Just Want Somebody to Love (Bella Warren Book 1) (14 page)

She grinned for an answer.

He pushed the cart along the edge of the rows. The path wrapped around the trees bending out. “Why not cut those trees and have even more room?”

“There’s a creek in the woods and it’s a mucky mess. Pull up the trees and fill the creek in, the water would free-flow into the fields so you’d have to reroute the water. Dad never felt like any of it, so we just work around it.”

She tugged her gloves on, grabbed a mini shovel and a bundle of plants. “Get you a set.”

He did and followed her along the row to the far end. “We just pop a plant out and stick it in the ground?”

“That’s the gist. Just don’t let Wade catch you doing anything that looks remotely like popping to his plants. He wants you to gently smooth and whatever else.” She dropped to her knees and lifted a bundle. “You ever milk a cow?”

“No, have you?”

She shook her head. “Nope, but I hear it’s similar. I’ve always wondered if it was the same. Wrap your hand around the plastic of one plant and squeeze.”

“Like milking a cow?”

She smiled and turned her bundle over. A single plant slid out. Black soil was gripped tight by white, webbing roots. “And then just make a small hole on the top of the row and stick it in the ground. Make the ground level with the top of the dirt around the plant so it’s not buried any deeper.” She pulled a short wooden dowel from her set of plants and placed the end of it against the one she just put down. “This will mark your spacing. Wade likes it all ridiculously neat.”

“Got it.” He popped one out, dug a hole, filled the dirt in, and sat on his heels. “How’d I do?”

“Beautiful. Keep going. I’ll get some more so you’re not walking back and forth so much.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. Like he was about to be left out here alone. He glanced out the corner of his eye as he worked the next plant in the ground. She carried a tray with each hand as she returned. She stopped part way and lowered one to the ground, then continued on and stopped, lowering the second.

“Okay.” She dusted her hands and pulled off her gloves. She looked like she was quitting rather than getting next to him.

“I get the feeling you’re leaving me.”

“I thought you wanted to help so I could get through my day quicker?”

“You’re right.” He nodded. “I’ve just enjoyed talking with you this morning.”

She bit at her lip and let it go so fast he wasn’t sure if she’d even grabbed it all. “It has been an interesting morning with you, but I have a ton of mind-numbing things waiting on me.”

And with that, she turned and left. It was just him and a tray of corn plants while he was on his knees in the dirt. The loaded cart at the end of the row signaled he was on a quick descent to hell. The closest person might not be within shouting distance to save him.

Whitney got away as fast as she could. Not because she couldn’t stand the sight of him, but she couldn’t fight the smile. Part one—complete. She’d been nice and sweet, and best of all, scored some information. Bartender Brandon married? Lots of hearts were getting broken whenever that got out.

She walked to the end of the row and passed the cart when she caught sight of his coffee Thermos. She did warn him not to leave it anywhere. She moved in front of the cart, lifted the Thermos without missing a step, and hid in front of her as she walked off. Hers was just about empty.

And she’d need all the coffee she could get to finish the rest of this day. By the time sundown got here, he was going to be hurting. If he even made it that far. She aimed to see that he wouldn’t. Was it too soon to maniacally rub her hands together? What about an evil laugh? Hopefully not. Since yesterday, she’d done enough of both to be committed. She walked through the rows and popped out behind Kara’s house to meet Wade.

She wanted to thank him for being nice instead of the protective older brother who first wanted to pummel the guy for standing up his baby sister. She pushed in the backdoor and found Kara over a pile of gunk that smelled like bread.

She looked up as the door closed. “How’s it going?”

“Perfect. I put him on corn.”

Kara frowned. “Not tomatoes? I thought you were doing tomatoes?”

“I planned to, but I wanted to put him right to work, and the tomatoes would take longer to explain since they needed bracing.” And while he didn’t disgust her, she’d been ready to ditch him as soon as possible. Last night she’d had this all worked out in her head like a tried and true Twelve Step Program. She was going to be fun and charming and tuck her bitterness away whenever he was around. Nastiness would not get her what she wanted. There was nothing about him that brought out any nastiness.

If he could quit hitting all her happy buttons, she could pull off her plan. To do that, he’d have to stop being funny. And charming. Cute, too. She drank from his coffee and the lid tasted like him. Curse him. The more he teased her, the less angry she was. It wasn’t like he’d stood her up a day ago. All the talk had about died down, making it easier to fall for him. That and his aforementioned charm and cuteness. Never in her life had she thought it before, but she could use Maddy Booth right about now.

Oh God
. She shook.

“Chill?” Kara asked.

Whitney nodded for an answer because she wasn’t sure how Kara would react to the truth. She was in love and anxious for everyone else to be, too. If she found out Whitney’s knees shook by the sight of Justin, Kara might encourage it. Or she might go girl-power on her and remind Whitney of what a dick he was when he left her high and dry and plain old forgot about her.

Whitney was terrified to know which one.

So yeah, she’d planned to get him on tomatoes so he’d spend hours fooling with twist ties. Instead, she’d dumped him on corn to get the hell away from him and that intoxicating scent she would swear up and down was still soaked in her sheets—even though she’d washed them ten times now. But enough about her. “He said Bartender Brandon was married.”

“No way.” Kara’s hands landed on her hips like she didn’t care she was getting more of the doughy gunk all over her clothes. She probably didn’t.

“Way.” Whitney pulled the plate of cookies a little closer to keep them flour free because Kara looked close to slinging it.

“Bartender Brandon is married.”

“Yep.”

Kara’s eyes widened and hands fell from her hips and dangled by her sides. “What?”

“That’s what Justin said.”

Kara punched the dough and slung flour over it. “Said he was married. Are you sure that’s what he said?”

“Positive. I’m not that sleepy in the mornings.”

“The only thing keeping you from zombie status is you don’t eat brains.”

Honestly, if Kara served it, Whitney would eat it. Speaking of sleepy in the mornings, she opened Justin’s Thermos. She knew having him do her work was a good thing. She never imagined it would be this good. She just might let him plant for a while and save the things she made up if he came back tomorrow. The leave-him-withering-in-pain aspect of her plan could hold over until then.

Kara returned to work on the dough. “I just can’t believe it. Married. How’s a man gonna live here all this time and not tell anyone he’s married? He doesn’t even wear a ring.”

“I know.” Whitney broke a corner off a cookie.

“I mean, geez, thank God he turned you down when you asked him out. How awkward would that be?”

Being they put off as much heat as a wet campfire in the middle of January? Extremely. That would have been one long, uncomfortable hour discussing the weather. “I know. It explains why he never goes out with anyone.”

“All the girls in town are going to be so disappointed.”

“Yes.” Whitney laughed. “Maddy has been hanging her boobs on his bar from day one.”

The tension that had pulled tight around Kara’s eyes loosened and she laughed. “Oh my God. I can’t wait to see this information come out.”

Whitney leaned back and lifted a shoulder. “I don’t think I’m going to tell anyone.”

“You’re holding on to good juicy gossip?”

“I’m not sure how much more I can pry out of Justin if I go blabbing everything he tells me before the day is up. I think I need to build it up and then leak it in bits.”

“Truth.” Kara nodded.

She tossed the cookie in her mouth and sat back with her hands across her chest.

Kara tsked and poked at the dough a little more. “It’s like the man has never lived in a small town before. You just can’t go around keeping secrets like that.”

“You seem genuinely pissed.”

“I’m not. Just shocked.” Kara laughed. “Okay, maybe a little mad. Why couldn’t I have found out this dirt a year ago when I first came back to town? Nobody would have even known I existed for all that goodness to spread around.”

“I think you came out pretty well, even with all the gossip of you moving back and shacking up with Wade.”

“I guess I did.” Kara flipped the wad of dough one last time and stepped back with a huff and a deep breath.

“You’re sweating.” And leaning over what would likely become her dinner roll. That was one secret sauce she didn’t want to know about.

“Bet you never knew bread was such a workout. This is how your mom keeps her arms in shape.”

Whitney tried picturing her mom’s arms and couldn’t form an image. She’d just seen her mother a few hours ago, but she didn’t study her arms at the time. “Do you want me to do it for a bit?”

“Nah, it needs to rest.” She leaned one hand against the counter and the other she rested on her hip, leaving even more white smudges to go along with some unidentifiable clumps.

“Speaking of Mom, where is she?”

“Shower. I thought she put the lid on the blender. She thought I did. She ended up wearing three cups of milk.” Kara finished it with a laugh.

Whitney chuckled along with her, and hid the fact that she wished she could have seen that. Maybe with Justin doing her work, she could have a chance to spend more time with Mom. Hmm. More reasons not to break his spirit for living today.

The front door opened and Wade stepped through. “There you are.”

Whitney stole another cookie while Kara was doing that light up in the room thing as he walked through the door. “I’m guessing you mean me.”

“Wondering what your plans are for the day.”

Good question. Keep Justin around so she could be lazy? Take her revenge hard and fast before he saw what was coming. She created mental columns. Keep him around and fall for him little by little every day? Okay, there was her answer. Throw him to the wolves—err—her imagination. “I need to borrow your truck and trailer.”

He frowned as he leaned on the counter. “What for?”

“I need lumber for scarecrows.”

He shook his head. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but why?”

“I was trying to think of the most miserable thing I could come up with, and I thought of post-hole diggers.”

“Agreed.” He kept frowning. “Which leads us to scarecrows because…”

Kara laughed. “I love this idea.”

He shook his head. “Creepy mind reader.”

Whitney grinned at them both. “Because I need a reason to use the post-hole diggers. That’s where the scarecrows come in. How far apart do you think I should space them?”

“Depends on how many you want to do.”

“As many as possible. I also need to know how deep to put them in the ground. You think burying them three feet is pushing believability? I don’t want him to think something is up.”

“Three should be fine. You could probably push to three and half and just tell him we like ‘em deep because the ground stays loose so we can plant. It’s hard to pack them in.”

“Oh, good point. Three and half feet it is.”

Wade scratched the side of his head. “For spacing, though? I have no idea.”

Mom came around the corner. “What are we spacing?”

“Scarecrows in the field.” Whitney sipped her coffee.

“Every fifteen feet or so.” She dropped a new apron over her head. “And cute idea.”

“Fifteen feet,” Whitney echoed and looked back to her brother. “Tell me how much and how long I need the lumber to be.”

“Aren’t you the accountant in the family? You do numbers. I do everything else.”

“Ha. Ha. I want them tall so it’s more of a pain to work with, but not so tall he needs help. Keep in mind he’s shorter than you.”

Wade rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t know. Twelve foot boards with three and a half in the ground still leaves him with eight and a half to fool with.” He lifted a shoulder. “If he can’t manage that, he’s got more problems than you. You’ll need a gooseneck to get enough lumber to cover the grounds at fifteen feet spacing.”

“I don’t like driving the gooseneck. It’s too long.”

“Then I would start with fifty. Get fifty four by fours, twelve foot long posts. And then fifty, eh, six foot long two by fours. And I don’t know where you’re going to put the hay.”

She wrote the numbers. “I don’t need the hay right now. I can get it later.”

“Why are we making scarecrows?” Mom tied a new apron around her waist.

“To kill Justin’s will to move and live. To make it believable, I’m telling him we used to do this and you wanted to see them back.”

“Good plan. There should be plenty of clothes boxed in the attic to dress your scarecrows. I boxed the boys clothes and never got them down when you came out a girl.”

“Perfect.” She pushed off her stool, grabbed her stolen Thermos and another cookie. “I’m off so I can be back before lunch.”

“Don’t forget screws,” Wade called after her.

She stopped at the door. “Not nails?”

“You can, I just don’t trust them to stay together as well.”

“I hoped to make him swing a hammer, but screws it is. Thanks. Keep him working for me? You did great earlier.”

He grinned. “If I can’t punch him for leaving my sister hanging, then working him like the dog he is will have to do.”

“Don’t forget to tell the other people working here what we’re doing so they won’t spoil it.”

He nodded and she went out the door. Since she didn’t date often, she forgot how hovering Wade could be when it came to boys. Good thing he didn’t know about most of her adventures when she was a teenager. None of that stuff would have happened. She could get more past her dad when she was a teenager than now with Wade.