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She put the plates in the sink and met her father’s eye. She hadn’t been happy when he’d hired Spencer, but she’d had some time to get used to the idea. She’d enjoyed having him around, and it had actually been really nice getting to know him again.
“I’ll walk with you,” she said, stepping into her dad and giving him a hug. “Thanks, Daddy.”
“Dinner was delicious, as always,” he said. With that, he turned on the sink and got rinsing while Clarissa gathered her nerves and her wits and held them tightly.
She joined Spencer on the front porch, both of them just standing on the top step and looking out toward the road. The house sat back about two hundred yards from the highway, and they couldn’t actually see the asphalt. If a truck went by, she could hear it.
“Thanks for having me,” he said. “That was so much better than a microwavable bowl of mac and cheese.” He chuckled as he went down the steps, and Clarissa hastened to follow him. She didn’t have much to say, but Spencer took her hand, and that seemed to say a lot.
She smiled into the evening sunshine, the golden rays of it peeking over the tops of the trees in the west. The air felt very still tonight, and it went down like wet cotton.
“I haven’t spoken to my dad in twenty years,” Spencer said. “I’ve been thinking about him a lot since I decided to leave Hope Eternal.” He spoke in a quiet, reverent way, and while what he’d said surprised Clarissa, she didn’t want to shatter the atmosphere he’d created.
“Why’s that?” she asked, keeping her voice as muted as his.
“After my momma died, he turned mean. Well.” He lifted one shoulder. “He’s always been mean. He was mean to momma and mean to me, but we could handle him. After she died, though, no one could. He drank a lot, and he stopped working the ranch we lived on.”
“Where was this?” Clarissa looked at him, feeling hopeful for some reason. Like maybe she could help Spencer work through this problem.
“A little town in the Hill Country,” he said. “Just outside of New Braunfels.” He looked off into the distance, obviously somewhere inside his own mind.
“I did the best I could, but it was a thirty-minute drive to school, and I had to ride the bus for a few years. That took over an hour. I tried to keep the house up, the barns, the horses…” He sighed. “In the end, we lost it all.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“My granddaddy found out, and see, it was my momma’s farm. His daughter. So he took it back when I was seventeen. Kicked me and my dad off the land, and Dad just sort of drifted then. I managed to finish high school, and I left him somewhere in Hondo. Maybe. Might’ve been D’Hanis. It was this little hovel of a house between the two towns. I just got in my truck and drove away.”
Clarissa didn’t know what to say. Her mind spun through such a sad tale, and compared to her own family, she couldn’t even fathom not talking to her parents and siblings.
“I drifted a little too,” he said. “Moved from ranch to ranch, learning things. I studied with a master carpenter for a while before I decided that wasn’t for me. I met a woman and we got engaged. I was twenty-two.”
She drew in a sharp breath. “Really?”
He gave her a sad smile, his focus not really in his eyes. “In no way were we ready to be married. I had no job at the time, as her daddy had just fired me for, uh, kissing her in the barn. She was only eighteen.”
Clarissa just kept putting one foot in front of the other, as this was obviously Spencer’s time to talk.
“She pulled out in the end,” he said. “Made me feel so worthless. I already felt like that, because I’d failed my momma. I’d failed on the farm. I had no one. Nothing.” His voice sounded haunted and hitched up in his chest at the same time.
“I finally landed at Hope Eternal Ranch, and that place—and Ginger—saved me. When I met you a few years later, I was still healing. I wasn’t ready for us.” His hand around hers tightened, and their pair of houses came into view. He remained quiet for the last few minutes of their walk, and since her house came before his, he took her up the steps to the front porch.
She turned back to him, wanting to hug him and reassure him that he was worth something to her. “Spencer,” she started.
“I’m ready now,” he said quietly. “That’s what this quiet seething has been inside me. It’s telling me that I’m healed now. I’m ready to leave all of that negativity in the past and move forward into the future with someone.”
She searched his face, but the light was dimmer under the eaves, as the sun had continued its arc in the west.
He cupped her face in his hand, and oh, Clarissa liked his touch. She leaned into it and let her eyes drift closed.
The charge between her and Spencer couldn’t be denied, but Clarissa was trying to fight it. While no one wanted her to leave Cooper & Co, Clarissa had spoken true earlier.
She needed a change.
Maybe Spence is the change you need, she thought.Maybe the chance you need to take isn’t in San Antonio, but right here in Sweet Water Falls.
She opened her eyes and looked into his. “I’m sorry about your dad. I remember that summer with you as being magical and fun.” She gave him a smile, and it felt real and whole on her face.
“I remember you loving deep-dish pepperoni pizza.”
