Mail Order Farmer

by Marie Johnston

  “Bring the phone to him so I can talk with him.”

  “Why?”

  Aaron lifted his gaze to the ceiling. “Because he’s doing my job for me while I’m gone, and I’d like to talk to him.”

  “You message like every day.”

  “Give him the damn phone.”

  “Fine,” Jackson growled.

  Nothing came over the other side but uneven breathing as his brother bounced down the stairs.

  Dad’s groggy voice came over the line. “What’s up?”

  “Did the haul yesterday go well?”

  Dad grunted. He must be sitting up after having the recliner at full tilt. “Didn’t do it.”

  Aaron rubbed his eyes. A week of turning his days and nights around, but the time difference still affected him. The stress over keeping track of four people’s schedules half a world away didn’t help. “Why?”

  “Bad weather.” Man of many words.

  “Did you get the welding done on—”

  “Aaron. It’s been storming for two days. I can barely see the shop. Give it time. I’ll get it done.”

  Aaron let out a sigh. Nicolas had mentioned a storm last time he called, and Aaron had been fresh off a date with Daisy—and her mom. They’d had him over to their apartment and stuffed him full of some of the best food—easy on the peppers. When Mom had cooked, her meals had come from a can or the freezer. Aaron could get spoiled with Mari’s fresh food.

  Daisy would arrive soon. He had to wrap this call up. “The boys have conferences. Can you remind Mom to go?”

  “If she doesn’t, I’ll go.”

  “You won’t be home in time if you’re gonna haul.”

  “It’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

  “The truck was in the shop during the storm?” It’d be a moody beast to start otherwise.

  “Aaron, this isn’t my first rodeo. How’s Daisy? It sounds like everything is going well.”

  Dad hit on the one topic that could get Aaron’s mind off farming. “We’re having our first solo date.”

  “No mom to chaperone, eh? Now you two can really get to know each other, but I know you’ll be a gentleman.”

  He didn’t want to be a gentleman, that was for damn sure.

  No, he did, but after a couple of months of talking and more talking, then being teased by the silky promise of her skin for days, his thoughts weren’t honorable.

  “Absolutely. She’s going to be here in a few minutes. I’ll talk to you later.”

  Dad cut the line first. Aaron stared at his screen. Should he call Mom about the conferences? She was probably asleep on the couch. Aaron doubted that she made the trek to their bedroom too often.

  He shoved the phone into his pocket and plopped down onto the bed. The sheets were rumpled, the covers half thrown back. Daisy would ring the room from the lobby. If he thought she’d be up here, he would’ve straightened up.

  Maybe he should anyway. Forget the room. Was he presentable? They’d made plans for a bay cruise at sunset. Chalk it up to the most romantic date he’d ever been on, and likely ever would be on. Unless he took Daisy on a lake cruise through the reeds at sunset in his fishing boat. That could be romantic, too.

  Thinking of Daisy with him in Moore was…surreal. This was the closest he’d ever been to tying the knot. And he hadn’t been alone with Daisy yet.

  Yesterday, after lunch, Mari had looked at him and asked if he had the paperwork complete for the ceremony. Daisy had jumped in and the two women had argued back and forth in their language.

  He needed to address the bull in the room with Daisy, but doing it around Mari was too awkward. It was clear the women were close. Daisy said it had been them against the world for several years, and they were fighting to stay in Manila over moving back home with the rest of their family. He didn’t understand the problems with her relatives, but he knew family drama.

  He propped his elbows on his knees and stared at his hands. The extent of how close he was with his parents and brothers hadn’t been fully revealed. Jackson graduated at the end of the year and Nicolas the next year. Then he could ask his parents to move out.

  But his brothers should have a stable place to come home to during their breaks. Could he live with feeling like he kicked his parents out? What would Daisy think of that? Would she think he was immature because they all resided under the same roof, or would she think he was a bastard for turning them out when they’d failed once on their own already?

  Scrubbing his face, he sighed. Which had been better, being in the stasis of his life where no one wanted to spend it with him because of his living situation, or facing his living situation to finally get the chance to spend his life with someone?

  Meeting Daisy wasn’t a regret. She was quiet, unless her mother got her started. Then her eyes lit with fire and her face unveiled her emotions. But she wasn’t meek, either. She spoke with confidence, without looking to Mari for approval or confirmation. Sweetness exuded from Daisy like it was her aura, but she wasn’t innocent in a clueless way. She was in her twenties, had lost her father, moved from a tiny town to the big city on her own, and the irony of her letting her mom move in with her didn’t escape him.

  Mari had her shit together. His mother didn’t.

  The same old worries swelled up. Mom hadn’t gotten better since they’d moved in. He and Dad had hoped that once the pressure of a mortgage and a full-time job was removed, she’d snap out of it and start giving a crap.

  Mari gave a crap. And she let Daisy know it, but while it was obvious Daisy respected Mari, she didn’t get run over by her. And she probably didn’t have to remind her to go to work, pay her bills, or ask that she pick up a few groceries.

  The room phone rang. He jumped to answer it, and the feminine voice on the other end seeped into his veins.

  “Be right down, Daisy.” He’d admit, he infused her name with a hint of suggestion. The longer he was around her, the harder it was not to.

  Daisy. Mari called her Dali, but her name was as strong and guileless as she was. She’d told him Daisy was fine, and he got the impression it was the name he got to call her.

  What would he tell his family to call her? They already called her Daisy. He feared he was Americanizing her name, but she’d assured him that many of their names overlapped with common American ones. My name’s actually Tagalog, after my dad’s mom. And she’d said her uncle’s name was Peter John, but they all called him Peejong.

  Before he popped out the door, he stopped in front of the full-length mirror attached to a closet door. Matching boots? Check. Combed hair? Still looked good. And he’d chosen a gray T-shirt with a mottled design that gave it a granite pattern. Not fancy by any means, but it’d work.

  Down in the lobby, he found Daisy in their usual meeting spot. She hadn’t seen him yet, and he slowed to enjoy the view.

  Her head was turned as she stared out the eight foot glass doors. The entire front of the hotel was clear, the passersby clearly visible. The hotel was oriented farther away from the street than most of the eateries and stores he’d been in.

  Upstairs, his suitcase was packed with souvenirs. Daisy helped him choose by asking pointed questions about his families’ likes and dislikes so he wasn’t just snatching and buying the first thing he could find.

  When the price was given and he was about to hand over the money, Mari stepped in and got him the best deal possible. How much had she saved him?

  Daisy’s long hair was gathered over one shoulder. Sometimes she tied it back, but more often it hung unrestrained.

  He couldn’t tear his gaze off her legs. She’d worn slacks on their previous dates and favored her white set. He favored her white set, too. They wheeled his imagination into overdrive.

  In her black dress that hit a few inches above her knees, she proved that his fantasies were not unrealistic. Her smooth legs had as many curves as her body and his fingers itched to trace along them, to savor the heat of her skin.

  The flare of her h
ips was covered by a sleeveless jacket that was fancier than a vest. But he knew the shape of her body by heart, was familiar with the sway of her hips when she was both meandering along and speed walking to keep up with Mari.

  As if sensing the lick of his gaze on her, she turned toward him. Her face brightened, and a hint of pink tinged her cheeks.

  Was he grinning like a boy with his first tractor? That moment when he got to drive it all by itself and learn the real idiosyncrasies of the machine?

  Hell, had he just compared Daisy to a tractor?

  He crossed to her. “You look amazing.” Leaning down, he brushed a kiss over her cheek. It was all he’d managed to gut out in front of her mother. Only this time he landed closer to her mouth. Her blush had deepened, and as he pulled away, her gaze touched his lips.

  “Thank you,” she murmured. “You do, too.”

  He clasped her hand, another move he’d been too chickenshit to do the last three times because her mother had been around. They walked outside together. They were going to eat before calling a taxi to take them to the dock. “I don’t look like I just rolled out of bed, so that’s an improvement.”

  She squeezed his hand. “But I like that look on you, too.”

  The warm glow that sparked regressed him a good fifteen years to the first time a girl said she thought he was hot. “Just remember that when I’m covered in dust and smell like exhaust.”

  The change in her was instantaneous. Her hand only rested in his and her shoulders sagged. The look on her face worried him. Serious, almost grim.

  “Is that a deal breaker?” he asked, half joking. He’d been serious. His job got him dirty and with so much going on at home, aesthetics weren’t his priority.

  She stopped and put her hand on his chest. Without thinking, he clasped his hand over it. They stood in the middle of the sidewalk like that, almost embracing.

  “Of course not,” she clarified. “But tonight, we need to talk about us and what’s going to happen and when.”

  He ducked his head. “I agree. You’re the one moving across the world. You need to prepare.” He wasn’t going anywhere. Each day was a struggle to stay away from the farm and the magnitude of work that needed to be done. Winter was their slow season, but no time of the year was easy with his brothers and parents to look after.

  He put himself in Daisy’s place; there was no comparison. She was upending her life, leaving her only family, to live with him.

  She stared straight ahead, her gaze on his chest. He thought he’d feel like he towered over her, but her personality didn’t allow it. The sure way she carried herself, the strength in her quiet voice, put her on an equal level with him. Whatever she said, he’d do. Sit. Stay. Beg.

  “It’s not just that.” Her fingers curled into the material of his shirt. “I’ll explain it all, and I hope… I hope you’re not… I hope we’re okay. I like you.”

  “I like you, too,” he said gruffly. “A lot. If it weren’t for you, I’d have turned back home in a second.”

  Her expression turned crestfallen. Shit. He’d just insulted her home.

  “No, it’s not here. I mean, it’s different here, but not in a bad way. You’ve made me into shrimp’s number one fan. But I’m gone from my job and a lot of people count on me. It’s hard to run things this far away, even with technology.”

  Understanding dawned, followed by relief. “I didn’t think about that. I’m sorry.”

  He lifted his hand off hers to caress her face. Until they started moving again, he didn’t want to quit touching her. If he was at home, and she was any other girl, he’d ask them to chuck their boating plans out the window and have raw, needy sex—not in those exact words—but this was his future wife. She needed to know that there was more between them than a contract and a bed. He needed her to know.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’ve never been this far from home and never for this long. It’s been hard, but I’ll be back soon.”

  She blinked and withdrew her fingers from his chest. Their other hands were still clasped, and she towed him along.

  Had he said something again?

  They walked for blocks, and she described the restaurant they were going to. Fancier than the previous ones he’d eaten at, but within walking distance.

  Once they were seated and their food ordered, he broached the subject. “About us. We started this thing with the intention to get married, and now we’re here. I feel like I need to propose or something.” His eyes flew wide. He had no ring!

  Her brows lifted. He must looked panicked.

  “I didn’t think of buying an engagement ring,” he clarified.

  “Maybe we can pick them out together.” She snapped her mouth closed like she’d said too much.

  “I’d love that. I don’t want to get anything you’d hate.” He dragged in a deep breath and sat back. “So we’re doing this, huh?”

  Her blush returned. “Yes. My family in the province will be thrilled to celebrate a wedding. We can contract the marriage here in Manila and marry when we reach the province.”

  Marry in the province. Like, this week? “Get married now?” His voice squeaked.

  “Wasn’t that what you meant?”

  “I thought…” He shook his head. “If we married here, you still wouldn’t be able to come home with me. And I can’t stay. It’ll take months for your visa to clear and…I just can’t stay.”

  “I will wait here, but…”

  “I can’t marry you before any of my family has met you.” They’d all think they were right. That he’d rushed to buy a wife. That she was after him for something other than love. “I live in a small town. If I showed up married with no wife after a trip overseas, they’d think—”

  “They’d think you mail ordered a bride,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Yes. I don’t want that for you.” He didn’t want her walking around town, earning looks of pity because she’d had to marry the crazy Walker boy. Those in Moore familiar with his family, which was most everyone, thought highly of his cousins, but not as highly of him. His cousins had all met women, gotten married, started families, and he cruised around town getting critiqued on his appearance and dumped by his dates.

  She exhaled and looked around the restaurant. He ignored the six-foot aquariums along the wall and the tinkling of the water in the fountain placed in the middle of the seating area. The fluorescent lights bounced off her dark hair and glimmered in the depths of her deep brown eyes.

  “Daisy?”

  She lifted her gaze to him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Ina doesn’t want to bring you to meet the family if we aren’t committed. And I agree with her. Just like your small town, the gossip of us will spread like monsoon rains.”

  “Will it help to buy the rings beforehand?”

  Her eyes flared with approval, then dimmed again.

  He had to reassure her that he wasn’t here to mess with her emotions for his own sick needs. Like her, he was serious about forever. “I honestly hadn’t thought about marrying here. I thought we’d meet, then I’d go home and file the visa paperwork and we’d marry when it cleared.” He lifted a shoulder. “And my family would be present, but I don’t want to demand that when you can’t have it.”

  A smile lifted one side of her mouth and she fiddled with her napkin. “Bringing you to meet them all will be enough.”

  Her eyes were pensive, and she twisted the cloth napkin.

  “Then what else is wrong?”

  With a heavy sigh, she dropped the napkin and gave the clown fish in the aquarium one last look, as if she were seeking confirmation to tell him. “The idea to look for an American husband was mine, but we both made the decision because we can’t afford to keep living the way we are. My lease is up at the end of the month and if I were to sign a new one, it’d include a rent increase I can’t cover.”

  “And you’d have to move back to the province?” His curiosity grew to visit the place s
he’d grown up. Why didn’t she want to go back?

  “I would. And I’d be pressured to settle with a friend of the family. He’s a nice guy, but we went to school together and there’s no chemistry.” She glanced away and muttered, “And his family is more overbearing than mine.”

  Beads of jealously and irritation dripped into his blood. Her relatives had someone else picked out for her, and she wouldn’t have a say because she’d be beholden to them? Daisy’s self-assuredness seemed to stop at her family. “Is there nowhere else in Manila that you can afford?”

  She shook her head, her eyes downcast. “If it were just me, perhaps. But a two bedroom costs more and then there’s the cost of moving and leasing a new place.”

  If they got married at the end of the week, she could stay with her family as a married woman even if he flew home. But then she’d come to Moore with opinions already formed about her. It wasn’t exactly a win-win for her.

  “Would they let you stay with them if you were engaged to me?”

  She considered his question. “Yes. We’d all be living in the same house, but for only a little time it won’t be so bad. Ina would get a job as a live-in housekeeper, and I could stay and help around his house until I could fly to the US.”

  Would she still be encouraged to start something with this other guy? Daisy would be alone, without her mom, without him, but have this man who must’ve at least agreed to consider marrying her.

  If he’d grown up with her then he’d know how sexy she was, probably want her as much as Aaron did.

  Wait—she’d said they’d all be living together. And she hadn’t sounded thrilled. Only a little time it won’t be so bad.

  He hadn’t been clear about how close his parents and brothers lived. He should say something. But later.

  There was another option that worked for her and would settle his guilt about his lack of clarity. He had to give himself a few seconds to ponder it. The first girl he’d “bumped” online hadn’t made him completely jaded, but he couldn’t be a sucker. Daisy didn’t make him feel like a fool who’d fall for an easy line though. “I can pay for a room for you until the visa clears.”