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Wyatt held my stare for a moment, something dark and intense swirling in his irises, before he started to make his way toward the front door.
As I had assumed he would, Wyatt came to a stop in front of the table my mom and grandma were still sitting at.
“Are you leaving already?” Grandma asked.
“I am. I told Rhea I didn’t want to interrupt her time with the two of you, but I will be back, because you were right. The strawberry is excellent, and I’m not convinced there’s anything that’s going to top it, but I’m willing to try them all out to be sure.”
Her face lit up. “Well, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, because they’re all wonderful.”
He offered her a nod in return. “No, ma’am. I have to agree that I don’t think it’ll be possible to be disappointed, especially where Rhea’s concerned.”
Okay.
He needed to stop.
“So, I’ll see you tomorrow morning for a run then, right?” I asked, hoping he’d get the hint as I felt the heat hit my cheeks. No doubt my mom and grandma could see just how much this man affected me.
Wyatt looked at me and let out a laugh. “You absolutely will.” He looked back at my family and said, “Ladies, it was lovely to meet the both of you.”
“Likewise,” my mom returned.
Wyatt turned his attention to me one last time. “See you tomorrow.” Then he winked at me and walked outside.
I watched him go until my grandmother said, “He seems very nice.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “I’m going to go make sure Grandpa’s ice cream is all packed up and ready for you.”
Without waiting for a response, I turned and walked away. Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to do in that situation, but I couldn’t help myself. I was far too mixed up about Wyatt to be fielding questions from the two most important women in my life.
Fortunately, they must have realized my need not to discuss Wyatt, because when I returned to their table, our conversation went back to what we’d been discussing before Wyatt arrived. But even if they didn’t talk about him, I knew Wyatt was on their minds, because they didn’t stop giving me curious looks.
13
RHEA
A wave of disappointment washed over me.
I wished I could have said it was due to some expectation I’d had about a particular outcome of a situation, but I’d have been lying.
As I stood, staring at myself in the mirror, that disappointment turned to something else. Disgust, maybe?
And it was all directed at the person staring back at me.
No matter how many times I’d told myself over the last several days that I didn’t care about how things went tonight—that I was merely following through on doing what I’d said I would by going out to dinner with Wyatt—the reality was that I was standing in the mirror, wondering if I looked okay, if he’d like the way I looked.
That wasn’t supposed to play a factor in the evening, though.
This was supposed to be about me being a woman who stayed true to her word. All I should have been doing was getting myself ready to go to dinner, so I could give Wyatt the opportunity to give me his speech about Westwood’s interest in my family’s land.
Technically, I guess I was doing that.
But there was no question I didn’t have the proper mindset—the one that was critical to have—going into this. I should have been standing here recalling all the reasons why I couldn’t allow myself to get caught up in Wyatt’s issue. What mattered to him, what he liked, should not have been a concern for me.
I needed to be thinking about my family, who had worked so hard for generations to keep this farm going, about my grandfather, who was slowly losing his memory. My responsibility was to them, to the people who trusted me to do right by them.
I wasn’t quite sure if they felt that way any longer.
Although my grandmother hadn’t brought up Wyatt since he’d shown up at The Sweet Landing on Wednesday, my mom found the time to stop by again. And she did it with my dad.
