He chuckles into my hair. "Fuck yeah! Did you see how desperate he looked?"
I pull away. "Maybe just another ten percent or something..."
Jakob takes my hand, leading me back to the porch. "Maybe..."
We step outside and all eyes lift to watch us.
Jakob wears a solemn look. "Rick — we're going to require another thirty percent," he says, "y'know — to accommodate for the inconvenience." I give Jakob's hand a tight squeeze. Greedy bastard. I love it.
Rick's eyes bounce from Jakob to me and back. "Fine," he concedes on the tail of a sigh. He grabs the check from Jakob’s hands and signs off on the changes.
He doesn't notice the grin that Jakob and I share.
Chapter 51
Jakob
Those rainclouds are moving in fast this evening. My back is sore from weeding the herb beds all day but I'm in good spirits because the work day is almost done and soon I'll be twisted up in my sheets with the girl I love.
The perfect reward for a day of hard work.
I'm in the barn preparing a few buckets of feed for the pigs when the door opens. A tall, thin figure with tawny skin and bone-straight white-blonde hair walks in. I told Rick to keep his people away from this side of the land but every now and then, someone wanders over in search of a toilet or requesting to pet the horses. I try not to lose my temper about it. It's usually not a big deal. A small inconvenience for the insane amount of money they’re paying me.
I quickly glance at the woman. "Sorry ma'am, unless you're okay with using the outhouse just behind the barn, I'd recommend one of the port-a-potties over on the set."
She doesn't move. She just watches me. "Jakob? It's me. Brittany. Brittany Delaney."
I straighten up and look at her. I mean really look at her.
Shit. It's her. Under the salon-grilled tan and the cosmetically-inflated lips, it's her.
"Hi." She gives me a small wave as I stand there, frozen and wordless."We just wrapped up on the set—” she points a thumb over her shoulder “—and I thought I'd come over and say 'hello'."
She comes closer and I still can't formulate a word.
When she left all those years ago, I never thought I would see her again. Now here she is in my barn, looking knifed-up and washed-out. Nothing like the girl I thought I was in love with for all those years. The girl who broke my heart. The girl who nearly made it impossible for me to trust another female in this lifetime.
Vitriol rises into my throat. "What are you doing here?" I growl.
She flinches, visibly surprised by my tone. “I—I just wanted to say 'hello'. I have small role in the TV show they’re filming. Background, really. I wanted to see how you've been all these years."
"A background role?" I ask.
She nods.
"You're an extra? After all these years you're an extra?"
She moves into a defensive stance. "The entertainment industry is incredibly difficult to break into—"
"Let me get this straight — you walked away from the man who loved you and you gave your child up for adoption so that you could be a movie extra?" I'm laughing now. Bent over, laughing bitterly and unabashedly at the irony.
She chuffs, stomping her foot. "I don't need this. I just came over to be cordial. I was thinking we should go grab dinner or something...I figured I owe you answers...about the child..."
It feels like someone just jammed a screwdriver straight through my gut. How dare she mention that child to me? The child who may or may not be mine. The child I'll never know.
"The child you threw away so you could be a movie star?"
She stutters without getting anything meaningful out.
"You're a sad excuse for a woman, Brittany. You’re pathetic and you deserve every bit of failure and misery that life has in store for you. Now, if you'll excuse me — I've got some pigs to feed so that I can go have dinner with my family."
I leave her there, standing alone as I exit the barn. The clouds are baring down and the first drops of rain have begun to pelt from the sky.
I'm in a foul mood as I fill the troughs with feed and water for my swine. I hate that Brittany just traipses back into town and expects me to welcome her with open arms. After all that's happened? Hell no!
And I hate myself for getting so damn worked up at the sight of her. I have the most perfect woman on Earth standing at my kitchen stove, whipping up another one of her barely edible culinary creations. I won't focus on the past anymore when I have a lifetime of dinner disasters and midday rendez-vous in the barn and bedtime kisses under the faded paisley blankets.
I won't focus on the past when I have a lifetime of Lily Monroe ahead of me.
I push open the back door and the smell of charred potatoes rushes out to greet me. "Open the windows! Open the windows!" Lily yelps as she frantically waves smoke away from a casserole dish.
Laughing, I slide the window open and close the oven door.
Lily stares down at dinner, tears glistening in her eyes. "I'll never get this right, will I?"
I come up behind her and wrap my arms across her middle. The baby gives me a nice, solid kick and I smile. Kissing Lily's cheek, I press myself close to her and appreciate that I have her in my life. She's my light. My own little sunshine. I'll love her until my dying day.
"Don't worry about it, sweetheart," I whisper against her neck, "I'm in the mood for pizza tonight anyway."
She spins around to look at me. "So you're not mad I annihilated the potatoes?"
I wipe her tears away. "Those potatoes deserved to die a painful death," I tease, "they had it coming to them."
She giggles. "Thanks for not making me feel like shit about this."
"It's just potatoes, baby. I love you way more than I love potatoes."
"Hmm...I think I feel the same way about you." Her fingers slide under the edge of my shirt.
Gosh. It feels so good when she touches me.
She sighs against my chest. "You're just perfect, y'know..."
I run my hand up to her back and smile. “You’re not so bad yourself."
Epilogue
(One and a half year later)
Lily
It's a farm-fresh feast!
My girlfriends sit around the picnic table of fresh salads, juices and fruits. I look up and grin as Faith rounds the table with a tray of delicious-smelling corn pudding.
"Oh my god, my mouth is watering," I groan as I rub circles into my ballooning stomach.
She gives me wary eyes. "Don't you dare ask for the recipe because my mother-in-law would kill me."
Mini chuffs, muttering under her breath, "She wouldn't know what to do with that damn recipe anyway."
Grace, Sammie and Isla titter as I roll my eyes. "My cooking is improving," I say defensively.
Mini gives my hand a patronizing tap. "Of course, dear."
My eyes rise to Siobhan who's holding the camera. "I hope you're getting this. I can't catch a break from this lady. Not even at my damn baby shower."
She giggles. "That's why your followers love Mini. She keeps it real."
Siobhan's right. My followers do love Mini. And Jakob. And Baby Rutherford. And all my stories about this reformed city girl who was shocked to discover her place in this world is really on a farm.
Mellow: A Lifestyle Blog was launched just a few months ago under the umbrella of the company that owns Hectic. It's my solo project. Now, instead of writing daily entries into my journal that only me and my baby will ever see, I post to the blog daily, sharing my adventures and discoveries and motherhood stories and cooking disasters and cute animal pictures with my following.
My readers are mainly city-dwelling fashionistas who secretly dream about finding their own rugged cowboy and their happily ever after away from all the chaos of urban life. Last week, a video I posted of Sebastian teaching Rutherford to play soccer nearly crashed the site's servers!
It feels so good to have something of my own, a source of income that I have cont
rol and creative freedom over. Plus, I've have access to all those Hectic employee benefits without even having to leave the farmhouse on a daily basis.
And Jakob's occasional cameos on the blog drive the women nuts.
And speaking of my rugged cowboy...
The old Chevy truck comes bumping down the lane, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake. It jerks to a stop just a few meters from where my baby shower is set up. Jakob comes barreling out of the barn, a frown on his face and Little Rutherford strapped to his chest. And I'll tell ya — the sight of tall burly Jakob Wilkinson with a baby strapped to his chest makes my body hum in desperate ways.
He's a fantastic father and a wonderful husband. I couldn’t ask for a better man to share this life with. No wonder I got pregnant again as soon as I could.
We've been incredibly blessed.
Everything has turned around for us in the past year or so. Jakob and I got married down at the courthouse just days before Rutherford came into this world as healthy as can be. The doctors weren't able to find a single trace of the heart defect they detected in utero. They didn't know how to explain it. Was it a glitch in their imaging machinery that led us to mistakenly believe that he was sick? Or was it the fact that he was born into a household bursting with love that mended his little heart? Jakob insists that it's the latter and I tend to agree because god knows that this little family mended my broken heart. I've never been happier.
What else has turned around for us? Well, the farm is profitable for the first time in a long time. Jakob was able to secure a supply contact with Herbivore Cafes, the quickly-expanding chain of health food eateries owned by Isla's fiancé, Reuben. Now, Herbivore patrons all over the country are enjoying Jakob's tomatoes and sweet peppers and spinach. Jakob now manages a small team of trusted employees who make sure to keep the farm running smoothly.
Plus, we're making serious bank as A Maiden Fond of Mischief continues to dominate the airwaves. People seriously love that show.
On top of that, the hospital admitted that they were negligent in their amputation of Mini's legs. They could have taken a less invasive route and they know it. We're still in the process of negotiating a settlement but I am confident that we'll be receiving several hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation.
All-in-all, we're doing good. Really good.
Tommy stumbles out from behind the steering wheel of the pick-up. "Milk deliveries all done," he announces proudly, not noticing that my guests are coughing over the dust.
"Remind me why I let you two convince me to re-hire this kid," he grumbles to Mini and me.
I leave my guests chowing down at the picnic table and waddle over to where Jakob is standing. I wrap an arm around his waist. "Baby, cut him some slack," I plead on poor Tommy's behalf. He's a good kid. Maybe just a bit...slow.
Jakob looks at me and his anger melts, immediately replaced with a smile. He gives my chin a playful pinch. "Go back to your party, woman. I've got this covered."
I rise up onto my toes and place a soft kiss on his lips. "Just play nice."
He pushes a sigh. His eyes glint happily at me as he speaks to Tommy. "You're lucky my wife is a saint," he chuckles, "you really are."
The teenager turns red as I tickle Rutherford's bare feet and his high-pitched laughter fills the air. I giggle too and kiss my husband again.
He may still be a grumpy-ass farmer but he's my grumpy-ass farmer - the man who took me in when I was pregnant and wandering aimlessly through life, the man who gave depth and meaning to my fashion-obsessed, superficial existence, the man who gave me the family I've always dreamed of, the man who finally showed me just where I belong.
And I'd never ask him to change.
All boxed up!
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Quick note from the author:
Hey!
I’m so glad that you read Lily and Jakob’s story. I hope that you loved them :) Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the series so far. [email protected]
I don’t have release dates for the other books in the series yet but we’ll get there. I just need a little while to chill out and get refreshed.
I really appreciate your continued support :)
Cheers,
Cassie-Ann xoxo
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Dirty Farmer (The Dirty Suburbs Book 6) Page 18