In a panicked voice, she tells me, “I forgot that I needed to pick up the things on that list. Mom made it before she left.”
“It’s no problem. I’m taking care of it. I could tell you already have your hands full. Is there anything you want to add to it?”
She starts to say something and stops. “Uh, no thanks.”
“C’mon, Lacy, you want something. What is it?”
“You’re going to make fun of me if I tell you,” she says.
I can hear the smirk in her voice and automatically a thought comes to mind. Could it be? Surely, she’s not still eating those. “Lacy, do you want me to bring you home some Twizzlers?”
She laughs then, and I can’t help but join in with her. She used to eat Twizzlers all the time. We always joked about it.
“Yes. Please?”
“Absolutely,” I tell her. If anything, it’s comforting to me that she still eats the same comforting snack she did back in high school. It tells me in a way that Lacy’s still the same girl I used to know.
She thanks me. “You can’t just keep saving me like this.”
I tell her bye and hang up, knowing that’s exactly what I intend to do. I want to take care of her. I want to be there for her and show her that she can count on me, she can take a chance with her heart on me again because this time I won’t hurt her.7Lacy“It’s no problem, I’m already here,” the handyman says as he examines the balustrade on the front porch. “It’s loose, but I can get it fixed up for you.”
I can’t help smiling. Service in the city is nothing like this. I’d have been stuck having to schedule another visit by the handyman to fix something that he’d not come to fix for the original call, no matter how small the issue was.
“You’re great to do this for me today. You’ve got to let me do something to thank you. I have some donuts in the kitchen. Would you like one?”
Trent clears his throat as he carries groceries up the steps on the porch. “What’s he doing here? There’s no need for you to call a handyman with a friend like me around.”
I look between Bradley and Trent. “Trent, that’s rude,” I tell him.
“No, it’s not. It’s the truth. I didn’t know it needed done or else I would have done it,” he says stubbornly. I would scold him more for being rude to the handyman if I wasn’t so caught off-guard. Is Trent Keller jealous?
No way! There’s absolutely no reason for him to be jealous. Trent and I are no more. That is in the past. And I feel like I’m going to have to keep telling myself that over and over to make me believe it.
Trent is being amazing, but that is precisely why I need to get outside help. I don’t want to start to depend on him. I was raised in the B&B, I know it inside and out, and I have no doubt I can do this job. But dipping my toes in again is definitely going to take getting used to.
“You’ve done enough for me, Trent. I know you’ve got your ranch to get back to. I can’t expect you to drop everything to come and help me with all the little projects I have around here.”
Trent keeps glaring over at the handyman. I look over at Bradley, who is trying to work on the railing and act like he’s not paying any attention to Trent and me going back and forth.
I turn back to Trent. “Thanks for picking up the groceries. I’ll meet you in the kitchen and pay you for them,” I say, walking past him to go into the house with the groceries.Trent“Please don’t tell me you were about to give the last of my donuts to that oaf out there?” I ask as I take a bite out of said donut.
“Well, I’m not going to anymore, am I? Who knew you were so possessive over food?” Lacy says.
“It’s not the food I’m possessive over, Lacy,” I say, looking directly into her eyes as I do.
Lacy’s breath catches, and the way she starts backing out of the kitchen, I think that maybe she’s having a mini panic attack. “I, I said friends. That’s all,” she says.
I pushed too far. I know what I want and I’m the type to go for it at all costs. But the way Lacy is reacting I know if I keep it up, she’s going to refuse to even see me. I can’t have that. I want to push for more but not when she seems so fragile and afraid. The hard verbal shove I’d given her toward the city had been given with the best of intentions. I knew it was what she wanted, and I wanted her to be happy. I’d truly believed it was what she wanted. It was all she talked about when we were in our senior year.