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“So, you found out and came here?”
“Kinda. I was gonna wait, but then I needed to be here.”
“Needed?”
“Yeah.”
I didn’t believe that for a second. “You’re running from something, aren’t you?”
Her shoulders tensed. “Why would you think that?”
“Why else would you stay?”
“Maybe because I like being here.”
“Sure, but you’re choosing to live with a man who completely hates you.”
“It’s not that hard,” she said quietly. “I’ve done it before.”
That had my attention. “You’ve done it before?”
She shook her head. “Do you really care about my life outside of this farm? Because I don’t think you do.”
I opened my mouth to ... what? Ask her to open up to me? She was right. I didn’t care about that.
Or Ishouldn’t.
But there was a part of me, one I needed to get control of, that did want to know why she was running. What had she seen here? And why had she left her cushy life? What was so bad about her past that she would endure all our fights and choose to stay?
“I’m going to bed,” she said. “We can find time to annoy each other later.”
“Were we annoying each other?”
Our eyes finally met, and I knew the truth. This was maybe the second time weweren’tat each other’s throats.
And I liked it.
“It won’t be the norm,” she said. “I’ll probably be gone before this happens again.”
I pursed my lips and let her walk away. I had no idea how long she would be here, but I also had no idea how long I could tolerate it without losing my damn mind.
Some of my anger dissipated in a cloud of smoke. She hadn’t ignored the farm until now. She hadn’t known.
That kind of information was dangerous for me to know, because it made me understand her. And I didn’t need to be doing that.
She didn’t leave.
Even as days turned to weeks, she was there. Sleeping in Bennie’s room. At the breakfast table.
It was driving me up a wall.
She spent a lot of time in both places, working on a job she seemed to care so much about. I had no idea what she did, but she was busy at it.
The weather started to cool, which meant my work would be slowing down, at least with the chickens. I was looking forward to the break until it meant I would be in the house and in her orbit more.
Eric loved her. He followed her around whenever he wasn’t in school, and the town quickly followed suit. I could tell by the way she went to Center Point Diner nearly every day that they’d welcomed her.
Of course they had. One look at her and I’d known.