Her daughter Abby’s birthday was coming up.
She shrugged. “I’m fine. Busy. Ready for Abby to start school, that’s for sure.”
Abby was going into kindergarten, the first of many milestones Calvin wouldn’t see. It hurt. And it made him angry. “Seriously, Missy—”
“Don’t.” She blinked hard. “I’m fine, Cary. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Do you talk to anyone?” She didn’t have many friends. He didn’t know if she preferred it that way or if she was too consumed with the ranch.
She opened her truck door and hopped in. “I’m talking to you, aren’t I?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure that counts.”
She slammed the truck door shut. “Sure it does.”
“Melissa, don’t—”
“I gotta go.”
She started the truck, and the engine drowned out his words.
Stop hiding,he wanted to say.
Let yourself grieve.
Let yourself miss him.
I do.
He looked at her,her body worn out by hours of labor, rocking back and forth on her mother’s porch with a bottle of beer propped between her knees. Her skin was pink from the sun. She’d stripped off her long-sleeved shirt and was finally relaxing in a tank top and jeans, her feet kicked up and resting on the porch rail.
She was sweaty and dirty. It did nothing to detract from her beauty. Her skin glowed and her eyes were dancing. She was exhausted, but she was smiling. He hadn’t seen her look so alive in months.
He wanted to kiss her.
He didn’t. Of course he didn’t. It was just a spontaneous reaction to seeing her so happy for the first time in what seemed like forever. That was all.
Keep telling yourself that, idiot.
“We got a lot done,” Melissa said.
“We did.”
“Tomorrow, you think?”
“Yeah.” He rolled his sleeves up and pushed the rocking chair back and forth with his toe. “I think by tomorrow they’ll be done. You’ll have some that won’t take. You know that, right?”
She nodded. “Second season.”
“Maybe a few in the third. By the fourth, you should have a solid grove of pretty little mandarins.” He reached his beer bottle across and clinked the neck with hers. “Congratulations, Melissa Rhodes. You’re officially a citrus grower.”
Her smile lit up the night. “Thanks, Cary. For everything.”
Two years later…
The rain was pouring down,and she could barely see him through the sheets of water. Cary had never been very graceful on a horse, but he was a competent enough rider that he could make it over the hills.
“How’d you find me?” she yelled.