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“No, of course not.”
Josie’s quiet voice offered support and something else. Longing, perhaps? Funny, he’d have thought her to be career-centric, but maybe his assumption was wrong. “She is making it quite clear that she’s tired of living in apartments.”
“It’s tough to find an apartment that takes cows,” Josie noted.
“Impossible, it seems.” He laughed and she laughed, and her mother lifted an eyebrow in question. “Addie wants a cow, and Josie has kindly offered to take us over to the farm on West Lake Road. Your cousin, you said?”
“Yes. Brian. Addie would love to meet his kids. And see his cows.”
“Does this Sunday work? We’re free midday, after church, if that’s all right.” He gave a quick look to his watch. He had a few minutes yet, but just a few before he needed to get back to work. He faced her, with the morning sun deepening the auburn tones in her very pretty hair, and waited.
* * *
All right?
Josie didn’t have to think twice because she’d do whatever she needed to do to have time with Addie. To take her daughter over to Brian’s farm, to show her around, to see her pretty green eyes light up when she spotted a pasture full of cows? “Yes, it does, actually. We’re doing some baby shopping with Kimberly on Saturday, so Sunday would be great.” She closed the door on her mother’s back seat and faced him.
“Is noon all right?”
“Perfect.”
And then he gave her heart reason to pause when he asked, “Where shall I pick you up?”
Nowhere.
That’s what she should say, she should assure him that it wasn’t the least bit necessary, and that she could meet him and Addie at Bryan’s farm stand at the lake’s southern tip…
But she didn’t.
She hesitated for less than a nanosecond and said, “178 Creighton Landing, right behind The Square.”
“Perfect. Addie will be crazy-excited.” His phone buzzed a timely reminder. “I’ve got to head back to the inn for the call I’m expecting.”
“Well, thanks for stopping. For helping.” She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands as she spoke. It was kind of him to drive over here. To offer help. And then to set up the farm trip with her, but he was being nice because he didn’t realize who she was, and the unfairness of that struck her as he waved goodbye.
“This—” her mother watched him go, then faced Josie straight on “—is beyond awkward.”
“I know.”
“And Kimberly’s right. He’s quite good-looking and available.”
He was good-looking. And nice. So nice. If the circumstances were different—but they weren’t. “And he’ll hate me when he finds out who I am.”
“He’ll be surprised,” said Cissy. “Understandably so. Hate’s a strong word.”
Was it? In this instance? Josie wasn’t sure, and until she was, or at least until she had more information to go on, she would keep things to herself. At least for a while.
* * *
“Will Memaw and Papaw have time to play with me when they’re here?” The promised rain had come and gone, leaving a glorious Saturday in its wake, and Jacob’s precocious daughter seemed to have gotten a dose of spring fever. “I want to show them everything around here, because our town is so very beautiful, isn’t it, Daddy?”
“Our town? At what point did we adopt Grace Haven, Addie-cakes?” They’d come by the worksite for a two-hour stint of checking in with subcontractors. With the grand opening drawing close, the luxury of a no-work Saturday had disappeared with the advent of nice weather.
“Well, I love it, so why not adopt it?” She faced him frankly. She liked to choose her own outfits, and today she’d layered herself in some sort of wacky ensemble that suited her just fine but messed with his ordered sensibilities. He was pretty sure that’s why their relationship worked so well. Her eccentricities loosened him up and made him rethink a couple of decades of firm decision-making. “You liked winter here, didn’t you?”
“I did,” he admitted. “And I’m surprised that I did, but that’s not the point, is it?”
