by Nella Tyler
I followed Tuck out into the field and looked around, trying to find the flooded section. He kept going until we were far enough away that I could barely make out the house itself, and then turned around to look at me. “I gotta be honest with you,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “But you should know that if you don’t walk away without hearing me out, I’m going to tell my father about it.” I raised an eyebrow at that.
“You’re going to tell my father about you lying to me? How is that a threat?” Tuck grinned wryly.
“I seem to recall that he made a new condition that if you were going to date my sister, you could keep your job—as long as you didn’t break her heart,” Tuck told me. I groaned and rolled my eyes, wanting to walk back to my truck. All the hurry, all the adrenaline pumping in my veins to get back to the farm to help out, and Tuck had been lying to me all along. He’d been trying to get me out in the field alone to talk to me about his sister.
“You don’t want us together anyway,” I pointed out. “You should be happy right now. Besides, she rejected me.” Tuck shook his head.
“Nah man,” he said. “Let me tell you what just went down.”
“I know what just went down,” I insisted. “I drove up to surprise the girl I’m seeing and she surprised me by being with another man—her ex.” Tuck shook his head again.
“Man, let me tell you what just happened, and if you really think you know the whole thing after that, we’ll return to whether you broke her heart or she broke yours. Deal?” He raised an eyebrow and I thought about Bob Nelson; it was true that Bob had told me, mostly in joking, I’d thought, that I was welcome to both see his daughter and keep working for him, just as long as I didn’t break his daughter’s heart.
“Fine,” I said, still feeling irritable and set up. “Just tell me so I can get out of here.” Tuck took a deep breath.
“My sister came to me crying just a little while ago,” Tuck began. “She didn’t even want to talk to me about it because of the issues we’ve got.” His lips twisted in something that wasn’t quite a smile and I thought maybe—maybe—Tucker was regretting some of his part in that. “Titan has been texting her, but you already knew that.”
He wasn’t wrong; I had just assumed by the fact that Autumn hadn’t mentioned it anymore after our confrontation that Titan had stopped.
“And, she had him over,” I pointed out. Tuck rolled his eyes.
“Let me tell the story,” he said. “She thought Titan wanted to be part of Addie’s life, and since he’s the biological father of her kid, she thought she needed to give him a chance. She didn’t want you thinking she was going to go back to him.” Tuck shrugged. “Obviously she made the wrong choice there because not telling you just made you think there was more to it than there was.”
“So you’re telling me there wasn’t?” I shook my head in disbelief.
“She found out that Titan was just interested in a hookup because the girl he left her for dumped him. As soon as she figured that out, she kicked him the hell out and told him that he would never have anything to do with her or her daughter.”
I took a deep breath. I could just imagine Autumn doing that. It was exactly what I could expect from her, if Tuck’s story was true.
“So what are you wanting from me now?” I looked at Tucker.
“Do you love my sister?”
I pressed my lips together. “Does she love me?”
Tuck rolled his eyes. “She was just in the living room, bawling her eyes out about how she ruined the one good thing that came from being abandoned by Titan,” he told me. “She loves you.”
“I can’t stay with her if she’s going to hide shit from me,” I said.
“There’s nothing else for her to hide,” he pointed out. He sighed. “Look, man, if you love her, go find her in the house.” He pressed his lips together. “You’d be an idiot if you didn’t go for it, by the way.”
“Why’s that?” Tuck smiled wryly.
“She’s obviously in love with you. And for that, I’ve been thinking that I can put aside all my stupid jealousy and work with you. But if you’re going to just break her heart like this, I don’t think I can work with you, even if Dad doesn’t fire you.”
I thought about it; I’d been hurt to see Autumn with her ex, the implication that she had hidden it from me, the fact that I had always kind of thought that if Titan came back into her life, it would be hard for Autumn not to give him a chance. I hadn’t seen any sign of Titan’s car, but then he might have left for another reason. I had to decide whether I trusted Autumn, and her love for me, or not.
“I love her,” I told Cade. “I’d give anything for her.” Tuck laughed.
“In that case, go find her,” he told me. “Don’t be surprised if she cries all over you, though—she’s gone weepy since having that kid.”
I hurried across the field towards the house, putting Tuck behind me, and when I glanced over my shoulder, I could see that he wasn’t even trying to follow me. Where would Autumn be in her parents’ house? Tuck had mentioned the living room, but when I stepped into the front door, feeling a little weird at not even bothering to knock, I didn’t see a single sign of her.
I went into the kitchen from a lack of any other idea of where to go and saw her standing over the stove. “Autumn.”
She turned around and her gaze locked onto my face. “I swear, Cade... It wasn’t…” I shook my head.
“Your brother explained everything,” I told her. I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her waist. “What are you cooking?” Autumn shook her head, shrugging.
“I’m not even sure,” she said with a breathless laugh. “I just felt like I needed to do something.” I chuckled lowly and buried my head against her neck.
“Well, I can think of something you can do right now,” I murmured in her ear. “That is, if you can leave Addie…”
“She’ll be safe,” Autumn said, her breath hitching in her throat as my hands started to wander over her.
“Then let’s go back to your place.”
Epilogue
The basket in my hands was heavy, but I didn’t mind that much. Addie wasn’t big enough to do more than carry the big thermos in both hands, and I was happy to have the chance for a break from other chores, even if I did have to waddle slightly. Cade and Tuck were hard at work, both of them hovering over a length of hose, debating—amicably—God only knew what.
“Will the two of you take a break for a few minutes so all this delicious food doesn’t go to waste?” I couldn’t help but smile to myself at the fact that the two of them were on such good terms, especially when I remembered how hard Tuck had tried to get Cade fired only years before.
“Autumn! You shouldn’t be walking all this way in this heat,” Cade said, frowning as he moved away from the equipment to meet me. “You’re going to go into early labor or something.” I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t going to bother telling Cade yet again that I had worked just as hard during my first pregnancy. I put the basket down anyway and looked at Addie.
“Set that container down here next to the basket,” I told her. “We’ll have a picnic with Uncle Tuck and Daddy.” No matter how often I said it, calling Cade Daddy for Adelyn still gave me a little thrill. Cade really was her Dad—at least, from every possible definition except for biology. He had stepped up where Titan had let both her and me down; he deserved the name.
“Here,” Cade said, looking me over anxiously. “Let me get the blanket and lay it out under this tree.” Tuck followed Cade over to where Addie and I stood, and I could see that he was struggling not to laugh at his future brother-in-law. Things had become much simpler and much more relaxed between the man I loved and my brother, ever since a few months after Titan had left my life for good.
“Did I ever tell you that I did all my chores on the day Addie was born?” I watched as Cade shook out the blanket and laid it down under the tree. Tuck picked up both the basket and the big thermos full
of iced tea, giving me a quick wink.
“Addie is one thing,” Cade said. “Her little brother-to-be is another. I don’t want you working so hard.” I sighed and sat down on the blanket, and Addie threw herself down next to me with all the enthusiasm she could muster. My little toddler was almost old enough to start pre-school, and Cade and I had an appointment later in the week to visit the few options in town to decide which would be the best for her.
It felt weird, but perfect that Cade was so involved in Addie’s life; even if he’d only entered it when she was almost a year old, he had taken over his fatherly duties in such a way that anyone who saw them together would think that he’d been there from the moment of her birth.
“Working so hard is how she ended up pregnant, if I recall correctly,” Tuck joked. Addie had asked questions about where her brother had come from, and we had tried to answer them accurately, but not exactly in graphic terms. Mom, Dad, and Tuck had found out about the explanation, and it had become a family joke—with comments about my “work ethic” and Cade’s “hard labor” flying right over my daughter’s head.
Tuck went to work emptying the basket; it was early in the growing season yet, so I’d been busy clearing out the pantries for the bounty to come. There was a beet salad, some chicken salad, fresh bread that I’d baked off that morning, some cheese and hard-boiled eggs, and a few other odds and ends from the pantry—even some hand-pies with the leftover strawberry-rhubarb filling mom and I had put away the year before.
All the while, Tuck and Cade were chatting about the problem they’d been working on when I’d arrived. I shook my head, smiling to myself. Everything seemed to have come together right about the time that Tuck and Cade had discussed—and gone through with—jointly investing in the farm. It had made it possible for Dad to buy up a little more land to expand the fields, which would mean that Cade and I could get half of the property one day, and Tuck would get the other half. Of course, my brother and my lover were going to work the lands together, but splitting up the farm meant that everyone had a little bit of space.
But as I watched two of the most important men in my life chatting like old friends, I couldn’t help feeling amused. “You know, Cade, we should probably just go ahead and go to the justice of the peace,” I said, cutting into their conversation as I nibbled on some bread with chicken salad.
“What? I thought you wanted a big wedding,” he said, frowning in confusion. I grinned.
“Well you and Tuck are already acting like brothers, so we’re practically married already,” I pointed out. “We just need the paperwork done.” We’d talked a few times about a wedding, especially once I’d gotten pregnant with our future son months before. Cade had wanted to plan the wedding as soon as possible, mindful of my reputation, but I’d already had one child out of wedlock. Having another with the man I loved—the man who was staying by my side—wasn’t going to damage my reputation.
When I’d insisted that I was not going to walk down the aisle with a big, pregnant belly straining at the front of my wedding dress, Cade had backed off of the idea. At that, I was starting to think that I wanted as simple a ceremony as possible, maybe not even at the church.
“We’re going to have a proper wedding, as soon as that guy is out of your belly and you’re recovered,” Cade said, nodding at me. I smiled.
“Fine, fine,” I said. “We have to do that paperwork, too.” I didn’t say what paperwork in particular, but Cade and Tuck both knew. Cade had decided to formally adopt Addie, and we’d agreed amongst all of us that she didn’t need to know that there had ever been another father in her life other than him.
That reminded me of Titan. The last I’d heard about him in town, he’d moved to the west coast, somewhere in Oregon, chasing after yet another woman after the last one dumped him.
I hadn’t heard from him in person in more than a year. He had tried to get in touch once more, insisting that he really did want to have a part in Addie’s life, but I had stood firm, and I’d talked to his parents about the fact that I wanted them to encourage Titan not to try again. He wasn’t interested in his own daughter as anything other than a bargaining chip with me. I’d had his parents mail him the paperwork to renounce any parental rights to Addie, and I’d gotten them back about two months later.
From then on, I’d considered Titan out of my life permanently, and out of my daughter’s life, too.
“So how’s the planning going on the new house?” Tuck sat back on the blanket, sipping his iced tea. Cade looked proud at the question.
“It’s coming along really well,” he replied. Since Cade had worked in construction for so many years before coming to work for my dad, he knew more than enough people to help him build us a new house. It was going to be on the other end of the property, the new addition Dad had bought a year and a half before, the part that I was slated to inherit with Cade.
We had agreed that we wanted our own place—a real place, not just a guest house, somewhere we could raise Addie and her coming little brother. Cade had been meeting with friends for weeks, explaining what he needed. Since he had a stake in the farm’s profits instead of taking a regular salary, and I had my own stake as well, we’d gone in on the cost of it together and we could afford to get exactly what we wanted.
“They think it’s going to be done by the time harvest is here,” I told my brother. “The architect did the design at a discount as a favor for Cade, and the foreman is giving us a good rate on the building.”
It was hard for me to believe, but by the time that harvest came, I was going to have a new life, a new baby, and a new house. On top of it all, I was going to have a man who loved me to share it all with. Even a few years before, when I’d first met Cade, I never would have imagined that my life could change in such a short time; I hadn’t even thought that I would be in a serious relationship before my daughter was in school.
I had seen a lot of good things come out of the ground at the farm, but this year’s harvest was going to be a particularly good one.
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COACH – THE COMPLETE SERIES
By Nella Tyler
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Nella Tyler
VOLUME I
Chapter One
Natalie
I tried not to fidget while I waited at the table inside Greentree Café, looking around to spot my date as soon as he arrived. It was almost like a blind date—but I knew we wouldn’t end up in some kind of relationship, or ever end up sleeping together, even if it went well. It was practice. My “date” was actually a client by the name of Zeke Baxter, a 30-year-old bachelor who had finally come to the decision to take time away from wheeling and dealing to get back into the dating world; maybe he was getting into the dating world for the first time.
I had a lot of sympathy for my clients; I had actually taken my job as a dating coach with a company that coached clients before setting them up on real dates because I wanted an excuse to meet people, to go on dates. Based on the profile that my boss had given me, Zeke was an all right guy: tall, with decent taste in fashion, groomed, and well-to-do. He didn’t have that many interests listed on his chart, but I figured that we could find something that would be fun to do on our dates together in the future.
The first meeting with a new client always made me a little nervous. It was like an actual date and a job interview all rolled up into one. I glanced around the café once more, resisting the urge to check the time for another minute or so. I’d arrived early to make sure I could scope out the place—it was closer to Zeke’s office, somewhere I’d only been once or twice before. It seemed like a decent place, a
nd glancing at the menu, I’d noticed that it was slightly higher-end than I would have picked for myself, but then, I didn’t have to worry about the tab at the end of the night. One of the conditions of my contract was that the client paid for all dates—but then, of course, the client had final say in what the dates would be and where they would be.
I heard my phone vibrate in my purse and snatched it up, wondering if it was Zeke texting to tell me that he was late or my boss contacting me to let me know that the client had backed out, gotten cold feet, or decided to put practice dating on hold. Instead of either of those options, the text had come from my babysitter, and I opened the message eagerly. Brady is doing great! Just wanted to check in. Attached to the message was a picture of my son playing with his favorite stuffed animal lobster toy. We’ll start getting ready for bed soon, Alicia added. I smiled to myself; though I missed my son when I had to be away to work, I didn’t have much choice—and I knew that he was in good hands with Alicia.
I replied to the messages quickly, feeling a stab of guilt at the fact that I had my phone out when I was supposed to be waiting patiently for my coaching client to arrive. Looks like you’re having a great time! I will definitely be home on time this evening, so let my sweetie know that if he’s good and takes his bath, I’ll bring a treat home for him as a bedtime snack. I tapped send and then locked the screen, putting the phone back into my purse. Unless something happened to Brady, I didn’t think I’d hear from the sitter for the rest of the evening, which was as it should be.
I told myself that it was just another date with just another client. Zeke Baxter was like any one of a dozen clients I’d worked with since I had taken the job on, and I would be just as capable of steering him in the right direction as I had with every other client. I would smooth off his rough edges, get his confidence up, and in next to no time—a few months, tops—I would discharge him and he’d be out in the world, asking women out, finding a girlfriend and maybe a wife. After about two years on the job, I knew what to expect; I knew how to handle almost any client my boss could throw at me.