Chapter 17
Be cool. This is good. You got this.
But don’t mess this up!
The nerves coming up for Zane were ridiculous.
He’d texted Mabel, both after she’d left his house with her hair and lips a sexy mess and he’d texted her the next day.
He’d dropped the shirt off for Ruby to give to her, and then they’d texted some more over the next three days.
Things were good. Exactly how he’d hoped they would be, and he couldn’t wait to see her.
So why was he feeling anxious? Because in all their back and forth the past few days, they hadn’t addressed the kissing, and the last time that happened, the lack of communication was pretty much the entire problem.
Still, when he and his nephew, Styles, pulled up in his truck in the rain to pick up Mabel and knocked on her door, a sense of calm flooded him.
She’d given him no indication that things would be like the last time, when their personalities both changed so much they barely recognized each other. She’d seemed okay. She’d seemed good.
One look at her when she opened her door and his calm stirred up into more. He was allowing himself to fall so fast that he wasn’t sure which way was up or down.
“You look good in that shirt,” he said. And the jeans that fit you perfectly.
“I about died when I saw it. You remembered how I wanted to get one of these so badly at Garth’s concert. That was”—she glanced down at it—“beyond kind.” She paused. “Did you just buy this? Or…”
“I—” He raked a hand through his hair. “I got it for you the night of the concert, but I couldn’t ever seem to find the right time to give it to you.”
She grinned, her brows coming together in disbelief.
Zane bent down to his three-year-old nephew. “Hey, Styles,” he said. “This is Mabel.”
“Maybe Mabel?” Styles glanced up at Zane and giggled. “Maybe,” he said and pointed to her.
“Styles!” She pressed out her fist to give him knuckles, and Styles cocked his head to one side.
“Knuckles? Can I have a hug?” He held his hands out.
Mabel chuckled and looked at Zane, shaking her head. “How can I resist that?”
Styles closed his eyes and adjusted his glasses before slowly pushing out his palm. “Don’t ‘esist the force.” His voice was a dramatic whisper.
Atta boy, Styles. Zane was frequently proud of this kid. “Lorelei’s done a good job teaching him what really matters in life. Like Star Wars.”
“And asking women for hugs?”
Styles grinned. “Maybe, I can open the Food ‘N’ Friends door with the force.”
“Every time,” Zane added.
Mabel’s giggle bubbled out of her. “Well, that’s impressive, Styles. I guess that does deserve a hug. But your uncle comes first, okay?”
Zane wrapped his arms around her, feeling at home again now that she was in his arms. She was warm and soft and smelled like lavender. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Her voice was muffled against his chest.
He didn’t want to break apart, but there was a certain kid staring at their every move.
Mabel turned to Styles. “Now can I have a hug?” She held out her arms, and Styles’s three-year-old body catapulted into hers. He shrieked as she lifted him up high and spun around.
“It’s a tornado. Aaaah! I can’t stop,” she said, laughing as they spun around, Styles’s legs flying in the air.
His laugh was pretty great. And Mabel was pretty great with him.
“All right, Styles,” Zane said, reaching for him after Mabel stopped spinning. “We’ve gotta go.”
“To do the work with the water? With Maybe?”
Okay, then. Looks like this nickname is going to stick for a while.
“Yes.” Zane turned to Mabel. “He said he wanted to go back home and get his swimming suit when I told him we were doing a watershed project.”
“He’s going to be super disappointed. This will be boring for him if he thinks it’s going to be like swimming in a pool.”
“Well, that’s our challenge. We’ve got to make it fun.”
“Is Lorelei working tonight?”
“Yeah, she’s been picking up extra shifts at the nursing home.”
They climbed into the truck, and Styles’s car seat was already secured in the back of the extended cab.
They drove past where they kissed.
Please let this be a real shift. Something lasting.
Just being on that same stretch of road where they kissed had his mind in hyperdrive all over again. He couldn’t stop himself from glancing at Mabel.
She was looking at him too. Okay, so she was still okay with the kissing?
They drove until they came to a T in the road. “And over there, Styles,” Zane said. “Look! See the water tower?”
The tower had been constructed so long ago that it was in a place that wasn’t functional or made any sense.
It had been built before there was even much of a town center, and over the years, as it had suffered disrepair, Silver Plum had circumvented the tower.
It stood there today, a heaping mass of peeling white-washed wood.
“That’s what it looks like close up?” Styles asked. “It’s not even one bit boring up there.”
Mabel laughed and turned in her seat so she could see him. “I wish we could climb it. Close your eyes and imagine you’re climbing up there. Do you think there are pirates with swords at the top?”
“I want to climb up, Zane. Let’s climb up the ladder.”
“Oops. Sorry,” Mabel said. “I shouldn’t have put the idea in his head.”
“Not your fault. He’s a climber. He would have asked that eventually.”
Zane unbuckled Styles from the car seat and swung him onto his hip. They started walking toward the tower. “See that ladder way up there? You have to bring a different special ladder to even reach that one. Weird, huh?”
Styles nodded, his eyes taking in the scene. He was a pretty great kid. Zane loved him fiercely.
“Mabel’s going to type some stuff into the computer while I’m talking to her, okay? Do you want to hold my hand or have me carry you still?”
“I want to be by myself. Can we go over there?” Styles pointed to a herd of cattle in the distance.
“In a little bit, we’ll go that way. I think that line of trees over there marks Silver Plum’s line of the watershed, Mabel. Once you get the water tower and surrounds recorded, let’s head over.”
The project was tedious, and sometimes he wasn’t even sure they were doing it right.
It had to be, though. Mack and the rest of Silver Plum were counting on them to finish in time to apply for funding from the state.
He didn’t really mind showing Styles some cool stuff about their town.
And of course, with Mabel around, everything was fun.
Thankfully, they’d had the foresight to wear their irrigation boots, a souped-up, meatier version of rain boots. Zane’s sister had even sent some for Styles to wear.
Except, Styles didn’t really need them because Zane spun him up and around and nestled him on his shoulder.
“Maybe! Look! Now I’m taller than the tower!” Styles sounded like a football announcer.
“That means you’d get soaked by the rain first, since you’re so high up.” Mabel reached over and tickled Styles’s side. He shrieked and laughed.
Man, this is fun.
A future with Mabel. That’s what he wanted more than anything. He wanted to traipse around farmland in huge boots and listen to her interact with kids. Their kids.
That thought should have scared him, but it didn’t. It just felt peaceful. Like it was something completely natural, a succinct order of events. Just right in every way.
They reached the herd of cattle and skirted around them, careful not to upset them. The animals all seemed to be gathered around a central hub, which was strange because the feed troughs were several yards away.
The sound of moving water hit him the same moment he saw it. Whoever owned these cows had built a dam in one of the runoff streams coming down off the lake, and Zane would bet money it was illegal.
He set Styles down on the ground. “Hold Mabel’s hand, okay?” he shouted back to them as he neared the herd. “I don’t want you guys to get too close to the cows right now. Plus, there are all kinds of cow pies here.”
“We’ll watch your back from here.” Her tone was breezy, and Zane turned to look at her again. She was so tuned in to him, her slight smile spreading when he looked at her.
Man alive, she was beautiful.
If he didn’t get this illegal dam taken care of, there would be a world of trouble.
There was a reason dams like this weren’t allowed.
Not only did it weaken the water supply for everyone down the chain, but it also perpetuated the biggest issue with water sanitation: silt.
Particles built up behind a dam like this could prove very problematic for the whole town.
He pressed his shoulder against a cow and leaned hard. If he could get her moving, that would get the others moving along too, and he could have a better look.
The cow bellowed, her face showing her annoyance. “Come on, lady. You’re only making things worse here.” Eventually, she moved, but she still seemed ticked.
When he got a closer look, his heart sank even more. The dam, overgrown with weeds, crabgrass, and honeysuckle, looked to be a few years old. “The nerve,” he said, wishing he recognized the name of the man who owned this parcel of land that Mabel had told him on the drive.
Circumventing the proper channels to save money on water was illegal, no matter how you looked at it. But that didn’t mean some people had qualms about bucking the system. If Zane and Mabel hadn’t been working on this project, it might have gone undetected for a long time still.
He stepped up on the embankment to try to move away some of the weeds to get a better look. That was his first mistake. His second was not looking well enough when he went to step down.
Landing in the soft dirt, his foot gave way and he slid down, compromising the entire embankment and sloshing around in what felt like quicksand. He sank down, landing straight in the water right on his backside.