AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Don’t,” she said, several years of holding her tongue about to be broken. She picked up her fork as if she’d take another bite of pepper, but she couldn’t. She faced him, lifted her chin, and got ready to vomit out everything.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes scanning down to her bare feet. “You’re not dressed.”
“Sure I am,” she said. “For a cozy evening in, without my daughter, because the nanny I have to pay overtime tonight took her to a movie. So I can’t just go pick her up and save myself a few dollars.”
Lee opened his mouth, but Rosalie held up her hand. The cowboy was smart, because he snapped his lips shut. “I called you three times,” she said. “Tell me your phone is lost or broken.”
He said nothing.
Rosalie folded her arms and cocked one hip. “Tell me your mama or daddy is in the hospital.”
Lee dropped his chin toward his chest.
“So it’s the farm.”
“Yes,” he said.
“Fine,” she said. “I don’t care about the farm, Lee. I care that you didn’t call me.”
“Time moves funny out there,” he said.
“Then you need to figure out how to rope it and make it move right,” she spat back. “Or at least look at your blasted phone when it rings.”
He looked up, some fire in the forest now. “To be honest, it was the farm, and then Mama. There’s a lot going on all the time. Something I think will take five minutes takes an hour. Then Mama needs help getting up. Then I get tied up in a conversation there. Then, then, then.”
“One of thosethensshould be you calling your girlfriend and letting her know she doesn’t need to spend an hour getting ready for a date that isn’t going to happen.”
“I didn’t want to cancel,” he said.
“No.” Rosalie picked up her half-eaten dinner and took it over to the sink. “You just want me to be styled and ready for whenever you are.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Why did you make the drive at all?” she demanded. “You could’ve called when you got in the truck—a half-hour ago—and rescheduled.”
“I didn’t want to reschedule.”
They could talk in circles forever, and Rosalie was suddenly too tired to say another word. She shook her head and said nothing.
“This is how life is on the farm,” he said, throwing the words at her. “This is what I wanted to talk to you about. If you think you can live a farm life, with my sick, crazy, loud family. Be a farmer’s wife, who might have to keep the time for her husband, because things get away from him sometimes.”
He sucked in a long breath, and Rosalie looked over to him, finding fury and anguish on his face. She wanted to reassure him instantly that she could do what he’d just described.Of courseshe could be his timekeeper, and his secret-keeper, and the keeper of his heart too.
She wanted to tell him that she’d been dreaming of moving into that cabin with him, and leaving town behind to escape into the hills and woods with him, to live the exact life he’d described.
Autumn would have a full-time father, and Ford would complete their family on the weekends and all summer long. Heck, she was a lot younger than Lee, and she wanted more kids. Especially a child with his auburn hair.
Lee was a good man, and he tried hard. But what if trying wasn’t enough? What if she’d always be disappointed by him?
Her emotions tornadoed and tangled, and nothing came out of Rosalie’s mouth.
