Page 91 of Make it Real
Too close, really, for good harvesting, but I wasn’t in the mood to give him lessons on things he should have already known.
“Sorry. It’s been a long day.”
He nodded, still watching me warily. “Things okay out here?”
I shrugged and went on picking. Nothing had changed at the farm. Absolutely nothing. I hadn’t had my talk with Pop. Figured one heart-wrenching experience a week was all I could handle. I had no more idea what he wanted from me than I ever did. Considering he was still doing all the background work and as much of the labor as he could get his hands on, sure didn’t seem like he wanted me to run the farm, after all.
Maybe I hadn’t been sure I could handle it, but damn, just now, I needed it. I needed to know I had something left to hold onto.
“Annie wants to have you and Callie down for dinner some night in the next week or two. You know the boys can’t get enough of her. Just let me know when you’re available.”
I made a sound of acknowledgement but kept on picking. Callie and I would be unavailable for joint dinner dates indefinitely.
“Think she’d be willing to teach Annie how to do that needlepoint stuff she does? Annie’s looking for a new hobby.”
“Maybe.” Callie’d probably love to show her how, but it wasn’t my place to say so. We were only friends now. I didn’t like it.
Yes, I wanted to be her friend, but at the same time, no part of me wanted that. I wantedeverything. Just couldn’t have it.
“What’s got you so mum about her all of a sudden? Don’t tell me June’s wedding scared you off.”
I climbed back down to the ground and set the box with the others. “Didn’t scare me off, I just don’t know what Callie’s schedule is like. Annie should probably take that up with her.”
“Huh.” Wade climbed down after me. “So it did scare you off.”
“How did you get that from what I said?”
“I’ve only known you my whole life.”
I moved my mostly empty fruit box of the stack to the back of the ATV, even though driving anywhere with it would be a total waste of time. “Can we let this go?”
“Which part’s got you panicking?”
“I’m not panicking.” My heart rate begged to differ, but Wade didn’t know it.
“Really? Because it looks to me like you’re freaking out over finally falling in love.”
“Drop it.” I took a step nearer to him, dangerously close to turning this into something physical. “Now.”
He stared me down, his eyebrows pulling together and creases forming around his frown. “Why are you acting like you want to fight me? We can, if that will make you feel better, but it might be easier if you tell me what’s going on.”
I sighed, backing away. He wasn’t the one I wanted to fight. I’d been beating myself up for days now and hadn’t gotten nearly enough hits in. Admitting the truth would hurt in all new ways, but maybe I needed that pain.
“It was all fake with Callie.” I couldn’t get the words off my tongue fast enough.
That only made him frown harder. “What do you mean? What part?”
“All of it. We were never really dating.”
“I don’t follow. You went out. You brought her to June’s wedding. How is that not dating?”
From his blank look, I had to guess firemen didn’t experience the same marriage of convenience phenomenon that soldiers did.
“It was all for her grandma. Before that night at The Broken Hammer, Callie asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend to get her grandma off her back. You saw the kind of guys Suzie and her friends were setting her up with. She thought if she had a boyfriend, her grandma would move and ride off into the sunset, I don’t know.”
“Okay, that’s her reason. What was yours? Why would you just pretend to date her?”
“Why wouldn’t I want to help her out? She’s a ray of sunshine in human form. Her heart’s too big for her own good, and she’s not afraid to show it. She’s always going out of her way to help the people around her. Wasn’t hard to want to help her a little in return, take care of her for a minute, soak up any time she’d give me.”
