“AMAZING!” he exclaimed, his eyes bright and excited. “We watched a scarymovie!”
“Ghostbusters,” Valerie whispered with awink.
“That’s great, bud,” I smiled. “Do you haveeverything?”
“Yes. Are we going to thefarm?”
“Yep,” I answered. Aiden whooped and practically flew out of the door. “Thanks again, Valerie! I’ll see you tonight at practice!” I said, waving at her before I closed thedoor.
It didn’t take us long to get to the farm. When we pulled up, Elle’s mom was already directing the helpers on where to go. The second the car rolled to a stop, Aiden flew out, heading immediately for the front pasture, where the horses were grazing lazily in the mid-morningsun.
As we approached, Sue fixed her daughter with a wry stare, arching a brow. “Bout time you two showed up! The party rental place will be sending a truck here within the hour. We’ve got a lot of decorations to put away. Did Tessa say what she wanted to do with thecenterpieces?”
“I know what she wants to keep,” Elle replied, ignoring the rest of her mom’s statement. “We’ll get started onthat.”
Braden pulled up when Elle was talking to her mother. Hunter jumped out of the cab and looked around, sniffing the air for a moment. He caught sight of Aiden and Alyssa on the wooden fence, both of them holding out bits of long grass to the horses, and ambled over tothem.
Avoiding looking in the general direction of Elle and her mother, Braden instead headed over to where Gordon and Tommy were busy grabbing all of the rental chairs from the ceremony. He set to stacking them up against the fence near thebarn.
I resisted the urge to snort—Braden wasn’t fooling anyone, lest of all Elle’s mom. The two of them had been inseparable all evening, and it was obvious they’d lefttogether.
I wondered if it was obvious I’d left with Travis too. Before I could worry too much, Elle grabbed my arm. “Come on. Let’s get this done—I need to sleep off thishangover.”
We walked into the reception tent and started packing up decorations. We lined up the centerpieces on Bill’s front porch for the time being and when Krista stumbled into the tent looking as hungover as I felt, Elle set her to work foldinglinens.
Heavy truck tires crunching against gravel had my heart thrumming in my chest at the possibility of it being Travis. I’d known I would see him again, and I knew it was foolish, but I was excited about it. The accompanying swell of disappointment when the white party rental truck rolled up would have been embarrassing if I’d confessed to it, but instead I suppressed it and continued on with the task athand.
Then he actuallydidshow up. He parked his truck and climbed out, his eyes meeting mine from across the vast space that separated us. He smiled at me, that secret smile that made my insides feel alltingly.
I brought the linens I was carrying over to the party rental truck, trying to keep my face impassive as I walked by him. Travis jogged after me, and I shot him a warning look. “What are you doing?” I asked him, my voice barely above a whisper as I handed the linens to anemployee.
We were hidden by the party rental truck, but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t be discovered by anybody else who needed to drop linensoff.
“I just wanted to talk to you for a minute, if that’s alright?” he arched a brow, a daring smile dancing upon his lips. Hiding how I felt fromhimwas a challenge in itself, especially now that we weretogethertogether, and still hidingit.
Still, I softened my features and offered him a small smile. “Quickly,” I told him, ever powerless when he looked at me thatway.
“I want to see you again tonight,” hesaid.
“I can’t, Aiden has soccer,” I replied, disappointed about it. An emotion I couldn’t pinpoint passed through Travis’s eyes before an easy smile graced his lips. “I’d say come over after Aiden’s in bed,but…”
“Braden,” he finished for me, sighing. It might make things worse for Brock if Braden were to find out beforehim.
“Call me later, okay?” I said, looking at him wistfully before I turned on my heel and walkedaway.
When the job was finally done and the party truck was kicking up dust as it drove down the Armstrong’s driveway, I breathed a sigh of relief. Weddings wereexhausting. I wanted to sleep for a thousand years, and I silently prayed that nobody close to me would get married again any timesoon.
But ithadbeen beautiful, whimsical, even. It had been the kind of wedding every little girl should dream of having. Small and intimate, with friends and family coming together to make sure everything went off without a hitch. There’d been a few close calls, but we’d pulled it off in theend.
“Are you heading off now?” Sue asked, catching me as I attempted to sneak away without drawing Travis’s attention. After our quick conversation by the party rental truck, he’d proceeded to watch me whenever nobody else was looking, which only made my nerves feel more frazzled. “There’s burgers and sausages on the grill if you’rehungry!”
“Yeah Mom! Can we stay for a while, please?” Aiden pleaded, appearing at my elbow. “I’m starving and Alyssa wants to show me the treehouse her grandpabuilt!”
“Alright, we’ll stay a little longer,” I relented, my shoulders dropping in surrender. “But don’t forget, you’ve got soccer practice tonight.” Aiden cheered and raced off after Alyssa, heading toward the back of thehouse.
“Can I do anything to help?” I asked Sue awkwardly, feeling a little out of place. She threw her arm around me andgrinned.
“You can help me fix a salad,” she said warmly. She squeezed me quickly before releasing me, and the familiar pang throbbed within my heart. I felt it whenever I missed my mom, which was a lot lately. Elle was lucky—what I wouldn’t give for one more conversation with my mom. I wasted too many years being angry at her for things she couldn’t change, instead of appreciating her for all that she did for us—especially after everything withRichie.
