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“A water circus? Are you kidding?”
The power of her grin landed on the side of his face. “I can’t wait,” she said. “I’ve never been to a water circus.”
“Me either,” he said. “Which honestly, isn’t hard. I haven’t done much in my life but work on the farm.” He glanced at her, hoping she knew that. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about the farm.”
“Listen, you did?” she teased.
He grinned too, realizing he did begin a lot of sentences that way. “Yeah, I…don’t take this the wrong way or anything. It’s not, you know, super urgent or anything.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, because he hadn’t really said anything.
“I work on the farm,” he said. “A lot. You’ve got Taffy.” He’d heard her abbreviate the name of her shop to that several times. “I know you live outside of town so you can get to your daddy’s place easier, and I’m just wondering… I mean, if we were to, you know, make it and get married.” He cleared his throat so hard, it sounded like a tiger growl.
“Would you want to stay in your house or see if we could find a cabin on the farm?” He didn’t dare look at her, because he’d invited tension into the cab with them.
“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “If I took a different road, I could get to Daddy’s in about the same time from the farm.”
“Just something I was thinking about,” Will said, his whole upper body burning now. “It’s fine. Like I said, not urgent.”
“Where are Travis and Shay going to live?”
“We haven’t talked much about it,” Will said. “But I’m going to tell him they should live in the cabin where we live now.” He shifted in his seat, knowing Travis wouldn’t want to feel like he was evicting Will.
“There’s another cabin out by my sister I can live in.”
“With your wife?”
“Uh, it’s not a huge cabin,” he said. “Maybe just the two of us. I mean, not us, but a man and his wife.”
Her fingers around his squeezed. “I get what you’re saying. You don’t have to keep saying it’s not us.”
“I don’t want to freak you out.”
“I’m not freaking out,” she said, but she’d turned toward her window and kept gazing out of it.
“Great,” he said a little too brightly. “So maybe a couple. I wouldn’t want to have a family there.” And he wanted a family. He knew Gretchen did too.
She just nodded, and Will needed to move this conversation to something else. “Okay,” he said. “You never did tell me where you found Elvis when you got home from your daddy’s last night.”
* * *
Hours later,Will was sure he’d experienced the best day of his life. The absolute best. After his initial awkwardness, he’d calmed down, and they’d been able to have normal conversations around their jobs, the things they liked, and the things they wanted in their lives. He hadn’t found enough bravery to tell her he wanted her in his life, but she hadn’t said anything like that either.
He’d found a loaf of sourdough cinnamon swirl bread that had been baked in a Dutch oven at the boutique, and Gretchen had bought a pair of earrings made of driftwood that fit her vibe perfectly.
He’d held her hand, and he’d kissed her every time they went back to the truck. He liked it when she sat on the seat, and he stepped into the space created by the open door.
Then, she was about his height, and she’d cup his face in her hand and kiss him, kiss him, kiss him. He could honestly kiss her all day, every day, and his male side told him to make sure she knew he was falling in love with her before the day ended.
He didn’t know how to say words like that. He’d never said them to Tara, and he hadn’t found out that she wasn’t on the same page as him until he’d bought a diamond and dropped to one knee.
He wasn’t going to do that again.
“Will,” Gretchen said, her fingers going tight against his. “Look!” She pointed with her free hand, and Will followed it to see a woman descending from high up in the big top, the water starting to fall from the ceiling.
He’d been eating popcorn—one of his favorite foods—despite gorging on the taco-corn, the caramel corn, and the fruity pineapple corn at the boutique, but he forgot all about that now.
Designs appeared in lights against the falling water, and Will could only stare. The woman began doing tricks and tumbles using only the line she’d been lowered on, and Will decided then and there that he’d like to come see this show again.
