This side of Willow, Chad found incomprehensible. Her drive to work, more and more, drove him nearly insane, and yet he loved it. Her enthusiasm for life even infected him, despite being impossible to fathom at times. “Tell Bill you want the land. He’ll be sure to get it for you at a reasonable cost.”
“But I don’t want it at Adric’s expense. He needs a reasonable price or his inheritance will be wasted.”
“You’re a good woman Willow,” he sighed. “A lousy business person perhaps, but a good woman.”
She whirled, pointed at the large letters emblazoned across her chest, and grinned. “You can flatter and flirt all you like, but it won’t do you any good. I’m TAKEN.”
The sight of her in that shirt again that morning had nearly driven him to distraction, but her pointing it out kicked his emotions into gears he had never used. “And don’t you forget it.”
A wisp of a sigh escaped, proving she’d tried to repress it. “I guess I’d better get back to wrapping.”
“Why the sigh, lass?”
“I just want it over.” She glanced up at him, not quite meeting his gaze. “Is that horrible?”
Chad wrapped comforting arms around her. “You’re not enjoying yourself?”
“Not really. I think I would be if everyone didn’t expect me to be a nervous wreck. It’s making me crazy how they keep wanting me to go crazy.” Choking back tears, she added. “And I hardly get to spend time with you. I’m near you all right but rarely with you. It’s like we’re companionable strangers. I hate it.”
“I think that’ll change now.”
“Really?” Even with the skeptical tone in her voice, she perked up slightly. “Why?”
“Mom caught us at the top of the stairs. The look on her face says she’ll leave us alone to make out anytime we even hint at wanting to.”
A deep blush stole across her cheeks. “Oh my!”
“You ashamed of your unseemly behavior?”
“I am not unseemly!” she protested hotly. “I can’t—oh you’re infuriating.”
“And you like me that way.”
Willow ran her hand along his jaw and then shivered. Chad’s eyes grew concerned and he caught her hand in his. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know how to explain it.” She nearly wailed in her frustration. “Sometimes it seems like I need to be close to you and then when I am, I’m terrified.”
He led her up the drive, trying to soothe her jumbled spirit. “What are you afraid of, lass?”
“I don’t know. You’d think it’d make me push you farther away, but it doesn’t.”
“Well I’m glad of that.”
A slow smile welled up in his heart as she leaned close and whispered, “I just don’t understand how I can desire that closeness so much, but when I have it, I’m scared—terrified even.”
“I’m not going to hurt you. I wouldn’t—”
“I know! I hate it—but,” she ducked her head, burying it into his chest, “I think there’s something wrong with me because I don’t too.”
“Don’t what?”
He waited for her to answer, a slow, delightful passage of timelessness. “Hate it.” Her whisper had dropped to almost inaudible.
“Describe it,” he urged. Chad knew exactly what she felt, but couldn’t resist hearing it from her. Watching her discovery of it all was something he’d never imagined. “Maybe it’ll help like when you tell your mother about the monsters under your bed or in your closet.”
“No monster would dare step into our house—not with Mother’s shotgun!”
If that wasn’t the truth, nothing was. He now knew exactly how Kari had avoided nocturnal predators—genius. “Well, maybe it’ll work for this. So what troubles you, my wisp-of-a-Willow?”
“Funny.” She didn’t answer. He had almost decided she wouldn’t when her voice dropped to a low murmur. “My stomach clenches—you know, almost like when you get bad news or see something horrible, and sometimes,” she buried her face deeper into his chest, or so it felt. “I even feel weak—like when you kiss me.”
“Lass,” he said, not even trying to repress his chuckle, “that’s not fear.”
Her head shot up. “Is too! It feels just like I do when someone startles me. Or—or like the time I saw that man in my house!”
“But you don’t want it to go away like you did with those things.” A puzzled look prompted him to add, “And I’ll bet that’s what bothers you most of all.”
“What?”
She knew what. He could see it in her eyes, but she also didn’t believe he knew it. “You are bothered most by the fact that you don’t want the feelings that you think are fear to go away.”
Wide eyes flew to meet his. “How did you know that!”
“It’s not fear, but it is encouraging—to me anyway.”
“I just don’t understand.”
Chad wrapped an arm around her waist and steered her homeward. “You will. Sooner than I thought, it seems. I think it’s time I quit giving you quite so much space.”
“Do what?”
He had intended not to answer. Watching her discover it for herself appealed to him, but the genuine look of concern in her eyes stopped him. “Lass, it’s attraction. That’s what it feels like.”
“No, that feels like butterflies in stomach and…” She wasted several seconds in a futile attempt to think clearly enough to recall what she wanted before adding, “Anyway, I’ve read it in books. No one mentions scared.”
“Well, it’s more fun to write about butterflies and heart palpitations than panic and fear, but that’s what it is.”
They stared at one another, each seeking something in the other’s expression before she whispered, “I think I almost wish I believed you.”
With a quick kiss, followed by a not-so-quick one, both which were witnessed by Cheri, Christopher, Marianne, and a newly arrived Chuck, Chad climbed into his truck and waved her into the house. “I’ve got work to do. We don’t want to be responsible for ruining everyone’s shocks.”
Willow turned a stunned face to her future in-laws. “We’re shocking what?”
“Oh, we’re shocked all right,” Cheri remarked dryly, crossing her arms.
A voice outside brought a mixed reaction from everyone in the kitchen. Willow, slicing bread, watched confused as Chad raced out the door, Cheri groaned, and Christopher and Marianne both chuckled. “What?”
Before anyone could answer, Chad’s voice shouted, almost as angry, “Todd, you old dog!” Concerned, Willow raced to the living room window, the bread knife still in her hand, and stared as Chad tackled a man in her front yard.
“Should we be alarmed?”
“It’s just the pest,” Cheri said disgustedly. “I’m going to go wash up.”
“What—oh, Todd. Is that Chad’s friend?”
Marianne nodded. “They’ve always been like that.”
“Why doesn’t Cheri like him?”
“Well,” Marianne explained gesturing for her to return to the kitchen, “For years she was the pesky little sister, and then sometime around the time she turned fourteen she was the cute perky little teen. By the time Todd realized that she was a girl, Cheri could barely tolerate him. She’s been a little unforgiving, but since he really did terrorize her as a kid, we haven’t pushed her too much.”
“I don’t think I like children,” Willow muttered under her breath as she went back to cutting her bread. “They’re cruel.”
Marianne hugged her briefly. “You will. And I think you’ll work harder than I did to teach them differently. When my kids were small, people kept saying, ‘They’re kids, they’ll grow out of it,’ or ‘boys will be boys.’ I didn’t know how to work on their hearts. You will.”
Chad burst through the door calling for her. Willow shrugged and handed Marianne the knife. “It’s not like he doesn’t know where I am.”
“He wants to show you off.” Marianne brushed a stray hair out of Willow’s face and smiled. “Go hang on Chad
a bit. It’ll make him feel wonderful.”
Taking Marianne’s cue, Willow entered the living room wiping her hands on her apron and smiling. “You rang?”
Chad’s arm slid possessively around her. “This is Willow. Willow, this is Todd. I told you about him.”
She extended her hand to Todd but smiled up at Chad before welcoming him. “I’m very happy to meet you, Todd.”
“Wow, Chad.” Todd fumbled over himself for a moment. “I just—wow. Nice to meet you too Willow. Sorry, I—wow.”
“I get that a lot.” She felt confused. “I’m not sure why…”
Todd arched an eyebrow. “Well, I’d volunteer to explain it, but I think Chad would try to pummel me, and then I’d have to defend myself, and no man should have a black eye on his wedding day.”
Interjecting every ounce of incredulity she could muster into her voice, Willow remarked, “You either severely underestimate Chad, or you have a higher opinion of yourself than you ought.”
She kissed Chad’s cheek and went back to the kitchen shaking her head. As she took the knife back from Marianne, she groaned. “I think Cheri has the right idea.”
Christopher’s guffaws brought the men in and Cheri down from upstairs. “What is going on in here?”
“I just said that I thought you had a point regarding Todd, and your father went nuts.”
No one spoke. Eyes sent messages that she couldn’t see, but the only discernible sounds were those made by her bread knife. Realization hit fast. Willow clamped her hand over her mouth and stared in horror first at Chad and then at Todd. “I still haven’t gotten used to keeping what’s in my head out of my mouth. I was rude. Please forgive me.”
A burst of laughter from the rest of the room drowned out her request for forgiveness. Todd shook his head, tears of laughter running down his cheeks. “No harm, no foul. I deserved it.” He pounded Chad’s back and said, “Man, you got yourself a live wire. I love her already!”
Tires crunched on the driveway again before anyone could reply. Chad glanced out the window and saw an unfamiliar minivan. “Anyone expecting a silver Town and Country?” When no one acknowledged the question, he went out to investigate himself. Seconds later, he called for Willow.
At the bottom of the porch steps, Chad shook hands with a woman who seemed near Willow’s age, and two men. “Lass, this is Lane and Tad Argosy and their friend Matt Rushby.”
“Happy to meet you! Come on in, we’re about to have soup and sandwiches for dinner. You’re just in time.”
Lane’s hands flew up and she shook her head. “Oh no, that’s not necessary. We just wanted to see what we’d need for tomorrow. We’ve found that sometimes we need battery packs for mics and stuff.”
Chad ushered them into the house. “Nuh uh. You’re here; we have food. Come in, we’ll get you a bowl and plate, and then after dinner, we’ll show you around.”
“Over in that pasture are my sheep and the beef cow. I’m going to be buying more property in the next few months, so I’ll probably have more sheep then but nothing like you have I’m sure.” Willow chatted amiably with Lane and Matt as they wandered the farm showing off the garden, greenhouse, and animals.
At the mention of a border collie, Lane beamed. “Our border is the sweetest girl. You’ll love them. Boozer races—”
“Boozer?”
“Long story,” Lane assured her. “Anyway, you won’t be sorry. So how long have you lived here?”
“I was born here.” Willow pointed at the window to her mother’s bedroom. “Right in that room in a thunderstorm.”
“Wow. I didn’t know people outside the Brethren did that anymore”
“The Brethren?”
Lane glanced at Matt as if for some kind of reassurance before she said, “It’s what a church back home calls themselves. They’re a cult really. Anyway, one of the biggest ‘rules,’ and there are a lot of rules, centered around never letting anyone but your spouse see you undressed.”
“Never? What if—”
“Life-threatening things would have been an allowed exception, I suppose.”
Willow shrugged. “I think Mother would have preferred to have someone with her.”
Lane glanced around the yard taking in the chicken, the garden, barn, and fields. “I didn’t realize places like this existed around Rockland. It’s like being home.”
Matt, the man they’d learned lived in Rockland, smiled at her words. “She’s used to big sky and lots of land. Rockland is too cramped for her style.”
The back door banged open and Cheri hurried out to walk with them. “So Matt, how do you like Willow’s place? I still can’t believe you know the Argosys.”
“Cheri, you know Matt?”
“Where’ve you been, Willow?” Cheri exclaimed. “We talked about Matt from my church all through dinner.”
“Maybe,” Lane commented dryly, “It had something to do with answering four phone calls, keeping everyone in food, and attempting to eat her own meal.”
“That might do it.”
“So, how does it look?” Matt directed his question to Lane as she watched Tad and Chad discussing placement of a comfortable spot to sing.
“I think they’re being silly. All we need is to open the side doors of that greenhouse and we’re sheltered and out of the way. We’re background music and dancing music, we’re not ‘performing.’”
Willow whistled for Chad and beckoned him. To Lane she said, “I should have called and asked what you needed. I could have saved you a trip, but I think I’m glad I didn’t.” Willow smiled. “It’s been nice to meet you.”
“What do you need?”
“Lane suggested we give her the greenhouse. They’ll be shaded, comfortable, and out of the path of marauding stampedes of children or dancers.”
“Weren’t you—”
“I think it’s the best place. I love it. Will you see what Tad thinks of it?”
Without waiting to see Chad’s response, Willow turned to lead them back to the house. “So where are you all staying?”
“At Matt’s. We’ll be here by nine on Saturday, unless you need help before that.”
Before Willow could answer, Matt interrupted. “I could direct traffic—where is everyone going to park?”
“I’m going to cut the fence wires half way down the driveway and then I’m going to have people park there. It’s fairly level, and it won’t be hard to fix the fence later.”
Matt began shaking his head even before she finished. “I’ll come out with Tad and Lane. I’ll be your own personal valet service.”
“I don’t—”
“Trust me. I know what I’m doing. I’ve done valet for odd jobs during Christmas since I got my license.”
“Thank you, then. Thanks.” Willow looked around the group awkwardly. “I don’t know what else to say.”
“Thank you is sometimes all you need. You’re welcome.” Matt’s eyes reassured her as he took Lane’s hand and wandered back to Tad.
Chad drove in at two a.m. Seated in the rocking chair in the kitchen, Willow held a muffin and a hot cup of coffee out to him. “Hungry?”
“Get up.”
Without thinking, Willow stood and then laughed as Chad sat down pulling her into his lap. “I kind of understand your complaints lately. People are everywhere. Omnipresent. I miss you.”
“We get every day from Saturday through next Friday. I hold onto that all day—and half the night. I’m not used to so many people around me. I need space.”
“Are you going to need space from me?”
“I doubt it. You’re gone at work enough for me to get more than enough space, but I was with Mother all the time, and I never got tired of her. It’s just ever-present groups of people.” Willow laid her head on his shoulder and curled against him.
“Four hours. Just four more hours and I’m free.”
Unable to resist the temptation, Willow shook her head. “Free? I thought you were getting chained down, knotted, and
stuff like that?”
“You, lass, are incorrigible.”
“I try.”
Chapter 101
The Tesdalls spent Friday morning and early afternoon in town so that Chad could sleep in peace. While he slept, Willow took her phone, his phone, and her baskets and boxes to the greenhouse to pick produce for the caterer. She gently layered tomatoes, laid damp towels between rows of lettuce in boxes, and cut spinach. Jill would be disappointed but at least her guests would eat well.
She heard a vehicle in the driveway but didn’t pay any attention to it. The Tesdalls were probably returning from town. However, seconds later, a gentle knock and Adric Garrison’s voice startled her. “Willow? Do you have a minute?”
“Come on in! I’m just picking produce for the caterer.”
“I almost didn’t stop—I mean, I know you’re busy, but I have a bit of problem.” There was a tense undertone to Adric’s voice that hadn’t been there the previous morning.
“Oh no, I’ve got a free afternoon. I’m just passing the time until Chad gets up.”
“Well, then I’ll just come out with my dilemma then. I called Renee Freeman in town about how to find out how I can divvy up my property. I know that there are laws about that sometimes, and she got all excited because apparently she knows the man across the highway, and he has tried to buy from my grandmother for years.”
“So,” she concluded dejectedly, “you’re here to withdraw your offer.”
“No!” Adric’s face flushed. It looked strange to her against his silvery gray hair. “I told Renee not to mention it to him at all. I don’t want it getting out now, because if you want the property, I just want to have a quiet sale between us that no one finds out about—unless they publish that kind of thing?”
“I don’t know, but you know, my money isn’t listed in my name. If we buy it, it’ll be sold under the corporate name so no one will know who bought it even if it is published.”
Pleased, Adric smiled. “I got a call from your friend Bill. He offered a price I think sounds excellent for both of us so I’ll ask Renee to draw up papers for me.”
Past Forward- A Serial Novel: Volume 3 Page 31
