Brandon’s heart started to pound.
“She had a couple of questions about crops.” Alex scanned the table, his eyes finally landing on Brandon. “I don’t see her. Maybe Brandon can take the information back to her?”
He nodded the same time Dawson said, “Where is she today?”
Brandon threw his brother a murderous look, and silence settled over the crowd. It seemed like everyone wanted to know where she was, and Brandon fought with himself about what to say. He looked back at the question on the board:What would be the best crop to grow to sell throughout the whole year?
They’d talked about this several times, but of course she’d want the collective wisdom of everyone here who lived and raised crops in Three Rivers for generations. It was a good question, and Brandon was actually really happy that she submitted it.
He’d made that list of grasses for her, but he hadn’t given it to her yet. He didn’t want to overwhelm her with sketches and lists every other day, so he’d kept some things to himself.
“Brandon,” Dawson barked.
He rolled his neck, not wanting to lie. Besides, maybe these men—many of whom were married—could help him. “Fine. We kind of broke up.”
“You broke up?” Finn asked.
“How do youkind ofbreak up?” Dawson folded his arms on the table in front of him.
All eyes zeroed in on Brandon. “We didn’t really talk about it or anything,” he said. “We just sort of…stopped being together.”
“I don’t get it,” Henry said. “You guys were really cute together.”
“Yeah, she really seemed to like you,” Angel said.
Brandon nodded, but their words didn’t help ease the pain streaming through him. “Yeah, I thought so.” He shot anotherlook at his brother. “She has a really hard time accepting charity. The solar thing was really hard for her.”
“I hope I didn’t cause a problem,” Conrad said, his eyes wide.
“You didn’t,” Brandon said, shaking his head. “Not between us, anyway. But the more we added to the homestead—the gardening, the mobile chicken coops, the thought of acres of crops. I have a turkey enclosure and a goat enclosure done now too. She wanted a smokehouse, and I just need to test it when I get back to the homestead. She wants to plant pumpkins and alfalfa and specific grasses to make hay. And all of that takes water. She wants beehives and she wants to grow strawberries and make jam. I just didn’t see how any of it could happen if we didn’t have a well.”
“Ifshedidn’t have a well,” Dawson said.
Brandon nodded miserably. “Right. Ifshedidn’t have a well. So…I asked Arizona and Duke to fund it for her. She’d been talking about going into the bank to get a loan, but she doesn’t really have any way to make payments on something like that. And this way, she can pay them back in little pieces after she starts earning from whatever she can sell.”
“She didn’t like that idea?” Dawson asked.
“No, she did not,” Brandon said.
His heart hurt. It felt too hard to even hold up his head, so Brandon laid it in his arms. “The drill truck came last week, and we found water at one hundred feet. The well is in. She can deal with Arizona about it.”
“This is really bad,” Colt said, his voice strangely dark and surprised at the same time.
“It sure is,” Dawson agreed.
“How are you gonna get her back?” Alex asked.
Brandon raised his head. “Who says I’m going to get her back?”
“Come on,” Finn said. “It’sobviousthat you’re in love with her. Look at yourself.”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen you like this,” Paul said.
Brandon looked around while several others nodded, their expressions grim.
“You look awful, brother,” Conrad said. “This is how I felt after me and Glory Rose broke up.”
“She doesn’t want me back,” Brandon said. “She thinks I’m trying to steal her homestead. That’s what she said—that it’s her land. I don’t get to make any decisions about it.”
