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“Is that so?” I ask, not meanin to sound uppity.
“Yes Bo, it is so!” she retorts with just enough moisture in her eyes to keep me from losin my cool. “I’m losing everything…have already lost it. Everything! And all I can do now is fight to keep something going for myself that I can be proud of. I’m not a farmgirl Bo. You can’t just stick me out on a piece of flowery dirt somewhere and expect me to thrive. I have goals. Things to accomplish. I have to push forward no matter what, and if it means starting everything over from scratch…that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Fiona’s words strike me like darts, but I respond with all the sweetness I can muster. “Well then darlin, if you’re willin to start from scratch…why not come open up a nice new store right there in Fort Myers?” I ask.
“Oh Bo, you’re a wonderful, simple man…aren’t you. Wouldn’t it just be so simple for me to uproot and begin a whole new life in—”
“Uproot what Fiona? Uproot the life you don’t even have anymore?”
“Excuse me?” she says with a blaze in her eyes.
“Well darlin, you do the math,” I say, digging my own hole deeper by the word. “If you’re not gonna move into another one of Quade’s houses…I guess you’ll just be roommates with Holly and Levi forever then?” She crosses her arms with an indignant stare, but doesn’t offer any answer. So I take the opportunity to continue at my own risk. “And you think I’m too simple to handle an emotional woman?”
“Bo, that’s not what I—”
“Lemme tell you somethin about me and emotions. About when I was fourteen in a fierce lightnin storm, Pappa strugglin to get a hysterical new mustang into a stall between claps of thunder. Me watchin from the dining room windows when I see a great big bolt hit the roof of the barn and spread out over it in every direction, engulfing it in flames a second later. I run out and take off runnin towards the barn, but I can see through the open door that they’re in the back corner pinned by that stallion. Everywhere the hay ignites like gasoline, all of them surrounded by a blinding blaze of yellow within the first minute. And all I can do is stand out in the rain and watch my parents disappear. The only saving grace…I couldn’t hear them over the screamin of the horses.”
The horror on Fiona’s face tells me I’ve said too much, her eyes glazed over and hands coverin her mouth. And I don’t know where the hell all that came from anyway, things I haven’t thought of in decades…details I’ve never uttered to anyone before. Ever.
“I’m sorry darlin,” I say in a softened tone, finally snappin out of my trance. “I should never have brought all that up…I’m sorry—”
“Bo,” she cries, breakin down like a dam and reachin out for me. “I’m the one who’s sorry,” she says between tears. “You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met and I can’t possibly deserve someone like you.” Fiona’s havin a full blown sob now, a monumental event I thought I’d never see…and I’m so honored to witness it.
“That ain’t true Fiona. You deserve everything a woman could ever have—”
“No…no!” she cries in a state of near hysterics, pushing me away and shaking her head violently.
And then her heart explodes open with the painful revelation I always knew was buried deep inside her. “My daddy doesn’t love me! My daddy doesn’t love me! My daddy doesn’t love me!” And there it is. Fiona pounds her fists against my chest as she screams.
I let her go to exhaustion until she crumples over beside me, calm like the aftermath of a hailstorm. I bring Fiona the tissue box and begin strokin her hair and back. She thanks me shyly, blows her nose a couple times, and then collapses back down…curling around me to receive my rubs.
“I’m your daddy now,” I tell her, and the faintest smile forms at the corner of her mouth.
Chapter 37
Fiona
Never had I thought Fort Myers would be so quaint, with its historic brick buildings and cobblestone streets. And then when you want ritzy…voila. A handful of skyscrapers, and row after row of beautiful waterside restaurants and bars. Incidentally, it’s a perfect location for starting up my new store, whenever I get the itch to do it.
But even all that pales in comparison to my first experience of seeing Bo’s farm. A rainbow planted across the countryside…and the farmhouse of my dreams. Not that I normally dream of farmhouses, but had I enough sense to do so sooner…this is the one I would have envisioned. And what turns me on most is the thought of Bo doing all this with the strength of his own hands. The lighting, the fireplace, the kitchen island and backsplash, all the detailing in the bathrooms and bedrooms, the gorgeously restored hardwoods throughout.
I spy out the living room windows as Bo finishes his evening field work, checking on each precious row before calling it a night, then washes up under the outside water pump. Although I have little experience with cooking, I’ve always had a slight knack that I wanted to explore further, and Bo’s turned out to be the perfect mentor. I get butterflies as I watch him stride toward the house to dine on my pasta dinner, featuring sausage, fresh garden kale, and a white wine parmesan sauce. I’ve had little appetite lately, but I’ll pick at my pasta between stolen glances at Bo.
“Wow,” he says, as he steps through the door and lays eyes on me for the first time in…almost two hours. He walks up and wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me into a kiss. “This is how I love to see you,” he says, referring to my t-shirt and jeans.
It took me a while to get used to leaving my suits in the closet, and some days I still throw one on for a thrill, but the casual lifestyle is so much more doable than I would have ever thought.
Throughout dinner Bo fills me in on the progress of numerous plants, while groaning over my pasta, until my phone rings and I’m filled with the certainty it’s Holly. “Go ahead,” Bo says with a nod when he sees my face light up.
“Holly!” I answer, picking up my almost clean plate and walking to the sink.
“Hey, how’s everything going down there?”
“Oh…wonderfully,” I reply, throwing a smile at Bo as I head to the couch to relax.
“Really? Still not hankering for work?”
“Mmm…I have other things to keep me entertained.”
