Page 32 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

Where the crap was he, anyway? And was he thinking of her at all?

She shook her head, trying to rid it of Brandon . . . no . . .randomthoughts, and reminded herself of the podcast she’d listened to this morning about mindfulness. She needed to be in the moment.

Jo squealed and clapped a hand to her mouth. “Oh no.”

“What?” Allie pushed Honey’s two-ton head out of her lap with some effort and leaned forward to get a better look at whatever it was that’d freaked her sister out. Honey swatted a massive paw at her, but she caught it before he landed it hard on her thigh.

“I’m supposed to pick up my dress in Charlottesville on the same day I scheduled to meet with Lark Lavender Fields out by the county line,” Jo said. That was where they got their honey lavender—Allie’s favorite honey. And Allie loved that place. It was magical.

“No worries. I can do one; just tell me which,” Allie said. Honey nuzzled under her arm with his wet nose and she jumped and rubbed at the wet spot.

“Well, you can’t get my dress, because they’ll be double-checking that it fits right . . .”

“Then I’ll go Lark’s,” she said.

Honey rolled over on his back and she scratched his belly.

Jo nodded. “That makes sense. It’s just that . . .”

“What?”

“They hold weddings there, and I wanted to check it out.”

So she wasn’t using the Haddocks’ farm, then? Allie cringed and leaned back on her hands. She’d forgotten to ask about that when Jo had gone a couple of weeks ago. Mindful. “I can take pictures, ask whatever questions you want asked. Or you can reschedule.”

Jo chewed on her lip. “No, no. That won’t be necessary. I trust you to look at it. We’ve always wanted the same thing when it comes to weddings. You’ll know if it’s the right place. You got this.”

Allie smiled, but she felt a tiny tug of regret. This was being a grown-up. Grown-ups didn’t hold on to childhood fantasies about double weddings with their twin sisters.

Allie tossed and turned through the night, trying not to wake Jo. They had to share the bed here, forcing Jessie and Caroline to share Caroline’s bed in her room. Her cousins were seriously the sweetest. They didn’t mind one bit, and they never once made them feel like they were an imposition.

She was so fidgety that Honey finally got irritated enough to get off the queen bed and go onto the floor to sleep. “Sorry, buddy.”

He gave her a dirty look and circled into a nice spot at the foot of the bed.

At least Jo seemed to be sleeping through it.

As much as Allie was desperate to get Brandon out of her mind, she just couldn’t do it. Was he avoiding her? She’d thought they were past that. Weren’t they trying to be friends? The word settled weirdly around her. Friends. She’d called him that on more than one occasion. They were friends. He’d been one of the best friends she and Jo had ever had. Yet it didn’t sound quite right.

She stared at his flannel, which she’d hung over the back of Jessie’s desk chair, and she was tempted to get it and snuggle into it. But she couldn’t. That’d be weird, and her sister would see what she’d done when they woke up.

Instead, she grabbed a pillow and pulled it tight over her head. This was getting ridiculous. Why was this so complicated? She tossed the pillow off, hitting Jo, who moaned. She cringed and pulled the pillow back, then waited to see if her sister would move. She didn’t. Allie breathed a sigh of relief.

That was it. She couldn’t take it anymore. She knew where he lived, for crying out loud. She could just pop over there tomorrow morning and see how he was.

Maybe he wasn’t avoiding her at all. Maybe Pete had stayed on a few days and he was entertaining his friend. Maybe he’d been taking care of important stuff on the farm. It was the time of year when tons of things needed to be done. And if she needed an excuse, she could just tell him she was checking on the raspberry bushes on the property to make sure they hadn’t frozen. He had said they could put hives there.

That was a perfectly reasonable excuse to go. They’d gone to several of the farms where their hives were to check that the frost hadn’t killed the blooms.

Plus, the property was so huge, and he’d never been there through the spring before. He was bound to have some questions. Maybe he’d need help and she could offer him some advice?

Or maybe he’d gotten trapped under a bale of hay and had been stuck there for days.

Her eyes bulged at the thought of him trapped under a hundred-pound bale. Then she chuckled and shook her head. Like the man couldn’t lift it off with one finger. Pfft. She was clearly punch drunk. She needed sleep. She rolled to her side and breathed deep. Whatever was going on, she’d find out first thing.

She jumped out of bed and grabbed his flannel. It wasn’t like he’d know she’d slept with his shirt. She’d be the only one who’d know how weird she was, and she was totally fine with that if it meant she could have his delicious smell next to her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t sniffed his shirt several times over the last week, anyway.

Honey let out a loud snore as she climbed back in bed and snuggled Brandon’s flannel by her pillow.

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