Page 64 of Forgotten Desires

“But what?” Crew asks.

I can’t un-ring this bell so there’s no point in making this into his problem.

“We need to be back by Monday. I heard back from the charity, and they want to do an interview at noon.”

Crew sits beside me. “That’s great.”

“It is. I know we got married so that we’d have the insurance, but when your assistant explained what they covered, it wasn’t everything. Hopefully the charity will cover the remainder of it. If not, it’ll be fine.” I take another bite and fight back a moan inspired by the best donut I’ve ever had.

I don’t know who the wedding planner used, but these are amazing.

“You’re not paying a dime,” he says without room for argument.

Gone is the girl loving her donut. My inner lawyer is riled because I can always find an opening to argue. “Neither are you. I didn’t marry you for money. I married you so that we can help the people we love.”

“And you’re my wife now, which means there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that I’m not going to take care of you.” He shrugs.

After putting my sugar delight on the table, I pull my legs up under me. “Taking care of me doesn’t mean paying my bills. It’s things like this, Crew. It’s bringing me medicine because you know I had a rough day, making sure I don’t go into that surgery alone, being the someone who cares about me who’s there. That’s what I want, not your money.”

He releases a deep sigh. “I’m not going to fight with you about this.”

“Good, neither am I.”

His blue eyes find mine. “I think we have different ideas about what the ending of the argument is.”

I smile. “I’m sure we do. Now, are you ready for Sugarloaf? It’s your quintessential small town, full of nosey neighbors and people all up in your business.”

He laughs, but there’s a hardness in his jaw. “So it’s different from the nosey snobs who are in my business now or the camera crew that’s been following us around all week? I think small-town people are exactly what we need.”

Yeah, I think he has a very different view of what that looks like, but I miss my animals so I’m not going to argue the point.

“If you say so.”

“I do, besides, it’ll give us some alone time, which we haven’t had since we got engaged. Layla will love the farm and we will have time to reset a little.”

“Oh, yes, nothing like doing a reset on a farm that needs work.”

“You keep saying that, but isn’t that the point of the farm?”

I let out a breath through my nose. “Yes, but Second Chances is different. There are more chores than hands and every animal there has a special need to some extent. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. I love helping them, loving them, giving them a second chance, but I can only imagine the state it’s in with me being gone. Rowan is great and all, but he’s not exactly the ‘sit on the floor with the goats and tell them they’re pretty’ kind of caretaker.”

“I’m not sure any guy is going to do that.”

I shrug. “Well, Desiree needs to have her leg rubbed with the oils or it gets tight.”

“Desiree?” he asks.

“The sheep who has arthritis,” I explain and move on. “Toby can only eat grain once a week or he gets gas.” Crew’s brows pinch and I smile. “He’s my donkey. The alpacas don’t like rain and I have coats for them, but Rowan will never put them on, so I’m sure they’re a mess, and the chicken coop is at its max capacity and is being held together by duct tape at this point. Asher and I were going to work on fixing it in the next few weeks.”

“I’ll help,” Crew says, and I laugh.

“Help what?”

“We’ll get them all set up this weekend.”

I stare at him, wondering what planet he just came from. “Have you ever worked on a farm?”

“No.”

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