Chapter 3
SHELBY
The rain was back. It had started again right after Carter Allory left my farm, and I was starting to think he had brought the bad weather with him. I needed to drive into town today, but I was dreading it.
My sweet little hens needed food to keep popping out eggs and that meant a trip to the feed store. I used to love going there when I was younger. The store seemed to sell a bit of everything. But now, it was where I got the most dirty looks. Even the occasional comment.
Their anger was misplaced, but they didn’t care.
Some of these men needed a punching bag, and I was it.
I had tried to be cordial in the past, but I gave up after it became clear that there was no talking sense to some folks.
You couldn’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into in the first place. Emotions didn’t follow logic.
Which was why, no matter how much I told myself their opinions didn’t matter, my feelings still got hurt when they were mean to me.
As I got dressed in clothes that weren’t filthy from work, I consoled myself with the fact that I had some friends in town, like Dora Lynn and Lila, who was my actual best friend. We’d known each other since we were little, and now she was married to Jake, who ran the feed store I was going to.
The drive was peaceful. The rain was a steady patter instead of a deluge, more soothing than stressful. The closer I got to Ferris, though, the more armor I piled up around me, just in case.
Objectively, I understood it was ridiculous that I was a grown woman worried about getting bullied at the store, but that was small town living. It was great when you were a part of the community, but once you were the town asshole, there was no shaking that reputation.
I parked at the feed store and got out, pulling my raincoat tight around me. The hat would have come in handy, but that was just another thing the fucking Allory family had stolen from me. I could add it to the list, along with my family name and our farm.
The parking lot had a lot of trucks in it, and my heart sank. I recognized the vehicles of a few of my least favorite people. Oh well. I wasn’t going to run away from them.
Jake waved hello to me when I walked in. “How goes it?”
“It goes well,” I told him. “The ladies need food, though.”
“Again?” he asked with a smile.
“What can I say? Everyone on my farm likes to eat.” I grabbed a bag of jerky from a display by the counter. “Speaking of which, throw this in too, please. This one’s for mama bird.”
“That’s what I like to see. We need to enjoy little treats sometimes. It makes life worth living.” He rang up my order on the terminal in front of him.
I glanced around the empty aisles. “Where is everyone? Not that I’m complaining, but the lot is full and I haven’t gotten a single dirty look since I’ve been in here.”
“Oh, everyone’s gathered in the back, by the checkerboards.” Jake chuckled and shook his head. “There’s some dude from the big city here, and these goofs are acting like he’s the king of Kentucky.”
My stomach knotted. I didn’t like jumping to conclusions, but I only knew of one big city shithead in town. Then I heard Carter’s polished laugh, confirming it.
I peeked down one of the aisles to find him at the other end of the store, talking to a pig farmer from up north. Did these people not know who Carter was? Or did they not care? Was their anger only for my parents for selling out, not for the company that had cut the jobs and benefits?
I clenched my jaw and tried not to scream. Emotions don’t follow logic, I reminded myself again. And people are fucking morons.
Carter looked in my direction and our eyes locked. I couldn’t look away, even though I was physically trying to drag my gaze somewhere else. Anywhere else.
How could someone so hot be so rotten inside? In slacks and a form-fitting white button-down shirt, he looked like he was running for mayor, and people were treating him that way too. Were people so easily charmed by an expensive haircut and a dazzling smile?
Because he was charming the hell out of me despite his family being responsible for destroying my life.
Carter looked at me like he liked what he saw, and while it was flattering, it also felt like the universe was playing a joke on me. The hottest man I had ever seen walk into this town was also a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A damn sexy wolf I wouldn’t mind howling with under a full moon.
Conflicting emotions warred inside me, and all I could think to do was shut it all down.
I forced my feet to take me back to the register, where Jake rang up my order and I paid.
Now I just had to swing the van around back to load the feed, and I could retreat back to my farm, away from all these judgments and complications.
Life was much simpler with just me and my hens, not giving a cluck about anything.
I headed outside at a brisk pace, eager to get away. I heard the heavy footsteps of someone hurrying to catch up to me. Carter caught me just before I could get into my van.
“Hey, wait,” he said. “I come in peace. Don’t shoot.”
With no other choice, I turned to face him. “What do you want from me, Carter Allory?”
He flinched when I used his full name, which made sense because I said “Allory” like a curse word. I hated him and his entire family.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” he said, flashing me the same fake smile he’d been shooting at the farmers inside. Unlike them, it wouldn’t work on me. I had seen his genuine smile before, and this wasn’t it.
“You already bought my family farm,” I said. “What else could you want from me? The shoes off my feet and the shirt off my back?”
He glanced down at my chest, and I crossed my arms and turned away from him.
“Wait, I wasn’t involved with your parents’ farm,” he said. “I had no idea until Mrs. Presley told me.”
“So you’re not out here to swindle more families out of their farms? To steal jobs from people?”
“No, although our company did send me out here to look into a couple operations that might fit well into—”
“So nothing’s changed,” I said, swinging the van door open and jumping in.
“I’m here to make peace,” he said, almost seeming like he meant it.
“Great,” I told him. “Can you give me back my family’s farm? Then maybe I can consider peace.”
“Honestly, if I had that power, I would. Just so you’ll stop busting my balls.”
I scoffed. “Oh, I’ve been going easy on you. Now go on, git! I need to pick up my feed around back.”
He backed up enough for me to slam my door with a satisfying crash. I watched him get small in my rearview mirror as I turned to go around the building. Jake was standing out back by the open loading dock door, the bags of feed already stacked neatly beside him.
I backed up the van and got out, ready to get this over with. When I looked up, Carter was there again.
“Let me help you load that,” he said, acting as if I hadn’t just yelled at him. Either he had an evil twin or the memory of a goldfish. He didn’t know when to give up.
“I’ve got it,” I said gruffly.
Jake looked between me and Carter, a smile on his face I didn’t like one bit. “Do you two know each other?”
“No,” I said, while Carter said, “Yes,” at the same time.
I shook my head. “We met briefly.”
“What?” Carter laughed. “She’s being modest. She saved me when I was stranded on the side of the road the other day in that monsoon. She drove me to Mrs. Presley’s B & B. I’m just trying to repay the favor a little.”
“There’s no settling the debt your family owes mine,” I said to him.
“What’s going on?” Jake asked.
“This is Carter Allory,” I told him. “His family bought my parents’ farm and then shut it down. You know, the whole reason everyone in this town hates me and my family? That’s what’s going on.”
“Oh shit,” Jake said. “Hey, mister, you should get out of here before some of these guys find out who you are. People in this town bear a grudge. I won’t be held liable for anything they do.”
“Please,” Carter said, holding up his hand to stop Jake from continuing. “My family’s company has made some mistakes, but I’m trying to fix them. I know that’s easier said than done, but I promise I’m not my father. I want to do this a better way.”
I rolled my eyes and waved at him dismissively. “Fine, load the bags in the van. But if you think that’s going to make me forgive you, you’re out of your mind.”
Carter nodded and hefted the first bag of feed like it weighed nothing. For someone who probably worked behind a desk, he had some muscles on him. I doubted he would last a day on the farm, but he could sling feed bags well enough.
“Stack them right,” I told him, being bossy on purpose because screw him, that’s why.
“They are stacked right.”
“They’re going to fall over once the van gets moving,” I said, not even sure I was correct but enjoying myself.
“I don’t know how else to stack them,” he said in exasperation, running a hand through his hair. Mussed up like that, he only looked sexier. It was fun to see some of his polished exterior crack a little. Hard work could do that to a person.
“You stack them right on top of one another straight, not leaning over to the side.” I shook my head. “If this is too difficult for you, I can get someone else to help.”
Carter shook his head and started rearranging the sacks in the back of the van, grunting and sweating. I liked watching him, muscles flexing under his expensive shirt, a smudge of dust on his cheek. He almost looked like a regular guy.
While he worked, I sidled over to Jake, and we watched the billionaire CEO wrestle with chicken feed.
“Looks like you made a friend,” Jake said quietly.
I snorted. “Billionaires don’t have friends. People are just assets or liabilities to them. Numbers on a spreadsheet.”
“Sure, but do you think he’s telling the truth, about trying to run his family company better than his father did?” Jake looked at me. “He seemed sincere to me.”
I patted Jake’s arm. “That’s because you see the good in people. As for me, I’m going to need a lot more from him before I believe a word out of his lying mouth.”
“Trust but verify,” he said, nodding.
“Exactly. Talk is cheap. Let’s see if he’ll put his money where his mouth is.”
With all the sacks stacked in the van, Carter dusted himself off and walked over to us. “Okay,” he said, breathing heavily. “It’s all loaded up. Now will you give me a chance to talk to you? Come to the bar and have a drink with me.”
I smirked and shook my head. “Sorry. You took too long loading the chicken feed. I have to go. Oh, and I don’t go to the bar in town.”
Jake chuckled and walked back inside the store. I got in my van, slammed the door in Carter’s face, and drove off before he could say another word.