Darren wanted to apologize for waking him, but he couldn’t quite get the words out. How was he going to swallow anything with Farrah sitting across the table from him?
“I have to go. My brother—”
“Nonsense,” Corey said, sticking a loaf of French bread she’d sliced in half the long way into the oven. “You already told Jim you didn’t want to spend the evening with your brother and his wife.”
Darren hadn’t actually said more than five words to Jim, but apparently his presence on their porch with a length of basswood and his knife had spoken volumes.
Corey speared him with her dark eyes, her chin-length curls springing as she stirred powder into water to make punch. “I was going to ask if you’d come tonight because of Farrah, but I don’t need to.”
“She’shere,” Darren hissed, his voice coming out more growly than he would’ve liked. “Does she come out here a lot?” For some reason, that really bothered him. The Bybee’s belonged to him. He hadn’t had to share them with anyone yet, and he certainly didn’t want them falling in love with Farrah the way he had. Then they’d pick her over him, just like everyone else had chosen someone else over Darren.
He swallowed, wondering when he’d allowed himself to become so bitter, so isolated.
“This is the first time.” Corey faced him and gave him her full attention. “Honestly, Darren, you two just need to talk it out and get back together.”
“Tell her that,” he muttered. He removed his cowboy hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “How am I going to eat dinner with her?”
“Audra and Meagan will be here,” she said. “And you’ve seen Meagan. She can’t let a moment go by without filling it with sound.”
Darren nodded, clenching his jaw and settling his hat back into place on his head. He could use it if he needed to, and he didn’t have a whole lot to say most of the time, so his silence wouldn’t be viewed as abnormal.
Meagan, the Bybee’s only daughter, lived in town with her husband but worked full time on their family farm. Why she’d brought Farrah out to the aquaponics shed was a mystery to everyone. His curiosity combined with his desire to be near Farrah, even if she wasn’t talking to him, and he silently took the stack of plates Corey handed him and started setting the table.
The minutes passed and the silverware got laid and napkins folded and before Darren knew it, Jim was banging the metal rod against the triangle to call everyone in from the farm. Dinner was usually a small affair—just family and anyone who happened to be working late. Tonight, there was Jim and Corey, Darren, Audra and Meagan, and Farrah.
No one questioned Darren’s presence, and no one paid Farrah a second glance either. No one except Darren anyway.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She wore a tight pair of jean shorts that frayed along the hem just above her knees. Her blouse didn’t seem like something someone would wear to a farm, what with it being white and covered in embroidered pink and blue flowers. But she hadn’t gotten a mark on it.
She’d removed her sunglasses from her face, and they sat on her head, holding her loose hair away from her eyes. Eyes that hooked into him with the intensity and power of the blue-green ocean they mirrored.
Farrah met his steady gaze with one of her own, the same chemistry and attraction that had always existed between them arcing through the dining room as she sat directly across fromhim while Meagan chattered on and on about how Farrah was going to come work for them.
Even the cheesy lasagna and the toasty garlic bread couldn’t tempt Darren’s attention away from Farrah. “You’re going to come work at afarm?” he asked. She wouldn’t even step foot on Steeple Ridge property, claiming she was “done with that part of her life,” and she “didn’t care to be dragged back into it.”
Her eyes stormed, but Darren didn’t care if his question upset her. He’d wanted her to come horseback riding with him, meet his horse, wander through the woods until they were good and alone, so he could kiss her and whisper how much he loved her without anyone else overhearing.
He never had told her how he felt about her, because she wouldn’t come out to the farm. It seemed like everything he loved, she didn’t. Everything he was, she despised. Everything he wanted for his life, she had left behind and didn’t want again.
“Have youseenthe aquaponics shed?” She spooned green peas onto her plate without taking her eyes off him.
He had spent hours in the aquaponics shed, which anyone who’d been around longer than a couple of hours would know was lovingly nicknamed the botanical boutique. The way the plants grew without soil was astounding, and he’d marveled at the fish that swam in the partially underground tank.
“You should see it in the winter,” he said, the syllables a bit pointed.His meaning was pretty clear,he thought.I’ve been here a lot longer than you, girlfriend.
She caught the meaning, if the hint of embarrassment flashing in her expression meant anything. He finally looked away long enough to find both Jim and Corey watching him. Corey wore the same expression he suspected Sam would have in this situation.
Be nice to her, floated through his mind. Sam’s words from that morning. Corey’s silent plea.
“So.” He cleared his throat. “What did you like about it?” He knew what she’d say, or at least he hoped he did.
He thought,the strawberries, at the same time she vocalized the words.
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and dang if he wasn’t surprised when her lips curved up too.
chapter
four
