Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Clover
Van took the cookie salad from me as soon as I got out of his pickup.
“Are you going to be picking pumpkins?” He hovered next to me like he thought I’d take a header on the uneven ground.
Was it bad that I liked his attention? Any of his focus was a shiny piece of quartz, just glinting in the sun for me. “I might for just a little bit. My appetite is coming back, so I might stay with Mom and graze on all the food while waiting for everyone to get in.”
We rounded the big shop that had been blocking the view of everyone from where we parked.
Kids of all ages were frolicking through the yard and in the field full of orange dots of pumpkins.
The older kids hung out by the tractor and the wagons with Evander and some other guys.
The porch on Evander and Violet’s house was decorated with pumpkins and straw bales.
Adults went from the house to the shop, where all the food and seating was.
He slowed. “Whoa.”
“It can be overwhelming. If you want to leave, just give me a signal or something. Or heck, leave and text me. Someone can get me home.”
His astonishment turned to intensity. “I’m not ditching you.”
Was his possessiveness my imagination? Or was it defensiveness? “If you need to go, I’ll leave too.”
“Really? Why?”
I looked up at him. “Because we’re in this together.”
His jaw went slack, and he nodded. “Okay. It’s not that I don’t want to enjoy myself. I’m just not used to…this.”
Jasper broke from the crowd and jogged toward us. “Hey, you made it.”
“I was a little slow this morning.” I had texted my family thread to let them know my stomach was upset.
It hadn’t been that bad, but I’d had no clothes to wear.
Everything fit, mostly, but it was uncomfortable.
I didn’t want the band around my belly or fabric hugging my thighs.
And my boobs. Ugh. Why so sensitive? So it had taken me a while to be ready.
“No worries,” my brother said. “We’re here all day.”
“You were able to get off for the whole weekend?”
His face fell. “Yeah. Soon, I’ll have every weekend off.”
“You got a new job?”
He rolled a shoulder. “Not exactly. Eliot broke the news to me last week that they’re selling.”
“They can do that?” Our grandma wasn’t the only one who liked to include strict stipulations to her trust. The Knights’ dad tied them to their cattle ranch.
They couldn’t break it up, and they couldn’t get an income from it if they weren’t working there.
One by one, they all found their own way around it to be with the ones they loved.
“It is what it is.” Jasper fell in step with us. “It was a lot to make the trip to do their time after all the kids were involved in stuff. They want to be free of the ties, and I don’t blame ’em. Just wish I could afford to buy it.”
“I’m sorry. And all that’s left for you is the lake cabin.”
“If I’m married in less than a year, but hey, if it sells, then Aunt Linda will get something out of the ordeal of managing all the properties.”
“You’re a gem for thinking like that.”
He put a hand to his chest like I stabbed him. “Clover, I’m named after a tree, not the rock.”
Van chuckled next to me. I liked that he laughed like he was in on the joke and not a snicker that was demeaning or politely tolerating.
Jasper clapped his hands together. “Okay, Van. Want to get all the introductions out of the way and see how many people you remember after tossing pumpkins with them for a few hours?”
“Sounds fun. Let me get Clover and her pudding dessert delivered safely to the shop.”
Jasper lifted a brow at me, but there was approval in his eyes. Van was a good one. He wasn’t mine, but he would make someone happy someday.
In the shop, relatives, in-laws, and relatives of my in-laws roamed around. I smiled and said hi to everyone on my way to the buffet line. Van dug out my dish and placed it in the middle with the salads instead of at the end with the desserts. No one in this crowd was going to argue.
“Grab a bite to eat,” he said, folding the tote and finding a spot to stuff it under the table. “I’ll go with your brother and learn my way around GD Pumpkins.”
“Thank you. Remember—any time you’re ready.”
Jasper hovered nearby. When Van joined him, Jasper slapped him on the back. “So, you said you were a computer guy.”
My brother used to be in IT before he ranched. Would he return to that career? He’d been lost when he’d gotten laid off until Eliot offered him a job. I hoped the same didn’t happen.
Mom appeared at my side. “How are you feeling?”
I grinned. “Let me get a bite to eat, and then I’ll show you some pictures.”
Her face lit up, and once I nibbled on some crackers and cheese, I was surrounded as everyone in the shop or who swung through stopped to see pictures of Bean.
Once they were all gone, Violet pulled out a chair, dropped into it, and pushed another one out with her foot. “Evander started calling Willa ‘Bud’ when I was pregnant. Bean is cute.”
“It just happened.” I sat and adjusted my bra strap. “Where can I get good maternity clothes?”
“I’ll go to Bismarck with you. Tell me when.”
I nodded. Right. I had all my sisters close by. “Yes, thank you.”
I had been thinking of calling Poppy, but it was the middle of soccer season for her.
She’d been busy in the best ways since she’d moved back to Coal Haven.
I had several other sisters in town, and I could do it myself, but Poppy and I were the closest in age and best friends.
I kind of missed her. But I was a big girl and starting a family of my own.
Poppy was still around. It wasn’t like she left me at the altar.
One of Emery’s older girls came into the shop with Willa in tow. “Do you have some Band-Aids? She fell running across the lawn.”
“I-I told her”—Willa hiccupped—“where they at.”
Violet jumped up. “No worries. I’ll get her cleaned up. Thank you, Afton.”
Dad took Violet’s vacated spot. “Thanks for bringing those pictures.”
“I liked showing everyone.” It was nice to share my growing excitement. Any other situation, I would’ve been thrilled. Now I could be again.
He angled his chair to face me, propping his elbows on his knees, and tapped his fingertips together. I stiffened. He was in CEO mode. “I know we didn’t talk much about the end of the three months, but have you and Van discussed whether you’re going to attempt an annulment or go for a divorce?”
“Oh, uh…” We hadn’t discussed it. Tension returned in my shoulders. The three-month deadline loomed over my head, and I had yet to look for apartments or think about the logistics of going our separate ways. “Divorce, maybe? Isn’t an annulment harder to get?”
“Depends on how contentious a divorce would get.”
“He would get half of nothing, and from what I understand, I would get half of nothing. I don’t think it’ll be an issue.”
“You have to prepare, Clover.”
I scowled, hating that I should’ve been prepared, unlike I was in Las Vegas. “Van isn’t like that, Dad.”
Dad pressed his fingertips together. “You know that for sure?”
“Yes. Besides, why would he marry me if he was going to be worth millions before our time was up?”
Dad dipped his head. He must’ve thought the same thing. “I have a friend who can draw up the papers. All you two would need to do is sign them.”
My mouth went dry. The three months felt like three years, but I only had two months of it left. “I should talk to Van.”
His gaze sharpened. “Do you plan to stay married longer?”
“No?” Why’d it come out as a question? “Nothing’s changed, it’s just that he’s in this too.”
Dad’s eyes filled with respect. “Let me know what you two want to do.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll talk to him.”
Evander wandered into the shop, scratching the back of his neck. He was heading for the food before he saw Violet and veered toward his wife. A shot of envy entered my veins.
Divorce papers. Easy peasy.
Violet smiled and giggled in a way I’d never heard her do in our entire lives—until she met Evander. Hearts were in her damn eyes.
I looked out the shop doors. At the same moment, Van glanced over from the crowd of guys. The corner of his mouth tipped up, and he popped a brow like he was asking if I was okay.
I gave him a small nod, but I wasn’t okay. A divorce shouldn’t be easier than a marriage, even a pretend one.
Van
Every time there was a lull in activity, I sought out Clover no matter where I was standing.
Most of the time, she was surrounded by sisters, or sisters-in-law, or some of the grandmas who were here.
Sometimes she played with the kids. I could pick out her nieces and nephews, but I had to work to remember what other kids went with other couples.
Trailers were filled with pumpkins, and Clover was standing next to one, admiring all the orange fruit—vegetable?—inside. A smile lit her face when Laila ran to her. She bent down and talked with the girl; they admired a pumpkin, then Laila ran off.
Clover laughed and straightened, her expression delighted to be surrounded by metric tons of pumpkins.
“Did you get one picked out?” Jasper asked, walking toward me. His arms were full of two different-sized pumpkins.
“I don’t think I have a use for them.”
He gave me a no excuses look. “We all take a pumpkin. It kinda makes you feel like a kid again.”
Hadn’t I just been talking to Clover about that sensation? This was just another moment I got to experience that I hadn’t gotten as a kid. Another fun activity we could do together.
“You carve them?”
“I’ll carve twelve if I can.”
I hadn’t carved a jack-o-lantern in years, and to hell with it. It sounded fun. Would Clover think so? “Does Clover carve them?”
“She used to when we were kids. Don’t know if Douche Nozzle would’ve ever let her. No offense.”
None taken. “I’ve called him worse.”
Jasper started walking backward toward the line of parked cars. “If you come up with any inventive names for me, share them.”
“Will do.”