“Well, I’m glad you recognize that, Darby. Because whatever you decide to do or wherever you decide to go, you have my support. Now personally, I’m just going to throw this out there. Selfishly, I’d like you to stay in Whynot and at Farrington Farms. But realistically, you need to go where you have the best opportunity.”
“I know,” she says softly. “And I’ll go ahead and admit to you that one of the main reasons I have considered staying is because of you.”
I blink at her in surprise since Darby tends to keep her feelings about our relationship close to the vest. It’s obvious there’s still a part of her that feels guilty for entering the dating world before she’s even fully divorced.
She seems to be embarrassed by that admission, so I rush in with some reassurances. I reach across the table and take one of her hands in mine, sliding my thumb over the ridges of her knuckles. “I’m glad to hear you say that. Because I really like you a lot, Darby. I want to continue to get to know you. I want to see where this goes because I have this feeling deep in my gut that whatever is waiting at the end for us is going to be something beyond my wildest imagination. But I also know you want to take things slow. This is the South, and everything is done slow. Slow is better. It makes every discovery special, so I’m good with that.”
Darby’s hand tightens around mine. “I’m glad to hear you say those things, but we don’t have to take things that slow.”
Chuckling, I give her a nod. “I’ll keep a nicely moderate pace. How does that sound?”
She laughs. “Sounds perfect to me.”
“Just remember,” I tell her solemnly. “There are no rules we have to follow. So don’t let any preconceived ideas of what’s appropriate with your separation and divorce come into play. You’ve answered the biggest question I have and that’s if you’re truly over your husband and your marriage. I know you are, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Darby sighs and pulls her hand away from me. She uses it to tuck her hair behind her ear before resting her chin in the palm of her hand to stare across the table at me. “I hate we even have to talk about Mitch when we’re talking about our relationship.”
I shrug before once again settling casually back into the bench. “He’s always going to be a part of your life because he’s Linnie’s dad. It just sucks the current context of what we have to discuss about him has nothing to do with his role as a father.”
“I hate he’s making things so difficult.”
I stare at Darby for a moment, weighing the indecision that’s been plaguing me the last few days. I have not told her about my run-in with Mitch on Saturday outside of Millie’s, since I didn’t want to bring up any unnecessary drama regarding her husband. But I also can’t let go of the fact I suspect the guy is slightly unhinged.
“Can I ask you a personal question about your marriage?”
To my relief and satisfaction, Darby immediately answers, “Anything.”
“Did he ever physically hurt you?”
She shakes her head. “No. Mitch was always most vicious with his words.”
“I just want you to be careful around him,” I tell her carefully. “I saw the way he reacted to you standing up to him that day, and he’s not used to that. There’s no telling what he could do.”
Darby nods. “I hear you. And I agree… Mitch can be unpredictable.”
“Have you heard from him?” I ask.
“Nope. But Jake did find me an attorney in Raleigh who’s going to take the case.”
“That’s good.”
Darby sits straight up in her chair and slaps her palms on the table, causing me to jump slightly. She gives me a brilliant smile and declares, “Enough talk about Mitch. Let’s talk about dessert.”
I laugh and look around for our waiter. Dessert is an excellent idea.
I wonder what chocolate will taste like on her lips.
CHAPTER 25
Darby
Linnie lays down a yellow zero on top of my red zero and shouts, “Uno.”
She’s bouncing up and down on her seat at the kitchen table, barely able to contain her excitement.
The play passes to Colt, who studies the four cards in his hand. He grimaces, pulls out a yellow five, and then lays it down.
It’s my turn, and I don’t need to look hard at the two cards left in my hand. I have neither a five nor a yellow card, so I pull one from the draw pile.
My eyes sparkle with competition. I give a smug smile to Linnie before dropping a blue five on top.
Her smile back is ten times more smug than my own. She drops a green five, and I groan.
“I win,” she yells, throwing her hands up in victory before dropping one of them to push her glasses up her nose.
Colt throws his cards down in frustration and looks at me. “It’s unnatural how often she wins this game. That right there was just creepy that she had a three in her hand. If I didn’t know any better, I would say she was cheating.”
“Let’s play again,” Linnie says as she starts gathering all the cards in.
“Oh no, you don’t,” I tell her sternly as I pull the cards out of her hands. “It’s eleven o’clock, and we said that last round was the final hand. It is way past your bedtime, pipsqueak.”
I get a long, drawn out, “M-o-o-o-m-m.”
I shake my head, pointing to the doorway that leads from the kitchen to the staircase. “Upstairs now. Get your teeth brushed, your jammies on, and your booty into bed.”
Linnie huffs with frustration, but she’s also a sweetly obedient kid. She pushes from the chair and looks across the table at Colt. “Goodnight. See you tomorrow?”
Colt smiles at my daughter, and it makes my heart trip a beat. “You got it, sugar.”
Somewhere during one of the early hands of Uno, Linnie had talked Colt into taking her fishing tomorrow. I was invited along, but I don’t do slimy fish.
Linnie turns to me and asks, “Will you tuck me in?”
A surge of tenderness overwhelms me that Linnie still wants me to do something as simple yet needful as tucking her into bed. I get up and say, “Of course I will, kiddo. Let’s go.”
Colt stands up from the table and says, “I better get going.”
I shake my head and give him a sly wink. “Don’t go just yet. I’ll be right back down.”
Colt’s eyebrows rise, and the look of interest on his face only makes him look infinitely more handsome. Knowing he is interested in me on a more intimate level gives me butterflies in my stomach.
Linnie and I trudge up the stairs hand in hand. She chatters away about fishing and pesters me about going to look for chickens. I help her get undressed and slip her nightgown over her head. Linnie crawls into bed, grabs her favorite stuffed animal, which is a beaten-up old brown bear she’s had since she was a baby. She tucks it in close and turns on her side, looking up at me. “Mom… are you going to kiss Colt tonight?”
My jaw drops, and I stare aghast at my daughter. “Why would you ask something like that? You’re only seven—what do you know about kissing?”
Linnie rolls her eyes, meaning my daughter must know more than I give her credit for. Regardless, I shut the conversation down. I had indeed thought about kissing Colt before he left, but I don’t want my daughter thinking about it.
Pulling the covers up to her chin, I lean over and press my lips to her forehead. “You’re far too young to worry about kissing.”
Linnie giggles. In a singsongy voice, she says “Mommy and Colt, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
Standing up straight, I give my daughter a chastising look, but turn away from her before I start laughing. I walk to her doorway and before I turn the light off, I glance back at her. She’s so precious laying there staring at me with a sweet smile on her face and a heart full of love.
“Good night, baby.”
“Good night, Mom,” she says. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
My old Linnie is completely back, and nothing
in this world makes me happier.
Back downstairs, I find Colt sitting in the living room on one end of the couch. He grins when I come off the bottom step and pats the seat beside him. Shooting me a mischievous grin, he murmurs in a wickedly sexy voice, “Want to come sit beside me and make out for a little bit?”
I put my hand to my mouth, giving him a quick look as I tilt my head and bat my eyelashes. “Why, Mr. Mancinkus… you’re being very bold.”
“You like me being bold,” he asserts confidently in a low voice, no trace of humor at all. He holds his hand out. “Come here, Darby.”
There’s no controlling my feet as I start walking toward him without hesitation. His eyes shimmer in the glow of the table lamp beside him. The minute I place my fingertips against the palm of his hand, I feel that electric snap of recognition and attraction shoot through me.
I put one knee to the couch cushion beside his hip and bring my lips right to his. Somehow, he turns my body so I end up sitting across his lap. It puts me in the perfect position for him to kiss me deeply. More intimately than he has ever kissed me before, even the night he took me to the Carolina basketball game and walked me up to my door. That night we had made out for a few minutes before I went inside, but this is completely different.
Something about sitting on a couch across his lap, knowing it would be very easy for us to just lay down on the couch to make out, which could possibly lead to all kinds of hot and bothering things that we have no business doing with my daughter in her room just up those stairs, makes me doubt what we’re doing.
As if Colt had a peek inside my mind and knew in this moment I was thinking of my daughter, he grips my hair at the back of my head and pulls me gently away. “This was probably a bad idea.”
“I know we said we were going to move slowly, but I really am not feeling like going slow right now.”
“Me either,” he admits in a gruff voice. “Which is really why you need to get off my lap.”
I giggle as he takes me by my hips and sets me on the cushion beside him. He takes my hand in his, and we both kick our feet up on the coffee table, staring at nothing.
“You have a really great kid,” Colt says to break the silence. “You’ve done a remarkable job raising her so far.”
I give a mirthless laugh. “I sure as heck didn’t feel like that when we first arrived in Whynot. She was so angry at me that I was afraid I wouldn’t reach her.”
I roll my head on the cushion to look at Colt. He mimics my actions, and our eyes lock. “I don’t think I would’ve gotten through to her as quickly if it wasn’t for you,” I tell him solemnly. “That day you took her horseback riding was when it all changed. As her mother, I just didn’t think about something as simple as giving my daughter back something she really loved.”
Colt smiles and then leans over to give me a very soft, brief kiss on my lips. “You would have figured it out sooner rather than later.”
“I’d like to kiss you again,” I tell him with an impish grin.
Colt gives me a wicked smile. “Kissing again would be really good. And we can’t get into too much trouble sitting side by side.”
Our bodies start leaning in toward each other, and my eyes drop to his mouth as it gets closer. I raise a hand and place my fingertips against his jaw, which is prickly with a five o’clock shadow.
Just before our mouths touch, Colt’s phone starts ringing.
He mutters a curse and pulls his phone out, disconnecting the call and sending it to voicemail without even looking at the screen. Setting the phone down on the coffee table, he turns back toward me and says, “Let’s try that again.”
We don’t even have time to move toward each other before his phone starts ringing again. Colt frowns and grabs it off the table, turning it to look at the screen. “It’s my dad. Let me get this.”
“Of course.”
Colt connects the call and places the phone to his ear. “What’s up, Dad?”
I have no clue what’s being said on the other end, but Colts entire demeanor changes. He stands suddenly from the couch, and his eyes go dead. “I’m on my way.”
I jump up, knowing that something awful has happened. Given that Colt’s father is the one who called, I immediately suspect something happened to his mother.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as I reach out and touch his arm.
Colt only spares me a quick glance. “The vineyard is on fire.”
“What?” I yell in surprise.
“I gotta go,” he says as he starts toward the door.
“Let me get Linnie and we’ll come with you,” I call after him.
He yells back without even sparing me a glance. “No time.”
And then he’s gone out the door with the screen door slamming shut behind him. For a moment, I’m stunned to inaction, but then I think about that dead look in Colt’s eyes and my feet are moving. I run up the stairs and burst into the Linnie’s room.
When I flip on the light, she sits straight up in bed. “I’m sorry, honey… but I need you to get up and get dressed. We have to go out to Mainer Farms.”
“What happened?” she asks as she jumps out of bed and starts frantically pulling her nightgown off.
I grab the clothes we had taken off her earlier from the hamper and toss them her way. “Colt’s vineyard is on fire. We’re going to go out there and see if we can help.”
She doesn’t ask any further questions, but jumps quickly into action, getting dressed faster than I’ve ever seen my daughter move in my life.
It seems to take forever to drive out to Mainer Farms. My heart sinks when I see a red glow in the distance against the night sky as we make our way down the bumpy farm road that leads straight to the vineyard.
As we come over a ridge, I gasp at the eerie sight before us. Several acres of the vineyard are on fire. It looks to be the wooden trellises blazing, but the heat from those flames has got to be singeing and killing the actual vines.
Colt planted ten acres, and I would guess about a quarter of it is on fire.
He doesn’t have a quarter of his vineyard to spare to such a needless loss.
I put my car in park, reminding myself for the hundredth time I need to get a work truck, and Linnie and I both jump out. My eyes lock on Colt, who is standing with both of his hands placed on top of his head. He’s staring blankly at the inferno before him.
I also see his mother and father, Lowe and Mely, as well as Jake and Laken. Everyone is standing around helplessly because there’s nothing that can be done without a water source. Vaguely, I hear in the distance the sound of sirens coming, but the most the fire department will be able to do is to contain the blaze from spreading. There is no saving what’s already on fire.
“Mom… what happened?” Linnie asks softly as she slides her hand into mine.
I can’t tear my eyes away from the blazing vineyard. “I don’t know.”
CHAPTER 26
Colt
The sun finally breaks over the edge of the pine trees that border the end of the vineyard, casting an almost mystical orange glow over the land. Three solid rows of vines went up in flames last night. Stretching a couple of hundred yards back to the tree line, I can see nothing but the blackened T-shaped trellises looking like a row of crucifixion crosses. Not only were the trellises destroyed, but the vines in between were charred beyond saving.
Picking up my thermos of coffee sitting beside me on the tailgate of my truck where I’m sitting, I take a sip. I didn’t get a minute of sleep last night after the fire department and the sheriff left. I was heartsick over what had happened, and I took it out directly on Darby. She had shown up last night with Linnie out of pure concern for me. And when she asked me how she could help, I only told her that she needed to go home because there was nothing she could do.
The vineyard was beyond a mere offer of help.
Her face crumpled because her offer had nothing to do with the burning vineyard but rather it was an offer of emotional suppor
t, and I had turned my nose up at it.
Last night, I wasn’t thinking clearly at all. I know I need to apologize to her for my behavior.
After everyone left, I went to my cabin and took a hot shower. It seemed that no matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn’t get rid of the smell of charred wood and ashes. I laid on my bed all night staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out how I could potentially recover from this. The economic losses were insurmountable in my opinion, and there’s no way I’ll be able to replace what we lost.
My thoughts went even darker as I laid awake. It seemed to me this was an ominous sign that perhaps I had no business squandering that grant on a pipe dream. Even darker yet, my mind suggested I was not the person who needed to be running Mainer Farms.
The sound of an approaching truck catches my attention, and I look over my shoulder. It’s Sheriff Brown’s old Ford Bronco bumping down the dirt road toward me.
Sheriff Ollie Brown is actually a Yankee transplant down here, same as Pap. He retired from a small police department in New Hampshire, and he and his wife came down South for better weather. It appears he wasn’t all that ready to give up law enforcement because he ran for sheriff about fifteen years ago and won the election hands down. He’s run unopposed since then because everyone knows he can’t be beat. He is a tough but fair lawman, and he’s respected by everyone around these parts. Since Mainer Farms is outside the Whynot city limits, the Sheriff’s department will be investigating.
Ollie parks next to my truck. When he gets out, I see he has two cups of coffee from Central Café. Even though they have lids on them, the fall air is chilly enough I can see the hot steam coming out of the small openings on top.
“Morning, Colt.” He hands me one of the cups, and I open my thermos to pour it in.
“Ollie,” I acknowledge his greeting.
“Got some information for you,” he says, and my head jerks up in surprise. When Ollie was out here last night writing up an arson and vandalism report, he didn’t think we would have much luck in catching the perpetrator. This part of the farm is well off the beaten path, and anyone could stealthily drive down here to sabotage the vineyard.
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