Page 23 of As It Was (Strawberry Springs #1)

“High,” I muttered. “But your lemon leggings aren’t gonna help.”

“These are Athleta.”

“Fine. Your athletic leggings aren’t gonna help.”

She huffed. “Do you have to say it wrong?”

“There’s no point in me remembering them.”

“At least you’re being annoying. It’s distracting me from what happened.”

“And you brought it up again.”

“It’s not every day I unwillingly enter a wet T-shirt contest with someone who looks like you.”

“Looks like me?”

“You’re also in a T-shirt. And you’re surprisingly ripped.”

This wasn’t a good topic. In fact, it was a terrible one .

“I work on a farm.”

“It’s doing something for you. You would have won if the snakes weren’t the only judge.”

“That’s definitely not true. Especially considering you were working in a field without a bra.”

She sighed. “I was excited! Can you blame me?”

“Yes. It’s probably not the safest.”

“Oh, please. People used to work in fields in only overalls.”

I considered it. Then I considered her in overalls and shook the thought from my head before my dick could catch on.

“Enough talk about ... this.” There were no other words for it. “Back to farming.”

“You’re no fun,” she said, but motioned for me to continue.

“You got lucky.” I looked at the irrigation lines, effectively changing the conversation. “It wasn’t all that bad. I think they could still work. Bennie replaced them not long before he died.”

“I’ll take any luck I can get. Now, once I finish the fields, I can get the membrane and plant them all.”

“How many fields are you planning?”

“Three.”

“That is ... a lot of work for one person who has another job.”

I knew how this was going to end. She was going to get bored of playing farmer, and I would have to pick up the slack.

“I’ll get it done.”

“Will you?”

“Go get Eric from school,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “And you’ll see what I’m capable of by the time you’re back.”

“Or you’ll see that you need help.”

“One of us is wrong, and for once it should be you!” she called as I walked away.

I laughed. With her in a T-shirt and athletic leggings that were thinner than anything I owned, I doubted she would get very far.

I quickly saw who was right. Mollie didn’t stop on the fields, even when she ripped her nice clothes and came back coated in mud. While she did sleep in an hour later each day, she showed no signs of slowing down, even as she got the three fields ready for planting.

I was impressed, even if I knew she’d never let me live it down if I told her that.

The day of the school event snuck up on me. I was busy being tired by simply watching Mollie balance work on her laptop and all the things she was doing in the fields, but when the day came, Jackie reminded me with a simple text.

Jackie

If you miss this, I think Kerry will come after you.

Wasn’t planning on it. I’ll be there.

Bring your best smile!

Ugh.

I wasn’t sure if Mollie was still planning on going, but I didn’t know if I could handle other people’s kids and the parents in one day.

I found her at the dining-room table, eyebrows pinched over her laptop. Usually she worked at night, only taking meetings during the day.

“You busy? ”

“Yes, but I can make time.” She looked up at me. “If you’re about to tell me I planted the first field wrong, I’ll kick your ass.”

“That race is today,” I said.

She looked up, blinking slowly. “Race?”

“At Eric’s school.”

“Oh.” She rubbed her eyes. “That’s right. I said I would go to that.”

“You sure you can handle it? You’ve been working hard.”

“Yeah, I can,” she said, standing. “And before you ask, I’m fine.”

“You sure seem it,” I said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and went to her room. When she came out, she was wearing one of the few pairs of clean pants she had.

Her laptop dinged as we walked to the door, and she turned back to it, biting her lip.

“You can stay here if you want.”

“And go back on our deal? No thanks. I can do it. Work will just have to wait.”

“Is it something that can wait?”

She rolled her eyes again. “It’s office stuff, as usual. It absolutely can.”

Still, I saw the uncertainty in her gaze as we walked out the door. I was tempted to make her stay, but I doubted she would do that either.

Mollie was quiet on the drive. I liked the quiet, but she didn’t. Usually, she was talking through every moment of silence.

When we pulled into the school parking lot, she hadn’t said a word to me. I looked over to check on her, only to find that she was asleep against the window of the truck.

“Mollie?” I said. “Dammit, I knew you were working yourself too hard.”

She didn’t answer .

“Hey, come on. Wake up so I can tell you how dumb you’re being.”

I reached out to jostle her. The best place to touch her would have been a shoulder or an arm.

I let my palm rest on her cheek like a fucking idiot.

She jolted awake, sucking in a breath of air. I jerked back, not wanting to be caught acting like a creep.

“Shit, sorry.” Her voice was thick as she stretched. “I’m ready to go.”

“You’re way too tired for this.”

“I’m fine.”

“ Mollie .”

She didn’t answer and went to open the door. I locked them so she couldn’t leave.

“What the—Cain!”

“You need rest.”

“I can get it when we’re done here.”

“I’m taking you back home.”

“Absolutely not!”

“You can’t stop me.”

I shouldn’t have said that, because she took it as a challenge. She ripped the keys out of the ignition. I tried to grab them from her, but she was way too fast.

She unbuckled her seat belt and tried to use the unlock button on her door, but it was busted.

Never had I been more glad that I’d never fixed it.

But then I quickly regretted everything when she reached over me to get to my unlock button.

I tried to fight her off, which resulted in her tumbling into my lap and her ass hitting the horn on the truck.

She jerked forward, but there was nowhere for her to go but closer to me.

“What the fuck ?” I hissed.

“You shouldn’t have challenged me. ”

“So this is what you do?”

She hit the button and got off my lap, which immediately felt cold without her heat. I closed my eyes, trying to picture anything other than what had just happened.

I opened the door, only to see Nicole glaring at me with her arms crossed.

“Really? At the school ?”

I gaped. “That wasn’t ... We weren’t?—”

“Sorry!” Mollie apologized, running over to Nicole. “That was just a little dispute over unlocking the door. One that Cain lost. ” She held her hand out. “I’m Mollie.”

Nicole’s glare was disarmed by Mollie stepping between us. For someone so tired, she still brightened wherever she went.

“Nicole. And what do you mean by dispute?”

“Oh, it was nothing. I’m tired. He wanted to take me back to the house to force me to get some rest. But I wanna be here, and he needs to be as well. How else will he see Eric’s first race?”

“Still.” She crossed her arms. “Watch how others perceive you.”

“I didn’t expect the people here to be watching.”

“Someone is always watching.”

Her gaze cut between us before she walked off to get us signed in.

“Did she mean for that to sound creepy?”

“Nicole’s just like that.” I shook my head. “Let’s get this over with.”

Kids were everywhere, wearing shirts with the school name on them. I spotted Eric talking with Tommy.

When he saw me, he jumped up and down and waved. I was taken aback by how excited he was to see me.

“You two will be counting laps,” Nicole said as she handed Mollie a clipboard. “And no, you can’t count your own kid’s?—”

“He’s not my kid. ”

I always clarified that with people. I was his guardian, not his parent. And now I didn’t know how much longer I would even be that.

Nicole didn’t like that I’d interrupted her, and shoved another clipboard into my hands.

I looked at Mollie. “What did I do?”

“Maybe she didn’t like you saying Eric isn’t your kid.”

“He’s not.”

“But you watch him. You care about him.”

“Yes, I do. But he’s not my kid.”

“I think it’s less about the fact that you’re not his dad and more about how it sounds. I know this isn’t true, but she might have taken that as you’re saying he’s not your kid because you don’t want him to be.”

“I would never ?—”

“Does she know that?”

“Dammit.” I scrubbed my face. “People and their assumptions.”

“You had them about me.”

Fuck. “It’s unfair that you’re this tired and still right.”

“I’m a multitasker,” she said with a wink.

I didn’t get a chance to say anything else to her because the race was about to begin.

We all lined up and watched as kids ran laps around the field, and I counted each of the ones I was responsible for while also cheering on Eric.

Across the field, Mollie did the same, but she was much more exuberant.

“You’re running at the speed of light, Eric! You got this!” she yelled. It only egged him on, and though I wasn’t counting his directly, I saw him lap most of the kids.

“You would be a nightmare at any sports event,” I said after the race had ended.

“You can say it how it is.” She turned to me. “I’m a nightmare everywhere. ”

The sun made her hair more golden, and her eyes were bright, despite how exhausted she must have been.

She wasn’t a nightmare. She was a fucking dream.

“Let’s go with that,” I said.

She smiled at me, but then it faded. Her hand reached for my arm. “We have a problem.”

I turned to see someone else walking up to the field. Someone I didn’t want to see.

I hadn’t recently considered the man who was suing me for custody of Eric, mostly because I was busy thinking about how I was going to stop him. I didn’t think I would see him again until the court proceedings had started.

Obviously, I was wrong.

We both headed in his direction at the same time.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to see my kid,” he said coolly. “My girl is here too.”

He gestured to a woman who couldn’t have been any older than twenty-four. She was looking around eagerly, as if she had no idea what an imposition this was.

“How did you even know this was a thing?” Mollie asked.

“I’m his dad ,” Waldren said. “Of course I know everything going on with my son.”

“And here I thought Waldren was a playboy.” The girlfriend looked up at him adoringly. “Apparently he raised a son by himself?”

He raised?

Absolutely not.

“You don’t even know him,” I snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“And it’s authorized visitors only,” Mollie hissed.

People were glancing at us, and if Waldren walked away now, then it was possible that no one would know what was going on .

The last thing I needed was the whole town figuring it out. Their opinions of it would only make this worse.

“He’s my son.”

“The one you’re suing over. I raised him. And he’s never even met you.”

“Wh-what?” the woman asked, eyes wide.

“Word of advice, woman to woman,” Mollie started. “Find a new man.”

“But he said?—”

“He lied.”

The woman’s cheeks went red.

“That’s only what they want you to think,” Waldren said smoothly. “He’s just an uncle who has a big head.”

“You know what? Yeah,” the woman said. “You do seem the jealous type.”

“This will all be fixed once he’s in the private school I’ve chosen,” he told her. “And he’s no longer out in the middle of nowhere.”

“That’s right,” she said as she crossed her arms. “You did say you’re moving.”

“To Nashville,” Waldren added. “Where he can get the education he deserves.”

“You’re not even from here,” I hissed. “Do you really think you can lie and say you raised him?”

Waldren’s eyes narrowed for a second as I poked a hole in his story, but then he wrapped an arm around his girlfriend. “Come on, babe. I’ll let you meet Eric under much better circumstances.”

They walked off, but I stared until they got into the car.

“How dumb is that woman?” I asked. “His story doesn’t match up.”

“Sometimes we believe what we want to,” Mollie said quietly .

I turned to her. “We?”

“Ah, I mean her. Sorry. Tired brain.” She shook her head and looked back at the field. “We should go say hi to Kerry. She’s staring, and I bet she has questions.”

I blinked past my curiosity and nodded. “We’re not telling her who that was, right?”

“Absolutely not. We can make up some excuse.”

“Tell her he was just lost, because that’s exactly what he is.”