“Oh, I’m so sorry, I just forgot to tell Patrick about tomorrow!” She’s practically vibrating at this point and I’m not sure if I should be scared.
“I’m sure Elle mentioned it but we are closing out early today and tomorrow the Warren siblings, Jude, and some other friends are going to hike Timpanogos Cave, you should come! We all meet up at Mama Donna’s for breakfast, carpool down, hike up and visit the cave. We hike down and have lunch—packed by Mama Donna—before coming home. We do it a couple times a year and, oh, you should come! You’d love it, please say you’ll come. Please, please!”
She’s jumping up and down at this point, she looks so excited. How could I say no?
“I know no one wants to get up early on a Saturday but it’s so lovely, you won’t regret it.” She continues on as I smile and nod. “I’d love to. What time should I show up?” Lola lets out a squeal which makes Jude cringe but smile. “LJ, you need to chill. You’re going to scare him away.”
“Nah….I’m tough.” I joke, flexing my bicep. Jude’s biceps are almost as big as my head, I don’t think anyone would call me tough when I’m standing next to this guy.
This gets a loud laugh out of Jude, however.
Huh.
Maybe he’s just slow to warm up. I know someone else like that on the farm.
I turn and wave back to Lola and Jude who said they were heading over to the Big House to let Mama Donna know that there would be an extra mouth to feed for tomorrow.
I didn’t have much to do today, just folding more pamphlets and trying to wiggle my way out of Elle’s ire.
Maybe this hike will help out. I haven’t been able to get this girl out of my head and I don’t know what to do with myself most of the time. Her frown is like my own personal siren’s call andmakes it hard to concentrate. I shake my head and walk into the office.
There’s a man leaning against Elle’s desk.
A man.
In the office.
Leaning against Elle’s desk.
And she’s not frowning.
She’s not smiling but she’s not frowning.
“There’s my girl.”
What in the world?
Chapter Eight
ELLE
No one really likes me. My family only seems to tolerate me most days because of their ‘love’ for me. I get along with our right hand man, Jude because he’s quiet like me and when I ask for information, he gets it to me within a consistent time frame. Henry loves me, and Patrick acts like he wants to get to know me because he thinks I’m hiding some nice cinnamon roll underneath my grouchiness.
When he finds out that’s a lie, he’ll never talk to me again.
Then there’s Loop. The Farm’s accountant and my ex-boyfriend.
We met in high school, started dating our senior year, and dated for around 4 years. I broke it off when I started to feel like he was trying to change me. He’d started making comments about how I needed to smile more and our dates kept subtly pushing me out of my comfort zone and I eventually got tired of it. I know compromise is a part of any relationship but I don’t play around with boundaries and he didn’t seem to understand when to not cross the line.
We hadn’t talked since the break-up but then he started working with the company that we contracted and took over our account once our previous accountant had retired.
He’s a good accountant.
I was worried at first that things might be awkward but Loop’s been nothing but professional, which I really appreciate and considering he almost exclusively works with me, it could have been a problematic conflict and lead us to requesting a new accountant. I really didn’t want to be the reason he lost the job or give my family another reason to believe I was the problem child of the family. That fire didn’t need any more kindling.
I’d been able to get all my wrap up work done just as Loop had arrived to pick up some paperwork, so it gave us the opportunity to chat but I was ready to wrap up the conversation and head home.
“When did you get glasses?” Loop’s question confuses me for a moment but then I remember I put on my blue lights earlier. “Oh, no, they just help when I look at a computer screen.” I pull them off my face and drop them on my desk. An interesting look crosses Loop’s face. “There’s my girl.”
