by Emmy Eugene
“I sense a but.” Jenna handed her brother a bowl, and he started ladling.
“I’m just saying the man likes something.”
“Yeah, hot coffee and anything with sugar.”
“Ice cream sandwiches,” Isaac said. “I seem to remember that.”
“Caramel popcorn,” she added, her mind blitzing through ideas now. “So you’re saying take him something to sweeten him up.”
“I’m saying it can’t hurt,” Isaac said. “Plus, it’ll show that you care about him and have been thinking about him. He probably won’t care about the popcorn, because he just wants you.” Isaac shrugged. “But it can’t hurt.”
They sat down at the counter together, after Isaac made toast to go with his soup. Jenna continued to sift through ideas for the perfect thing she could take to the park.
“Supposed to rain tomorrow,” Isaac said. “And I’m going out with Luisa in the evening.”
“I remember,” Jenna said. With any luck, she’d be with Seth tomorrow night too. And in that moment, she knew exactly what to take him in the morning. A smile filled her face, and she set an alarm on her phone to get up early in the morning so she could execute her plan to exactness.
The next morning, Jenna stood at the bakery counter in the diner. “Two cinnamon rolls, please,” she said to Beatrice behind the counter. “To go.”
“Comin’ right up, sugar,” the older woman said, her accent so heavy Jenna could barely understand her. She left the bakery with the exact treat Seth had said he liked, and she had one more stop before she went to the park. The dog adoptions were still an hour and a half away, but she knew Seth would be there early to set up. And she didn’t want to cry in front of strangers coming to pick up their puppies.
She drove over to Brew Time and ordered two large coffees, one with cream and sugar, and the other with just sugar. Seth liked his coffee black, but sweet, and armed with the two items she thought would show him that she knew him, loved him, wanted him, Jenna drove over to the park.
The rain drizzled intermittently, and she checked his social media to make sure he hadn’t changed the location of the adoptions. Finding nothing on his post, she sat in her car and waited, her nerves growing in intensity with every minute that passed.
Only ten minutes later, the rumble of a truck broke into her thoughts, and she looked over to see Seth’s brand-new truck pulling in beside her sedan.
Gathering her courage, the coffee, and the cinnamon rolls, she got out of the car. Her throat felt so tight, and her heart felt like it was going to beat right out of her chest. She moved toward the front of his truck, and Seth got out and went that way too.
She paused at the corner of his truck, her eyes meeting his as he rounded the hood too. He paused, and she lifted the coffee and pastries. “I brought breakfast, and I was hoping you’d have a minute to talk.” Tears sprang to her eyes, because he was so handsome, and so kind, and so amazing.
She could feel his goodness from a few paces away, and her chin wobbled. “I love you, Seth Johnson.” She exhaled, a whimper going with the air. “I’m so sorry I pushed you away when I got scared.”
She could barely see his face through the semi-darkness, which was only made dimmer by the storm above them. And that sexy cowboy hat.
He ducked his head, obscuring his face completely, and Jenna thought maybe what she’d said wasn’t enough. What she’d brought was useless. Who she was simply wasn’t going to be enough for someone like Seth.
“I quit my job,” she said, her voice high as she couldn’t control her emotions. “So I’d have more time to just be me. I miss you so much. I miss who I was when we were together, and I know I might have ruined things between us. But I’m hoping I didn’t. I’m hoping you can forgive me, and I’m hoping we can try again.”
Seth took a step toward her, his head still down. Then another. He arrived in front of her and lifted his eyes to hers. They stormed as completely as the dark clouds filling the wide Texas sky above them.
“I love you,” he whispered. “Whatever you want, I’ll do. Whatever you need, I’ll find a way to get it.” He gently took the coffee and cinnamon rolls and put them on the hood of his truck. “There’s nothing to forgive. We all get scared sometimes.” He took off his cowboy hat while one of his dogs barked in the cab of his truck.
A smile spread across his handsome face. “If you want me, I’m yours. Now, and always.”
Happiness exploded through Jenna, and she tipped up on her toes, cradled his face in both of her hands, and kissed him.
He kissed her back, his fingers moving through her hair and then sliding down her back, where he pressed that cowboy hat. When he finally pulled away, Jenna felt spent and the day had barely started.
“Did you really bring me a cinnamon roll from the diner?” he asked, his forehead right against hers.
“Yes,” she whispered, not wanting this moment, this embrace, to ever end. He smelled distinctly like Seth, like his musky cologne, and leather, and pure male.
He chuckled, that sound so welcome and so perfect, rumbling through her whole body. “Thank you, baby.” He reached for the box of sweets. “Now, I think you said something about adopting Cloudy.”
Jenna drew in a deep breath, feeling like a completely different person. “Yes, that’s right. I’m going to need a friend with me at home.”
“Yeah, I can’t wait to hear why you decided to quit at the school.” He pulled out one cinnamon roll and handed it to her. “But let’s get in the truck, yeah? It’s starting to rain a little harder.”
Jenna took the pastry and went around to the passenger door. Seth darted in front of her and opened it for her, helping her onto the seat with the words, “Back up, guys. Leave ‘er alone.”
But Cloudy, Winner, and Thunder did not leave her alone. Cloudy licked her face, and the other two dogs pranced in the back seat like she was a queen and they were so exited to see her.
Seth handed her a cup of coffee and closed the door, rounding the truck and getting behind the wheel. Once they were sealed in the cab of the truck together, he looked at her and sighed. “I really do love you.”
Jenna beamed back at him. “I love you, too.”
He lifted his coffee cup, and she clinked hers against it. “To our second chance.”
“To us,” she agreed, so glad she’d been able to get over her fear and seize her courage, even for just a few seconds.
He took a bite of his cinnamon roll, and his eyes rolled back in his head. “Oh, my goodness. This is amazing,” he said around a mouthful of bread and frosting.
Jenna laughed, and she wondered how in the world she’d thought she could live without this man in her life.
Yipping sounded from the bed of the truck, and Jenna turned to find several faces pressed against the glass there. “The puppies,” she said. “Are you keeping any?”
“No,” he said. “I have enough dogs to deal with.”
“They’re pretty.”
“That they are. And they sold really fast. Whoever dumped them at that construction site is probably mad. He could’ve made some decent money.”
Jenna liked that even though Seth had clearly spent some of his billions, he still valued money.
“I’m donating the money from the sale of the pups to the animal shelter,” he said. “I’m hoping they can get the word out that dumping puppies somewhere isn’t the thing to do.”
“I’ll post about it on social media if you want,” she said.
He took another bite of his cinnamon roll and nodded. They ate together, and Jenna couldn’t imagine any other way she’d rather spend her Saturday morning, even if it was a bit early for her to be out of bed.
“All right,” Seth drawled. “Let’s get set up for these adoptions.”
At the back of the truck, he opened the glass on the truck cap that had been fitted over the bed. The sleek gray and beige puppies clamored to get closer to him, and Jenna giggled at them. “They’ve gotten really big.”
“I know,” he said. “You can see why I’m anxious to get rid of them.” He grinned and started scrubbing each of them, clearly loving every single one.
“Stand there with them,” she said. “I’ll get your picture and make a post.”
He turned and leaned into the tailgate as the puppies continued to try to lick him. She snapped a picture of him smiling at her, and then he turned back to the pups, grinning at them while one lunged at him, crying.
Seth picked him up, and Jenna tapped to get a few more pictures, her heart expanding with love for this good man.
“Let’s leash them,” he said, reaching over the tailgate to get out the leads. Jenna helped him, and together, they got all of the dogs over to the pavilion in a couple of trips. He moved two tables to make room under the roof, as the rain had really started to increase.
Thunder rolled through the sky as he went back to the truck for the fencing, and once all the dogs were contained, she went back with him for Winner, Cloudy, and Thunder, as well as the paperwork they needed.
By the time that was all done, the first few people had arrived to pick up their puppies, and Jenna took a few more pictures of people with their new dogs, of Seth handing them papers, of him putting money into a cash box.
She wasn’t just going to post on her social media. She knew a lot of people in town, including Gertrude Wisehouse, who wrote local interest columns for the monthly town newsletter. The newspaper also published an edition once a week, with online stories running more often.
And Seth needed to be featured in one of them. Or all of them.
She marveled at him as he handed out puppies and checked names on lists. At the same time, his other four dogs found new homes as people had braved the rain to come get their new pets.
Twenty-five minutes later, Seth stood there with his three dogs at his side, looking at her. “Should we go?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, stepping into his personal space. “This is my dog now, though.” She took Cloudy’s leash from him and looked at him. “And so are you.”
He smiled at her, cupped her face in his hand, and leaned down to kiss her. And standing just out of the rain, with thunder rolling through the clouds overhead and her dog at her side, kissing Seth was absolute perfection.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You haven’t been to see the Edible Neighborhood?”
Seth didn’t like the incredulity in Jenna’s voice. He also didn’t like that he had to tell her why he hadn’t been able to go to Victory Street.
He turned back to the coffee maker and poured the water in the top, his arm starting to hurt from holding the phone at his ear. “I haven’t,” he said. “Because I didn’t want to—I couldn’t go there without you.”
“How did it get done then?”
“Serendipity Seeds sent people. Ruth’s sent me pictures.” He set the empty pot on the heater in the coffee maker as another call came in. He checked his phone, but he didn’t know the number.
That was the third call since yesterday, and he hadn’t had a spare moment to call anyone back or listen to messages. He wasn’t sure what they wanted anyway, and they were probably scam calls from people who’d found out about his now-inflated bank account.
“So anyway,” he said, ignoring the call. “I thought we could grab dinner tonight and we’d take a walk down Victory Street. See how things are doing.”
November had arrived, but the low temperature in the Texas Hill Country still only dropped to the mid-fifties. If that. Most of the time it was warmer, and he wondered how the muscadines were doing.
Almost a week had passed since the dog adoptions, and Seth had seen Jenna every day. They spoke in the morning after he’d fed the horses and the dogs and returned to the homestead. She’d come over for lunch yesterday, and Seth had barely been able to hide the present he’d bought for their stroll that night before she’d seen it.
In fact, it had been Russ who’d managed to swipe the box off the counter and stash it in a drawer.
Seth opened the drawer a couple down from the silverware and lifted out the black box while Jenna confirmed that she’d like dinner and a walk for their Friday-night date later.
“Great,” he said. “I should be done on the ranch about five or six. We’ll go after that.”
“We might want to walk first, then,” she said. “The sun’s been setting by seven these days.”
“Don’t remind me,” he said darkly. “I really don’t like winter.”
“Hey, at least it doesn’t snow,” she said.
He chuckled, because he just liked Jenna so much. “Okay, gotta run. See you tonight.”
The call ended, and Seth opened the box and looked at the diamond ring inside. He more than liked Jenna Wright.
He was in love with her, and he was going to ask her to marry him that night, on Victory Street.
“Still going to do it?” Russ asked, entering the kitchen. “Oh, good, you have coffee going. Travis is in a snit, because he stepped in something foul. As he was trying to get out, he fell, and there was this puddle…” Russ laughed and shook his head. “I told him I’d come start breakfast.”
Seth closed the lid on the ring box. “Still going to do it,” he confirmed. “And I can make steak and eggs for breakfast.”
“He’ll love you forever,” Russ said just as their younger brother came into the house, muttering.
“I’m going to shower,” he said, stripping off his jacket, shirt, jeans, boots, and socks right there in the mudroom.
The scent of manure came with him, and Seth said, “Good idea.”
“He’s making steak and eggs,” Russ said. “And the coffee’s already brewing.”
Travis looked ice cold and angry, but he nodded and said, “Thanks,” before hurrying upstairs and into a hopefully very hot shower.
Russ waited until they couldn’t hear footsteps anymore, and then he started laughing again. “It was so funny, Seth. I wish you’d have been there.”
Seth grinned at him and got out the steak and salt and pepper shakers, his mind already back on the fact that he was about to get engaged again.
A flicker of fear moved through him, but he pushed against it. He wanted to be engaged to Jenna. Now all he had to do was hope and pray she’d say yes and not leave him on his knees on Victory Street.
Seth enjoyed the crisp evening air, Winner and Thunder at his side. His hand was twined with Jenna’s, and she had Cloudy on a leash on her other side. “This is great,” he said, looking down the street from his parents’ driveway. “Look at all the new trees.”
An overwhelming sense of love filled him. Love for this neighborhood, who’d been willing to listen to his insane proposals about making their street the most sought-after one to live on in Chestnut Springs.
Love for his dogs, who never left his side. Love for the good woman beside him, who’d jumped into the Edible Neighborhood project with him with both feet, months ago.
“It’s beautiful,” Jenna agreed. “Let’s go find those muscadines you love so much.”
He smiled at her, and they started down the street. His parents had put in two walnut trees and a peach tree, and Seth admired them though they were still small. The neighbors had planted winter squash, he could almost taste the soup his mother could make with that.
Apple trees, cherry trees, more squashes, empty spots of earth that would hold giant sunflowers next spring and summer. Seth loved it all, and he talked to a couple of people who were out in their yards as he and Jenna walked by.
“No muscadines on this side,” Jenna said, and they crossed the street at the corner.
“I see ‘em down there,” he said, nodding ahead to a house a few down the street. He looked at the house. “That’s George Hill’s place.”
Jenna pulled in a breath and said, “Oh, wow. I guess he’s really embraced the idea.”
“Yeah, wow.” The muscadines were beautiful, and they’d give George’s front yard some privacy when they were fully
grown and leafing. But they were messy to clean up after, and they required a lot of work in the pruning department.
Seth’s heart began to pound with every step they took closer to the house. He paused at the muscadine vines that barely had any height against the wood poles they’d been planted against. A framework fence-like structure had been added to George’s yard too, as the muscadine vines would need it in the future.
The future.
Seth closed his eyes and had a vision of his whole future as it spread before him in the span of a single breath. “Jenna,” he said, turning toward her and opening his eyes.
“They’re going to be so great,” she said.
Seth dropped to both of his knees right there on the sidewalk outside of George Hill’s house. He hoped she’d say yes. Then they could walk this street dozens of times a year and be reminded of how much they loved each other. Relive this proposal he hoped he could get out of his throat.
He remember how brave and how nervous she’d been last Saturday, standing in front of his truck with that coffee and those cinnamon rolls.
“I know you don’t like it when I buy you things,” he said, and she looked at him. Surprise registered on her face, and she gaped at him.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, one hand going to her heart and pressing against her chest.
“I’m in love with you, Jenna Wright,” he said. “I want you forever, and I don’t want to wait. Will you marry me?” He pulled the ring out of his pocket and pinched it between his finger and thumb as he held it up to her.
She looked at it and back at him. “How long are we talking?”
“How fast can we get married, you mean?”
She nodded, eyes wide and filling with tears.
“I think the state of Texas has a mandatory seventy-two-hour waiting period.” He grinned at her. “But you’ll probably want longer than that to…do whatever it is you need to do.” Seth was having a hard time thinking at the moment. The cement beneath his knees wasn’t all that comfortable, and Jenna hadn’t jumped to say yes.