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Why on earth should she need a husband in order to prove that she was responsible enough to take care of it? Hadn’t she, and she alone, been responsible for the house since her grandmother’s stroke? Since Isabella had agreed that the house was too much for her and that she needed, and deserved, a quieter and more relaxed retirement?

She’d negotiated her way through the entire renovation plans and would be overseeing them as they took place.

And yet marriage was supposed to be a sign of maturity and stability. She snorted to herself. Her parents had been married, and by all accounts they had been neither mature nor stable.

Distracted by this increasingly infuriating spiral of frustration, Eleanor didn’t notice the enormous tractor until itwas entirely too late.

???

Danni was not having a good day.

She wasn’t even having a mediocre day.

Her day had begun with Tommy informing her that the mechanic had said that the tractor wasn’t worth saving. Given that tractors were somewhat vital to farming, this was, to put it mildly, a disaster.

“Maybe it just needs a bit of oil and TLC?” Tommy had offered optimistically, kicking one of the enormous tires.

“Maybe it needs a miracle,” Danni had said despondently as she watched a growing puddle of fluid leak from the bottom of the vehicle.

“Well, at least Hec let you use his little tractor,” Tommy had said brightly. “And you know what he’s like. He’ll let you have it as long as you need it. Probably.”

Which was probably true, not that Danni wanted to take advantage of his generosity. And Hector, designated voice of reason that he was, had been utterly unsympathetic when she rang him with the news of her tractor’s final demise. She’d caught him just as he was going out to repair fences, his most hated job, and he hadn’t been feeling charitable.

“I told you not to buy that place,” he’d reminded her, his voice crackling through the phone. “You’re stretched too thin.”

“I’m fine,” Danni had insisted, though she patently wasn’t. “I just need to get a new tractor, is all. Well, a new old tractor. Not a new new one, obviously.”

“Which will cost money.”

“Which I’ll find,” she’d said.

“You’re a terrible liar,” Hector had sighed. “Have you given any more thought to this buy-out offer?”

She’d stayed mulishly quiet on the other end of the phone until her brother had sighed again.

“It’s a decent offer. You could take that money and start up somewhere else.”

“I like it here.”

“They keep offering,” Hector had said.

“I keep saying no.”

“Danni—”

“I’ll sort it, Hector,” she’d snapped, before hanging up.

The conversation had done nothing to improve her mood.

So, when she found herself behind the wheel of Hector’s old tractor, driving down the familiar narrow lane, she was not in the best frame of mind. And, perhaps, not exactly paying quite as much attention as she should have been.

To be fair, the last thing that she expected to see was a tiny sports car come flying around a bend like it was auditioning for the fiftieth Fast and Furious film.

???

The moment Eleanor registered the tractor in front of her, she slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately, the country lane was both gravelly and damp, meaning her beautifully pristine MG didn’t so much stop as it skidded dramatically forward.

The driver of the tractor yanked the steering wheel to one side, but tractors are not generally known for their grace and agility.