A Family for the Farmer (Brush Creek Brides Book 4)

by Liz Isaacson

  “Hey.” He entered, not quite sure where they were in their relationship. Suddenly, he didn’t care. He set down his supplies and reached for her hand, pulling her to her feet. “It’s so good to see you.” He breathed her in and kissed her. “Leaving early tomorrow?”

  “By seven.” She clung to him, and he wondered if she’d miss the person she was without her children too.

  “Erin.” He smoothed her hair back from her face. “I’m sorry.”

  She smiled at him, a closed-mouth smile that touched his heart. “They’re just kids, Blake. I’ve seen you with Tess’s boys. You’re so much more relaxed. You just need to be like that with Cole and Davy too.”

  “They did seem excited about fishing, didn’t they?”

  “I don’t even see how that’s possible, but if you took your dog, they’d probably like that.” She danced away from him and boosted herself onto the stainless steel table where she sat to watch him work.

  He chuckled and said, probably for the twentieth time, “Fishing is very relaxing.”

  Chapter Ten

  Erin’s jaw hurt because she’d been clenching it so tightly for the past few hours. She had to get out of the car this time, as none of her children had phones and they’d need help with their bags.

  On their weekend exchanges, Erin and Jeremy had met in a tiny town about an hour and a half from Vernal. Jeremy would usually get all the clothes and toiletries back, but she’d never sent her kids away for six weeks. She hoped they’d managed to get all their things.

  She killed the ignition and strengthened her resolve before crossing the lawn to her old house. Memories surged forward, and she felt like throwing up. This was why she didn’t want Blake to come. She didn’t want him to see her in this vulnerable state, think less of her while she struggled to control the children.

  She knocked, and it took several seconds for someone to open the door. When they did, she barely recognized Cole, his hair was so long. “Hey, bud.” She wrapped her arms around him and laughed. “I’ve missed you.”

  He hugged her back but asked, “What are you doing here?”

  She jumped back and stared at him. “You’re coming back to Brush Creek today.”

  “We are?” He turned and yelled, “Dad! Mom’s here.”

  At least Jeremy was home. Not fair, Erin told herself. She more than anyone should know that children didn’t always tell the truth, and even if they thought they were right about something, the facts were very rarely facts.

  “Erin?”

  She came face-to-face with her once-husband, a tall man with dark, curly hair. Her chest seized, only because she didn’t quite know how to be in the same room with him and breathe at the same time. She blinked, and flashes of her past life with Jeremy flowed through her mind. Happy times. Sad times. Devastation. Betrayal. Anger.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked. “You’re a week early.”

  She shook her head. “No. July tenth. Six weeks.”

  “No, I get a month and a half with them.” He lifted the grill-sized spatula and gestured it toward the backyard. “We’re barbequing today.” He turned like he’d walk away from her, go back to his precious hamburgers.

  “Jeremy, I need you to get them packed up.”

  He barely looked at her. “No. I get them for another week.”

  “No—”

  “Erin, they’re my children too.” He rounded on her, anger flashing in his dark eyes. “Check the blasted court documents. I get them for a month and a half. Not six weeks.” He glared at her for another moment before continuing into the backyard.

  Erin spun away from him, hot tears pressing against the backs of her eyes. Cole stood there, worry all over his face. She smiled at him, though her vision blurred. “It’ll be okay,” she said. “I must’ve gotten the date wrong.” She ran her hand along his hair and cupped his chin. “Where are your brother and sister? Maybe I’ll just give them a hug before I go.”

  “In the backyard.” He hurried through the living room and kitchen and followed his father outside. Erin felt so out of place in the home she used to keep. When Kenz and Davy burst into the house, the strangeness evaporated. She hugged them and smiled at them. She wanted to take them home with her so badly, but she didn’t doubt Jeremy. In the end, she kissed her kids and made the lonely drive back to Brush Creek.

  One week and one day later, she had retrieved the children and gotten them and most of their belongings back to Brush Creek. She braided McKenzie’s hair and called to Davy to find his church shoes.

  Blake was meeting them in the chapel. She checked the clock hanging on the wall. He was probably already there, saving the back bench for when she finally got everyone ready.

  “Let’s go, guys.” She grabbed her phone and lifted Kenz into her arms. Two steps out the door, she wished she had planned to drive. Even though it was only a block to the church, the July sun felt like fire next to her skin.

  She was sweaty by the time she arrived in the chapel. “Blake saved us a seat,” she said, her voice more aloof than normal. None of her children seemed to notice. She’d wanted to ask Cole about Jeremy, and if he had a new girlfriend, but she’d held her tongue. She’d learn everything about the month and a half her kids had spent in Salt Lake City sooner or later.

  Entering the chapel last, and right as the preacher came down the aisle to begin, she handed McKenzie to Blake and hurried the boys onto the pew. “Sit down, sit down.” She wasn’t sure why she cared. No one sat behind them to complain.

  She sat herself on the end, blocking all the kids in, and glanced down to Blake. He balanced McKenzie on one knee and was bent around her. He glanced down the row to Erin and smiled a smile that sent warmth through her soul.

  He leaned over and said something to Davy, whose face lit up. He glanced at his mom and climbed over Cole to ask, “Can I go fishing with Blake?”

  “When?” That question sent Davy scrambling back to Blake, so Erin held up her hand and pointed toward the pastor. Davy’s face fell, but Blake tapped him on the shoulder and said something else to make him smile.

  Watching them, Erin had the briefest burst of hope that they could find their way through all the obstacles so they could be together. She startled at the thought, because that meant she felt more for Blake than she’d meant to feel.

  She snuck another look at him, knowing she’d started to fall in love with him.

  Erin checked and double-checked the ground before stepping. Blake and the boys were way in front of her, and she’d used her three-year-old as an excuse for going so slow. She was just so unsure out here in the wilderness, with such uneven ground and no path.

  Thankfully, Blake didn’t have enough fishing poles for her to have her own. Why someone would own more than one fishing pole was beyond her. She’d said she could just supervise, maybe dip her feet in the stream, but she had no intention of taking her shoes off out here where there could be rusty nails or various piles of dung.

  By the time she arrived at the stream, Blake had the tackle box open and two poles ready to go. Davy bounced around, he was so excited, and once Blake had the third pole done, he knelt down on one knee, her boys surrounding him. Even McKenzie wandered over to hear what he was saying.

  She couldn’t hear distinct words, but the timbre of his voice tickled her eardrums and made her smile. He demonstrated several things. Then he brought out the worms.

  The excitement practically radiated off of Davy, and he baited his own hook and went to the edge of the stream just like Blake had shown him. Cole was a little bit more reluctant, but he managed to get his worm on the hook and cast the line into the water.

  Blake did too, and Erin discreetly pulled out her phone. She snapped a photo of the three of them, their backs to the sun, their fishing poles in front of them. Blake stepped over to Cole and said something, adjusted his grip.

  The afternoon faded into evening, with Erin sitting on a rock Blake called his “lucky fishing spot.” She wasn’t sure if she
believed him, but he caught four fish in an hour, so perhaps he had spoken true.

  With his catch done, he reeled in his line and helped the boys. Cole caught a fish first, and Erin hadn’t seen that much happiness on his face in a long time. Her heart warmed even as the temperature cooled.

  “Should we get back?” she finally asked when the sky turned orange and pink.

  “Yeah.” Blake sighed as he stood. “What a great afternoon.” He grinned at her and slipped his fingers in hers for just a moment before stepping away to help with the fishing poles. They hadn’t talked about appropriate behavior in front of her kids, but Blake seemed to know she didn’t want to put on too much of a display in front of them.

  By some miracle—and a steady stream of prayers—she made it back to solid, flat ground.

  “Go on and put those poles in the shed,” Blake told the boys, handing his to Cole. McKenzie had kept up with everyone this time, and she currently walked by the dog. Blake grabbed Erin’s hand and tugged to get her to stop.

  “Thanks for coming.” He leaned in and kissed her. She fisted her fingers along his collar and kept him close even when he pulled back.

  “Thanks for having us.”

  “You’re not much for fishing.” He gazed at her with soft eyes, no judgment in his tone.

  “As long as I don’t have to touch the worms, I like it fine.” She stepped back and glanced toward the shed. The boys were still inside; Kenz still laughed up ahead.

  She got everyone packed up and in the car, and they headed back down the canyon. “Did you guys have fun?”

  Davy cheered and Kenz nodded, and Cole said, “Yeah, fishing was all right.”

  She took a deep breath. She wanted to talk to her children about Blake, and she figured while they were all trapped in the car was a great time. Then they—Cole really—couldn’t get upset and run away.

  “Do you guys like Blake?” She wasn’t sure what she’d do if they didn’t. She’d thought a lot about it in the month and a half the kids had been gone. Her kids had been through a lot, and for a few years there, she’d put Jeremy ahead of them. Which was fine. She knew a marriage required hard work, and she’d been married to him before any of the kids had come along. In theory, she’d be with him long after they left.

  But not anymore, and now she needed to figure out what to do. Did the kids come before her own happiness? Could she date Blake—possibly marry him—if one of the children didn’t like him?

  She simply didn’t have many answers.

  When the kids all indicated that they liked Blake, she said, “I’ve been seeing him. You know, like dating. We’re—we’re dating.” Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel and she glanced at Cole, who rode in the front seat of the car.

  “Oh, that’s okay,” Davy said. “Dad’s dating this lady named Jasmine. She’s nice too. I mean, not nice like Blake, because she never took us fishing, but she’s still nice.”

  Erin had a hard time swallowing, and she nearly ran off the road because she kept her gaze on Cole for so long. He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t look at her.

  “Is that okay with you, Cole?” she asked once Davy stopped talking.

  He turned toward her and she saw something new in his eyes. She’d seen it at Jeremy’s last weekend too, but she’d been so distressed she hadn’t noticed. He’d matured. He saw things with different eyes now, and he shrugged. “I guess.”

  Without a guidebook for how to talk to her surly preteen about his mother dating a new man, she nodded. She’d take “I guess” for now.

  Chapter Eleven

  Blake thought the next several weeks went quite well. Everything on the ranch hummed along like normal. He’d moved upstairs in the bakery to assess the damage there. He felt bad that he’d had to rip out Erin’s kitchen to get to the walls behind the appliances, but she did have ovens and whatnot downstairs.

  Every time he asked her, she said she was managing just fine with her kitchen in shambles. On the weekends, while he worked in the apartment, Davy and McKenzie seemed enthralled by him. Davy asked an endless stream of questions about what he was doing, why did he need the fan to blow for three days, what was that blue stuff he put on the pipes, why did the windowsill need to be level. What even was level?

  Blake liked the kid a lot, and he tried to answer every question. Erin often fed him those nights, and he’d stay like he used to when the kids were in Salt Lake. Finally, after she’d gotten them all to bed, he could kiss her and talk to her privately.

  She’d told him she’d mentioned to the kids that they were dating, but he still felt uncomfortable kissing unless they were alone.

  “They’re down,” she said one weekend before the apricot festival. She sank into the couch beside him, and he lifted his arm over her shoulders and cradled her against his chest. “I’m tired.”

  “It’s been a long week,” he agreed. In just a few short weeks, it would be harvest time, and he’d be pulling long hours to get her kitchen done before then. “I should be done on those walls tomorrow. Maybe next Friday. Then Doug will get the new appliances in, and I’ll come back and paint everything up nice and new.”

  “Mm.” Erin had closed her eyes, and Blake let his fall shut too.

  “Have you talked with the kids about going to the apricot festival?”

  “Yes. They’re excited.”

  “So we’re on for the festival next Saturday, the concert in the park that night, and the parade?” The town did a lot more than that during the week-long extravaganza, but that was all Blake could do.

  “And Davy wants to do the fishing contest. Apparently they fill the stream here with hundreds of fish and the kids wade in and try to catch one. No pole necessary.”

  Blake nodded. “I’ve heard of that. I think Graham did it last year. It’s for kids ten and under.”

  “Cole asked if Graham and Michael would be going to the festival.” She twisted toward him. “Will they?”

  “Yeah, Walker and Tess run a cotton candy booth to raise money for people who’ve lost spouses.”

  “Oh, that’s right. Tess told me about that.” She fell silent for a few minutes, and Blake thought she’d fallen asleep. His nerves teemed. He wanted to talk to her about a few things. Namely, how she thought things were going between them, because he felt like everything was going really well.

  “Erin?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer; her chest rose and fell evenly; she’d fallen asleep.

  “Erin, I think I’m in love with you,” he whispered.

  The apricot festival arrived, and the atmosphere at the park radiated fun and family atmosphere. Blake hadn’t really enjoyed going in the past years, and as he walked down the path between the booths, he realized why. Everyone here belonged to someone else. Whole families, with generations of people, filled the open area at Oxbow Park. Someone like him—single, without attachments—didn’t quite fit in.

  He squeezed Erin’s hand, feeling emotional today. She hadn’t heard him tell her he loved her, and he’d spent the last week berating himself for the whispered words. He’d just meant to check in with her, see how she was feeling. She’d asked him to go slow, and to give her time. He owed it to her to do both.

  So he’d made a pact with himself. He would not be saying any sentences with only three words. Not today. Not for a long time.

  They wandered through the park, buying cheap jewelry, and cotton candy, and fresh oranges. He bought everyone scones with raspberry butter, and later, when Erin said she was thirsty, he went and got lemonades and sodas.

  She’d brought a couple of big blankets for them to sit on during the concert in the park, and no sooner had he returned and popped the top on McKenzie’s soda did she spill it. All over the blanket.

  “Up, up, up,” Erin commanded, scrambling off the blanket before the soda seeped into her shorts. Blake complied quickly while Davy and Cole watched from the other blanket. Erin told McKenzie she needed to be more careful and they all piled onto one bla
nket.

  “This is dumb,” Cole said a few minutes later. “When are they going to start?”

  “In a few minutes, bud,” Blake said, thoroughly enjoying himself. No work. No worries. Clear blue sky. Beautiful woman at his side. A…family.

  “Why can’t I sit with Graham and Michael?” he asked for probably the tenth time.

  Erin hissed out her displeasure and said, “I don’t negotiate with terrorists. I said no. We’re going to the concert as a family.”

  “Blake’s not part of our family.” He glared at Blake, who glanced away. “He’s been hanging out with us all day.”

  “Not you,” Erin said. “Remember how you ran off with Graham and Michael the moment we got here?” She gave him a dirty look. “And stop being rude.”

  Cole fell silent, but Blake’s heart thundered in his chest. He thought he’d been getting along just fine with the boy. They played board games together on the weekend, and he’d taken Davy and Cole up to the ranch last Saturday while Erin worked in the bakery. They’d run with Rosco along the lane in front of the cabins until Graham and Michael had finished their chores, and Blake had watched all four boys for hours. He’d taken them for ice cream in the next town over. It had been a great day.

  The concert didn’t start in a few minutes, and Blake swallowed his discomfort. The heat started to annoy him, and then Davy and McKenzie started squabbling over the single bag of popcorn Erin had purchased.

  Cole grabbed it, spilling half of it, and snapped at Davy. “Hey,” Erin said. “Give it back.”

  Cole glared at her and slowly dipped his hand into the bag. “No.”

  Erin blinked, shock coloring her face a bright pink. “Cole, you chose the candied nuts. Give the popcorn back.”

  Davy made a swipe for it, but Cole held it out of reach. To spare Davy from launching himself at his brother, Blake said, “Go on, Cole. Do as your mother says.”