“Nope,” Ford said. “I get my coffee in town. She gets up early, eats and is out the door. I shower after her.”
“And you get your breakfast in town while you scope the area out,” he said. But he returned to the house, his brother following. He needed to put his truck in the garage at night so he could have just pulled out rather than get stopped for this conversation.
“I’d rather have it with my brother and find out what is going on in his life.”
“You didn’t get enough out of me on Saturday?”
“That’s different from you spending time with Gale’s friend.”
“She’s my employee,” he said. “Could be it was about work.”
“Nope,” Ford said. “I know you. The whole wedding thing wasn’t your idea and though you’re warming up to it, the last thing you want to do is talk about it more than you need to.”
“It’s not the end of the world,” he said. “It’s bringing in money for the farm.”
“So it’s about Mom and Dad, yet you don’t want them working it.”
“They do enough,” he said. “Dad likes to man the bar.”
The two of them actually got along well during those times. Maybe it was something they could bond over without realizing it.
It’s not as if they talked much while they worked.
“And Mom enjoys socializing, but she doesn’t need the stress of the food for weddings,” Ford said.
“Exactly. She’ll do what needs to be done if someone wants it and we’ll figure it out, but it’s working now. Meredith did a lot on Saturday and didn’t need to. She’ll be a great addition to the business.”
Ford smirked and walked over to get a coffee. “Are those muffins? How come Mom gave you some and not me?”
“They aren’t from Mom,” he said.
Ford took one and grinned, then bit in. “Could they be from your new wedding planner who was picking apples in your yard?”
“Dude, are you watching me?”
Ford shrugged. “I learned my spying techniques from you.”
“Whatever,” he said. He picked up a second muffin for the morning. They were damn good.
“You look troubled.”
“I always look troubled to you and everyone else,” Clay said.
He’d been hearing it most of his life. You’d think by now everyone would understand him and give him space.
Especially since he opened up to Ford. He knew his brother would keep that information to himself.
“I wonder if talking to me let you lift the window a crack with Meredith.”
He kept chewing as his eyebrow rose.
Ford would keep the silence with him.
They could sit here for hours waiting for the next one to say another word.
He had shit to do.
“What do you want to know?”
