After everyone finishes their coffee, the conversation getslouder as the smaller groups head to their respective areas. I’m heading out the door to follow them when Tally grabs the sleeve of my shirt, stopping me.
“Hey.” She nods to the group as they walk the path toward the cottages, laughing and smiling as they go. “You’ve got people.”
“No, Wildflower.” I smile down at her. “We’vegot people.”
CHAPTER 35
Walker
For a week our friends show up in shifts, helping out whenever they’re not at their own jobs. The fire department guys manage to get all the furniture sanded in one afternoon, and I spend the next day staining every piece with Eli by my side.
When we’re not working, I spend every possible moment with Tally, though none of it feels like enough. We don’t have any real conversations because we’re too tired after a long day of work and we barely get ten minutes for a quickie before the first of the crew show up in the morning.
Everyone’s taken to walking straight in and helping themselves to coffee when they arrive. I can’t complain because they’re working for free and we’d never get this done without them. Still, it feels cruel that I’ve finally got Tally all to myself but can barely have her.
The clock is ticking on her time here. She’s taken calls all week from her boss in Nantucket. They’ve been working on different menu ideas, and when she finds the time, she grabs ingredients and tests them out on our friends during breaks to get their blind reactions. I love everything Tally makes, but it’s all a reminder that she was never here to stay.
The fact that I can’t just grab her hand and hold it when we’re walking out to the fields in the mornings—or that she pulls away from a kiss when a door opens—only makes me more needy.
If I can’t have her for long, I at least want her completely. Though I can’t bring myself to tell her how I truly feel. It wouldn’t be fair to her.
It’s early Friday morning, and we’ve got our first wedding tomorrow, when Tally finds me out in the shed, scrubbing down all the chairs.
“Do you ever take a day off?”
I hold open my arms. “That your way of telling me I’ve been neglecting you?”
She hugs my chest and sighs. “No, that’s my way of telling you you’re neglecting yourself. Have you even slept for more than a few hours this week?”
“Tuesdays are my day off.” I settle my hands on her ass.
“And yet you worked all day Tuesday, and I’m sure you’ll do it again next week.”
I shrug. “I like working.”
She rests her chin on my chest. “I know, but there is more to life than work. You deserve some free time. Go get off the farm for a few hours and relax.”
“I can do that when you’re gone,” is what I want to say. I can take a day off and disappear and do nothing when she isn’t here anymore, but right now, there isn’t a chance in hell I’m leaving this farm without her.
“What if,” she walks her fingers up my chest, excitement teasing her words, “we have Tally Tuesdays?”
“What?” Transfixed, my eyes remain locked on the place where she touches me.
“Tally Tuesdays. You’ll actually take a break if it’s about me.”
I smirk. “Oh, will I?” My hands settle on her hips again, and I hold her there. I don’t want her to take even a minuscule step away from me.
She smirks back. “Won’t you?”
I squeeze her hip. “Probably.”
The joy that radiates off her could light an entire stadium. “All right, so Tuesdays are officially Tally Tuesdays—we’re going to hole up in the cottage and do absolutely nothing but each other.”
“Now that is a way to get me to take a day off.”
She presses her lips to mine. “I’m very persuasive when I want something.”
“Oh yeah, and what do you want right now?”
