Page 13 of What Remains True
“Great. I’ll see you then. Want to do it at the bunkhouse or at my place? And don’t worry. This is just a neighborly act. I’m totally committed.”
“Oh? And she doesn’t mind?” Merry Anna wasn’t quite sure why that bothered her. Sure, it was flattering that he was choosing her, but she wasn’t looking for a relationship.
“Not like that. My commitment is to rodeo. I’ve got my eye on that title this year, and there’s no time for anything distracting.”
I’m a distraction?“I see. Well, we’d better bake at your house, because I’m pretty sure I don’t have everything we need.”
“Sounds like a plan. Tuesday at ten thirty. We’re all set.”
“Except for one thing.” Embarrassed to have to ask, she hunched her shoulders and her voice dropped to a whisper. “How do you hull a strawberry?”
“You need the whole 101 lesson, I guess.” He chuckled playfully. “No problem.” He took a big strawberry from the top of the box and leaned in. “That just means that the little green leaves at the top of each strawberry need to be removed.” He tugged his knife from his hip. “Simplest way is to just slice off the top, but I’ll show you a little trick about that next week.” He held the strawberry between two fingers, then sliced it down the middle. “Open up.”
She leaned back, unsure of how she felt about him trying to feed her an unwashed strawberry.
“Come on. They’re good. See.” He popped half into his mouth.
She could smell the sugary sweetness from there. She reached for the berry, then bit into it. He was right. It was the best strawberry she’d ever tasted. “Oh my gosh. These are good.”
“Fresh from the field.”
“Okay, I’m going to hull these and freeze them this afternoon.”
He closed the trunk and handed her the receipt from her purchases.
“I look forward to making my first fresh strawberry pie with you next week,” she said as she slid behind the wheel.
“Me too.”
—
She pulled away from the loading dock, trying to quit looking in her rearview mirror. She drove back to the bunkhouse.How did that even happen?She carried everything up to the house with no answer.It’s just a pie,she reminded herself.
Trying to keep her mind off Adam, she turned her attention to her new little garden. She heaved the boat up onto the two stools that Tara had given her, then tested to be sure it wouldn’t easily tip. Satisfied it was sturdy enough, she placed the plants inside and watered each one.
“Well, little garden, I’m going to do my best. I hope you enjoy your new home and reward me for my efforts by giving me lots of fruit and herbs. I owe my new friend Tara at least one tomato sandwich.” She crossed her fingers. “Please.”
She poured a bag of potting soil into a bigger pot and moved the tomato plant to where it would have room to grow. She had high hopes and a strange sense of confidence, when really she had no idea what she was doing. It felt good to push her fingers down into the damp soil. The herbs and vegetables practically filled the boat, creating a reasonably respectable garden.
It was more than an hour later when she finished tucking the last one tenderly into the dirt. She swooped her hair from her face with the back of her hand. “I did it.” After that little win, even hulling strawberries didn’t seem as ominous.
She brushed her hands off and went inside to get started. Looking around at all the cowboy gear still in the building, it was hard to imagine Adam ever hanging out in this place, butit sounded like at some point he may have lived here. She wondered how many of his things he’d left behind. Were those rodeo numbers once pinned to his shirts? She’d seen a rodeo on television, but she hadn’t paid that much attention. All she remembered was that it looked dangerous and dirty—two things she never was on purpose.
But she was getting used to a new set of normal. The homeowners association in her previous neighborhood would never stand for a loud party in the middle of the night. Cops would have been called in an instant. Then again, she didn’t know any of her former neighbors. It was a lot easier to call the law on people you didn’t know.
Maybe she lost a few hours of sleep, but what was the harm, really?
She found a small knife in one of the kitchen drawers and worked on the strawberries. It wasn’t quite as easy as Adam had made it look, but she managed to get through the whole box and filled several freezer bags full of them.
She had to admit the berries looked pretty stacked in her freezer, which was usually void of anything besides a couple of random frozen dinners and the occasional pint of ice cream.
5
Merry Anna was quite pleasedwith all she’d accomplished during the week. She’d successfully hulled and sliced all those strawberries and put them in the freezer with nary a cut. And so far, every single one of her new plants seemed to be thriving in the old boat. Since the garden was on the back porch, there was just enough sunshine balanced with shade throughout the day.
It might be her optimism, but it sure did seem as though the cherry-tomato plant had grown at least an inch! Was that even possible?
Things at Hardy House had been busier than ever. She loved interacting with the locals as much as with the tourists who breezed through town. Closing time was five o’clock on Friday, but there’d been a steady stream of customers, so she’d let them browse and waited to close until everyone got what they came for.
