CHAPTER 35
Walker
For a week our friends show up in shifts, helping out whenever they’re not at their own jobs. The fire department guys manage to get all the furniture sanded in one afternoon, and I spend the next day staining every piece with Eli by my side.
When we’re not working, I spend every possible moment with Tally, though none of it feels like enough. We don’t have any real conversations because we’re too tired after a long day of work and we barely get ten minutes for a quickie before the first of the crew show up in the morning.
Everyone’s taken to walking straight in and helping themselves to coffee when they arrive. I can’t complain because they’re working for free and we’d never get this done without them. Still, it feels cruel that I’ve finally got Tally all to myself but can barely have her.
The clock is ticking on her time here. She’s taken calls all week from her boss in Nantucket.
They’ve been working on different menu ideas, and when she finds the time, she grabs ingredients and tests them out on our friends during breaks to get their blind reactions.
I love everything Tally makes, but it’s all a reminder that she was never here to stay.
The fact that I can’t just grab her hand and hold it when we’re walking out to the fields in the mornings—or that she pulls away from a kiss when a door opens—only makes me more needy.
If I can’t have her for long, I at least want her completely. Though I can’t bring myself to tell her how I truly feel. It wouldn’t be fair to her.
It’s early Friday morning, and we’ve got our first wedding tomorrow, when Tally finds me out in the shed, scrubbing down all the chairs.
“Do you ever take a day off?”
I hold open my arms. “That your way of telling me I’ve been neglecting you?”
She hugs my chest and sighs. “No, that’s my way of telling you you’re neglecting yourself. Have you even slept for more than a few hours this week?”
“Tuesdays are my day off.” I settle my hands on her ass.
“And yet you worked all day Tuesday, and I’m sure you’ll do it again next week.”
I shrug. “I like working.”
She rests her chin on my chest. “I know, but there is more to life than work. You deserve some free time. Go get off the farm for a few hours and relax.”
“I can do that when you’re gone,” is what I want to say. I can take a day off and disappear and do nothing when she isn’t here anymore, but right now, there isn’t a chance in hell I’m leaving this farm without her.
“What if,” she walks her fingers up my chest, excitement teasing her words, “we have Tally Tuesdays?”
“What?” Transfixed, my eyes remain locked on the place where she touches me.
“Tally Tuesdays. You’ll actually take a break if it’s about me.”
I smirk. “Oh, will I?” My hands settle on her hips again, and I hold her there. I don’t want her to take even a minuscule step away from me.
She smirks back. “Won’t you?”
I squeeze her hip. “Probably.”
The joy that radiates off her could light an entire stadium. “All right, so Tuesdays are officially Tally Tuesdays—we’re going to hole up in the cottage and do absolutely nothing but each other.”
“Now that is a way to get me to take a day off.”
She presses her lips to mine. “I’m very persuasive when I want something.”
“Oh yeah, and what do you want right now?”
Tally’s eyes dance with mischief and then she snags the cleaning towel right out of my hand and starts running toward the fields. “Guess you’ll have to catch me to find out.”
I take off after her, my cock already half hard knowing it’s about to get some attention.
The early morning sun lights Tally’s golden hair, giving her an almost ethereal look as she runs straight toward the wildflower meadow.
The harbor glitters in the distance, a pastel pink shimmer coating the still waters, and a gull squawks overhead just as I hear the telltale sign of a car coming round the bend. Dammit.
I hasten my steps, and when I’m finally right behind her, I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her tight against my chest. My fingers skim the smooth skin of her stomach, and my palm flattens against her side. I move my mouth to her ear as I hold her against my pounding heart. “Caught you.”
She’s breathless and her head falls back against my chest. “Damn.”
I chuckle as I press kisses against her shoulder, then her neck, and when she grinds her hips against my dick, I smile.
Maybe Tally is going to give me a little attention this morning after all.
I twist her so she’s facing me and take her lips in mine.
Our tongues tangle as my hands explore her body, kneading her ass before lifting her up into my arms. I drop us to the ground, and she grinds over me, her lips never leaving mine.
“You going to fuck me right here, Wildflower?”
Her golden eyes are lust filled, and the space between her thighs is warm. Something comes over me, this need to possess her, to claim her, right here in the field she loves so much. Right out in the open.
And from the look in her eyes, it feels like she’s on the same page. Like maybe she hates the sneaking around as much as I do. Like maybe she’s ready to say fuck it like I want to.
Just as I’m about to skim my fingers across her tits and pull down that yellow fabric, a car door slams and raucous laughter fills the air. Tally’s eyes widen, and she lets out a loud groan. “Sounds like they’re here.”
“Stay with me,” I beg, holding her hips to mine.
Tally’s eyes soften as she grins and presses a quick kiss to my lips. “We can’t. You’ll get us caught, Cowboy.” Then she rolls off me and points toward the fields. “Give me a five-minute head start. I’ll tell everyone I was out for a run.”
My eyes close so I don’t have to watch her walk away. It’s a sight I’m pretty used to by now. But that doesn’t mean I’m not getting awfully tired of it.
—
It’s lunchtime before I get even a glimpse of Tally again.
She’s carrying a tray of food and setting it on the picnic tables right as I’m finishing up staining the last of the bed frames.
The Liberty Ladies showed up this morning with quilts and new bedding.
Rayna insists she bought too many sheets—claims she’s got an obsession with testing out every one she finds and forgot she ordered an extra fifteen pairs.
I can see right through her lies, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
We can use all the donations we can get at this point so I can avoid taking any more money from Frank’s loan.
Gail follows behind Tally with two jugs of homemade iced tea.
There are fresh tangerines floating in the tea, which Tally told me is her secret ingredient to make it the perfect sweetness.
Babs, Rayna, and Penny set out plates, and the guys from the fire department appear instantly, as if they can smell the food, despite the fact that it’s only sandwiches and cookies.
I’m just heading over to grab a sandwich myself and hopefully get a minute sitting beside Tally when Babs pats the spot beside her. “Have you given any more thought to the bakery?” Babs asks Tally.
Penny rolls her eyes with a smile on her face. “Please, she’s probably got a countdown on her phone for how many days she has left in Hope Harbor, right Tal?”
Tally almost stumbles and drops the second plate of sandwiches. “Um, what?”
My eyes narrow and I reach for the plate, setting it down for her.
“Yeah, Tally has big plans this summer,” Gail says. “Like her daddy always said—”
The entire group of them finish her sentence: “You can’t keep a wildflower in one place.”
The words are said with a smile, but I see the hurt flash in Tally’s eyes.
The rest of the town doesn’t see how much she’s been trying to open up since arriving home.
She’s been working day in and day out for this farm, and still they don’t see her.
I’m angry for her, but when I go to open my mouth and defend her, she scowls at me.
“Don’t,” she mouths with a shake of her head.
It’s a reminder that we’re not even dating, and it stings. So I grab my sandwich and head toward the cottages to eat alone.