“Well,” I open the cupboard for a glass, “should I give you the same advice you gave me?”
“This is different.” Bella bites into the cookie, crumbs falling on her ample chest.
“How so?”
She grins as though the response is going to be ridiculous. “I’m a much better person,” she laughs. “This man was engagedto my sister, and I’m spying on him…for her.I can’t be a double agent. Double agents are the worst.”
I shake my head with a smirk as the back door creaks open, Cash and my father laughing as they walk in.
Laughing?
I glance toward Bella and she squeezes my hand. “Maybe they worked things out. Men are like that,” she says, her voice low as she grabs the plate of cookies off the counter. “I’m going upstairs. Good luck.”
“Hey,” I whisper, grabbing another cookie from the plate, “sometimes a spy crosses lines because she realizes they were drawn in the wrong place.”
“Umm… no,” she laughs. “I’m a better person than you, remember?”
I roll my eyes and shake my head playfully. I love that we can be like this with each other.
“You have the right idea in that towel,” Cash says, leaning in for a hug, the scent of damp earth on his skin.
Oh God.I glance down at the towel I’m still wrapped up in, my face turning a shade of crimson. I have no idea how long Bella and I were talking for, but it didn’t seemthatlong.
“It’s coming down hard, and the creek is rising, but we got the horses over to the neighbor’s house before any flooding hit the pasture.” Cash kisses my head casually as though we’re an old married couple and my father isn’t his best friend.
“Rain’s supposed to stop tomorrow. You guys might miss the worst of it,” my father adds, dripping water onto the hardwood floor.
Maybe they both fell and hit their heads, or got struck by lightning and they don’t know what’s going on anymore. At this point I’d believe they ate the mushrooms out by the barn and they’re on one of those spirit journeys.
“I gotta get out of these wet clothes.” Cash kisses me again and I hand him a cookie before he kicks off his boots and shuffles through the house, dripping water everywhere.
He’s way too relaxed.Clearly, they ate some bad mushrooms.
Dad brushes the rain off his forehead and stares toward me as a puddle forms at his feet.
“Do you want me to get you some clothes? I’m sure Cash has something.”
“Nah,” he says, glancing at me again. “I just came in to apologize. It’s weird to see you two together, but we had a talk, and… I can see he cares about you. Honestly, that’s all I really want at the end of the day. You’d have a good life here. Plus, I like that he bought you the camera.”
I wrinkle my brows. “I’m pretty sure you think photography is stupid.”
He drags in a deep breath as he pushes more water off his forehead. “I don’t know, Violet. Since you and your sister were children, I wanted to set you both up for a life with as few complications as possible. But as you girls became women, I realized how little that mattered. Turns out you’ll make up your own minds.” He smiles as he says, “Although, your mom is going to be shocked when I tell her what happened tonight. I’d wager if you came home a few days a week to help her reorganize the spice cabinet, she’d get over it.”
“No deal.” I grin. “That’s a step too far.”
My dad lands his hand on the doorknob. “Sorry, but it’s a mandatory part of the negotiation. And honey… if Cash ever lets you down, I’ll hit him over the head with a shovel and bury him in the backyard.”
He gives me a wink then heads back out into the rain, leaving me in the doorway of the little farmhouse with a sense of peace I’m not sure I’ve ever had.
I used to spend my life thinking everything was dangerous. Creaky old barns, rusted tractors, letting the kids play in the pasture, storms rolling in, floods, even letting someone close enough to matter.
Now I know all those things are what makes life whole.
Sex in a barn with needy rafters. Covering my face to run from a nosey cashier. Getting bent over a whiskey barrel in the storage room with a distillery full of people. Heck, even candy for breakfast. To some, they may be wrong, extreme even, but I have a feeling that when I’m old and gray, these little moments of love and chaos are what I’ll remember the most.
Epilogue
Cash
