Chapter Six #2
She used her card to allow access to the penthouse floor where two apartments were located—hers and the small one where her parents stayed several nights a week.
She dug around in her purse looking for the key to her apartment, then remembered that she used a card for that, not a physical key like the one back at the house.
When she was finally inside, she parked the luggage in the middle of the living room floor.
The place smelled like the cleaner the housekeeper used—not like cookies baking in the oven like the little house she had lived in for the past week.
The modern furniture didn’t look as warm and inviting as the worn sofa had in the living room in Darlene’s grandparents’ home.
But Lula Ann lived in that little house. Holly McLean lived in the apartment.
She sighed all the way to her bedroom where she removed all her clothing and slipped into a silk nightshirt.
She figured she’d be asleep out of pure stress-induced exhaustion two seconds after her head hit the pillow.
But a vision of Bubba popped into her mind, and the story he told about the princess Lula Ann while he worked on the sandcastle.
She tossed and turned for half an hour, but she couldn’t fall asleep, not when memories of Bubba were running rampant in her head—from the wildflower bouquet to the thrill of kissing him in the water.
Finally, she threw the covers back and padded into the living room to dig around in her purse for her phone.
She found two messages from Bubba and one from Darlene only five minutes before, asking if she was still awake.
She was about to send a text back when her phone rang and Darlene’s face came up on the screen.
“Well, hello! You look like crap. You told him, didn’t you, and it did not go well?
Or …” Darlene gasped. “You are back in your apartment … What the hell is going on?”
“I didn’t tell him. Not yet, anyway,” Holly answered, and flopped down on the sofa and told her what had happened in the last several hours. “I was fretting about whether to come clean or just leave after our date tonight. Then Daddy showed up. I guess Fate answered the question for me.”
“Did he reply to your text?” Darlene asked.
“Yes, looks like about three times.” Holly yawned. “I left my phone in Daddy’s car, and I’ve been so scatterbrained that I haven’t thought about what to say when I do answer it.”
“Tell me what he said. I won’t be able to sleep if you don’t,” Darlene insisted.
“I could sleep on a concrete slab,” Holly said as she brought up her messages. “He says that I have his phone number, to call him if he can help in any way, and we’ll reschedule our date later.”
“Are you going to call him?” Darlene asked.
“I don’t know,” Holly said, “but right now, I’m going to bed and sleeping the rest of the night. When I wake up, I’m going to the hospital to relieve Daddy for a little while, then I’m spending the rest of the day catching up on whatever I need to know before Monday morning.”
“Keep me posted, and know that I love you,” Darlene said. “Text me her room number and I’ll send flowers tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you,” Holly said with another yawn and ended the call.
She went back to bed and dreamed of Bubba when she went to sleep.
They were sitting on the porch of an old farmhouse, and three little kids were playing with a couple of baby goats.
When she awoke, she wondered what the dream meant.
She had never been to that house before.
She didn’t know those children, and she certainly did not want a goat—if she ever had a house with a yard.
At that moment, she was very satisfied with her apartment and the view out the living room window.
Miles was prepared to come clean on Friday night and was more nervous than he had been since his first date fifteen years before.
He was prepared for the worst but hoped for the best, and talked out loud to himself from the ranch to a couple of miles from her house.
Then he got the text. He sent a message back to her before he turned his truck around and headed back to the ranch with a worried mind and deflated heart.
Elijah was sitting on the porch at the house when he parked the old work truck beside his much newer vehicle. He waved and then frowned. “Hey, where’s the girl? Did she send you packing?”
Miles crossed the yard and plopped down in the porch swing. “I’m not sure. She sent a message that said she had a family emergency. Something about her mother.”
“Think she’s found out that you ain’t Bubba, and you ain’t just a hired hand on this ranch?
Is she brushing you off?” Elijah reached inside a cooler sitting beside him and brought out a couple of beers.
He twisted the top off one and handed it to Miles.
“Your Bubba days could be over, so suck it up and move on.”
“Thanks,” Miles said, “but crazy as it seems after only a week, I thought this might be the one. For the first time, I was thinking about settling down and raising a family right here.”
“Way I see it is that during that time, you didn’t have to worry about whether or not a woman liked you for yourself or all the pretty things your money could buy for her.
Ms. Lula Ann liked Bubba, not Miles Chapman the rich cowboy.
That felt good and right and caused you to have visions of sitting on this porch and watching your grandchildren play.
Even if you never see her again, you’ve got to give her credit for making you realize that there is someone out there who will like you for yourself. ”
“I don’t think there will ever be anyone like her,” Miles said.
“If you feel that strongly, then go find her and tell her.”
Miles turned up his beer and took a long drink. “I think I will, starting tomorrow. I’ll go by the florist and take her a real nice bouquet tomorrow afternoon. After all, I do know where she lives.”