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“I just don’t know what he’s waiting for. I asked him about the applicants, because you would notbelievewhat service was like last night.” She exhaled like her boss was the most exasperating man on the planet. Clarissa knew he wasn’t; that honor went to Lee, who hadnotapologized to Trav last night for motor-oiling up his cucumbers.
Clarissa pushed outside, free from the church now. She could breathe out here, and she paused at the top of the steps to do just that. “And?”
“And he said nothing had come in that impressed him,” Leslie said. “I’m so sorry, Rissa. Really. He’s just so particular, and even when I said I knew you could do it, that you were better than me, he said you have no experience.”
Clarissa gazed out at the parking lot, the trees that lined it, and the blue sky beyond. The world felt still here in this part of Texas, with only the slight rustling to leaves and tree branches from the breeze, and the distant sound of a dog barking somewhere. Even that quieted, and Clarissa felt the moment freeze in time and infuse into her soul.
She did love small-town Texas. She loved the way she knew almost everyone inside the church behind her. She loved the way she could go inside any shop and receive a smile and a howdy from whoever worked there. She loved the water towers that gave every town personality, and she loved the way life just moved slower.
“He’s right,” she finally said. “Thank you for asking, Leslie.”
“What are you going to do?”
Clarissa went down the steps and headed for her SUV. She wasn’t going to sit in church for another minute, praying for something that wasn’t going to come true. “Well,” she said, exhaling. “There are plenty of restaurants in San Antonio. I just need one to take a chance on me.”
“I can put out some feelers,” Leslie offered.
“No, it’s okay,” Clarissa said. “I know how to look for openings online. I’ll just apply to more places.” There were plenty more places. If she had to start at the bottom and work her way up, so be it. She could. Shewould. She absolutely would.
“Let me know if I can help,” Leslie said, and Clarissa smiled to herself. Her friend was so kind and so good. “I have a couch you can sleep on if you need to come pound the pavement.”
“Thank you,” Clarissa said, but she wouldn’t be going to San Antonio quite yet. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Love you, Rissa.”
“Love you too, Les.” She ended the call and slid into her SUV before her emotions could spill out. They teemed inside her, and she sat in the deafening silence, trying to get her mind to settle down.
She’d set a departure date for June thirtieth, but that was next week—only ten days away—and there was no way she could go to San Antonio then. She didn’t have anywhere to stay, and it took longer than a week and a half to get an apartment. She didn’t want to pack up everything she owned if she wasn’t moving, and she still hadn’t taped together a box.
She didn’t want to go to the city with only a suitcase, because that felt like a vacation, not a permanent move.
Spencer’s handsome face flashed through her mind, and she sighed. He seemed determined to spend time with her, and she liked that. She’d spoken true when she’d told her brother women liked feeling thought about, and it was clear Spencer thought about her.
She just didn’t know where her life was leading her, and she didn’t want a matching gash on her heart from Spencer Rust. “Why did he have to show up now?” she asked the silence, the sky, the very state of Texas itself.
Nothing and no one answered, and Clarissa started the vehicle and drove back to her house in the clearing that overlooked the farm. If she was going to go horseback riding with the hot cowboy, she needed to look her best. But maybe if she didn’t, he wouldn’t be as interested in her.
She dismissed the thought, because Spencer wouldn’t care what she wore to go horseback riding. He liked her for more than her physical appearance, and that thought made her wonder if she didn’t need a heart transplant, nor an ENT to check her throat, nor anyone to do anything about her swoopy stomach.
Maybe those were all normal conditions for a woman falling in love with a cowboy.
