“Please come home for a little visit.”
She didn’t want to, partly because now she didn’t trust that her mom wouldn’t have Kevin hanging around, and partly because she knew Adam would be in town this week and she hated to miss a chance to see him again. “I can’t. I’ve made other commitments.”
“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Merry Anna, but I would think your commitment to the Supply Cabinet would come first. Kevin has really been a dear the past couple of weeks, spending time with your father and helping him. He even took him to the doctor last week.”
“I thought he was working.”
“Well, yes, but he’s made time for us too.”
Her jaw pulsed. Kevin was just going to sponge off them. That was his new job. She wanted to scream. “You’re breaking up. Mom? Hello?”
“Can you hear me?”
“Hello? I can’t hear you. Oh gosh. This connection out here is so undependable. Think…you…conn…” She grimaced at the little white lie about the connectivity, but she couldn’t take a moment more of the Kevin parade.
After those two phone calls, she was so flustered that she could barely speak. She’d leave, except that Adam’s truck was parked at the far end and he’d wonder what was up if she left now.
I’ll just go in and look for the beverage dispenser, and if I run into him, then I’ll politely wave and promise to catch up later in the week. Easy.
She pushed her car door open, then lunged to catch itbefore it bumped into the car next to her. Thankfully, no damage was done. The owner of a green pickup walked by her to get into his truck. By the stink eye she got from him, he must’ve seen the almost incident. She smiled and then ran into the store.
Remembering from her visit before that there were picnic and cookout supplies to the right, she headed in that direction. Luckily, there were two beverage dispensers on the shelf. She took the larger of the two and carried it to the counter.
She’d just walked out the front door when Adam came jogging up the loading dock toward her.
“Merry Anna! Hi. How are you?”
Just seeing him made her smile. His shoulders looked broad in his work shirt. “Good. How about you?”
“I don’t know,” Adam said. “It’s been a really bizarre weekend. I feel like I’ve been in the twilight zone since Friday night.”
“Is that the song they played when you came out of the chute Friday?”
“I don’t know. I tend to blank that out, but I may have to request they never do that again. I was going to call you today. I…wait, let me carry that to your car for you.” He took the large glass drink dispenser from her and walked down to her car. He set it in the passenger seat and belted it in. “Shouldn’t go anywhere.”
“Thank you.” She watched him come back around to the front of the car. He seemed harried. Frazzled. Not like Adam at all.
“Saturday morning I had a surprise visitor. Actually, I thought it might have been you. I wish it had been, but it wasn’t. This barrel racer that used to hang around at all thebull-riding events, Carly, showed up. I haven’t seen her in five or six years.”
Was he getting back with an old girlfriend? Her heart dropped to her gut. She tried to manage the tremble in her lip.
“Out of the blue, she showed up at my place,” he repeated. “I don’t even know how she knew what town I live in. I say ‘Winston-Salem’ on the forms because some of those fans are a little crazy.”
“I wondered why they announced you were from Winston instead of Antler Creek.” She tried to concentrate on that part rather than on Carly. She even had a fun name. Not like Merry Anna. She’d always hated her goody-two-shoes name.
“Yeah, and no one knows where any of the small towns the riders really live in are, anyway.”
“Well, it must have been nice to see your old friend after all that time.” Pressing back her disappointment, she tried not to overdo her enthusiasm. So, she’d slipped and fallen for a cowboy. Age-old problem. She should’ve known better.
“I don’t even know where to begin.” He sat on the edge of the two-rail decorative fence next to the parking area. “We never had anything going on. Nothing serious.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear all the sordid details.
“I mean, we hung out a lot. I really liked her family too. But then she just kind of disappeared from the scene. Someone had said she ended up in Tennessee. There were rumors she got married, but no one talked about her.”
“And then she shows up at your house?”
“With a little girl, who she proceeds to inform me is mine.”
