Page 22 of Keep My Heart (The Haydon Falls #1)

Nick

The party’s been going on for a few hours now and my mom’s had a smile on her face the entire time.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this happy, or this in love with my dad.

When he walked her into the barn and she saw us all there, her jaw dropped.

She was stunned and overwhelmed, and probably wondering how my dad pulled this off.

We all stayed quiet, waiting for her to say something.

But she didn’t, not right away. Instead, she slowly looked around the barn, at the long tables that were set up with white tablecloths and white wooden folding chairs.

Dad put wildflowers—my mom’s favorite—down the center of each table and hung white lights from the wood beams along the ceiling.

He put lanterns around the perimeter of the room for extra light.

The barn has electricity, but Dad was going for mood lighting.

He wanted the space to feel romantic and special.

When Mom was done checking it out, she turned to Dad, took his face in her hands, and kissed him.

My brothers hooted and hollered like idiots, ruining the moment, but Mom just laughed.

Austin’s band started playing Mom’s favorite song—a slow country song—and Dad took her hand and led her to the dance floor.

We all watched as they danced. They didn’t take their eyes off each other.

It was then that I knew how completely and totally in love they were.

I’d never really thought about it before.

I knew they were in love, but it didn’t seem like anything special.

They held hands sometimes and gave each other the occasional peck on the cheek, but other than that, they reserved affection for when they were alone together.

And I never saw them look at each other the way they did tonight.

Or maybe they did and I just didn’t notice.

‘You seem lost in your thoughts,’ Nash says, coming up beside me as I watch Dad serve Mom a piece of cake. ‘You thinking about that girl?’

‘No,’ I say, but I actually was thinking about Lyndsay, and about what she said when I dropped her off.

She’s right. Our fake dates aren’t feeling so fake anymore.

I tried to keep my feelings out of it, but I couldn’t.

The crush I had on Lyndsay 15 years ago is still there, except now it’s becoming more than a crush.

I’m developing real feelings for her and it needs to stop.

‘So there’s nothing going on with you two?’ Nash asks.

‘She’s just a friend.’

He laughs a little. ‘So was Callie, and now I’m engaged to her.’

I turn to him. ‘You set a date yet?’

‘We’ve talked about it, but we haven’t decided. You think you’ll make it back for the wedding? I’d love to have you there.’

‘I’m sure I could make it work. As soon as you set the date, let me know so I can get the time off.’

‘You should bring that girl you were with today. I know you say she’s just a friend, but I sensed some chemistry there.’

‘We definitely have chemistry, but we live on different coasts. And she just got divorced. I don’t think she’s ready to get involved with someone again.’

‘It’s never the right time. You can’t let that stop you from being with someone.’ The music gets louder as Austin’s band plays a new song. ‘Let’s get out of here where we can talk.’

We walk to the door that goes outside. There’s a grassy area before the orchard starts where we have chairs and benches set up. Nash goes over to one of the benches and takes a seat at the end. I sit on the other end, turning to him.

‘What’d you want to talk about?’ I ask.

He shrugs. ‘Just catching up. I haven’t seen you much since you moved away.’

‘Yeah, I don’t get back that often.’

‘You miss it?’

‘I do, but small-town life just isn’t for me. I liked growing up here, but I needed a change. There’s so much to do in New York, so many places to go.’

‘It can’t be that great if you’re doing it alone, or do you have someone there?’

‘I’m not seeing anyone. I haven’t had the best luck dating there. I’ve gone out on plenty of dates. They just don’t go anywhere. I’ve decided to take some time off from dating and focus on work. Maybe in a few months I’ll get back out there again.’

‘You don’t see yourself dating Lyndsay? That’s her name, right?’

‘Yes. And no, I wouldn’t date her. It wouldn’t work with us living so far apart. And like I said, she’s not ready for a relationship.’

‘Neither was Callie. She turned me away so many times I lost count. But I didn’t give up on her. I just kept showing up at her door. ’

‘Why? If you knew she didn’t want to date you, why’d you keep asking her?’

‘Because I felt something between us, something I hadn’t felt with other girls, not even the girl I was engaged to.’

I’d forgotten Nash was engaged to a girl before Callie. It wasn’t a long engagement so maybe that’s why I didn’t remember it.

‘I wasn’t going to just let that go,’ Nash continues. ‘When you feel that kind of connection with someone, you don’t just give up without at least putting some effort in.’

‘So what’d you do?’

‘I hired her. Had her help me clean up that house I inherited. It gave me an excuse to spend time with her. Our attraction to each other was insane, but we didn’t act on it, at least not right away.

I kissed her a few times, but she made it clear she didn’t want that, so we were just friends for a while. ’

‘How’d you end up becoming more?’

‘I kept being a friend to her until she was ready. It’s different with Callie because she’d been through a huge loss and was still grieving. But I was willing to wait for her, even knowing I’d be going back to Chicago.’

‘That’s right. She didn’t live there.’

‘No, and she had no plans to move. I took a big risk with her, but it ended up working out. And now I couldn’t be happier. She’s the love of my life.’

‘It’s a great story, but why are you telling me this?’

‘Because I’d hate to see you give up on this girl before giving it a chance. Sawyer said you stayed up all night talking to her. You don’t do that with some girl you don’t feel something for.’

‘You were talking to Sawyer about this?’ I shake my head. ‘Ignore him. He doesn’t know shit. ’

‘I remember you talking about her back in high school. It’s no secret you liked her back then.’

‘Every guy liked her. She was hot and a cheerleader.’

‘But you were the guy she was friends with. Am I right? Weren’t you guys friends?’

‘Yeah, but only because I was tutoring her. If I wasn’t her tutor, we would’ve just passed each other in the halls and never spoken.’

‘Did she have a boyfriend?’

‘Yeah, this jerk, Chris. Quarterback of the football team. He treated Lyndsay like shit. I hated him. She ended up marrying him.’

Nash leans back on the bench and looks out at the orchard. ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t give up on her. A girl with a boyfriend doesn’t confide in some other guy unless she trusts him and feels something for him. I’m guessing her feelings for you back then were more than she was letting on.’

‘I doubt it, but even if that were true, it doesn’t change the fact that we live on opposite coasts. I can’t date a girl from thousands of miles away.’

‘Is she staying in California?’

‘I don’t know. I assume she will. She has friends there, a life, a job.’

‘And you’re determined to stay in New York?’

‘I’m about to make partner at my firm, so yeah.’

‘Nash?’

We turn back and see Callie, Nash’s fiancé, coming up behind us.

‘Hey, babe,’ Nash says. ‘You need something?’

‘I just didn’t know where you went. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.’ She smiles at me. ‘Hey, Nick. ’

‘Hey, Callie. Congrats on the engagement. You sure you want to commit to this guy?’ I nod at Nash.

She laughs. ‘There’s no one I’d rather be with.’ She leans down to him and he kisses her.

‘I’ll be in there in a minute,’ he says.

‘No rush,’ she says, going back inside.

Nash watches her with the same look on his face that my parents had as they gazed at each other on the dance floor.

‘You guys seem made for each other,’ I say.

‘I’m lucky I found her. But like I said, nothing would’ve happened with us if I hadn’t put in the effort.’ He gets up. ‘If you really want Lyndsay, you could make it work. I’ll see you inside.’ He goes back into the barn.

I get up and walk over to the line of trees at the edge of the orchard.

It’s dark out, but the area around the barn is lit, casting light on the rolling hills lined with apple trees.

My dad built this place from nothing. He inherited the land from his father, along with the house.

The land was covered in tall prairie grass back then, but my dad imagined it being an orchard.

He had no experience in farming, but he read books and talked to tree experts and drove to other orchards asking for advice, then took out a loan and got to work planting trees.

The orchard took off soon after it opened.

There weren’t any others in the area so he had an advantage.

He made a decent living off the apples, but Mom suggested they sell more than just apples to bring in more people.

She started making pies and apple fritters and selling them on the weekends when we got the most visitors.

They sold out within hours and soon people were showing up just to get her homemade pies and fritters.

The following year, they added a store with apple-themed products and baked goods.

Then Dad started growing pumpkins, which drew in even more people.

And a few years ago, he planted strawberry fields to get income coming in during the summer.