Page 80 of Love Off-Limits
“Keep us posted, okay?” Rosie said. “And let us know if there’s anything we can do for you.”
“We love you, man.” Isaac’s warmth and sincerity came through the phone loud and clear.
My breath hitched and caught in my throat, but I swallowed it down, pressing my fingers to my forehead. It had been an emotional day, but I was not about to cry on the front porch of the bunkhouse over missing my best friend.
“Thanks, guys.”
I ended the call and dropped the phone onto my lap before rocking back and closing my eyes, my arms stretched over my head.
Memories of Olivia flooded my mind. I filtered through them, resisting the urge to linger on the ones where her lips had been on mine in favor of the ones of her talking about the restaurant, the way she envisioned it, what she believed it could be. The good light was gone for the day, but I made a mental list of the shooting I’d need to get done this week, hopefully sooner than later.
At the very least, it would help keep me occupied since Olivia no longer could.
***
Kelly walked me out to the east pasture the following morning, Samson and Sergeant close behind. We didn’t talk much as we went; if the look in her eyes was any indication, she was uncomfortable. She hadn’t seemed bothered by the kiss when we’d talked on Saturday, so why would she be weird about it now?
We finally stopped next to a pile of fence posts, and some weird contraption that looked like a two-sided rounded shovel. Kelly picked it up. “You ever use one of these?”
I shook my head no.
“It’s a post-hole digger. You shove it into the ground like so, pull the handles apart like this, then pull the dirt out and do it again.”
“Okay. Seems easy enough.”
She raised an eyebrow. “It’s tougher when the ground is hard, but with all the rain we’ve had, it might not be too bad.” She pointed toward the south end of the pasture where I’d found Penelope during the storm. “The new fence is going to skirt the treeline right at the edge of the pasture until it gets to that big rock off to the left of the oak tree. You see it?”
I nodded.
“From there, it’ll cut left and stay on this side of where the hill is the steepest. There’s another fence back in the woods a ways, and we’ve always relied on that to keep the goats safe. But it’s made of metal posts and barbed wire, and it isn’t in great shape. We think Penelope tangled with the fence when she hurt her leg. That’s motivation enough to get the new fence up.”
I looked down the long slope of hillside. “And I’m digging all these on my own?”
“James and Trey will be out in a bit to start putting in the actual fence.”
That sounded like more fun than digging the holes, but I wouldn’t complain.
“I just thought after...” She shrugged. “I just thought you might want a job where you didn’t have to interact with other people. I don’t like interacting with other people when I’m sad,” she said simply.
I narrowed my gaze. “Why would I be sad?”
Her eyebrows popped up. “Oh. I mean, maybe you’re not. I just...after I talked to Olivia, I assumed...” She held her hands up. “But hey. I shouldn’t assume—”
“What did Olivia say?”
She shook her head and took a step backward. “I really don’t think I should be in the middle of this. She just gave me the impression that she ended things. That’s all.”
My heart dropped and tumbled down the hill behind me. That’s not how I remembered my conversation with Olivia.
“Honestly, I half-expected you to be gone this morning.” Samson dragged over an oversized stick and Kelly picked it up and tossed it into the pasture for him to fetch.
“Gone?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re not the typical farmhand, Tyler. I think everyone has just assumed you’ve been here because of her.”
I watched the dogs as they fought over the stick. “She was definitely part of it.”
“But not all of it?”
