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A flush crept along her skin, once again making her feel like she was on fire. As much as Allie wanted to believe it would all work out if she did what Pippa told her to, she knew it wouldn’t. Deep down, she already knew the outcome of such forward behavior.
Luke would tell her he was flattered and he’d put more distance between them. He’d blame it on the fact that she was his daughter’s teacher and he didn’t want to ruin the professionalism between the two of them.
Next, he would stop coming in for parent teacher conferences and opt for an email instead. In the end, she would have put her heart out on the line and Luke would leave it out there in the sweltering desert, allowing the vultures to peck at it until there was nothing left.
“Allie? Did you hear me? You gonna do it? You finally gonna ask him out on a date? I’ll babysit Molly.” Pippa clapped her hands together. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. We should have been planning this—”
“Pippa.”
Her friend stopped mid-sentence.
“Thanks for trying, but I just don’t think it’s going to work out.”
“If you ask him out—”
“I’m not going to ask him out. That’s a bad idea forsomany reasons. It’s been too long. I’m just going to have to let my crush fizzle out.”
Pippa frowned, her eyes drilling into Allie hard enough that she needed to look away. “Like your crush fizzled out when you were in college? Like when you moved back to town? Come on, Allie. This is your chance.”
“There’s no way I’m going to ever ask him out. If it was meant to be, then it would have happened a long time ago. I might as well just go to the wishing well and throw some coins in to get me over this once and for all.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Pippa muttered. “If you want something, all you need is a good work ethic and a plan. If you have both of those, then you can work through any bumps in the road.”
“This is my life, Pippa. Not some restaurant.” Allie grimaced, hating the way her words seemed to diminish the value of Pippa’s business. Thankfully, her friend didn’t seem fazed by the statement.
“Eventually you’re going to accept that you aren’t going to be happy unless you fight for what you want. And if that means fighting for someone like Luke, then you’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.”
Allie scowled. “I hardly think relationships require getting one’s hands dirty.”
Pippa’s trademark smile stole across her face once again. “You know what I meant. And if you ever change your mind, you know who to come to for ideas. I’ve got all the juicy details for how to get him to fall in love with you.”
Now, that was a little more tempting.
But Allie needed to rein it in. Dating Luke, whether she liked it or not, was a bad idea.
CHAPTERSIX
Mid November
It was quiet in his little cottage away from the main house. On Friday nights, Luke tried to stay out of his brother’s hair. Their family liked to do activities with the kids on the weekend and it just felt like too much of an intrusion to butt in when Brent and Jackie planned their evenings like tonight.
Molly sat at the kitchen table, her small pink tongue inching out from between her lips as she focused on her homework. Since the parent teacher conference a couple weeks ago, it had seemed like everything was going smoothly at school.
Allie hadn’t emailed him or called to tell him that there was a problem, so he took that as a good sign his daughter was finally falling into line. He couldn’t begin to explain the relief he felt knowing this.
Finally, he could focus his full efforts on his next venture. Harvesting season was just about at an end. They only had the root vegetables left. He’d been planning for a while now, never getting the nerve to tell his family. But that time might be here now. The thought of sitting down with his brother and pitching another idea caused his stomach to flip over on itself.
He had no idea how he was going to do it, but he’d make sure they knew he’d already dug in his heels and there was no going back.
Christmas trees.
The time was going far too fast these days. He watched it slip away and year after year he missed out on something he was excited about. Last year he put his foot down—fronting his own money to get started. Between the farm and Molly, he didn’t have much time just for himself.
Well, at least that was what his brother and sister-in-law said. He knew they’d like him to find a good woman to date, though they didn’t really pressure him to do it. The problem was he already knew all the women in town and he wasn’t really interested in getting to know any of them. Perhaps he was being a little biased, but he’d found the love of his life already. He didn’t need anyone else. That was why this Christmas tree thing interested him so much.
He smiled as he sat across from Molly, their supper all put away. “What are you working on?”
She glanced up at him then turned her paper around. “I’m really trying to find the best way to write my signature. It’s really dumb. I only have four letters and one of them goes in there twice. None of them are pretty.”
