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“I’ve got to get going anyway.” Ty recovered first, straightening from his seat and leaving his empty beer bottle behind. “To do some…things.”
“Thanks for coming out here, Ty,” he said, never taking his eyes off Keely.
Ty just lifted a hand in a wave and sauntered toward his truck.
Now, with a dry throat and head pounding from lack of sleep, he told himself not to squander this opportunity. Keely was here.
“Do you want to have a seat?” Standing belatedly, Nate gestured to the wooden chair Ty had vacated around the outdoor table in the converted pole barn. “Can I get you a drink?”
“No. Thank you.” She walked toward him, her silver flip-flops slapping her feet. Ducking under the light spray from the misters, she entered the covered area but didn’t take the seat at the table. Instead, she dropped onto the porch swing that was really a giant daybed, the heavy ropes creaking gently as it swayed.
Nate dragged a chair closer to her and flipped it backward, straddling it.
“I’ve been thinking about you all day.” Even if she hadn’t told him she wasn’t going with him, she would have been on his mind. It killed him to think about all her hard work gone. “Everett called me this morning and wanted me to let you know that he’s got his insurance company looking into what they can do to help. Whatever he gets for the portion that was his, he’ll give to you.”
“Nate, I can’t let him do that.”
“Good luck arguing that one with my grandfather.” His brothers were no better at it than him. “I’m just the messenger.”
“I’ll talk to him.” She planted her feet on the floor, edging the swing back a few inches before lifting her toes to make it rock. “But first, I wanted to tell you something.”
In the quiet evening, the crickets sang louder, reminding him of that night down by the creek with her when they’d danced to music from Hickory Hall. The sky was mostly purple now. The irrigation system for his mother’s garden popped on with a dull hiss.
He waited while she seemed to collect her thoughts. He’d spent enough time with her to be able to read that much of her body language. But he couldn’t imagine what she’d come here to say. Especially after the way she’d cleaved his hopes for the future in two.
What if she’d changed her mind?
The thought was too enticing for him to dwell on.
“Alexis wants to leave her job in Houston and move home with my father to spend more time with him before he needs to go into assisted living,” she said finally, confirming what Ty had told him just a little while ago.
“She could work anywhere she wants, I’m sure,” he settled for saying, not certain where Keely was going with this. “Her job is in high demand.”
“I know.” Keely glanced up from where she’d been staring down at her fingers, her face glowing with pride. “She’s so smart and I know she can take good care of herself. I don’t have to worry about her anymore.”
“You have every reason to be proud of her.” Even though they were only two years apart in age, Keely had always taken on a more parental role with her sister.
“Thank you.” Her gaze returned to her lap where she fidgeted with a ribbon on the pocket of her dress. “But not only does she want to come home and move in the farmhouse.” Swallowing visibly, she looked up at him again. “She also thinks I should leave.”
Nate took his time digesting that, his fingers drumming silently on the spokes of the painted Windsor chair where he sat. She appeared distressed about her sister’s suggestion that she move out, even though—in theory—it would have let her travel with him had she wanted to. Somehow, that only made it hurt more that she seemed truly torn about it.
“If you don’t want to leave Last Stand, you just need to tell her that. It’s your home too.” He should have seen how much it meant to her. “You have a life and a business here, and it was wrong of me not to consider that when I asked you to leave.”
He wanted to roll out his idea for a long-distance relationship, but he also didn’t want to cut her off when she looked like she had more to say.
“Alexis said that while I deserved the time to think about what I want from my future, I could do that away from Last Stand just as well as I could do it while I lived here.” Her toes touched the floor again as the swing slowed to a stop.
“What do you think about that?” His attention narrowed to her, his heart slugging hard against his ribs.
“I think she makes a good point.” Her dark eyes met his, her gaze unflinching. “And maybe the reason I rejected your offer out of hand last night is because I’m still scared the next person I love is going to abandon me.”
He quit drumming his fingers. His pulse skittered faster at her use of the word “love.”
He hadn’t given much thought to the vulnerable age she’d been when her mom had left. Or about the fact that her mother had handed her the reins of raising her sister as if Keely was an adult.
“Keely, I promise you, I’m not abandoning you. I already had a plan to come see you today and tell you that I understand if you want to stay here, but it doesn’t change the fact that I love you and want to be with you every chance I get.” He clutched the back of the seat tighter, his shoulders tensing. “And if you feel more comfortable staying here and rebuilding the business, we can figure out how to make long distance work. But I’m not giving up on you.”
Wary hope sparked in her eyes. “Really? You would do that for me?”
