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“No, sir,” Gary said.
Spencer was glad he wasn’t in charge like Gary or Lee. He could be bossed around to lift gates, chase down cows, or repaint a stable. He didn’t want to be responsible for thousands of dollars of equipment, and he stayed silent while the other two men talked. Gary would give him another assignment, and then Spencer would race home, shower, and get over to the shoppe just after noon.
Wayne had closed everything yesterday when he’d realized how severe the storm would be, and he’d ordered everyone to go home and to stay there. Clarissa hadn’t made her usual Monday cheeses or ice creams, and he wasn’t sure he would today either.
He was supposed to be running the shoppe solo today, as a trial run. Clarissa had definitely decided to leave Sweet Water Falls despite not having a job or a place to live in San Antonio.
He found her utterly maddening, but he’d kept his thoughts to himself. She felt frantic and out of control to him, and no one made their best decisions in that state of mind. At the same time, a person in that frame of mind also didn’t hear reason very well, and he didn’t want to say or do anything that would end his relationship with Clarissa prematurely. Not again.
Not when he’d started to fall for her all over again.
Wayne’s big, black truck came down the single-lane road that went between the dairy cow pastures. Spencer watched it approach as Lee said, “My daddy must need one of us for something.”
“Good work, boys,” Wayne said as he got out of the truck. “Lee, we need to get over to the bullpen. We’ve got that buyer comin’.”
“Yep.”
They left, and Spencer watched them go. Then he turned toward Gary and said, “I’m too old to lift gates like that,” with a grin.
“You and me both.” Gary smiled and bent to pick up the gloves he’d discarded. The remnants of clouds hung on the horizon as he and Gary loaded into a farm truck and started down the road. Mud puddles dotted parts of the path ahead of them, but Gary steered the two of them around them easily.
They checked in with Chris, but all of the jobs were far too big for Spencer to work on before he needed to get to the shoppe, so he took his shower early and arrived at the shoppe thirty minutes sooner than planned.
Clarissa worked in the kitchen, peeling labels from the label-maker and putting them on plastic containers as fast as the machine would spit them out.
He stood and watched her, a smile forming in his soul and on his face.
She glanced at him and offered a small smile too. “What’s on your mind?”
He ducked his head, his cowboy hat still on though he stood in the kitchen. “You still know when something’s bothering me.”
“Apparently,” she said.
“I think that says something.”
“What does it say?”
Spencer lifted his head and slowed his step. “This is going to sound crazy, but…” He wasn’t sure he could say it. At the same time, he didn’t want her to drive away next Monday without him having said everything on his mind and in his heart.
She looked at him, her eyebrows up.
“I don’t want you to go to San Antonio,” he blurted out.
Clarissa wouldn’t look at him now, and surely every beat of his heart would crack his now frozen and brittle ribs.
“I—” she started, but then she cut off.
Honestly, what did he expect her to say?
His chest and attitude felt as stormy as the sky had been last night. He felt like the thunder that took so long to grumble and growl through the clouds. Then, the next clap would come, and the world would blaze with bright fire as lightning struck.
“Maybe we need to take a chance,” he said next, his voice almost like sandpaper. “A leap of faith.” Desperate hope filled him from top to bottom now. “Maybe this is our second chance to find what we both want.”
He moved toward her, desperate to make her feel what he felt. Clarissa faced him, but she didn’t have the hopeful expression like he did. Rather, one of resignation. “It’s been a few weeks,” she said.
The lightning struck, and all of Spencer’s emotions hardened right where they were. “Okay, got it.” He spun to leave the kitchen. He had to get out of here. He couldn’t be in the same room with her, not when she’d rejected him.
Part of his heart told him to go back and make sure they were okay. He could do the long-distance thing. He could.
