So things were going well, except that whatever his brother had said to Reece definitely did something. He didn’t seek me out or even talk to me anymore. Which was awkward to say the least, since we all still ate meals together. Things were tense for a few days, the conversation across the dinner table a little stilted with Ruth doing most of the heavy lifting, but eventually it smoothed out to being back to normal. Well, normalish.
I felt a bright warmth in my chest the first time Reece made a joke that including me at dinner the other night—it was the first time he’d addressed me directly since I’d been so warm in his arms that night. Our eyes had caught and I lit up like a damn fire had flamed to life in my chest.
A week later and it was raining, dark clouds overhead bringing on a premature twilight, but I could still remember the warmth in my chest from how it had felt in that moment. Even though he’d been successfully avoiding me since.
I sighed, looking down at Nine and trying to get the bottle back in his mouth. I’d managed to lure him up to the steps of the porch where the roof covered me from the rain for his and Bessie’s dinner bottles. She’d finished hers but Nine was being finicky with his.
Ruth was lounging on a rocking chair by the kitchen door, watching me feed and chatting at me about local town gossip. “So then Gracie told me that Mariah, you remember Mariah, the one who was in the garage that day when Trent was being a dick?”
I nodded distractedly. Nine kept turning his head sideways and losing the plot, yanking away from the nipple and staring up at the ceiling where the rain sounded like a barrage of marbles on the tin roof.
“So Missy is telling anyone who will listen that Janice’s husband is cheating on her with Brenna. She’s a local high school teacher.”
Nine pulled away from the nipple again.
“Come on, man,” I said to the ornery calf. “I know it’s loud, but if you don’t finish this bottle soon, my arm is going to fall off. See how good Bessie was?” I gestured with my head to where Bess had already raced off through the rain back to the shelter of the stable.
I shoved the nipple towards his mouth again. “Don’t you want to go join your buddy?”
He gave a few sucks again at the nipple but then thunder boomed overhead and he danced backwards, all the way down back into the yard.
Behind me, Ruth busted out laughing.
I turned to look over my shoulder, glared at her and stuck out my tongue.
She held up her hands. “No, no, you’re doing an excellent job. Please continue. I haven’t been this entertained in days.”
“Don’t you have something to do? Like look for a job?”
It was her turn to make a face at me. “I’m living rent free essentially, since I own the place and food’s cheap. I’m having a quarter-life crisis and taking a break from being a grown up, okay? So leave me be, woman.”
A flash lit up the sky and then thunder rumbled, only a few moments behind. That was apparently it for Nine, because he bolted for the stable.
Well, he’d drunk two-thirds of the bottle. Good enough for now since he’d eaten well all day. I wasn’t about to go chasing him down anyway.
The door behind us opened and I spun around right in time to come face to face with Reece.
“Oh. Hi,” I said, blinking rapidly.
“Hi,” he said, then his eyes lowered and he pushed past me. He was wearing a raincoat and I turned, following him with my eyes as he pulled the hood up over his head and jogged right into the pouring rain towards his truck.
Hi. That was it. One syllable. That was all I got from him these days.
Ruth was standing and running down the stairs, stopping just short of heading into the rain. “Where are you going? We’re going to the bar tonight, I told you at breakfast. Out at Landlubbers, by the lake. You have to come!”
“Sorry, gotta make a run to town,” was all he shouted back, barely heard through the rain.
“Meet us there then!” Ruth shouted, almost simultaneously as his truck door slammed shut.
I felt my shoulders slump. “That was weird, wasn’t it? It was weird.”
Ruth nodded. “Totally fucking weird.”
I smacked her on the arm. “You’re supposed to disagree with me.”
She shrugged.
I rolled my eyes at her, just as another car pulled in the driveway. Good timing, because Reece hadn’t pulled out yet, and I don’t know how he and Olivia’s sporty little Honda would have passed one another on the one-lane road into the ranch.
Ruth clapped. “Yes! Now the pre-party can begin!”