by Nella Tyler
I pushed aside the idea that Titan might be coming back into town; there was no reason to think that he’d keep Autumn in the dark about it if he intended to have any kind of relationship with her or with his daughter, and if he had gotten in touch, I was sure—I was certain—that Autumn would have mentioned it to me.
I hadn’t admitted it to Tuck, but when I’d said I wanted to settle down, I was thinking partly of Autumn. I didn’t know where her mind was on the subject, but I liked her a lot. I wanted something much more serious with her, at least once we were both free to try it.
She would have to be cautious—of course she would—but I already liked her daughter, and I got along with her parents. At least, I had been getting along with them so far… That might change somewhat if I started openly dating Autumn, though as long as I waited until after harvest, it should be fine.
I trailed alongside the fertilizer spreader, making sure that it didn’t get stopped up, that it was spraying evenly and not running out. It was fine with me that Tuck had some kind of goal of driving a wedge, but I wasn’t going to let him succeed. Whether it was because he had a personal issue with me, or because he was protective of Autumn, respecting his position didn’t mean I had to give in to what he was doing.
I would keep going the way that I had been and count on Autumn to tell me if anything changed in her life. We’d both wait until the end of harvest, and then we’d be free to explore what there was between us. I didn’t have any doubts at all in my mind.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Autumn
It was late in the afternoon, and I was sitting on the porch, waiting for Mom to call me in for dinner. She’d taken it over for the day, since I’d agreed to do a few of the less glamorous chores she had on her plate—she’d had a rough night, and hadn’t felt up to looking over the accounts or budgeting the bills.
While she’d been too tired to wrangle with the business end of the farm, she’d been more than happy to wrestle with the food for dinner, and I was happy to switch places with her, even if it had meant missing out on visiting, however briefly, with Cade.
He’d gone home for the night, Dad was in the living room with Addie, and Tuck was off doing something on his own. I had a rare moment almost all to myself, and I intended to enjoy it with a nice glass of wine and a view of the lowering sun on the horizon.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I frowned to myself. I hadn’t been expecting to hear from anyone—my girl friends in town were all busy and Cade wouldn’t be home yet, not to mention that we tried not to message each other too much, even though it wouldn’t come out to anyone else.
I unlocked my screen and opened my messages. If I was surprised to be getting a message from someone in the first place, I was flabbergasted to see that it was from Titan. I’ve been thinking a lot about you, about Adelyn...about everything.
I frowned at my phone, as if it could answer the question that welled up in my mind: what had brought on any thought at all of the family Titan had abandoned?
Certainly he hadn’t been thinking of us at all at the end of my pregnancy or in Addie’s first year of life. I considered just ignoring the message. After all, I couldn’t trust Titan, and even if I could, I didn’t particularly want to talk to him. But he was the father of my daughter, and I knew that if I’d asked my mom, she’d say I should at least make an effort, if only for Adelyn’s sake.
I thought about what I should say. Well that’s an interesting change. Where have your thoughts brought you? I thought of my daughter inside the house; she had no idea who her father was. She was too young even to really know that fathers were a thing, or at least to understand it.
I have a kid out there in the world, Titan replied. I guess it just occurred to me that Adelyn is real, and a person, and I don’t know anything about her, even though she’s half me.
I thought about that for another long moment. It had taken him almost a year and a half to realize that his daughter was real? What had he thought in the meantime? I reminded myself that he was Adelyn’s biological father and that if he was curious about her, I should at least humor him a little bit.
Well, she just turned one a few weeks ago. She’s starting to talk a little more…She’s got some words mastered, some of them still sound like babble. I pressed my lips together and decided to send him a picture for reference.. The picture I’d chosen was from about a week after Addie’s first birthday, when I’d taken her with me to the grocery store.
She looks so much like her mama! I can barely tell she’s mine. I wondered if Titan was going to somehow accuse me of having cheated on him to justify abandoning me. I took a deep breath and put the thought aside, reminding myself that borrowing trouble never worked out well.
She’s pretty smart, too. I wish you could have gotten to know her a little better when she was just born.
That was as close as I would let myself come to scolding Titan about the situation anymore, at least unless he said something to me outright. It wasn’t fair to Adelyn to make her a bargaining chip or a piece of baggage to saddle on her father. I had made my own choices, and I loved my little girl; she was so much more to me than her father had ever been.
Maybe I’ll get a chance to make up a little bit for lost time soon, Titan replied. What else have you been up to lately?
That question struck me as a little odd; I could almost understand Titan developing a sudden interest in his daughter, but he had made it clear to me, more than once, that he wanted little to nothing at all to do with me, that he was perfectly happy with the girl he’d moved out east to be with.
Pretty much the same as always, I wrote back. I can’t do as much out in the fields as I used to do, but I’m helping Mom a lot more around the house, so it’s about what I would have expected. What are you up to these days? Everything good out on the East Coast?
I took a sip of my wine and tried to understand what could have suddenly awakened Titan’s interest in anything at all to do with me. He had been so gung ho about how good his relationship with the other woman was the last time we’d had any contact; he had even said that he wasn’t at all interested in coming back home.
I got a new job a little while back, Titan replied to me. I’m trying my hand out on some electronics repair out here. It pays pretty well. I nodded to that response.
It had never really been that Titan was stupid, per se; he’d been something of a class clown, the kind of guy who would joke through most of the class, but then manage to pull at least a solid B on the test a few times a semester. If he’d taken school more seriously, he might even have done better than I had, but he’d never thought there was any reason to take it that seriously when he knew enough skills to get himself a decent job.
Sounds like your life is getting pretty exciting out there, I told him. I’m surprised you’re interested at all in anything to do with this sleepy old town.
Titan sent me back a laughing emoji and I rolled my eyes. He’d sent it to me so many times before, that I couldn’t doubt it was him. His sudden interest had made me wonder in the back of my mind if it wasn’t his girlfriend, checking up on him, or one of his friends, or someone else just being nosy, hacking his phone. But it was definitely my ex.
Things are just starting to settle in enough for me to really think, he explained.
Not getting bored, are you? Should I catch you up on all the town gossip? I had another sip of my wine and glanced back in the direction of the rest of the house.
Get me up to date on all the hot news, Titan suggested. I thought about what would have any chance to appeal to him and we began chatting about our lives, comparing what we were doing.
I told him more about Addie, including what we’d done for her first birthday and the different trips that I had taken her with me on. I left any mention of Cade out of the texts, not because I had any concerns that it would ruffle feathers, but I didn’t want to complicate matters.
I heard about Titan’s new life out East and tried not to feel e
nvious at how glamorous it all sounded. I knew for a fact that he wasn’t living some big, rich life, but the fact that he’d gotten out of town, that he had someone to love and to love him in return, didn’t seem quite fair, considering that he’d abandoned me to achieve all of it.
I tried not to let myself think of what I would have, how my life would be different, if Titan had never gotten me pregnant. If he’d just abandoned me while we were engaged and I hadn’t had anything holding me back, I wouldn’t have followed him…but I might have left. I might have gone to Oklahoma, Virginia, or almost anywhere else in the country and started over.
Titan and I talked, all told, for almost a full hour, and I sent him pictures of his daughter and answered his questions about her development. I was supposed to take Addie to the doctor again soon to get more vaccinations, and Titan said that he was glad that I wasn’t one of the crazy anti-vaccine people.
I told him about the new expansion on the farm, and he said that he was pleased for my father and pleased for me to have more disposable income.
For the first time, it actually felt weird to talk to my ex. Even when I’d been badgering Titan for some kind of contact with his daughter, it had never felt weird to me; it had always felt straightforward and correct.
But talking to him now made me feel like I was doing something wrong, something almost shameful. I wasn’t interested in him, at least, not in any romantic way. I had grieved over the way he’d abandoned me, and I had cried over the fact that I’d been left for a woman that Titan hadn’t even met until after he’d decided to leave me, but I had come to terms with the way that things were.
I wasn’t weak enough to want him to come back for my own sake, but if he was interested in getting to know Addie, in being a father to her, then I owed it to my daughter to make the effort to get him on board and to encourage him to get to know her. She would thank me later, even if I had to put in hours of discomfort to talk to the man.
After the hour, Titan messaged me to tell me that he had to turn in; it was an hour later on the east coast, if not more, and I could understand that he wanted to get rest, eat, and shower before he had to go back into work. I needed all of those things myself, and I was working a job I’d been doing for most of my life.
As I told Titan goodbye, I wondered to myself once more what had spurred his sudden interest in Addie. It didn’t make any sense to me and the message that he had sent talking about how settling in had made him curious, I couldn’t make any sense of it at all.
This was a man who only maybe half a year before had told me he had no intention of coming back into town, and no interest in having anything to do with his daughter. For him to go through such a massive change in his outlook, I had to wonder if something had changed, or if something had occurred to him somehow. I put my phone back into my pocket when I heard my mom calling out for dinner, and tried to put the idea of Titan out of my mind for the rest of the night.
Chapter Thirty
Cade
We were only a few weeks away from harvest, and the days were the hottest that I could remember them being maybe in my entire life; certainly they seemed hotter than they’d been the previous summer. I was pretty sure I’d sweated through every inch of my clothes at least twice, and as I started gathering up the tools I’d been using at the end of the day, all I was thinking about was how good a cool shower would be, along with a nice, cold beer and a good meal.
Watermelons were coming in droves, and I’d bought one the day before, cut it up, and put it in the fridge. A little grilled chicken, some watermelon...sounds good. The thought of dinner made my mouth water, and I took a swig of water to control the rumbling of my stomach.
I checked to make sure everything I’d brought out to the field with me was on the cart, and then started back towards the house. I’d put everything away, get whatever input Bob Nelson had for me, and then I’d shove off for the day. The week was about half-over, and I was looking forward to seeing Autumn that weekend; we were supposed to be going swimming together, maybe beat the heat a little bit with Addie in tow.
I had just barely reached the edge of the field, closest to the house, when Tuck came flying out of the shed where the Nelsons kept their equipment and tools. “Thief!” I stared in shock as Tuck descended on me, stalking forward, his face set in angry lines. “We do you the favor of hiring you and you thank us by stealing?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I held up my hands, stepping away from the cart.
“You stole from us!” Tuck stopped maybe a couple of feet short of me and put his hands on his hips, staring me down. “You know, I really shouldn’t be surprised. You lied about your intentions and then you stole from us.”
“I haven’t stolen anything!” I crossed my arms over my chest, glancing at the cart. “You can check. Everything I took out is on there.”
“Oh, trust and believe I’m going to check your cart and your truck,” he said, nodding firmly. “I’m going to be looking for the sprayers and the irrigation hose you took.”
I frowned; more than angry, I was completely confused. Tuck and I had been working on the irrigation system earlier in the day, but the thought of stealing anything at all—much less from the Nelson farm—had never occurred to me. I had no idea where he could have gotten the idea that I would steal from his family, much less that I already had.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Why would I steal equipment—why would I steal anything from you?” I shook my head, in disbelief. Was it because Tuck knew about me and Autumn, and wanted to do something to get me fired before anything more could happen between me and his sister? Or was it just more of Tuck’s resentment towards me? “You’ve been trying to start shit with me from the beginning, and I’ve never given you a reason.”
“What’s wrong with me? You come in here, and you get a job with my dad that we don’t even have to offer, and you steal equipment to sell it to… I don’t even know who you plan to sell it to-”
“Hey, now. What’s going on?” Bob Nelson strode up to where Tuck and I stood, and I felt a quick rush of relief, followed by even more anxiety. I knew that there was nothing to Tuck’s accusations, but Bob would be inclined to trust his son over a stranger.
“He stole from us,” Tuck said, looking at his father but pointing at me. “You need to fire him as soon as we find out where he’s got our equipment hidden.”
“That’s a mighty heavy accusation, son,” Bob countered. “What’s your evidence?”
“I was just in the storage shed, and a bunch of the irrigation hosing and the sprayers are missing,” Tuck said. “You know he could sell those off for cash easy, Dad.”
“Pretty limited market to that,” Bob said, giving me a quick, almost amused look that made me feel a little better about the situation I found myself in. “But missing equipment isn’t necessarily stolen equipment.”
“You know he stole it!” Tuck glared at me. “He’s just been waiting for the opportunity-”
“To sell second hand farm equipment?” Bob shook his head. “You were both working with the irrigation system and the spreaders today.” He turned and looked at me. “Where was the last place you were working?”
We walked out to the part of the fields where Tuck and I had been working; Tuck looked sulky, but I felt nothing more than anxious to prove that there was nothing to the accusation that Bob’s son had thrown at me.
Bob searched my cart, and didn’t find anything that shouldn’t be there, and then we wandered around the area where Tuck and I had been working on the system; after a few minutes, we came to the part of the field that was Tuck’s responsibility. There, Bob spotted a pile of hosing and a few spreaders settled on the ground near a chair that Tuck used to take a break during the day and a few of the tools that Tuck had used to repair the irrigation system.
“This seems to solve the mystery,” he said mildly, picking up the items and looking at his son. “Unless you think there’s more hose and more spreaders that we�
��re missing somehow.”
Tuck’s face contorted, and he looked like he was about to scream. I saw his nostrils flare as he tried to get control of himself, and I didn’t dare look at Bob or change the expression on my face. It was as obvious as the sun that Tuck was on the verge of a total meltdown.
“You maybe ought to consider apologizing for making such a serious allegation against someone you have no cause to hate,” Bob told his son.
“I don’t need an apology,” I said quickly. “It’s been a long, hot day-”
“I’m sorry I accused you of stealing,” Tuck interrupted. His voice was barely under control. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the fields, back towards the house.
Bob let him walk away without any further comment, but I watched Tuck, pretty certain that at any moment I would see him turn around, his anger overcoming his better sense. He disappeared past the fence, and Bob shifted his weight on his feet, and turned to look at me.
“I wanted to thank you,” he said.
“Thank me?” I shook my head, confused.
“You’re a hard worker, Cade. I know my son is being an ass towards you more often than not, but I see how you are. You’re a more mature person than he is.”
“He’s got a lot on his mind, it seems to me,” I said, embarrassed that Bob felt the need to defend his own son or to say something negative about Tuck, no matter how much Tuck had earned it.
“He’s got his head in the clouds,” Bob said, shaking his head. “Obsessed with what’ll happen to the farm after I’m gone.” He smiled slightly. “He thinks you’re showing him up on purpose. I think you’re just a decent, hard-working person.”
“I appreciate you saying so, sir,” I said, nodding at the compliment. Bob gathered up the misplaced equipment and we headed back to the shed in silence together. I put away the tools I’d been using, made sure that the cart was in good shape, and started back towards the house where I was parked.