by Karen Rock
She clicked off her phone and rested her throbbing head against the air bag. If she didn’t get Archie and the other farmer she’d scheduled for tomorrow to sell, she wouldn’t have good news to share with Mr. Williams on Monday. Without solid finance numbers, he might give in and send Brady. She clutched her locket. That couldn’t happen.
Goldie bounded out and barked when Daniel rounded the corner of the farmhouse and cut the motor. She noticed his father sitting on a rocker behind a layer of clematis vines, their purple-and-white-striped blooms contrasting with the mint-green leaves.
“Hi, Mr. Gleason!” she called, and rubbed Goldie’s shimmying back. The older man’s fluttering hand rose in the air, his smile tremulous but warm. She did her best to hide her dismay at how much his condition had worsened. He’d still been working when he was diagnosed the year she left Cedar Bay. Now he appeared housebound and that, combined with his wife’s defection, saddened her.
“Hey there, Jodi Lynn. Won’t you stay for a visit?” His voice wavered, his eyes bright.
Daniel’s hand cupped her elbow and he steered her toward the barns.
“She can’t, Pop. She’s got meetings. Maybe another time.”
“Actually, they’re canceled. But I’ve got Tyler. Sorry, Mr. Gleason. Soon, though,” she said. If Daniel was away doing barn chores, she’d enjoy sitting out here one morning with his father. He’d always been kind to her when she’d needed it most.
“Scrabble night’s still on Saturday.” The wistful note in his voice pierced Jodi’s heart. “Why don’t you join us?”
“I’ll be there,” she promised on impulse, then regretted it when she caught Daniel’s horrified sideways glance. His league bowled tonight, not Saturdays, she recalled with a jolt. She shouldn’t have forgotten that. Why had she let sentiment rule her again?
“Supper’s at six o’clock!”
Jodi waved and smiled at the older man, happy, at least, that his face looked brighter than when she’d first spied him. “I’ll look forward to it.”
“You don’t have to come over.” Daniel pitched his voice low as they neared Sue’s office door, Goldie hot on their heels. “I’ll tell Pop something came up.”
She pulled the tight bobby pins from her chignon and shook out her hair. “No. I’d like to see him.” And you, she added silently, then shoved the dangerous thought aside. “But feel free to make other plans.”
“I’ll be there.” His eyes leveled on hers, his stare so direct she couldn’t look away.
She forced herself to shrug, breathless under his intense scrutiny. “Suit yourself,” she said when she could.
“There’s Mom!” exclaimed Sue, surprising them both and breaking the tense moment.
“Hi, Tyler!” Jodi reached for her son but he buried his head in Sue’s shoulder. Her relief turned to disappointment.
“Transitions.” Sue rubbed Jodi’s arm. “They’re difficult. Although Tyler’s doing a bit better at them, don’t you think? No crying.”
Jodi nodded. It wasn’t his fault, and Sue was right. He didn’t do well when switching from one activity or person to another. But it was hard not to take it personally.
“He had a good day,” Sue continued, stroking Tyler’s fair hair. “He patted one of the alpacas while I held him. Brave boy.”
Tyler lifted his head and his eyes lit up behind his glasses when he spotted the tractor. “Gah!”
“That’s a tractor,” said Sue. “Want to look?”
Tyler strained to get free, but Sue held firm. “Tyler.”
When his head finally turned her way, she said, “Do you want to look at the tractor?”
After a moment of head shaking, he nodded at last and Jodi marveled. A real interaction with a relative stranger. Wow.
“Good. Let’s go.”
They followed Sue and watched as Tyler smacked the rubber tire treads and the smooth, metallic sides.
“Gah!” he shouted, and Jodi smiled.
“’reen,” Sue finished, pointing at the engine.
Tyler biffed the tractor with Ollie. “Gah!”
“’reen,” Sue repeated, then caught the elephant when an exuberant Tyler tossed her skyward.
Jodi’s mouthed dropped and when she looked at Daniel and Sue, their faces held the same expression. With Sue’s help, he’d progressed toward a word.
“Green!” Sue exclaimed, putting him up on the tractor seat and holding his waist. “It’s your favorite color, right? Good job.”
But it was more than a good job. It was everything. Jodi’s heart beat fast enough to hurt. He’d said part of a word. Not a random sound, but a purposeful syllable at Sue’s encouragement. It was a start. More than she’d ever imagined. Could Sue’s organic diet and methods be working?
“Green,” Jodi said to Tyler, but he looked away and banged on the steering wheel instead of answering her.
A strong hand descended on her slumped shoulders. “I’m sure he’ll say the whole word soon,” Daniel murmured, his intuitive encouragement catching her off guard. He’d known what she’d been thinking, feeling, as he always had. After years of trying to explain herself, this silent understanding and support seemed to fit a loose piece of her back in place.
Before she could answer, he boomed, “Let’s go for a tractor ride and celebrate. What do you say, Tyler?”
Daniel seemed to take Tyler’s shaking head for yes. He turned to Jodi, his half-moon dimples appearing in a wide grin that did something funny to her heart. “Would you like to drive, Jodi? If we head down that way—” he pointed to a dirt path that led past the barns and grazing fields “—I’ve got a surprise for Tyler.”
Jodi hesitated, her mind at war with itself. Her heart divided. Since her father’s accident, large equipment frightened her. Yet Tyler’s wide eyes and animated expression made it hard to say no. Would her fears keep her son from enjoying his life?
“What about my car?” she stalled.
“I’ll check it,” called Colton. He emerged from the barn and joined them. “It’s good seeing you again.”
She returned his friendly smile. “Same here. But please don’t go to any bother.”
“No trouble at all. I like working on cars. Got a sweet Camaro back home I’ve been restoring for a few months. In a couple of weeks, I’ll have the part I’ve been saving for and she’ll be on the road.”
An exclamation had them turning Sue’s way, but her hastily lowered face hid her expression. Her sneaker traced a pattern in the dirt.
“Come on, Jodi.” Daniel’s eyes glowed brighter than the midday sun. “You’ve driven this model before. It’s the oldest one on my farm, but it’s reliable. Remember how much you used to like getting behind the wheel? That time you beat me in a race?”
“It was more than once,” she muttered, a reluctant smile forming. She had loved driving tractors. She eyed the gears, her memory going over the steps.
“Twice, then.” And the way he said it made her laugh. They both knew it’d been a lot more than that and the smile he gave her felt warm and intimate.
“So what do you say?” Daniel pressed.
When she nodded, Daniel handed her up, the feeling of his palm on her back like little fingers of electricity running up her spine. She set Tyler on her lap and he leaned sideways in her arms. “I don’t think this is safe enough. He might fall.” Her body went cold when she imagined Tyler slipping under the tractor’s tires. A belt appeared before she could step down.
“Put this around you both and latch it. It should fit.” Jodi hesitated. She was used to keeping Tyler secure in his car seat. But farm kids started riding tractors practically before they could walk. And of course, they’d go very slow. Daniel smiled up at them and she caught herself staring. Who was this caring, giving person? He’d apologized for the past, listened to her
marriage problems, rescued her from her car accident and now he wanted to spend time with her son? Was he using his charm to lull her into a false sense of security about their battle for Cedar Bay, or could he be genuine? With Tyler’s hands dancing on the wheel, there was no time to speculate.
She cinched the belt, pushed in the clutch and started the engine. But at Tyler’s scream, she shut it off again and tugged his hands from his ears. “This won’t work. The noise is too much for him.”
“Wait!” Sue ran back to her office and Colton’s head lifted from under the car hood, his eyes following her.
In the quiet, Tyler settled down and ran his hands over the gearshifts, his legs kicking in excitement.
“Looks like Tyler’s taking a liking to farming,” Daniel observed as they waited, his eyes more green than yellow against his deep navy T-shirt. Irritation surged at his anything-but-casual remark.
“What he likes and what he needs are two different things,” she pointed out, her voice rising enough to make Tyler’s hands flap. She held them between her own. “Sorry, baby.”
Daniel’s steady gaze did something funny to her heart. “They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”
“That’s usually the case in my experience,” she murmured, almost to herself.
He lifted his baseball hat and a puff of summer air blew brown strands around the strong angles of his face. “I’m sorry to hear that. It can’t be an easy life, never getting what you really want.”
She gasped as Daniel’s words hit too close to home. The insides of her nose burned as if she’d dived into the lake without pinching it. She didn’t know how to cope with Daniel’s empathy—it overwhelmed her.
“Here,” Sue huffed, rejoining them. She held out two pieces of what looked like fluff. “Put them in his ears.”
“What is it?” Jodi eyed the soft puff balls skeptically.
“Alpaca wool. Clean and ready for spinning...only now they’re Tyler’s earplugs. Okay?”
Jodi nodded. It was worth a try, since Tyler would have a tantrum if she took him off his new favorite toy.
He moved his head every which way as she inserted the wool and pulled his eyeglasses band down to hold them in place. At last, off they went with a jerk that made her teeth knock together.
Wow. The thrum of the machine beneath her and the sense of control as she steered filled her with a rush of adrenaline. It’d been such a long time since she’d driven a tractor, and the thrill of it returned to her. The wind whipped her hair behind her, carrying away her fear. Tyler’s screeching echoed her own elation and the air she breathed smelled slightly sweet, like growing things.
When she looked over her shoulder, Sue waved and Daniel jogged beside them. When they rounded the last barn and headed out into lush, open fields, Tyler squealed and she wanted to join him. She hadn’t been surrounded by this much unbroken greenery in a long time. Even when she spoke with farmers, she met them in their homes, not on their fields. Perhaps she should have followed up on Midland’s purchases and seen the improvements they’d made as Daniel had suggested. She’d actually missed this. When she returned to Aunt Grace’s house, she would set up an appointment with a company farm and bring Daniel as promised.
Daniel disappeared for a moment and she thought they’d left him behind until she felt the tractor dip in back and his voice whisper in her ear.
“So far so good.”
She shivered in awareness of his proximity as he balanced behind them on the storage box. His fingers rested on her shoulders as he stood to his full height.
Jodi peeked up at him and took in the handsome picture he made. Beltless, low-slung jeans rode on his narrow hips and a thin T-shirt stretched across his well-defined chest. From this angle, his jaw looked more square than ever, his muscular neck rising from broad shoulders. The bright blue sky behind him contrasted with his dark hair and hazel eyes.
Another bone-jarring mud hole made Tyler flap his hands and Jodi return her eyes to the straightaway. And that was when she saw them...
Strawberries.
The sun-kissed rows of plants stretched to a distant tree line, the berries so blood ripe, so rich and lovely, that the invitation to pluck and sink her teeth into them was irresistible. How long since she’d gathered fruit? Delight filled her.
“The local schools and families have picked most of the fields, but this section is unharvested,” he hollered over the engine’s roar.
“Okay.” She slowed the machine, feeling shaky but victorious when it rolled to a stop. Since her father’s accident, she’d avoided machinery like this. Now she’d conquered it, and a feeling of lightness grew within her.
Daniel jumped off and held out a hand, his eyes dancing. The sun brought out the lighter brown in his hair and made the yellow flecks in his eyes shine like gold beneath thick lashes. “Ready?”
More than, she thought, her excitement hard to contain. She wanted to rush through the rows of plants, trailing her fingers along the crinkly leaves, inhaling the earthy goodness. Her hands fumbled to take out Tyler’s earplugs before she undid the buckle and handed him to Daniel. He held the wiggling boy with one hand and extended another to help her down.
“Thank you. Oh.” An idea pulled her up short when her heels sunk into the ground. “What will we put the berries in?”
Daniel grinned, set down Tyler and raised the lid on his storage bin. He dumped some tools from a container and lifted his shirt to wipe it, exposing a toned stomach that Jodi did her best to ignore. She took the container and followed the twosome into the strawberry patch.
The sight of him shuffling beside her son, his large hand enveloping Tyler’s as they trod down the plant rows, made her heart skip a beat. Tyler peered up at Daniel the way he’d looked at the tractor. And maybe for him, the two were in the same category. For the past year it’d been just her and Tyler, and now seeing him with Daniel made her wish her son had a strong male role model.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder, his profile outlined by the sun streaming over distant treetops. “How does this look?” He swept his arm in a circle, and all around, plump berries peeked through jagged-edged oval leaves.
“Perfect. I mean, fine.” She cleared her throat. “This is good. Thanks.” Why was she babbling like a schoolgirl? This was Daniel. Not a man she’d see romantically. Not again.
Daniel got on his knees, pinched off a deep red fruit and handed it to Tyler. “Want one?”
Tyler shoved it in his mouth, then patted Daniel’s cheeks.
Daniel smiled up at her. “I’m thinking that’s a yes.”
She got on her knees beside him and kicked off her horrible shoes. It warmed her from the inside out to see Tyler so excited and interactive. She wouldn’t let her rivalry or her conflicting emotions with Daniel spoil this moment.
“I’d say so!” Happiness added a lilt of laughter to her voice and Daniel eyed her, his expression wary. Maybe he was afraid of her charms for a change.
She plucked berries and placed them in the container. Daniel followed suit and, to her amazement, Tyler grabbed a few, as well. They might have been squashed, flattened even, but they were the best berries in the world as far as she was concerned.
“These are great, Tyler!” She popped one of his berries in her mouth and felt the tart sweetness explode on her tongue and against the insides of her cheeks.
He kept pulling berries and leaves with them, giving no notice that he’d heard her. Daniel’s nod, however, made her feel less ignored. For the first time in a long time, she wished she had someone in her life. She’d been so focused on helping Tyler recover that she’d forgotten what it felt like to have a partner, or even a friend.
Her husband’s defection had damaged her confidence in relationships and her ability to have one. Yet the way Tyler held up berries for Daniel’s inspection, the smile he w
ore after he got a nod of approval, showed her how much her son yearned for male attention. She’d vowed to give him back his speech, but what if that wasn’t enough? It touched her to see him so caught up in Daniel even as it made her heart ache.
The considerate way Daniel behaved around her son affected her, as well. He genuinely seemed to enjoy Tyler, if his booming laugh was any indication. This charm was not an act. And the sound of her son’s belly laugh assured her that the feeling was mutual.
Twenty minutes later, they’d filled the basket with berries. Jodi straightened and shook out her cramped knees. Daniel grabbed Tyler by the waist and tossed him in the air, neatly catching him on the way down.
“No!” she shouted over Tyler’s giggles.
Daniel flew him over to Jodi and exchanged Tyler for the bucket. But Tyler strained for Daniel as she strode toward the tractor, thrashing as she struggled to hold him up.
A hard kick to her knee made her stumble in her heels, and Daniel steadied her. He chucked Tyler under the chin and brushed the damp hair from her son’s face, his large hands gentle.
“Would you like me to drive?” Daniel suggested, his brows lowering in concern. “I’ll hold Tyler if you don’t mind climbing on the back.”
She hesitated while Tyler’s screams kicked up another notch.
“I’d never let anything happen to Tyler, Jodi.” Daniel’s eyes leveled with hers, his confident expression unwavering.
And just like that, she did trust him. She’d listened to his speech at the town hall the other night when he’d asked the assembly if they trusted him. Now she knew her answer.
He might be on the wrong side of their war, but her answer was yes. He’d grown from the boy who’d withheld his real reasons for keeping their relationship a secret and going along with others who’d put her down. She might not fully trust him with her heart again, but she did believe he’d protect her son.
Tyler wrapped his arms around Daniel’s neck and snuggled against his chest while Jodi scrambled up behind them. She placed the berries in the storage chest and peered at Tyler’s already drowsing eyes. Gently, she placed the wool in his ears and felt his cheek fall into her palm. He was a whisper away from sleep.