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She wished she could have him root out the insecurities in her life. She had so few of them, but the ones inside her head felt mighty and powerful. “I want you to show me the farm,” she said. “Every barn, every pasture, the house, all of it.”
“All right,” he drawled like the cowboys she’d known in the rodeo circuit. “Remember, it’s pretty rough.”
“I think I can handle it.”
He led her back to the truck, and leaned into her legs after she’d gotten in. He stood almost as tall as her sitting in his big truck, which he’d gone with his cousin to buy a few weeks ago, and gave her a smile. “I think you’re the prettiest woman in the whole state.”
She couldn’t help smiling, though she did shake her head. Gerty wanted to tell him that line was terrible and he shouldn’t use it again, but she did like that he thought she was pretty. “Thank you, Mike,” she said seriously, and she leaned down to kiss him.
She’d kissed him before. Many times, actually. This summer and others growing up. None of them had felt as meaningful as this kiss, on her thirtieth birthday, sitting down the road from the farm that could potentially be the land of her dreams. And he was the man of her dreams, and while all of it scared her to no end, Gerty reminded herself that she’d done a lot of hard things in her life.
He broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against hers. He said nothing, where some of her other boyfriends would’ve. She liked the silence and how much it said between them, and then he straightened.
“All right,” he said. “Let’s start with this front barn.”
* * *
A couple of days later,Gerty knocked on her aunt’s office door, then entered the room at the back of the furthest stable. “Hey, Aunt Gloria.”
“Come in, Gerty,” she said, twisting in her chair to put something in a cabinet behind her. When she faced Gerty again, she wore a bright smile that made the lines around her eyes more pronounced.
Gerty looked up to her aunt in so many ways, and her words choked in her chest. She crossed the room in a couple of quick strides and sat down in front of Gloria’s desk. Her aunt hated working indoors, but to run a training, riding, and therapeutic facility with as many horses as Pony Power had, there was some office work that had to be done.
“What’s going on with you?” Aunt Gloria asked.
“I just…wanted to talk to you,” Gerty said. Her hands twisted around one another, and she told herself to still them. They almost had a mind of their own, but she got them to stop. “Mike bought me a farm, Gloria.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “He bought you a farm?”
“Yes.” Gerty nodded. “It needs a lot of work, I won’t lie. But the barns are good. The stables are sturdy. The farmhouse needs a lot of elbow grease, but it’s otherwise solid.”
Aunt Gloria absorbed everything Gerty had said, and Gerty didn’t even know what she was saying. She hadn’t meant to start with the farm. After she and Mike had walked through it all, him explaining things to her he’d learned on his tour before buying the place, she hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.
Not Daddy or Mom, not anyone at Pony Power. She and Mike had talked more about it, but that was it. She hadn’t said when she’d move in—or even if she’d be doing that. It was almost like the farm existed out there, and she could drive to it and walk around and no one would tell her she was trespassing. Because she wasn’t.
“Okay,” Aunt Gloria said. “Are you quitting here?”
“No,” Gerty said with a shake of her head. “No, of course not.”
Gloria sat back in her chair and folded her arms. “Running a farm is a full-time job, Gerty.”
“Yeah.” Gerty started nodding, and she looked down at her hands. “I really wanted to ask you about Uncle Matt.”
“What about Uncle Matt?”
“I mean….” Now that Gerty was here, she had no idea why. She sighed, frustration building in her that she couldn’t just talk like a normal human being. “Mike’s really rich,” she said. “I know Uncle Matt had some money when you guys got married. Did it…did it make you feel inadequate?”
Aunt Gloria sighed too, and Gerty dared to look up at her. She wore a puzzled look on her face, and she studied Gerty. “Honey,” she said. “What are you really getting at?”
“I don’t know.” Everything inside Gerty came unhinged. “I just feel like I’m not good enough for Mike. For his money. He shouldn’t be buying me farms, right? It’s crazy. Who does that?”
Aunt Gloria eyed her for another moment and then she said, “Someone who cares a lot about you.”
Gerty nodded. Mike did care about her, crazy as that may be.
“Baby,” Aunt Gloria said. “I’ve known you for a while now, right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Gerty whispered.
