Darren snuck awayfor lunch when he should’ve been prepping a field for mowing. He reasoned that he wouldn’t be on the tractor until tomorrow, and he could check the fences after dinner. But he absolutely couldn’t miss lunch.
He arrived at the Bybee’s farm and parked next to Farrah’s car near the house. The botanical boutique sat down a dirt path and into the hillside as it dipped toward the forest. The fish tank had been partially built underground, which made it easier to maintain the temperature.
Farrah pushed out of the greenhouse just as he was about to reach for the door handle. “Oh.” She startled, recognized him, and giggled all in a second’s time. In the next moment, she jerked her head toward the trees to the right of the building. “I usually eat out here.”
With his heart pounding, he held up his paper bag, which contained a hastily put together peanut butter sandwich and a half a bag of potato chips that belonged to Wade. Darren would need to replace them before the other cowboy discovered they were gone or face dire consequences.
Farrah spoke about her work in the greenhouse, and how much better it was than the bowling alley. Darren nodded and smiled, glad she liked her job more now than she had only a few weeks ago.
“You’re quiet today,” she said.
He swallowed the last bite of his sandwich. “I like listening to you talk.”
She ducked her head, causing her hair to fall between them like a glorious blonde curtain. He resisted the urge to brush it back, curl his fingers around the back of her neck, and draw her mouth to his.
He didn’t want to come on too strong, didn’t want to make the first move this time. She inched toward him, snuggling in close to his side. “Tell me something about Steeple Ridge.”
“You know all about that place.” He didn’t want to talk about the farm she could barely tolerate. Although, she had seemed perfectly at ease with him at the farm the previous day. She’d laughed during dinner, made pleasant conversation, and the horseback ride had been easy and carefree.
“I know about it from twelve years ago. It’s changed.”
Darren gazed through the trees, the blue sky peeking through the leaves. “I love Steeple Ridge.” He sighed. “It’s the first farm that has ever felt like home.”
“You’ve worked at a lot of farms?”
“Yes.” Darren hadn’t told her much of his history before Steeple Ridge, mostly because he couldn’t get her to talk about the farm at all. He’d told her about his parents’ farm in Coral Canyon, where Sam had gone, and about their deaths. But not much of what had happened in between then and now. “Vermont is my favorite state.”
“So you’re going to stay here?”
He glanced down at her, but he couldn’t meet her eyes. “Yeah.” Was she not going to stay here? What kind of question was that? “Are you?”
She exhaled and leaned her weight into him, causing him to fall back slightly. He gave in to gravity and laid back into the soft grass, taking Farrah with him. She laid her head against his chest, nearly over his heart. “I’m going to stay here, especially now that I have this job.” She twitched against his side. “I have thought about going back to school and finishing my agribusiness degree.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I could go to the University of Vermont in Burlington. It’s only a half-hour drive.”
“And your parents live there.”
“Right.” But she didn’t seem overly enthused about stopping by to visit her parents after her college classes.
“You should do that, if you want,” he said. “I was never much for college.”
“No?”
“Not much of a reader.”
“You could do ranch management or something.”
“Pretty sure a farm and a ranch are two different things.”
Farrah pushed up on her elbow and supported her head with her hand as she gazed down at him. “Did you want to go to college, and you just couldn’t—because of your parents?” She trailed her free fingers across his chest, stirring something deep inside him.
He shook his head without looking away from her. “No. I wouldn’t have gone. Logan wanted to though.”
“And now he is.”
Darren couldn’t help reaching up and tucking those errant curls. “You seem like you’d be a good fit for college.”
