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She shrugged before handing him two sun-warmed yellow squash, then turning to straighten a long, tangled vine. “He might have been angling to put you in Keely’s path again. I heard he had a hand in pushing Cal and Josie together this spring.”
“Gramp?” Nate watched as the Labs halfheartedly chased a rabbit at the edge of the lawn while Kungfu, his mother’s rescued Maltipoo, sniffed at his boot. “I can’t picture Everett as a matchmaker.”
“Maybe he hopes local girls will bring his grandsons closer to home,” his mom suggested as she moved deeper into the garden toward the tomato plants.
It was no secret Everett would have preferred his grandsons stay in Last Stand and take over Rough Hollow Farm and Orchards rather than follow their father into baseball. Maybe Everett was stepping up his efforts?
“But Josie wasn’t from around here.” He’d met Cal’s girlfriend just once, when they’d come to one of his road games, but he’d heard plenty about her from his brother since then. Josie came to Last Stand from Florida, hoping to lie low for a while after life had dealt her a rough hand.
“Yes, but she embraced the Texas Hill Country so well that she’s convinced Cal to buy a house here for the off-season.” She bent to pick a single tomato before moving out of the garden toward the apiary. “Not to mention, Everett took a shine to Josie right away.”
Nate and the dogs all followed his mom across the lawn, although he noticed her canine companions gave the beehives a wide berth. Wildflowers surrounded the bee boxes that had been painted in bright colors with stenciled greenery twining up the sides.
“But having Cal in town in the off-season isn’t going to fulfill Everett’s need to have a Ramsey in residence full time.” Nate had hoped maybe his sister would come home one day and want to run Rough Hollow, but as the years passed with no word from her, the chances of that happening grew slim.
“Then it’s no wonder he’s continuing to push his own agenda with you.” She glanced up at him after circling the hives. “Have you visited him since you’ve been home?”
Guilt stung harder than any bee.
“I went over yesterday, but he wasn’t there.” He’d been busy looking into plans for the baseball camp, reviewing the Rough Hollow map to find a piece of ground that Everett wouldn’t mind parting with for the sake of hosting the new venture.
Because while Creekbend High would allow them to use school facilities in the summers, Nate was interested in exploring all his options. If the Ramsey family sponsored the idea, they could run developmental skills programs the better part of the year and put their own stamp on the undertaking.
“He had a doctor appointment, but I’m sure he’s home now.” His mom lifted a hand to point to the driveway in front of Everett’s historic home a stone’s throw from the farmhouse. “His car is there and so is another one that looks like a visiting nurse.”
Sure enough, even as they watched, the screen door opened at the front of the house and a young woman in blue scrubs walked out of the place, returning to her silver compact vehicle. Which meant Nate had no reason in the world not to go speak to his grandfather and clear up whatever misguided notions Everett had about pushing Nate and Keely together.
“No time like the present,” Nate admitted, dodging a few bees leaving the hives for the evening forage. “I’ll go see him.”
Turning his boots in the direction of his grandfather’s house, he knew he needed to make it clear to Gramp that Keely wanted nothing more to do with him. The sooner they came up with an equitable solution for her to buy back the land her father had sold out from under her, the sooner they could all get back to normal.
Keely would get on with her wildflower farming. Nate would plan his camp, heal his hand, and head back to Houston.
She’d made it clear that she’d moved on, and she didn’t want anything that Nate had to offer—then or now. So it didn’t make any sense to him when he heard the wheeze and rattle of an old delivery truck as it rumbled down his grandfather’s driveway toward him.
Especially when Keely Harper sat in the driver’s seat.
*
Keely’s first thoughtwas that she should have kept her phone on for the text updates of Nate’s whereabouts from her friends in town.
Because if she’d had enough sense to do that, she wouldn’t be staring at him right now as he stood in the middle of the driveway between her truck and his grandfather’s house, as if daring her to come closer.
She cursed softly under her breath at the sight of him, mostly because she hadn’t mentally prepared herself. He’d filled her thoughts so thoroughly these last days that she couldn’t deny there was still something about him that drew her. Some connection that hadn’t died. Just the sight of Nate was enough to rattle her.
His dark eyes landed on hers as he walked her way, boots stirring the dust as he moved. Long legs encased in worn denim, he was tall and too handsome for his own good. Well, too handsome forhergood, because just looking at him made something twist inside her. Why did she still have to be attracted to this man long after their breakup?
She’d thought about him far too much since their last conversation, replaying the moment when he’d asked her why she hadn’t considered leaving town with him five years ago. It had been hard enough shutting down thoughts of him back then, when she’d been foolish enough to let herself entertain the idea. She wasn’t ready to revisit that topic now when she’d taught herself not to hope for the fairy tale.
That wasn’t her life. And neither was Nate Ramsey, no matter how tempted she might be to forget it.
Cutting the engine, she left the keys on the driver’s seat and hopped out of the truck, not worried anyone was going to steal the van. The only houses around here were Hailey Decker’s and Everett’s, the properties isolated thanks to all the surrounding farmland.
Evenmorefarmland now, thanks to her father going behind her back to sell off more of the remaining Harper property.
“Hello, Nate.” She nodded a greeting, hoping he couldn’t hear the hint of breathlessness in her voice just from being around him. “I was coming to see your grandfather. I tried phoning him yesterday, but didn’t hear back, so I thought I’d stop by while I had a delivery out this way.”
She was covering her nervousness by rambling. Seeing him earlier in the week hadn’t been as nerve-racking because she’d thought she knew where she stood with him. Now, she understood that things weren’t so simple. And furthermore, she could probably benefit from his help and goodwill if she was going to resolve the land issue with his grandfather. Nate had guessed she would need help a lot faster than she’d been able to recognize it.
