AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But before I know what’s happening, I find myself walking up Miss Katherine’s crumbling front steps, cringing at every creak.
The ranch has been falling to pieces since I was a kid, and we did what we could to ensure that it wasn’t a hazard to the senior citizen who lived there, but there was so much land and too much to be done with our own properties to worry about. That doesn’t stop me from feeling insurmountable guilt every time I step onto Katherine’s grounds.
I wince as the front door squeaks open, announcing my arrival. For all her advancements in age, Katherine’s hearing is still sharp as a tack.
“Eli?” she calls in a singsong tone, like she’s expecting me to return. “We’re in the living room.”
Despite the tension still lingering in my entire body, I brace myself for another glimpse of this blonde, green-eyed beauty who looks exactly like my former partner… except for the shade of blonde and different colored eyes.
Rose’s back is to me as I enter the neat but shabby front room where Connor is in the middle of one of his fantastical tales, a teacup in hand, the women hanging on his every word. No one turns to look at me, much to my relief. The foreground is a much better place for me.
I’m free to peer at Rose freely, make more comparisons to her and Simone as I perch on one of Miss Katherine’s worn armchairs.
“…the bull threw me clean across the pen, thirty, forty feet,” Connor goes on, his dark eyebrows raising for effect. “And I land squarely on my back.”
“Oh, my God,” Rose gasps, a manicured hand falling to her floret, pink lips. “Were you hurt?”
“Nah,” Connor boasts as I roll my eyes, glad that no one stared in my direction. I’ve heard this story a dozen times or more, the embellishment wilder every time. He continues. “I bounced right back up and got out of his way.”
“Here, darling,” Miss Katherine says, turning to me. “Let me get you a piece of pie.”
She leans forward shakily to reach for the pie server, but Rose immediately stops her.
“Let me, Katherine,” she says.
I wave my hand. “No, thanks. I had a big lunch, and I have to get back. I just wanted to check in and make sure you’re all settled here.”
Rose turns her head and eyes me, those vivid verdant eyes again taking me aback, but up close, I can see the difference between her and Simone. She doesn’t really look much like my lost partner but for the blonde hair and light eyes. Simone was much taller, broader boned. Rose is slighter but curvy in the appropriate spots.
A fusion of disappointment and relief wells inside me at the realization.
I raise my head, suddenly very uncomfortable as I lock gazes with Connor, and he smirks at me.
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” he tells me, holding up his already-finished plate. He turns his oozing charms back to Rose confidentially. “Miss Katherine’s pie is famous at the Stannich Fair every year.”
“I’m well aware,” I retort sharply, my shoulders stiffening even though I realize, after that fact, he’s not talking to me. I spend just as much time at the house as Connor, and I’d been raised in Stannich alongside him.
“Is that right?” Rose eyes the old woman through her peripheral vision. “What’s that? The fair, I mean.”
Katherine flushes and settles back against the sofa, glowering at Connor slightly, but I know her well enough to know that she’s secretly pleased by the acknowledgment.
“Stop making fun of an old lady, Connor Adams.” She wags an arthritic finger at him.
“I’m not!” he protests as Rose sits forward, interest brightening her pretty irises. I feel a startling stirring inside my pants as I catch a glimpse of her cleavage.
“What is the Stannich Fair?” she asks again, her head swiveling from me to Connor, her face piqued in curiosity.
“We’re in Stannich,” I explain as Connor continues to grin, offering nothing else. “And your grandmother wins the pie contest every year at the fall fair.”
“Really?” Rose chuckles, settling back and hiding the swell of her tits as she does. “I’m not surprised at all.”
“Don’t flatter an old lady now, Rosie. You don’t know a thing about me,” Katherine scolds her lightly.
“I know that you make the best huckleberry pie this side of Boise,” Rose quips.
“Never mind my pie skills,” Katherine snickers, shifting her tiny frame uncomfortably in her seat. “I’d much rather hear about my wayward son and what became of him after he left Montana.”
Rose pales at the mention of her father and the abrupt conversation change, her pretty eyes darkening as they shoot back toward me and Connor again. I clear my throat and stand, taking the hint, but Connor doesn’t move.
