Chapter 14
Eric
I’ve fed all the animals. I patched a broken board in the barn. I’ve secured and re-secured things around the property in anticipation of the storm, but I’m kidding myself by saying I did this because of the weather. I did this to avoid confronting my actual feelings for Ariana.
My analytical brain tells me I fucked up. I can’t be messing around with an employee. Not that Windsor Family Farm has any sort of employee handbook, but I don’t like the idea that there would be any chance she would feel pressured to be with me. I have a feeling that’s not the case, but it’s certainly a concern I’m having as I try to work hard enough that my brain goes blank.
The rain is coming down in sheets now. I barely feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. I pull it out and answer it when I see it’s Kingsley.
“Hey, just checking up on you. Do you need me out there?” he asks.
“Nope. I just fed all the animals again and secured them in their pens and stalls. Everything is as ready as it can be. Stay put. Is your mom home?” I ask. Kingsley still lives at home with his mother and commutes to a local university for classes. His parents divorced after Tori died. Both his mom and I tried to get him to live on campus, but he refused.
“Yep. She’s working a double shift at the end of the week,” he says and I can hear their dog barking in the background.
“Everything OK over there?”
He laughs. “Yes, the lights just flickered is all. How’s Ariana?” Apparently, word travels fast in our small town because all my staff had already checked in on Ariana throughout the weekend and then again this morning when I made the call to close the farm for the day.
“She’s fine. I’m having her wait out the storm up in the house, but she’s on the mend,” I state as I check the barn door latch for the tenth time.
“Good. Take care of her. Eric?”
“Yeah, bud?”
“It’s OK to move on, you know. Ariana is great. I’d ask her out myself, but I see how she looks at you.” He pauses and I sigh.
“Not gonna happen,” I white lie because it nearly fucking did this morning.
“Why not?” he asks.
“Kingsley, just…let it go,” I say, sounding harsher than I intended. “Listen…I know you mean well. And I appreciate that. Maybe, someday, I’ll feel differently about things. But I’m not there yet. OK?”
“Just know, she’d approve of Ariana, and she’d want you to be happy. I mean come on, it’s not every day a beautiful, smart, talented woman lands in your lap out of seemingly nowhere. And don’t think we all haven’t seen you watching her too. I might be young, Eric, but I’m not blind,” he says with a laugh.
“Smart-ass. Go be useful and make your mom some dinner or something. I’ll see you tomorrow. I just sent a message. We’re going to open around one. Be here at ten. We’ll check the damage then,” I say.
“Aye, aye, captain,” he teases.
With a shake of my head, I disconnect and decide to do one more walk around the property. My phone rings again. This time, it’s an old friend of mine, Adam Wellington. Growing up in Storyview Falls, I was friends with a few kids whose parents were billionaires. Why a handful of billionaire families decided to make this small coastal town their home, I have no idea. It seems completely by happenstance. Or perhaps the town is like a siren to rich families. We’ve had a lot of crazy theories over the years, crazier ones as kids of course.
“Hey,” I answer as I shore up a loose rope on an outside pen that I missed.
“You outside in this weather?” he asks with a laugh.
“Yes, asshat. I have to get animals sorted before it gets worse,” I explain. Adam never lifted a finger aside from working out. He and our other friends weren’t as hands-on with their properties. But then again, my parents were different. They weren’t old money. And my dad specifically moved here to be a farmer, a billionaire farmer, but a farmer nonetheless. I don’t know if it was in my blood because of that or if I just took a natural liking to it growing up here, but either way, I love working on my farm. I’d hate to give it up. But I also know that I need to think with my business brain and not my heart. The last time I thought with my heart, it got shattered into a million pieces and never quite worked the same again.
“Be careful.” He pauses and I know he has more to say.
“What is it?”
“I hear you have a new employee,” he says.
“Yep,” I reply, wondering why everyone seems to be calling about her today. Did word get to Isa about her fall? What the hell? This is like small-town life at its absolute worst. Everyone knows everything about everyone.
“Isa says she’s gorgeous,” Adam states as if this is a normal conversation. He and I haven’t spoken about girls since we were boys. We certainly don’t talk about women, and he sure as fuck hasn’t mentioned a single one to me since Tori died.
“So you’re calling me, in the middle of a fucking storm, to mention that you heard that my new employee is attractive? Did I get that right?” I growl.
“Yep, he totally likes her,” Adam calls out.
“What the fuck?” I snarl.
“Isa says that you should go for it. That…hold on…” He trails off.
“Eric? This is Isa. Elisha and I think that you should ask Ariana out, like out, out. And that you two would make an amazing couple. I mean, seriously we do not just get awesome new women in town like that. Just consider it, OK?” she says and then there’s silence again.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t really have a choice. It was either listen all night to Isa scheming to matchmake you two, or just call you and let her say her piece,” he explains.
I groan and run a hand through my now wet hair. “OK, well, message received,” I state dryly.
“Great. Well, I…uh, should let you go. We should get drinks soon,” he says. I know Isa wrangled him into calling and he feels bad about it.
“Yeah. Definitely. I’ll talk to you later,” I reply and hang up. I hold my phone out and look around. “Anyone else?” I look up at the sky. “Tori, you trying to freaking send me a message here or something?”
No sooner have the words left my mouth when I hear a sound from inside the barn. Meowing? I go back into the barn, searching for Pricilla.
“Pricilla?” I call out. I look in a few of her usual spots but don’t find her. I hear another meow and look under an old table where there’s a thick pile of hay that needs to be swept.
“Holy shit,” I mutter as I stare at five little kittens nursing on Pricilla.
“Well done, momma,” I say as I stroke her head. She purrs and meows again as if to introduce me to her children. I look around. They are probably safe here, but I’d prefer they come inside. I grab a small wooden crate and start packing it up with some old towels I find in a cupboard by the back door of the barn. When I feel it’s adequate, I look down at Pricilla and point to the crate. “We need to move the babies in here,” I state as if she’ll understand.
I start picking them up one by one. She gives me a loud meow at first but then realizes the crate is warmer and more comfortable. She curls up inside it and the kittens go back to nursing, except for one dark gray kitten. The runt? Shit. Just what I need.
I pick up the crate and toss a towel over the top of it. I lock the barn door as we leave, and I bring them into the office.
Peeling back the towel on top, I see the gray kitten is still struggling alongside its siblings. “You lot are terrible brothers and sisters,” I grumble as I start thinking of what to do. I have some formula we’ve used for other hand-raised animals recently. And this isn’t my first rodeo with kittens. I leave the kitten with the others while I quickly shower and get some things prepared.
I’m going to need Ariana’s help with this. I pick up the kitten and it curls against me.
“Tori, if this is some weird-ass message, I swear to God, just don’t fuck this up. Don’t let me fuck this up, OK?” I say toward the kitten.
It raises its head at me, which I take as a sign of some kind because this thing looks hours old and can’t see yet.
I wrap it in a towel that I’ve heated in the microwave. It snuggles down and I pat the syringe I got ready with the formula. Then, I go to my bedroom and get it ready. Just in case, I tell myself.
I have no idea what I’m doing, but me and this kitten are about to go see Ariana. This could be a great idea, or my worst idea ever. Fuck it. I’m about to use this little creature as my excuse to spend time with the woman that I’ve spent the last few weeks falling for. I can’t send her away. And I can’t resist her any longer. I just hope I don’t fuck it all up.