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“It doesn’t have to be one or the other, Lennon. You don’t have to stay here to keep the farm. I could hire staff, or we could move the horses down the road to my family’s stables.”
“I can’t let you do that, Caleb.”
“Because of the money?” I can tell he’s fighting it, but more anger trickles into his expression.
“That’s part of it,” I admit. I was raised to work hard. Not accept hand-outs.
“I have plenty, Lennon! I could easily—”
“I know you have plenty,” I interrupt. “You, Caleb. It’syourmoney.”
“To spend how I want.”
I open my mouth.
“Just think about it, Lennon.” He walks past me, headed for the doorway. “I’m going to change for the funeral.”
“Caleb.”
He stops, but doesn’t turn around. “Iamsorry. I should have told you as soon as I got the letter.”
Blue eyes meet mine as Caleb glances over one shoulder. “I should have told you congratulations, Lennon. I never doubted that you’d get in.”
Just that I’d go. Neither of us say the words, but I’m certain we’re both thinking them.
As soon as he’s gone, I push over the stack of folded cloths and curl up in the center of my bed.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
CALEB
The first person I see when I step inside the church is Colt. He’s standing to the right of the curved wooden doors that mark the entrance to the nave, tapping the pamphlet that lays out how the next hour will proceed against his thigh.
“Hey,” I greet.
“Hey,” he repeats, giving me a grim smile. “You doing all right, Winters?”
“Hanging in there,” I reply, grabbing a paper program from the basket.
It’s nice to have something to fiddle with when you’re nervous. Makes me glad I play baseball, not soccer.
“Is Lennon?”
“I think so.”
I actually don’t.
Lennon is far from fine. She shouldn’t be. No matter when it happened, losing her grandfather would be awful. He was the one who raised her. The only blood relative she had left.
I have no idea how she acted in the immediate aftermath of her parents’ deaths. It was before we met. But right now, there’s no sign of the girl I know intimately. Who I’ve shared memories and swapped love declarations with. Lennon has shut me out—almost completely—and it’s far more heartbreaking than holding her for four hours while she cried was.
It’s also terrifying.
I thought the days of worrying how she felt about me were gone. But that’s exactly how I feel right now.
Lennon didn’t tell me she got into Clarkson. That stings. Because I thought we were totally honest with each other, and the fact that she lied has me second-guessing. And I found out right before her grandfather’s funeral, which I have to head back to Clarkson from.
“It’s got to be really tough for her,” Colt comments, watching the stream of people entering the church.
