Chapter 12
Twelve
Every time Finn walked by his desk, he wanted to snatch the taunting page from the top of the stack, crumple it up, and feed it to Jenna. But he wasn’t sure a diet high in printer paper would be good for the goat, so he settled for scowling at it. Sometimes he put his hands on his hips and gave it a good glare. On rarer occasions, he turned his back to his desk and tossed Joe Jr. his ball. He should probably at least file the paper so he didn’t risk his parents seeing it again.
This morning, though, he barely gave his desk a glance as he scooped up Joe’s slimy green tennis ball near the back door. “Come on, boy,” he called as he pushed the screen open and trotted into the early morning sunshine. Joe jogged beyond, his breaths loud and damp.
“Go get it,” Finn called as he chucked the ball across the lawn. With a happy bark, Joe leapt after it, stumbling over his paws and tumbling in the grass a few times. Finally, his head popped up, the ball lodged between his teeth, tongue hanging out behind it. But instead of coming back to have it thrown again, he curled up in a patch of sun and looked up with big, pleading eyes.
“You gotta bring it back to me if you want to play, dude.”
Joe barked. But he didn’t move from his spot, only rolling over and wiggling on his back.
“I didn’t want to play anyway.” Finn laughed, and Joe turned his head, apparently confused by the tone of the words.
It didn’t matter. Besides, he didn’t have time to shoot the breeze with his dog. He’d overslept—because he hadn’t been able to close his eyes the night before without seeing Cretia’s smile. Which had led to daydreams about finishing that kiss that had almost started days before.
He’d missed his alarm, and the sun was already well over the horizon when he kicked off his covers and shoved his feet into his work boots. He’d been pretty sure—even half asleep—that Cretia would be by. She hadn’t missed a day since she’d arrived. And he wasn’t too proud to admit that he looked forward to her visits—to every curious question about his work and the hints into her life on the road.
The Fab Four could use some leash practice and an introduction to the water, but he really needed a second set of hands for that.
Not true.
He wanted a second set of hands. A very specific set of hands.
But he couldn’t enjoy the rest of his day until the stalls had been mucked, fresh hay spread out, and food distributed. He might even have time to take Bella on a short walk if she was up for it.
He marched to the barn and snagged the rake stashed just inside the sliding door as he stepped into the coolness. A string of barks welcomed him, followed by some high-pitched bleats.
“I’d like to think you missed me, but I have a feeling you’re just hungry.”
George and Ringo jumped against their fence, drool dripping from their jowls.
“I guess stalls will wait. Breakfast won’t.” He grabbed a giant scoop of food and filled the metal bowls in each kennel, the dogs immediately ignoring him for the organic, high-end kibble his dad thought was overpriced. Maybe it was, but Finn was willing to invest in keeping the dogs as healthy as he could.
He’d moved Bella into her finished whelping box, complete with padded flooring and plenty of cozy blankets, two days before. But still there were no puppies. She looked up at him as he stepped into the private room but almost immediately dropped her head back to the padded floor.
“Hey, sweetie.” He crouched beside her, running his hand along her side. “You hungry?”
Even as he poured her food into her dish, she didn’t move.
“Soon, eh?” He hoped so. For her sake.
Joe barked from outside. Through the window, Finn saw him standing every bit like a guard dog, but intruders were much more likely to end up being slobbered on than attacked.
A second later, the crunch of gravel in the driveway sent Finn walking in that direction. “Who is it, boy?” he asked Joe as he walked by.
Together they jogged around the side of the house, Joe leading then circling back and hiding behind Finn. With another burst of bravery, the dog sprinted ahead toward a sleek silver truck. But when the door swung open, Joe dashed back to safety, nudging Finn forward with his nose.
Finn rubbed the dog’s head. “Way to protect the property.” Joe’s bark said he was just as proud as could be. He clearly didn’t understand sarcasm and probably thought he’d really been a good boy all these years.
He didn’t have time to analyze his dog’s shortcomings as the truck’s driver jumped out, shutting the door behind him. Justin Kane waved, shoving the fingers of his other hand through his shaggy black hair before it quickly fell back across his forehead.
“Justin, didn’t expect you today. Certainly didn’t think you’d make the drive.” It probably had taken him longer to get into and out of the truck than it would have to walk across the road from the dairy. “Everything okay? Natalie okay? You all need a hand?”
Justin chuckled as he reached out for a shake. “Everything’s fine at home. Natalie’s about a month from her due date but refuses to put her feet up.”
That sounded about right. Natalie was as stubborn as they came, and she had refused to slow down right up until she delivered their last three kids too.
“My boys have been asking to come over to see your latest litter.”
Finn checked the cab of the truck, but Justin’s mini-mes weren’t in there. “Of course. You can bring ’em by anytime.”
“Thanks.” Justin dipped his chin. “And thanks for helping out with the new shed at our place.”
Finn had spent all of five or six hours over the course of two days, helping Justin frame the thing a few weeks before. “That was no problem. Always happy to pitch in.”
“You know, the dairy runs pretty smoothly these days. And we’ve got plenty of guys on staff. If you ever need a hand over here...”
He tried to prop his smile back into place. “I appreciate the offer.” And he did. He just couldn’t accept it. Not until he’d proven himself. Until he’d made this business into something more.
Justin nodded and pointed toward his truck. “I had some leftover lumber. Thought you might be able to use it on the extension you told me about.”
Finn opened his mouth but snapped it closed as the image of that paper on his desk flashed through his mind. Ignoring it didn’t make it go away or make the truth any less true. It hit like a two-by-four to the temple.
Somewhere, someone knew the right words to say in this situation, but this was not the place, and he was not that person.
Thanks, but no.
Thank you, but I’m not a good investment. At least that’s what the bank said.
Thanks, but I don’t need it anymore.
That’s really nice of you, but this place isn’t expanding anytime soon.
He managed to force what he hoped was a smile—or at least something that looked less like indigestion than it felt—and settled for the simple. “Thank you.”
“You want me to drop it off by the barn?” Justin hitched a thumb toward the bed of the truck.
No. Because then he’d have to look at it. And remember the rejection. And remember that under his leadership, this business was going to stay exactly as it had been for the last fifty years. Yeah, that was a great reminder.
Instead, he shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Sure. Thanks.”
As they walked toward the bed of the truck, Joe barked again, the sound pure joy. Three silhouettes appeared against the morning sun, Cretia in the middle and a smaller one on either side.
He knew it was Cretia without even seeing her face. The soft lines of her form and her gait were more than enough to identify her.
And the way his heart slammed into his ribs. Just because.
A genuine smile tugged at his face just before Jack launched himself at Joe. The dog slobbered all over the kid, and there could have been no more excited recipient. “Joe Jr.” The two fell to the grass, wrestling and playing, and Jack nearly disappeared under the coat of black fur. But his giggles continued.
“One of these days, that kid is going to get bigger than the dog.” Justin laughed. “What’s Joe going to do when he’s outmatched?”
“Same thing as always.” Finn crossed his arms. “Play dumb. Though I don’t know how much of it is playing.”
As Cretia and Julia Mae strolled up the drive, the little girl clung to Cretia’s arm, hiding behind her leg and warily eyeing the dog.
Justin shot him a questioning look out of the side of his eye. “Is this the girl who gave you a black eye for throwing her in the harbor? She’s tougher than she looks.”
One of the facts of living in a town the size of a postage stamp. Everyone knew everyone and heard everything. Even if the truth morphed the more the story was told.
“You have no idea,” Cretia said by way of introduction, stretching out her free hand. “Cretia Martin.”
Justin’s eyes grew wide—probably surprised by her directness. Then laughter broke across his features. “Justin Kane.”
“Of Kane’s Dairy?”
He nodded.
“I met your mom yesterday. She treated me to the best cheddar and pepper jack from your dairy. It was even better than the cheese I tasted in Italy.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Justin rocked back on his heels, a satisfied smile in place. “Mom said she had a visitor, but she didn’t tell me it was someone so famous. You’re the most exciting addition to our town in years.”
Justin kept going, but Finn noticed the tight lines forming around Cretia’s mouth and the way she hugged herself a little bit harder. He opened his mouth to step in when Justin added one more thought.
“My little sister Brooke is a big fan of yours. She said she watches all of your videos and is even trying to get her husband Chuck to take her on your recommended tour of Greece.”
“Oh, they should. It’s a lovely country!”
Justin motioned down the road toward the shoreline. “You should do some videos of town before you leave.”
Cretia beamed. Finn felt seasick.
Something green and nasty boiled inside him, and no number of deep breaths made it simmer down. Maybe it was the way Justin made Cretia smile—which was ridiculous since Justin had been happily married for almost a decade and Natalie was expecting their fourth child.
So what if Finn wanted to be the source of those perfect smiles.
Perhaps it was the simple reminder that Cretia would be leaving.
Soon.
He rubbed a hand to his belly as his gut twisted. It didn’t help, and he couldn’t fight off the scowl he knew was falling into place. Before he could turn away, Cretia caught his eye. Her mouth opened, and for a second he thought she was going to ask him what was wrong. Then she shook her head and closed her mouth, and he let out a silent sigh.
This was neither the time nor the place to unpack whatever was going on in the depths of his brain—or his stomach.
“Can we pet your goats, Mr. Finn?”
Julia Mae’s voice broke through his mental fog, and he squatted down in front of her, scrunching up his eyebrows and putting on a very serious voice. “ You want to pet Sonny and Cher?”
The little girl giggled and nodded. “And hold your bunnies.”
“ And the bunnies? My, that’s asking a lot.” Tapping his chin with one finger, he stared up at Cretia, whose smile seemed to have grown. He’d done that. “I tell you what. The bunnies haven’t been fed yet. So if you’ll help me feed them, you can hold the little ones.”
Julia Mae nodded and tugged Cretia toward the barn.
He waved them on. “I’ll be there as soon as we unload this.”
Cretia looked over her shoulder one more time before following Julia Mae into the barn. Something was different about Finn this morning. His smile was staged, forced. And his step had lost its usual bounce.
He’d said the right things. Done the usual things. And he’d stolen her breath when he crouched to Julia Mae’s height and agreed to let her hold the bunnies.
Until that exact moment, she hadn’t known that a man getting down to a little girl’s level to talk about baby rabbits was so attractive. It wasn’t fair that that was all he had to do to make her insides go mad.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off with him. She’d just have to wait until they were alone to ask him what. And she should wait until she accomplished what she’d come down for.
True to his word, he arrived a few minutes later, followed closely by Jack and Joe Jr. Finn pushed the slider closed with a creak before showing Julia Mae how to measure the rabbit food and check their water. When the rabbits were settled, he scooped up a brown ball of fluff and set it in the little girl’s embrace. Cretia was pretty sure there had never been a happier five-year-old.
Jack, however, had befriended Roberta, petting the white patch next to her brown eye.
Cretia frowned and shot Roberta a glare. Sure, the old girl liked kids but apparently not digital content creators. For that, she might as well make the cow internet famous.
Reaching for her pocket, she couldn’t hold back a smile as her fingers wrapped around the slim rectangle here. She didn’t have a case for it yet, and it wasn’t connecting to the internet for some reason. But she had a new phone. Delivered an hour ago.
When she’d heard the truck rumbling down the street, she had run for the door and met the driver on the porch—his eyes probably nearly as wild as her morning hair. Oh well. She wasn’t going to see him again.
That had pretty much become her motto over the years.
Made a fool of herself in front of a group of tourists? Oh well. She wasn’t going to see them again.
Spilled spaghetti all over her shirt in front of a cute waiter? Oh well. She wouldn’t see him again.
Too busy recording a video to notice the enormous Grecian column before walking right into it? Oh well. She wasn’t going to see anyone who had witnessed that mishap again.
It was an all-too-familiar sentiment. Except right now, she wanted to capture the moment. Because she did want to see these dear faces again.
Roberta looked up and mooed just as Cretia snapped a picture of the two friends. The image caught Roberta with her tongue out and Jack throwing his head back in laughter, and Cretia nearly hugged it to her chest. She’d send it to Marie later that night.
“You have a phone?”
She turned to Finn to show off the new arrival, but again, something was off. He looked like he’d bitten into a raw onion, and she couldn’t quite place the reason.
“Yep,” Julia Mae supplied for her. “It came this morning. Mr. Casper dropped it off and everything.”
“Good.” Finn’s face didn’t get the message, though he nodded emphatically. “That’s really good.”
He was either trying to convince her or himself. And neither seemed to be working.
“Finn? Are you—”
“And your computer? Did it arrive too?”
“Not yet. We came down here so Miss Cretia can use your computer to look for it.”
Cretia smiled at the little girl, whose gaze never wavered from the bunny in her arms. With Julia Mae around, Cretia didn’t have to do much talking. Except when Finn looked up with a raised eyebrow.
“My phone isn’t connecting to the internet yet. I called tech support, and it’s supposed to be fixed today. But I was hoping I could borrow your computer to track down my missing laptop.”
“Sure.” Finn tromped across the barn floor. “You kids don’t let the dogs out until I get back. Then we’ll play with the puppies.”
Cretia followed a few steps behind, her legs unable to eat up the distance like Finn’s did. Within steps she was huffing and puffing. “Finn?”
He didn’t slow down. “Yeah?”
“Wait up.” She tried to reach for his arm but managed only to brush the edge of his fleece sleeve. Even that sent shock waves through her. “What’s the rush?”
“Nothing.” His word came out curt and seemed to be the trick to applying the brakes.
She slammed into his back, her cheek hitting his shoulder blade. Bouncing off, she rubbed the side of her face and peered up at him through one open eye. “What’s going on? You seem a little...” Ornery. Irritable. Cranky. She could have filled in a hundred words but settled for one. “Off.”
Finn jabbed a hand through his hair and squinted toward the horizon. “Just got off to a late start this morning. Kind of threw my whole day off.”
He didn’t know her half as well as she knew him if he thought she was going to buy that.
“You can be honest with me.” Laying her hand on his arm, she tried for a gentle smile. “What’s going on?”
His gaze narrowed on the spot where her fingers curled into his jacket. “Nothing. Really .” He shook his head and slammed his fists into his pockets. “I’m fine.”
“I’ve only known you for about a week, but seriously, you can’t expect me to believe that.” Sliding a hand from his elbow to his bicep, she squeezed gently. “You can tell me, you know. I won’t be here long enough to spill the tea.”
For a moment, he looked like he’d swallowed a golf ball. Finally, he cleared his throat. “I’m just worried about Bella. She’s three days past her due date, but she’s not progressing.”
Cretia had to bite back a sigh of relief. For the tiniest moment, she’d thought his mood had something to do with her.
Which was ridiculous.
She had no power to influence Finn Chaffey. How could she?
Forcing a smile, she nodded. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. If you need any help when the time comes...”
He raised an eyebrow as he took a step toward the house. “You have a lot of experience with that sort of thing?”
“Nope.”
Something made him snort. Whether it was her brutal honesty or the exaggerated pop of the p , she didn’t care. She’d made him grin—even if for just a second.
He opened the back door and strolled inside behind her, his footfalls audibly lighter than they’d been in the barn.
Okay, maybe she had a touch of influence on him.
He turned on the computer, and they waited as it whirred and hummed to life. After the screen turned on and blinked, he nodded toward the chair and backed away. “I’ll be in the barn if you need anything.”
“Thank you, Finn.” It came out all thick and throaty, as though she’d been thinking about things. Like kissing him. Which she had not been thinking about. Until right that minute.
Her cheeks flamed, and she ducked her head.
Mercifully, Finn took that as his cue to exit and disappeared through the back door.
Cretia set to work, entering the tracking number on the delivery service’s site. A spinning red circle showed the page was thinking. And thinking. And thinking.
It was either a sign of Finn’s ridiculously slow internet or that her laptop had found its way to the other side of the world. Almost certainly the former.
Trying to keep her eyes off the bank letter, she tapped her fingers against the desktop. The circle kept spinning.
“Come on.” She sighed, praying for more than the blank page the site had given her the day before.
Her phone had found its destination despite less-than-thorough tracking information. Maybe her laptop was just a day or so behind.
The page refreshed, the circle disappeared, and her stomach shot through the floor.
Estimated Delivery Date: Delayed
She clicked on a button that showed each step and scan of her package’s journey. It had started in California. Then moved to Ohio. Then New York.
Then Paris. France.
Then Rustico.
Italy.
Her stomach took a full bounce. Up from the floor to her throat and straight back down.
Italy. Her laptop had somehow been sent to Rustico, Italy, instead of North Rustico, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Her throat went dry.
There had to be a mistake. Maybe their tracking system was off. It had to be. Yesterday it had been blank. Today it was broken.
After punching the customer service number into her new phone, she waited to be connected to someone who would certainly explain that a glitch in their system had misread the tracking information, and her laptop was just delayed crossing the border from Maine.
That made sense.
Italy did not.
“Thank you for calling International Express Delivery. My name is Neema. How can I assist you today?”
Cretia took a steadying breath before pouring out her ordeal from the harbor all the way through that moment. “I’m stuck in North Rustico, Prince Edward Island, and your tracking says that my computer is in Rustico, Italy.”
“Oh my. That is an ordeal.” Neema sounded as if she were reading the dictionary. “Can I get your tracking number?”
Cretia read it off to her, Neema’s keyboard clacking in the background.
“I am very sorry for the delay, but your package is at our warehouse in Rustico, Italy.”
Letting her head fall into her hand, Cretia sighed. “I’m aware.”
“Would you like to pick it up at the distribution center?”
“No, I don’t want to—” She snapped her mouth closed. “I’m not going all the way to another continent to pick up my package.”
Except she could. With a phone and a slightly wrinkled passport, she could get there. Probably a lot faster than the laptop could make it back across the Atlantic.
And then she’d be back up and running. She could get back on schedule to use the visas she’d applied for. Back to her normal life instead of the one she’d slipped so effortlessly into. The life that felt like a dream.
This was a life she’d never even known existed.
It also wasn’t real. It couldn’t last.
Enjoyable? Yes. Refreshing? Absolutely. Temporary? Without a doubt.
The problem was that the longer she stayed, the more she was tempted to settle. But what happened when a month turned into two or three and the magic began to disappear? Her home base would begin to look cluttered with stuff . Her life consumed by things. Surrounded. Imprisoned. Buried.
And the people would be forgotten. Her reason for staying ignored.
The trouble was that she didn’t want to leave Finn. Or Marie and the kids. Or the sweet people—like Mama Cheese Sandwich—who peppered the town. But if she was truly honest with herself, her reason for wanting to be in North Rustico would always be Finn.
A stone settled in her stomach, pressing her farther into his office chair.
The sound of children’s laughter drifted through the screen door, and she glanced out the window. The Fab Four were chasing Finn around the side pasture, Julia Mae and Jack giggling as they tagged along. Joe Jr. was there too, clearly confused. He darted between the puppies and Finn and then to Jack, his head twitching and jerking and searching for direction, not sure who most needed his attention. Finn scooped Julia Mae over his shoulder, and she squealed with delight as she bounced along, making faces at her brother.
Cretia took a deep breath as her insides twisted hard.
She couldn’t stay forever. She wouldn’t.
But every minute on Finn’s farm made her want to.
Maybe it was better to break ties now. Leave before it got too hard.
But go before Bella had her puppies? Before Cretia found out what had really put Finn in a grumpy mood that morning? Before she got to really and truly kiss him?
She frowned as he led the parade along the fence line.
Neema cleared her throat. “Miss Martin? Are you still there? Would you like us to hold your package in Italy?”