorrow.

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