Page 36 of Butter You Up
But a noise breaks through my foggy brain—voices. Alex hears it the same time I do; in one smooth move, my feet are back on the ground. He wipes his face and adjusts himself in his jeans. I straighten my shirt and fix my hair.
The voices are Ethan and Lia walking back to their cabin. One of them shushes the other, and I distinctly hear Alex’s name.
“I should go.”
I look up at Alex. His voice is rough and gravelly.
“Okay,” I agree. Dinner’s waiting for me, and nearly getting busted by Alex’s family is a wake-up call. I’m mixing family dynamics I don’t understand and putting both my jobs on the line. I’m glad that Alex came to dinner without me having to ask him, and I don’t want to get between him and his family’s delicate relationship, even if it does seem to be improving.
“See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow,” I echo, and Alex walks off into the night.
CHAPTER21
ALEX
I’m not avoiding Molly,per se. Kissing her was probably not the right move, but hearing Molly call methat friendmeans she’d told her book club about me. Plus, her talking about sex and pining felt like a hint that I took advantage of.
It was a hint, right?
Either way, it was dumb for me to kiss her. Our first kiss was something sweet that could have been brushed off. But this one cannot be ignored. It was too smoking hot and too inappropriate.
I’m up at the hilltop, and she’s down in the farm shop.
I’m her boss, she’s my employee.
But instead of being decisive and firm, I avoid the topic entirely by working late, which is nothing new. At least I have a good excuse; I have to spend some time figuring out how to add strawberry milk to our online store so that the CSA customers can place their orders. It’s been a while since I’ve added a new product.
Then it’s the same story with our newsletter, which I draft and meticulously check for typos and then send a preview to Colleen, who, even though she teaches children who can’t write yet, is a better writer than I am.
I should probably turn this over to Molly or Kit, but then I wouldn’t have an excuse to hide in my office, would I?
I run out of excuses on Thursday, though. After breakfast, Kit said he had something to do, so I’m doing chores all on my own this morning. It sure is quieter without Kit, and despite years of doing my chores in silence, I miss his chatter.
After walking through the calf hutches, I head toward the gentle lowing of the cows in the milking robot. Trixie follows at my heel but nudges me before I take the first step into the building.
I look down at her. She stares back up at me.
Hmm.
I glance around, back to the barn, then run my eyes along as much of the pastures as I can see. Nothing seems amiss until my eyes land on the farm shop.
Molly shouldn’t even be here yet, so it makes no sense that I see movement. It makes even less sense that I see Ethan’s truck parked out front. I stride down the driveway, and when I get close enough, I recognize that Molly, Ethan, and Kit are all down there, moving a bunch of white objects from Ethan’s truck into the farm shop.
The first to spot me is Kit, who gives me a big grin, totally unrepentant about whatever he’s up to. Then Ethan comes out and ignores my flummoxed expression with a head nod. Lastly, Molly comes out, and when she sees me, her cheeks, already pink from exertion, flush a deeper shade of red, and she smiles.
I have to force my mouth down into a frown so I don’t smile like a goober in front of my brother. “What’s this?”
Molly puts her hands on her hips, eyes narrowing at my frown. “The farm shop redesign. You told me I could have Kit.” Her chin tilts up a little in defiance.
I did. I suppose she’s suckered Ethan into free labor, too. The white things they are moving are freshly painted wooden shelves and the large structures that are going to contain the coolers. They’ve even got decorative vent covers in the front. It looks fancy.
“You already built and painted everything?”
I tell myself it’s fine that she didn’t need my help. I was too busy anyway.
“We did it at Bedd Fellows in the pole barn since there’s space.”
