Page 100 of That One Night
Frank pushed against her hand, clearly wanting more stroking. She covered his head with both hands, petting him, a smile pulling at her lips, when the sound of an engine coming from the main road pulled her attention.
It was Hendrix’s truck. Her heart started to speed, because she hadn’t seen or heard from him all day. She knew they were busy harvesting, but it felt like a balm to her soul to see him pull into his driveway and climb out of his car.
“Hey.” She gave him a wide smile, because yes, her life was a clusterfuck right now, but he was the one good thing in it.
Okay, there were a lot of good things. But this man was definitely the best.
He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, the action squaring his shoulders, and walked over to where she was cuddling Frank.
“Hi.” There was an awkwardness to him. She assumed because her mom could be looking.
“How was your day?” she asked him.
“Long. Yours?”
“Pretty terrible. I spent most of it trying to track down a lawyer to get me out of this lien.”
He blinked but said nothing.
“Nobody is calling me back, of course. I hate the way life moves so slowly here sometimes. I just need this to be over.”
He nodded, looking strangely thoughtful.
“Hopefully, I’ll get to speak to somebody tomorrow,” she continued, barely noticing that he wasn’t replying. Was barely looking at her, actually. His gaze was set over her shoulder, but his eyes were hazy.
Like he was caught in his own mind.
“Sorry for going on about it, you must be tired. How’s the harvest?”
“We were picking sweetcorn.” He looked down at the earth, at the work boots he was wearing, covered in brown dust. “Emery…”
“Is everything okay?”
They both spoke at the same time. And she gave a little laugh, but he didn’t.
“I just…” He shook his head. “I think we should cool things a bit.”
Emery blinked, his words taking a moment to sink in. “Of course. Though I think we’re doing pretty good at keeping this thing under wraps.”
He shook his head, still not meeting her gaze. “I mean… it’s all a little fast, right?” He took a breath, then blew the air out. “You’re just out of a relationship. You and I are going to be living hours apart in a few weeks. Maybe we should take a break. Give you a chance to concentrate on getting the farm sold.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you breaking up with me?” she asked, her voice low. It was impossible to hide the hurt on her face.
He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m not good with words. I told you that.”
“Yeah, and you hide behind that,” she told him. “If you want to split, say so.”
God, this was the last thing she was expecting. And maybe that’s why it felt like her chest was being crushed.
“I don’t understand,” she managed to whisper. “You said you were all in. That you’d be here for me.”
He winced at the pain in her voice. “I’ll always be here for you,” he told her. “Just… as a friend.”
“I don’t need any more friends, Hendrix,” she told him. “I have enough.” She shook her head, the realization washing through her. He was ending their relationship because she was too much. Her situation was too much. He wasn’t willing to fight for her, and that hurt.
But she still had her pride. It might be the only thing she had left. And she was damned if he was going to take that from her, too. “I guess that’s it then,” she said, giving Frank one last stroke. The goat nuzzled her like he knew something bad was happening. “I’ll see you around.”
She turned, managing to stop the tears from falling. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing that.One foot in front of the other, she told herself.Just keep walking.
