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“Is that your official advice?” he asked dryly.
“Yes. Or bring her wine. Or both.”
“Are you seriously okay with me running off and leaving you at the helm again?” Brendan asked, torn.
“If it means you’ll stop being miserable in my presence then yes, please, go. I’m begging you.”
“I haven’t beenthatmiserable,” he lied.
“Yeah, sure. Let me know when you land. And let me know what sort of flowers you buy this woman. For God’s sake, don’t get red roses or something cliché like that, okay? Try and be a little bit original.”
Brendan didn’t need much more encouragement than that.
CHAPTER18
BRENDAN
Being a billionaire had many benefits. Brendan could buy a whole farm at the drop of a hat, he never had to worry about something as pesky as bills ever again, and he could get across the state of Texas, quite the considerable land mass, in a very short amount of time. Commercial flights were out of the question — not when it would add up to another six hours to the trip just with the waiting around. And now that the ball was rolling, now that he knew he was going to see Nicole again, and especially now that he knew she was going to be on her own, he wanted to shave off every possible minute he could. But even private flights were almost completely booked out.
Whether he liked it or not, tomorrow morning was going to be the earliest that he would set foot back on that farm.
* * *
It was eleven a.m. the next morning when his feet left the hire car and settled back onto the drive of Green Acres farm. He’d thrown on his boots, the ones that Nicole had insisted he buy, and just feeling the soles against the soil, he knew he had made the right decision. No matter how Nicole reacted to him showing up, he’d stick around and make this work. There wasn’t any other option.
Her truck was parked there in its usual spot, so she was still on the property somewhere. That was good. In the distance he could spot the two ATVs by the shed, so she had to be close by.
Not giving himself time to be a coward — he’d been one long enough already — Brendan knocked on the door. No one answered, so he knocked again. And then a third time. Brendan turned the handle, and sure enough the door wasn’t locked. This might technically be trespassing, he wasn’t sure, but thinking of Nicole potentially passed-out on the kitchen floor with a head wound propelled him inside.
“Nicole?!” he called out, but already knew that the house was empty, completely silent save for his own footsteps. He did a quick sweep, just to make sure, and she was nowhere to be found.
Why was he starting to get a bad feeling about this? Hoping that he was just being paranoid, Brendan stood on the porch and tried to think of where to start looking. She could be anywhere on the entire property, even right out the opposite side at her swing. All he could do was start somewhere and check areas off one by one…
There was a bellowing sound that, unfortunately, Brendan recognized all too well. It was the same sound that one cow had made when it had been trapped in the wire fence. But this was close, really close, and before Brendan had even given his legs permission to move, he was running for the closest field.
Getting to the gate in record time, he climbed over it, not bothering with the latch, and kept on running towards the sound. Soon enough he saw Nicole, looking like she was doing battle with one of the cattle — until he realized what was going on. There were calves everywhere, and here was one more being born. But just as Nicole had told him that one time, it looked like it was stuck and she was trying to pull it out.
As he got closer, Nicole not noticing him over the sound of the bellowing, he called out, raising his voice to be heard over the chaos. “Nicole!”
Nicole turned and screamed, nearly falling over backwards before collecting herself just enough to stay standing. “Brendan?” she gasped. “What the hell! You scared me half to death! What are you doing here?”
“I think maybethat’sthe priority,” he said, pointing to the cow struggling to give birth. He caught sight of her ear tag, which had the name Diane scrawled on it in black marker. It seemed kind of perfect that it was this particular animal that needed his help right now.
Nicole was struggling for breath and sweating buckets. “You try,” she said, having nothing left in the tank after trying to do it all herself.
Sure enough there was a tiny pair of legs flailing about, which was a grim sight, but Brendan ignored the squeamish side of himself and grabbed on tight, pulling as hard as he possibly could. All it took was one good tug and he was falling backwards, a tiny calf landing on top of him and Diane’s bellowing ceasing and allowing their ears to recover.
“Well, hi, there,” said Brendan as the calf looked up at him, blinking in the sudden sunshine, utterly confused as to where it was. Diane came over and snuffled at her baby, huffing warm breath over every surface.
Nicole was standing there looking at him like he’d fallen out of the sky.
“Hi,” she said, still dumbstruck.
“Hi,” said Brendan, thinking about how this wasn’t at all how he’d envisioned them having their first conversation back together, in the middle of a field and desperately needing a shower and a change of clothes.
“I think I need to sit down,” she said, moving away from Diane and her calf to give them space and not get squashed. She sat down in the grass, looking a little pale.
“Are you okay? You haven’t fainted again, have you?”
