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Mentally slapping myself, I waited until she was out of sight and then went to get a second brownie sundae. I was going to need it.

Mom and Elliewere in the garden when I got back home.

“How are my babies doing?” I asked as they checked on my jalapeños.

“They’re doing very well,” Mom said, wiping her arm across her forehead and smearing dirt everywhere. She wore old and faded overalls and a ratty flannel shirt, and Ellie was matching her. Adorable.

I crouched down beside them. “Looks like we can do another harvest in a week or so. Next year maybe we can grow some hotter peppers and make an extreme hot honey for people who are adventurous.”

It wasn’t exactly consistent with our brand, but it could still be fun to make a very small batch and maybe sell them online as an experiment before we tried at the marketplace.

“How was yourdate?” Ellie asked, smirking at me as she adjusted her kid-sized gardening gloves.

“It wasn’t a date,” I said, and Mom laughed under her breath.

“Then why did you dress up?” Ellie asked.

I narrowed my eyes and pretended to glare at her. “Children should be seen and not heard.”

She just cackled and Mom sat back and enjoyed herself.

I stood up and dusted my hands off. “I’m going to check on the chickens and ducks.”

“Darling, not wearing those shoes,” Mom pointed out. Right. I was still wearing the outfit that I’d put on to see Bren.

Huffing with annoyance at my nosy family, I went up to my apartment to change into my regular clothes.

Once I had my farm clothes on, I did go out to check on the chickens and the ducks and make sure Dad was good as he packed a bulk order for a wedding. Several times we’d had people reach out to us to do favors for various events, so I’d found tiny jars and had designed custom labels. It had been time-consuming but fun.

“Everything good?” I asked as he carefully loaded up the boxes with the jars and enough padding so they wouldn’t break. The wedding planner was picking them up tomorrow.

“This is the last box,” he said.

“Sounds good,” I said, nodding as I leaned on the counter.

“Something on your mind, Bea?” Dad had always called me Bea.

“No, not really.” That was a big bold lie.

“Hmm,” he said, focusing on his task.

“You and Mom started out as friends, right?” I asked.

He glanced up and I was hit by how he and Ellie had the exact same warm brown eyes.

“We did…” he said slowly, not sure why I was bringing that up.

“When did you know that you loved her?” My parents talked about falling in love all the time, but Dad had always said he’d known from the beginning.

Dad set the jars down and leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. “I knew the moment she smiled. It was like…time stopped. And I knew nothing would ever be the same after seeing it. She was just there, across the room from me at a terrible party that I’d wanted to leave for at least an hour. And then there she was. I don’t even remember walking toward her.”

His voice took on a dreamy quality.

All my life, I’d known that my parents were really and truly in love and I’d known that I would accept nothing less than that for myself.

And then I’d fallen in love and gotten my heart broken over and over again and it hadn’t been like that at all.

What was wrong with my heart? Why couldn’t it pick the right person to throw all my affection and devotion at? All I wanted was someone who loved me even close to the level I loved them. Someone who wasn’t scared of all of me.