“Sure, what do you need?”
“I’ve got to get somewhere. It was a last-minute thing. Could you watch Zan tonight? I promise it won’t be too late.”
Zan jumped in the air. “Girls’ night! Hooray! Can we play makeup?”
Merry Anna loved how this little girl was so comfortable with her already. “Makeup? Heck yeah. I’ve got tons of fun makeup. We can even do our nails.”
Zan’s lips formed an O. “This is going to be so much fun!”
“Would you mind if y’all did your makeovers at my house?” He leaned in, lowering his voice. “I’m trying to do better about keeping her to a routine.”
Sounded like he’d been doing some reading. How sweet.“No, that’s fine. We’ll stop by my house first and get some things.”
“You’re sure you don’t mind?” Adam asked.
“Not at all. I had no plans, and it’ll be fun spending some time with my new bestie.” Merry Anna raised her hand, and Zan gave her a high five and then hugged her around the waist. That warmed her.
“Can we go right now?” Zan asked.
“I need to talk to you about something as soon as you have the chance, Adam,” Merry Anna said.
“Can it wait until this evening?”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s fine. I was heading home anyway. I’ll take Zan with me.”
“That’ll be great,” he said. “Then I can get out of here early too.”
Merry Anna and Zan started walking home. It wasn’t until they were almost there that Zan remembered she’d left her lunch box and all her crayons at the store. She looked so sad about it that Merry Anna felt bad.
“Do you want to go back and get them?” Merry Anna asked. “It’s kind of a long walk for little legs like yours, but we can if you want to.”
Zan pressed a thoughtful finger to her lips. “I think so. We’ll miss out on so much fun if we don’t get them.”
They retraced their steps back to the Feed & Seed.
Adam’s truck was already gone, and that hit her kind of wrong. They walked inside, and Zan ran to the back to get her things.
Jim walked over. “Oh, hey, Merry Anna. I thought you were another last-minute customer.”
“No, Zan forgot some things, so we came back to get them.”
“No problem. I’m just going to finish getting things inside so we can close up on time tonight.”
“Adam sure got out of here in a hurry,” she said, trying to make it sound like idle chitchat. “I can’t believe we didn’t pass him.”
“Yeah,” Jim said. “He wanted to beat the traffic so he could make good time out to Archdale.”
Archdale? The Rodeo?It hit her like a punch. That’s where he rode the other night when he landed in the emergency room. He’d led her to believe he was making changes, or maybe that’s just what she’d wanted to hear.
Tara’s words came rumbling back to her. An ugly truth. Hewasusing her to take care of Zan. He wasn’t making new plans at all.I’m such an idiot. Again!She couldn’t trust herself with decisions about the men in her life.
“Got ’em,” Zan said, running toward her.
“That’s great.” Merry Anna flashed a forced smile to Jim. “We’re out of your hair now. Have a good afternoon.”
She walked toward home with Zan in tow, trying not to let her anger show. Her insides were boiling.
“You’re walking too fast for my legs,” Zan said.
