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“Sure, fine. Got it. Geez.” Lucas scooted away as if he expected Elijah to take a full swing at him. “I’m on your side, okay? I was just trying to help.”
“Don’t.”
“Noted.” They both turned their attention to the sky, the quiet filling the space between them. If Lucas was on his side, Elijah knew he wasn’t doing right by anyone. He loved his brother, and he’d take a bullet for him. But he didn’t agree with about ninety percent of his brother’s choices.
Eventually, Elijah got to his feet and headed inside. There was nothing his brother could say to make him feel better about his latest decisions, and he wasn’t sure he wanted Lucas to manipulate him into it anyway. He’d just have to live with the consequences of his actions.
* * *
Another two dayshad passed since Elijah’s little conversation with his brother. Lucas had chosen to keep his distance, which was probably for the best for the time being. If his brother continued to discuss Scarlett in the way he had, Elijah couldn’t make any promises not to throw some well-deserved punches.
The only thing left to do was to throw himself into his work. The farm was going to be his, and he wasn’t going to let anything happen to it now.
He spent most of his time out in the fields, avoiding the barn and the house when he knew Scarlett would be coming and going. He was always acutely aware of when Scarlett would be around, and today just felt different.
It was probably just in his head. For the first few days after Scarlett found out about his contract with her father, he’d braced himself to get a visit from her lawyer, but when that didn’t happen, he also prepared to hear about her packing up and leaving.
But due to his family giving him the cold shoulder, he hadn’t heard a peep. Scarlett had also remained quiet. At this point, he wasn’t sure what she was planning. It shouldn’t matter anyway. He wasn’t going anywhere, and she wanted nothing to do with him.
Like the few nights before, Elijah worked late. He told himself it was because no one else was doing what had to be done, but part of him wanted to see as much of Scarlett as possible, even if she refused to speak to him. He’d catch himself staring up at her window after it got dark just to see the shadow of her figure pass the window.
Tonight, he’d left only slightly earlier than usual, though that didn’t mean anything when he still worked overtime. It was probably the conversation he’d had with Lucas that spurred this change. He was holding onto something that just wasn’t going to work. When he entered the house, the first person he saw was Annabel.
She was seated in the living room with her phone in her hand. When he closed the door, she didn’t even bother looking up. She probably knew it was him. Either that or she had finally gotten to the point where she didn’t care who came and went from the house.
He stopped in the entryway and watched her as she swiped through whatever it was she was looking at on the screen.
“You can stop staring. I’m not going to talk to you.”
Yep. She definitely knew it was him.
Elijah moved closer to her, crossing the threshold into the living room. An apology hovered on his lips. “I wanted to tell you I was sorry.”
She snorted.
“I mean it, Anna. I don’t want our relationship to suffer because of what happened.”
Annabel shot him a dark look as she placed her phone beside her. “You’re an idiot if you think you can get on my good side again after what you did.”
“I’m not expecting to get on your good side,” he said quietly. “I just want to get to a point where you don’t hate me anymore.”
She shook her head, eyes narrowed. “You don’t get it, do you? What was the one rule I gave you, Wade, and Lucas?”
Elijah swallowed hard.
“What? Have you forgotten it?”
He shook his head.
“No, I didn’t figure you would. Both of us know exactly what I asked of you guys when you each got to about fifteen. You can’t date my friends.”
“I know,” he whispered.
A sharp bark of laughter pierced the air. “You know what? I finally realized what an idiot I’d been. You didn’t want to let her date Lucas and I thought it was because you were backing me up. But you wanted her for yourself.”
“Anna—”
She held up her hand. “You’re an idiot.”
