A man like that wouldn’t have shoveled chicken shit or braved my ducks—who absolutely were attacking Carter earlier. They took after me and also didn’t like strangers too much. I didn’t tell Carter, though. Messing with him was too fun.
We finished our meals, with Carter all but licking his plate clean. I insisted on paying the check, still not wanting anything from him. Could I afford it? No. But sometimes pride came before careful spending.
I went up to the register to pay, and Dora Lynn shot me a wide-eyed look, filled with questions. “Looks like you finally took my advice,” she said quietly. “Excellent choice.”
I shook my head and passed her some cash. “It’s a long story, but it’s not like that with him.”
“Well, why not?”
“I’ll tell you later, when I make my next delivery.”
She handed my change back to me. “You better, Shelby. A man like that doesn’t walk into Ferris every day.”
“Trust me, that’s a good thing. He’s not a man, he’s a CEO.”
Dora Lynn smiled at me. “Oh, that’s definitely a man. Job titles don’t matter in the bedroom. Well, usually.”
“Thank you for the encouragement, but he and I won’t be ending up in any bedrooms together.” I glanced over at him sitting at the table, eyes on his phone.
Carter couldn’t be more different than me. Even wearing those overalls, he had a polished shine to him that no amount of dirt and dust would diminish. The man lived in LA, for God’s sake. I couldn’t think of a place more different than Ferris, Kentucky.
Whatever marketing push he was doing down here, it wouldn’t last forever. He would be out of my life as quickly as he had appeared in it, and he wouldn’t look back. That meant, even if we somehow magically hooked up, it couldn’t be anything beyond a meaningless fling.
Casual sex had never been my style. I always caught feelings, unable to separate physical affection and emotional connection. I couldn’t open myself up and be vulnerable to someone and then just move on with my life like nothing had happened.
If I let Carter charm my pants off like he clearly wanted, I would be the only one who got hurt when he left. The Allory family had already taken so much from me. I couldn’t let Carter take more.
Even entertaining the idea of hooking up with him was insane. Maybe he hadn’t personally destroyed life as I knew it,but his company had. I had been robbed of both my past and my future. I would be a fool to let him fuck up my present, too.
My only defense for my traitorous thoughts was the simple fact that Carter was the hottest man I’d ever seen. People who looked like him simply didn’t roll through Ferris, and even if they did, I was certain they wouldn’t be so hellbent on impressing me.
It was kind of nice to have someone helping out around the farm, too. Realistically, I needed to hire on some help, but there was no money for that. My grandparents had left me a few bucks when they gave me the farm, but that was almost all gone. My parents had offered me a chunk of the Allory money, but I’d told them to shove it.
Carter wouldn’t be my farmhand for much longer, but I was pretty sure I could squeeze a few more days of free labor out of him. He owed me that much, especially if he wanted me to be in his dumb commercial or whatever PR nonsense he asked me to be a part of.
We walked out of the diner together. Before we went our separate ways, he thanked me for lunch.
“Same time tomorrow morning?” I asked him.
Carter blinked at me in surprise. “Do I have to work with the ducks again?”
I smiled and shook my head. “No, I have a different project for you, one that will keep you well away from the animals.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
The next day, bright and early, I heard an engine approaching from the farm road. To my surprise, it wasn’t Tyler’s rolling dumpster. This was a Cadillac the size of a cruise ship, and Mrs. Presley’s gray-haired head peeked at me over the steering wheel.
I walked down to meet her as she got out of the car. “Mrs. Presley, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I need eggs, Shelby. Lots of them.”
“You came to the right place,” I said, smiling.
“And not just for today,” the older woman continued. “I’m going to have a standing order every week. Reservations are picking up now that the weather is warming up. And we’ve got the spring festival coming up. That means hungry people in the morning.”
“Hey, I’m happy to keep you well stocked with eggs. Anything for you. You’ve never held a grudge against me for the Allory thing.”
The woman patted my arm. “Anyone with a lick of sense knows you had nothing to do with that.”
