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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ROZ

“Thanks for doing this.” I held the back door of the farmhouse still while Matt positioned the drill. The door had fallen off its hinges this morning with a spectacular clang that had sent Thelma and Louise mooing loudly.

The nail glided smoothly into the doorframe. I tentatively let go.

“No problem,” he said, opening and shutting the door to make sure it worked.

The last of the farm’s visitors were trickling out of the petting zoo and back to the parking lot. The laughter of pre-teens and the wail of an overtired toddler carried on the cooling breeze.

“Can I still hang out with the animals?” Lottie yelled from the entrance to the petting zoo.

“That’s fine,” I called back. “You can give Ronnie a hand feeding the chickens. Just don’t get too close to the cows!” I glared at Thelma and Louise. As usual, they were placidly eating grass. I would speak to my neighbor tomorrow about rehoming them.

Lottie let out an excited yelp and disappeared.

I turned to Matt. “Do you want a beer?”

We retrieved two beers from the fridge and parked ourselves on the wicker chairs on the back deck.

“How’s the tractor driving going?” Matt asked, sipping his beer as he stared at the grassy patch where my crushed car had sat. I’d finally gotten it towed this morning. The local mechanic had confirmed it was a write-off.

I managed a weak smile. “I’m improving. I drove it up and down the hayride route a few times this morning before the farm opened. No fatalities to report. I should be ready to take Lottie out soon—if she’s not traumatized by witnessing the crash.” I winced.

Matt grinned. “She’s still excited to go.”

“Good.” Lottie ran out of the petting zoo holding two carrots, her blond hair bouncing and her cheeks flushed. My chest filled with warmth. This is why I’ve turned my life upside down. Ronnie, one of the farmhands, jogged behind her.

“Is it okay if I feed Thelma and Louise?” Lottie asked, poking her head through the deck rails. “Ronnie said they like carrots.”

I furrowed my brow. I’d seen countless children feed the cows under Ronnie’s supervision since I’d taken over the farm. Lottie would remain safely on this side of the fence, away from their powerful legs. But still…

“Pleeeease, Auntie Roz.”

How could I say no? “Fine. Just no loud noises near them, okay?”

Lottie squealed and scampered away. My lips curved up.

Matt chuckled and then took a sip of beer.

“Any news from Mel?” I asked, keeping a close eye on Lottie as Ronnie demonstrated how to present her flattened palm to the bovines.

Matt smiled. “She’s good. We spoke to her yesterday. Loving the challenge, but missing Lottie terribly. She was supposed to be finishing up in August, but she’s asked if she can finish earlier to be home in time for Lottie’s birthday, so we’re just waiting to hear if that will be approved. We’re not mentioning it to Lottie yet—don’t want to get her hopes up in case her application is rejected.”

“Well, I hope she gets the green light.” I jolted as Lottie offered one of the cows a carrot, exhaling as its long tongue scooped it into its mouth without taking any of Lottie’s little fingers with it.

“Me too.” Matt took another sip. “If you hadn’t invited me over, I was going to call you.”

“Oh?” I dragged my eyes away from Lottie and back to Matt.

“To find out what’s going on with you and Olivia. You’d never mentioned her before, but suddenly you’ve been dating for six months?” Matt raised an eyebrow.

I sighed. “Do you remember in October, when I went to Pryde and met that woman?”

Matt frowned. “The one you kissed and then ran out on?”

“You know that’s not exactly what happened.” The memory of Olivia breathing heavily, her body pressed to mine in the restroom, slammed into me. I shook it off. “Well, anyway, that was Olivia.”

Matt’s eyes widened. “But I thought you left your number and she never called?”

“That’s right.” I tipped back my beer, letting my body sink into the chair.

“Then how have you two been dating for six months?”

I filled him in on my fake-dating fiasco.

“I thought you were the smart one of the two of us,” Matt said once I’d finished. “Surely there was another way to handle it. Faking a relationship seems a little drastic.”

I sighed. “Do you really think Fred would have agreed to invest if I confessed I’d just pretended to be Olivia’s girlfriend for the farm tour?”

Matt shrugged. “Maybe if you’d told him the whole story he might have.”

Frowning, I took another sip of beer. “Well, we’re in too deep to turn back now.”

Matt shook his head. “Why didn’t you just ask Mom and Dad for the money? That would have been a lot more straightforward. They would have lent it to you, even after you came clean to them about Olivia. Unconditional love and all that.” He waved his hand.

My stomach roiled and I glared at him. “Absolutely not. You know how I feel about asking Mom and Dad for favors. I’d rather sell it all and go back to working at Saunders & Co.”

“But is it really a worse option than continuing this fake relationship nonsense?”

“Yes.” I fixed my eyes on a black bird that was pecking the dirt near the petting zoo. “It’s only for a few weeks. Borrowing money from Mom and Dad would undermine everything I’ve done over the past twenty years to prove I can succeed without them.”

Matt sighed. “Look I know what they did was shit, but it was a long time ago. They’ve changed, Roz.”

“But have they? I heard them going on at you the other night about Lottie’s school again.” The public-versus-private-school show down had struck once again.

Matt rolled his eyes. “It drives me up the wall that they won’t drop that, but their heart is in the right place. They just don’t always go about it in the right way.”

“And sometimes they go about it in illegal ways,” I muttered.

“Okay, okay.” Matt raised his palm placatingly. “And your insistence on fake dating definitely has nothing to do with the fact your fake girlfriend is gorgeous and lovely to boot?” He grinned behind his beer.

The image of Olivia teasing me about my newfound dislike of dairy yesterday, her eyes bright and her broad smile flashed into my mind, and my heart stuttered. Stop that . “Don’t be ridiculous. She never called me, remember? And anyway, I’m not looking for a real relationship. This fake one is as close as I’m willing to get.”

Matt rested his beer on the round wicker table in front of us. “Are you sure that’s what you really want?”

“What?” My eyes flickered to Lottie, who had thankfully moved away from the cows and was now climbing a bale of hay.

“To be single forever?” He leaned forward. “If it really is, that’s fine. But I just want to make sure your reluctance isn’t because of that psychopath or Mom and Dad. Or both.”

Heaviness tugged at my chest. Matt was really making me relive all my trauma tonight. “Yes. It’s what I want.” I never wanted to be hurt like that again. “Anyway, please don’t tell anyone. Olivia has told her close friends and family, but they’re all sworn to secrecy. We don’t want this getting out. If it does, I’m screwed.”

The rumble of a truck attracted my attention. Dana pulled up near the petting zoo, jumped out and walked over to us.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she said, not sounding particularly apologetic. “Roz, the chainsaw we use for cutting the trees has broken. Are you okay if I order a new one?”

I frowned. “How much will that be?”

“Around a grand.”

My heart sank. “Fine. But if you can do it on the cheap, such as buying one second-hand, do it that way.”

“Okay.” Dana’s surly face relaxed slightly. “Oh, and I heard Blake roped you in to coming to trivia too. She’s got me studying up on golf.” Dana grimaced. “Has she assigned you a topic too? She took our loss last week quite badly.”

Huh. I didn’t realize Dana was part of Olivia’s friendship group. I shook my head. “No. Was that all, Dana?”

Dana yanked the truck keys from her pocket. “Yes. I’ll put in the order. Bye.”

When Dana was out of earshot, Matt turned to me. “Roz, this isn’t the cutthroat world of consultancy. People around here are used to a warmer and, well, a more personable approach. I know you’re a straight shooter, but I think you may need to add a few more pleasantries and open up a bit more if you don’t want to get your employees against you.”

I crossed my arms. “Dana wasn’t exactly being the epitome of warmth.”

Matt’s gaze bore into me. “I did sense some tension between you two. But I thought she was trying to extend an olive branch with her question about trivia, and you shut it down.”

I pressed my lips together.

“I know you find it hard to open up to people, but I think you’ll get a lot further in Sapphire Springs if you can be a bit… nicer,” Matt said.

My mind flickered to Olivia, who was so friendly with everyone, and her comments about how the local farmers all worked together. “I’ll think about it.”

A patter of footsteps made my head snap up. Lottie ran toward us, grinning. “Did you see the cows eat the carrots right out of my hands? It was so cool. Can I come feed them every night?”

I laughed. “Not every night. That would be a lot of driving for your dad. But you’re welcome to feed them whenever you visit.”

“Yay!” Lottie jumped up and down.

Of course, of all the animals Lottie would fall in love with, it would be the damn cows. I sighed. I couldn’t get rid of them now.