Chapter Ten
Clover
* * *
Van took the cookie salad from me as soon as I got out of his pickup.
“Are you going to be picking pumpkins?” He hovered next to me like he thought I’d take a header on the uneven ground.
Was it bad that I liked his attention? Any of his focus was a shiny piece of quartz, just glinting in the sun for me. “I might for just a little bit. My appetite is coming back, so I might stay with Mom and graze on all the food while waiting for everyone to get in.”
We rounded the big shop that had been blocking the view of everyone from where we parked. Kids of all ages were frolicking through the yard and in the field full of orange dots of pumpkins. The older kids hung out by the tractor and the wagons with Evander and some other guys. The porch on Evander and Violet’s house was decorated with pumpkins and straw bales. Adults went from the house to the shop, where all the food and seating was.
He slowed. “Whoa.”
“It can be overwhelming. If you want to leave, just give me a signal or something. Or heck, leave and text me. Someone can get me home.”
His astonishment turned to intensity. “I’m not ditching you.”
Was his possessiveness my imagination? Or was it defensiveness? “If you need to go, I’ll leave too.”
“Really? Why?”
I looked up at him. “Because we’re in this together.”
His jaw went slack, and he nodded. “Okay. It’s not that I don’t want to enjoy myself. I’m just not used to…this.”
Jasper broke from the crowd and jogged toward us. “Hey, you made it.”
“I was a little slow this morning.” I had texted my family thread to let them know my stomach was upset. It hadn’t been that bad, but I’d had no clothes to wear. Everything fit, mostly, but it was uncomfortable. I didn’t want the band around my belly or fabric hugging my thighs. And my boobs. Ugh. Why so sensitive? So it had taken me a while to be ready.
“No worries,” my brother said. “We’re here all day.”
“You were able to get off for the whole weekend?”
His face fell. “Yeah. Soon, I’ll have every weekend off.”
“You got a new job?”
He rolled a shoulder. “Not exactly. Eliot broke the news to me last week that they’re selling.”
“They can do that?” Our grandma wasn’t the only one who liked to include strict stipulations to her trust. The Knights’ dad tied them to their cattle ranch. They couldn’t break it up, and they couldn’t get an income from it if they weren’t working there. One by one, they all found their own way around it to be with the ones they loved.
“It is what it is.” Jasper fell in step with us. “It was a lot to make the trip to do their time after all the kids were involved in stuff. They want to be free of the ties, and I don’t blame ’em. Just wish I could afford to buy it.”
“I’m sorry. And all that’s left for you is the lake cabin.”
“If I’m married in less than a year, but hey, if it sells, then Aunt Linda will get something out of the ordeal of managing all the properties.”
“You’re a gem for thinking like that.”
He put a hand to his chest like I stabbed him. “Clover, I’m named after a tree, not the rock.”
Van chuckled next to me. I liked that he laughed like he was in on the joke and not a snicker that was demeaning or politely tolerating.
Jasper clapped his hands together. “Okay, Van. Want to get all the introductions out of the way and see how many people you remember after tossing pumpkins with them for a few hours?”
“Sounds fun. Let me get Clover and her pudding dessert delivered safely to the shop.”
