“Show me.” She raised her head and kissed him. The feel of his lips on hers was familiar, but things were different now. There was something new in the way that he kissed her. In the way that he touched her.
It felt like love. She desperately wanted it to be love. She wanted to know that she wasn’t the only one losing her heart in this relationship.
For three whole weeks, he was hers. But the day of the race, she went to greet him at the dog runs only to find that someone else waited for her. He was clearly Middle Eastern, like Kashif, but there was nothing gentle in his eyes.
“Are you Kristy Cohen?” the man growled.
“I am,” she said hotly. “You’re not a guest here, and you’re trespassing.”
“Prince Kashif has returned home. It is in your best interest not to get in touch with him.”
“He’s missing the race?” she asked in surprise. “Is everything okay? He was so looking forward to the Iditarod.”
“This is what he does,” the man said with a cruel smile. “He takes a few weeks and pretends to be someone new. He enjoys a woman, and when he tires of them, he leaves.”
Kristy felt sick to her stomach as she stared at him. “What?” she whispered. “No, you’re wrong. He was here for the race. He told me.”
“Surely, you’re old enough to know that men will lie to get what they want. Clearly, you were good in bed, or he wouldn’t have stuck around so long.”
“How dare you!”
“We will not speak of this again. Contact him, and I promise that you’ll lose everything, including this precious…farm.” The man looked around in disgust.
Kristy tried to stand tall until the man was out of sight. Then, she did something that she hadn’t done in a long time.
She broke down into tears.
Pretending to be sick, she stayed in her bedroom for days. Her father begged her to come out and see a doctor, and when she finally emerged, he’d simply hugged her and told her that no man was ever worth her tears. She was too strong for that.
So Kristy stiffened her resolve. She threw herself back into her work, and she tried not to think of him again.
Months later, that proved to be harder than she could have ever imagined.
3
Four years later
“Momma, momma, momma, momma.”
The chant continued softly in her ear until it was followed by a giggle and a series of coughs. Kristy bolted upright and immediately reached for her daughter.
The pretty little blonde had been battling a cold for the past couple of days, and apparently they’d fallen asleep together. Kristy’s back hurt from sleeping at a strange angle, but she wasn’t about to complain. It was hard enough getting a full night’s sleep while owning the farm and raising a toddler. It was next to impossible when said toddler had a cold.
Blinking drowsily, she glanced at the clock. It was still the middle of the night. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey, baby.” Arella had taken to repeating everything she heard, but she still stumbled over her words at times. More so, these last few days while she wasn’t feeling well. Kristy had worried that her language development wasn’t progressing as it should but the doctor had merely smiled and reminded her that children progress at different rates. Before she knew it, Arella would be speaking in full sentences. Kristy hoped that would be the case. Leaning over, she kissed her daughter on the forehead. “Do you feel better?”
The toddler nodded and made a few babbling noises as she rubbed her belly. “Hungry.”
“Who’s hungry?”
“Me, hungry.”
“I’m hungry,” Kristy corrected her automatically. It was no wonder that the little girl was hungry. She hadn’t eaten much in the past few days. “Okay, let’s see if we can rustle up a snack for you, and then we’ll go back to bed. How does that sound? Maybe cuddle with the pups?”
Arella clapped her hands excitedly. She loved the farm. She’d had a special connection with all the animals, and Kristy had a feeling that they loved seeing the toddler as much as they loved seeing their food.
Mistywood Farms wasn’t all that big. It had mostly started out with dogs and horses, but because they had the space, her father had taken in some animals in need. They now had three cows that had been rescued from an abusive farm, two pigs that were previously looking at a dire future, and a three-legged goat that managed to get into everything. Children and adults would come out for their riding lessons and stay to visit with the animals. She occasionally sold some fresh milk, and she was thinking of getting a few chickens to add to the mx.