“Oh boy is right,” Ransom said. “She came home that night and told Mom she was enlisting. I was so mad that I couldn’t say a word to her or Jensen for a long time.”
“How long?” Willow asked.
“I’m really hoping to make things right now that all three of us are here in Trinity Falls,” he said without really answering. “Hopefully, we can let bygones be bygones. She actually texted me today. Said she might stop by this afternoon.”
“That’s amazing,” Hailey told him. “It sounds like she wants things to work out too.”
“I don’t know,” he said, frowning.
“Willow hero-worships you,” she reminded him. “And you and Jensen Webb were practically joined at the hip all through school. You three being on the outs doesn’t make any sense.”
“I hope you’re right,” Ransom said softly.
“It’s hard when someone you always put first seems to not care about your opinion,” she told him carefully. “Even if it turned out fine and you want to move past it, you know it’s okay if you still feel hurt, right?”
The kettle whistled and Ransom slipped out of his seat to pour the steaming water into their mugs.
She wished she could talk to Willow herself, to help her see how much her brother loved her and wanted to make things right.
“So, are you going to tell me what cottagecore is?” he asked, heading back to the table with a smile that told her their earlier conversation was over.
“Well, yes,” she said. “But the funny thing is, it’s just kind of what our mothers and grandmothers have always done. You make your space cozy by filling it with nice things that aren’t new, or that don’t look new.”
“She wasn’t doing it as astyle,” Ransom said. “But yeah, that’s what Mom always did. We shopped at the church thrift store, and we took good care of what we had.”
“That’s exactly it,” Hailey said. “And nowadays people take it a step further and call it a part of a rural lifestyle, where you do things for yourself as much as you can, like having a vegetable garden, or baking and sewing for yourself.”
“Well, I guess Mom was nailing it,” Ransom chuckled.
“What’s nice about having a name for it, and a popular one, is that I can hopefully get guests interested in coming out here even if they’re not country people,” Hailey told him. “So many people in the city are tired of the fast pace and the flashing screens. There’s somethingcomforting about a home-cooked meal and a cozy place to share it.”
“You’re preaching to the choir,” Ransom said, but his smile was a little sad.
She nodded.
“Speaking of home-cooked meals,” he said. “I’ve got to get back and run the dogs so I’ll be able to start dinner for the kids in time.”
Hailey almost shuddered at the thought of so many dogs right next door, but managed, she hoped, to keep the alarm off her face.
“Oh, of course,” she said, standing. “Thank you for spending so much time with me. I hope I didn’t mess up your workday too much.”
“Not at all,” he told her as they headed to the front door. “The dogs were already fed and groomed before the kids and I stopped by earlier. And after I put the kids on the bus to school, I did a quick training session before I tracked down Tanner and Aidan. If I give them a good run now, they’ll be in great shape.”
“It’s a big job,” she realized.
“I love it though,” he said.
The look on his face told her he was telling the truth, though she couldn’t imagine it herself.
“Thank you again,” she told him when they got to the door. “And good luck with your sister.”
“I’ll stop by later this week,” he said. “We can go look at paint.”
The wordsit’s a datealmost jumped out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“Um, okay,” she said instead. “Thanks.”
His eyes met hers for a moment and she felt a shiver of hope go through her, like maybe things were going her way.
