“Is that your lame excuse to get me naked?” she taunts.
Her words don’t annoy me, though. Tally sounds more like herself now, and I’d rather be the butt of her jokes than hear her sad or lost again.
Ignoring her, I carry her up the stairs and don’t let go until we’ve reached the bathroom. “Okay, I was just joking. You don’t really have to bring me in the shower,” she huffs.
I roll my eyes as I head toward the door. “I’m not. Just don’t fall. Wouldn’t want to have to come save you again.”
“God. I was just about to say thank you. But then you had to go and be an ass again.”
I smile as I head down the steps, happy she’s back to her stubborn self. This I can handle.
Even though I know that, after she opened up to me tonight, things have changed. I can’t keep lying to Tally. As soon as I reach the kitchen, I grab a beer from the fridge before pulling out my phone and shooting off a text to Gail.
ME:You need to tell your daughters about Frank.
CHAPTER 15
Tally
Sunday morning, I wake up determined to fix things. With my mother. With Walker. With the farm. Unfortunately, however, when I make it downstairs, I can’t find Walker anywhere. And after traipsing across the farm, I realize that my mother isn’t in her cottage, either. So I settle for coffee at Rosie’s. I could use a pick-me-up after yesterday and, to be honest, I need my best friend.
The first thing I notice when I make the right toward Rosie’s property is the number of cars that fill her parking lot. It’s only nine a.m. What are all these people doing here?
The second thing I see is my sister’s old Toyota Camry. I remember the day Daddy handed her the keys. I was fifteen and thought my sister was the coolest person in the world. That fact grew exponentially when she told me I could sit shotgun and we took off from the farm. Before then, the farthest I’d ever gone was Mabel’s Bakery. But on that October day, Penny and I drove for hours through New England in search of the perfect fall foliage. Listening to Incubus and Coldplay while I looked out the window at the passing trees and the coastline, I realized there was an entire world outside of Hope Harbor. A world I wanted to explore.
My feet quicken as I head inside in search of answers. I bypass the to-go coffee window to scour the bar for my sisteror best friend. They’re definitely here, though there’s not one person in the open room.
A melodic laugh that I’d recognize anywhere pulls me to the left, where I spot Rosie’s signature red hair. She’s standing outside, on the back porch, next to Penny, a coffee cup in hand and laughing at something my sister just said.
What are the two of them doing together? And why didn’t they invite me?
Penny spots me first and smiles in surprise. “Hey! You came to the farmers market! I wasn’t sure if you got my text since you never replied.”
I reach for my phone, only to realize I don’t have it on me. Shit. I hope I didn’t leave it in the fields last night. “Yeah, I don’t actually know where it is. What are you guys doing?”
Rosie takes a sip from her cup, a coy smile curling her lips. “Drinking.”
Penny rolls her eyes before taking a sip out of her pastel pink mug that saysTHIS IS DEFINITELY COFFEE.
“Why are you guys being weird? And where can I get some coffee?”
“Oh, this isn’t coffee,” Rosie says.
“Huh?”
Penny giggles as she tips her cup forward and I spot the green juice.
“It’s green mimosas,” Rosie mumbles, “because it’s St. Patrick’s Day!”
Aha.
“Besides,” she continues, “we always have mimosas on Sundays. They help us get through the farmers market. Well, that andthat.” Her chin lifts in the direction they’d beengazing before. I follow her eyes to a row of tables. Behind each one is a different man wearing a flannel shirt and Wranglers. One table has jams on it while another boasts leather goods next to a stand of pottery.
“It’s like a meat market for hungry women,” I mumble, my mouth watering. Apparently, I’m starving.
“Yup.” Rosie pops thepand then licks her lips. “The market was Penny’s idea. A way to drum up business for the brewery.” She grins at my sister in appreciation, and a sense of pride swells within me at everything they’ve accomplished since I’ve been gone. “I’d say your farm has the best setup, though.”
My eyes cut down the line in search of my mother. When I spot her talking to a man in a cowboy hat, his body facing away from me so I can only make out the way his jeans mold to his ass, I smile. That is one fine cowboy.
