After my morning with Arch, having Gray drop by for a visit made me wonder what I’d done to warrant such attention.
His smile was hot enough to melt my heart, full of boyish charm with a hint of the strong man behind it. When one of his eyebrows rose, I shook myself out of my scrutiny. “There’s a nice seating area a few minutes’ walk from here. Would you like to go sit down?” I asked.
“Sure. Lead the way.”
We strolled along, sipping coffee. “Tell me about your family,” I asked as we reached the benches. We sat under a sprawling magnolia and enjoyed the warm autumn day.
“I have a big family. They live in Atlanta, near Arch and Wes’s families. Nine brothers and sisters.”
“Nine?My goodness. Your parents must be exhausted. Where are you in the pecking order?” I imagined how loud his home must’ve been.
“I’m oldest. Yeah, my parental units…” He took a breath before continuing. “They’re a little odd, but loveable. My youngest brother is four. They swear they’re done having kids, but I wouldn’t be surprised if another one is born.”
“That’s kind of awesome. They must really love each other and the kids.” A huge family held no real appeal to me. Kudos to those who wanted it, but no chance I’d push ten children out of my nether region.
“There was alotof love in my house, for sure. My parents didn’t want me to go into law. But for as long as I can remember that’s all Arch, Wes, and I talked about. It’s all we’ve ever wanted to do.”
“Y’all grew up together?” They certainly acted like brothers.
“Yeah, our parents were close friends. Tight knit. They still are, as a matter of fact.”
“Arch made it seem like he wasn’t close to his parents, though.” Curiosity ate me up inside.
“Yeah, he’s not. None of us are, really. Not anymore.”
“Why?” I tried not to sound too eager for the answer. I sipped my coffee and stared out over the large, grand landscape. A century old, the age of the campus pressed against me. If I could listen well enough, I would be able to hear the stories it had to tell.
“Like I said, they didn’t want me to be a lawyer. None of our parents did. They wanted us to go into the family business.”
“Family business?” Like the mafia?
“Farming. They own a large, successful farm called Polly’s Plantation on the outskirts of Atlanta. It’s become quite lucrative, and they wanted us to take over the farm when they got old enough to retire. The three families share the responsibilities and the success of the farm.”
“Wow! I’d no idea you three were farmhands! You look like you were born in a courtroom; you’re so comfortable in your suits.” Their suits were incredibly sexy, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them in work clothes.
Gray let out a booming laugh. “Wehatewearing suits. All three of us. That’s the one part of being lawyers we’ll all agree sucks. We’re more comfortable wearing jeans and flannels.” He sipped his coffee. “I take it back. Arch loves it, even though he denies it.”
I chuckled. “What does your family farm?”
“They have a section like a petting zoo, small garden, and so on. They do tours of the farm, host classrooms, have birthday parties, that sort of thing. And in the fall, they do pumpkin patches, hayrides, and a corn maze. It brings in some great revenue, but the real money is in the cotton. They have contracts with some huge clothiers and provide them with raw cotton.”
“Impressive. I bet they have a lot of employees.” It sounded like a ton of work.
He paused for a moment, considering his words carefully. “Not as many as you might assume, but their numbers are growing. It was pretty contained to family when we were growing up, but one of Wes’s sisters took a liking to the retail side of it. Now there is also a branch making soap from our goats’ milk and other artisan skin care using ingredients off the farm. She sells it online and is building it up quite nicely.” He finished his coffee and set it on the bench beside me. He reached over me to do it and got close enough I could smell his skin. He smelled like leather and a little bit like… bacon? I suppressed a shiver. It was both sexy and made me a little hungry.
As he leaned back to his own side of the bench, his shirt shifted, and I spied the tip of a tattoo on his neck. How had I never noticed it before? I’d have to get the whole picture to decide if I found it attractive or not. Normally, I wasn’t a big fan of tattoos, but his intrigued me.Just reach over and pull his shirt down and look at it.I shook my head at myself, luckily while Gray looked away.
“Tell me more about you, Ellie.”
“You know a lot already.” Talking about myself made my skin crawl.
“I know about your parents, and you like to read. Tell me something aboutyou.”
“I like to sing.” I wasn’t necessarilygoodat it, but I liked it.
“Oh? Sing something for me.”
“No!” I laughed. “You’re crazy. I used to sing in school, all through middle and high school. I had quite a few solos,” I said with pride. “My mom sang, too. It helped me stay close to her after she… left me.” Too bad if you didn’t use it you lost it. I couldn’t sing a lick anymore.
