“I cannot bebought, Luke Williams,” he informed me. He thumped his own glass onto the table beside mine. “I brought my own.”
The way he said my name like it was all one word made my stomach feel floaty and nervous.
He was so handsome, and God, it had beenso longsince I’d had a real conversation with anyone but Murray or someone under the age of eight, I couldn’t help smiling at him and wishing we could just… talk.
“Stop looking at me like that. You might’ve fooled my family, Williams, but the game is up. You’re an orchard-thieving con artist. Admit it.”
I shook my head sadly. I could maybe parse those words individually, but I wasn’t sure what they meant together. “I’m trying to understand you, Webb, but frankly, I’ve already used up all my brain cells tonight trying to understand the hockey, and— Oh! Oh, wait! You could explain it to me. That would be awesome.”
“Explain… hockey?” He sounded confused. “Like… all of it?”
“Yes! Exactly! I’m trying to follow along, but I need a hockey-teaching friend. I’ve been led to believe…” I licked a drop of alcohol off my lips. “…that Vermont has those.”
“We are not friends.”
“No, that’s true,” I agreed, and he frowned harder. “Buuuuut… we could be! You seem like the kind of knight in shining armor who’d pat my head if I asked him to. Or carry a man’s sheep home over his shoulders.”
My eyes widened.Mother trucker.Had I actually said that out loud? There wasn’t enough alcohol in all the land to makethatstatement okay.
I started to open my mouth and explain that for Christmas my mom had gotten me this farmer calendar sponsored by one of her local charities. Every month had pictures of half-naked men cuddling adorable lambs and baby goats, and Webb Sunday looked very,exactlylike Mr. May.
But before I could explain any of that, though, Webb said flatly, “I want nothing to do with carrying your sheep,” which was fair enough… but kinda too late. I was already busy admiring the way his arm muscle, which was conveniently close to my eye holes, bulged against the worn fabric of his navy blue Henley.
Hecouldlift a sheep. Possibly all three of my sheep at once.
I’d honestly never assessed a hot guy with that criteria, and I could see now that I’d been missing out. This was going to be a new personal fantasy.
Also, adding to the fantasy, his whole being smelled like Christmas trees and clean laundry, and I was pretty sure I’d just cracked some kind of secret code. Why were gay men out there buying Tom Ford cologne when we could rub ourselves with pine sap and a Tide pod and smell like a sex god?
Webb sucked in a breath and held it for a second, and my stomach plunged as I worried I’d said that out loud too.
He leaned in closer, threateningly close. “Stop it right now. I know what you’re plotting.”
“Oh, sugar.” I felt my face go hot. “You do?”
“Yep. And it’s never going to happen.”
“No, of course, I know,” I assured him. “Because you’re straight.”
“What? No.” He scowled. “What does my sexuality have to do with my apples?”
“Wait, you’renotstraight?”
“No, Iam. Of course I am. I—” His hand made a slicing motion through the air. “Stop trying to confuse me! I know all about your designs on my orchard. Questioning old deeds and lot lines that have been perfectly fine for centuries. And I’m here to tell you you’re never going to win. I will never pay your apple tithe, no matter what the Friendship Agreement says, and that land ismine.”
“Land?” I clung to this one comprehensible word. “Oh, gosh no. I have no designs on your land. I have plenty of land already. Too much.”
“Liar!” he whisper-yelled.
“What, me?” I said, horrified. “N-no, I?—”
“You’ve put on this act since you got to town where you’re allfriendlyandhappyandcompetent,when really butter wouldn’tmelt in your mouth. Just who do you think you’re fooling, Luke Williams? How long do you think you can keep up this charade? How long?”
Something about his words hit me hard. I still didn’t understand what he was accusing me of, but I was very afraid that he saw me, in that moment, more clearly than I saw myself.
He was right.Soright.
I sucked in a breath, and my whole body trembled.
