Page 51 of Butterfly Sisters
When they reached the enormous tractor, he let her down and climbed the ladder to open the door. Elvis, apparently an old pro, hopped into the cab while Colton gestured for Leigh to climb up and get in. She complied, sliding onto the cool vinyl.
Colton started the engine, the massive machine lurching with a jolt and then, as if decidedly content, it began to roll quietly while Colton turned the wheel to line it up with the fields.
It felt as if she were flying, soaring through the air above the farm, a panoramic view of her entire childhood playground in front of her all the way out to the lake. “This is gorgeous,” she said over the soft growl of the blades behind them, which were dutifully tilling the ground.
“That’s why I thought you’d like it,” he said. “There’s nothing but unspoiled land as far as we can see. It’s what I love about living here.”
“I’d forgotten,” she admitted. “I stayed away so long that the memory of this life had become almost like an old dream. Thank you for reminding me.”
He grinned at her. “That’s what I’m here for.”
They drove along in silence for a while, back and forth across the cotton fields with nothing but water, rows of dirt, and blue sky as far as they could see.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Colton said as he steered them toward the lake. “I had you pegged wrong. I didn’t think you’d ever come back.”
“Why?” Leigh asked, taking in the square of his jaw and the way the little lines that formed around his eyes when he smiled lightened with his serious expression.
“I thought once you had a taste of city life, you’d never want to come back.”
“I do love it in New York,” she admitted. “But I’d like to find a way to merge my two lives.”
“That’s a big job,” he said. “I’m not sure you can bring the big city here.”
He had a point. It was as if she were divided into two distinct parts, and trying to fit them together wasn’t an easy task.
When Colton and Leigh entered the house, Ruby’s hands were under the stream of water at the sink, the savory smells of sage and butter filling the air. His mother grabbed a towel and dried her fingers, coming around the massive island to greet them.
Paul threw his hand up from the sofa, the Braves versus Cardinals baseball game on the large screen above the stone fireplace. “Hey, y’all.”
“Would you two like some sweet tea?” Ruby asked. “I just made a jug.” Leigh hadn’t answered, but Ruby was already over at Colton’s cabinets, pulling down two glasses.
Colton followed his mother to the other side of the island, giving her a kiss on the cheek before retrieving a dish of the cleaned fish from the refrigerator.
“Let’s take a look at that new grill,” Paul said, standing up and addressing his son. “Grab the butter and the salt and pepper, would ya?”
Ruby shook her head as Colton and his father went outside. “Colton is such a good boy,” she said, as if he were still twelve. “He listens to his dad, even though Colton knows good and well he can cook better than any of us.” She slid a glass of tea toward Leigh.
Pulling up a barstool, Leigh settled in across from Ruby. “I didn’t know he could cook. Where did he learn?”
“Well, it started with cooking classes that he took when he was dating a young lady a handful of years ago.”
Leigh shouldn’t have been as shocked as she was at the mention of another woman. Colton was incredibly attractive, single, and had done quite well for himself. He was the perfect catch, so it made sense that he’d have a healthy dating life. She ignored the twinge of unease the thought had caused as she considered hers.
“He never really knew he enjoyed cooking,” Ruby continued, wiping the counter with a dishrag. “But it just fit him. He’s so artistic, you know?”
“I never realized how creative he was growing up,” Leigh admitted. “He never let it show.” She wondered now if that was why he’d always understood Meredith, another invisible line now drawn between Leigh and Colton.
Ruby folded the rag and set it next to the sink. “I don’t think it occurred to him until later in life.”
Everyone seemed to be moving along, gaining these epiphanies about themselves, when she was stuck in the same place she’d been, unable to move forward.
“What’s the matter, dear?” Ruby asked.
Had her thoughts shown on her face? “Oh, it’s nothing,” she said. “I was just thinking.”
“Well, I always say that thoughts are just our voice itchin’ to get out.”
Steering clear of her personal woes, Leigh told Ruby about the cabin and how she and her mother were dealing with Meredith’s plan to change it, as well as her mother’s distress over it all. “By giving Meredith the cabin, Nan excluded both Mama and me. I know she had to have considered that when she decided to leave the cabin to Meredith.”
