Chapter Twenty-Two
Today was a glorious day. Neil stretched toward the sun, wiping his sweat from his forehead.
Then he grabbed his canteen and drank a hearty gulp of water.
He and Paul had worked the fence line all morning.
All the new spring foals needed a safe and secure enclosure so they couldn’t get out and predators wouldn’t get in so easily.
“Is that Poppy?” Paul asked next to him. Neil handed him the canteen to have a drink as well before he shielded his eyes with the rim of his Stetson to look further ahead.
“It is,” Neil said, and he was instantly worried that something bad may have happened. Poppy seemed to be in a great hurry to get to them. So much so that she was carrying Sophie on her back instead of walking with her like she normally did.
“Neil!” she called out to him, and her voice sounded alarmed. He dropped the tool he had been working with on the ground and walked toward her. Something was clearly amiss.
“What’s the matter?” he called out to her, his strides quickly taking on a jogging pace. “Is everything all right?”
Even before he reached his wife, he could see that Poppy was clearly shaken. When she finally got to him, she needed a minute to catch her breath.
“What’s the matter?” he asked again, holding her shoulders so she wouldn’t collapse right there in front of him. “You’re worrying me. What happened?” he asked, gently brushing the strands from her face. Her wide eyes seemed to search his face.
“Lucy is here!” Poppy finally said in between bursts of air.
His head jerked back. Hearing that name felt like a slap in the face.
“What? Where?” he asked, bewildered. Poppy was still catching her breath. “Tell me! What does she want?”
“Talk,” Poppy said. “She’s on the porch.” Neil looked back toward the house. A shudder shook his entire body when he heard that.
“Why? What does she want to talk about?” he couldn’t even fathom the idea of Lucy being here on his property after all those years.
“I don’t know,” Poppy gasped. “She was crying, and she said that she needed to talk to you. I didn’t know what to do, so I told her to wait on the porch.”
Poppy was obviously distressed, even though she tried to appear almost casual. Neil didn’t miss the way she looked at him. Her gaze was watching him carefully. Maybe she tried to gauge his reaction, which would be understandable, given the situation.
“Are you all right?” he asked Poppy. He didn’t want her to be uncomfortable. Poppy’s hands were shaking, but she clearly tried to put on a brave face.
“Yes,” she said, quietly. “Go talk to her. She was upset, I think.”
Neil groaned. He didn’t like the fact that Lucy had just come to his home unannounced, demanding to talk to him. They had nothing to talk about. What did that woman want from him? Hadn’t she hurt him enough?
“It’s okay,” he said to Poppy. He didn’t really know how to comfort her in this situation.
“I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.” He cupped her cheek with the palm of his hand to reassure her.
“Maybe you can take Sophie to the barn and show her the newborn foals. I’m sure she’ll like that. ” He smiled warmly at both of them.
Then he walked over to his horse, climbed into the saddle, and rode as fast as he could back to the house. If anything, he wanted this to be over as quickly as possible.
By the time he rode around to the front, the porch was empty. There was nobody, but the fancy buggy Lucy had traveled here with was still there.
Neil ground his teeth and jumped off his horse. Taking two steps at a time, he ran up to the porch and straight toward the front door, which was cracked open.
“Lucy!” he called as he rushed inside. “Lucy!”
He found her in the living room.
“It’s unchanged. It’s almost as if I had never left,” she chirped as she twirled around to him with a bright smile.
“What are you doing in my house?” Neil asked angrily. “What makes you think you can just walk in here as if you own the place?” His nostrils flared, and he had to take a couple of deep breaths to calm himself.
Lucy’s face fell. Then she looked deeply upset.
“I’m so very sorry!” she suddenly exclaimed.
She rushed toward him, the fabric of her red dress rustling as she moved.
Then her gloved hands grabbed his forearm, and she clung to him as if her life depended on it.
“My heart broke when I saw you at the horse auction! It hurt so much to see you again!” Her pleading eyes looked up at him.
Neil’s body stiffened.
“I should have never left you for Finn!” she whined, which shocked Neil. “I’m so very sorry for all the things I’ve done to you! I’ve never stopped loving you, Neil! Please forgive me! Please tell me that you’ll forgive me, Neil. I can’t carry this pain of leaving you anymore. I’m so very sorry.”
Seeing her this close and in his house stirred up a lot of buried memories, and Neil struggled to hold back the sudden whirlwind of emotions.
Not all of them were bad. His head warred with his heart, and he was overwhelmed with feelings of lost love, disappointment, and utter confusion of his abandonment.
They had planned a shared future in this house.
They had spent a lot of time together, talking about family, children, and what their married life would look like...
He couldn’t deny that she looked as pretty as ever in her elegant dress, but he also knew her too well and that there was no true love in those pleading eyes.
Despite all that, his heart beat faster when he looked at her.
“We were so good together, Neil!” Lucy continued, and much to his surprise, her eyes seemed to tear up a bit. She tried to press her body against his arm, but that made him feel uncomfortable. This wasn’t right.
“Take me back, Neil!” she exclaimed, which completely threw him for a loop.
“I miss you! I miss us! I can’t be without you!
” She sobbed as she pressed her eyes shut.
Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes.
“Please take me back. I’ll be good this time.
I promise you that I’ll be the best wife you ever dreamed of! Come back to me, Neil!”
Wife.
Poppy.
Realization hit like a lightning bolt, and his feelings of abandonment and confusion evaporated as quickly as they had appeared.
They were instantly replaced by feelings of certainty, reassurance, and belonging.
He was no longer abandoned. He was no longer confused.
In fact, he had never felt more certain about where his heart belonged.
Who his heart belonged to.
Suddenly, the tension in his body dissipated, and he relaxed completely. He couldn’t believe how euphoric it felt to feel such a deep love. It was almost intoxicating.
He realized something else. He had never felt anything like that for Lucy.
But he did for Poppy.
Neil looked down at Lucy and straight into her eyes. His entire perception of her shifted to something much less powerful, and in that moment, he didn’t feel anything other than pity toward her. It utterly surprised him. Suddenly, she held no more power over him.
He released her ironclad grip from his arm and finally took a step backward.
“I have a wife,” he said calmly. His face broke out in a soft smile.
“What? No!” Lucy exclaimed with a horrified expression. She seemed shocked.
It didn’t last very long. In typical Lucy fashion, she recovered quickly.
“But do you love her?” she asked, stepping closer again and looking up at him with beguiling eyes—something that used to be her most successful weapon. Neil felt reassured when that enticing gaze did nothing to him. Instead, he pictured Poppy’s lovely face, and it filled him with true elation.
“Very much,” he replied without hesitation. “I love her with all my heart.”
Lucy gasped.
Neil could honestly say that this was the first time he had ever seen her rattled. For a short moment, she seemed completely out of her depth, which had never happened before. Lucy cleared her throat. When she looked at him again, she smiled sadly.
“Can we at least let bygones be bygones?” she asked in a meek tone Neil hadn’t heard before.
“I meant it when I said that I miss you. I shouldn’t have let you go.
I know we could have been happy now. But I made a mistake, and now I am paying for it.
” Neil didn’t react. He didn’t need to. “I’m happy for your marriage,” she said, swallowing hard, “and I would like to at least be friends.”
Neil sighed. He couldn’t see a true friendship between them. It wasn’t because of what she had done. It was because he was loyal to his wife.
A lot of water had flown down the river since then, and at some point, it had washed away his hatred.
He didn’t want to give Lucy any power in his life anymore.
He was about to tell her that it wasn’t a good idea, that they should go their separate ways, when rather unexpectedly, the pastor’s message popped into Neil’s head.
Love thy neighbor.
Poppy would agree with that.
So he decided to do something he never thought he would. He nodded.
“I wish you nothing but happiness, Lucy,” Neil said confidently. Poppy had changed him. For the better.