AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, but he’s not taking much. He traded in his pickup for a car, and he’ll stock up on what he needs in Fargo.” Unlike my husband, Kane had no issues shopping at a thrift store. “He’s selling his trailer house and using that to buy furniture.”
“That’s so exciting. I love that Aunt Laney is sticking around.”
It would’ve been hard to be away when Kane moved and for Kennedy and Liam’s baby. All we had to worry about was maintaining what we had. Archer didn’t say, but he was worried he would make mistakes that put us in the same position as his dad.
I was worried too. He’d sunk most of his money into this property for us. But we were a little better at talking to each other than we used to be.
Kennedy noticed Archer was done with his call and gave my arm a squeeze before she went back to sit by her husband.
Archer’s contemplative expression and furrowed brow weren’t what I expected after a simple call. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” he said slowly, and a slow grin spread across his handsome face. “Yeah. Remember Jaycee Henry?”
“How could I forget?” I could laugh about it now. We’d come out the other side of that client dinner stronger than ever.
“She heard I left NT Land Agency and wants to work with me since I ‘had a come to Jesus.’ If I walked away from Truitt and all the money, then she wants someone like that to work with.”
“But she’s in Texas.”
“I’m still licensed in Texas.” He grinned. “She never did buy that property she was looking at that was supposed to have made me partner.”
“What if she doesn’t buy anything now?” He could be flying to Dallas for nothing. I didn’t want him to have a setback.
“It’ll give me time to get qualified to be a land broker in North Dakota. If that’s all right with you.”
“Mm, another revenue stream and added stability. I don’t know, Archer. You keep talking sexy like that and my IUD might fall right out.”
He slipped his arms around my waist, and I was surrounded by his bourbon-and-citrus scent. “I can talk about investments and setting up a retirement for you.” He leaned his head down to murmur in my ear. “And I’d love it if that IUD fell right out.”
I pulled back and searched his face. I found nothing but sincerity. “I can make an appointment.”
His grin widened, and my belly flipped. How much could my life change in a couple of months?
He was about to kiss me when Holden hollered from around the firepit. “If you two start making out, then Liam and Kennedy will start making out. And I might start canoodling with the chickens.”
Archer laughed and tucked me into his side so we could join our family and friends. Two people who had fooled themselves about what they really wanted had somehow landed exactly where they were supposed to be.
While we were walking to the group, I looked up at Archer. “You know, the day you first showed up, I was thinking about life and how I was friends with Kennedy and married to a Barron, just not one I’d known as a kid, and I thought it was odd how things turned out.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up. “I’ve been thinking the same.”
“Yeah.” I didn’t worry anymore that he’d leave me for the next big client. He’d ditched the biggest client of his career for me. Oddly perfect how things turned out.
* * *
Holden
I entered the bar and stopped for a moment to look at the bulletin board inside the entry. There was a flyer for the football league Stetson had coerced me to help him with. It’d be for a different team—since I was in a different town.
Crocus Valley was twenty minutes away from Coal Haven. I loved seeing my cousins happy, but there were times in those situations when I had to grin and bear it. Kennedy might think no one noticed she was drinking only water, but I had. I was happy for them. I was. But only Stetson knew why it was a complex subject for me.
When she popped out some cute, red, wiggly baby, I’d be ecstatic for them. I’d say all the right things. And I’d come back to Crocus Valley and get trashed. I could usually find someone to crash with for the night. Otherwise, I always parked a couple blocks away where there was nothing but abandoned buildings and an empty lot. I had no issues sleeping it off in my truck if the good deputies of this county didn’t.
I leaned my head back and took a deep breath. I hadn’t come here to piss around the entrance all night. But sometimes...the feeling there was something else out there for me taunted me. There wasn’t. I had tried that and lost it. I lived in the town where I was born and raised, and I was here to stay. I liked my career. I liked carrying on the business my grandparents and their parents had built. I liked being free to do whatever I pleased.
There were no screaming fights on my front porch like there had been when I was a kid. No men pretending to be my daddy. No boyfriends thinking they were going to get the land and livestock that were mine. I had a no-nonsense mom and my own place on her land.
Nothing was changing for me anytime soon, and that was the way I liked it. Once I got through football season and Stetson’s incessant nagging.
