Chapter 9
chapter
nine
Darren couldn’t believe what he’d just said. I fell in love with you.
“Once,” he added onto the end of his statement, a little too late. He shoved his hands back in his pockets so he wouldn’t sweep her into his arms and kiss her. Then she’d know he still loved her. “Let’s go to dinner.”
“All right.”
“You want to drive?”
“No.”
So Darren helped her into his truck, glad when she slid over and sat right next to him the way she used to do when she was his girlfriend. He wasn’t sure what else to say to her, so he asked her about what she’d done in the boutique today.
She talked, filling the cab of his truck with the sound of her pretty voice. As the outskirts of town came into view, Darren reached over and threaded his fingers through hers, bringing her wrist to his lips for a kiss.
Her tension wasn’t hard to detect, but she didn’t withdraw her hand or say anything.
“I started going out to the Bybees about a year ago,” he said.
“Right after Sam left. It was…difficult with him gone, and Logan was dating Layla, and….” He sighed, trying to put into words what Jim and Corey had become to him.
“They accepted me, just how I was. They didn’t care that I didn’t talk much, and Jim taught me to whittle, and Corey kept tryin’ to set me up with everyone she knew—at least until I met you.
” He drove slowly past the sports complex and the elementary school, both of which were vacant, at least for a few more weeks.
Then school would start, and fall sports, and the heat of the day would yield to winter temperatures.
“We went out a lot,” she said. “When did you go see them?”
“Whenever,” he said. “I don’t really remember. They, well, they’re almost like my parents now.” He swallowed as they arrived on Main Street. “What do you want to eat?”
“I don’t care.”
She never had. Farrah had always been easy-going about what they did when they were together—except for going out to Steeple Ridge. She’d made that proclamation on their first date, and though Darren had tried to change her mind several times, he’d never pressed her on it.
“Waffle house?” he asked, wishing he could cook so he had an excuse to go back to the farm and feed her there.
“Sure.”
He turned on Center and went down several blocks to the waffle house. He parked but didn’t get out. “I was afraid you were there to take them from me,” he said, real soft like he wasn’t sure he should give voice to the words.
Darren reached over and brushed an errant piece of her hair from her face. “You are so beautiful.”
Farrah turned and looked at him—right at him, without any of her usual walls in place. A smile started in the corners of her mouth and pulled until she was smiling a true smile. Darren ached from the beauty of it, from the sparkle in her aqua eyes to the straight, white teeth she possessed.
“I want to know everything about you.” He trailed his fingers across her bare shoulder, cataloguing the shiver that shook her back. “Not today. But whenever you feel like sharing.”
“Like what?” she asked, her voice full of air.
“Like why your last name is Irvine and your father’s name on the boarding paperwork is Paul Fletcher.”
He wanted to know that, wanted to know who was buried in the cemetery, wanted to know where she’d gone to college, wanted to know where she’d lived in California and if she’d made it onto any movies or TV shows.
He’d realized after she’d left last night that she’d told him a lot about her childhood, but almost nothing about the last twelve years of her life. And he wanted it all.
“You’re a really impatient man, you know that?” She glared at him, but the gaze didn’t hold much more than aggravation.
“I am?”
“Yes.” She folded her arms.
“Because I want to know who you are?” He opened his door and turned back to help her out of the truck.
“I just need more…time than most women.”
“All right.” They’d dated for eight months previously, and it seemed like all of his brothers had managed to fall in love and get engaged in that amount of time. But if Farrah needed to go slower, Darren could do that.
At least he thought he could. He held open the door for her, and as she slipped past, a dark look crossed her face. Darren regretted this whole conversation. He cleared his throat. “So Rambo learned a new trick this week.”
Confusion raced through her eyes, and then she softened. “Oh yeah? What was it?”
Darren detailed how he’d been teaching the dog to crawl, and how he’d finally gotten it. “Bacon,” Darren said. “Apparently that dog will do anything for bacon.”
“Smart dog,” Farrah said.
They got their waffles and the silence between them was as easy now as it had been back before their break up. Darren was grateful for that, grateful that Farrah let him hold her hand as they went back to his truck.
Thoughts of kissing her danced through his head, but he made a vow that he wouldn’t do it. Not yet. She still had things to tell him, and he didn’t want to be too impatient. Well, he did, but he didn’t want Farrah to think he was being too impatient.
Things were new between them too, as he’d learned more about her in the past few weeks than he’d known in the eight months they’d dated.
He pulled in beside her car and twisted to look at her. “Thanks for coming to dinner. I had a great time.”
She reached up and cradled his face in her palm. “Me too, Darren.”
“You are…wonderful,” he said, not wanting to venture into four-letter-L-word territory again.
That soft smile he loved touched her lips only moments before she skated them across his cheek. He closed his eyes in pure bliss and took in a deep drag of her scent. Woodsy and earthy, with a hint of maple from the waffles.
“Maybe we can do another cooking lesson tomorrow,” she said.
His eyes flew open. “You want to come out to the farm again?”
She shook her head. “Maybe you can come to my place.” Hope shone in her eyes, and Darren seized onto it.
“Yeah, sure.” The first time he’d kissed her had been at her house, and long after she got out and drove away, long after he’d returned to Steeple Ridge, long after he should’ve been asleep, all he could think about was kissing Farrah for the first time again.
Farrah texted Darren several times the next day, and it reminded him so strongly of when they were together, he wondered if they were.
“I need her to come out to the farm again,” he muttered after she’d told him what he’d be cooking that night. Her first couple of texts had detailed that she’d pick up the groceries and what time to be at her house.
He thought briefly about going out to the Bybee’s farm and meeting her again, but since he’d taken off early last night, he couldn’t leave his chores for the other boys today too. So he kept his head down and his hands busy.
His mind was just as occupied, circulating around ideas to get Farrah back out to Steeple Ridge, back into a saddle. Maybe she really did just need more time. Darren’s impatience reared, and he tamped it down as he went down the row of horses to feed them.
Cody entered the barn with the horse Missy had been using for a group riding lesson. “Is she done with Diamond already?”
“He’s hurt.”
It was then that Darren noticed the horse limping, and the way Missy’s golden retriever, Fritz, hovered near the horse’s back right leg. Darren abandoned the feeding and went to assist with Diamond King, the tall, taupe-colored quarter horse that Missy had raised from a colt.
“I’ll grab the blood stop powder,” Darren said as he hurried down the aisle and into the tack room.
Tucker had a vet out to the boarding stables every month, but Darren knew where the emergency supplies were.
He threw open the cabinet doors and searched, finding the powder quickly and heading back to Cody.
He had the horse lashed to the rail above his stall door, and he stood next to him, muttering softly.
Cody was a great cowboy that had worked on just about as many ranches and farms as Darren and his brothers had.
Their father had died without a will, and the ranch they’d grown up on in Nevada had been bankrupt anyway.
They’d sold as much as they could, bought their mother a nice condo in Las Vegas, and had been bumping around the country for a few years before landing at Steeple Ridge. They reminded Darren a lot of himself, of his brothers, and he’d been glad for their company once Logan had left.
“I’m gonna put it on,” Darren said, crouching behind and to the side of the horse, well out of kicking range.
Cody nodded once, kept his grip on Diamond’s reins, and kept up the low talk. The horse flinched at the application of the powder, and Darren slicked away the excess along with the now-congealed blood.
“It doesn’t look bad at all,” he said.
Missy burst into the barn and beelined toward them.
“It’s just a scratch,” Darren said straightening. Relief flashed across her face, but she bent to see for herself.
“Might need a stitch,” she said.
“Doc won’t stitch that,” Darren said. “It’s right on the distal ligament.” He stepped back again. “You should let me bandage it, and we’ll check it every morning and evening.”
“And he can’t be ridden.”
“He can graze,” Darren said. “There’s still plenty of summer left for grazing.”
Missy nodded, her eyes tight. “Thank you, Darren.”
Cody glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll help ‘im, boss. Then I’m fixin’ to get into town. Is that okay?”
Missy nodded again, her attention and focus still on her beloved horse. Darren understood how she felt. He didn’t know what he’d do if something happened to Paintbrush. “Did you get the lesson done?” he asked.
“Oh.” She startled. “Cody, I need a replacement horse. Can you saddle Strawberry or Licorice for me and bring them out?” She tucked her hair, gave Diamond King one last pat, and headed back out of the barn in favor of the pastures beyond the barn, where the riding lessons took place.