Page 65 of Feels Like Falling
“We’ve just never gotten along and?—”
“He’s scared of them,” Ellison says with a grin.
“I have a healthy respect for their personal space,” I counter and she snorts. “Ellison bet me I wasn’t faster than them in a foot race.”
“Hoof race.” Archer snickers and so do the girls.
“And that I couldn’t run from one side of the paddock to the other before one caught up to me.”
“And?” Bea asks, practically vibrating with anticipation at my obvious demise.
“I wasn’t watching where I was goin’ and one of ’em ended up blocking my path to the fence as the others kept racing toward me. I made a break for it, but one of the little fuckers bit me on the ass as my foot hit the bottom board of the fence.”
“Ripped half the seat of his jeans right off,” Ellison adds helpfully.
“Well, your experience is duly noted and your sacrifice appreciated,” Bea replies solemnly a half second before both girls dissolve into giggles. It’s adorable, and I can’t help but smile as they move toward the fence and proceed to name all the goats things like Lavender, Apricot, Cornbread, and a half dozen other food-inspired items I’m bound to forget.
“You love her?” Archer asks quietly as his eyebrows climb into his hairline. Before Bea, we never would have had a conversation like this—funny just how much a woman can change your life.
“Feels a lot like falling,” I say honestly as Hermie’s big head nudges at my hand. I’ve loved Ellison Mills my whole life. I loved her as the girl next door and my best friend and the girl who was determined to give me a heart attack simply because it was a Tuesday and she needed to let loose.
I’ve loved her platonically.
Romantically.
I’ve beenin lovewith her a while.
But I’ve never gotten the chance to fall for her.
“I’m happy for you,” he says, his gaze locked on Bea. “I always knew you’d find this but me?” He chuckles softly. “I never thought I’d find it at all, let alone first.”
“Of course you would have,” I scoff, but he just shakes his head.
“Relationships come naturally to you—people and love; it’s all the same. You make it easy, man. You make people feel seen and heard. You never gave up on me.” Now it’s my turn to scoff, but he just shakes his head as he says, “If you hadn’t claimed me as family,”—he waves his hand around—“I wouldn’t be here.”
“Youarefamily,” I say not because he’s blood but because to me he justis, “and you’re bein’ dramatic. How many people do you think would take me seriously about opening up a realty business in a small college town?”
“So you’re callin’ me a chump?” he asks, humor plain in his tone.
“Definitely.”
He snorts. “My bank account says otherwise.”
“Imagine if you’d let mereallypick the name.” I pause for effect. “I bet we could have tripled our income.”
“Only because people would think we were running a brothel in Nowhere, Tennessee.”
“Discretion is key I’ve been told.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure they would have been more than a little disappointed to learn theHarness and Hoewas not some underground sex club.”
In reality, I’d had no intention of making our business sound like a southern brothel, but it had been a hell of a lot of fun getting Archer riled up over it. We’d settled on Sundown Realty as an ode to “Ain’t Going Down Till The Sun Comes Up” by Garth Brooks.
The man is a legend, and I’d only had to sing one and a half verses before Archer gave in and Sundown Realty was born.
While the fields of cotton were profitable, it wasn’t a sure bet. Weather, soil conditions, and a host of other factors played a role in our ability to keep the farm running year after year. We’d been lucky, keeping a hand in livestock to help supplement the need for more help as Grandad had stepped back from the heavy lifting. Archer’s situation had been more dire than mine, having lost half his soybean crop the prior harvest.
We’d made a plan and taken a risk that would have put us in a hole we never would have been able to crawl out of…but it worked.
