Chapter 15
In the chaos of taking Mia yesterday, I’d forgotten to ask James if I could use his truck after work.
I shot off a text to him before getting started at the bakery, and it wasn’t until I pressed send that I realized it was three in the morning.
Hopefully, he put his phone in Do Not Disturb mode at night.
When Mrs. Keller had mentioned Morgan coming into town, she’d made it sound like she and Morgan would be taking about half of the morning shifts during the week and half of the later shifts so Morgan could get a solid sense of the tasks required at different times of day.
In practice, Morgan wasn’t much of a morning person, so I was taking more of them.
Even though sleeping in was nice, I liked that I’d be done with work earlier in the day because I had big plans for the afternoon.
Beyond picking up the furniture from Bennett, I planned to spend it baking more maple blondies—trying a couple of alterations to see if I couldn’t make them stand out a bit—and then talking to May about packaging and branding.
I felt a bit like a chicken running around with my head cut off, but I was also enjoying the feeling of having a project that was my own.
Not fully my own, of course, because I was doing it for the maple farm, but May and James weren’t micromanaging me at all, and that was a novelty.
I slipped a hairnet over my hair as my phone buzzed, making me jump. I was used to silence in these early mornings.
James
Of course. I’ll have it ready for you
Do you need help with anything?
I gave a small sigh at the second message. James was more thoughtful than your average guy, which was why I had such a hard time reconciling the two version of James: the one I’d been spending time with and the one who’d kissed Lily behind my brother’s back.
The last eight years had taught him a lot, apparently.
Not that that seemed to matter to Ryan. Or maybe he just refused to believe it.
He thought I was falling for an act.
Maybe I was. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
It didn’t seem like a probability, though.
Sadie
The truck IS the help :)
When I pulled up the road to the farm, the sight of the Carvers’ red house set against the backdrop of acres and acres of autumn-kissed maples sent a quiver of pleasure through me. The truck door was open, and James was bent over, leaning inside.
Was he cleaning it?
I was only taking it into town for fifteen or twenty minutes.
At the sound of my car, he emerged and looked at me.
I smiled as I pulled my car in next to the truck, and he shut the door.
“Thank you so much,” I said as I got out. “My car is way too small to fit the stuff.”
“What stuff is it?”
“A stand for the Harvest Festival and a couple of product displays.”
His dark brows contracted. “Don’t you need help loading that?”
“You and Mia…” I shook my head disapprovingly. “I’m stronger than I look.” I wasn’t actually sure that was true, but whatever.
James smiled. That was getting more common, but instead of getting used to it, it seemed to be affecting me more the more often it happened.
Was that normal? It didn’t feel normal.
“I believe it,” he said. “But loading furniture is always easier with someone else.”
The fact that I wanted to accept his offer was exactly why I knew I shouldn’t. “I’m sure Bennett will help me.”
“I’m sure he will.” He held the keys out. “She’s all yours.”
I took them with a grateful smile. “Thanks again. I won’t be long.”
He opened the door and stood aside. I got a whiff of his cologne as I climbed in. As the youngest girl with two brothers, I’d smelled my fair share of cologne in my time, including the phase both my brothers had gone through in high school before they’d learned that less is more.
James’s cologne was different than anything I’d smelled, though. It was subtle. Subtle enough that I felt the urge to lean into it.
He waited until I was in, then shut the door.
I waved through the window, and he waved back, then turned and walked toward the house.
I slipped the key in the ignition and turned it.
It clicked.
I frowned, then turned it again.
Another click.
James paused in his progress toward the house, pivoting to look at me.
I waved to reassure him everything was fine. I did know how to start a car. My brother Ryan’s truck required pressing the brake pedal in order to turn the key.
I did that, but again, it clicked.
James walked back toward me, and I looked around frantically to figure out what I might be doing wrong. It wouldn’t just die right as I needed it, right? The universe wasn’t that cruel.
That’s when I noticed it: the third pedal.
I glanced at the gear shift just as James reached the truck and opened the door.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yep,” I said in my most chipper voice.
He looked at me squarely, his eyes narrowed in slight skepticism. “Is the clutch giving you trouble?”
“No,” I reassured him. “I just…didn’t realize the truck was manual.”
His gaze rested on me.
“It’s not too tough, is it?” I asked doubtfully.
“What?”
“Driving stick.”
His eyes sparkled with amusement. “Once you know how to do it, it’s easy.”
“And if I don’t know how to do it?”
“You’ll have an adventure driving into town.” He jerked his head to the side. “Scoot over. I’ll drive you.”
“I’m sure you’ve got better things to do. I can just…” I was about to say I could use Ryan’s truck, but I wasn’t sure that was the best idea—asking to borrow it to help James.
“I’m happy to do it.” James slipped onto the edge of the seat so I had no choice but to shift across to the passenger side.
He’d turned on the truck before he’d even finished moving into the seat.
Show off.
He slung his arm across the seat back, his fingers nearly touching me, as the car reversed.
My neck tingled, and a cascade of goosebumps made my upper body shiver.
James’s brows pulled together. “Are you cold?”
“No.” I realized, though, that being cold was a much easier explanation for my shivers than the real one. “Maybe a little. I’m fine, though.”
James turned the heat on low.
I smiled slightly.
“What?” He shot a quick, curious glance at me as we started down the drive.
I shook my head. “Nothing.” Before he could reask the question, I changed the subject. “You’ve officially surpassed me as Mia’s favorite person, you know.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“You shouldn’t. She brought Mr. James up at least six times yesterday. In her mind, you’re singlehandedly protecting Autumn Ridge from the fleet of bears and moose and tigers threatening us.”
His smile grew. “Tigers, huh?”
“Especially tigers. She’s preoccupied with them and is convinced they’re on the path to world domination. She’s also under the impression that you sleep outside every night here.”
“Well, not every night.”
I laughed, glancing at him. My smile wavered.
He was serious.
“Wait, really?” I asked.
He looked both ways down the main road, then turned. “I’ve only done it a few times since coming back. I don’t like to leave Mama alone in the house at night. She tends to do too much if I don’t enforce a strict bedtime.”
My mind was taken up with the idea of James sleeping in the woods. I could picture him, lying on his back, head resting on his interlaced fingers as he stared up at the trees above.
“Mia’s right. You are way cooler than I am.”
“Because I sleep outside sometimes?”
“Not just that. You’ve gone exciting places, and I’m sure you’ve had all sorts of adventures, while I…
” I looked out the window to the buildings that had started appearing as we arrived in town.
“I’ve been here,” I murmured. It sounded so morose that I felt the need to follow it up with something lighter. “I don’t even know how to drive stick.”
“I can teach you.” He put on his hazard lights, then rested his arm on the back of the seat again to back up into a parking place in front of Dust & Timber. “Do you want to leave Autumn Ridge?”
“Yeah. No. Maybe? I don’t know. I love it here. I just feel like I haven’t done anything since high school.” I smiled. “Not even sleep in the woods. This whole project with you and your mom is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in years.”
He put on the emergency brake and looked at me.
That was the thing about James. When he looked at me, he really looked at me.
“I envy you,” he said.
My brows shot up. “Me?”
What in the world was there to envy about me—especially from someone like James Carver?
He held my gaze, then his focus shifted to the rearview mirror. “There’s Bennett.”
Wishing Bennett would’ve waited just one more minute, I opened the door and got out.
Bennett was tall and athletic, with dark brown hair and hands that spoke to his profession as a carpenter. He looked at me, then at James, his brows up. “A Stevenson and a Carver. That’s a nostalgic sight right there.” He put out his hand, and James took it.
My shoulders lowered with relief. Maybe Ryan’s lingering grudge had given me a distorted idea of how people viewed James in Autumn Ridge.
Or maybe Bennett knew from experience how hurtful town gossip could be.
He’d married someone from Autumn Ridge, but his marriage to Maven hadn’t lasted.
It was a shame—I liked both of them a lot.
“Hey, Sadie,” Bennett said with a smile. “Good to see you again. Come on back. I’ve got everything ready for you to take.”
I’d been right that Bennett would happily help load the stand and the two larger displays, and with James there too, I was left with nothing to do but carry one small display and supervise their capable efforts.
Once things were loaded and strapped down, I thanked Bennett, who came to open my door.
James beat him to it, though, and the way Bennett smiled slightly—like James was showing some sort of possessiveness—had me blushing to my roots.
When we got back to the farm ten minutes later, James drove the truck all the way down to the sugar shack, where we unloaded.
“You baking?” he asked.
“Not quite yet. I was hoping to talk to your mom about packaging options, actually. Do you know if she’s available?”