Chapter 40
“ U ncle Brannon.”
Brandon tilted his head toward his nephew, but he didn’t open his eyes. He wasn’t exactly listening to Pastor Knowlton either, but it did feel good to be in church today. He believed God loved him. He believed if he kept doing good things, he’d eventually get his heart’s desires.
“Daddy, Uncle Brannon’s asleep.”
“He’s not asleep,” Dawson whispered. “Brandon.”
Brandon’s irritation flashed through him, but Dawson had been extraordinarily kind to him since learning of his breakup with Lenore. Brandon would be spending the rest of the day with them, hopefully snuggling with his new nephew and napping before he had to return to the homestead.
“Brandon.”
“What?” Brandon opened his eyes and looked at his brother, the urgency in his whisper landing in Brandon’s ears a moment too late.
Dawson gestured with his cowboy hat toward the end of the pew. Brandon turned that way just as a woman walked by, looking left and right. She moved down a couple of rows, paused, and then turned around and looked back the way she’d come.
Brandon sucked in a breath. “Lenore,” came right out of his mouth.
Her eyes locked onto his. She hurried back up the aisle and moved to sit down next to him. Only there wasn’t any room to sit down next to him, so Brandon quickly swiped Colt up off the bench and onto his knee, so he could scoot into the foot of space the boy had occupied.
The moment Lenore sat down, pure anxiety radiated from her expression, from every pore of her body. She wore a dirty pair of blue jeans, her work boots, and a sweatshirt with an abstract camping tent on the front.
Brandon’s pulse spiked just being this close to her. He blinked, just to make sure what his eyes had seen was real. She sure seemed to be there. Brandon reached out and put two fingers on her knee and pressed. She felt real.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Lenore kept her eyes on the pastor up front. “I had to see you,” she whispered.
“Why? Is there something going on at the homestead?”
Dawson reached for Colt, and Brandon let him take his son without even looking at his brother.
Lenore shook her head. “No. Everything is fine at the homestead. Kind of. Not really.”
“What does that mean?” Brandon asked.
“I don’t know, okay?” Lenore’s hands went round and round each other.
He simply wanted her to stop. Look at him. Tell him the truth.
“It’s me that’s the problem,” she finally whispered. “I’m a huge mess.”
“Maybe you two should go outside to talk,” Dawson whispered as he leaned toward Brandon. “Otherwise, I think Mrs. Rutherford is going to have a stroke.”
Brandon looked at the older woman in front of them. She did glance over her shoulder at Dawson. He flashed her a tight smile and then gave Brandon a pointed look.
Brandon stood, but Lenore did not. That caused another little scuffle until she realized what was happening and got to her feet too. Then she practically ran out of the chapel.
But Brandon took a moment to collect his leather jacket before he followed. He made it into the foyer just as Lenore burst out of the front door at a full run.
Confusion filled him. He wasn’t sure if she really wanted to talk to him or not. But he certainly couldn’t go back inside now. He followed her outside and found her at the bottom of the steps, just standing there, staring straight ahead.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he went down the steps. “Do I need to take you to the hospital or something?”
“No.” She faced him, and she pure unhappiness in her eyes. She swallowed and blinked rapidly in that adorable way she had.
Brandon stayed quiet. She’d shown up at church to talk to him, so he’d let her do the talking.
“I hate my life without you,” she said. The words came out almost like a punch and sent him back a step. “I hate the homestead without us working together on it. I hate that I got mad, and said mean things, and made awful assumptions, and pushed you away. I’m really sorry about all of it.”
She threw her hands up and then let them flap back to her sides. “The well is wonderful. I needed it. And not next month, or in the summer when I could finally afford it. But you were right, okay? I needed it last week. Heck, I probably needed it last month. Or last summer.
“And maybe I’m not the most trusting person, but I’ve always trusted you, Brandon. I know you’re not trying to take the homestead from me. I know it. But sometimes, I’m a little irrational. I promise I’m going work on that.
“But I can’t do it without you.” She reached up and swiped at her eyes. “I know we can’t go back to what we were before. But I believe that we can build something better, and I don’t want you to leave the homestead next week.”
Brandon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She had said so much in so few words, and his brain couldn’t latch on to everything fast enough.
Thankfully, his heart could.
“So please,” Lenore said. “Tell me I haven’t messed up too badly, and that you’ll give me another chance. Because I think we deserve one. You said I’m the one who always thinks long-term, and I think about all?—”
Brandon held up one hand. “Can you just stop?” He took the two steps to Lenore and wrapped her in his arms. “Lenny, do you seriously think I need to give you another chance?”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Yes. I’m sorry. Please come home.”
Home.
Brandon gazed at her, truly marveling at the strength and goodness of this woman.
“But I don’t want you to come just to work.
I want you to come as if it’s your home .
” She ran her hands up his chest and took his face in her hands.
“Because it is. I was going to say…when I look into the future a year from now, I’m walking out of my bedroom wearing a new dress, and you’re there. We’re together. That’s what I want.”
She nodded one time, and all the happiness in the world filled Brandon.
“It’s what I want too, Lenny.” He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry I overstepped.”
“Maybe you did, and maybe you didn’t,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter. You were right. I wanted to do things a different way, but it wouldn’t have worked without the well.”
Brandon smoothed his hands over her hair, taking her ponytail in his fingers. “We’ll talk about everything,” he said. “I promise I won’t do things without asking you.”
Lenore nodded enthusiastically and offered him a small smile. “I’m in love with you,” she said. “And I want us to build our life together on the homestead.”
Brandon’s vision went white. “You’re in love with me?”
“Yes,” Lenny said, her voice breaking. “And I’m really scared that I’m the only one who feels this way. But my momma told me that I can be brave, strong, and smart. So I had to come. I had to tell you right away.”
“You’re not—” Brandon started, then stopped when Lenny blinked. “I mean, you are. You’re all of those things,” he said quickly. “You’re the bravest woman I know. And the strongest person ever. And smarter than everyone.”
He grinned at her. “What I meant was—you’re not the only one who feels that way. I’m in love with you too.”
Lenny broke down crying then, and she buried her face in his chest. Brandon drew her closer and held her tight. “I love you, Lenore,” he whispered in her ear. “I want to do anything and everything to make you happy.”
He swayed with her right there on the sidewalk. “I am an absolutely pathetic man without you,” he said, pulling back slightly. “If you’ll give me a second chance, I promise to take care of you and make you happy.”
She lifted her head and nodded.
He wiped her tears, smiling. “So no more crying, okay? At least not over this. Unless they’re happy tears.”
She nodded, a genuine smile coming to her face, brightening her and making her the most glorious woman Brandon had ever laid eyes on.
“You know what we need?” he asked.
“What?” Lenny leaned into his chest.
“Something really sweet from the bakery, and a huge pasta feast.” He released her and fell back, taking her hand in his. “And I know where to get both.” He led her off the sidewalk and toward his truck.
“You don’t want to go back to church?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “I want to take you back to the homestead and lie with you on your couch. I want to talk about everything that happened in the past couple of weeks and brainstorm through all the amazing things we’re going to do on the homestead together.”
He glanced over at her, all of his words and feelings suddenly in the exact right order.
“I want to breathe in the scent of your shampoo, and I want kiss you just to make sure this is real. I want to talk about having a family together, and I want to move my food back into your fridge, and I want to find out when you want to get married.”
Lenore blinked again, and Brandon chuckled. “Too much?”
“No,” she said. “I want to have all those conversations too. I’m just not really good at them.”
“Not yet,” Brandon said. “But only a few weeks ago, you couldn’t cut down a tree either. And now you swing a chainsaw around like a champ.”
Lenny laughed, filling the world with light and air, and Brandon wanted to bask in it for the rest of his life.
He helped her into the passenger seat of his truck and then got behind the wheel, just as Lenny asked, “What about my truck?”
“Oh.” Brandon came to a full stop. All of his plans for the rest of the day evaporated. “New plan.” His mind worked quickly. “I’m going to get us lunch and baked goods—so many that we’ll be sick for days. I’ll meet you back at the homestead in a couple of hours. Deal?”
Lenny leaned across the console. “I don’t think so, Mister Rhinehart,” she said. “You’re missing one thing.”
Shock moved through him, puncturing the hope that had been growing and growing. “I am?” he asked. “What am I missing?”
“You haven’t kissed me yet,” she said, grinning at him. “So first, you’re going to kiss me. Then you’re going to drive me to my truck, which is way down the street. And then you’ll get us lunch and as many sweet treats as possible. Then we’ll meet back at our homestead in a couple of hours.”
Brandon studied her, falling more and more and more in love with her as her words sank into his soul.
“ Our homestead,” he repeated, just before he slid his hand along her jaw and matched his mouth to hers.
Kissing Lenore Sawyer knocked his world off its axis every time he did it, but no kiss had been as powerful as this one.
For he was kissing the woman he loved—and the woman who loved him.