Page 64 of The One for Me
Sean grins, and there is a devilish gleam in his eyes. “A present?”
“Close your eyes.”
He does.
I slip out of the bed, grab the item from under the bed, and then place it across his lap before sitting beside him. “Okay, open them.”
There sits an aluminum bat, complete with scuffmarks from being used for years, tape around the bottom that he put on it when the grip started to wear, and the initials S.A. carved on the bottom. He stares at it, turning it over while shaking his head.
“Dev?”
“A long time ago, a girl met a boy, and she gave him a bat. That boy became a man who was strong and wonderful, and somewhere along the way, she fell in love with him. When he left for college, he didn’t take the bat with him, but she did.”
“You kept this?”
I wipe away the tear that forms and nod. “The last night we had together before we both left, I saw it in the corner of your room. I can’t remember the last time you had actually used that bat since you had so many of them, but you had it there.” I point to the area.
“I couldn’t get rid of it.”
“Why?”
He comes closer, his thumb slides against my cheek. “I think you know why.”
I do. It was more than a gift to him. It was the first gift I ever really got him, and he loved the thought behind it and how much it meant for me to give him something from my heart. It meant something to both of us—a sign of love and affection. Maybe all that time I was hoping for this. Maybe we’ve been fighting something and it just wasn’t the right time.
“And that’s why I took it.”
“You’ve held on to this for nine years.”
“It was yours,” I say by way of explanation, hoping he understands.
Sean presses his lips to mine. “I’ve held on to you for twenty years, and, Dev, I’m never going to let you go.”
We kiss again, him rolling on top of me, his weight blanketing me from the cold in the air. I hold on to him as the kiss deepens.
I could see this being my new normal. The picture of the future becomes clearer. Sean and I living like this, laughing, and becoming something more than I ever dreamed of. But what happens when the picture fades or tears as our lives become complicated? I worry that this isn’t going to last. There are things that I’m not ready to share with him, and after everything he’s told me, I don’t know if we’ll endure my secret being exposed.
Chapter Nineteen
Sean
“Okay, so you’re saying that I need to get a new foreman?” I ask Zach as we talk over all the crap that Devney pointed out to me on the farm the other day.
There are issues with the fences, which is why we had a loss of livestock. The cows aren’t being moved properly, and she saw some issues in the actual dairy milking area.
I swear, fucking cows.
This isn’t something the four of us wanted. Ever. I didn’t dream of taking over my father’s farm. No, I wanted to burn it down.
Since two of the four of us have kept a share of the land, we might as well make the most of the assets we plan to sell. No one is going to come in here and take a smaller lot and substandard cows.
“I’m saying you have issues. Also, remember, I own a horse ranch, not a dairy farm. The information I’m givin’ you is just farm knowledge.” Zach’s Southern accent thickens on the end. “If you have those kinds of issues, then it’s the foreman’s head that needs to roll. Wyatt has been running Presley’s farm for years, and if he pulled half this shit, he would be out of work by now.”
“So, the foreman does what?”
Zach laughs. “Sean, you’re in way over your head, buddy.”
“No shit. Devney took me out two days ago, and I still don’t know where to start.”
