Jim extended the piece back, and then faltered. “Can I have this?”
Surprise shot through Darren. “Sure.”
Jim smiled at it and then Darren. “Should we go see what Corey’s made for dinner? Or are you and Farrah going out again?”
Darren stood and gazed out at the piles of leaves. “I’ll bag these and be right in. Farrah’s busy with her family tonight, and I’d love to stay for dinner.” And not only because he wasn’t cooking. Farrah had insisted he cook three times a week at her house, and Darren was becoming quite adept with chicken, potatoes, roasts, and he’d even used a pressure cooker recently.
With the leaves bagged and ready for pickup, he went inside to find Jim and Corey standing side-by-side at the island. She laughed at something he said, and his arm settled around her waist.
Darren watched the picture of love before him, a strong desire to have it in his own life roaring forward. He still hadn’t even kissed Farrah since their break-up. And he knew where he wanted to do it: Steeple Ridge.
It was time she started making some new memories of that place.
“Hey.” He cleared his throat as he entered the kitchen. The scent of oranges and peanut oil met his nose. “Just the three of us?”
“I thought we’d just eat at the bar.” Corey indicated the three plates she’d set on the far side of the island from where she and Jim stood. “How are you, dear?” She embraced Darren, who closed his eyes and imagined his own mother and how she would hug him every morning before sending him off to school.
“Great.” His voice caught in his throat. He and Jim exchanged a glance, and Darren pulled back from Corey. “So you and Jim have been talkin’ about me.”
She shot a look to her husband. “Out of love, Darren. We only want you to be happy.”
“I know.” He glanced at the orange chicken and brown rice on the stove. “So is this ready? I’m starving.”
Corey laughed, her tight black curls bouncing with the movement. “Say grace, then.”
Darren did, and they loaded their plates with food and sat at the bar. “So I might have some questions for you, if you don’t mind.”
“About Farrah?”
“Sort of. I want…she won’t come out to Steeple Ridge, and I need her out there.”
Corey simply speared another piece of broccoli, and Jim’s silence wasn’t abnormal.
Darren sighed and gazed at his food. “She has bad memories of the place. It’s where I work. I love it there, and I want her to love it there.”
“She’s a good rider,” Jim said, like that had anything to do with what Darren had said.
“Any ideas of how I can build better memories for her at Steeple Ridge?”
Corey, for the first time in Darren’s recollection of her, was speechless. Jim just shrugged. “She likes aquaponics,” he said. “Maybe you should build a small commercial operation at Steeple Ridge and ask her to help you do it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Corey said, swatting his arm. She peered around Jim to Darren. “I don’t know, dear, but I’ll keep thinking.”
Darren nodded, Jim’s idea swimming around in his head like the thousands of tilapia in the tanks down in the boutique.
Maybe building an aquaponics unit wasn’t such a bad idea. Of course, he’d have to get Missy and Tucker on board, and that wouldn’t be easy….
Darren shelved the idea, finished dinner with his two favorite people, and headed back to his own farm. Farrah belonged on a farm—one with horsesandfish. Every time Darren thought about her riding a horse, his breath got stuck in his lungs.
Why do you want a dream for her she doesn’t even want?he asked himself, not for the first time.
He’d just pulled up to the farmhouse at Steeple Ridge when his phone rang.
“Ben, hey,” he said, his heart lighter than it had been in months. “What’s up?”
Nothing came through the line, and Darren checked his phone. Call still connected. “Ben?”
“It’s Rae,” he said, his voice high and choked. “She’s been in an accident, and she’s at the hospital, and they won’t let me see her.”
